Tryst

As with Slowdive, this is another more mono-dimensional perfume from Green that attempts to showcase a specific material/accord. Here in Tryst it is the ubiquitous neroli flower. Neroli and orange blossom are the same flower and the precursor to the same bitter orange fruit, with their differences in aroma when used for a perfume material determined by the extraction method. Neroli’s extraction method gives it a green metallic and citrusy edge to it, similar to what jasmine can have; orange blossom’s extraction leaves it soft, orange fruity and juicy, creamy, and more typically white floral smelling. Tryst presents us with neroli that is very naturalistic to those characteristics. The point of Tryst seems to be Green wanting to focus on an exquisite material he procured since not a lot else is given stage time with the starring actor. The supporting characters here are green orange zest, hanging out briefly at the top for a brightly fizzy and oily opening, and at the base something very akin to a floral hay note, or other type of sweet grass, flecked with an orange note. None of these characters are allowed to be anywhere close to the volume or stage presence of the neroli, which again, the point seems to be, allows you to experience the neroli accord in its entirety and without much distraction. This means a couple of things. One, because Green uses 100% natural isolates with his perfumes, durability and longevity might be of concern to you. Two, if perfumes you will like need complexity via many notes working in concert, you will probably think Tryst to be lacking. Thirdly and finally, you must love neroli to love Tryst and if you love neroli you will love Tryst. It is obvious why Green did not want to add much else to the perfume, or at least nothing else in high volumes, because he wanted that neroli note to sing loud and clear. And what a beautiful and clear voice it is.

This might be the orange flower perfume I've always dreamed of. Neither soapy like L'Artisan's Histoires d'Orangers nor sharp like Le Labo's neroli powerhouse Bigarade 18, this is a vivid homage to the orange tree as it lives and breathes. Someone's gotten up each morning for a week to capture just a few minutes of footage of their backyard orange tree on a little Super 8 camera; how the white petals sway and turn in the breeze, the honeyed glow of pollinated sunbeams. It opens with a bracing punch of photorealistic flowers and pollen, so heady that I actually chuckled in disbelief in the store when I first tried it. It's in this brash, naughty opening that its name feels most apt. In the next hour, the neroli and orange oils move closer to the front and round out the blend, yielding a warm white floral accord reminiscent of Tauer's Golestan but less sweet and much more modern and botanical in style. In the drydown, it settles to a slightly more honeyed version of this accord, but never becomes fully honey-forward; the warm base is always in service to the gorgeous bouquet and ties it itself to skin quite cozily while still delivering a decent bloom of projection for quite some time. There are no major surprises in its development throughout the day, just a slow, steady progression through the orange flower's personality, from green to golden. I'm inclined to call it animal, with the caveat that I don't mean there are any major animalic perfume accords; it's animal in the sense that it reminds one of the co-habitation of flora and fauna, the carnality of the human body, the existence of the human photographing the tree. It's about being there in that garden, and experiencing the simple sensual pleasures of nature; in other words, it's "natural perfumery" delivering on the lofty promises of the genre.

Ok, Tryst is literally perfect neroli. Bitter-green, richly floral, and summery-fresh, with more facets than I’ve ever smelled in one of my favorite notes. This is like a double-strong cologne; richer, deeper, swirlier, and greener, almost like tropical foliage. Sometimes i get almost a hint of a darker herbal bite. About an hour in, it still retains the deep, strong greenness, but it’s more dense, swoony orange blossom than fresh neroli. Compared to Dilettante, Hiram Green’s other orange blossom, Tryst is much greener and less sweet, more unisex rather than feminine, but similarly dense and heavy. It’s almost like essential oil. Fuck Yeah Orange Blossom (and Neroli.). If you’re looking for real-deal, high-quality, undiluted orange blossom – no games, just hot summer humidity and swooning-strong scent – this is it. “Refreshing” it ain’t. Beautiful, though.

This is a gorgeous representation of true orange blossom absolute--honeyed, a bit green, weirdly indolic. Orange blossom absolute doesn't have a whole ton of the concord-grape white floral note of methyl anthranilate. Rather, this has a smooth balance of linalool and the sharply green linalyl acetate (also a smell in clary sage...perhaps there is some in here as it goes well with orange blossom). There are light resins in the background but, for me, this is all about the absolute. I actually would've been interested in a slightly more composed perfume...maybe a bit more resiney amber background...perhaps some coumarinic tonka to push it in the fougere direction.

Very, very pretty. This one is a keeper. Soft photorealistic orange blossoms laid over a bed of dry honey and a hint of crushed green stems. The honey and resin notes are similar to slowdive, but pulled back significantly so that the orange blossoms continue to shine. A little overpowering for me for the first few minutes but after that it's sheer perfection. Nothing sharp or artificial here, everything is fresh, green, warm, and soft without being powdery. This would make a wonderful bridal perfume.