Firewater

Firewater is not masculine or feminine. Firewater is a Force of Nature. THIS is a niche perfume. I love Firewater for that alone. Not for the faint of heart. Absolutely a fun tester just for the ride alone--even if you end up hating it! OPENING: Opening is STRONG smoke! Smoke here for me is like a raging bonfire that's been doused with a bucket of water. The kind of smoke that chases. Smoke that forces a game of musical chairs around its dying embers. Something sharp and green cuts through on the wind. Benzoin? Yes. But there's something mossy and fuzzy. It is Peat. Peat that smells like home (if you're Irish, that is). Peat is one of my favorite scents! I'm so happy that the notes are true here for peat. MIDDLE: I realize now that we're truly in the country. Where the terms 'bogger' and 'culchie' are not an insult. The nearest pub is gotten to bareback on a speckled pinto horse. After half an hour, the smoke here lingers. But we've gone inside, the party has wound down, and we've closed a heavy wooden door behind us. We're now in the living room of a cozy thatched cottage, drying our bones, and changing into oversized woolen mohair sweaters. DRY-DOWN: What emerges next is unexpected and beautiful. Sweetness peaks through. Is it the osmanthus? Maybe a sparkle of citrus--is this the grapefruit? It's a unisex sweetness that has a stable maturity to it. It is the sweetness found at the bottom of an aged, burned out oak barrel. Am I falling in love? WHERE/WHEN TO WEAR: I will be honest: At first sniff from the decant, my initial thought was, "Excellent experimental but unwearable." I was wrong. After experiencing the dry-down, I've completely changed my mind. Firewater is a complex, daring, and after the opening, wearable olfactory trip. Just make sure you wear this on your day off and not in a tight office space. While Firewater skews more night time, I could easily wear Firewater on a brisk autumn morning. Coffee-shop outdoors. County or State Fair. Vintage market. All great places to wear Firewater. FULL BOTTLE WORTHY?: Shockingly, this is full bottle worthy for me. My family is Irish (now living stateside) and it transports me to memories and places that are inaccessible to me in our epidemic era. NOT a safe blind buy!! Absolutely NOT a crowd pleaser! I can think of a few friends whose allergies would be triggered by this perfume. BUT if you're like me, and love that day-after campfire-in-my-hair smell, you'll find Firewater gorgeous. Challenge yourself and try it out!

When I smell the opening of this fragrance, I experience a deep, ancestral, primordial sense of alarm — the scent feels dangerous somehow. I can’t explain it, but the feeling is undeniable. With one whiff of Firewater I am turned into a Neanderthal or even an earlier evolutionary creature, lashing my tail back and forth in the mud as I take my first steps on land, and I am sensing danger. The scent is hard to describe. It smells poisonous, murky, acidic, and singed. It smells like a threatening creature emerging from a bog with eyes glowing red and malice in its heart. The environment surrounding the entity is moist yet set ablaze with toxic flames. Whiffs of grapefruit, peat, and bitter tea are detectable through the fire and smoke. After some time, Firewater's initial explosion settles into smoldering embers. A wearable forest fire. It has some serious longevity on my skin. I hated Firewater the first time I smelled it, but over time I have grown to respect and appreciate this perfume. An olfactory adventure, that’s for sure. Fascinating. Bravo, Jorum!

My first signature scent was Le Labo's Patchouli 24. I love a smoky, incensed, almost burn-your-nose hairs-off scent, and they work well with my body chemistry. On first spray, this is very strong, smoky, almost like taking a shot of nice mezcal. That quickly dissipates into a base of burnt birch (probably why this was my stand-in for Patchouli), peat, and a bit of saltiness of seaweed. My nose might not be developed enough to detect the osmanthus or larch, but the grapefruit comes through strong after about an hour and it's quite lovely. Think charred grapefruit peel, freshly sliced ginger, and a clean green juniper. I only need about 4 spritzes and I'm good for the day. I tried layering this with Another 13, did NOT work out, but I'm excited to keep playing with this fragrance and see what it plays well with. My girlfriend describes my taste for fragrance as very niche concepts that smell terrible on the test strip but smell good on me. If it works, it works, and I love Firewater. I've introduced a couple of my friends to Jorum Studio because of it!

BBQ smell disappears quickly, leaves a rich smoky, leather and subtle sweetness from the ginger/osmanthus. A little too leathery for me in the middle, but dries down to palatable. I'm a rank amateur but can still recognize that these are high quality ingredients and they're expertly blended (Jorum has been so impressive in this regard) This would be perfect for working outdoors on a cold winter day. It's sumptuous to me. I also really enjoy smoke and wouldn't mind wearing around the farm in summer heat. Edit: yeah the projection really cranks up in the heat outdoors. Can't speak for others, but I'm loving it

This is simply the scent of a Scottish coastal town. Seawater and peat fires. Very reminiscent of my time on Islay with the sea-spray drifting past the whisky distilleries around Port Ellen. Beautiful, ancient, evocative, primal, nostalgic. A true love for me. Smoky? Yes, but smells nothing like barbecue unless you happen to barbecue your meat over peat fires. Certainly nothing like a sweet hickory barbecue sauce or charcoal that Americans would associate with a "barbecue" description.