Pluck!

Edit to add: I have changed the gender rating from more male to male. I've done 4 day wears and at the end of each day I feel like I'm wearing a man's fougere. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, I actually find it comforting. But this goes from unisex to masculine as it evolves. Wow. Bright basil and blooming lavender in the tomato garden. The tomato is always there, very soft at first, but grows louder as the perfume unfolds. The green never gets as bitter as I was expecting. The Sichuan creates a cooling effect that is almost reminiscent of a breeze blowing, and it wraps the florals and the tomato together into a neat little package. It is unexpected, strong, unique, and wearable.

This is one of five samples I bought through Lucky Scent in their "Tomato Pack" offering. I strongly detect a note of tomato in this scent, along with green, aromatic, herbal and wood notes. It's a refreshing, brisk, natural, organic kind of smell, perfect for hot summer days. The pepper note is zingy and adds some gourmand taste to the scent, like green chiles in guacamole. The price is 30ml for$125. I guess this is considered moderate these days, with so many bottles of overrated junk selling for $250, $300, and $350.

Fresh, juicy, green vines, slightly spicy. Perfect for hot weather. Seriously though, I thought it would be gross because tomatoes aren’t my favorite but this is so refreshing. 8.6/10

I think aee13 is spot on- Pluck! is all vine, no tomato. No bright red juice, no crisp green leaf. Subverting my expectations of a summery perfume, it's a tomato vine portrait with no filter- thick, stemmy, a bit sticky, fuzzy and bitter. Pluck! takes its time developing on the skin. Missing are citruses, aldehydes or other traditional top notes. Aromatics are gone too- without top notes to bolster them, geranium, lavender, basil don't come forward till later. Instead the opening is muted, dark, woody- you almost smell the texture of the perfume before the perfume itself. Side note- the perfume liquid is quite thick and sticky, a result of high concentrations of certain naturals, and a clue that this Pluck! is one of Jorum's most indie/non-traditional perfume structures to date. After a slow start, this really opens up. Here comes the photorealistic portion of the fragrance- bring on the tomato vine in all its glory. For one glorious hour, you become one with the vine. And it's strong, radiating off the skin with a thick, almost unctuous sillage. But my favorite part is what comes next. Surprise!- a fougere in the tomato patch. The lavender, geranium and vetiver that had patiently been waiting their turn show up to form the heart of a fresh, masculine fougere. I am not a "fougere guy", but this one works for me. The twist is the Szechuan pepper- it is really spicy, but simultaneously cooling. It's so fresh that it feels almost aquatic- although I might be picking up on a similarity to Askr, Jorum's take on an aquatic fragrance that similarly features a Szechuan pepper note. There's shared DNA in many Jorum releases- Pluck! could be the child of Paradisi and Askr. The subject is different- this time, it's tomato- but you recognize Jorum's fingerprints all over it. It's something that could only be made by Jorum. They have a gift of creating perfumes that are hyper-naturalistic but also hyper-human. In other words, this smells like a tomato vine, but it also smells like a perfume. Wearing Pluck!, you smell like a stylish, well-kempt member of society, not like someone who just rolled around in a tomato patch. Pluck! burns bright for the first few hours, then lingers with a long, sultry fade into the 6th or 7th hour. The last remnants are vetiver, musk, a dry sandalwood, maybe patchouli. A sexy skin scent that retains just the slightest hint of the garden. Once again, Jorum has delivered something innovative, unique, and a bit on the fringe compared to their normal offerings- which is exactly what you'd want from the Time collection. My only gripe is that I wanted to smell the panzanella from the brief. Bring on the salt, pepper and olive oil! Let's have an honest to goodness savory gourmand! But that perfume probably wouldn't have been as wearable. Leave it to Jorum to make a tomato vine sexy.

Reminds me of something. Something from childhood. I think it is some sort of snatch-and-sniff sticker. The opening is promising, bright and full of tomato. But almost immediately dries down to this artificial scratch-and-sniff scent that sometimes changs to pickles. It does last forever though. I put this on last night after a shower, and it's still strong today.

Tangy, citrus, tomato-leaf and basil scent that is lacking the special touch and uniqueness of the Jorum line. This feels like a part of a trend - something Loewe or Hermes could have put out in the last decade.

The opening is glorious! Leaves and vines of the tomato plant supported by a bright pop of citrus from the Sichuan pepper. Unfortunately, things take a turn pretty quickly. Pluck dries down into a forgettable, traditional fougere. Lots of lavender and geranium and not much else. Perhaps my skin is amplifying these notes and the perfume would work better on someone else... it’s certainly not what I expected. I hate to say this as a huge fan of Euan McCall’s work, but it’s honestly reminiscent of standard-issue men’s deodorant. I’m glad I resisted the urge to blind-buy on the release date and waited to get my hands on a sample instead.

😞 doesn’t smell like tomato leaf 😞 smells also metallic somehow ?

Upon first spray, I'm shocked. This is not a tomato perfume? It's absolutely gorgeous, but I'm immediately thinking I need to email Scotland and make sure I got the right bottle. I've long been a connoisseur of a tomato -- a proud owner of Slice Society (meh), Malin + Goetz tomato candle (so slay), and the Flamingo Estate tomato candle (artistry). I also just love tomatoes. All of this to say, Pluck is not the skin, juice, or even remotely the fruit itself. It's the vines, adjacent to a field of lavender nestled in a forest of trees. It's subtle and wearable, and actually grows more tomato-forward as it dries down. Need to do some more spraying before I can come to a full conclusion, for now I'll just enjoy the ride.

I haven’t purchased something so quickly in a long time