Rambling Man

L’Aromatica was founded in the northern San Francisco Bay area by its perfumer and creative director, Loreto Remsing. Most all of the line is all-natural and botanically based, except for the use of the occasional synthetic musk. Rambling Man has notes of citrus, cumin, ginger, woods, and boletus edulis (a common basidiomycete – i.e., mushroom), and dragon’s blood (which Loreto actually takes the time to tincture herself). It comes in two concentrations – the extrait and the eau de toilette. This is a review only of the extrait version. It contains only pure essential oils, absolutes, and tinctures. I appreciate that each of Loreto’s perfumes is inspired by a story or personal experience: for example, Yellow Rose began with thinking about the century-old rosebush in her backyard. Rambling Man is dedicated to Loreto’s brother, who has road tripped all over the states and Mexico. The inclusion of cumin, ginger, citrus, and mushroom is a reflection of his love of cooking and cuisine. L’Aromatica’s site classes this perfume as “earthy, unisex, and masculine.” I couldn’t agree more (even though the word “masculine” is there, the perfume has a certain freshness and lightness I think would smell good on both men and women). It opens up with a citrusy top that includes a bracingly bright ginger note. I was happy to be able to put my nose on this because usually when a perfumes contains ginger, it usually just serves as a faint background note. Rambling Man has the ginger full up front and center. While the citrus and the cool, calming ginger play the major roles here, the heart and dry down provide just a hint of dirtiness with the cumin (what better spice is there to echo the body’s natural pheromones?) Considering the warmer weather that is coming up with spring just having begun, I think a lot of people are starting to pull out scents for warmer weather. As far as longevity goes, the extrait lasts for between five and six hours on my skin, which is much more than I’m used to getting with more concentrated versions of perfumes. For anyone frustrated by the conspicuous lack of ginger-forward perfumes on the market, this comes highly recommended. I must say, I also appreciate the whole aesthetic behind L’Aromatica as well, and I don’t just mean the purely visual. I’ve tried several of Loreto’s fragrances, and they seem to be uniformly streamlined and feel very contemporary without being avant-garde (an adjective in perfumery I mostly associate with “totally unwearable”). There’s a DailyCandy.com interview with her online that says her perfumes are firmly rooted in aromatherapy. Loreto told me after this was written that this isn't exactly the case, and that while she did began her interests through collection oils, she soon became interested in developing full-bodied proper perfumes. To be honest, I think they’re more sophisticated than the "aromatherapeutic approach" anyway, but I can see where this sentiment comes from: they’re sleek and usually have only a handful of notes I can detect per perfume. Simple without being simplistic - in a world of perfumery that’s full of pretension and the meretricious, what’s not to love about that? There are certainly more L’Aromatica reviews in my future.