Yerbamate

In love with the first spritz. A heady bitter green, but appealing - how I imagine a giraffe feels sticking his head into tree canopy and taking a munch! This lasts about 45 seconds before my skin warms it up and absorbs all the green, leaving a very pleasant powdery natural smell. I can understand the soapy notes others are smelling, though I associate soapy smells with the more citrus-detergent vibe I get from some freshies, this is more of a 'straight after an "everything shower" using only high quality natural products I got at a maker's market' soapy, like olive oil and clay soap full of herbal essential oils, and a unisex moisturising oil made by some kind local witchy lady. I am not getting yerbamate but I do get a smell of earl grey tea with lavender syrup and lemon butter shortbread, taken in the parlour of a mysterious and impeccably clean and well decorated estate, looking out the bay windows to the lawn which is being mown by a handsome stranger in a bohemian shirt and tweed pants using a quiet old mechanical push mower. I've only had it on half an hour but I can tell from how it soaks into my skin and is already fading that it'll be a skin scent on me by two hours. I'll update this if I am proven wrong, and to state how long before it's imperceptible. I'm extremely glad to have a travel size decant of this delicious concoction, but sadly I don't think I'll get a full bottle if the longevity really is so short. If you like the opening of this and want a more affordable way to get a similar vibe, sample Lush's guardian of the forest body spray! If you like the opening and dry down of this but wish they intermingled for longer and are willing to lose the powdery soapiness, try Andrea Maack's Coven. UPDATES: After an hour it is a barely perceptible skin scent of powder and well moisturised skin, it's giving 'clean baby'. On clothes it's still there, green but not 'fresh' green, more sour galbanum than anything else but I am starting to smell a tiny hint of the mate on the fabric swatch. I really like it actually, but it's not going to be a crowd pleaser. It is sour in an ever so slightly animalic way that I know is a very polarising manifestation of galbanum. After 2.5 hours it is gone from my skin and a barely perceptible hint of powder on fabric. However it did 'revive' a little on skin after an hour to bring a touch of lemon tea back to the powder I mentioned at the 1 hour mark, so I would say you get a solid two hours from this. If it was 4 hours and the top notes lasted half an hour instead of half a minute, this would be an immediate buy. As is, this is a 'if we win the lottery and I have 100 full bottles instead of 5, I want it'. I sprayed 3 more sprays when it wore off, to compare 1 spray to 3. All I can say is don't overspray this. Yes, you can boost the sillage, but that just makes the room you're in smell like clean powdered baby bum. It's not a compliment getter ('I can smell talc in here??') or a crowd pleaser, it's very much a for yourself scent if you like it. One or two spritzes is enough! You may need to reapply every two hours though. This is not season locked to the warm months like you might expect from reading the notes, there's something warming about the 'steaming lemon tea' notes in the powdery rosewood drydown that evokes portholes rubbed into fogged up windows to peek out at frosty garden while cozied up in a wool jumper fresh out of powdery fragrant storage. I think this is a 3.5 season wear, not fresh enough for high summer in humid climates. Closing thoughts: this sneaky bastard of a fragrance sucked me in with it's powerfully vegetal bitter green opening and then it TRICKED ME into liking it's incredibly powdery, clean moisturised skin, unboxing a perfectly preserved vintage day dress, neutral floral musk. Nothing about that is up my alley. But I love this. I want to wear this to sleep. I want to spray this directly into my dresser drawer full of jumpers. I feel like an exquisitely handmade stuffed toy with lovingly placed dried flowers and baby powder in my stuffing come to life. Also, it lasts longer when you use more of it, about 3.5 hours and it's still faintly perceptible if I press my nose into the fabric. Still not very long lived, but more than the initial two hours from my very light initial application. Unisex/genderless scent but undiluted powdery notes do read as grandma to a lot of people.

Yerbamate reminds me carefree summers in my grandparents' farm on nordic island, where we as children loved to sleep in the attic above the barn (there were no animals though). Especially after July when hay was hand-cut, dried and collected to big piles and stored in the same attic - we literally slept on the mattresses placed on top of this summer's hay. Due to the aroma of fresh aromatic dried hay and plenty of fresh air, the sleep in the attic was the most satisfying and energising I've experienced in my life. As a regular mate drinker, and because of the name, I was ready for a bitter-dry mate-prominent scent, but this is not exactly what I got. Instead, a multifaceted summer memory emerged- its green, aromatic, very dry, but sunny, slightly powdery but nowhere near the powder bomb like Teint de Neige, and just slightly sweet. I'm not sure where the sweetness comes from, its not obviously floral, but has a slight touch of wild flowers, perhaps floral facet of lavender and touch of y-y... There is freshness despite of dryness and on my skin its not bitter, just very comfortable and cosy herbal aromatic. Very soothing. I can't tell all the green notes, apart from tea, mate, hay and mint, tarragon is very quiet on my skin, so are the woods, these don't dominate. But its interesting even exciting blend. Very unisex, less challenging for women than one might think, and very beautiful for summer, especially late summer days when its still warm and sunny. I gently disagree with the review below that says its old-fashioned, definitely not. But it is slightly classic-leaning, reminds me the greenness in Miller Harris Terre de Bois with sweetness reminding me cotton candy in TdB, though these are different scents, Yerbamate is also much drier. Still, I find it quite modern- its complex blend of dry green aromatics and performance will not overwhelm you, it'll be a very polite wear. As I said, longevity is only moderate and sillage limited. It's not the weakest performer, but I expected more, perhaps have been spoiled by aromachemicals that I can't smell much here... However, personally its FB worthy for sure!

After having had a terrible experience with the beautiful complexity of Teint de Neige by Villoresi, I was very careful to approach Yerbamate. But my caution was completely unfounded. This fragrance is beautiful and left me pleasantly speechless. After all, for someone like me, greener, mossy and deep spiced concotions carry me to a a contemplative, almost melancholic mood. Saudade, perhaps? Or...wait... Tarragon, mint and tea, which are already a feast for my olfactory senses. This combination is far more evocative than the name seems to suggest: smell of sun dried yerba mate carried by a wet wind on the border of a distant meadow. Bended, greasy leather horsery garments tickling under the weight of a sleepy "huasa". The effect is a bit puzzling: not too rough and not outrageusly "healthy" and fitty like many other greenish fragrances could be. On the other hand, rosewood brings softness and the citrus zestiness adds effervescence in the top notes. Wisely, top notes are discreet and well blended. And as I am always fascinated by different uses of lavender, Yerba Mate surprised me with an almost blue lavender note. It's a subtler and almost powdery-creamy, but a still recognizable lavender. I do not know if in Yerba Oak Moss is still contained: it develops into the finest earthy note I ever smelt. Mossy, spicy, yet somehow elegant-floral and herb-rounded. And then, amazingly, I dive into the well know accord of citrus notes again. Something that I have already experienced at wearing Habit Rouge on hotter summer afternoons. Yerba Mate reminds me a little of dried Ilex Paraguayensis in an elegant old drugstore with wood-paneled walls and drawers in which the herbs were sold openly. Such wonderful shops are still present in my hometown, Parma. An exquisite, almost eighty years old benedictine monk still runs a wood-paneled herbalist shop next to the Abbazia di San Giovanni. :) Anyway, Yerba is a stunning fragrance with a strong personality.

Chocolate limes! A surprising burst of the rememberence of these favourite sweeties without the actual overpowering sweetness of real boiled sweets. Made me laugh and brought an 'I want to eat my own arm' smile to my face. A dash of mint, but to me no tea. A quick change to a long unfolding of mellow honey and soft flower petals with an underlying darker note that gives a little mystery. Yet neither floral nor sweet - I find it hard to describe this scent, other than it seems that so many of the notes others get from it are not the ones I find. It is delightful, elegant without being cold, assured without being brash or false, enfolding and feminine without being sweetly eager to please or fearful of being an individual. Not a scent for girls but one for a woman who likes who she is. I wish I could break this down into notes, which would be of more help to others. Yet to me, on me, this seems to have very little in common with the given notes or those others describe it as. Maybe this is one worth a try even if you are put off by the descriptions. It may be totally different on you too. I habitually turn to sweet florals, and bought this after a wonderful session with Les Scenteurs in London. I asked to be taken away from my comfort zone and I found Yerbamate. And while it isn't a scent I naturally would have turned to, I find it deliciously wearable. Actually, no, don't try it- if you liked it it wouldn't be all mine anymore, would it!

I have owned Yerbamate for a couple of years and couldn't quite describe it until now. In the past several months, I happened upon a basket of matcha KitKats, which are now a bit of an obsession (I ordered a big bag from Amazon), sitting on the countertop of a favorite local cafe. A cafe where I happen to habitually grab an iced mate with milk. Yerbamate smells just like their flavors! Like a strong matcha latté with some bitter mate and nuances of herbs, hay, and cream. Add some nice classic powder, and there you have it. Aside from my constant thoughts of food, associations of which others might not have when they smell this, Yerbamate is a very elegant fragrance. I could see it as a signature fragrance to be worn daily. It's like a green Teinte de Neige, but I like it better because of its complexity--the bitterness, the creaminess, and I do notice a good dose of ylang ylang in the heart as well as soft spices in the base. Longevity is great, clocking in around 6 hours. Sillage isn't huge, but it does waft up to my nose for the first couple of hours before becoming more of a skin scent. A keeper. Truly a beautiful fragrance. And I love the green bottle.