Albatros

Everything flows seamlessly into each other, despite the richness of contrast: the distinctly aquatic-salty, ozonic opening, which wets a bouquet of roses and a sliced unripe pineapple with surging spray, and reverberates in a silvery light, almost mineral cedar accord, to which some cashmere wood and a hint of musk lend body. It's interesting that the roses, and likewise the pineapple at the heart, smell so not at all like rose and the typical fruit nuances. Rather, their aromas merge with the maritime accords to form an idiosyncratic metallic-bitter melange that initially irritated me a bit, as it did not match my expectations of the scent of a rose and a pineapple so much. Mendittorosa points out the special nature of this rose accord in a footnote as follows: "The rose accord is a composition of various natural and synthetic rose notes developed by Anne Sophie Behaghel for Albatros." I suppose, since a synthetic component has already been so explicitly referred to here, that it could possibly be rose oxide, which in itself brings a metallic facet. In any case, in the interplay with the ozonic aquatic, a rather exciting powerhouse develops at the heart of the fragrance, from which the symphatic bird with its overlong wings receives powerful lift and which allows it to glide long and leisurely over the seas. It is this pair of opposites that makes the fragrance fly: salty aquatics here and fruity accented rose there, and under the wings a forest of cedars, or as in the poem: the wooden planks of a ship.

Well, for starters I love this brand and I’m just slightly disappointed that the perfume is not as creative as the packaging and briefs. It ALMOST is, that’s the frustrating thing, there’s kernels of good ideas in there, you can tell there’s an urge, an imperative inclination not to rehash or ultimately reproduce anything, certainly not intentionally or cynically and I can feel that and appreciate it. However, the execution just lacks ‘something’ I can’t put my finger on. As hard as it is to be original, when I saw the notes for this I half expected Aventus (lazy of me because pineapple) and I’m glad that wasn’t what it delivered, from memory though this is similar to Pacific rock moss, that hugely popular Aussie one (brand escapes me) Goldfield & Banks that’s it!! Anyway the citrus is bright and kinda like a cocktail and the pineapple note/accord is very present and very pleasant coupled with a good twist of lime, I love that the seabreeze is fresh, invigorating, not too salty but evocative of the sea in some modern perfumery sense. Ozonic sunshine beams out of this fragrance which I really liked and a clean, floral musk underneath, gentle but effectively driving the perfume along to an inevitably subtle conclusion. It’s quite potent and present at first showing off all them top notes and sparkle but ultimately shy’s away pretty quickly. I enjoyed it. Probably one of the more mainstream and commercial from this line but I still don’t feel them heading in a boring or clone house direction.

"When you talk about Poetry, you must include the Poets. The Poet is the one, who does. The individual to become Poet. The symbol of all humanity. The poet is a person using the human wings literally speaking. The wings open our sensitivity. Unfortunately, we often forget both our wings and our sensitivity. Remember that it is the sensitivity that makes us fly high, but also the wings that can make us stumble, so we will be laughed at. No one has ever described such ambivalence better than Charles Baudelaire in his poem Albatros. We are all Albatros. We can soar majestically in the air of life and awkwardly stumble upon our own wings. We arouse admiration but also derision. Because some people have forgotten their Albatros.... Albatros Eau de Parfum is a wind of Freedom, without fear, hesitation and shame. A cerulean horizon that welcomes those, who want to open their wings." What a load of crap. It's an aquatic vetiver, and one of the few perfumes I've tried with a striking pineapple note that doesn't make me hate pineapple. The opening is calone laden giving it plenty of earthy watery notes. The earthiness is a bit different in that this aquatic opening is not marine/salty like most aquatics, but has something else to it - apparently anise - that creates a freshwater lake type note rather than a sea note. It's different but not particularly interesting. The heart is all dehydrated pineapple, stripped of its juicy acidic sourness to be, instead, sugary and thick. Mind you, it's not cloyingly sweet but there is just enough sugar there to actually shift this perfume from what seemed like an aquatic vetiver perfume to a fruity woody perfume as it dries down. Some of this fruity sweetness must be, according to the brand, the rose material that went into the perfume; it would have to be since I am not really picking up anything that, to my nose, is a red floral. Roses can often lean to the powdery and fruity side, the powderiness probably lending to the dehydrated feeling, so this just ends up being dehydrated fruit piled upon dehydrated fruit that, to its credit, is quite broad and deep. That's the reason I'm not disliking this pineapple accord; it's more complex than nearly all pineapple accords I have yet to smell. It's a bit odd and intriguing. The earthy wateriness at the top doesn't connect very well to this sweet fruity heart, so maybe we are to presume this is where the perfume represents a "stumble". It certainly feels like a stumble, in that it's a compositional/creative misstep, but it's not so disjointed as to be off-putting. Early on in the dry down to the heart the vetiver starts to peek through. There are some green aromatics to it, but it's mostly woody as it's bolstered by cedar and musk materials. I took it upon myself to read the Baudelaire poem to see if I could make better sense of what was going on, and I got quite a bit further than Mendittorosa's generous pantheism-cum-individuality interpretation. The poem describes the albatross as the "kings of the azure" and the "prince of the sky", and the bird is indeed that regal and majestic. They are one of the longest living bird species, spending the vast majority of their life at sea; they mate for life; they have one of the longest wingspans allowing them to soar effortlessly over the seas for unbelievably long periods of time with minimal effort. Yet, when they land on a ship - as in the poem - or otherwise try to walk-about on land or anywhere else, those massive wings become a burden and the albatross is a pretty clumsy animal. The sailors mock the albatross for its gangliness when it lands on a plank of their ship. So, Mendittorosa gets it wrong: not all of us are albatrosses, some of us have to be the small-minded sailors, and the albatross is a very majestic and impressive creature for the vast majority of its life - per zoology and the poem - and only very rarely clumsy and unwieldly. The aquatic notes are a bit too literal; yes, ok, the water/sea reference is fine. The weirdo heart makes sense to the poem in that it is gangly and clumsy. The woody vetiver and musk base? Is that supposed to be the ship? At no point in the perfume's life do I feel like I'm smelling something evocating the "kings of the azure" or the "prince of the sky". There is no sense of regalness or grandeur at all befitting the true nature and life of these incredible creatures. Albatros just ends up being a funky fruity woody vetiver, like a pleasant high-end soap. I can't say that I'm getting it - if there is something I'm missing.

Laundry detergent with a hint of masculinity. Pleasant but nothing interesting