Driftwood

The previous review from freewheeling is almost spot-on, but I thought I'd add my two cents as well. I really like this fragrance, as it shares some DNA with a few other great fragrances that attempt to shape and bend woody/spicy notes into sheer, almost weightless fragrances. This evokes, at different stages, Sel de Vetiver by the The Different Company, Sel Marin by Heeley, and even the sandalwood-ish portion of Sycomore EdT (my all-time favorite). This is a really solid effort at recreating the smell of sun-bleached wood, and it seems to focus on the interplay between airy, almost aquatic notes and a richer, smoother woodiness that lies somewhere on the spectrum separating a transparent vetiver from a cedar cigar box. There's no tobacco here at all, but something about this is reminiscent of the particular cedar one finds in humidors. The end result is a fragrance that is both uplifting and somewhat melancholy. It has an organic feel without being too unpolished. I really like it, and would strongly recommend that lovers of naturalistic aquatics and smooth woody fragrances give it try. All that having been said, the price borders on absurd. This costs about $5 per ml, which is more than you would pay at retail for Creed or Amouage. This is apparently an extrait, but you would never guess it. It's called "driftwood", after all, and is appropriately transparent. But it simply doesn't have the raw power or intensity that you expect from an extrait. I'd love to have a bottle, but just can't imagine paying $80 for 15 ml.

Mirus is a San Francisco based artisanal perfumery. Driftwood is classified as a woody oriental: "Driftwood evokes the smell of a dry piece of driftwood on a warm, sandy beach kissed by a cool sea breeze. " Driftwood on my skin has two phases. The first phase is salty, vaguely ozonic, and is evocative of driftwood but more with marine olfactory stereotypes than those of a beach. There are passing similarities to Acqua di Sale, Aquilissima (Hilde Soliani), and even a bit of Sel Marin. However, Driftwood firmly stays in its own realm with the focus being on the woody aspects of the accord. One finds this accord to be quite novel and distinctive. This phase lingers on for a couple of hours before there is a slow transformation to its second phase: the salty, ozonic aspects disappear as a very restrained sweetness creeps in to complement the wood note. At this stage one discovers an uncanny similarity with several aspects of the dry down of Sycomore EdT. Sadly, around the time of this transformation, the fragrance also seems to unravel quite a bit. Driftwood has its quirks, and is a novel composition, but eventually reveals a few shortcomings. While the first phase of the composition is quite innovative and interesting, it is not assertive or persistent enough. The second phase is not as engaging after the first. However, Driftwood unfortunately comes across as not robust enough for an extrait, and wears more like somewhere between an EdT and an EdP. A more potent concentration with a greater emphasis on its first phase of development would have been much more compelling. 3/5 (neutral)

Alright hardly anyone has reviewed this so I will jump in here as well. When a fragrance tells you its name, often times you cannot believe it. This fragrance you can take at its word. It is driftwood, somehow wet and dry at the same time, it stands alone in my collection as a bit of an oddity that I picked up in SF while visiting Tigerlily. If you've been near the cold sea, you've smelled this hyperrealistic scent before. It lasts for years on clothing and days on skin, even after showering at times. I definitely like this when I am feeling a bit introspective or even lonely.