Skin Graft

Like so many modern fragrances, this has of Iso E Super in spades. But! Skin Graft achieves the unique trick of making a common aroma chemical smell, if not natural, nature-adjacent in a deliberately abstract way. Imagine machine washed and dried laundry, big-box store scented, but then line dried outdoors. It's both chemical and organic. The result is significantly better than the average skin scent, with its honeyed woods and resins and flowers. It's verdant but also plasticky and very lovely.

While the description of Far NWest is what initially drew me to the line, it was Skin Graft that really got my attention. This is one of those cases in which a formalist analysis of the fragrance—simply focusing on what it does and how—is difficult as this is clearly an autobiographical endeavor, one whose narrative both colors and is colored by the fragrance itself. It's my personal favorite from the line as it smells totally avant-garde, yet its surprisingly comforting as well, which speaks to the story behind it (which I'm not going to recount here, but I'm sure many of you are aware of David's experience with Stephen Johnson Syndrome). It's quite a linear scent that kicks right into gear and stays there for most of the journey. Essentially, what it’s doing is integrating jasmine with opoponax in a manner that allows the grittiness of the opoponax to battle with the calming effect of jasmine, and it's all structured upon a base of honey that never really reads as an identifiable note unto itself, playing instead a largely foundational role. What's astounding about this seemingly simply pairing of opoponax and jasmine is that, when placed against the honey, it produces a plastic-y scent that's akin to the smell of BandAids (yes, really). The cedar notes lend a medicinal, almost disinfectant kind of tone to the mix; and despite the fact that the fragrance is 95% naturals, I do get hefty dose of Iso-E Super that brings an oil-like shimmer to the overall blend. Once the notes settle into place on your skin, what Skin Graft essentially boils down to is a honeyed jasmine over a bed of Iso-E. It's hard to do justice and describe what this scent does without actually wearing it as the listed notes don't seem like they'd be able to create the evocative effect they create without the use of a massive amount of rubbery synthetic molecules. Yet, when you focus in closely on how the scent is structured, you find that opoponax and jasmine really are the two central players, and meditating on the way they work with one another is what makes this so calming. This is an impressive approach—the use of naturals to create a highly synthetic smelling scent that's largely autobiographical in nature. And that's why Skin Graft is such a successful achievement: for such a minimalist structure, what this scent underscores in the foresight of the perfumer and the stroke of brilliance that came from bringing these notes together in such a profound manner. For my money, this is both the simplest, and the best of the line.