Spigo

The lavender and tonka combination is a standard, simple, and easy one. A million and one times the pudding has been proofed. Spigo does it a bit differently though. The lavender is incredibly oily in texture, like the leaves and the flowers were wrung completely dry into the bottle. The addition of the camphor and eucalyptus gives the lavender a heartbeat and muscle, thanks to the green notes and slightly chemically facets. This lavender is burly and handsome. These notes lay languidly over an earthy and bitter tonka bean vanilla that combined gives an almost leathery impression to the perfume. Spigo closes out with soft and pleasant musks and more tonka; clean, smooth, slightly sweet, slightly amberic, and vanillic. So, yes, Spigo is hardly anything new: a straightforward lavender and tonka bean that is very cheap to make and sold cheaply too. However, very good attention was paid to the details of those two primary accords, and with those details comes a modern reinterpretation of an old idea given a new shot of big confidence. Spigo is one of the better everyday lavender perfumes I own.

I was dismissive of this one when I first encountered it. It just seemed so... vegetal. I mean this smells like real plants. Whatever the spigo variety of lavender is... well, you will experience it quite thoroughly. Extremely realistic, bracingly sharp at the opening. Green, yes, almost acrid. It thankfully calms down into a high-quality lavender fragrance. There is a very dry, unsweetened vanilla paired with the lavender, a bit like Caron Pour Homme, but without the Play-Doh note. Due to lavender‘s association with men’s fragrances, I feel this would be a bit masculine on a woman. There is very little sweetness and no floral notes here. I do get the musk in the drydown and perhaps it becomes more unisex at this point. This is not for casual fans- if it appeals to anyone it would be those who love fragrance as an art form rather than a replacement for charm and good manners!

Opening is expectedly very lavender heavy, very powdery and cool toned. Dries down to remind me almost of... a stale cigarette smoke smell but not in a bad way?? Like your grandpa who used to smoke while sitting on the beach. tobacco, canvas, and warm sea breezes. Was hoping for a little more camphor. I wish the lavender in the beginning was a little more subtle or balanced with other elements as it starts pretty linear and leans a little mature for my taste but overall it is nice and had a surprising dry down.