Essentiel Verveine

This fragrance taught me that loving a scent and wanting to wear it are not always the same thing. When I first bought it in France, I was completely captivated. It smelled green, herbal, fresh and alive. Like walking through a citrusgarden after rain. Now I'm more conflicted. The opening is intensely sharp and sour. Not citrus in a refreshing way, but almost like opening a bag of sour candy. The kind of sourness that is exciting at first but can become overwhelming if you get too much of it. Beneath that sharpness is something I genuinely love: herbs, greenery, and a natural freshness that feels much closer to nature than most perfumes do. The problem is balance. The sourness eventually became too much for me and after wearing it frequently I found myself almost craving a break from it. It makes me nauseous now. I enjoy it more as a faint trace in the air than as a fragrance on my skin.