Melograno (Pomegranate)

This smells like a "haunted" house that's been sitting unopened for a while, but in a good way. Like, old woods, floral waters left open and evaporated into the porous surfaces, dusty and powdery, dead flowers in vases crumbling to pieces on the citrus oil soaked wood floors, a library full of aged-vanillin-tinged pages and sweet pipe tobacco, and wood smoke from the long unused fireplace. Something medicinal-oriental like a hoodoo floor wash made with herbs and spices, ever so slightly minty - probably where the "soap" vibe comes from for some, however I don't get anything soapy on me. There's something very soft, sweet, melancholy about it. Also, somehow still smells clean even with all this going on. Just a tiny bit citrus-oil clean. No suds for me, although I am quite fond of many soapy fragrances. This one just didn't go soapy on me. Honestly, I kind of wish it had a little, but I still love it completely. It's tough to pick out the individual notes really, it just gives you a feeling of going room to room where the smells change a little, but are still part of the same house. It's very vivid in how it evokes a specific visual for me. It's neither old, nor young. It's unusual, androgynous, ageless, strange, and smells like another era that still adapts to today. It's very powdery, but not what I would call a powder bomb. It's stained with a bit of fruit, and smoked by incense resins, but the powder is the most prominent. Oakmoss and orris are certainly dominant as well. I am surprised by how much opoponax is there. I thought it may get lost completely as many in bases do on me, but in the dry down it's very lovely and does become noticeable in time. The other base notes are actually pretty apparent throughout, but all blended so well, and I expect many of these notes are "ghost notes", and appropriately so. More than what's there could have been too complicated. Just a little of them went a long way. They "guide" the main characters, but not enough to change them or even add to them. Just an enhancement, expertly executed. My favorite fragrance.

I never met SMN I did not like. I may not want to wear all of them, but I do admire them. They are the embodiment of what the finest perfumery has to offer. Conservative, certainly. Classy, without the doubt. Understated and dignified. How can such consistency over a great number and centuries of creations even exist? Those friars really know what they are doing. Melograno doesn't really smell like pomegranate, maybe a bit like pomegranate skin and that yellow rubbery stuff that keeps pomegranate pulp together. Who cares? It's lovely. The presence of the orris is surprisingly noticeable from the start. The harmony of the composition is effortless. It smells classic and timeless. The dry down is delightful. Maybe one day I will be capable of describing how it smells, for now I just know how it feels. Gorgeous. After a few days wearing it here and there, I like it even more. It takes considerable time, knowledge and patience to create something this complex but so incredibly gracious in its evolution over time. The structure and behaviour is very similar to Vol de Nuit, a great love of mine. With the advantage of being less demanding and mysterious. It can be a perfect bright, or daytime, counterpart of Vol de Nuit. It is a superbly accommodating wear. The opening is a burst of brightest citrus and aldehydes that might seem old fashioned and off putting to some, but it's charming and uplifting. I very much enjoy all the effervescence that thickens into elegant floral bouquet. It is also very clean, slightly soapy, with a lovely aromatic zing. At this stage it can be perceived as masculine, but only in the most gentlemanly way. The slide to a flawless dry down is unnoticeable, you just know when you get there. Everything is just smooth and effortless. One of the finest perfumes I have ever encountered, they just don't do them like this anymore. A true work of art. Beautiful.

I have been wearing Melograno for years but never attempted to describe it. It was gifted to me by a close friend and was one of the first fragrances I ever owned, so I was wearing it well before I understood doodly squat about thinking of fragrance in terms of classifications like chypres, note pyramids, and the idea of notes in the first place. Instead I thought of all fragrances in terms of the colors they evoked in my head. Since then, I have learned a little more, so I'll give it a shot. Melograno is no longer just the powdery opalescent white layered over burgundy fragrance it once appeared to be. Now when I smell it, I see rainbows. That may sound sentimental, but I really do. Melograno opens with a sharp, spicy-green, soapy powder with a sweetish/bitter tinge and the characteristic richness of oakmoss. The green is a dry, spicy green, not a lush verdant one; it's very classic-smelling. The citrus is barely there in the top notes if at all. The rose/orris root is cool and soapy. The patchouli and vetiver are earthy and sweet, but run no risk of obscuring the other elements. A trace of warmth comes through from the amber, ylang and tobacco, but this fragrance is so well blended and has so much dynamism that it really just IS. Though its notes are not so easy to separate, and are not "true to life", they aren't trying to be. Melograno smells like itself, and nothing else. It smells calm, wise and stern. There is an entire world living inside Melograno, and in that respect I think it actually is very much like a pomegranate, though I am generally not too concerned with names and their accuracy. It fuses seamlessly with my own skin's scent, but there is also so much complexity that I feel like I can peer into it and never get bored. Melograno is like a woman who has seen it all. I could sit around admiring her all day.

I really love this scent since I first visited Florence in late summer... lovely warm weather, a soft breeze always coming in from the sea, and in the warm summer air, here and there a spicy warm whiff of this scent...I immediately bought a bottle directly at SMN. About the scent: I don't know why so many people say this smells like Chanel No 5... I get that there is an aldehydic vibe in here but unlike the Chanel, it's a green, fresh spicy and soapy aldehydic vibe. The spices and the oakmoss are also prominent in this, and yes, there is a trace of pomegranate in it too in the background, a warm sweetness of its juice, maybe of you warm it for a jam? I can also smell traces of warm cinnamon in it. I have tested pretty much every scent of SMN there, and there are several more leaning masculine but 'Melograno' actually doesn't for me. I can see it's unisex but I personally do see it more fitting for elegant women, not a girly and 'young' scent, more mature but not old-fashioned. Chanel No 5 is veery aldehydic and kind of... dull and stuffy, while 'melograno' is spicy, green, soapy and refreshing. Maybe it's a summer scent for me because I remember it so vividly from that Tuscany summer and being so lovely in the warm, late summer air. I prefer to wear it in summer and autumn, and think its beauty comes out best in warm air and sunshine. As I ran out of it I will reorder, I always need to have this in my collection.

Like being inside the fluffy warmth of your fresh-laundered duvet in the morning, with the window open and the the scent of sun-warmed lichen and deep green ferns wafting in. Once the the soapy, bedazzling aldehydes have calmed down that is! In the first half hour you'll still be getting Chanel no. 22 levels of aldehyde, but sit it out because it's far softer and warmer into dry down, where it becomes a subtly alluring comfort scent. If you like it, you'll want to keep sniffing your self all day. Most people would describe it as unisex, but there is a powderiness. However I'd describe it as a slightly raspy, sage-like oakmossy powder, not talc or face powder. There's subtle sweetness, but not if you're into sweet gourmands and vanilla- dominant perfume. No fruit either, as others point out, unless it's the astringent dryness of pomegranate ( there is that dryness here). I love it, my husband loves it, in fact he delights in the scent of this on me. For context, he also loves Chanel 19 and I'd say both perfumes take a similar trajectory, though 19 is far more scenty and feminine I think. A soothing hug, it's the perfume equivalent of a snooze in a forest. If you're expecting a vampy Vesper femme fatale perfume this might not live up to your expectations, but remember, femme fatales did wear chypre in the original Bond's times!