Ruche

the first few sniffs of this smell like cold cigarette ash. then a the raspberry starts making itself perceptible, it is cloaked in a cape of galbanum which sticks around for a short while. sweetish fruity and patchouli, dry down! smelled on a friend i passed this sample on and it was a perfect green raspberry.

This is the only prominent raspberry note perfume I've ever really liked. I've usually experienced raspberry in a fruity leather perfume which I'm not crazy for. I feel that the patchouli and galbanum in this give it a nice bitter green feel.

The opening on my skin is a little acetone-y, but then it settles into a sweet and synthetic nondescript berry note. It’s not bad, but I prefer more natural smelling perfumes, it smells like a strawberry L’Oréal kids shampoo to me. The packaging and presentation are great but seems overpriced for the smell.

It took a second for this fragrance to grow on me, but grow it absolutely did. Ruche is perhaps the most difficult scent from the collection to nail down. It does not exist firmly within the boundaries of perfume I smell frequently. I loved hearing Taylor go on record saying this perfume started out as his attempt at constructing a naturalistic raspberry note. As one of my favorite fruits to eat, I’ve never fully been able to connect with raspberry on its own in perfume – as I think it often reads far more wet synthetic saccharine than dry powdery lipstick, as I would prefer it to. Here, however, I am far more impressed by seemingly mature undertones of creamy sandalwood and piquant pink pepper. This is a far cry from your average raspberry body mist, and instead evokes a sort of dandyish suited champagne charm. Indeed the first thing I thought of was the underrated fragrance Life of the Party by Clara Weale’s UK-based house Early Modern. They both evoke well dressed, spindly men, toasting endless glasses of fruity cocktails at undeniably reputable functions. Maybe the most immediately wearable of the four fragrances, I think there is a great deal more nuance here than one would expect at first glance of its notes. A base of galbanum keeps things green and not-too-sweet. This is a fruity perfume for people who like fruit, but shy away from its typical over-the-top representation in the mass market perfume counter. There is a through line of almost culinary bitterness here, that I somewhat see present in all of Serviette’s debut collection, creating the aforementioned impression of cultured maturity. All things considered, Ruche is an effervescent raspberry sandalwood scent that wears tepid and easygoing on the skin. If Jorum Studio’s enchanting Healing Berry is foraging feral wildberries, this is the most civilized possible version of the fruit.