Ditch by Jonas Akerlund

Petrichor? Sorta Ditch? Indeed. Green grass growing over wet, humus-rich soil. A couple of wrist sprays yields an initial grassy blast quickly followed by earthy patchouli. This becomes a moderate skin scent after an hour or two, lasting like this 3-4 hours longer. Worth owning just for the unique experience.

Tried Ditch EDP as part of a petrichor or dirst test pack - synthetic wet dirt that dissapears almost instantly, rated 2/5 for my first wear as it was not very wearable. Very similar to Notes to Self Perfume's 'Bring The Heat' natural essential perfume oil with worse projection and strength. Second wear i rated it 4/5 - maybe i should try again.

This is strongly reminiscent of the renowned & notorious Sécrétions Magnifique to my perception: one of those extremely 'edgy' fragrances. 'At-the-end-of-the-day', though, it's not as shocking as that one is ... infact, I do believe I'll be giving it a run-out later. Let's see what kinds of comment I get! Also, it's yet another instance of particularly ingenious use of oud : using it in such way as to bring one to figuring " I would never 've thought there was oud in that !" ... although its appearance in this one is not quite as surprising as it is in the case of the other two outstanding instances I've recently adduced – ie Bond No9 (eponymous) & Creed's ineffibly gorgeous Queen of Silk .

Very bright in the initial application but the dense earthy petrichor follows shortly after. Before I know anything about this fragrance, I loved in Northern Sweden and this immediately took me back to when we used to take walks through the forests with the soft floor of needles underfoot and the still pools and puddles of rain standing water, I later found out the story behind the collab and it makes complete sense. Dry down is lovely and stays on long after the first day - unique. A fantastical scent but an acquired taste, certainly one of my faves.

Damp concrete blocks covered in ivy; stagnant water pooling in the earth around and between them; green laurel branches and mouldering leaves disintegrating slowly into a boggy pulp. The fragrance could serve as an olfactory accompaniment to Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film ‘Stalker’. ‘The Zone’ very likely smells just like this. I own it. I spray it on my wrist from time to time but have not, as yet, taken it out into The World for a full test drive. A beguiling conceptual experiment.