Mito Voile d'Extrait

As I reach for green and floral compositions more often, with temperatures rising and daylight broadening, Mito sits very high on that pedestal. It is an incredibly vivid and textured green-floral-chypre. Mito is all about textures. From the incredibly juicy green opening to the dewy, creamy floral heart, and finally, the velvety moss and creamy woods. Vero was inspired to create Mito after visiting Villa d'Este gardens in Tivoli. The perfume smells like walking through a dense, well-kept garden—almost a greenhouse, thanks to its humid and wet facets (perhaps the champaca). Mito opens with a strong, bracing galbanum and juicy citrus accords. I wish there were some basil in there (like in Onda). I feel it would have worked well. Alas, I don’t detect any herbs or spices. This introduction is so vibrant. It reminds me of grabbing a handful of stems and cutting through them, releasing their juice and unmistakable green aroma. Soon, the florals join in. Mito shifts to a rich floral bouquet, where champaca and magnolia are the main players. There is a distinctive wet, creamy nuance with hints of citrus-green. The citrus element from the opening supports this effect. There are no indoles, so the florals smell clean and fresh—somehow exotic. This Mediterranean garden is anchored by a base of oakmoss, patchouli, woods, and light resins. There are no animalics, none of the dirtiness found in Onda, Rozy, or Rubj. I came to expect a touch of explicit connotation with Vero’s perfumes. Here, Mito uses other means to surprise. It abandons the bedroom sheets and moves the action to the heart of nature. I believe animalics would have detracted from the perfume. Still, I would have loved a touch of indoles. However, I cannot complain. There are so many things I love about Mito that I can overlook these small, subjective flaws. The greens and florals smell so natural and tangible. The base complements everything so well that it is hard to fault the perfume for such whimsical nonsense. Mito is difficult to dismiss if you like green chypres and natural-smelling florals. It draws inspiration from the classics without ever feeling repetitive. My preference is for the Voile D’Extrait, which is richer in the base and florals. The EDP leans more top-heavy, dominated by greens and citruses, with only a light floral touch and ethereal base. IG:@memory.of.scents

What is salient about the work of Vero Kern is that she was skilled in adding flesh to the bones of her work, a certain fattiness even, that makes each perfume so dimensional, as you're living in their fantasy as you wear them. The one that most struck me is that of Mito, in the Voile d'Extrait. The immediate blast of galbanum, pollen, and vegetation is far from convention, but undeniably awesome. There is a luminous sparkle that hovers over it all, like foxfire and starlight on some abandoned garden, where all the flowers and foliage run rampant. There is then a startling creaminess of a champaca accord that bursts through the surface among the crisper florals and greens, unctuous, potent, with tea-like undertones. My olfactory receptors are massaged by this heart, and there is this unmistakable balminess, as if Kern was able to give humidity a smell. The jasmine is round and succulent, with the slightest suggestion of dirty nether regions. There is even the impression of something like strawberry, but not the sweet, candied concept, the raw fruit as they are picked from a patch, still covered in earth. The subtle impressions of ripeness and decay only make this more haunting and utterly beautiful. What underlines it all is really striking: the scent of cypress and juniper twigs, their sappy oils fusing everything together, weaving in and out, flowers and conifers, forbidden garden and forest undergrowth. With each wear there is something new that seems to be revealed, a new detail to the story that I hadn't noticed before, a hidden motif. Kern had a rare alchemy that is seldom seen in modern perfumery. Vero Kern (1940-2018)

If you're fed-up with roses and amber, aoud and leather and high-powered perfumes that wear you instead of you wearing them, try something GREEN. "Mito" is a mossy, cool fragrance which reminds me of "Cristalle" by Chanel, but which, of course, does not only symbolize a return to the classic chypre, but represents a wonderfully modern extension of the genre. Vero Kern loves her fragrances to smell slightly "dirty", and you can feel this aspect in the drydown, where the mossy base as a central note persists for hours and hours. "Mito" is gorgeous from top to toe: The galbanum in the topnotes gives a sharp dryness to the fragrance, it is a perfect counterpoint to the white flowers used in the middle and the moss, cedar and labdanum notes of the base. Here's a new green floral chypre that I consider perfect. Funnily enough, there are other Vero Kern perfumes I really struggle with, particularly "Onda" and "Kiko". I remember writing some rather unfavourable reviews about them, but now Vero Kern has created a perfume I really can connect to. The "Voile d'extrait" is very tenacious and once it settles on the skin, it exudes its atmospherics of wood and green nature. "Mito" is probably a fragrance which will not appeal to people who like "pretty" scents, neither do I picture it on a typical Hollywood beauty like Marylin Monroe. It's not a fragrance for frills and fuss, but probably something Marlene Dietrich would have worn in her heydays. Anyway, a masterpiece by a fantastic contemporary lady perfumer (born in 1940). Btw, "Mito Voile" only recently won a perfume award called "Prix d'enthousiasme".

Gorgeous and sparkly and green and fleshy. The top does remind me of Eau de Rochas for women, with Mito's top notes sparkling with something mossy and dewy, but the added depth of the floral component takes it to another level. Subdued in its floral stage, it reads like the texture of petals on tuberose instead of the actual scent.

This one is pure elegance and beauty to me, with sparkling attitude. A power fragarance that manages to be both delicate and forceful at the same time. Vero Kerns work was no less than masterpieces.