Onda Extrait de Parfum

As my search for additional Djedi-like perfumes continues, I arrive at my second stop - Onda. Damn - what an exquisitely beautiful creation, crafted with the care, attention and complexity of a century-old vintage. If you are into vintage, animalic perfumes, this will be very close to your holy grail. Onda smells, indeed, very similar to Guerlain's discontinued Djedi but with several key differences - I will restrict any comment in relation to Djedi to the following: if you like Djedi, you will like this too on the sole condition you enjoy honey as a note. Djedi is drier than Onda, but the latter certainly lands squarely in the same genre of animalic vetiver chypres. Onda extrait opens with a gargantuan honey that is tinged with an animalic darkness. It's sweet, thick, dusty and vegetal. If you imagine smashing an entire beehive at mach speed into an ancient, moss-laden tree, and smelling the chaotic splatter that results - this would be the smell of Onda's opening. This honey note does me no harm (as a lover of honey) but will do serious damage to anyone remotely intolerant of this note. Ironically, the honey is the most challenging part, and it fades away from one hour onwards to leave behind Onda's greatest treasure - its mid-to-drydown. There is some SERIOUS orris in here - coupled with spices and vetiver to create an accord of powdery earth. A leathery backdrop combines with oakmoss to give the cocooning familiarity of all the best chypres rolled into one, sans any fruit or "prettiness" per se. As it continues to develop, it becomes primarily a dance of orris and vetiver on my skin, and evokes the same kind of wistful serenity that one only experiences as a child, running one's hands through the garden soil on a cool day. In times long past a perfume such as this would have been the height of feminine sensuality but, to the modern nose this will smell not only masculine but quintessentially fossilised. I only own the extrait version and it lasts a good half day on me with very little projection (as one would expect). Onda is fantastic and one for the vintage chypre lovers - there's nothing more I can say.

Saying that Onda EDP is a challenging composition would be like considering Marcel Proust and easy read. Onda is far beyond being just challenging, is weird, destabilizing and unusual but at the same time "cultured". It is built around a solid structure that shows many characteristic of classic perfumery and adds a bizarre, sort of futuristic, accord of passion fruit and vetiver that together with floral pattenrs and ginger gives birth to a strange blend that sits somewhere between a disinfectant, a mass destruction weapon and pure luxury. Overall Onda smells salty/sweet with fresh nuances, flowery with acidic/unripe fruits and definitely sulfurous (urine?). While all of this may sound disencouraging, I still believe that Onda deserves our respect as one of the most intriguing, complex and original compositions around. Onda, more than like a proper fragrance, sounds like a declaration of intent that says "I'm here, and I'm here to stay!". On the other hand the extrait de parfum is, paradoxically, more familiar. Don't get me wrong, it's still far from being easy to wear or "pretty" but, its chypre-y animalic leather structure brings, somehow, to mind of the beloved Djedi. A loud vetiver-leather concoction that moves on the thin line between glory and precipice, between a luxurious smell and a revolting stink. Earthy, animalic and almost disturbing yet extremely compelling. Onda was definitely an ambitious and risky project just like doing tightrope walking between two skyscrapers. It took some skills and a guts but Vero Kern has successfully managed to walk to the other side. Chapeau. Two of the most challenging and compelling compositions that I've ever experienced. By all means niche stuff. Rating: 9/10

The notes listed here are not accurate according to the list of ingredients on my sample (from Bloom perfumery). It should read as follows : TOP notes : basil, bergamot, coriander, ginger, lemon, mandarin MIDDLE notes : honey, iris, ylang ylang BASE notes : ambergris, Bourbon vetiver, musk, patchouli, sandalwood When I smell this from my sample, I immediately get a picture of expensive grey suede wrapped around me. I can almost touch it. This feeling lasts for several hours and is strangely comforting. I guess it would be like sniffing inside of a new suede bag. Then I get a little bit of sweetness from honey, some musk and a bit of sandalwood but nothing else. The longevity is not bad at all, I have applied 4 heavy dabs on my neck and behind ears approx 8 hours ago and I still get whiffs of the fragrance. Even though I am not a fan of leather/suede fragrances, I could easily be swayed by this one but I shan't as the cost is rather high.

Strange wave plays within the dirty, unconventional aromas that are made to the classic and totally handmade. Onda is a provocative fragrance, bordering on the aggressive where the spices and especially the ginger as a starting note feels powerful like a slap. The mixture lets you feel a dominant vetiver that mixes with the animal sensuality of honey, a thick and sweet honey that rounds the heart notes. To a wild, woody drying, I would say that with a wild character, a note of civet with leather is added that dirty all the fragrance and leaves it halfway between the sweetest and lascivious delicacy of a sweaty skin, everything is sexy and attractive. Onda is not a fragrance that stays half-inked, and like the great masterpieces, or you love or hate it, without leaving anyone indifferent. This version of perfume, is sensational, yields and lasts dramatically as a 100 ml perfume and the unisex potential is indisputable. Rating: 9.3

Wow- the opening of this is really unique - if you've ever visited a log cabin that had a fire roaring, and caught a wiff of the soot left on the wall, there's the smell. Lately I've been associating perfume with what it makes me feel like doing, and this makes me want to participate in something that may soon be legal here in bankrupt State of California. (That burn smell thing...) Definitely a scent for when you aren't in the mood for following hte crowd and need to be a little rebellious. This is just a fun scent and I highly recommend giving it a try.