No. 12 Eau de Parfum

transcribed from "Racked" magazine article "Spring's Best Scents" by Rachel Syme If you live in New York City long enough, you’ll begin to mark the seasons not by the calendar but by a set of very specific urban solstices, ceremonial days in the city when time begins to shift. Sometime around September comes Hot Liquids Day, the first day of the fall when cold brew feels crass, or at least the idea of drinking scalding coffee outdoors doesn’t make your sweaty summer stomach do flips. In the summer, there’s Rooftop Vodka Soda Day, Bikini Tops With Jean Shorts Day, and Bodega Popsicle Day. In winter, we get Ugly Puffer Acceptance Day and Buying Fancy Cheese You Can’t Afford for a Blizzard Day. But my favorite unofficial New York holiday comes in the early spring, and I’ve started longing for it every year. This is Forced Al Fresco Day — the first weekend morning that everyone in the city seems to agree that dining outside is a viable option and all of the sidewalk cafés put out cheery bistro tables, even though it’s far too cold for anyone to really enjoy the experience of slurping down oysters while the wind whips at your face. Forced Al Fresco Day never gets above 50 degrees; sometimes it’s even technically freezing outside. It’s just that at some point, around the end of March, everyone seems to decide en masse that they’ve had quite enough of hibernating, and they’re willing to participate in a collective delusion that the spring thaw has arrived. I love walking around on Forced Al Fresco Day and seeing groups of friends huddled together, teeth chattering over a bottle of rosé, trying to warm their icicle fingers over a single votive candle placed on the table. There’s a hopefulness to this activity — willing the next season to get here already — but there’s also a wash of melancholy over the whole day; no one is having that much fun, and no one wants to admit that they miscalculated. It’s a day of prideful shivering, of wearing the wrong coat and saying “No, I’m fine, really” if anyone offers you their scarf. William Eadon’s No. 12 EDP is Forced Al Fresco Day turned into a scent. It’s a spring perfume that isn’t quite ripe yet; a cozy, dank, syrupy winter affair with lemons shoved into the bottle in a desperate effort to strong-arm brightness into the world. I love it precisely because it feels like two seasons smashed together into one slightly awkward but eternally optimistic elixir. It’s both sunny and swaddled, mixing mulling spices with fresh lavender, delicate neroli with muscular, gooey benzoin. It starts out with fresh cracked pepper and becomes a brunch mimosa, then dies down to an almost feral ending, all salt and amber. In its final moments, No. 12 smells like the secret angles of someone you love: the buttery scalp, the cumin scent that lingers on a sweaty T-shirt, that powdered scoop between the shoulder blades. It smells exactly like leaving the house without a sweater when you really should take a sweater, and then drinking enough champagne to temporarily forget that your hands are numb. It smells like sitting down at a sidewalk café and faking your way through a good time, because you know that the golden days are coming. They’re so close. William Eadon, it should be noted, is not really a traditional perfumer. He is sometimes a fashion designer and sometimes a photographer, and sometimes, he films crystal cleansing videos in his apartment. In an interview about how perfume came into the equation, he said: “I’m not sure where I discovered fragrance... maybe for want of coloring myself in a hue that I am not, so for a moment, I might play a role of someone better than who I thought I was.” And I love that idea. It resonates with me and with how I first stumbled into fragrance. I was intrigued by stepping into roles much like how New Yorkers trudge out into the brisk to try on their spring personalities.

This is a fresh and vibrant natural scent. At first application your senses are woken up to a zesty citrus and neroli with a crisp and romantic clove note. As this dries down it changes throughout the day and warms to a comfortable benzoin glow where hidden notes start to appear. The longevity of this eau de parfum is outstanding for a natural. I only wear natural scents and this is scarcely made in small batches of under 50 by a unique perfumer. I like wearing this in the spring / summer seasons and will dabble with it throughout colder weather for a palette cleanser. If you are curious about authentic ambergris, then this is your chance to try it. I've read the perfumer is using actual ambergris and not synthetics. If you know anything about perfume then you know that pure ambergris is scarce and unique to most fragrances today. You can notice the underlying base of ambergris as the #12 wears throughout the day. I also wear this same maker's #11 and both are wonderful scents always noticed by people around me. So many people have asked me what i am wearing when i have this on. I'm happy i found it. If you can find it, find yourself a bottle today.

If you love Tom Ford or Gucci and If you’re looking for a completely natural fragrance for half the price than this is the one! I’ve been using both fragrances from Eadon and they are really incredible. They last a long time, and the smell gets sweeter the longer you wear it. It’s also nice to own products that are exclusive and I always get complimented and asked what the fragrance is! Very happy to have discovered this lit scent.

Wearing right now as it is P E R F E C T for me for spring! Citrus, lemony, meyer lemony scents speak the language of spring giving a light freshness to my personal ambiance as I wear during the day. An invigorating scent lifts me up and is my favorite at the moment. Thank you for delicious scent!

This and No.11 (aka 11:11 on his website. An interesting read about how he kept seeing the number everywhere) both have an "aromatic spice" thing happening. Let me explain. Aromatic as in lighter,airier. For example, with the clove, one may think of dense syrupy concoctions, or the holiday season. No no no. This is clove aerosolized and riding on top of a literal tsunami of lemon! I'm not kidding, I was a little afraid of how strong the lemon rind was at first, but I think it was a good call cuz it settles down and sets the tone for the pettigrain/neroli/berg. Kinda like that one dominant type at a party that knows they are, and lets other people talk. Good to see carnation used again, I have always loved it's subtle cinnamony vibe, and it plays a nice tennis match with the clove here. Not picking up the ambergris in the drydown, so I'd say it's light touch, but could also be my nose.

Cloves are dominant but not in my opinion a nice way. I received a free sample and would not buy a bottle.