Tried Tacit, Above Us, Hwyl and this perfume on strips in store and liked this one the best: it's the most freshly green and least bitter of them all, but still brings in the strong resinous woody body that the house is known for. I find some similarities between the solemnity of this arboreal drydown and Hywl's no-nonsense Hinoki opening.
On skin, it ripens into an earthy and herbal infusion of dried tea leaf and powdered resin -- if there is any fig there, my skin may have eaten it. In fact, I would say the lack of immediate sweetness is the fragrance's hallmark. Peppery mastic provides a bit of a lift and kick, but this perfume, aside from a stringent citrus note in opening, seem to exude the weighted seriousness of firm, sun-baked ground -- it gets you rather up close and personal with the weight of the dry soil and the lone tree dotted with hardened sap, and bitter, oversteeped thermos brews. I liked it better on paper than on myself, as the fruitiness brings some much needed levity to this strident salt-of-the-earth complexity.
3.5 hours later and it's only a vague whisper of tea and woods, generically spa against my wrist.
