Dreckig bleiben Limited Edition AtelierPMP - Perfume Mayr Plettenberg 2013

Stay Dirty - A name that is as unusual as it is strange for a perfume. More a stance than just a name, Stay Dirty proclaims individuality and authenticity. Staying true to oneself, not bending under the pressure of the masses. Staying different. "Stay Dirty" is against conventions and a counterpoint to the myriad of countless new perfume releases that are thrown onto the market each year in completely overwhelming numbers. PMP - Perfumes Mayr Plettenberg, now well-known here in the forum as the collaboration of Stefanie Mayr and Daniel Plettenberg, who created "Stay Dirty" in collaboration with perfumer Mark Buxton, do it differently. They produce only 999 bottles of their unusual outsider fragrance and call it completely anarchistically "Stay Dirty." PMP thus relies on anti. Anti-mainstream, anti-superficiality, anti-going with the flow. That is punk. That is Never-Mind-the-Bollocks-punk in modern form.

So anyone who has heard of "Stay Dirty" is surely curious. Wondering how this anti-fragrance, this "finely tuned rejection of superficiality," might smell and what will be so special about it. Its reputation precedes it, and I can't help but raise my eyebrows in admiration at the fact that a young niche label carries the rejection of superficiality like a grand banner and positions itself against the average as well as the big players in the industry, while on the other hand, it has unleashed a marketing wave that I find astonishing. "Stay Dirty" appeals and seduces. The concept is grand. Everyone wants to be individual, unique, and self-sufficient and smell that way too. The concept works, and I suspect that not only I have almost clicked the "Buy now" button on the lovingly designed "Stay Dirty" homepage time and again without having smelled the fragrance first. "Stay Dirty" promises individuality and exclusivity and has obviously done everything right with it.

According to the description from PMP for "Stay Dirty," the fragrance is supposed to transport a cozy-light campfire atmosphere. You sit carefree with your best friends around a campfire by some river, probably somewhere in the industrial area of a medium-sized city, drinking beer from bottles that you have popped open not with a bottle opener but with a lighter, and chatting, laughing, making noise. "Stay Dirty" is supposed to smell like campfire and smoke. Like relaxed nonchalance. Something for individualists and free thinkers.

"Stay Dirty" starts with a beautiful accord of various citrus notes: mandarin, ginger, neroli, bergamot. Notes that are meant to proclaim lightness and a certain zesty carefree spirit. A truly wonderful opening accord that I find brilliantly composed. The notes are finely interwoven and so resinously soft that the opening of "Stay Dirty" already surprises. It falls surprisingly soft where I had expected more of a headnote bomb that roars like a punk when he bellows "God save the Queen." But no, "Stay Dirty" does not roar; it is cozy. There is nothing sharp-edged or loud here, but rather a bit herbaceous yet very warm and soft. Embedded in the resins of the heart notes, the top note makes no noise but appears round and harmonious in my nose. At most, I can smell the ginger emerging from the connection of the individual notes, which is zesty but also has a slightly woody quality. Here, a ginger root is just being freed from its woody, fibrous shell and exudes a healing, spicy-ethereal scent. All of this is not cologne-like, not airy and bright as day. No, the top note is heavy, rather dim, cozy like a large armchair, and from the very beginning so embedded in the resins of the heart note that it is clear: "Stay Dirty" is resin, resinous, resinous to the utmost! Gurjum and labdanum flow in a distinctly ambered softness, while the elemi resin together with the woody notes from the base is supposed to create the advertised smoky campfire atmosphere. But I do not find "Stay Dirty" distinctly smoky. Nor particularly woody. Smoky and woody nuances can be recognized, but they never push themselves to the forefront. Only in the base does the resinous dominance ease a bit and give the woody notes more space. Both the rather soft sandalwood and the slightly fresher cedar can be detected if you look for them. A non-sweet vanilla rounds it off, making the whole thing friendly and giving the base a calm and settled undertone.

Overall, "Stay Dirty" does not present itself as extravagant or loud. I even find the base quite conventional. Some comparisons have already been made to the unfortunately discontinued Gucci pour Homme I, which I can somewhat understand. "Stay Dirty" and GPH I are most similar in their base, although I find GPH I significantly spicier, more incense-like, and more oriental. "Stay Dirty," on the other hand, seems a bit softer and more reserved, and thus, unfortunately, also more ordinary for me. With all the marketing talk about individuality and authenticity, the anti-attitude, and the rejection of superficiality, I expected a much more uncompromising and experimental fragrance. I expected a fragrance as uncompromising as Bois d’Ascèse, which is supposed to smell similarly to "Stay Dirty" with its notes of smoke and campfire. In comparison to "Stay Dirty," Bois d’Ascèse implements the smoky theme much more powerfully. While Bois d’Ascèse as a fragrance makes a clear statement, polarizes, and fascinates with its uniqueness, what appeals to me about "Stay Dirty" is primarily the uniqueness of the marketing concept. The fragrance itself, although very beautiful and well-made, does not strike me as particularly unusual or particularly different.

Stay Dirty - stay different. Here, one stays different in coziness. No punk is occupying a house or scraping a few odd chords on the guitar anymore. The modern punk sits with a beer with his friends, listens to electronic music, and quietly discusses clever topics by a slowly smoldering campfire by the river, somewhere in the industrial area of a medium-sized city. The modern punk stays dirty, but not too loud!