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ClaireV
3
Softly smoky apricot skin and tea leaves
It is challenging for me to write about Osmanthe Yunnan, because it is always simultaneously more and less than what I expect it to be. The first eight sprays – the minimum required to kickstart this famously ephemeral thing into gear – never fail to surprise me with the milky-boozy lusciousness of its apricot note. But spray any less, and the impression is of something far drier and brighter, like a translucent piece of peach leather held up to the light. Like Xanax, you need to fiddle around with the dosage to get it right.
Osmanthe Yunnan is, in a way, victim of its own press. While it is true that the central osmanthus-peach-tea accord is gently lactonic and smoky, it is never quite as milky or as smoky as its mythology makes it out to be. On the skin, there’s a thin, leathery sourness that is interesting, but almost never discussed. Osmanthe Yunnan is more about the tannins in suede and tea and fruit skin than it is about milk or smoke. Which is something I forget about entirely the next time my eyes alight on the bottle (“Ah, Osmanthe Yunnan! What an excellent milky, smoky thing you are!”).
Those facets are there, of course, but because they are drawing on subtler stuff like peach lactones or the hint of smoke lingering from the tea roasting process, they lie quietly just under the surface of the scent, causing barely a ripple. I suppose this is the point of the whole exercise – refinement, minimalism, the miles-deep cream carpet of luxury. Ellena didn’t need to call in the shouty, muscle-flexing chemical bonfire material pumped into By the Fireplace (Maison Martin Margiela), nor does he go for the smoked-ham pungency of the lapsang souchong Co2 used in Jeke (Slumberhouse). The smoke and milk are mere suggestions. Possibly even a figment of my overactive imagination. I love it, but for some reason, it plays out much better in my head than on my skin.
Top Notes 
Tea
Orange
Heart Notes 
Osmanthus
Freesia
Base Notes 
Leather
Apricot
MissBiscuits
HappyMilf
Jbl775
Cumulnimbus
Janetbeary
KacieNR
