Ganymede Marc-Antoine Barrois 2019 Eau de Parfum
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Top Review
Sons and Planets
I don't want to delve too much into mythology and all the frills here, my predecessors have already done that and better than I ever could. Still, I want to emphasize how beautiful I find the name - Ganymede - what a melodious name, especially fitting for a fragrance! Besides the beauty of the sound, the meaning, especially the legendary story behind the name invites thoughts, interpretations, and even daydreams. Ganymede was supposedly abducted by Zeus, something like a surprise adoption, because Zeus liked him very much - and the largest moon of Jupiter was also named Ganymede, probably due to this legend of the "adoption." So I already associate this fragrance with two eras - antiquity and the future in which we (perhaps one day) will inhabit foreign planets. These very different epochs have been wonderfully highlighted and elegantly intertwined through the olfactory facets crafted by Mr. Bisch.
Now, let's go in order…
The bottle - is simple and elegant.
The calligraphy and the logo of Barrois paired with the golden base color of the glass bottle unite for me the opulence of ancient hedonism with the simplicity of minimalist modernity, a pinch of stardust, and a touch of Art Deco from the 1920s. How fitting that Ganymede is experiencing its rise in the 2020s…. It almost seems as if the bottle was designed back then for the perfume of the future. Like those drawings and images from the 60s imagining what the 2000s would be like, you know which ones I mean? Something like Perfume Fiction?!
And the sprayer is incredibly good, even and wide mist - pure love!
The scent - is fresh, woody, floral, cool, spicy, metallic… multifaceted.
What do you not read here, from "well, woody fresh" to "smells like Indian curry" and "maggi note," or the medicinal impressions from the straw flower. And I must confess - they are all right. For me, however, Ganymede is primarily fruity-floral with a lot of wood. I find it quite masculine, elegant, and well-rounded. The (curry) saffron note is only perceived in a disturbing manner when you sniff directly at the spray point - in the sillage, it contributes to the completion of this unique and complex composition in a contrasting way. Overall, I can understand many predecessors and their associations - it also has something metallic about it, something futuristic, something that makes one think of Jupiter and the moon Ganymede, of stardust. Does the universe smell like this if it had a scent? In any case, this fragrance is almost a paradox, as I also have the image of an ancient Greek/Roman temple near a field of straw flowers in my mind. On the other hand, it somehow smells synthetic, not cheap, but the scent is novel and "out there" - as if it were uniting two worlds.
Nevertheless, or perhaps precisely because of that, it evokes pleasant feelings and a certain sense of security and well-being aura.
It is interesting, complex, and mass-appealing, a crowd-pleaser and an intriguing nose-pleaser. The best of both eras, so to speak...
A nice side fact: Ganymede apparently stood for the Romans as a symbol of the elevation of the soul above the earthly... I find that somehow fitting too.
Now, let's go in order…
The bottle - is simple and elegant.
The calligraphy and the logo of Barrois paired with the golden base color of the glass bottle unite for me the opulence of ancient hedonism with the simplicity of minimalist modernity, a pinch of stardust, and a touch of Art Deco from the 1920s. How fitting that Ganymede is experiencing its rise in the 2020s…. It almost seems as if the bottle was designed back then for the perfume of the future. Like those drawings and images from the 60s imagining what the 2000s would be like, you know which ones I mean? Something like Perfume Fiction?!
And the sprayer is incredibly good, even and wide mist - pure love!
The scent - is fresh, woody, floral, cool, spicy, metallic… multifaceted.
What do you not read here, from "well, woody fresh" to "smells like Indian curry" and "maggi note," or the medicinal impressions from the straw flower. And I must confess - they are all right. For me, however, Ganymede is primarily fruity-floral with a lot of wood. I find it quite masculine, elegant, and well-rounded. The (curry) saffron note is only perceived in a disturbing manner when you sniff directly at the spray point - in the sillage, it contributes to the completion of this unique and complex composition in a contrasting way. Overall, I can understand many predecessors and their associations - it also has something metallic about it, something futuristic, something that makes one think of Jupiter and the moon Ganymede, of stardust. Does the universe smell like this if it had a scent? In any case, this fragrance is almost a paradox, as I also have the image of an ancient Greek/Roman temple near a field of straw flowers in my mind. On the other hand, it somehow smells synthetic, not cheap, but the scent is novel and "out there" - as if it were uniting two worlds.
Nevertheless, or perhaps precisely because of that, it evokes pleasant feelings and a certain sense of security and well-being aura.
It is interesting, complex, and mass-appealing, a crowd-pleaser and an intriguing nose-pleaser. The best of both eras, so to speak...
A nice side fact: Ganymede apparently stood for the Romans as a symbol of the elevation of the soul above the earthly... I find that somehow fitting too.
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6 Comments
The saffron here is quite prominent, but that makes the fragrance unique.
This scent is truly special; I went through all the phases from "oh no, this isn't anything" to "yeah, it's quite okay" to "I have to have it." Just a fantastic fragrance that, for me, is very important and has its own quirks and edges.