Series Three - M Six Scents 2011

The concept of the Six Scents line is a bit too contrived. It aims to be about art and author perfumery, and the bottles, packaging, and titles leave no doubt that this is meant to be taken very seriously, truly valuable, and exceptionally special.
Perhaps the most absurd-sounding name is “Series 3 - No.6 - M - Untitled & Yann Vasnier,” and I approached the testing with a rather critical mindset regarding whether the whole constructed facade corresponds to an interestingly fragrant essence.
But…
… I am genuinely surprised by a beautiful, exciting, and very cleverly and attractively composed perfume!
It counters my suspicion of pretentiousness with a delightful and, in the best sense, memorable scent.
The first thing that stands out: S3 No.6 M T&YV is cheerful!
Good-humored, smiling, buoyant, and engaging.

The ingredients are quite surprising… warm spices, autumn-sunny dark fruits, and dry wood lead to an extremely animalistic base. One would expect a dark, heavy, stimulating, and sultry scent.
The astonishing thing: All these ingredients are excellently discernible: There is a warm-spicy cardamom scent, a distinctly recognizable cedar, a deep dark, warm-sweet plum, and then a trio of animalistic tones (the musk here is of the unmistakably animalistic, not the light-soapy fresh-laundry type) with a hint of fluffy tonka sweetness.
And yet, the whole composition has something refreshingly bright and cloudless about it. A very pronounced fruity aspect is emphasized throughout the scent. It mainly comes from the plum and is further underscored by everything else. The plum is a bit tipsy, but not saturated with alcohol and never becomes so heavy that it would weigh down its accompanying notes. Cardamom highlights its warmth and prevents it from becoming overly fruity, while being remarkably bright for its kind.
The cedar accord is strikingly noble! I have smelled a lot of generic 0815 cedar, but this one provides a sublime fine woody dryness to the juicy plum.
Once this cheerfully presented plum is established, the seamless and smooth transition to the animalistic base begins.
Very, very, very animalistic.
Yet not musty, cloying, or secretive, but still good-natured and relatively light-footed. Definitely sexy, but not pushy or overly lustful.

A winning concept: Warm, juicy, sweet, sensual, dark, but not clichéd or overly emphasized, rather very playful and staged with inner tension.
Enjoyment in the ambiguous, not the blatant: The cheerful S3 No.6 M T&YV.