Cypress Opera Villa Erbatium

Oof. The olive leaf is intense in the opening. It's sharp, green, and naturally astringent. I couldn't even notice the mandarin at first. Fortunately the strength of that note subsides quickly and I ended up appreciating a lot about this fragrance. Overall it's green, earthy, and woody; a mix of various conifers. One thing that stands out is how natural this smells to me. If you've ever smelled extracts or oils made from coniferous trees, you know how they can differ from many ideal, synthetic pine/fir/cypress scents. This reminds me of the real thing - raw, earthy, and a little sharp/citrusy. In fact, this makes me think of oil made from sequoias/redwood specifically. There's a similar dampness to it in the dry-down, but it still has an earthy freshness to it. The projection isn't strong, but this should probably be a lighter scent anyway.

I find Cypress Opera really interesting and I do like it - I just don't think I would want to smell like this often. It would be amazing as a room spray, though.

I chased, for a while, my ideal pine scent. I’d tried SEVERAL pinewood perfumes (most ended up too dark or too incense heavy, with the sole exception being Snoqualmie) and many other like Winter from Dasein (too potpourri-y to me).

And suddenly from a small sample pack I tried II (deux) and Cypres Opera both of which blew my mind. Cypress Opera was light and airy, but clearly an evergreen forest. And if orange note in the description is throwing you off, I find that in opening it seems to be near invisible, but only makes the scent effervescent, not citrusy.

I cannot recommend Cypress Opera enough if you’ve been searching for your platonic pine scent, this might scratch that itch. Now like almost all green/pine scents don’t have the most impressive projection after an hour or so, but it lasts very nicely on my skin and of course on fabric it will stick around. It’s just a shame that I don’t really love the bottle…

If you try this and it is slightly too sweet for your taste, I definitely recommend trying Trudon’s II (Deux) the dry down there is almost savory/skinscenty but still clearly -‘ the evergreen forest way.