Noodlez

I believe anyone who can smell this fragrance understands what is meant by the title. Sometimes present, sometimes not. Sometimes fresh, sometimes woody. Sometimes both? At times, its scent envelops me like a gentle breeze. Mostly in the sun. When I walk through a shady alley, it disappears again. Just zeros and ones.

I can't describe this fragrance. It doesn't linger in my nose long enough. When others wear it, I usually stop and enjoy the sillage. It's also hard to put into words. "It just smells good," are the comments I receive when I wear it. And that’s how I feel too. Fresh, clear, transparent. And yet it always hits me with a force that even the most delicious gourmands can't achieve.

Mysterium 01

I asked myself before the first spray of the recently received sample. And how on earth is one supposed to capture such a scent in a little bottle of perfume? Well, to put it bluntly: Le Labo has succeeded!

Now, let's start from the beginning: Ever since I dove into the world of perfume many years ago, I have been interested in scents inspired by nature. This may be due to a certain familiarity with these smells, or perhaps it stems from a deep-seated longing for a bit more nature here in the big city. Quickly, I exhausted perfumes with floral notes and found myself drawn to notes like "ozone," "solar," and "petrichor." The latter, not too commonly found in perfumes, has always intrigued me. Time and again, whenever I encountered perfumes that listed this scent ingredient, I would ask myself: "What does rain smell like again?" As mentioned, Le Labo provided the answer for me last week in the form of a small manufacturer sample. And they did so with astonishing accuracy. Why?

Because “Baie 19” smells to me like the moment I step outside in my rather "green district" during a summer rain. It’s pouring down. The air feels thick and humid. The rain is pounding on the asphalt that has been heated for hours. Moss and grasses that have found their place in the city quench their thirst for water and thank us with ethereal nature scents that they release into the air. What can I say: for me, and for the rain as I know it, Le Labo has managed to capture the scent and bottle it. I can't pick out individual scent ingredients. I also believe that it is a very specific blend of substances that creates petrichor. I am curious and will test more scents of this kind. Who knows, maybe the next one will smell like my childhood in the countryside…