celeblas

The original Gap grass scent was the first time in my life I had ever encountered a fragrance that reproduced this ubiquitous scent of childhood memory: Laying on a freshly cut lawn in the summer, in the shade, hearing the slight breeze through the leaves of the trees, looking up at a bright blue sky watching the amazing shapes of clouds as they pass overhead. It was the scent of everything being possible, of optimism, safety, and adventure all at once.

Nothing before or since has quite captured that sense memory for me. And I personally believe this is why the fragrance is remembered and revered with such passion by those of us who experienced it. Both because it was our first encounter with that scent captured in a bottle, and also because it has been discontinued. This means we are left only with the memory, not the true comparison side by side with other scents.

I had this fragrance in the 90s in a few forms, and used it daily. The EdT and the shower gel based on the fragrance were identical. Much like other iconic 90s scents (Body Shop's original Mango, for example), the scent has never again appeared in anything close to the original form. I've tried all of the grass fragrances I could find, and the closest has been Lush's Grass fragrance in the shower gel formulation. When used in the shower the Lush Grass fragrance often came very close the experience of the Gap EdT and shower gel. It opened up in a way that the Lush Grass does not when used as a perfume, making it lighter and closer. But generally the Lush fragrance, while closest to the Gap original, still has too much depth, it is too heavy, too sweet, and slightly more mulch-like (a bit too hot and dry) than the clean and green, but not aquatic, scent of fresh cut grass.

If the Grass fragrance still existed today I suspect that in light of everything we have encountered in the fragrance world since it was released we would no longer find it to be quite so magical. Very pleasant, comforting, and wonderful, but not the same kind of magic. That sort of magic happens once, and every encounter we have after that is a reference to that memory. The memory of the first mango, or first time smelling certain flowers in reality - like orange or jasmine in particular. Those memories are markers, touchtones we experience things in reference to forever after, they set a context, they are the foundations of our fragrance tastes.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't pick it up if I came across it, in any form. Just as I continue to pick up original formulation Mango body butter from the body shop whenever I find it, since they still hold that discontinued magical fragrance that otherwise only exists in my mind.

At first this gave me a punch of bright fruit, a hint of grapefruit, and fresh florals. But in thirty minutes it had dried down and was nearly indistinguishable from Comme des Garcons 2. If that initial fruit punch hung around longer and was still present in the dry down, I would like this very much more. The incense dominates this and that could be a problem if you've loved other incense fragrances.

Opens bright with lavender and soap. Continues to wear somewhat medicinal and clean. This feels like an old idea of a clean scent, aristocratic cleanliness, it's what you might have expected classic fragrances from Penhaligon's, Geo. F. Trumper, Truefitt + Hill, Floris, et al. were supposed to smell like, but don't. This does.

Initially the fruit and woods and spice are a lovely composition, opening like walking inside for a winter holiday gathering. But the dry down disappointed me, it became flat, boring, a bit dusty like an old fragranced candle that is meant to smell like a fireplace but has been lost in the cupboard for too long. Wearing this makes me want to smell it as a candle, but not wear it again.

Lovely sweet tobacco, with comforting woodsy notes, vanilla, and tonka. Really fun to wear next to By the Fireplace and similar and compare them. This isn't as much sweet toasted marshmallow as it is the sweetness of a lokum shop, the candied chestnut and coffee and vanilla shine through in this - a great replacement for the sadly discontinued Traversee du Bosphore - and with more depth than it too, so perhaps even an upgrade. Kerosene dressed up.