Byredo is a Stockholm-based niche line that has introduced five new personal fragrances this year (previously, they were known for their scented candles). The range was recently added to the mix at London’s Les Senteurs:
Rose Noir (shown) ~ “…uses Damascus roses laced with animalic notes, musk sand bitter citrus notes. The fresh, crisp, bracing and almost metallic top notes are derived from grapefruit, pepper and green freesia. Intense, simmering and vibrant.”
Pulp ~ “The top notes are dewy blackcurrants laced with green bergamot and cardamom seeds: The heart is of sun-ripened figs from Greece, the reddest of Eve’s apples, the creamy coconut sweetness of tiare blossoms; the opulent base mixes peach fruit and flower, praline and cedar wood, giving richness and tenacity.”
Gypsy Water ~ “…mingles scents of the Italian campagna with echoes of the Near East: tart juniper berries, pepper, pine needles and bergamot freshen a sumptuous base of amber, vanilla, orris and sandalwood. The smell of a lost childhood, of a vanishing race.”
Green ~ “…is fresh but deep; sophisticated but straightforward: sage and petitgrain in the top develop into a warm floral heart of jasmine, rose, violet and honeysuckle; the base is an intriguing light melange of sweet almond, vanilla and musk. Memories aside, GREEN casts iis own special spell on men and women alike.”
Chembur ~ “a shimmering, golden Indian perpetual afternoon palpitating with richness, heat and colour. The top notes are bergamot, lemon and elimi – the warm heart blends different incense oils with nutmeg and ginger; the elaborate base is of musks, amber and labdanum.”
The Byredo fragrances are £85 each for 100 ml Eau de Parfum; unfortunately, Les Senteurs cannot ship them to the United States. Reportedly they are coming to Barneys in the US and Colette in Paris. (all quotes via lessenteurs, additional information via stockholmfashiondays, basenotes)
Update: Chembur is now called Encens Chembur.
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Pulp sounds rather nice. Unfortunately I now have Jarvis Cocker's voice in my head.
Chembur also sounds nice, but I bet it'd disagree with my skin.
It should be Rose Noire, with a 'e'. Rose is indeed a feminine word in french. It reminds me of 'Chocolat Amere' by niche brand Il Profumo. Chocolat being masculine, it should be 'amer'. Sometimes, when you see it from France, some niche fragrances can seem very cheap.
You know, this might be one of those rare cases where I'm safe — not a single one has me drooling. Not to say I wouldn't like any of them, of course!
You'd think they'd check first, no? Luckily it won't hurt them a bit anywhere else…
Does Byredo's packaging remind anyone else forcefully of Frederic Malle? Also, I am intrigued by Gypsy Water and Green.
To my nose, Pulp sounds like a mess–coconut, tiare, figs, praline, peach. If it were a cocktail, it would be served by a woman in a too tight gingham dress on an aluminum platter that still has the spill from the Long Island Ice Tea on it.
Metallic notes should come out of a saxophone, not a perfume bottle, so Rose Noire it out, too.
Gypsy Water and Green sound kind of nice, though. And I agree with Nam–the bottles are seconds from Frederic Malle.
Hear hear re the misspeling – I think I put “noire” in my reference to it in the Amouage thread, and now I have just spotted that the range has its own thread, sorry about that! “Fleur Oriental” annoys me for the same reason.
They do look very like Frederic Malle as somebody has observed – the two brands were in fact side by side in Les Senteurs. I think they are too abstract to move me, but I need to go back and smell the rest more systematically to be sure!
Yes, but even more of something else which I can't place. Might be the Dior men's colognes? Have to go look at pictures.
Thinking I don't need Pulp either! Metallic notes, however, I do often like.
No problem — that was a sort of separate conversation about your trip.
They look like Malle botlles with Chanel stickers.
Bottle reminds me a bit of Acqua Di Parma. The names of these seem to be all over the place; not sure what kind of marketing message is intended. Quite interested in the Gypsy Water (don't like the name; makes me think of a swarthy man peeing behind a tree)(sorry), and the Chembur (I can't stop my head from seeing this as short for 'chemical burn'). The juices will have to something to push these dodgy images out of my mind!
Yeah, that's about right.
Hey, the AdP works too. Apparently they look like everybottle, LOL…
I think Gypsy Water is an unfortunate name in every respect — and not very PC.
And I think my use of 'swarthy' was an un-PC stereotype too. Sorry again. Just shows how useful French is as a way to say the unsayable…'l'Eau Romanie' or whatever the French would be, sounds less offensive, don't you think?
Well, that's just it, isn't it — why would you name a perfume after an already maligned ethnic group? It just seems like a bad idea. We can all imagine other names of ethnic groups, combined with “Water”, that would be so obviously offensive as a perfume name that nobody would ever, ever in a million years do it — so it seems wrong that they're picking on this group.
But didn't mean to call you out on your comment at all, and no need to apologize.
Which goes to show how different groups are seen through different perspectives. My age/geographic group sees gypsies as being romantic, free, music-playing nomads. I have friends whose nicknames are “Gypsy” and I know one woman who named her business “Gypsy Travel.” My brother (who is European) had to explain that it was not PC, and I had to explain that calling someone “Oriental” is not PC, the polite term is “Asian.”
LOL — all of that makes sense, and I hate when the PC thing is taken too far and you can no longer even mention race or ethnicity without getting yourself in hot water. The Byredo ad copy about “a vanishing race” just struck me wrong.
I quite enjoyed Chembur, although, next to Messe de Minuit, Passage D’Enfer, Incense Extreme and the CdeG range, it seems a little average and lacking in character.
I have not yet tried Chembur, but so far what I’ve tried from Byredo has not wowed me.