MemoryOScent

I came across Vivacité(s) de Bach a few years ago when my fellow perfumista and friend Nikos gave me his sample, more as a test to my weird taste in perfume as I later realised, than an introduction to a new marvel. To his nose it is an olfactive oddity, strange and unwearable. From the first whiff I was astonished by how different this one smells. If you have ever had an italian after-dinner amaro, then you already have a very good idea of what this smells like. A cloistral amaro served in a wooden cup. Freshly cut wood, and a conifer for that matter, is the first impression. Intense and masculine with terpenic nuances. Then come the bitter herbs. And when I say bitter, gin is sweet liqueur compared to this. I am no botanist nor monk so I cannot pin down different notes. If however bitter makes you think of something sombre and difficult, you are mistaken. Vivacité(s) remains bright and sparkling. The woody inclination remains very prominent and it is the kind of polished wood or very freshly cut. Pungent and more suited for topnotes rather than base. I often associate this bright woody quality with a certain fruitiness. The fruitiness of green apples or mango skin. I know that this is a very personal association but it can give you a measure of the woody qualities of Vivacité(s). The rest of the ingredients weave a herbal, bitter carpet. And like an amaro makes your teeth clench but your stomach light as the morning munchies, the same way Vivacité(s) manages to deliver what its name promises: liveliness and alertness.

Jil Sander Man Pure is a dear old favourite. If my memory serves me well it was the second perfume I ever bought and I have a vague recollection of buying it in an airport in the mid 80?s. Not to be confused with the woody aquatic Jil Sander Pure for Men which I also have but prefer not to talk about…. In the 00?s the house of Jil Sander was in a bad place…. No matter what you expect from a masculine scent released in 1981 don’t forget that we are talking about the high priestess of minimalism. It opens with the smell of dry herbs and grey suede. The herbs are dry and subtle, like opening a jar of oregano leaves, and the leather is clean and pale, like Jil Sander’s clothes. There isn’t the slightest hint of sweetness in this composition. As it warms on skin it becomes soapy, like the scent left after bathing with expensive soap and incense adds some warmth to the almost marble-like effect of coldness.

Man Pure, as the name implies is a ritualistic scent. The more it develops the cleaner it smells in an almost obsessive way. It sheds the layers of delicate herbs and soft, slightly smoky leather and reveals a skin white as porcelain, flawless, clean, statuesque. Soap, incense and a texture that reminds me of rice paper stay on the skin and create an effect of relaxation and calmness. There is a dark side to it though. All this obsessive pursuit of purity from a perfume created in 1981 and the combination of soap and incense seem more like a statement than a perfume. Purity and cleanliness become ideas that point the finger and demand devotion. In the end Man Pure smells like political propaganda. It makes me wonder what drew me to this scent so much when at the same time I was interested in much stronger and expressive scents that were widely available in the market. The chill and austerity that Jil Sander Man Pure is has marked a side of my perfume persona that still exists alongside a more flamboyant one that seeks weird, bold perfumes, like the two faces of Janus. In a more concrete way Man Pure left me with an obsession for Jil Sander perfumes and I have enjoyed all of them until Sander for Man in 1998 , the last perfume of the line that had some spark of genius.

Sova opens like another version of the gingerbread only this time less edible. It smells like the wooden box where gingerbread is kept. I can also pick up hay, one of my favourite notes in perfumes. Cedar is also there. I really loved Sova for its complexity. There are all these dark notes playing in there and this is the one I would definitely run to buy. However I already own Fougere Bengale and those two cannot fit in the same wardrobe. They are not exactly the same, Fougere Bengale is greener. Sova has no detectable lavender and it is woodier, smells more red. But it is still an amazing scent. Full of nature and warmth.

Jeke is cloves and camp-fire in the opening. The cloves go strong for about half an hour and after wearing it I read some reviews which all speak of a very pronounced medicinal quality in this. I would have agreed if I had stayed in this initial half hour. I have to wonder whether these people washed Jeke off before giving it a real chance because after this the camp-fire note becomes a ceremonial incense and a wonderful leather note appears. This is the spicy leather variety, in the same genre as Cuir Mauresque, but a bit darker a lot more incensy. Jeke told me stories of holy wars and crusaders burning incense, praying and slaughtering infidels. It has a very spiritual and a very violent side at the same time.

A good old cheapo that smells like the 80?s. I could not find what year it was released in, I suspect in the early 90?s, but it certainly smells like a powerhouse. It opens with bergamot and a floral-fecal note that grabs you by the nose and holds you captive. Nothing in the official note listings justifies the fecal aspect in this but I assure you it is there. I swear I can smell traces of Kouros in this but what is impressing is how early on the development they become apparent. I really cannot say whether civet makes a cameo appearance or what I pick up is a play between patchouli, vetiver and amber. I also get this ghost of white flowers in there that is also not listed officially but gives this perfume a distinct nocturnal aura. After the opening the composition is bitter, mate and earthy. A combination of herbal elements, earthy patchouli and animalic fervour. In the deep drydown a lavender-like note, probably thyme, appears and gives this a more masculine impact. As much as this fits into the powerhouse genre I cannot help but think that it has elements of feminine scents of a previous era. Smells mystical, floral and decadently sensual. I find it slightly ironic that the name implies a very masculine fragrance and it is if examined in the current context. But I am sure that women who enjoy big, ballsy fragrances would find this very wearable.