Ormonde Woman: Dark Forest






The Scentimentalist has set herself a New Year’s challenge, by starting 2011 with some unfinished business. For the first-foot to cross the scented threshold this New Year is a post startedand then abandonedsome seven months ago.

At that time I had in my clutches a very fine and desirable package: an Ormonde Jayne Discovery Set of twelve mini eaux de parfum, a tray of EdP his-and-hers minis of uncommon execution and quality. Covetously, I pored over its accompanying black-and-gold booklet, absorbing the notes and rare components of this assortment of fragrant soft centres. Sampaquita, Frangipani, Osmanthus, Champaca … these were scents that spelled romance, the lure of the tropics, the exotic.

Amidst these otherworldly florals reposed some great and opulent heavyweights: Ta’if, abundant with Rosa damascena from the shores of Saudi Arabia; golden frankincense-laced Tolu, named for a Peruvian tree resin; and the uncategorisable Ormonde Woman, which has for almost a decade been the signature of this luxury London perfumery.



Indeed, it was the uncanny (and excellent) Ormonde Woman that truly flummoxed The Scentimentalist, and was the source of so many attempts to capture its curious landscape in writing. For, as I found myself asking on each application, what genre of scent was this? A chypre, an oriental, a gourmand? And, given its atypicality, how on earth could I begin to describe it?

Inasmuch as a forest of trees is a spectacle too great to see, Ormonde Woman is a composition too elusive and complex to know. Its disparate notes, supplied in the aforementioned black-and-gold booklet, provide us with little with which to enhance our olfactory edification. Yes, one can readily discern its cradling cedar and amber, warmed by the aromatic oils of cardamom and coriander. My companion, perceiving flowers where I smell only the softest of woodlands and spices, declares a keen and lovely note of what she believes is ‘Parma violet’. When placed in combination, however, these make for a scent that is enigmatically, elegantly singular.



For The Scentimentalist, Ormonde Woman is the sweet grass, warm earth and spruce-y resin of a dark forest, captured by coniferous black hemlock absolute and the gentlest smudge of brown sugar. With a timbre that is, paradoxically, both tenebrous and luminescent, it is a scent that quite concordantly embraces both darkness and warmth. Finally, for the purposes of categorisation, I would perhaps concur most readily with Tania Sanchez, who describes this ‘abstract woody perfume’ as a sophisticated ‘forest chypre’.

Like the labyrinthine forests of the collective imagination, Ormonde Woman presents a space that invites its wearers to think. And yet, even after seven months of concerted contemplation, I feel no closer to apprehending this elusive and enchanted scent.

Happy New Year.


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14 comments:

  1. Oh! This perfume sounds so enchanting. I must try it. I love your linking of the notion of the uncanny to scent. Thank you dear Scentimentalist.

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  2. Dear Scentimentalist,
    So thrilled to have you back doing what you do best- educating us to the wonderful world of fragrance! I confess to not being familiar with Ormonde, and with your detailed description, I ma eager to give it a try! It seems that every great, near great, and lame celebrity on the scene today has some sort of fragrance launch out, and frankly, they "stink." Pun intended. Your take on the classics and classics to be are most enlightening! Looking forward to more from you!

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  3. Dear Scentimentalist, wonderful writing as always and these fragrances sound truly gorgeous! Your review reminds me of when I was writing a gardens guide and while exploring beautiful landscapes amid a profusion of wonderful plants, had to keep reminding myself to *think* and write down my impressions and the names of trees, shrubs, etc - when all I really wanted to do was wander, wonder, absorb, luxuriate! And now I so much want to smell that "sweet grass, warm earth and spruce-y resin" - and to enter that dark forest!

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  4. Hello. I love the sound of this perfume. Your descriptions are always so enticing but this really makes me want to buy the perfume. I don't know Ormond Jayne as a brand. Where can I buy a bottle and try their other scents? I'm excited.

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  5. I agree with Frances. The emphasis on thinking about sensation is really refreshing.

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  6. Sarah, yes this is a strange but exceptional scent, and I feel the word 'uncanny' suits it very well. It shifts and resists, and yet is perfectly self contained. You should try it.

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  7. Dear Anonymous, thanks for your comment. I like your term 'classics to be' and feel that this scent might fall into that category. Ormonde Jayne is a British luxury brand. Here is the link to their website: http://www.ormondejayne.com/

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  8. Dear Frances, thanks as always for your compliments and your thoughtful comment. This perfume DOES make you think -- in my case, for seven months! Did you ever read Murakami? It reminds me of the forests in his novels.

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  9. Hello Leo. Ormonde Jayne now have three stores in London: Bond Street, Sloane Square and Harrod's. Here's their website: http://www.ormondejayne.com/. Best wishes.

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  10. Don't wait so long next time to take the plunge with your description of even such a hard to pin down scent like OJ Woman. You do a fine job, and probably would have done back in the summer or whenever it was that you had writer's block.

    And ScentScelf, if she is reading, will be delighted to see "tenebrous", "luminescent" and "concordantly" united in a single sentence!

    : - )

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  11. There might be a variety of perfumes available in the market but only few are capable of making sensation in the mind of people. Thanks for the read on this post. :)

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  12. Thank you for you lovely comment eula_w :)

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  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  14. Good day, is that your one and only domain or you also have others?

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