IMPRESSION: Tiaré, Orchid, Hazelnut, Broom Absolute.
FADE: Carob Absolute, Tobacco flower, Vanilla, Rum Absolute, Tonka Bean Absolute.
OLFACTICALITY: Velveteen, soft-touch, humid, coated, layered, ashen.
Part of the Selective Memory collection, Pentimento is a soft, transportive, grown-up gourmand. Rich, decadent florals bloom on application, backlit by the velveteen drapery shimmer of hazelnut and broom. As it wears, the cool, polished-stone façade of rum and papery bitterness of hazelnut skin come to the fore. Sumptuous tonka and carob endure throughout. A luxury fragrance that wears and lasts especially close to the skin, moderate yet decadent projection.
Image by Bruna Stalliviere
Setting the Scene: Smoke and Cocktails on a balcony in Porto Alegre
After a day spent lounging by a rippling azure pool, tan lines stripe across golden, oiled skin. In the evening, the sun still beats down, so we take to the balmy shade of the balcony. Smoke and the scent of tobacco flower drift between hushed, lazy conversations.
Hazy, film-grained nights begin with friends, pouring moreish hazelnut-rum cocktails of our own devising. Secrets are shared, sweet nothings whispered and edges blurred as the streets below buzz with city life.
Raw material: Carob
Carob Bean Absolute is a peculiar material that is little used in perfumery as a whole, let alone Scottish perfume. The aroma profile is utterly compelling – cocoa, mimosa, cassis, rum, raisin, vanilla, tonka and fruity-ylang shades are all instantly perceived alongside a yeasty and fermented tonality.
Carob finds more use in flavour work and particularly in alcoholic beverage applications and historically in tobacco flavour preparations. The fruits/ beans are fermented by the indigenous people of Northwestern Argentina, creating the alcoholic drink Aloja. Many unaccustomed to the flavour may find it somewhat disagreeable given the high level of sugar alongside butyric acid which together produces a cheese-like aroma that can be perceived as rancid.
The odour of the Carob Bean Absolute that we use in Pentimento Eau de Parfum possesses very little of the disagreeable ‘rancid’ notes. Instead, it has the most complex floral bouquet with boozy, indulgent and deeply rich qualities unlike any material – totally irreplaceable and indispensable. The perfumer is rewarded further by an initially concealed leathery note that comes to the fore upon evaporation.
