L'Eau de Merzhin
Anatole Lebreton (2014)

L'Eau de Merzhin is a mesmerizing pastel green dappled with deeper tints. The magic is in the overlapping of saturated grass and hay bales, a hedgerow of almond-anisic and magnificently pungent hawthorn accord, and a buttery, waxy, rich orris. I also detect a cassie absolute (one of my favorite natural materials). A brimming, fecund meadow, as it were, the sun bursting in after a rain, horses grazing, some tilled earth, and a farmer chewing timothy grass, is what I feel. Yet, in spite of the pastoral layers, there is a deliciously powdery, cosmetic quality to the orris, rivaled by that of Chanel No 19. Lebreton has clearly developed a mastery of using this beloved rhizome to great effect.

With one foot in the countryside and the other in urbane haute perfumery, this dichotomy is what makes L'Eau de Merzhin so appealing. Not all of us are divided into the two categories of city mouse and country mouse. Bridging lucid naturalism with perfume watercolor impressionism takes skill and insight, and the end result is something nearly "meta" in concept, and I love it for that. This is perfect to wear in anticipation of spring, as the days get longer and the landscape awakens.

I read some reviews that compared this to my beloved Apres l’Ondee, so I had to try it. I agree with that assessment to a point. It starts with that feel, but the iris gets waxy and the galbanum comes in strongly leathery as it dries. Ends up as English Leather for ladies. Not bad, but nothing at all I would ever wear. Powdery notes are something I really recoil from most of the time and while this is a powdery leather, it's still too powdery for me.

L'Eau de Merzhin by Anatole Lebreton opens with strong iris/orris, galbanum and angelica, and then segues into the green, hay, tonka, and the slightly-pissy sweetness of hawthorn and other florals. Violet leaf merely contributes a slight coolness, rather than any metallic. A grassy-floral, bit of powder, and iris is the dominant impression throughout, with a slight hint of dankness in the drydown to give it a wry slant.

Very wearable for spring and early summer days. In the same ballpark as Hermes Hiris (but more greens) or Hermes Eau de Gentiane Blanc (but a touch warmer and less bitter).

Not a projection monster (you'd not expect it to be with these notes), but persistent on skin for long enough as a daytime scent.

btw : I get no cassis (blackcurrant fruit) or blackcurrant leaf (which to my nose smells strongly of cat piss) - that's because the BN pyramid should read CASSIE = acacia/mimosa/something floral (as in Malle's Une Fleur de Cassie)

Unparalleled vegetal stink bomb! Terribly beautiful but hardly wearable!