Ryukyu
Auphorie (2019)

Oh joy! The most-amazing wind-tossed tropical fruit opening, gorgeously ripe and yet lip-smackingly tart. I get mainly a sour-sweet mango and even hints of guava, done in such a light and fresh manner that at no point does one feel one is wearing a fruit salad. Caressed by a frangipane breeze that just drifts me off to somewhere sun-kissed and yet cool, a place of ease. The thing that stays in my mind most about Ryuku is how despite having the usual strong Auphorie extrait presence, there is little that is dense or heavy about it – this is an open air perfume.
But sadly as the fruity notes begin to lose their definition about an hour in, the excitement of this perfume also subsides a bit. Now we are in familiar Auphorie terrain of eminently wearable yet almost syrupy floral sweetness (how they pull off that trick when so many other fail, I'd love to know…) with the racier acidic fruitiness a shadow of its former self. Ryukyu remains spacious and light-infused with now a suggestion of green wood in the base.