Once again, I’ve come up with a musically inspired scent. This time my inspiration was from fellow St. Louisan Ann Peebles and her song, “Can’t Stand the Rain.” Give it a listen. It’s outstanding. In this interpretation, I wanted to create a scent that is sitting at an open window as the last few drops of rainfall while the sun comes out and begins to dry everything out. It’s coming out alongside Treget on May 19.
As with Admiral, I don’t want to create yet another aquatic scent in the style that’s been beaten to death at this point. Instead, this is a freshwater scent, one of rain, with bright citrus and coriander shining through, all the while a rich cedarwood, incense and oakmoss base supports everything without taking it over. The notes are petitgrain, lemongrass, jasmine, coriander, rain, cedar wood, myrrh, labdanum and oakmoss.
In the top notes, I used a bitter orange petitgrain bigarade essential oil, one of my favorite scents. This is supported by a vibrant but not overly spicy coriander essential oil, one that really helps lift up the petitgrain note. However, underneath it, I use a more rich lemongrass essential oil. There’s also a touch of sweet orange essential oil, as well, in order to round everything out and help it meld with the rain water note.
Additionally, a more traditional jasmine accord fits in outstandingly with the rain water note. It’s heaver on the sweet purple aspects like benzyl acetate, benzyl alcohol and beta damascone, while being lighter on the cinnamic spice facets and pink flower phenylethyl alcohol. It’s made a little bit more airy with Hedione and it’s slightly fruitier Hedione HC cousin, while a microdose of pyroprunat gives it a more round sweetness with it’s prunish, rasiny note.
Finally, the rainwater accord I keep mentioning. It’s meant to be fresh and totally devoid of the traditional dhydromyrcenol and Calone. The jasmine accord plays a dual role, helping to shape this accord from the outside, while Aquamate is the star material as it has a grapefruit-ish top note that disappears into the petitgrain and coriander, leaving its freshwater essence to shine in this accord. Finally, Helional gives is a shimmery, sparkly finish, like a droplet in the sun, beaded up on a leaf.
Underneath it all, I use the more modern Veramoss for the oakmoss accord, which fits in better with the red cedar note (of which I use Atlas cedar, which is light and delicate) and just a touch of cetalox, which is a more mild-mannered and mature version of ambroxan. Further giving the base weight is an incense/amber type accord, with a lighter labdanum absolute, myrrh, styrax and just a touch of sweetness with ethyl vanillin.
So far, I’ve heard a lot of great feedback from the test batch samples that I’ve sent out. I’m excited to release this one along with Treget on May 19 at ChatillonLux.com. It’ll also be available at American Perfumer very soon. I hope you enjoy it!
Scent Notes by Shawn Maher 