Monocle Scent Two: Laurel is the second scent to come from the collaboration of design house Comme des Garçons and Monocle magazine. The first scent they produced was Monocle Scent One: Hinoki - a real stunner and one of my all-time faves, so when they came out with Laurel, I had to try it, then of course, I had to buy it.
The Monocle web site says that the inspiration for Laurel was “…a trip to the Bekaa Valley…it will remind regular visitors to Lebanon of the country's hand-made laurel soaps and fragrant gardens in Byblos.”
I’ve never been to Lebanon, so I wasn’t swayed by the inspiration for the perfume, I was seduced by the scent itself.
It opens with a brisk blast of camphor laurel that goes right to the lizard brain so there’s no time to think just smell. Soon a lemon/thyme accord appears - the perfect combination of fresh citrus and green herb. Then, more aromatic laurel comes forward amping up the green herbal thyme aspect, and adding a touch of eucalyptus. Pepper, and plenty of it, gives it a dry heat, while cinnamon adds another spicy dimension to it. The laurel evolves as it blooms and at the base, it gets deeper and darker from smoky incense and amber and earthy from patchouli. Cedar, a nod to the Cedars of Lebanon, and oak give it a gorgeous woodiness that balances the green/herbal elements of the scent perfectly.
Monocle Scent Two: Laurel is a dry, exotic, woody aromatic scent built around the herbal, green, eucalyptic aspects of laurel with some high-voltage pepper riding sidecar. Unique and enticing, it can be worn to full effect by either a man or woman.
Notes: lemon, thyme, pepper, cinnamon, galbanum, green laurel, cedar, patchouli, oak, incense and amber.
Type: EDT
Parfumeur: Antoine Maisondieu
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