28°
Ormaie (2018)

Finally, an Ormaie that's worth buying! What's more, the company blurb has got it just right, for once - this IS a 'solar scent', and one of the best and most radiant, bright, yet engaging and enveloping summer fragrances I've tried in a long, long while. Whilst the initial citrus blast is strong, it is also harmonious and not the screeching cacophony one so often gets, especially from eager-to-please all-natural perfumeries playing all of their citrus cards at once and ending up smelling like an explosion in the 4711 factory.

The other thing which it does way better than most efforts from the same house, and than most all-naturals, is longevity and evolution. This is where I would hesitate to continue aligning it with colognes: not the merest whiff of lavender, no herbaceous greenery to soften the landing from all that citrus high, no woods to cushion the fall into dry-down. And it doesn't go the Cool Water/Eau d'Issey/CK 'fin de siecle' ozonic/marine route either. I must admit that from about an hour in I got as confused as I was intrigued: is this abstraction or just muddle? Is the absence of woody or green shading a troublesome continuation of the sunny head and heart, meaning the scent is more like a mild case of sunstroke, or are there other ways of achieving some necessary cooling for the dry-down?

I totally get what some folks liken to 'sherbet lemons': the scent finally veers towards the sweet, but not, for me, the powdery or the amber-y kind - if anything, it brought to mind the sadly now discontinued, old Molton Brown Sandalwood shower gel scent. The moment I made that connection, I smiled and resolved to get me some more of this. But equally, just a few seconds later I thought: wait, so the good thing about this perfume is that it smells as good as.... shower gel??

Jury' s still out folks - my sample vial is now totally empty and I haven't been able to make up my mind yet. And yes, that really is a rather good outcome: I'd rather be anticipating getting more (it's in the post!) and debating the merits of its abstraction than filing under 'yet another disappointment...'