Inflorescence
Byredo (2013)

To be fair, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like Infloresence, as I’m not a huge fan of white floral bouquets. But there are still some I've quite enjoyed, and more I’ve at least respected. Alas, Infloresence manages to combine the aspects of LOTV and jasmine I like least, coming across as wanly indolic and a sort of sickly green. It’s a bit better at a distance—and the greater the distance, the better it gets. Scrub.

There must be a note in Inflorescence that my nose just cannot pick up. The first hour of so of wearing this I didn't smell a thing. Frustrated I applied a bit more, shrugged my shoulder and went about my day. Some time later I started to get hits of Magnolia and Lily of the Valley. And then I started to smell like a Downy April Fresh scent dryer sheet.

Eventually this did morph into bits of other florals and in the end it wasn't terrible, but there are better lighter and fresh florals out there, especially in the Guerlain Aqua Allegoria range and Jo Malone. I went with neutral rather than thumbs down sheerly because I must be nose blind to the top note.

The rose and the magnolia are apparent pretty much right from the start, with the rose being dominant initially and the magnolia moving into the frontline further into the drydown.

The rose is quite bright - this is not a dark and brooding rose - and is gradually pushed aside by a lily-of-the-Valley impression. Towards the end a jasmine is detectable, but it is weak and thin on me.

I get moderate sillage, adequate projection and seven hours of longevity on my skin.

The rose is the one element that is of some interest in this spring scent, although it is not exciting by any means. The rest is too generic and anaemic, lacking creativity, intensity and vividness; it is synthetic and a tad bland. 2.5/5.

Luminous, soapy and predominantly green, this floral number triggers off the alarm on my synthetic-o-meter. While I can't fault its on-skin performance, it smells way too much like a dishwashing liquid to warrant a better rating.

I like Inflorescence, but IMHO it is not bottle-worthy. I don't like it as much as other Byredo offerings. I don't think it well-named. The name implies floral, like a more sophisticated version of Flower Bomb - but to my nose it doesn't smell floral. It is very green and citrus-y, a summer cologne. I mainly get neroli - it smells like orange peels. Not particularly sweet, not like orange blossoms.
For summer cologne, I think there are many better choices.