Jasmina
April Aromatics (2011)

Jasmina in oil format presents in much the same way as Jasmina in eau de parfum. This is probably due to the fact that the original composition itself is rather straight-forward, relying on its top-notch naturals to do all the talking. The notes list reads as jasmine, ylang, and grapefruit, and indeed, that is really what you get. But thanks to the complexity and ‘ripeness’ of the raw materials used, the perfume never comes off as shallow. The jasmine oil, in particular, is stunning. Its rubbery, inky purpleness is almost something you can taste at the back of your tongue. The jasmine is natural and untrimmed – the full bush, so to speak – so in addition to the velvety lushness of the flower, we also get hints of gasoline, rubber tubing, dirt, mint, leather, and melting plastic. Lovers of natural jasmine will immediately (and correctly) rank this up there with the other great natural jasmines of the world, including Tawaf from La Via del Profumo and Jasmin T from Bruno Acampora.

The differences between the oil and eau de parfum are slight but emerge more distinctly when worn side by side. The eau de parfum accentuates the grapefruit note, its urinous character adding even more raunch to the dirty, indolic jasmine. The oil, on the other hand, is grapefruit-neutral. The effect of the grapefruit-jasmine pairing in the eau de parfum runs close to the powdered, heady jasmine-civet combination in Joy (Patou). Because the citrus note is sharply emphasized in the eau de parfum, its texture is more effervescent. The oil is more subdued in comparison.

On balance, the eau de parfum version is dirtier and lustier. The eau de parfum starts off brighter and more urinous than the oil, but its jasmine component is fleshier and therefore sexier. The eau de parfum is a jasmine-forward floral with a rich, perfumey backdrop, while the oil is a jasmine soliflore that, after a petrol-and-rubber opening (borrowed from the ylang), settles into something very pristine and freshly-scrubbed. Choose, therefore, according to how you take your jasmine.

April Aromatics promotes this scents as both "an aphrodisiac par excellence" and "encourag[ing] sleep and dreaming," and notes, "This scent is infused with Herkimer diamond and clear Crystal."

So, let's get this out of the way: when natural perfumers say things like, "this scent is infused with crystals," they give natural perfumery a bad name. Suddenly, it's all unreformed hippies or GooP devotees sniffing precious woo as if it were ambrosia and/or cocaine. News flash: quartz dust does not elevate your spirit or your art.

Micro-rant dispensed with, I confess: this is one of the best jasmine scents I've sampled. I very much concur with dead idol's review. I can't say it's either an aphrodisiac or a soporific (geez, make up your mind!), but it sits right on the edge of where jasmine's indoles can start to induce queasiness without going over, and then, leavened by just the right amount of yang-ylang and grapefruit, it settles into a lovely presentation of jasmine's better charms.

I'm by no means a huge fan of jasmine-centric scents, so I probably won't buy this one. However, I highly recommend it to jasmine lovers, and I'll look to sample other offerings from April Aromatics, woo notwithstanding.

This scent opens with a bit of a clamor; jasmine, ylang, and grapefruit are all there competing for your attention. The jasmine is slightly indolic with that oily gasoline quality, but it's tempered by the tart sharpness of the grapefruit and the whole composition is smoothed over by the buttery ylang. After just a few minutes, things settle down, and the scent rockets through a syrupy sweet phase into a more traditional jasmine stage that sticks around for the rest of its life.

Overall, Jasmina is a sunny, luminous scent that jumps off the skin. Like others from the line, the high-calibre materials serve it well in that it's one of the most direct and well-presented jasmines that I've run across. While the composition strikes me as fairly minimal, the consideration of using citrus and ylang is unmistakable as these notes compliment the jasmine perfectly and don't detract from it at all. Over the next 30 minutes or so, the indole kicks up a bit more as the citrus dies off and it does become a touch more raunchy than the opening would infer. The profile is dense, but not cloying or suffocating–there's more than enough space to move around.

Although Jasmine's a note that I tend to prefer buried in a blend as opposed to upfront and loud, the representation here is outstanding. The grapefruit is a nice distraction while the notes sort themselves out, but we came for the jasmine and that's really what we get with Jasmina. In this regard, this scent is probably best suited for jasmine fanatics than a more widespread crowd. Even though other notes are present, it should appeal to fans of the solinote approach as the jasmine is beautifully framed. For me, it's a bit too loud up front and then it tapers off and gets quiet a little too quickly–but that's the nature of working with such materials as this. Although it's not my personal favorite from the line, it's very good and one that jasmine fanatics should seek out.