Jazmin
Norma Kamali (2003)

My experience with this apparently forgotten gem comes from a decant shared by a good Basenotes friend. Never in a million years would I have known to try this, but this stuff is WILD. I gather Norma Kamali is (or was?) a high-end NY fashion designer who briefly had a perfume line in the 80s that produced only a couple of scents, and then randomly reappeared in the early 2000s before disappearing from fragranceland altogether. The original run produced the now legendary Norma Kamali Incense in 1985, which sounds like something of a cult object at this point, apparently notoriously strong and singular in its focus (one I'd love to try some day, if it ever somehow becomes available). The early 2000s run produced several more scents, including Jazmin. I am no expert on jasmine scents, but to my nose it comes off as this explosively lush jasmine soliflore, the kind that makes your head pop and fizz with dizzy adjectives. It's a narcotic headrush of gold-tinged white florals that so fully consumes your senses it makes you feel like you're drowning in scent. It feels niche, almost artisanal, with its deep gold juice and oily consistency. For lack of a better description, it smells incredible, an all caps JASMINE experience like nothing else I've smelled. Not particularly indolic to my nose (at least not in the fecal sense), but it is somehow overwhelming; I'm not convinced I'm sensitive to indolic notes, though, so take that with a grain of salt.

There isn't much record of this stuff online, with a Fragrantica page with no written reviews (though all 4 ratings give it a perfect 5 stars) and this Basenotes page with a single brief review from 2010 (besides the much later review you're reading). In fact, the most I can find about it is a brief reference in a 2008 Now Smell This review of Serge Lutens' now-classic Sarrasins, which mentioned this fragrance in passing and subsequently inspired a bunch of interest in the comments. Robin of NST wrote: "If what you're looking for a big huge skanky jasmine, dark and possibly rather scary, you might try Norma Kamali's Jazmin. I described A La Nuit's top notes as "as close to being buried alive in flower petals as anything else I can think of", to which WinterWheat quite accurately commented in reply that Jazmin was possibly even more so — "...like having the petals crammed up your nostrils". It rivals Bruno Acampora's Jasmin for a jasmine that might be best left to the true jasmine fanatic. I found it overwhelming the first time I tried it several years back, now it seems just about right."

Anyhow, I have no idea how you'd track this down if you wanted to, given that it's been discontinued for ages and never seems to pop up on ebay. But if you somehow stumble upon it in your travels, grab it!

A terrifically lush, bright jasmine soliflore with ample sillage and longevity. Not particularly indolic, instead this jasmine is clean with a lightly green undercurrent. Fantastic.