L'âme du Phoenix
Eau de Parfum, Spoturno (2025)

After the mostly amicable let-downs of Alphee and Barbicaja, L’Ame du Phenix seems to be where Spoturno and Sheldrake find their groove. It is a classic masculine fougere composed for the 21st century via a sumptuous texture and high-class materials both the likes of which are extremely hard to find in the genre. Though again, unfortunately, not taking the opportunity to run with innovation, as was the Francois Coti way, is still a bit of a let-down - Phenix is certainly not treading any form of terra incognita - but at least we find evidence of Spoturno and Sheldrake pointing out where the bar has been sitting in the fougere genre for many a decade and they said “let’s move it.”

To what I can smell, Phenix is all about texture, with all notes from top to base perfectly stitched together to create this feeling of silken clouds moving slowly across a gray blue sky. The opening of grapefruit, lavender, and pepper is fleeting but tantalizing, pleasantly bright but gray, a gentle ray of powdery orange light slowly breaking through the cloud. But it’s the heart and base that allure the most: a blending of the gentlest cedar, spices, leather, patchouli, labdanum and vanilla so effortlessly elegant and powerful but yet with an understated chic. The great French perfumers of the previous century's heyday would raise their eyebrows, green with envy, at Sheldrake’s prowess with these incredible materials. How this perfume manages the dense and ultra-smooth texture of silk with the lightness and breathability of linen is not something I’ve experienced in a perfume for a very long time, and I won’t risk misspeaking from faulty memory by confidently recalling names (Chanel Pour Monsieur comes to mind, though, or maybe Rive Gauche PH on the more recent end of the continuum). Alphee and Barbicaja also didn't tread terra incognita, but more so their elegance cum nostalgia had a stiff and rigid stridency that made them very difficult characters to enjoy; the blatant nostalgia without elevation plus the stridency put Xs next to their names in my book. But L'Ame du Phenix is the most luxurious of well-worn antique leather sofas to Alphee's and Barbicaja's impenetrable and unforgiving marble floors. Though not quite what I was hoping for, I’m very happy nonetheless. Spoturno and Sheldrake, more of this, please. It’s gorgeous. Fingers-crossed the 1921 EdP and extraits I have up next follow in this vein.