Medullary-ray
Jorum Studio (2019)

The thinking behind this one may be high concept – an ‘olfactory encounter between crafted-wood and lazily harvested Tuscan fruits’ anyone? – but the resultant thing scratches an unusual itch to utmost satisfaction. And that is a persistent wish of this perfume enthusiast for something that ticks the following boxes – wild, raggedy botanicals, woods, and resins – without turning up the temperature to uncomfortable levels. Leavened by a fruity sweetness that starts off somewhat like dried apricots, then morphs to plummy tobacco and then turns into just an ethereal presence in the mix, Medullary-ray settles in a pile of autumn leaves and the memory of a soft leather coat while maintaining a baby-soft muskiness that positively cuddles the wearer.

"Medullary-ray" essentially falls within the same realm as the woody DNA characteristic of "Santal 33." Personally, I perceive this particular style of woodiness as somewhat overrated, although I'm aware that it has a dedicated following. In essence, "Medullary-ray" offers a dry balsam wood profile that's notably clean and straightforward. It's a well-blended composition with respectable performance metrics. However, if I were to choose, I'd opt for "Arborist" within the same line, as I find it to offer a more distinctive and unique woody scent.

This is somewhat haunting, almost foreboding. This evokes the corners of an interior space long uninhabited, Years of dust have settled on items long forgotten. There's an old encyclopedia, stacked on the floor, some issues of Smithsonian magazine and National Geographic. The walls are a knotty pine, and a certain dankness matches the deafening silence. This is the smell of an atrophied past, and its undecided if I would derive pleasure from wearing this.

The combination of oily, smoky guaiacwood combined with the urgent pungency of valerian root reminds me of the aroma of linseed oil, peculiar as it pokes through the dust and must, as if the wooden furniture has been applied a fresh coat even as all else lays languishing. This is so fascinating, so confounding. I don't really have any other fragrance in my life that is so...spooky. I think I want to get to know this one better, and befriend it, as if it were some reclusive, eccentric artist living in this fractured, unattended space.