Launched in 2014 by Bella Freud Perfumes, Ginsberg is God is one of three scents named after the slogans on designer Bella Freud’s signature sweaters: ‘Je t’aime Jane’, ‘Ginsberg is God’ and ‘1970’. Inspired by the poet Allen Ginsberg, Ginsberg is God is a unisex scent of “the tousled headed poet surrounded by books and papers, the scent of green leaves and spring drifting in through the open windows”. It opens with the smell of spicy, warm black pepper. It’s not harsh or bracing; instead, it’s suggestive and seductive. A note of tomato leaf, fresh and green, signals spring; its herbaceous bitterness plays off the pepper beautifully. There’s a touch of lush, juicy, fresh fig that adds roundness and sensuality. As it settles, the fresh, citrus-spicy smell of elemi appears. It rests on sacred woods – is that sandalwood and cedarwood? The incense facet of elemi calls up a note of resinous, smoky Frankincense that smells of Eastern mysticism. There’s definitely wormwood here, and it’s paired with moss to create an ink accord. But it’s the sensuous smell of worn, supple leather that brings Ginsberg is God to life for me. The drydown is dry, aromatic and woody. This is the complex sensuous scent of what happens when nature meets intellect, an olfactory reminder that the brain really is the sexiest organ. Notes: black pepper, tomato leaf, fig, elemi, sacred woods, Frankincense, wormwood, moss, leather.
