NEMUS

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FRAGMENTS by NVC Extrait de Parfum Nemus, signed off by Bertrand Duchaufour, is quite a different style of perfume than those in the opulent main line where roses, balsamic woods, spices, and sandalwood form an atmospheric series of historical and evocative geographical documents. Bertrand has always worked at the observational voyaging of his ideas. He does sketch and make notes as he travels, and this recording of intent and experience is often what makes his work so richly informed. Nemus is astonishingly green, beautifully radiant with a gathering of materials that wrap over skin like fresh moss and lichen hued linens. Sap, broken stems, and chlorophyll shimmer in the top of bergamot, lemon, and the bittersweet dryness of cedrat. Ginger and clary sage add a spiced leathery suppleness that surfaces gently over the lifetime of Nemus on skin. Green is seen as a colour of uplifting nature, rejuvenation, forests, meadows, glades and pastures. The word nemus means grove and also is an archaic term for tree and woods. As the perfume diffuses like morning rain magicked away by dappled sun, there are delicious hints of dripping leaves, earth, bruised geranium, and washed bark. A tea note appears early on, cold, and clear beneath the tallow and cooking apple fizz of the citrus opening. There is a myth that citrus notes don’t last, but this is no longer the case, an increasing number of parfums are built around bergamot, vetiver, yuzu, sweet oranges, etrog, lime and grapefruit. Traditionally they have been used in colognes, aftershaves and eaux fraîches, erring towards masculine scented tropes. The trick is simplicity and the comfort of the materials on skin, they refresh with clean allure. Nemus has undeniable charisma and segues into a darker territory as the base notes warm up and begin to rise. Bertrand’s use of oud, inky, dirty Cypriol and a sweet frankincense exalt all before them. Reading the notes, it is difficult to imagine how Nemus might smell, but then the bucolic experience of it threaded with ambergris and patchouli is sublime. Wear with joy. Composition: Bergamot, Citron, Lemon, Tea Ginger, Clary Sage, Geranium Cedar, Frankincense, Oud, Cypriol, Patchouli, Ambergris Perfumer: Bertrand Duchaufour, 2022 inci list: alcohol denat., parfum (fragrance), aqua (water), benzyl alcohol, benzyl benzoate, cinnamal, cinnamyl alcohol, citral, citronellol, coumarin, eugenol, farnesol, geraniol, isoeugenol, limonene, linalool Show more