Gallivant Perfumes - Brooklyn

When a London indie fragrance house names itself after the verb used for roaming around, traveling or “moving around for pleasure” (Merriam Webster’s Dictionary) you know you’re in for a different fragrance experience.  Gallivant has created a line of unisex EDPs each showcasing their interpretation of a different urban destination.  I am fortunate enough to have received samples of their fragrances from Nir Guy of Perfumology (King of Prussia, PA) and will be reviewing them for you.  Today, I start with Brooklyn.

Ok, to be fair, I decided that Brooklyn would be my first voyage with this house since it’s my city of birth.  My family moved from the city when I was just a very young child yet in my mind’s eye, I still have an image of the city I still identify so closely with.  At first I found it surprising that Brooklyn is a citrus scent.  Typically we don’t often associate the city with warm climate fruit.  Still, in the wearing of this fragrance, the choice of citrus and its connotations becomes crystal clear and quite logical.

Brooklyn opens with an effervescent light lemon-tinged juicy orange with a touch of bergamot.  It’s a very “alive” note.  There is a freshness to the opening that soars with the awakenings of the city.  If you close your eyes you can see Brooklyn coming to life; people hustling to get to work, the cars and busses and subway beginning the day’s journey. 

About forty five minutes into wear, a powdery iris appears that merges with delicate white florals.  It’s a snapshot of that moment in time while you are in transit to your destination in or around the city.  Perhaps you are on the bus and you are gazing out.  A car perhaps on a Spring day with the windows down picking up delicate wafts from someone’s window garden.  Or maybe you’re on the R Line with your eyes closed in quiet thought. 

But there are places to get to.  Brooklyn’s drydown starts the culmination of your journey with the notes of musk, white woods, benzoin, and amber.  The notes have a sense of place and purpose.  They feel like an arrival to a place of intent.  There is a creaminess to the notes that softens the edges of what could have been another hard, cold city.  Instead, the musk and woods are comforting and wrap you in their arms.  And it feels very much like home.

Brooklyn wears on me for roughly 6-7 hours with moderate moving to soft projection.

Notes:  bergamot, squeezed lemon, orange juice, incense, cardamom, fresh air and ozonic notes, magnolia, orris root, transparent flowers, musks, white woods, benzoin, amber

Perfumer: Giorgia Navarra