Perfumology – Grange

Grange is the follow-up fragrance to Perfumology’s first release, Blyss.  Grange is not a flanker to Blyss, which was created as a love letter to the creator’s wife, but instead embodies something entirely different; that of fragrance as memory.

This citrus wood scent is named and inspired by childhood near the Grange Estate.  (You can read more about the Estate here:  http://bit.ly/2F8EX8R).  The Estate sits on a hillside just above Cobbs Creek in Havertown, Pennsylvania.  It is here that the childhood memories were first created.

Grange opens with a zesty lime and juicy orange.  These notes are almost effervescent.  There is a sense of movement that I get from the sparkling quality.  The opening seems to emulate the trickling of the water in Cobb’s Creek over the creek bed on it’s way to pass through the Heinz National Wildlife    Refuge to it’s destination in the Delaware River Watershed.  (Reviewer’s Note – I am very familiar with the area.)  The opening notes are bright and beautiful and remind me how often our childhood recollections often seem larger than life. 

Roughly an hour and a half to two hours into wear, the opening notes seem to fade back somewhat and an emerging soft fig and tobacco accord begins to take their place as the focus of the fragrance.  The transition between the opening and heart notes is seamless.  It’s a gentle prodding from the perfumer to adjust our focus.  We’ve spent our day wandering, exploring, and joyfully playing in and alongside the creek.  Much of the day has passed and we now sit on the bank of the creek.  The fig here is aromatic and woodsy.  There is a soft, sun-ripened quality that adds a rich complexity to Grange.  Tobacco is also present.  I get a softly projecting tobacco reminiscent of dried tobacco leaves hanging in a barn in the countryside.   

As Grange moves more into its drydown, the woody quality, which has been present from the initial spray and reinforced by the fig, seems to be more noticeable.   I am more aware of the notes of oak and cedar.  To my nose, oak is the more prominent of the woody notes.  The dryness of the oak seems to capture the passing of time.  Are we being reminded that our day playing near the Estate grounds is over or that we have passed into adulthood?  I love that we can each choose our own ending.

Grange wears on me with moderate moving to soft projection for roughly 9 hours.

Notes: Mexican lime, Sicilian orange, fig, tobacco, oak, American cedar

Perfumer:  Justin Frederico

Artistic Collaborator: Nir Guy