Fragrance Notes
L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme Eau Essentielle
Guaiac wood is the material that makes L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme Eau Essentielle Eau de Parfum, from Issey Miyake, worth a second look, because it is not where this range usually goes. The opening is ginger, dry and peppery rather than sweet, with a bite to it that wakes the scent up immediately. It is a warmer start than the citrus openings the house is associated with, and it signals early that this version is after something richer.
Nutmeg follows and smooths that heat into a softer, dustier spice, faintly sweet and slightly medicinal in the way the kitchen spice is when you grate it fresh. The two spices together make up most of the fragrance, and they are handled dry throughout.
Then guaiac wood takes the base. It is smoky and resinous with a tarry sweetness hidden somewhere inside it, and it is a material more often found in niche compositions than in a mainstream flanker. It gives the dry down real depth and a slight roughness that keeps the whole thing from being polite.
Marie Salamagne composed it, and three materials, so the structure is simple, and the pleasure is in the quality of each rather than in any development. The concentration is generous, so it holds for hours and pushes out moderately in the first one before settling. Marketed to men, it suits autumn and winter and works for evenings as readily as for the office. It is the warmest thing in the men's range and the least expected.
Japanese, and a clothing company first, with pleating and experimental construction its signatures. The studio was founded in Tokyo in 1970, the company incorporated in 1971, with its first store opening in 1974.
Please note: images are a guide only. Packaging and bottle design may occasionally differ from those shown due to manufacturer updates or promotions.
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