Ormonde Woman (2002)
by Ormonde Jayne

The Ormonde Woman is effortlessly stylish, dressed as she is in a contemporary yet timeless pantsuit, the fabric carefully selected and perfectly tailored to allow ease of movement while retaining a structure that in obscuring only serves to accentuate her beautifully feminine curves. Light make-up highlights a flawless complexion, a fuss-free great-looking hairstyle hints of professional help, and astute use of jewelry or accessories completes the look.

The fragrance in its androgyny is similarly styled. Overtly floral, fruity, ambery or sugary-powdery stuff that screams 'WOMAN!' is nowhere to be found here. They are simply unnecessary. The Ormonde Woman, supremely confident in her feminity and her sense of style, grabs a bottle of cologne belonging to her man, judges its character in a minute and applies a judicious amount of it before heading out of the door.

The juxtaposition is both breathtaking and disconcerting - imagine an attractive woman smelling like an aristocrat. Like a balmy afternoon breeze rustling through the leaves in a forest, carrying with it the gentle nuances of ferns and wild blooms, Ormonde Woman eventually dries down to a clean lightly woodsy skin scent. Very debonair. For what it's worth it could have well been called Savile Row and no one would be the wiser.

Ormonde Woman opens with a thick, vaguely Lutensian harmony of sweet woody notes with a slight “syrupy” texture, above all a cedar note quite on the sweet side (like in Lutens’ Cèdre, in fact) with detectable notes of citrus, violet, coriander, vanilla, jasmine, something mossy-herbal, an almost-sticky and warm texture of amber and something resinous and “pine-woody”, and a subtle salty-balmy aftertaste which I recall having found in Tolu as well by the same brand. The blend is cleverly made a bit lighter and brighter by a dusty-talc breeze which smells something like a “violet-flavoured” incense, even if it’s probably only violet with Iso E – a couple which reminds me of another scent by Lutens, Feminité du Bois, that in fact included cedar, violet notes and (correct me if I’m wrong) some 40% of Iso E Super. There are many differences though, but they seem to share a sort of common inspiration. The vetiver note emerges more clearly after a while, as soon as the scent gets a bit more dry, although it never gets prominent – it rather just lies there providing a “woodier” (I mean: more “realistic”) counterpart to cedar. Frankly, this fragrance smells much unisex to me, not to say more masculine than feminine – basically it’s a balsamic woody scent with a light and quite subtle sweet-floral breeze. The drydown is quite long-lasting and unexpectedly substantial, although a tad linear. A bit bland perhaps, but solid and effortlessly refined.

7/10

Genre: Woods

Ormonde Woman goes on with peppery green citrus top notes that are tangy, moist, and pleasantly bitter all at once. The citrus note bows out even more quickly than most to leave a refreshing peppery, herbaceous accord. The heart is all herbaceous, violet-seasoned woods in the manner of (believe it or not,) Geoffrey Beane’s Grey Flannel, though much lighter, sharper, and more transparent. In fact, so clear and simple is the texture that it can be compared with the most minimalist of Jean-Claude Ellena’s compositions. (Un Jardin en Mediterranée comes to mind.)

With time the herbal elements dissipate, leaving a very dry, clear cedar and moss base. Ormonde Woman is an extremely understated and transparent scent that does not project far from the skin and leaves no sillage to speak of. It’s not terribly long lasting either, so you’re likely to go through that expensive bottle very quickly if you wear it at all often. On the plus side, Ormonde Woman is a very sophisticated fragrance and belongs to a rare genus of dry, green woody scents aimed at women.

I don't think I have ever experienced such a dissonance between what I expected this perfume to smell like and what it actually does smell like. To say I am disappointed is putting it mildly. From everything I had read, I was ready to make this my next blind buy - a signature even! - but thank God I decided to send off for a wee sample first.

What is my problem? Well, the top notes of this fragrance bring to mind a very unfortunate smell association. To my nose, it smells exactly like a medicated cream from La Roche Posay that I use once in a while to calm down spotty skin. The smell is heavy, acrid, medicated, and quite unpleasant. Every time I put it on, I have to fight the urge to scrub it off my face and put something else on. So, this unfortunate smell association has caused this fragrance to be the first ever that I have ever considered scrubbing off. But I won't - I want to be fair and see if this gets better over the course of the day. I doubt I could ever get past the opening notes, but I promise to give it its fair due today.

Update: the same unfortunate smell association occurs on repeat wearings. Not for me.

The initial experience for me was green and spicy. The hemlock came through beautifully, would that it had stayed. It turned acrid in the dry down - too much cedar and grass oil and reminded me of a number of awful men's scents from the 1980s.

I would give this an A for effort, but like Jayne's Tolu, I'd send the perfumer back to the lab to re-work it to something unique and definitely better.

In both Tolu and O. Woman, I like the notes selected and the "idea" of their combination, but find the end result not up to par.