Building a range of fully realised perfumes from exactly the same blend of musks and overly weighty molecules is the sort of brand ideology that appeals as much to a casual sense of geeky curiosity as it does one’s nose. And sure, Jeroboam's range of five extraits do all smell wonderfully unique in isolation, but it's by smelling the range one after the other that you really start to comprehend the brand's rather masterful and technical hook.
Origino is the original Jeroboam blend - a perfume that was made to convey the kind of beauty that is possible to achieve when mixing together a selection of synthetic musks. Origino acts as the nucleus of the range, an expansive but almost muted, sweetly fruity base thats comes chocked full of musk and pomp. The other four fragrances in the range steer that same blend of musk(s) into different genres of perfume, modifying the musk base and pairing it with new materials: Oriento is an oriental floral thats enriched with a classic spiced rose facet whilst Insulo is a sweet and vanillic oriental and Hauto is an out and out woody floral. But it's Miksado with it's gloopy, psuedo-rubbery and sueded aspects that is perhaps the most arresting.
On first sniff from the bottle Miksado can be a little bit caustic, coming across like an angry potion of scorched man-made plastic materials with a little hint of labdanum. But give it a few minutes on skin and the musky exo-skeleton imparts a real sense of class and sophistication into what is essentially a bit of a bizarre interpretation of saffron and guaiac wood. It becomes widescreen, a perfume that’s astute and deceptive, as flighty and luxuriously fruity as it is spicy or leathery.
It’s proof of how vital musk molecules can be in perfumery and, as with the rest of the Jeroboam range, it’s patently obvious that every ounce of Miksado’s power lies in that enigmatic fusion of musks. 📬: Roullier White
