One of my favorite side effects of being a perfume blogger has been the opportunity to be the Master of Ceremonies at the Sunday lunch at Sniffapalooza for the past few years. Twice a year I get to introduce a group of independent perfumers to an appreciative audience. Most of the time I have already made the acquaintance and so I don’t often get the opportunity to share the experience of trying something for the first time. At last May’s Spring Fling I did get that opportunity as independent perfumer Gauri Garodia introduced her perfume line Code Deco.
Mme Garodia lives in Singapore and she has spent much of her career working for the Asian subsidiaries of some of the big perfume companies. This prepared her to create her own line in 2013. The name Code Deco was chosen because they are anagrams of each other and they also capture a couple of concepts near to Mme Garodia’s heart. She is an aficionado of the Art Deco time in history and she also believes there is a hidden code to fragrances which is deciphered by one’s preferences. There are currently thirteen fragrances in the line and the majority of them are jazz inspired. Mme Garodia told me when we met at Sniffapalooza music is a mandatory component of her creative process and there are pairs of her fragrances which feel like riffs on each other. One of those pairs are A Minor and B Minor.
For both fragrances there is a spicy clove heart which leads down to a leather and tobacco base. These provide the backbeat and bass line. The different riffs are in A Minor which starts with dark fruit as opposed to B Minor’s gin and grapefruit. The heart contains different spices and floral notes to go with the clove and the bases use different woods to mix in with the common components.
Gauri Garodia
A Minor always catches me off guard as it opens with a brilliant bergamot but it is quickly eclipsed by dark plum. This is a crackling transition and it is a bit like a perfumed attention getter. The clove comes next and with it is the green rose quality of geranium, cinnamon, and bay leaf. This is a very green heart and it is very deep when it all comes together as both the clove and cinnamon add a simmering heat to it all. Mme Garodia definitely paid attention to creating excellent bases and the leather and tobacco base she uses for both of these is very well composed. For A Minor a bit of sandalwood adds creamy warm woody highlights.
B Minor is exactly the opposite as Mme Garodia goes for the cool and it begins with an icy gin accord paired not with lime but grapefruit. This is a fabulous choice as the grapefruit adds some depth without heft. The cool theme continues in the heart as a bouquet of white flowers are dusted with cardamom and the clove comes back to remind us of its kinship to A Minor. If A Minor was heat at this point B Minor has a frosty cool aspect to it. The gin and grapefruit ligers to combine with the clove, cardamom, and white flowers. This eventually heads down to the leather and tobacco base but this time, in keeping with the cool theme, cedar adds its definitive lines to the final measure of B Minor.
A Minor and B Minor have 8-10 hour longevity and average sillage.
Mme Garodia has coded both of these as masculines but I would say they are very much genderless. I have really come to enjoy B Minor a lot throughout this summer. A Minor has its pleasures as well but I suspect it will be worn a bit more in the cooler weather of the fall. All thirteen fragrances have made it to the US and are currently exclusive to MiN New York. In the end I think I’m just a jazz guy and Mme Garodia’s perfume jazz riffs make beautiful music on my skin.
Disclosure: This review was based on samples provided by Code Deco at Sniffapalooza Spring Fling 2014.
–Mark Behnke
