This has been the first warm weekend in Poodlesville this spring. That means I spent some time clearing away the detritus of the winter. It also means I spent some time walking through the adjacent woods with one of the poodles. I enjoy the natural scent of the world as winter gives way to the earliest days of spring. With the snow gone nature presents her prickly self in smell and thorn. On my favorite walk I always come home with a few scratches from the brambles which choke the path here and there. The smell of the woods is equally pointed as the greenness presents itself in sharp hues. There are a few perfumes which do this well; Jo Malone Nettle & Wild Achillea is a new addition.
Celine Roux
The creative director at Jo Malone, Celine Roux, likes to take her perfumers out to meet what she wants to capture in a perfume. In April a couple years ago she took Louise Turner and Yann Vasnier out to the canals of England. Upon their return Mme Roux asked them to create a collection based on that trip. This year the Wild Flower & Weeds collection was released as five perfumes. This goes to reinforce that as much as I think something is going to be great based on everything I read; the reality lets me down. I found four of the five releases didn’t contain as many weeds while allowing the wild flowers to have too much of the frame. The one which was weedier was the only one I really connected with. Ms. Turner is the perfumer behind Nettle & Wild Achillea. She has composed a thorny green perfume which captures the freshness of a spring day in layers.
Louise Turner
It opens with the “flower” in the title Wild Achillea which is more commonly known as yarrow. That essential oil has a soft herbal quality instead of a more typical floral scent profile. Ms. Turner uses baie rose as herbal counterweight to tilt the top accord even further away from being “pretty spring floral”. This is the soft green of the buds peeking through the soil. The thorns come next as a sharp mate tea slices through the top accord opening the way for even more sharpness due to the silvery nature of violet and the astringent green of the nettles. Ms. Turner completes an adroit balancing act by keeping this just the right side of strong without drawing blood. The fresh air of spring blows through courtesy of a set of white musks carrying a woody green vetiver in the base.
Nettle & Wild Achillea has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.
If you want a perfume which carries all the sharp and fresh scents of early spring Nettle & Wild Achillea will fit the bill. It allows me to ramble through the brambles without checking for snags in my sweater or scrapes on my skin. That’s good enough for me.
Disclosure: This review is based on a sample provided by Jo Malone.
–Mark Behnke
