Summer is the time of the year when we slow down. School is out. Family vacations abound. Weekends at the beach beckon. Once we are at our destination, even if it is the backyard, we give ourselves permission to just be. As the day unspools in front of us it is the simple pleasures which provide a large portion of the enjoyment. The glass of iced tea sweating in the humidity as you walk the beach never tastes better. One of the great places to go for a summer vacation is the island of Bermuda which offers many of these distractions; allowing for maximal relaxation.
If you do visit Bermuda and are a perfume lover there has been a perfume brand on the island since 1928. For almost ninety years it has been inspired by the indigenous plant life for their perfumes. On a visit, back in the 1970’s, a bottle of Jasmine became the scent track of our time on the island. Isabelle Ramsay-Brackstone has been perfumer-owner of The Bermuda Perfumery and their fragrance brand Lili Bermuda since 2003. She reached out to me and sent me a discovery set of samples of the entire current line along with the new release SunKiss. What I found inside was an island aesthetic full of lush florals, fresh aquatics, sun bleached woods, and juicy fruits. Taken all together like this there is an apparent lightheartedness which runs throughout the line. SunKiss might be the apex of this style.
Isabel Ramsay-Brackstone
If there was one note which shows up the most it is neroli. In SunKiss it comes as part of a gourmand style of fragrance which evokes an orange creamsicle ice cream bar. Ms. Ramsay-Brackstone is the perfumer for the recent releases; in SunKiss she uses some interesting citrus fruit choices to set off the neroli and vanilla in a fun way.
SunKiss opens with a putative citrus fruit accord which is formed around bitter orange. Grapefruit is the easy complement picking up on the tart qualities. The truly fabulous choice is loquat. Loquat is a tiny tart fruit which when extracted as an essential oil it is composed of mainly limonene and alpha-pinene. Those molecules smell like their names and so you have lemon speared with a few pine needles. Then the lift of a few peach aldehydes along with juicy pineapple finishes this lively citrus accord. The green floral neroli along with a rich dessert type vanilla provide the resting spot for the top notes. Once it all falls into place it becomes an orange creamsicle fresh from the freezer.
SunKiss has 8-10 hour longevity and average sillage.
Wearing SunKiss on a couple of summer days made me feel like I was on vacation holding a stick topped with a cool orange vanilla treat. What was best was SunKiss lasted much longer than any creamsicle which reached my hand. It is the simple pleasures of summer which make it fun. SunKiss is a stand out simple pleasure of the summer.
Disclosure: This review was based on a sample provided by The Bermuda Perfumery.
–Mark Behnke
