Recent times have seen the rise of fragrances which essentially do one thing. They are essentially an accord masquerading as a perfume. One thing I’ve learned is simple sells. When clothing brand AllSaints expanded into fragrance in 2018 I found their debut collection of three to be what I described. They were interesting because the accord was one I liked. In subsequent releases I was less engaged. The most recent release AllSaints Concrete Rain is built around one of my favorite real scents.
Nathalie Benareau
If you’ve lived in a city there is that moment just as the rain begins to fall. The first droplets steam off the hot pavement and concrete. It produces that scent I referred to. I always think of it as the scent of the big city. As rain washes things clean this fills the air with an odd reminder of the concrete.
Carlos Vinals
As I learned more about perfume I found out there is a name for the molecule, petrichor. There is a town in India which actually harvests the rain and this scent. Perfumers are able to construct an accurate accord. Which is what the perfumers here, Nathalie Benareau and Carlos Vinals do.
Concrete Rain is all about the rain accord. The perfumers build it around some petrichor while also adding in some of the metallic chrome of the cityscape. As the rain washes through a powdery orris dusts it with a softly clean effect. It finishes with a set of synthetic dry woods and musks.
Concrete Rain has 8-10 hour longevity and average sillage.
One of the things I liked most about Concrete Rain is it is different than the previous releases for the brand. The others all were a popular accord which the consumer enjoys. Concrete Rain introduces that demographic to the joy of rain in the city.
Disclosure: This review is based on a sample provided by Nordstrom.
–Mark Behnke
Recent Comments