As mentioned in yesterday’s reviews Baruti is Greek for gunpowder. While the perfumes don’t smell like it, they do remind me of many of the properties of the volatile substance. The two perfumes I am reviewing today, Baruti Onder de Linde and Baruti Voyance remind me of bottle rockets. They rapidly ascend to a sharp explosion. Spyros Drosopoulos forms his fireworks around linden and vetiver, respectively.
Onder de Linde according to the website is inspired by Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting “Melkmeisje” which translates to The Milkmaid. When you read that you might be expecting something creamy gourmand-like. Onder de Linde is nothing like that. Dr. Drosopoulos forms an exuberant fruity floral that pops.
The first moments are the thrust of a juicy pear carrying the fragrance upward. When it reaches the right height the honeyed floral of linden blossom comes out. A lot of perfumers hold the concentration of this ingredient down because it might be thought cloying. Dr. Drosopoulos leans into it as he deepens the effect with orris and honey. This is a lush midsummer floral quality that is intoxicating. The base accord is sandalwood and vetiver which is where the sparkles of this bottle rocket return to earth.
Onder de Linde has 14-16 hour longevity and above average sillage.
Spyros Drosopoulos
Voyance is made up of tuberose, vetiver, and musk. If I asked you which of the ingredients was the payload of this perfume bottle rocket, I bet many would choose tuberose. Dr. Drosopoulos completely inverted my expectation as it is tuberose which provides the lift to an incendiary vetiver.
Voyance is the simplest of the current Baruti fragrances yet it still retains the depth because of Dr. Drosopoulos’ ability to coax so much out of his three keynotes. That starts with the tuberose which gets a few minutes to take the lead as it rises. As soon as the vetiver appears it steps to the background. I enjoy vetiver for its dual woody and green nature. In Voyance they are both accentuated in unique ways. The green thread within tuberose finds the grassy part of vetiver. The animalic musk captures the woody nature giving it some texture instead of being monolithic. Voyance sizzles for the entire time it is on my skin until it all fades away.
Voyance has 12-14 hour longevity and average sillage.
Taken together the four Baruti perfumes I have reviewed over these two days are emblematic of what independent perfumery stands for. Bold singular artistic statements full of power.
I am not done with this brand, but the remaining five perfumes require the chance for me to wear them in some cooler weather. I’ll return in a few weeks to complete the collection.
Disclosure: This review is based on samples supplied by Baruti.
–Mark Behnke
Recent Comments