In the early days of the internet and my participation on the fragrance forums I was deep in the throes of acquisition syndrome i.e. Gotta Have Them All. I chased all over the world looking for things that sounded interesting. Nowadays I am fortunate to be able to have many brands who send things to me but not everything. The network I created back in the beginning still exists and when I want to track something down I can still do it. I activated it to get a new perfume released in Europe because it was done by one of my favorite young perfumers. It took a couple of months but the bottle of Betty Barclay Pure Pastel Mint arrived.
Betty Barclay seems to be a mass-market fashion and beauty line. They’ve been producing fragrance since 1994. Pure Pastel Mint is the twenty-fifth perfume for the brand. Pure Pastel Mint was paired with another fragrance Pure Pastel Lemon. These were released as springtime fresh releases. What piqued my interest was the involvement of perfumer Quentin Bisch for Pure Pastel Mint. Those who read my reviews regularly know I have issues with mint in perfume and its unfortunate association with my daily dental routine. Besides trying another of M. Bisch’s works I was equally intrigued because the mint referred to on the label was not the herb it was the color as promised in the name. I have mentioned in the past that I am not a synesthete where I experience color in conjunction with fragrance. So that component also drew me to wanting to try this. Could M. Bisch make me experience color over herb?
Quentin Bisch
In the early moments of Pure Pastel Mint M. Bisch uses yuzu matched with baie rose and blackcurrant buds. Yuzu is lemon with green undercurrent. Blackcurrant buds are raspberry with a similar shading while baie rose adds an herbal effect. This is where I can most easily see a pastel mint color occurring as M. Bisch forms his top accord. Of course, this being a spring scent rose must be in the heart, and it is. Cyclamen adds dew drops, ylang-ylang adds brightness with the interesting twist coming by the addition of tea forming a figurative tea rose heart accord. The finale is a mixture of sandalwood and synthetic linear musk with an expansive musky-woody effect.
Pure Pastel mint has 8-10 hour longevity and average sillage.
My color-blind sense of smell really only got the color association in the early stages and not overwhelmingly so. I did find Pure Pastel Mint to be a nice take on the spring rose motif worth the effort in sourcing it.
Disclosure: this review is based on a bottle I purchased.
–Mark Behnke
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