I previously wrote a fiction post about my favorite from the new Six Scents Character Series: Nappa Noir. Now it’s time for the rest of the line, which is getting a (comparatively) less idiosyncratic write-up.

Crust: This unfortunately-named scent is a collaboration between designer Boris Bidjan Saberi and perfumer Shyamala Maisondieu. I must be anosmic to something in this, because to me it smells like getting a shot—cotton gauze, rubbing alcohol, and clean motor oil—for about two minutes, and then it doesn’t smell like anything. 

Second Skin: Created by design house VPL and perfumer Marypierre Julien, Second Skin smells like musk, musk, and more musk.

Modesty: This collaboration between designer Guiliano Fujiwara and the talented Rodrigo Flores-Roux initially smells to me like pencil shavings, ink, charcoal dust, and paper. As it develops, it fleshes out into something denser, with cedar, sap, and maybe a bit of patchouli. I think there is also a floral note, but I can’t put my finger on it. When Modesty is “in full bloom” it’s slightly reminiscent of Chanel’s Coromandel. As it dries down, it reverts a little bit to the drier feeling of the opening notes, and smells wonderfully of old books. I might not choose to wear this, as it’s a bit stark for my personal taste. But I found myself applying it several times so I could marvel at its development.

Une Beaute Accidental: Created by Vth Avenue Shoe Repair and perfumer Nadege Le Garlantexec, Une Beaute Accidental smells at first like an abrasive lemon-scented cleaner (e.g., Comet) or cheap citronella, but gradually settles into a benign, barely traceable soft citrus smell. Similar to the trace of a dish detergent on the hands after washing dishes.

Buk: My second favorite of the line, created by KTZ and perfumer Guillaume Flavigny, is a honeyed (in the sense of textural feeling, not smell) mix of herbal and wood notes. Imagine, if you can, that someone made an herbal fruit tea into syrup, and poured it over ashes of cedar, sandalwood, incense, and dry desert plants — that’s how Buk smells to me. Although I go back and forth on whether it’s too candle-shop for my taste, I suspect I will come down on the side of “no, not too candle shop.” Time will tell. And it’s certainly a crowd pleaser. Two people have stopped me while I was wearing it and gushed about how good I smelled.

Overall, my impression of this series is that the fragrances are aiming to be quite conceptual, quite “un-perfumey.” If that was the goal, then I think Modesty is the most successful. The others that have the more conceptual feel just sort of fail to go anywhere (Waiting for Godot, anyone?). And I’m not surprised that I leaned toward those in the series that felt more like traditional perfume (Nappa Noir and Buk).

Fragrances and sample sets are available via Six Scents. If you would like to try a 0.5-1ml sample of each of the fragrances in the Character series (amount will depend on how much is left of my samples), leave a comment to this post saying which fragrance sounds most interesting to you. I’ll pick a reader via random.org sometime next week. As usual, I’m sorry that I can’t ship internationally, so this giveaway is only open to U.S. readers.

Six Scents Series 4 launches soon. Samples can be purchased now directly at Six Scents. My samples were provided by Six Scents. As always, my opinions are my own. See my Media & Disclosure page for details.

This is fiction. For more fiction posts with perfume tie-ins, select ‘Fiction’ from the category dropdown in the right sidebar.

The pigs are riding next to me. Their snouts poke through holes in the grate that forms the side of the semi-truck, looking from a distance like endless rows of pink doorknobs. Two decks, and who knows how many pigs on each deck. The rush of 65 mph air barely stirs their coarse whiskers.

It’s a humid, stuffy night. Even with my windows down, driving fast, the air feels like a solid thing. It swathes me, billows away for a moment, settles back down more heavily than before. The pigs must be so uncomfortable. I look over again and see they are standing in stalls barely wider than their bodies, but there are two or maybe three in each stall. In the dusk, it’s hard to tell. As I look, I’m hit by a dizzying waft of exhaust and the dry scent of weeds and concrete baking in the heat.

The ugly smells, the cruelty in the row of pigs’ noses, and the lonely night. For a moment they feel like the only real things in the world.

Then one of the pigs sticks its snout further through the grate. Looking at it so intently, I don’t notice that I’m steering my car closer, until I realize that I’m actually reaching my hand out to touch the pig’s snout. It seems so close. From here, I can see his eyes, too. He squints at me. “What do you think?” I ask. “What do pigs think about all of this?”

And then I straighten my car back out into my own lane. The idea that the pig has thoughts, untouchable in his piggy brain, feels like pulling into a hotel for a night’s rest on a long journey. I speed up, and leave the semi and the pigs behind.

***

Nappa Noir is one of the new releases from Six Scents (Series 4, the Character Series). It’s a collaboration between Raphael Young, the [amazingly talented] shoe designer, and perfumer Calice Becker. NST’s announcement of the launch lists the notes as ylang, violet, tobacco, coffee, patchouli, iris, speculos, cistus, styrax, leather, birch tar, saffron, vanilla, and serenolide.

Personally, I only need to know one thing about Nappa Noir: I have found my leather. It smells urban, but beautiful, which is exactly what I have been searching for from a leather perfume.

Until now, some of you may remember that Bottega Veneta has come closest to being my ideal leather. I think those who liked Bottega Veneta and also those who liked it a lot but wished it was edgier will love Nappa Noir.

The leather of Nappa Noir (it’s hard for me to distinguish other individual notes contributing to the leather accord in this case) forms an enveloping presence. It is less refined than the soft suede of Bottega Veneta, but still very elegant and not too rough or masculine for my rather wimpy taste. And yet, as in the story above, it feels like a bittersweet reminder of life’s crueler side. But then there are the violet and iris notes. Like a feeling of hope—fragile, mysterious, and really beautiful—they bloom inside the leather accord. It seems like a bit of a technical feat for the sillage to have this effect, but even more amazing is how poignant the aesthetic effect is. It makes Nappa Noir more than ordinarily special.

Six Scents Series 4 launches soon. Samples can be purchased now directly at Six Scents. Stay tuned later this week for more about some of the other perfumes in the series. My sample of Nappa Noir was provided by Six Scents. As always, my opinions are my own. See my Media & Disclosure page for details.