Our first concept fragrance almost didn’t happen because it seemed virtually impossible to create something that embodied the concept of ashes, death and rebirth while still being comfortable to wear, optimistic, and performing as a Clandestine fragrance should. It took almost three years to finally get it right: soft, earthy-green, slightly humid, luminous, transcendent - abstract yet sensual. Inspired by the clean, earthy smell of wood ash and the idea of death and rebirth, loss and renewal - ashes becoming earth, bringing forth new life in the spring. This one always gets a reaction and is a pleasure to wear. It doesn’t smell like a perfume and yet, possibly, pushes the boundaries of what a perfume can smell like. It also epitomizes the Clandestine approach: natural-smelling yet unfamiliar, with a light body, subtly powerful with an impressive, clear radiance in the drydown. Straightforward yet complex and beautiful, it blends well with anyone’s body chemistry and is a pleasure to be around. The floral heart is primarily gardenia, unusual for a unisex fragrance, but this is a very fresh, sheer interpretation of gardenia headspace stripped of its heavier qualities, very natural in odor and rendered more ethereal in combination with frankincense and jasmine.

Not surprisingly, although many people love it and find it pleasant to wear, this has proven a bit controversial with some smelling only the earthiness and missing the florals, possibly because the earthiness of natural gardenia can be very different than the usual fragrance note. Nevertheless, this is primarily a floral fragrance with a light earthy and green-musky radiance that doesn’t have any specific precedents, though it does obviously use materials that have been used in previous fragrances.

Notes include green grass shoots, clover, clean earth, gardenia, transparent jasmine, frankincense, white patchouli, Haitian vetiver and white musks.