The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Byredo was founded in Stockholm in 2006 by Ben Gorham, a Swede with an Indian mother and a Canadian father, no formal training in perfumery, and an art school background. The house operates on a single belief: fragrance can translate specific feelings into material form. Gorham does not brief perfumers with note lists; he briefs them with emotions and concepts. For Mixed Emotions, the brief was the contemporary condition: that churn of being online and offline simultaneously, of knowing too much and processing too fast. The challenge was to make that feeling smellable. The perfumer, who worked from Gorham's emotional brief rather than an ingredient directive, translated the paradox into a structure that opens tart and energizing, transitions to warm and contemplative, and settles into something quietly woody. The notes are not incidental to this brief; they are the brief made concrete. Blackcurrant and mate create the opening jolt.
Byredo's approach to note selection operates on a philosophy of emotional necessity rather than ingredient convention. Each note in Mixed Emotions is present because it serves the fragrance's conceptual architecture, not because it reinforces category expectations. The pairing of blackcurrant with mate creates an opening that is tart, green, and slightly smoky, setting a tone of purposeful strangeness rather than easy familiarity. The black tea and violet leaf heart bridges the opening jolt and the drydown quiet, providing warm tannins and green freshness without tipping into either sweetness or coldness.
The evolution
The scent journey of Mixed Emotions begins in Tart brightness. Blackcurrant and mate arrive tog ether, the blackcurrant offering berry tartness and the mate contributing green, bitter, herbal lift. This is not a soft opening; it announces itself with clarity and slight astringency, the olfactory equivalent of a notification arriving mid-task. The progression to the heart introduces a shift in temperature and texture. Black tea smooths the tartness, providing warm tannins and a quiet bitterness that feels considered rather than harsh. Violet Leaf threads green freshness through the tea, adding a clean, slightly floral dimension that prevents the heart from becoming heavy. The heart is contemplative, working through the opening rather than abandoning it. From the heart, the fragrance moves into the drydown phase, where birch and papyrus take residence. Birch lends sweet, woody depth with a faint caramelized edge. Papyrus adds dry, papery, slightly smoky earthiness that feels like settling into quiet after noise.
Cultural impact
Mixed Emotions arrived at a moment when the idea of emotional complexity became culturally resonant. The fragrance doesn't smell like nostalgia or comfort, it smells like the mixed feelings themselves. Wearers describe it as moody, evocative of stormy skies, with an addictive contrast between jammy sweetness and smoke. It's polarizing: some find it medicinal, others find it unlike anything else. What everyone agrees on is that it doesn't smell like anything else in Byredo's lineup.
