Royal White

What's worth noticing is the structural honesty. Mint, cypress, and patchouli at the top is an unusual opening, and the way the three materials hold their own weight is what keeps the accord from collapsing into a single green blur. The patchouli doesn't dominate, nor does it vanish; it simply sits alongside the cooler notes and lets each one speak. The heart of juniper, cedar, and white rose is similarly disciplined.

The evolution

The first ten minutes are almost aggressive in their freshness, mint and cypress arriving together like an outdoor cocktail, but beside that bracing green there is already a soft earthiness from the patchouli that keeps the opening from feeling sterile. Around the 20-minute mark the mint recedes and the juniper and cedar take over, warmer now, with the white rose sitting underneath like a whisper you almost catch between phrases. By hour two it has become a pine forest in warm weather, resinous and dry, the green having mellowed from sharp to steady. The white musk arrives late and quietly, smoothing the pine into something almost powdery at the edges.