The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Accord No. 10: Holy Basil, Jasmin + Pandan arrives from Ted Rohn as a focused study in unconventional pairings. Each Accord spotlights a single botanical conversation, built around plant-derived materials. Holy basil, French jasmine, and pandan form the kind of trio that doesn't usually sit at the same table. One carries sacred associations in its native traditions, one is a perfumery mainstay refined over generations of French extraction, and pandan barely registers in Western scent at all. Rohn put them together anyway, and let them argue. The composition reads like an invitation to consider each material on its own terms before hearing what they become together.
Pandan is the wild card here, a leaf whose scent carries a distinctive sweetness that recalls vanilla in passing but lives somewhere else entirely. In a botanical composition it's rare, and pairing it with holy basil means two greens with completely different temperaments meeting at once. French jasmine arrives as the translator, creamy enough to soften the herbs without flattening them. Green mandarin opens the door with a burst of zest that feels almost electric. Sichuan pepper adds a cool static charge, a fizzy brightness that sharpens the edges of everything around it.
The evolution
The opening reads as almost aggressively green, a bright snap of green mandarin that cuts through before the basil and pandan settle into something cooler and rounder. The citrus brightness doesn't fade so much as it gets absorbed into the herbal core, and once it does, the composition takes on a quieter, more contemplative character. Jasmine arrives gradually, quiet at first, then more present, lending a soft creaminess to the herbal sharpness without ever tipping into the indolic or heavy territory that jasmine can sometimes bring. The heart stage is where the Accord feels most alive: basil and pandan trading places, jasmine smoothing the transitions, while the pepper continues to flicker at the edges. As the hours pass, the composition softens into a cedar-forward space where patchouli works quietly underneath, and the whole thing takes on a meditative, grounded quality.
Cultural impact
Holy Basil, Jasmin + Pandan extends RAER's numbered Accord series into unusual territory, pairing materials that rarely share space in contemporary fragrance. The composition speaks to wearers who notice when a green scent actually smells like plants rather than a chemical approximation of green, and who appreciate the difference between jasmine that feels alive and jasmine that feels like a background note. It's a fragrance for people who think about what they're smelling rather than simply registering whether they like it.
