The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
The name is the concept. Ramon Monegal took the conventional wisdom of perfumery, five notes for lightness, fewer notes for freshness, and asked: what if you doubled down? Ten Fresh Notes arrived in 2022. The perfumer fleshed out classic bergamot and lime with neroli, then grounded the whole thing in oakmoss and amberwood. Because more, he argued, is always more. The title isn't a quirk. It's a manifesto.
The unusual choice here is costmary, a bitter, camphoraceous herb rarely seen in modern perfumery. Monegal doesn't hide it. He opens with it, letting the herbal, slightly medicinal quality cut through the citrus brightness like a blade through fruit. Galbanum, another green note with bite, does similar work in the heart. Together, these two ingredients prevent the fragrance from smelling like yet another bergamot-and-lime cologne. The peach and jasmine add sweetness, but they're held in check by the green structure. This is fresh fragrance that refuses to be lightweight.
The evolution
The citrus spark hits first, bergamot, lime, grapefruit, all bright and immediate. Costmary arrives within minutes, bringing an herbal bitterness that changes the picture entirely. The citrus doesn't disappear but gets complicated, like sunlight through leaves rather than direct sun. The heart shifts to galbanum's green intensity, jasmine's creaminess, and peach's soft fruitiness, three notes that smell like they belong to a different fragrance, together in one composition. The drydown is where oakmoss and vetiver take over, earthy and mossy, with amberwood warmth underneath. You catch it again in the evening and realize it's still there, quieter but present.
Cultural impact
Ten Fresh Notes arrived in 2022. Ramon Monegal insisted on exactly ten notes, nothing more, nothing less. The constraint is the concept. The use of costmary, a relatively obscure botanical, adds an unusual dimension to the composition, suggesting a perfumer interested in exploring a wider palette than convention typically allows. This is a fragrance that asks you to reconsider what fresh can mean. The fresh-green genre is often treated as a straightforward category, but Ten Fresh Notes suggests otherwise. Here, brightness and complexity coexist, and the familiar territory of citrus and green notes becomes something more demanding, more alive.
