The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Mermaids Sing of Lost Lovers comes from Caitlin Hayes, who is behind Sorce and serves as the creative force shaping every release the house puts out. The brand operates as an independent perfume house with a distinct editorial sensibility, releasing scents that lean poetic and concept-driven rather than chasing mainstream trends. This particular scent belongs to Sorce's Special Order catalog, a rotating collection of limited-release compositions available only during narrow ordering windows. The title borrows its poetry from the weight of longing itself, that indulgent ache of falling for someone you knew was trouble, savoring the sweetness even as you sense the pull toward loss.
What makes this composition unusual is the collision of gourmand weight with floral audacity. White chocolate and caramel are notoriously easy to overdo, they slump into cloying territory fast. Pairing them with Egyptian jasmine absolute, an indolic material that already reads warm and almost animalic on its own, takes guts. Grenadine cuts through with tart pomegranate brightness so the sweetness doesn't congeal, while the composition as a whole finds lift in something diaphanous that keeps the jasmine from drowning in its own syrup.
The evolution
The opening belongs to jasmine absolute, a humid, almost overwhelming floral hit that smells like a garden at dusk in high summer. It's indolic and unapologetic, the kind of jasmine that doesn't whisper, and ylang-ylang pushes the tropical heat even higher, adding a candle-warm density to the top. The jasmine doesn't fade so much as get absorbed into what comes next. Grenadine arrives and stains everything with its pomegranate-molasses richness, introducing a syrupy red-fruit density that wraps around the florals like poured honey. White chocolate and caramel materialize not as separate notes but as a single melted sweetness, a soft lactonic warmth that fuses with the floral indoles. As the composition wears on, the tartness of grenadine keeps the sweetness from collapsing, and the florals begin to recede while the gourmand elements gain dominance.
Cultural impact
Within Sorce's Special Order catalog, this release stands out for the precision of its construction. The combination of white chocolate, caramel, Egyptian jasmine absolute, and grenadine is a specific kind of risk, the kind of pairing that requires real care to keep from collapsing into sweetness or going flat under floral weight. Its Special Order status means availability is restricted to narrow windows, and compositions in this tier tend to attract collectors who follow the house closely.
