10th Avenue Karl Antony
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Bright bergamot and bitter orange tear across the opening with almost aggressive clarity, immediately tempered by the woody-green presence of rosewood. Within minutes, mint arrives like a cooling breath, preventing the citrus from becoming too sharp or sunscreen-like.
The berries materialise between the second and third hour—subtle, vaguely red-wine tinged, never jammy. Cinnamon becomes increasingly present, creating an unusual warm-cool tension with the lingering citrus and mint, whilst the rosewood deepens into something almost leathery-green.
The spoiled spice base emerges with quietly animalic character, tonka bean adding a whisper of vanilla-sweetness that keeps the composition from turning austere. The scent becomes predominantly woody-spiced, citrus now a distant memory, clinging faintly to skin rather than projecting.
10th Avenue Sea arrives as a calculated collision between maritime freshness and spiced warmth—a fragrance that refuses easy categorisation. François Demachy has constructed something genuinely unusual here: the opening citrus accord (lemon, bergamot, and bitter orange) doesn't simply evaporate into abstract brightness. Instead, it meets rosewood in the heart with a peculiar synergy, creating a woody-green skeleton that prevents this from becoming another forgettable aquatic. The rosewood acts as ballast, grounding the citrus oils rather than allowing them to diffuse into thin air.
What makes 10th Avenue Sea compelling is its hidden spiced agenda. Red berries don't announce themselves aggressively; rather, they materialise as a subtle jammy undertone that complicates the mineral freshness, whilst cinnamon and the "spoiled spice" base note suggest something vaguely fermented, vaguely animalic—not quite aldehydic, but distinctly non-linear. Mint weaves through the middle registers, adding a cooling counterpoint to the warming spices beneath.
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3.6/5 (95)