Ex Nihilo
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Peony and pink pepper collide in a prickly, almost tense greeting, with bright bergamot slicing through like an electric current. The sweetness is immediately present but so is the spice—this opening feels deliberately discordant, meant to provoke rather than charm.
The leather surfaces with genuine depth, creating a warm, slightly animalic foundation beneath the emerging raspberry and jasmine. The fragrance becomes richer, more grounded, as the fruity notes turn jammy and the florals take on a creamy, intimate quality against that darkening leather base.
Vetiver and vanilla emerge to anchor the musk, creating a woody, skin-like dryness that lingers close. The leather softens marginally but never disappears, leaving a subtle, sophisticated base that feels more like a second skin than a traditional fragrance close.
Love Shot announces itself with a deliberately contradictory sensibility: sweetness and sharpness locked in immediate tension. Nathalie Gracia-Cetto has constructed something that refuses to play it safe, layering peony's powdery femininity against pink pepper's almost aggressive bite, with bergamot cutting through like a blade of citrus light. This is not a comfortable opening. It's confrontational, slightly peppery on the nerves, as though you've just been startled awake.
What's fascinating is how the leather emerges within the first half-hour, transforming the composition entirely. This isn't a whisper of leather—it's a genuine accord, dark and somewhat animalic, sitting beneath the fruity-floral elements like exposed wood beneath fresh paint. The raspberry feels almost transgressive against this backdrop, adding a tart, jammy quality that shouldn't work but does, whilst jasmine provides the necessary bridge between the spice and the deeper leather tones.
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3.8/5 (301)