Halston
Halston
89 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Galbanum crackles like electricity against sage, whilst tarragon and caraway create an almost savoury opening—green, slightly peppery, almost culinary. The vodka accord adds an unexpected petrol-like dryness that cuts through the softer jasmine and tuberose, keeping everything austere and intellectually bracing.
Nutmeg and cinnamon arrive with teeth, sharpening rather than sweetening the composition, whilst that grass note introduces a surprising tea-like greenness. Chamomile and bay leaf reinforce the herbal, almost apothecary character, creating a phase that feels less perfume and more deliberately constructed aromatic experience—distinctly uncomfortable, distinctly intentional.
Frankincense and labdanum settle into a resinous base where tonka's tentative sweetness finally softens the edges, leather offering skin-close warmth. The oakmoss and cedarwood create an earthy, slightly smoky foundation that persists as a whisper rather than a shout, whilst musk remains diffuse, never breaking the composition's carefully maintained restraint.
Catalyst for Men is a brutalist fragrance in the finest sense—all sharp angles and architectural precision, with no interest in flattering or seducing. Ilias Ermenidis has constructed something deliberately confrontational here, a composition where galbanum's green-glass bite refuses to soften against sage's herbal insistence. The opening salvo is almost medicinal in its honesty: tarragon cuts through jasmine like a blade through velvet, whilst that vodka accord (a note rarely seen in masculine fragrances) adds a metallic, almost solvent-like dryness that prevents any cloying drift.
What emerges is a fragrance for the man who finds conventional masculinity insufferable. Nutmeg and cinnamon arrive not as warming spices but as irritants—they sharpen rather than round off the composition's edges. The grass note is particularly revelatory, creating an almost green-tea-like freshness that collides with bay leaf's slightly medicinal bitterness. This is not a comfort scent; it's a provocative statement, the olfactory equivalent of an austere industrial space with precisely calibrated lighting.
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3.6/5 (141)