Heeley
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The peppermint hits like a mentholated slap, sharp enough to make your eyes water slightly, with bergamot's bitter citrus edge cutting through like a knife. It's bracingly cold, almost medicinal in its intensity, with spearmint adding a chewable, green sweetness that prevents it from tipping into cough drop territory.
As the initial shock subsides, green tea emerges with its characteristic tannic dryness, lending a soft vegetal quality that feels freshly steeped rather than perfumey. Freesia hovers translucently in the background, adding a barely-there soapiness that makes the mint feel cleaner, more refined, whilst the menthol slowly loses its aggressive edge.
What remains is a pale shadow of cedar—dry, almost papery—with ghostly traces of mint clinging to the skin like the memory of toothpaste. The wood never gains warmth or depth; instead, it maintains the fragrance's resolutely cool character until it disappears entirely, leaving only the faintest whisper of something green and aromatic.
Heeley's Menthe Fraîche is an unapologetically bracing cologne that prioritises clarity over complexity. The peppermint arrives with the crystalline snap of a freshly broken stem, its camphoraceous coolness amplified rather than softened by spearmint's rounder, sweeter menthol. Bergamot adds a citric brightness that feels more zesty than traditionally colognic—it's the pith and oil, not the juice. This isn't mint for the sake of freshness as an abstract concept; it's mint as the main event, presented with botanical precision.
The green tea in the heart provides a subtle vegetal astringency, though it remains largely in service to the mint rather than challenging it for dominance. Freesia adds a whisper of soapiness—think freshly laundered linen rather than florist's shop—whilst the white cedar in the base offers a pale, pencil-shaving woodiness that never ventures into anything resembling warmth. The overall impression is of a scent stripped back to its essentials: this is what mint actually smells like when you're not drowning it in vanilla or burying it under layers of aromatic lavender.
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3.6/5 (180)