Parfums de Marly
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The apple-lavender collision announces itself immediately—tart, aromatic, slightly soapy in the best possible way. Bergamot and mandarin provide citrus scaffolding, but they're supporting players to this peculiar fruit-fougère marriage that shouldn't work yet absolutely does.
Geranium takes centre stage with its rosy-minty duality, whilst violet adds face-powder softness and cardamom begins its slow ascent with warming, almost gin-like spice. The florals never dominate; instead, they create a transitional haze between the fresh opening and the inevitable vanilla onslaught, with jasmine adding just enough indolic richness to suggest skin beneath the sweetness.
Vanilla-coumarin dominance, thick and enveloping, anchored by sandalwood's creamy woodiness and guaiac's smoky depth. The patchouli adds chocolate-earth darkness whilst ambermax provides that contemporary, skin-like radiance—what remains is sweet but never simple, woody but never austere, a tenacious base that lingers for hours with surprising projection.
Layton opens with a jarring contradiction: crisp Granny Smith apple meeting aromatic lavender fougère, creating an unexpected bridge between orchard freshness and barbershop tradition. Hamid Merati-Kashani has crafted something genuinely disorienting here—the apple reads tart and almost cider-like rather than sweet, whilst the lavender carries a camphoraceous edge that prevents any descent into air freshener territory. Within minutes, the geranium rises with its peppery, slightly metallic facets, threading through violet's powdery floralcy and creating an oddly compelling tension. The jasmine remains restrained, more suggestion than statement.
The base is where Layton makes its real statement: a thick, almost gourmand vanilla laced with cardamom's eucalyptus-tinged spice and coumarin's hay-like sweetness. This isn't polite vanilla—it's bolstered by guaiac wood's smoky, medicinal qualities and patchouli's earthy chocolate undertones, creating something simultaneously opulent and slightly rough around the edges. The sandalwood and ambermax provide a creamy, ambery foundation that reads unmistakably expensive, with just enough pepper bite to prevent the sweetness from cloying.
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3.9/5 (321)