Italian Cypress

Italian Cypress is Tom Ford's love letter to the Mediterranean garden at its most austere and uncompromising. This isn't the polite, wearable greenness of mainstream fragrances—it's the almost medicinal snap of crushed galbanum meeting cypress branches still warm from the sun, their resinous sap sticky on your fingers. The opening is a bracing slap of bitter citrus and mint against that unyielding galbanum, a combination that feels more apothecary than perfume counter. As the cypress heart emerges, there's an unexpected spiciness from the carnation-patchouli pairing, adding a peppery, almost clove-like warmth that prevents this from becoming a linear green exercise. The basil contributes an herbal, slightly anisic quality that weaves through the composition like smoke. What makes this compelling is its refusal to seduce—the moss and labdanum base adds earthiness and a subtle amber glow, but never enough to soften the fragrance's angular, almost ascetic character. This is for those who appreciate perfumery that prioritises atmosphere over approachability, who want to smell like a villa in Tuscany rather than a beach resort. Wear it when you're feeling contemplative, when you want a scent that demands attention through sheer presence rather than sweetness. It's unisex in the truest sense: neither masculine nor feminine, simply green, woody, and uncompromising.