Notes: fig, bergamot, cardamom, blackcurrant, apple, tiare, praline, cedar, peach flower
Stockholm-based Byredo released their first fragrances earlier this year. Pulp was one that sounded most intriguing to me, and luckily I was able to obtain a bottle via Sniffapalooza. I expected something fruity and sweet, yet different from all of the fruity sweet mainstream perfumes that have flooded the market in recent years. Oh, it's different all right.
Pulp opens with a shocking neon greenness, sharp like being stabbed in the frontal lobe with a sheaf of leaves. This is fig. It's simultaneously sweet and bitter and slightly unripe. Under the greenery lingers a berryish note, somewhat curranty but to me more like crushed strawberries. The fig, and perhaps some appleyness, combines to create a tart aroma that's a lot like balsamic vinegar poured over those strawberries. Yeah - it's wild like that.
As it dries down, the sharp and tart subside and reveal a bit of mellow sweetness and a hint of woods.
That's what it smells like on me. On my husband, it's quite different. On him it's like a greenmarket - full of ripe delicious fruit and flowers. The apple is very distinct and smells of peel as well as the fruit. The fig is green but not painfully so. And there's no vinegar. And there's a bit of cardamom peeking through.
Completely unfair is what it is. And he ordinarily wouldn't wear a scent like this in public. Hmpf.
