Perfume Review: Liz Zorn Grand Canyon

Thanks to a kind fellow perfume lover, I got to try several Liz Zorn fragrances. I was impressed by all and loved one, the subject of this post. "Inspired by the vastness and colors of the American Grand Canyon", the perfumer blended citruses, spices and woods to create a fragrance which I perceive as color copper, the color of sunset over the almost Marcian landscape of Arizona. Before smelling the fragrance, going by the name alone, I imagined something much sharper and more rugged. In reality, Grand Canyon mixes the sweet (blood orange, clementine) with the dry (black pepper) and the soft (benzoin, honey, myrrh) with the sharp (laurel leaf, vetiver), striking a perfect balance. The citruses are very prominent on me, but, smelled alongside woods and resins, they appear ripe, nectareous and languid, rather than sparkly, fresh and tangy. Myrrh is apparent as well, a round, soft, enveloping note, completely void here of the medicinal undertone that I dislike. And, finally, pepper, the third star note, is the black scar on the soft coppery velvet of the composition, striking and alluring. Liz Zorn calls Grand Canyon a comforting scent, and that is how I perceive it as well. On a cold day like today, it wraps me in its warmth like a gorgeous Southwestern shawl. Grand Canyon is available on lizzorn.com, $28.00-$89.00. The painting is Grand Canyon by R. C. Gorman.