Particle Beam: Escentric Molecules Escentric 03

By Tom Escentric Molecules is an interesting concept. Each of the numbers has two scents in the line. Escentric are scents that are based around a particular scent: 01 is Iso E Super, a woody accord that's pretty instantly recognizable. 02 is Ambroxan, the minerally synthetic version of ambergris. 03 is Veteveryle Acetate, which you, clever boots will know as vetiver. The single note Molecule line are just these notes with alcohol, which elicit responses ranging from "I pay you for a few ounces on one chemical when I could buy this by the gallon" to "(perfumer x) is a hack! He got most of (perfume x) by adding to things to this chemical!) To the former, I'd say "sure, but are you going to do that?" You could also make yourself a hamburger but sometimes it's easier to speak clearly and direct your order into the clowns mouth. To the latter (to continue the food analogy) I've cooked a lot of salmon and it's always been pretty darned good. I've had a piece however cooked by David Bouley that made me think I'd never tasted salmon before. I'm a good cook, but I'm no David Bouley. I could mix some ingredients with alcohol and perhaps come up with a wearable scent, but that doesn't make me Edmond Roudnitska.. The other side of these is that it's interesting to see how much depth there is in these single notes. Molecule 03 really does have its own journey as you wear it. You can definitely smell how much Guerlain Vetiver relies on this accord; the brilliance of Guerlain isn't the way that they have masked to it, it's they've allowed it to sing by supporting it with other notes that like a dish by the redoubtable Chef Bouley, add sear and spice and sauce but never, ever get in the way of the star ingredient. Escentric 03 also lets the star ingredient sing. It adds unexpected aspects of ginger and peppercorn to liven the expected citrus (a delicious and startlingly true Mexican lime) opening. Light jasmine and white tea adds tone to the grassy vetiver heart while woods and a wonderful skin musk (Iso E Super and Ambroxan?) smooth out the drydown. Oddly the additions end up being subtractions: all of them shave some of the raw edges off of Molecule 03. Molecule is the Bad Boy of the two. He's like, totally hot but your parents will cut you off if you bring him to tea dance the club. Escentric sends him to charm school: he's still the bad boy, he just learned to cook salmon.. Molecule 03 and Escentric 03 are available at LuckyScent and Aedes, $145 for 100ML. I received my samples from ScentBar.