Eau Mer
Pekji (2015)

Sampling Pekji Eaumer, a fittingly nautical-adjacent blend, with elements that remind me of the sea and marine communities, albeit without any heavily marine notes. It’s a green, vegetal, fresh, floral blend with darker, spicier elements like vetiver and anise, but with a lovely blend of lavender, lime, jasine, musk, and just a hint of ambergris filling out the middle. It’s pleasant while still being a bit provocative, an unusual but fitting blend of notes that bring me from the earth to the sea in one whiff. As I’d expect, it’s a little sharper and fresher in the opening, with more focus on the citrus notes, especially, but then is a bit darker and moodier in the dry down, with a whole lot more of the vetiver. It’s not quite as dense or strong as Battaniye but still performs pretty well. It terms of concept, it reminds me a bit of Masque Milano Terralba in that it doesn’t smell like the sea, but it smells like being on land near the sea.

Like the rest of the line, Eaumer is priced at $165 for 50ml, in EDP concentration, sold at Luckyscent and a few other boutiques. I’m pleased with its performance and find it to be an interesting wear, one I’ll have to try some more.

7 out of 10

Lively, sheer, greenish scent. Not quite citrus-y. Summery. Herbal-vetiver mix is delightful. I don't smell anything oceanic here. It's more like brush, earth, and trees, near a freshwater lake, with a strong breeze. Vetiver, is the darling here.

Most other notes just blend together. A good mix. I do get a pop of lavender now and again.

Vetiver and herbs go on and on.

A freshly spicy salty/mineral chypre. Frankly I find this olfactory hybrid moderately interesting despite kind of pale and somewhat onedimensional in its central phase. Nothing new under the sun anyway. Pekji Eau Mer opens with a liquid-spicy/green peel-conjuring/minty-aromatic/floral (citrus groves-like) kind of sour synthetic blast a la Atelier Cologne Trefle Pur (namely like an hyper traditional fresh-aromatic-hesperidic eau de cologne as several 4711, Guerlain's Aqua Allegoria, Roger&Gallet etc) immediately flanked by a salty/iodate and decidedly anisic-medicinal vibe (deriving from mineral chlorine) and by a fleeting jasmine note incredibly diaphane like a meteor. Chlorine is the real soul of this mineral-citric-calonic experimental accord and it provides a detergent metallic, deliberately synthetic aura (something ideally in a middle way between a citrus grove close to the sea and an hyperbaric chamber). Saltiness seems like partially coming from vetiver as ideally combined with anise/angelica, ozonic patterns and woods. Jasmine is ghostly, namely quite notable in the middle of the first citric blast but progressively disappearing in the "void" of core and dry down. In this final phase Eau Mer is not so distant from Kenzo Air (salty, anisic, licoricey, woody). I get partially a minty/litchi-like/citric presence a la Just Cavalli Blue as well. Further olfactive references jumping on my moonshiny mind? Yes, Kenzo Homme Eau de Toilette Boisee, Terre d'Hermes and Guerlain L'homme L'Eau Boisee. Interesting but not exactly my cup of tea.

This reminds me of being at the lake as a child. It has a brisk, sparkly-sweet top note that I assume is jasmine and is backed by a gasoline smell with anise that gives it a clean algae vibe. It's heavy if I'm not in a good mood, but it's conceptually very interesting and nice when I get a whiff on the wind.

I don't get the chlorine note specifically, and I don't get the hospital reference. That's a good thing, though. This fragrance has a lot of contrast you don't smell everywhere.

Either you have courage or you have not! Either you are an artist or you're pathetic! This looks like a job badly copied.
How boring! Another perfume for bloggers!

There are many unpretentious perfumers because they can't be pretentious as they demand the "dirty work" to bloggers!

In fact it seems that bloggers know perfectly to define what is beautiful and what is ugly! The both, perfumer and blogger, are a combination as dog and owner, where the dog is obviously the perfumer.

Bloggers, you need dogs! A dog/perfumer is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.

In my exploration of Pekji creations going first on the ones i thought i wouldn't like I chose as a second candidate Eau Mer. The name is a play on the pronunciation, which in French is similar to pronunciation of its creator's name, Omer, and contains an aquatic theme, the second most dreaded subject for me after animalic scents.

I was less afraid tough after I read the description of Eau Mer, which is inspired by Omer childhood memories, when his uncle took him and his brother to fish. The author defines it as an overview of an aromatic and acquatic mediterranean aroma - a mixture of ocean salt smell, gasoline, jasmine, algae, ouzo. On another level, the author also defines a clean aroma, a sterile hospital environment, where the smell is mixed with water from the ocean breeze.

In my view, Eau Mer explores interestingly the salty nuances that you can get both of vetiver and anise roots - here represented by the typical alcoholic drink of Greece and the island of Chypre, Ouzo. Vetiver seems to me the main thing here, providing the damp aroma and herbal algae and the distant water tap. The opening has a metallic, salty tone, but that blends to the clean aroma and slightly floral jasmine - which I suspect to be the sambac variety due the neroli flower nuance that variety that this variety has and that is in evidence here. The anise smell appears soon after, and it is interesting that it seems in fact less sweet here, slightly alcoholic and complementing the light floral smell. As it reaches the base, vetiver gets increasingly dominant, an slightly salty and green woody aroma that makes me think of a very good quality vetiver and that intrigues me for not having the earthy nuance so evident.

Just as Holy Shit, Eau Mer was a pleasant surprise, one that I did not expect to like and that pleased me. In its exploration, it mades me think of an old classic Annick Goutal which was recently reformulated- Annick Goutal Vetiver - but without the watermelon nuance that sounded strange at the Annick creation. It is a creation that fulfills the purpose of the author's memory at the same time offering a quality interpretation thereof and easy to use. Certainly falls under the category of good vetiver perfumes.