Flora & Fauna
Rogue Perfumery (2020)

Just for the hell of it, I'm doing this blind. This morning, I got an awesome! opening of something leathery, animalic, and sheeny/glossy (which is how my nose reads civet). Almost passing through territory of Bianchi's The Lover's Tale, but not as musky. Animalic but light; deffo not castoreum. Then a hint of white florals (those big white florals again), with something mentholated, so tuberose rather than jasmine, I think. Blows a fresh breeze through the animals, keeping the whole,thing very balanced/restrained. Quite dry, gaining in earthiness. Here's where it got weird : I could have sworn there is patchouli and the sweetness of myrrh in the base, and this became stronger, reminding me of the current version of Etro's Messe de Minuit, of all things. When the ambery, vanilla/labdanum drydown showed up, I was even more strongly reminded. In a good way (surprising seeing as MdM is not one of my favourite Etros). More fauna than flora. As with Tuberose and Moss, I was getting wafts all day.

Now, either I missed the opening this morning, or Flora and Fauna has the capacity to wear differently on different occasions, but I did a respray this evening, and got an opening of bergamot, and the big white mentholated florals, and nothing like as much in the way of leather/animalics. Tonight it's flora rather than fauna. Anyone else get this change in emphasis ? I'm sure the drydown will even it out. Ah, here comes the earthiness, so yes. it's going to the same place.

This too is very wearable, very well-blended. More approachable. Thumbs up.
Not all scents have to be challenging (stares pointedly at sample of Hiram Green's bad boy Hyde, which I've been wearing recently).
I have to say that I'm liking the current batch of samples better than the original batch of samples (C-S, Fl'A, D, TV, MI, LeC). This is probably heresy. They seem less shouty and CAPSLOCK nose-searing. Better balanced, and blended ?? Less bergamot ? Or maybe I'm getting the hang of this house. I'm not a vintage perfumes aficionado. T&M and F&F don't strike me as having a retro/vintage vibe.

Flora & Fauna opens with a tangy apricot and bergamot fruit tandem with just a touch of underlying supporting green oakmoss before gradually transitioning to its heart. As the composition enters its early heart the bergamot recedes, but the oakmoss enhanced apricot fruit remains, adding moderately dulled rose and slightly powdery orris to the mix, with just slightly sweet, leathery, ambery labdanum, and a hint of animalic civet support. During the late dry-down, the fruity floral aspects recede though never completely vacate, leaving the leathery, ambery labdanum from the base to take on the starring role, with the slightly animalic civet also remaining, bolstering the labdanum's leathery facet further with a touch of earthy patchouli and the remaining oakmoss support to round things off through the finish. Projection is good and longevity excellent at around 12 hours on skin.

I tend to shy away from all-natural compositions, as usually the perfume lacks depth, performance metrics or most commonly both. It was with that pessimistic outlook that I tried Flora & Fauna, the first all-natural release from the extremely gifted perfumer Manuel Cross. Now having worn the composition on skin a few times, I can safely say both composition quality and performance are *very* much intact. At its core, Flora & Fauna has old school classically structured floral-leather chypre written all over it, with its fruity apricot and bergamot open with oakmoss never the star but detectable throughout, and its sublime leathery labdanum led dry-down. Some have compared it to classic Guerlain masterpiece compositions like Mitsouko and L'Here Bleue, but while I can see where they are coming from, I find Flora & Fauna to be distinctive enough that it stands on its own, while staying reverent to those past greats. The fact that Mr. Cross could accomplish all this without using any synthetics to at least bolster performance is nothing short of a marvel. The bottom line is the $150 per 30ml bottle Flora & Fauna owes some of its classic structure to past greats, but the "excellent" to "near-masterpiece" 4 to 4.5 stars out of 5 rated perfume blazes new distinctive trails of its own to impress anew, earning it a strong recommendation to any lover of classically structured floral-leather chypres (all-natural or not).

ln the beginning, this is a retro-style fruity chypre with just enough animalics to make it interesting. Bergamot can sometimes come off as sharp for me, but here's it's soft & rounded, aided perhaps by the "dried apricot" note. The amber & leather are apparent early on as well, & fifteen minutes in after the fruit has faded, moss & labdanum come into play. After thirty minutes, the labdanum takes centre stage, & it's glorious: warm, smooth & rich, still dominating the drydown several hours later. I get a whiff of a soapy, clean musk thirteen hours in as it's fading.

lt's a long time since l tried Mitsouko, but from memory l can see a distant relationship here. Chypres are not my usual style, but this one is very well done, quite an achievement considering it's all-natural. And l adore that labdanummmmm...

At the time of reviewing there were no official notes listed so I went by what my nose was telling me.

It's a reasonably complex scent but one that I'm familiar with. After a few wearings I conclude it smells very similar to the vintage formulation of Guerlain Vol de Nuit. There's quite a few notes that I believe I'm smelling. There's a floral accord that I believe has at least some orris roots and iris. There's also some spices in the mid as well. As the scent progresses it sweetens slightly which makes me believes there's an oriental notes of either vanilla or benzoin. At the base I pick up on woods and some oak moss. Florals, oriental, and chypre is what I get out of Floral & Fauna. The performance is great, I'm getting good silage for the first few hours before the scent recedes closer to the skin. Very calming soothing this scent is, the drydown is wonderful. A definite winner.