Hyde 
Hiram Green (2018)

Dark, smoky leather with a faint combination of notes that slightly resembles charred meat. Perhaps not as scary as that sounds, this is a lovely fragrance for anyone in the mood for a reasonably strong, wall-of-scent dark leather. Performance is quite solid considering this is 100% natural. I've tried a few Hiram Green scents and generally find that most are either "unisex but weird" or "technically unisex but leaning feminine"; I'd put this in the former camp, and it actually seems to lean a bit masculine due to the barbecued leather aspect. I'm not sure how often I could wear this, but I really like it and would love a full bottle.

Hiram Green Hyde is my second try from this house (after Slowdive) and a celebrated leather scent, which, upon first spray, absolutely delivers this vision. Much like Slowdive is a dark and spicy (albeit also sweet) honey scent, Hyde is a spicy leather scent with resinous accents and just a touch of sweetness to prevent it from being too sharp. It maintains a bit of a burnt character with birch tar, specifically, and the smoky side of labdanum, I suspect, with just a slight tartness and levity provided via lemon and bergamot. Vanilla being listed as a note is not wholly surprising but Hyde is by no means a sweet fragrance. Instead, it sits spicy without being animalic, peppery, or sharp, always an impressive feat, being spicy but not too spicy.

Overall, this is very impressive, with the leather, birch tar, and labdanum telling most of the story, with interesting quirks provided by the other notes, but on the whole, a masterful, rich execution. I just might have to pick up this and Slowdive this year, but I probably will owe both a revisit at some point first.

In the US, Hiram Green is priced at $165 for 50ml in EDP concentration, very reasonable in light of its quality and performance (I said the same of Slowdive), and it is sold via several great boutiques: Indigo Perfumery, Tigerlily Perfumery, Luckyscent, and Ave Parfum.

8 out of 10

HYDE is hauntingly beautiful ... and hauntingly is the right word because it haunts ones attention for many hours, the wearer as well as the people around. The opening is too aggressive: burnt rubber, camp fire and some incense. As it mellows with time it becomes more and more agreeable and addictive. It is still camp fire and incense but sweeter and less burnt plastic. Hours later it's bright and shinning but the dangerous projection of the opening really calms down. It is the dry down that I love and which goes on and on... luckily. HYDE lingers on clothes for days, on the skin ... next day during shower I get strong marvelous wafts of it as warm water hits the skin. I tend to spray in the back of my neck and some goes to my hair. Shampooing it off the next morning is not easy! The only downside of HYDE is that it is not a crowd pleaser and this makes wearing it a bit of a conundrum. My partner doesn't like that it is so strong and overpowering so I don't wear it around him. But I do love the journey HYDE takes me. I purchased a sample from HG, I only apply two little sprays and that's enough for this masterpiece to dazzle me for the day. HYDE is dry and at times acrid so I see how many people won't be able to stand it. This is as far as niche perfumery can take you from a designer juice. Sample it... it's worth it.

Thumbs up all the way. I like them smoky and sweet AND I LOVE HYDE. Patchouli 24 was my former favorite smoke bomb and Hyde takes the crown, easily. No contest. This Hiram Green masterpiece makes Le Labo's most interesting scent seem thin and timid.

There is so much honeyed beauty laying in wait behind the veils of smoke... a T Rex sized floral impression, some brûléed lemon and bitter orange... on a table between sweet sugared blackberries and big bodied wine.

This scent is a villain. It fills up the alleys and growls in the shadows. It revs like a motorcycle. Ride it.