JMT
O'Driù (2012)

Jasmine mean time...

TOP: Marrakesh, London, Brindisi
MID: Suez, Calcutta, Hong Kong
BASE: San Francisco, New York, Liverpool

Dark, indolic, timeless...

It's very nice that O'Driu made a fragrance without that strange and exotic herbal note! :D
There are other notes beside jasmine in this fragrance for sure.
The opening is a very pleasant smell of jasmine with a little bit of sweetness and I can smell some kind of earthy feeling as well.
Imagine you take out the jasmine shrub from the ground, then you smell the flowers and the roots both at the same time!
It's floral, rooty and earthy which is very nice.
After just a few minutes that earthy feeling disappeared and the sweetness became much stronger.
In the mid I can only smell creamy and sweet jasmine note which reminded me of skin creams!
Yup, the smell exactly remind my of a nice floral skin cream but the big difference here is you can buy that cream for under $10!
It's not bad smell, but who want to spend such a high price and then smell like a cheap skin cream?!
In the base the sweetness settled down and some spices kicked in.
In the base I can smell a mellow jasmine note with a little bit and sweetness and some spices.
The spices smell almost like curry to my nose but they are very smooth and inoffensive.
Projection is very good but longevity is average on my skin. I've got only 5 hours with this.

A mean dark jasmineThe opening blast is a harsh cumin-induced dirty herbal-citrus vegetal note, which lasts about a minute on my skin. Then the jasmine, the core note of this fragrance, arises, a beautiful rich jasmine that is infused with a dark cumin that has a very dirty character. Add to this a salty-spicy drydown and you get the main components of JMT. This is not a pretty, floral jasmine, but a tart, earthy and dirty one. The natural ingredients are of a most amazing quality, with good silage and excellent projection. Longevity is great with over ten hours, albeit very close to my skin for the last four. A great spring fragrance.

"Jasmine mean time", well, i was lucky to have the chance to test this limited edition standout gem from O'Driu' due the aforementioned brand's courtesy in shipping to me some vials at home. JMT starts effectively with a signature natural moderate blast of citrus, culinary spices (mostly saffron or kurcuma and fragrant/balsamic cumin) and aromatic herbs, so (i absolutely agree with drseid) the initial effect i detect (while a fragrant and natural jasmine stands down ready to develop its hug) is kind of "fishy", yes i pick some weird piquant botanic "sweet saltiness" up which heralds the indolic (or better lymphatic/herbal) jasmine blooming up that starts in a while to soften the spicy/herbal strength, to characterize the aroma and to sweeten the wake. The saltiness (almost a dissonant herbal subtle acidity-but i don't know if i rightly express my feel) is produced by the brew of the natural culinary elements in connection with the floral lymphatic effect (the effect you could have whether decide to rub your skin with a bunch of flowers and herbs in the middle of a meadow). There is a sort of almost edible green chili pepper aromatic feel ( may be combined with hints of basil) in the background which i like so much. The jasmine seems cedary and musky but is plain and dominant in its gorgeous rising "naturalness", just surrounded by a sort of wet weeds final effect. JMT is a wonderful aromatic juice, so bracing and comforting at morning, so distinguished along the day in its sombre refinement elicited by the heady sinister jasmine. Virile in my opinion and unfortunately inaccessible.

MT (Jasmine Mean Time) opens with a large dose of cumin, capsicum and the familiar combination of the aggressive culinary herbs the house is known to use frequently in many of its compositions. The faintest undertone of a similar “fishy” accord early-on to those present in a couple other Pregoni compositions is here in JMT as well, but is extremely subtle and not off-putting in the slightest with Pregoni using it just as a background binder to the spice and not in any way as the “feature”. As the culinary mixture and capsicum recedes after lingering into the early heart notes, JMT shows its true character as an absolutely gorgeous jasmine note emerges coupling with saffron spice to create a sublime combination that is ever so slightly sweet remaining through the dry-down while just a faint trace of cumin remains to dirty up the scent ever so slightly. Projection and longevity are superb.

JMT has just the right quantity of spice and mildly sweet notes to maintain perfect balance throughout. It should be noted that the cumin used does not evoke the smell of body odor as a lot of cumin based fragrance compositions do, instead presenting the cumin as it smells in your kitchen. The jasmine and saffron combo in JMT is just heavenly smelling and easily is the best implementation of jasmine I have experienced to date in a fragrance. The bottom line is JMT is another stellar release from the folks of O'driu and is definitely a success in every way. Success or not, with only 8 bottles on offer at a relatively lofty price point of 1600 euros for a 50 ml bottle JMT will most likely only be accessible by a handful of people who have the financial means to acquire it… I won't be among that group regrettably, but I am certainly envious of them. JMT earns a near-masterpiece rating of 4.5 stars out of 5.