Synthetic Jungle
Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle (2021)

Humid foliage, gargantuan monstera leaves, Victoria amazonica, ferns that reach the heavens, and intensely fragrant pearly white flowers: this is what I envision with Synthetic Jungle. It's an alternate dimension where muguet grow gigantic bells that you could crawl into, they droop over and drop condensation that splashes on your head and you start feeling indistinguishable from the botany enveloping you.

Bluebells carpet the forest floor, a distant flute is heard, much like that which is heard in Edgar Froese's "Epsilon in Malaysian Pale." I can almost taste it all, especially the black currant, I feel its tartness in the back of my throat, making my mouth water. Boxwood hedges form a maze, with peculiar climbing vines weaving in and out, with showy pitchers that upon closer inspection, look to be carnivorous, insects entranced by their honeydew, blissfully drowning in ecstasy. Crunchy wet umbellifers crushed and dirty, a mosaic of feathery, parsley-like leaves of varying shades of green, a garden gone feral.

It begs the question of natural vs synthetic and how it's all a matter of perception and experience. Does our insatiable need to identify what we smell rely primarily on a posteriori epistemology or are there other parts in motion? This fragrance feels like those "other parts" in motion. The real and the imaginary are not so easily delineated when beholding the alchemy of scent. Synthetic Jungle escorts the nose into a space of beauty and puzzlement where the idea of naturalism is rendered supernatural.

This is terrific - basically the bitter green half of L'Ombre Dans L'Eau, and all the better for it, as the berry-rose half is a bit dated at this point.

Beautiful, familiar, and if you like green-florals, a new take on a well-worn tune.

Warning - don't be heavy-handed - this is potent stuff.

Like Wingie, I had high expectations for this fragrance as I enjoy green fragrances. It definitely is one of the greenest fragrances I have encountered, however, there is a note, possibly hyacinth, that makes it feel a bit too harsh and pushes it into the white floral territory. If it had a different direction and went into a tomato stem note direction instead, I would have preferred it.

In comparison to Diptyque's L'Ombre Dans Leau, I prefer the latter as it feels more realistic, lush, and watery. Nevertheless, Synthetic Jungle has impressive performance, especially for a green fragrance. Furthermore, the name suits the fragrance well, as you do get a synthetic interpretation of lily of the valley. Overall, it smells like "fresh crushed green peppers", as Wingie points out, but with some rough edges that make the entire composition feel a bit artificial or synthetic.

Being synthetic is not necessarily bad, but if you were hoping for a green fragrance like L'Ombre Dans Leau, you may be disappointed.

Synthetic Jungle feels to me like the future of green chypres, a genre I love. The first part is an encyclopedia of all the green notes in perfumery, from galbanum to tomato stem, accompanied by tons of green and white florals. Underneath, a very elegant dry leathery woody base, which becomes evident after several hours. It is at this stage that one is reminded of that old classic, Bandit, but with the proportion of green and leather reversed. Very powerful, it lasts forever, and smells great from top to bottom.

I love green fragrances and had very high hopes for this one, but it was unfortunately a hard pass. To me it smells exactly like fresh crushed green peppers over lily of the valley; not really what I want from a green perfume, and not what I want to smell like.

People who don’t normally go for green fragrances may like this, but if you love the old-school greens like No. 19, Silences, Vent Vert, Private Collection etc, I think you might be disappointed with Synthetic Jungle. It’s not a traditional green/galbanum accord at all. The last great green floral in this respect was Tom Ford Vert de Fleur - now sadly discontinued.

Pretty Green Machine

I love the green genre but Synthetic Jungle left me cold. It's a little too perfect, too re-touched for my taste.

I do enjoy the opening which features sap woven into the greens. It's earthy but does not aspire to realism. It's a bright, Instagram-filtered green that lacks the dark, moist shadows of French Lover or the organic, vegetal green compositions that I enjoy. More than synthetic, a word that can carry pejorative connotations, Synthetic Jungle makes me think of cinematography.

As for the florals, it is hyacinth and muguet forward to me though jasmine comes out in the dry down as the fragrance softens. There is nothing indolic that would sully its character.

While it has classic influences, it's not as sharp as classic vintage greens and it's sleeker in the drydown. I think it's a great effort as a contemporary green but ultimately, it feels a little soulless. I admit this is coming from a strong personal bias so this sits on the high end of neutral for me.