Profumo.it

Seaman's Spice

Dominique Dubrana (Abdessalaam Attar) and I go way back, twenty years next July, even though we’ve never met in person. He is French, has a strong connection with Saharan Africa and lives in Italy. He is also a natural-born (and mostly all-natural) perfumer who seems to find the whole thing ridiculously easy. Over the years he has sent me many of his creations, some of which I have loved and reviewed. He also once memorably sent us a tincture of ambergris, which Tania and I used as a magic layering elixir capable of transmuting any crappy modern fruity floral into a kissing cousin of Dioressence.

I had not heard from him for a while when a few weeks ago the postman dropped off a bottle of his Seaman’s Spice with no explanation attached. By email Dominique let me know that this was his homage to Old Spice. In truth, it is very far from Old Spice, much perkier and less suave. In his typical low-key manner, Dubrana calls it “pleasantly simple and natural” and tells me it is built from vetiver, patchouli, clove and citrus plus some seaweed extract, and indeed all those materials are clearly identifiable.

What is extraordinary about this fragrance and, knowing him, unlikely to be accidental, is that it seems never to smell the same twice. My first impression was extraordinary: it smelled intensely of oysters. Tania did not get that at all and just said “cloves”. I came back to it after a few days and could not get the oysters thing again, just cloves. Another time is was mostly citrus, and another time again patchouli. Yesterday the oysters suddenly came back in the drydown. I’ve never experienced this to such an extent before, and have no idea how it works, but I like it a lot.