Alan Bray
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Elemi resin clashes immediately with purple basil's peppery snap, whilst black tea's dry astringency and that strange disgust note create an almost medicinal, slightly off-putting introduction—challenging rather than welcoming, as though the fragrance is testing your commitment.
Birch and Siberian stone pine emerge with unexpected clarity, their crisp, almost turpentine-like character intensifying as tobacco leaf unfurls with a green, dried-herb quality rather than sweetness; the leather begins its steady creep forward, initially subtle but increasingly dominant.
Cade juniper wood and black leather settle into a austere, slightly smoky base, with vetiver providing skeletal structure rather than roundness; the composition becomes increasingly monolithic and grey, a lingering impression of worn saddle leather and burned wood that persists with admirable tenacity despite modest longevity claims.
Edem is a deliberately dissonant fragrance that refuses to seduce—instead, it provokes and unsettles in ways that prove genuinely compelling. Loïc Bisceglie has constructed something genuinely strange here: the elemi resin arrives with a peculiar medicinal brightness, immediately tempered by purple basil's peppery greenness and black tea's astringent tannins. That listed "disgust" accord (presumably a translucent, slightly sour note) creates an almost confrontational opening, as though the fragrance is actively resisting your affection.
What makes Edem remarkable is how it refuses the expected trajectory. Rather than softening into comfort, it doubles down into its leather-and-tobacco core, where birch and Siberian stone pine inject a crisp, almost medicinal woodiness—not the rounded warmth of typical aromatic woods, but something closer to fresh-hewn timber and resinous sap. The tobacco doesn't smell like a cosy pipe; it's acerbic, slightly green, reminiscent of dried leaf rather than sweet indulgence.
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Molton Brown
3.9/5 (94)