Cannon
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
A sharp, almost aggressive burst of cardamom and fennel seeds crashes against your skin, immediately shadowed by the aquatic accord's cool salinity. Within seconds, ambrette seed absolute arrives like a skin-musk backdrop, warm and slightly animalic, preventing the spice from becoming purely culinary.
Clary sage darkens everything, introducing an herbal, almost green-tea bitterness that clashes beautifully with tuberose's reluctant floral presence. Neroli struggles beneath this weight, offering only fleeting citrus brightness before the composition reasserts its cooler, more austere character—aquatic notes now clearly dominating, with that mineral algae absolute becoming increasingly prominent.
The fragrance retreats into its base's softer contours, though "soft" remains relative; vetiver and ambergris emerge with sourmilk's peculiar acrid tang preventing sentimentality. What remains is more skin-scent than projection—a slightly salty, herbal-woody second skin that smells faintly of rain-dampened stone and seaweed.
Ciel occupies an unusual territory—neither fully aquatic nor entirely herbal, it's a fragrance that smells like standing at the edge of something vast and unknowable. Julien Rasquinet constructs this 2008 composition around a surprisingly bold central tension: the warm, almost medicinal spice of Guatemala cardamom and fennel crashes against a tuberose-neroli heart that refuses to soften into conventional florality. Instead of the expected creamy indulgence, tuberose here reads austere, almost bitter, anchored by clary sage's herbal darkness. It's the aquatic accord—that elusive 100% marker—that acts as the true skeleton, threading through everything like a salt-tinged breeze, preventing the fragrance from ever settling into comfort.
The algae absolute in the base is the real statement-maker, lending something vaguely mineral and slightly disconcerting beneath the ambergris and vetiver. This isn't aquatic in the ozonic, manufactured sense; it's more primal, evoking brackish tidal pools and weathered driftwood rather than clean air. The sourmilk note—an unusual choice—adds an almost acrid edge that prevents the ambergris from becoming sweet or powdery.
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3.6/5 (236)