Io Capri Carthusia

The corn mint and eucalyptus combination hits with immediate cool intensity—almost throat-catching in its clarity—whilst litsea cubeba adds a green-citrus peppery edge that makes you think of crushed herbs rather than fresh fruit. Within ninety seconds, lemon and orange appear as supporting players, their brightness filtered through the mineral-green accord that already dominates.

Star anise's subtle licorice warmth emerges around the twenty-minute mark, softening the mint's severity. Fig and jasmine materialise as a creamy floral thread running through the composition, whilst lemongrass and apple blossom maintain the fragrance's green, slightly sharp character. This phase—roughly ninety minutes to two hours—represents the fragrance at its most harmonious, when every note element is present and conversant.

By the fourth hour, the heart notes have largely evaporated, leaving only tobacco flower's warm, slightly leathery quality and seagrass's subtle ozonic-salty character sketching a faint outline on skin. The fragrance becomes a whisper, an olfactory memory rather than a present scent—evocative of sea air and dried herbs rather than anything recognisably perfumed. Within five to six hours, it fades almost entirely, leaving only a vague herbaceous warmth and perhaps the faintest salt note.