Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Pink pepper cracks across the skin with immediate vivacity, cutting through the Turkish rose's slightly green, soapy opening. There's an almost startling brightness here, a peppery bite that announces the fragrance has no interest in immediate charm—it's confrontational, demanding attention rather than admiration.
The rose absolute deepens into something darker and more resinous as frankincense emerges with clinical precision. The woody and smoky accords (88% and 76% respectively) become the fragrance's true skeleton; the oud settles in with a leathered, slightly animalic quality that transforms the composition into something almost chiaroscuro—alternating between translucent and opaque.
The base settles into a dense, earthy resinousness where labdanum and oakmoss create a warm, almost tobacco-like undertone. Vetiver extends the dry, mineral-rich conclusion indefinitely, leaving behind something that feels less like a traditional fragrance trail and more like residual smoke clinging to your clothes and skin—intimate, fading, but impossible to fully remove.
Dawn is a fragrance that takes its name literally—it captures that liminal moment when darkness recedes and smoke still lingers in the air. Carlos Benaïm has crafted something defiantly austere, a scent that refuses to coddle. The Turkish rose doesn't arrive as a romantic flourish but as a structural element, its slightly green, almost peppery character bruised by pink pepper that cuts rather than sweetens. This is a rose stripped of sentimentality, operating more as a tart counterpoint to what's coming.
What comes is profound resinousness. The frankincense in the heart doesn't smell like temple incense or spiritual reverence—it's dry, almost acrid, with an almost medicinal quality that the rose absolute cannot soften. Together they create something austere and slightly uncomfortable, in the most compelling way. This is where the fragrance's woody accord (88%) becomes increasingly prominent; the oud isn't honeyed or creamy but functions as another resinous layer, amplifying the smoky character (76%) that permeates the entire composition.
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3.9/5 (127)