If there were only one fragrance in the Nicolai oeuvre you must try, it is New York: a clear statement of good taste and the perfumer’s summation of their mastery. Many paeans have been written and spoken about this fragrance. It is a complex series of layers that immediately enchant: evidently bright and fresh, but also dry and powdery, it renders in scent the same dynamic energy of its namesake: the city that never sleeps. Lively citrus fruits, salubrious aromatic herbs and wormwood, and a confident spine made from lavender, sandalwood, patchouli, and oakmoss define the most evident parts of this rich composition. Rightfully praised, there is nothing as good mannered as this.
Cuir Cuba is principally a Nicolai perfume in a new locale; a specific memory of fine Cuban cigars. A superb structure made of sizzling liquorice, tobacco, and mint gives this lavender fragrance an accent. But the scent is clean, crisp, and sturdy: offering the usual sense of easy confidence that can only be gained from wearing a well-made fragrance. All of this, with exciting tweaks and surprises. Patchouli is something of an emblematic note of the house, worked by the perfumer like a fine seamstress - adding body and voluptuousness to any composition. Here, the simply named Patchouli is bold and powerful. It is all too happy to embrace its green and chypre-like dimensions, happily lush with geranium and oakmoss in particular. The perfume demonstrates all the variety innate to the ingredient, achieving the fine balance between riotous fullness and accuracy in its delivery. Its scent bubble is legendary.
Ambre Cashmere is a modern classic: it is very nearly a gourmand, but shows restraint in spite of temptation to become a full blown feast. It focuses on a classical amber accord made up of benzoin, labdanum, vanilla in happy decadence - Nicolai lets this one melt and ooze, only to then shape this as part of a top-down structure made up of citrus, pepper, iris, and a creamy, musky base. The effect is quite unique on skin, a clever play between the horizontal and the vertical, of which the scent is a bit of both. Aptly named, it is a warming aromatic shawl.
Fig-Tea is pure happiness, of which a smile emerges from its structure: sunny orange, sweet fruity osmanthus, jasmine, green tea. What appears is an image of fig leaves and fruit, almost a holograph but so very natural all the same. An absolutely charming scent that is happily all about fruit notes, crafted with a rare dignity for the category. And if one were to invert this image, they might have Bois Belize. Where Fig Tea has a sort of immediacy - in meaning and sensation, Bois Belize is enigmatic. Its combinations are pleasantly surprising: there is no central note, but rather, a shifting deck of ingredients. Guaiac wood, yerba mate, rose, osmanthus, clove, cardamom - everything happily links arms and takes turns shining in the spotlight. But the scent is definitely dry (even astringent), woody, and smoky - an absolute marvel on the skin.
