We have no specific language for smell - a frustrating fact that leaves us without words dedicated to describing the odours we encounter and the emotional impact they may have on us. But out of frustration comes creativity, and creativity allows us to make connections between language and scent in an unconventional way: by stealing.
That’s right, the best way to talk about fragrance is to steal from the language of other senses. It’s the words we use to describe colour, emotion, music, flavour, and touch that help demystify the often-intangible world of scent. Perhaps the most meaningful way to talk about scent is to describe it using the language of texture.
Each fragrance material has a distinct texture profile. Take orris, for example. Orris can be smooth and buttery, but it can also be powdery and sometimes even doughy. Wood notes can feel solid or even creamy, whilst citrus notes can present as bubbly and effervescent. Mixing all of these textures together in a perfume can create something so tangible, it almost feels three-dimensional – as if one can reach out and touch the perfume emanating from their skin.
The Escentric Molecules fragrances each have a distinct texture profile. These are fragrances that feel as much as they smell, with clever aroma-molecules used to bring out and amplify the beautiful variety of textures within naturals, making for a textural collection with so much to feel.
Take a closer look at the molecular textures of the Escentric Molecules collection.
Despite being a single aroma-molecule, Iso E Super, Molecule 01 is a distinctly complex, textural scent filled with juxtapositions. It’s entirely soft but also distinctly expansive and spacious, with a smooth texture that evokes a feeling of heavily sanded woodgrain. This is the texture of a tree with the bark removed and the cool, perfectly smooth trunk revealed.
Escentric 01: Plush Velvet
Escentric 01 takes the smoothness of Iso E Super (it makes up 65% of the formula) and expands it with the bubbly sheen of aldehydes and the powdery plushness of orris. A sense of fluffiness comes from Muscone, and a dry, grainy woody character from incense. Altogether, Escentric 01 feels like a fine cut of plush, purple velvet wrapped around solid wood.
Molecule 02: Silver Lamé
Texturally, Ambroxan is the polar opposite of Iso E Super, making Escentric Molecules' second molecular fragrance an entirely different experience from the first. Chemically identical to Ambrox, which is extracted from ambergris, Ambroxan has a transparent, crystalline feel. It’s silky with a silvery sheen and a fluid, melting texture. On the skin, Molecule 02 feels like cool silver lamé running through the hand in constant flowing motion.
Escentric 04: Sharp Milk
Javanol is a synthetic sandalwood molecule that is known for its transparency and radiance. Escentric 04 uses this radiance in unconventional ways, creating a sense of tension between a delicate milkiness and an angular sharpness. In Escentric 04, biting grapefruit and bitter green marijuana slice through buttery orris and Polysantol to create this unique texture that feels like two opposing things all at once – a tension that’s like cutting milk with a knife.
Molecule 05: Glittering Bark
Out of all of the aroma-molecules in the perfumer’s palette, few are more complex and multifaceted than Cashmeran, making Molecule 05 one of the most intriguing and textural in the collection. It’s woody and warm, with a plush, powdery texture, but it also has a resinous feel and a sharp, pine-like facet that evokes a sense of arid dryness. It even boasts hints of sweetness and leather too (I told you it was complex…). Consisting of only Cashmeran, Molecule 05 is radiant and vibrant with an almost shimmering quality to it, evoking the intricate woodgrain of bark, glittering in the sun.
Escentric 05: Sun-baked Rocks
The olfactory relationship between Molecule 05 and Escentric 05 is transformative. Through the magic of perfumery, the Cashmeran that is so bold in Molecule 05 becomes entirely new in Escentric 05, yet its signature is immediately recognisable. In Escentric 05, Cashmeran the chameleon transforms into a sun-baked landscape of herbaceous shrubs and dusty rocks. It feels sharp, rugged, and angular, with a distinct sense of radiating heat.
