Rustle of leaves, Mona di Orio Eau Absolue

Eau Absolue is the newest perfume release from niche perfume house Mona di Orio Parfums. Created by the iconic perfumer Mona di Orio who suddenly passed away at just 42 years old it was introduced to the market thanks to Jeroen Oude Sogtoen, a second founder of the perfume house. This fragrance is classified as citrus aromatic composition, it’s the 16th perfume in the line.

Clementine is the opening note of Eau Absolue. Its sweet pulp, the juicy mash aroma is immediately followed by a generous dose of bergamot. Bergamot with its pungent and astringent quality packed with limonene kind of overpowers the subtlety of clementine and tinges the perfume with the color of bergamot rind. For a few minutes it even leaves an impression like I was not smelling a perfume but a window cleaner or a kitchen cleaning specific. Luckily this smell wears off after 10 minutes or so – if it didn’t disappear I swear this perfume would be totally impossible to wear. Who wants to smell like a cleaning product? Just as I thought – no one.

Weird thing happens at the mark of 20 minutes. The perfume starts evolving but to me it’s more like a revolution than an evolution. When the geranium appears the perfume kind of seems to fall apart to re-shape itself. Geranium effuses strong and aromatic aroma. I could smell both red flowers and a green stems. There was also a high level of crushed geranium leaves packed into Mona di Orio Eau Absolue. It smells like a totally different perfume now even though not much time passed since applying on skin. It makes this fragrance more interesting in terms of eventual further surprises.

After a longer period of time a galbanum resin reveals its presence. The quaint thing is that it doesn’t smell like galbanum itself. It’s more like an amber – and here’s another novelty. It lacks the animalic edge of the ambery tones, instead I would describe the smell as a mineral one. The aroma reminds me of an amber stone, a fossilized wood resin which is then burnt. This stage carries the background element that makes me think of the fire and hot wood and ash.

There’s also some vetiver in Eau Absolue but my attention was drawn to the petitgrain note which tried to make a statement. The smell of meaty, fleshy leaves with the waxy undertone was really pretty. I also got a feeling like those leaves were covered with dust. Like nobody took care of the garden for a longer time. Such a combination gave quite a balmy feeling.

The drydown is mostly about leftovers of the bergamot from the opening and also about the sweaty smell mixed with light woody tones of cedar wood. The addition of bay leaf introduced some more spicy vibe and it leaves me with a feeling of a cooking meal. The scent remains in this form for the rest of the time until completely vanishes. On my skin it lasted 7 hours one day and 9 hours the other day. For a while after using it leaves a noticeable trail behind the wearer and after some time Eau Absolue loses volume and hovers on the skin surface.

Eau Absolue is a part of Les Nombres d’Or collection. It is available in 100 ml signature Mona di Orio bottles. The perfume is also available in 5ml roll-on and in a travel form of three 10ml spray vials.

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