Bohemian breeze, Hiram Green Slowdive

Many people don’t like winter time. With its short days and low temperatures it’s probably most suitable for reading books, cuddling with a blanket or meeting with friends for a lazy chit-chat by the cup of hot chocolate. But we all know that even most dreadful weather can be remedied by a magic of perfume. Introduced very late in 2017, perfumer Hiram Green came up with a brand new fragrance. I promise that Slowdive can pour in more warmth and sunlight into your everyday life.

At the beginning Slowdive smells of orange flower in two forms. There’s a neroli fraction that is more delicate & orange blossom that is richer and has much more saturated aroma. The latter one dominates, providing quite heady, intoxicating but balanced opening. Resemblance to Dilettante is quite obvious. Normally I find orange blossom notes to be quite fresh but it’s not the case in this perfume. They are opulent and full like a big floral bouquet but there is not much freshness.

These white flowery tones are kind of… waxy, like an impression of enfleurage, when soul of a flower is meant to be transferred into fat so that later its essence can be obtained. It makes sense because Slowdive features a beeswax note that gives it that additional waxy, honey-like facet that reacted with orange flower by toning it down. Shortly after the perfume transitions into fruity territory in a tricky way. For fruits here have been dried by the sun & smell different compared to fresh ones.

Dried apricots, apples, plums and pears (that’s what it smells like to me) have much more scent to them but their juicy tones have been replaced with more dusty ones so that they feel aged. Furthermore they’re sprinkled with a little bit more honey – the resulting fragrance is quite luscious and mouth-watering. Additionally a gentle smoky facet appears later on. In Slowdive Hiram used tobacco blossom which has such a different odour profile compared to a golden smoky goodness.

For the next few hours the perfume was levitating just above my skin and I didn’t notice much change during that period of time. At 5 hours mark I started smelling creamy tuberose & as I noted, it quickly integrated with tobacco blossom, borrowing some of its lighter smokiness. The drydown was balsamic and resinous but in a very sensual, embracing way. It also felt as if Slowdive was all drenched in the sun light and a remnants of honey flavor were still floating in the lazy air.

In press release Hiram says that Slowdive is a perfume that captures the mood of languid afternoons. I agree with him – there’s something lazy and dreamy about this fragrance. It has a moderate sillage that compliments this idea, while the fragrance itself lasts all day. Hiram managed to amaze our noses again with another beautiful and lasting natural fragrance. You can have Slowdive in 10 ml travel spray or in a 50 ml bottle. In my opinion it fits best for the early Autumn.

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