Eris Green Spell

Back in the summer of 2020 I signed up for the crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo run by Eris Parfums to produce a new scent, Green Spell. My reasons for participating were: 1) I have a lot of respect for what Barbara Herman has done with her Eris brand, 2) I saw that Antoine Lie was the perfumer and I love everything he's created for Puredistance Perfumes, 3) Green scents are a favorite of mine, and 4) I was in a city that was quarantining, and joining in with this project on another continent seemed like a fun idea, to in some small way help birth a new perfume.

I should have known better than to have preconceived notions as to what Green Spell would smell like. Ms. Herman has created her brand with perfumes displaying a bold presence. Her initial fragrances: Night Flower, Belle De Jour, and Ma Béte, gave more than a nod to fragrances of yester-year and didn't shy away from animalic notes. I expected Green Spell to follow suit, something in a vintage vein à la Ma Griffe, Vent Vert, or Bandit. All I needed to do to correct this erroneous impression was go to the website and read the words of the perfumer, Antoine Lie:

"Green Spell by ERIS is a blast of happiness, an homage to nature that is sparkling and joyful."

This scent is about nature at its absolute greenest. We all interpret scents according to our own life experiences, and Green Spell did trigger an immediate memory from my rusty brain files. In the early 90s I lived on the island of Borneo and it was an ecological wonder. Our little town hovered on the edge of the ocean but you didn't have to go far to be at the edge of the jungle; it encroached everywhere. I had young children so couldn't disappear for days at a time, but I knew friends who would go on week long expeditions where the guide would literally chop his way through parts of the jungle with a machete. Sadly the beautiful rainforest is disappearing and since I lived there more than half has been plowed to make way for palm oil plantations. But at that time we did get to experience going deep into the jungle and it was exhilarating. It was a green wall, and once you entered its space, it breathed and throbbed with energy like a living being, which it was.

The New Yorker: The Lost City of Z

That sense of fresh, vibrant green is what I get in the opening of Green Spell. The notes used are a collection of all the freshest and sharpest: black currant absolute, galbanum, violet leaf, narcissus absolute, vetiver, fig leaf accord, and tomato leaf accord. Normally a green perfume will feature a couple of these; black currant and violet leaf are the ones I see most often. Here we get the whole kitchen sink and the results are a green scent that is bitter, alive, and biting. The tomato leaf especially is evident to me and adds a particularly fresh stringent note. 

After an hour or so the fragrance noticeably softens. The bitter notes fade and Green Spell becomes a softer ode to the color green. The scent gives a feeling of brightness, freshness, and new life from Mother Nature. For me, as I am very influenced by seasons, this fragrance will make the perfect entry to spring, but for those tiring of snow and cold, Green Spell might give you fresh hope for the spring to come.

Here is a video from Eris Parfums on the introduction of Green Spell.

Top Photo: Behance.net/gallery/6444261/Fashion-Inspired-By-Nature. Perfume sample my own.