perfect gift

House of Matriarch Orca is a beautiful, sexed-up lump of silver driftwood that’s been rubbed all over with honey and left to bake in the sun for ten years on a beach until it develops a patina of salt crystals. The opening is enticingly dry and smoky, with charred woods and a crispy leather facet that reads like crushed seashells or dried seaweed (briefly reminding me of the dark, salty leather in HoM’s wonderful Blackbird, or Black No. 1 as it’s now known).

 

Choya Loban, a type of Indian frankincense, adds a resiny dryness that works very well with the brief hit of bitter orange to introduce the warm, salty ambergris that dominates the scent. Christi Meshell, the perfumer behind House of Matriarch, is well-known for her deft use of naturals and her witchy-hippy aesthetic, and both these sides are showcased perfectly in Orca.

The perfume uses a natural tincture of ambergris that Christi herself produced using a large and rare vintage piece of ambergris sourced from New Zealand. The drydown last forever, as befits a high dosage of natural ambergris, a dry veil of sparkling beach resins, salt, and spicy woods that is only very faintly sweet. I can imagine that on the slightly sweaty skin of a beach girl or boy, this stuff would be the sex bomb to end all sex bombs.  Claire Vukecvic, Basenotes See the full article here.