This might be a little esoteric, but bear with me: Papyrus Moléculaire by Maison Crivelli reminds me of the midcentury furniture of Cuban-Mexican designer Clara Porset, specifically her butaque chairs. Porset’s designs embraced both industrial and handcrafted production and, like the Bauhaus teachers and peers she studied with, she aimed at elevating living standards and bringing modernist aesthetics to the masses—while also preserving Cuban and Mexican folk art traditions. Her celebrated butaque chairs were based on a colonial-era hybrid of Spanish X-frame seating and pre-Columbian ritual stools. Their ergonomic forms are crafted from polished wood and materials like wicker, leather, or woven agave reeds. When I read that this woody, tobacco-accented perfume was inspired by Thibaud Crivelli’s first encounter with papyrus root powder among a group of tattooed women smoking cigarillos, I immediately imagined Clara Porset’s wood-and-woven chairs being crafted by women smoking Cuban cigars. The fragrance is deep, warm, and smooth, but with bright and peppery vegetal and mineral top notes. I find that papyrus comes across a bit like vetiver: grassy, both green and dry, it feels grounded and a little serious, but the addition of coriander and elemi resin makes this fragrance zing with citric greenness. Like Porset’s designs, this scent is like modernist aesthetics encountering the rootedness of natural materials and craft traditions.

I initially noticed this fragrance being touted as a more interesting alternative to Le Labo’s Santal 33, and I’ll say that they’re very similar, but Santal is heavier and more leather-ish, creamier and more enveloping, while this one is fresher and more lively. I tried them at the same time and Santal’s luxurious soft-focus felt almost flat, dull even, compared to the witty crackle of Papyrus Moléculaire, which rings out as bright and clear as a laugh. It’s an incredibly well-balanced fragrance, delicious and satisfying, totally unisex, that I think could be worn in any season for almost any occasion. I burned through my sample vial of this in record time and promptly bought a full bottle.

Just as another commenter pointed out below, this smells like pickle juice.. It started promising, green, felt the peppery spice a bit then it just turned sour on my skin.. Cannot honestly see anything more accurate to describe this than pickle juice. I wanted to give this a fair test but after a couple hours I just had to scrub it off. Wouldn’t consider this a safe blind buy, do yourself a favour and try before you buy !