Rare Onyx
EDP · 2022
Avon
Favourite
Dark Plum Wu Mei
Note Profile
About
Dark plum wu mei is smoked dried plum, not fresh fruit. It opens jammy and tart, like prune compote with a sour edge, and carries a faint dry smoke through the middle. The drydown loses the sourness and turns to caramel and dried wood. It is darker and drier than plum at every stage.
Scent Profile
Dark Plum Wu Mei smells jammy, like prune compote simmering on low heat, with a tart sourness on top. A faint, dry smoke drifts through the middle, like the inside of a wooden smoking box. The sourness fades in the drydown, leaving caramel and dried wood, with a hint of fermentation like plum wine. It is darker and drier than fresh plum at every stage.
ScentWheel
Breadthmedium
EnvelopeHeart · ~6h lasting
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
ScentArt
Seen in
Tap a perfume to see where Dark Plum Wu Mei sits in it. The rest of the picture goes grey
Origin
A fantasy note. Premiere Peau states plainly that it is 'reconstructed from accords rather than extracted'. The name comes from wu mei, the Chinese medicinal fruit Mume Fructus, which is made by picking half-ripe Prunus mume, then drying it slowly and smoking it until the surface turns black. That preparation is where the smoke in the perfumery note comes from. The dried herb itself has 'a faint aroma and an intensely sour taste', so the note is an interpretation of the idea, not a transcription of the fruit.
Usage in Perfumery
A heart material for dark fruit compositions that want smoke rather than sweetness. Remains of a Gesture built a whole perfume around it, layering rock sugar and a plum wine accord over dried salted plum, damask rose and hawthorn, on a base of smoked fructus mume, birch tar and agarwood. It sits well under tar, incense and agarwood, and it gives a gourmand fruit note somewhere to go that is not candy.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Dark Plum Wu Mei
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Dark Plum Wu Mei appears prominently.