50 - The Anniversary

Comporta's founder commissioned this for his own fiftieth birthday and described the brief as cold spices and stone, twisted with a sharp knife, which turns out to be an accurate account of how it smells. The opening is almost entirely textural: marine and ozonic notes with aldehydes on top, giving a metallic, sea-spray shimmer with no fruit and no sweetness anywhere. It is bracing rather than welcoming, and it is meant to be. The heart is where the composition finds its body, with black pepper adding a dry prickle and a combined leather, tobacco and styrax accord supplying a warm resinous smokiness underneath the cold surface. That contrast between mineral top and smoky middle is the whole architecture. The base then commits to incense, with olibanum reinforcing it, sandalwood softening the edges and musk holding the finish close to the skin. At extrait strength it is long-lasting without ever projecting aggressively, which suits a fragrance this introspective. It works best in autumn and winter and reads as evening wear, though it is restrained enough for a formal daytime occasion. This is not the Comporta to start with, and it is the one most likely to divide opinion, but it is also the one with the most to say. Anyone who likes aldehydic incense compositions should try it.