Vivi

Vivi is the newest Master and Apprentice release and the most abrupt thing Comporta has made. The top is a full aromatic cologne accord, with bergamot, lemon and orange alongside mint, rosemary and spearmint, and on its own that would read as a barbershop fragrance. It is not what the rest of the perfume does. The heart drops the herbs entirely and replaces them with two absolutes: tuberose, which brings a creamy narcotic weight, and osmanthus, which adds an apricot and tea-leaf sweetness with a suede-like texture. The transition is quick and quite startling, and it is the reason the fragrance rewards a full wear rather than a strip test. The base then goes darker again, with leather, oud wood and cedarwood giving a dry, slightly smoky finish that pulls the florals away from anything girlish. Fragrantica classifies it as a floral woody musk for women, and that is a fair description of where it spends most of its time, though the opening is genuinely unisex. At extrait concentration it has both longevity and presence. Autumn and winter evenings suit it best; the leather and oud make less sense in heat. The brand's own storytelling frames it as a young, urban, deliberately show-off perfume, and it wears that way.