La Camionera

La Camionera is the scent of a good night out: warm, a little tipsy and not at all polite. Jouissance made it with a community-funded lesbian bar in east London, and it smells the way that room feels, close, bright and charged. It is the house's first real step into gourmand territory, and the sweetness is handled with a light touch. It opens fast and loud. Bergamot, sweet orange and lemon give a fizzy lift, while cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg add dry heat. Marzipan sits in the middle of it, soft and nostalgic, so the sweetness reads as sweets and spice rather than pudding. After twenty minutes or so the heart arrives. Jasmine leads, sensual and slightly indolic, with violet adding a powdery, parma-violet softness and a little lavender keeping it aromatic. The base is musky and vanilla-warm, with sandalwood, tonka bean, opoponax and patchouli, and a synthetic castoreum that gives a faintly feral, vintage edge. It lasts well, with many wearers reporting eight hours or more, but it sits close to the skin and becomes more intimate the closer someone leans in. The opening is the loudest part, so give it half an hour. It suits autumn and winter nights best, and it is a date-night or going-out perfume more than an office one. One wearer finds the jasmine fades early and leaves mostly warm spice, so a tester is wise. Wearers compare it to the polarising, musky party scents of the 1990s and 2000s, with a trace of sweet shop and bath bomb in the sweetness. It is not a clean, bright everyday scent. Sold only as a 15 ml bottle, it sits alongside the house's other literary, slightly vintage eaux de parfum as its warmest and most playful.