Skrik No 2

Skrik takes its name from the Norwegian title of Munch's The Scream, which sets an expectation the perfume then quietly refuses. There is nothing anguished about it. The two accords are titled rough cedar and soft vanilla, and that really is the whole composition: a dry woody skeleton and a sweet balsamic cushion, with very little decoration in between. The woody half leads with petitgrain, bitter and twiggy, and Iso E Super, which gives the perfume its characteristic transparent cedar hum and most of its diffusion. Hedione keeps it airy. Sandalwood underneath is creamy rather than sharp, and it is the material that bridges the two halves. The soft half is vanilla absolute, and it is generous: rounded, slightly boozy, never sugary. Lavandin grosso adds a herbaceous, faintly camphorous lift that keeps the vanilla from turning into dessert, and tonka and musk round the drydown out. Expect six to eight hours, with modest projection. Iso E Super means it hovers rather than announces itself, and some wearers will find it goes quiet on them entirely. Autumn and winter are its best season, though the lavandin makes it workable in spring. It is an easy daily and office wear, comfortable rather than seductive, and the brand's own word for it, a soul-soother, is accurate.