Novus

Novus sets itself a harder task than most of the Prestige Collection. It opens bright, with mandarin leading and pink pepper and coriander adding a dry, seedy spice that keeps the citrus from reading as simple cologne. Then it has to get from there to leather, and that is not an easy distance to cover. The heart does the work. Lily of the valley and rose give it a clean floral spine, and violet leaf is the pivot note: green, slightly metallic, and just bitter enough to point the composition towards the base rather than leaving it stranded in florals. It is a neat piece of construction. The leather that follows is soft and suede-like rather than tarry, with patchouli adding earth beneath it and benzoin lending a balsamic sweetness that rounds the edges. The result sits between a bright everyday fragrance and a proper leather, which makes it more flexible than Lord or Aristo without being as safe as Cullinan. Longevity is around six hours, with projection that drops close to the skin after ninety minutes. It works best in autumn and spring, where the citrus opening still registers but the leather has enough air to develop. Worth considering if you want a leather fragrance you can wear before six in the evening, which is not something the rest of this range offers.