Cirrus Parfums is a (very new) perfume house founded this year by Zoey Lake and based in Texas. It caught my eye because Cirrus put out an autumn chypre collection, and, as previously discussed, I am trying to learn how to smell the chypre structure. So I ordered the chypre set and a few other samples.
I liked these a lot. In the world of indie perfumes, what I find interesting about houses like Cirrus, Sunsphere, Pineward, or DSH is that they take the indie interest in oddball notes and wed that to an interest in perfume history, older structures, traditional ingredients, etc.1 DSH calls her perfumes in this style “retro-nouveau” and while I don’t think it applies wholesale to all these houses, it’s an aspect of their work.
I’m not somebody who knows enough about perfume to declare this or that scent or house “unique,” but this kind of re-vitalized interest in classic structures is an easy way into my heart in literature (particularly poetry)… so unsurprisingly, it is also a way into my heart when it comes to other things. I’ll admit, too, that I have a strong preference for trying things out from these indie perfume houses that are dominated by single individuals.2
Notes taken from the Cirrus website.
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