Nishane Ege Extrait de Parfum

Nishane is an Istanbul house and it does not let you forget it. Its own copy claims the city's first globally celebrated niche perfumery as its position, and the work is organised into narrative collections: one drawn from Rumi, one from the Turkish shadow theatre of Karagöz and Hacivat, one from The Little Prince. Ege belongs to the No Boundaries Collection, whose stated message is about dissolving the emotional borders that separate people. The name is the Turkish word for the Aegean, and the bottle carries the Greek spelling alongside it. A Turkish house naming a fragrance after a sea it shares with Greece, in both languages, is the whole thesis of the collection in one gesture. Nishane publishes the pyramid. Yuzu, violet leaves and anise open it; basil, green cardamom and mint form the heart; olibanum and liquorice sit at the base. What that produces is not a conventional aquatic. There is no heavy sea-breeze accord and no melon. Instead the yuzu and violet leaf give a sharp, sappy, almost vegetal green, the anise and liquorice thread a cool sweetness through the middle, and the basil and mint keep everything herbal rather than fruity. The frankincense in the base is the surprise: it adds a dry, resinous smokiness underneath the greenery that stops the whole thing evaporating into a cologne. The house calls it green aquatic, and the water in it is the cool damp of shade rather than surf. It is a summer fragrance with more staying power than summer fragrances usually have, which is what the extrait concentration is for. Along the humid coast it holds together where lighter citruses collapse, and it is equally at home on a hot inland afternoon. Unisex without qualification, casual rather than formal, and better in daylight than after dark. On longevity, six to eight hours is the expectation, projection turning moderate and close once the opening hour is over, which is strong for a green aquatic and modest by the standards of the house's ambers. Nishane sells it in 50 ml and 100 ml, and given the concentration a smaller bottle goes further than you would think.