Cypress

Cypress by Clive Christian

Cypress is a beautifully-made masculine that manages to capture the magic of a French Riviera night, where the spicy greenness of the breeze sweeping through tall cypress trees mingles with the effervescence of freshly-poured champagne. Think F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda boozing it up in a citrus grove in Nice, the tinkle of laughter and light jazz floating on the warm night air, and that’s the mood board right there for the scent.

The opening to Cypress is surprisingly spicy, thick with cloves, cinnamon, ginger root, and the anisic mintiness of fresh basil. But it’s also immensely fresh and sour, a lively undercurrent of tart bergamot playing off the green bitterness of cypress. Fans of the balsamic soapiness of Jaipur Homme will recognize echoes in Cypress, but where the Boucheron burrows deep into an opoponax base, Cypress swerves into an elegant essay on the dry richness of woods.

In the base, a handsome pairing of oakwood and cedarwood knits together a rich weave of smoke, toasted wood, and spice until you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. In the far reaches of the scent, rich amber swells up to thicken the woods, adding weight but not sweetness. If anyone is feeling short-changed by the dearth in good masculines these days, then point them in the direction of Clive Christian Cypress – they won’t be disappointed.