Three New Scents from JORUM STUDIO!
Three New Scents from JORUM STUDIO!
and of course, my thoughts on all three.
JORUM STUDIO is easily one of the most unique, soulful perfume brands of our time and it happens to be one of my personal favorites. Both an oil house and perfume brand (which is incredibly rare), they design and manufacture everything — materials included(!)— in-house. For context, most other independent fragrance brands source their materials from outside suppliers (think places like: Perfumer’s Apprentice or Firmenich). JORUM, helmed by Scottish perfumer Euan McCall and co-run by his partner Chloe Mullen, is also Scotland’s only fragrance oil house.
Anyway, while I think that in itself is a remarkable feat, it’s not even the reason why I love the brand. I think there’s a common assumption among fragrance lovers that in order to admire and appreciate a fragrance, one must also want to wear it. For me, JORUM STUDIO defies this logic. Their fragrances are irreverent, daring, artful, and infrequently, but on occasion, unwearable (IMO). And I love them. It’s a brand whose scents often challenge me to remove the veiled binaries of judgment of *like & dislike* and *wear & don’t wear* and really just SMELL. And sit. And think. And consume.
So what is this new collection and how do its parts fare?
The TIME collection is a season limited release that launched just over a week ago. Its three scents are Monolith, Opaline and Zhaar (the former two of which are re-releases from a former limited collection).
On their website, Chloe and Euan describe TIME as, “a collection for adventurous noses […] that offers a glimpse into the creative heart of Jorum Studio. Each fragrance uses wild concentrations of rare or powerful materials in abundant quantities, with less than 200 bottles of each fragrance made […] and is meant to energize and inspire.”
And energize and inspire it does.
Here are my thoughts on all three.
MONOLITH
If you’ve listened to this week’s episode of Perfume Room, you’ve already heard my thoughts. But I’ll recap and re-smell (right now, live as I type this) to share some fresh takes.
TikTok taught me a new term this week and it’s called Thizz Face.
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The Thizz Face intrigues me because on the surface it’s an expression of repulsion/overwhelm/disgust. One of those classic feelings charts for kids would have you believe that this expression was somewhere between angry and worried. But Thizz Face inverts disgust into *distingustly GOOD.* It hits. It’s deeply resonant. It’s… sickening.
Monolith is a true Thizz Face-inducer for me. It’s disturbing and sensational. On a Venn diagram of ‘beautiful’ and ‘disaster,’ Monolith is the center.
It’s a peaty, meaty, mesquite-y (cute names for triplets?), animalic, barbecue sauce, leather-y, rubbery, liquid smoke, fire, soot and ash kind of smell. My boyfriend put it on over the weekend, and I kept re-smelling his arm surprised each time by my own shock and delight, repeating, “This is crazy.” (I have a way with words.)
When I smell this, I picture Euan sitting in lab, in some mad scientist garb, dropping the final drop of solution into a beaker as he lets out his best maniacal cackle. On the podcast, I called it a MUHAHA fragrance. Muhaha/thizz face… potato, puhtattto. It’s diabolic(-ally good).
It would be an easy reach to describe this scent as smelling like ‘your clothes after a bonfire.’ And I co-sign that. I agree. But if we’re to go deeper (and we are), I’d tell you to smell for its camphoraceous and piney qualities too. I’d call out its distinct juniper note; one that feels like juniper in trench coat. with a film noir accent. and a pipe. in the library. [Mr. Green.] In this respect, it reminds me actually a bit of how the juniper in Lubin Korrigan feels.
I’d tell you to hone in its jerky-like meatiness. A smell that transcends mere fire and smoke and adds an almost soy sauce-like, umami brininess.
I’d bring up the feelings of burning rubber and hot gravel that this scent evokes. Something distinctly scorched, industrial, and man-made.
And I’d tell you to come back to your arm a few hours later to enjoy a sensual, subdued-animalic, leather-y, resinous warmth akin to post-coital lovers curled up by a good burning fireplace that’s nearing its end.
I adore this scent. AND I have no clue when or if I’ll ever wear it.
IF YOU LIKE THESE SCENTS, YOU’LL LIKELY ENJOY MONOLITH: Le Labo Patchouli 24, Papillon Anubis, Jorum Studio Firewater, Lubin Korrigan
OPALINE
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