Blackberry

A while back I lived in a country house where blackberry bushes grew wild in the yard. They left me with two memories. One of getting pricked and scratched when, on occasion, I entered a clump. The other was of the plump, seedfull berries as they ripened toward the end of summer, glowing with their deep, shiny, black coloring kissed by touches of dark red and forest green.

Much as I enjoyed the taste of these fresh, ripe berries — which gave me many a delicious lunch — my Blackberry fragrance had a slightly different inspiration for its creation began with a blackcurrant ("cassis") aroma base that a perfumer friend shared with me. It arrived just as I was finishing up Toxic and beginning to look for a new theme for a non-traditional men's fragrance. But while I was now working with a blackcurrant aroma base, the beauty of blackberry was so deeply etched in my mind that, without thinking, I was calling this new fragrance "Blackberry."

Like a lot of essential oils and aroma bases, this cassis base had a great beauty by itself. But to make a "creation," more is required. So I set to work with the intention of developing a fragrance that would wake a man up in the morning, energize him and fill him with confidence but would smell nothing like the blends of citrus and lavender so commonly used in men's cologne.

For Blackberry there was a bit of orris concrete, a generous dose of Hedione, a frangipani note, a touch of tonka bean absolute and a bit of this and that. Blackberry was evolving into a very nice fragrance but one better suited for bedtime than morning. Then came the decisive moment. I added a generous dose of cedarwood Virginia oil and suddenly Blackberry came alive with attitude.

Cedarwood Virginia, an essential oil, is what gives Blackberry its character. It has a very rural American aroma. The oil is made from scraps of the junipurus virginiana, more likely to be distilled in Arkansas than in Grasse.

I wasn't trying to create a babe magnet with Blackberry but sometimes our most innocent efforts have unintended consequences. So Blackberry is not a men's fragrance a woman would buy for her man, if she wants to keep him.

For my part, I use Blackberry only for its refreshing effect and businesslike aroma. At least that's what I tell my wife.