With permission from Hiram Green Perfumes
Hiram Green, the niche perfumer based in The Netherlands, emailed us a few weeks ago to say that he was coming to Toronto and would Kay and I like to meetup with him again, perhaps for lunch? Absolutely, we answered. We didn’t even check our schedules – we cleared them for him.
You see, the three of us had met up in Toronto a couple of years ago and had a blast, and Kay and I had hoped to have the chance to connect with him again.
Mr. Green was born and raised in Toronto and attended the prestigious Ontario College of Art and Design. After graduation, he moved to London, England where he worked in many perfume stores, before opening his own niche shop called Scent Systems. Over time, he developed an interest in natural perfumery so he closed Scent Systems, moved to The Netherlands and taught himself how to make perfume. He soon started making natural fragrances in small batches, and in 2013 he launched his first fragrance: the highly acclaimed Moon Bloom.
We met for lunch day or so after Hiram arrived in Toronto, and while it is always good to catch up on each other’s personal news, what Kay and I were really excited to talk about were Hiram’s two latest fragrances: Dilettante and Arbolé Arbolé. Luckily, he’d brought samples of each for Kay and me to try. First up was Arbolé Arbolé. While we were engrossed with this stunner, Hiram mentioned that he loves orange blossom and neroli based perfumes and that this was the inspiration behind Dilettante. I perked right up. Orange blossom and neroli are favourite notes of mine, so this completely hijacked the conversation from Arbolé Arbolé for a while as I pressed him for more details about Dilettante. He said that Dilettante was a perfume he’d originally created for himself. After wearing Dilettante every day for the past week, I’d say he made it for me.
The Hiram Green Perfumes website says that Dilettante was “Inspired by such simple pleasures as a stroll through a luscious garden after a rain shower, Dilettante is an enchanted and light-hearted celebration of summer.
Based on a triptych of orange flower, petitgrain and essential oil of orange, Dilettante is an all-natural fruity and floral eau de parfum that is fresh and sweet throughout.”
Those are all the notes that are listed. Like many perfumers, Hiram is guarded with the notes, even over lunch with his friends in Toronto, and while it can be frustrating, I respect him, and others like him, who want you to have your own experience of their fragrances when you wear them.
Besides, Dilettante is so rapturously beautiful, that it really doesn’t matter if you know it has or doesn’t have musk or honey or beeswax in it.
On me, Dilettante opens, full on with the glorious, heady scent of orange blossom – floral and sweet, lush and indolic – this orange blossom is true to nature and it’s at the forefront - it’s not hidden, shadowed or shy. For me, it is the smell of sunshine, of summer, of happiness. Over time, petitgrain, gives it a gorgeous green aspect that seems to extend the orange blossom before it gets warm and spicy from cinnamon. Orange oil makes it sweet and fruity and keeps it going on and on, right to the drydown. On me, there a waxy phase, which gives it a texture I like. The citrus is balanced at the base by warm, resinous, ambery, tolu.
Dilettante’s drydown is incomparable. Fruity, floral and softly resinous, with no bitterness or citrus tang. It’s so refined and, yes, uplifting, that it’s more than a summer fragrance and so balanced that it can be worn by a man or a woman.
Over lunch, Hiram said that the trick with Dilettante was to make a fragrance that was a bit different from what he already had and liked, that was all natural and that smells great. Easy-peasy trick for a star like Hiram Green to pull off.
Dilettante is listed in our Decant Store. Decants are $8.00 for 1 ml.