Harmattan

Launched in 2014 Harmattan is part of the Core Collection, from ROADS Fragrance collection from the Roads Luxury Group, the Dublin-based international lifestyle brand launched in 2013 by Danielle Ryan, the granddaughter of Tony Ryan, the founder of Ryanair.
 
As a teenager, Ms. Ryan lived in Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Dublin and London. Her experiences in each place inspire the briefs for the ROADS niche fragrances.
 
Which brings me to Harmattan.
 
Harmattan is a dry, dusty northeasterly trade wind that blows during the dry season from the Sahara Desert over West Africa into the Gulf of Guinea. As it moves across the Sahara, it picks up fine dust and sand making the air heavy, blocking the sun and limiting visibility, like a heavy fog does. It is this warm, hazy, atmosphere that inspired Harmattan EdP.
 
Harmattan opens with a soft, nose-tingling note of bergamot that introduces a note fresh, fragrant lavender. The lavender doesn’t linger long before earthy, woody vetiver appears. Then, there is the oud, rich, musty and heady – it is perfect here and I cannot get enough of it. The oud does linger, with saffron giving it a sweet, hay-like aspect and black pepper giving it a spicy warmth just as tuberose, rose and ylang ylang creep forward all heady and aromatic. The flowers balance the woodiness and give Harmattan an intriguing complexity. At the base, Tonka bean echoes the saffron with its bittersweet almond facet as it settles onto a base of woody, rich of sandalwood along with frankincense, patchouli and myrrh.
 
It dries down to a dry, warm, woody/resinous skin scent that gives the impression of scents carried over your skin by a dry wind. It’s an exceptional unisex fragrance that satisfied my inner goldilocks and filled a scent-longing in me that I didn’t know I had until I wore it.
 
Notes: bergamot, lavender, vetiver, oud, saffron, black pepper, tuberose, rose and ylang ylang, sandalwood, Tonka bean, frankincense, patchouli and myrrh.
 
Type: EdP