Launched in 2018 by indie perfumer Hiram Green, Hyde is an all-natural fragrance centred around birch tar.

Birch tar comes from the distillation of the bark of the birch tree. It has a pungent smell that’s smoky, woody, balsamy, tar-like and animalic. It also smells leathery, which explains why birch tar and leather are best fragrance friends. Used in small quantities, birch tar works well as a base note, but its potency makes it a real scent monster that can easily hijack a fragrance with its big smoky tarriness, making it a tricky note for some people to love and wear.

Hyde opens with a citrus gust of fresh lemon and sparkling bergamot, which are quickly Shanghaied by birch tar. That pungent, tarry, medicinal-faceted creosote scent lasts just long enough for me to register the smell before cassie, with its spicy, honey, iris-like aspects and green undertone, softens the birch tar into sinuous, sexy smokiness. The cassie gives the birch tar a fullness and dimension that transforms it into the deep, dark smell of raw leather. Labdanum refines and amplifies the leather, taming its rawness and making it smoother and skin-friendly while retaining its intensity. At this stage, malt vanilla gives it a booziness while oakmoss, earthy and mossy, echo the green of the cassie at the base. Together, they soften the fragrance, making it a gentler, more accessible version of itself.

The drydown is smoky, woody and a little sweet.

Hyde is about transformation. Mr. Green takes strong, brawny, challenging birch tar and transmutes it into a seductive, smooth, sensuous unisex fragrance that is hard to resist. Honestly, I didn't even try to.

Notes: lemon, bergamot, birch tar, cassie, labdanum, malted vanilla, oakmoss.