UNUM - LAVS

Picture: A swedish fir in the middle of the long, cold winter
Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

LAVS is the first fragrance from the House of UNUM. The house started as an atellier for constructing, maintaining and taking care of  liturgical vestments. The Vatican is an important cuetomer and LAVS has a fascinating backgrund. It started as a roomfragrance which is used in the atelliers and also to scent the robes and vestments when packaged for delivery. The wearer of LAVS in other words has the same olfactory aura around as the Pope himself, at least when he wears his UNUM vestments :-) . The creative director and spirit of UNUM is Filippo Sorcinelli which has many artistic skills, for example he is an a church organist and also expriments with painting. His businesspartner Marcello is a tailor who seeks perfection in the creative process creating the UNUM coustumes. More about the backgorund and inspiration of UNUM look here.

The perfumer is a person very close to UNUM’S world who prefers remain hidden, he translates in fragrances the emotions and the ideas of the creative director.

LAVS opens spectacular with an accord containing fresh and brisk birchtar, a very thick and dense, almost honeyed incense and a rubbery note close to fresh, new, tires. There is also a light, smokey note, like smoke from a campfire made of dry pinewood a cold winterdaym with high, dry air in the coniferous forest. The impression is somehow clean, outdoorsy despite the thick notes. After a while a fresh (fresh seems to be the common factor here) and soft leathernote appears followed by a metallic note that bridges over to the middlenotes. In the middle- and basenotes, LAVS calms down and connects to the ordinary incensetrack, most close to Comme des Garcons Avignon and Montale Full Incense, minus the aldehydes of the latter, but also with traces form other Commes des Garcons incenses such as the cold pine in Kyoto and the note similar to a textile band-aid from Jaisalmer. The putty, almost powdery texture in the basenotes reminds me also of Making of Cannes Rocher Princier.

Picture: The stylish bottle of LAVS
Photo: PR UNUM (c)

Not as churchy as Avignon, LAVS has more of a cold, outdoorsy aura. My sons reaction was "It smells like Finland" probably the birchtar, the smokey, sauna like notes as also the cold, airy vibes of LAVS evokes the association of our beautiful neighboring country. Robert Piguet Oud also has this cold outdoorsy feeling and even if not containing oud, LAVS has a similarity to RP Oud in its texture and expression.

LAVS is unisex, appropriate for all seasons expect in the warm days in the summer. Longevity is for more than a day, sillage is medium in the first stage, then close to skin, LAVS after all is in perfume strength.

LAVS starts incredible, the first on third is the most interesting incensefragrance I've tried so far, (and I have tested many :-). From the middlenotes to the base, LAVS to some extent "dissapoints" in the way that it doesn't live up to the extraordinary first part. But LAVS anyway, even if the originality has disappered, is a very good high quality incensefragrance also in the later stages. As I'm sick and tired of fragrances that starts exciting and then morphs into something common that I've smelled so many times before, LAVS shouldn't deserve  the highest rating. But in this case the first part is so spectacular and the rest just as good as for example Avignon (which is a favorite of mine) and therefore LAVS gets

Rating: 5

Notes: Jasmine, cardamon, black pepper, elemi, coriander, clovs, labdanum, opoponax, palisander, amber, oakmoss, tonka been