“Dirty Peach captures the first days of summer with a sweet and tart scent that exudes sun-warmed peach skin and the sensual, soft curves of creamy white jasmine “
is the ploy for this new fragrance by Heretic, a brand I almost always seem to rather like, and this new peach version of the central conceit of slightly ‘dirtied’ main components is no exception. It smells full and lovely – cute, yet sufficiently adult – and much less toxic than Tom Ford’s more evil and concentrated Bitter Peach, which felt too lacquered and overdone to me personally.
Funnily enough, I bought a gorgeous jasmine and peach soap by Kew Gardens in my lunch break last weekin the same department store I have just smelled Heretic;
I have been enjoying showering with it so much – heaven, tbh – that as an olfactory experiment, I sliced off a portion of the towel dried giant soap and have been carrying it around in my pocket to see how much the scent would then emanate – a pleasing amount, actually while also wearing as much Heeley Jasmine OD to work as I feel I can realistically get away with ; peach perfumes can be overpowering and artificial; in the Kew, the peach is a minor player, sublimating itself in a divine jasmine / stephanotis heart; in Heretic, this duality is reversed, the peach note reminding me strongly of Twinings Te Alla Pesca. teabags of which my Italian friends used to boil up in a saucepan in Rome and call a cup of tea ( now this really would be considered heresy in the UK).
That Dirty Peach is designed to evoke the beginnings of summer makes me melancholy (because autumn itself, for me, exquisite though it may be, is just a slow plunge into melancholia; the inevitable heat being leached from the air every year just feels like a personal tragedy, though most people around me seem rightfully relieved seeing that it was the hottest September on record in Japan).
I can’t help my physiology though. And perhaps this is why I latch onto these delicious treats, peaches so happily summer ripe, the smell of jasmine, for me, basically a sanctuary
The visual of boiling teabags in a saucepan made me smile. I get the melancholy of autumn, though for me it’s more of a wistfulness. It’s a time of new beginnings, which inevitably come from other endings. Peach is a gorgeous scent when it’s not clearly one-note gamma undecalactone.
Yes – it needs a lot of surrounding embellishment to make it more delicately salivating.
And wistful is a better word for it ( sometimes joyful with a piercing clarity : for me as a mood swinger it really depends on the day).
I once had a bottle of Peau de Pêche by Keiko Mecheri. I absolutely loved it until inexplicably, it went off and I had to throw it away. I‘ve been toying with some other peach scent ever since.
How strange it just went off – a retching morning of rancid peach.
I quite like Peche Cardinal and do like this but can’t imagine dousing myself in peach scents on a regular basis – I think I prefer it as an undertone
Also I looked on Fragrantica after writing this and was shocked to see how many people said Dirty Peach smells like BO and cat piss : I didn’t get that at all but would have to wear it properly down to the last fade out to be absolutely sure