John Pegg and his industrial edged scents at Kerosene are huge favourites of mine; each new release sees new facets and an evolution in John’s inventive self-taught olfactory journey. I wrote last year on his quite beautiful Dirty Flower Factory, a piercing scent of oil-stained longing set against a backdrop of darkened neon-flickered rooms and exhausted blue collar love. I loved it and wore it to death in the depths of winter, a talisman against the bitter granite cold of Edinburgh’s winter. Since then John got married (BIG BELATED CONGRATS BTW JOHN!) and released a limited edition of his wedding scent called Kindred, a blushing elixir of woods, cardamom, ginger and musk.

John is a busy boy. Now we have something new for spring 2015, a scrumptious trembling gourmand called Unforsaken. (John just has the best of names… ). He has played with gourmand notes before and does them with wit and imagination. Unknown Pleasures is a delicious mix of earl grey tea, lemon and ice cream cone on an unpredictable British summer’s day. And 2014’s Black Vines was a fabulous rendition of curly, chewy liquorice. There are always startling moments of olfactory realism in Kerosene perfumes, it is something I like in John’s work. As you smell the various stages, images suddenly leap out, coalesce and fade into fumy knocked back storytelling. It’s a gift he has for assembly, working hard from his early experimental days, placing notes and effects together to create landscapes, memories and desires that communicate his uniquely realistic view of life and his place in it.

 

Unforsaken. ..Not forgotten... It is a singular moniker for a sweet heady gourmand, one that toys with the tropical hurrah of coconut and douses it in the amber juices of tangerine, a superbly rendered clementine note and yuzu. The name suggests a touch of desolation and alone time, something difficult to reconcile with rather joyous rush that the notes flourish on skin. But I’ll go with it. I love the blast of orange blossom, hinting of beaches and tanning lotions, the benzyl salicylate a gorgeous evocation of Ambre Solaire lying tucked in behind the fruity dessert ensemble.

In fact the more I wore it, the more my mind wandered through a set of Cordon Bleu Cookery Course magazines my mother had from the 70s, neon-bright with cocktail catering and garish sauces, time-consuming masterpieces and culinary savoir faire to stun husbands and neighbours into submission. The sharp, luminescent desserts always fascinated me, sculpted creams, frozen waves, elaborate piped crennelations and camp showcase frou frou concoctions. As a child growing up in ex-pat communities at this time I saw (and consumed..) my fair share of this elaborate richesse. Unforsaken reminds me of this excessive, glowing stuff, excessive laden bowls and culinary experimentation. It is marmalade glass coupes of barely set creamy quivering vanilla custard decorated with plump slices of oozing clementine and tangerine, the juice staining the seed-speckled cream. The dessert is topped off with freshly grated wet coconut and the kitschy addition of casually tossed hundreds and thousands, the shocking rainbow colours bleeding slowing into fruit and custard.

I know this makes odd and perversely sweet reading, but this is how Unforsaken unfolds on my skin. It’s quite the piece of olfactory theatre. The massive whoosh of juice and tropical blast in the top slides rather beautifully into the smooth and comforting jasmine-tinted vanillic arena of the base. There is the slightest hint of ginger used to offset any potential overspill into sugarmania; it just cuts carefully and astringently through the milky coconut while somehow still complementing the gustatory balance of the composition. The final stages are very soft, lacteal and a little powdery as the musks and benzoin open sleepy eyes. I like the fact the ambrosial charm of the opening coconut/citrus accord does not fade entirely but lingers like gentle sun on tired skin. John Pegg has excelled himself with the gathering of his gourmand palette for Unforsaken; with each scent he seems to improve elements of his technique, here the use of tropical motifs over defiantly robust citrus and big vanilla elements is beautifully handled. It has taken me a number of arguably confrontational wearings to really love this juicy oddity, but I will be adding it to my collection and wearing it to exhaustion come summer. The coconut is calling.

Disclosure – Sample of Unforsaken kindly supplied by John Pegg at Kerosene.

–The Silver Fox, Editor and author of The Silver Fox

Thanks to John Pegg we have a USA only draw for all ten of fragrances in the line including Unforsaken. To be eligible, please leave a comment with what intrigued you most about TSF review and your favorite Kerosene perfume Draw closes February 20, 2015