Escentric Molecules Molecule 01 M + Clary Sage by Oli
On paper, it should be super straightforward, easy even to write about Geza Schoen’s work for Escentric Molecules considering just how minimalist it all is. After all his latest release, Molecule 01 + Clary Sage is exactly that, a blend of Iso E Super and a clary sage served at a high(ish) concentration. So… I guess one could just write that down, note how it turns the usually slightly purple woody sillage of his landmark Molecule 01 a cool shade of green and then it’s job done, right?
Right???
The thing is, having an engaged opinion absolutely needs to be a lot more nuanced than that. And Schoen is seasoned enough and celebrated enough as a perfumer that what we already know what at first seems wonderfully simple is actually obsessively nuanced – his work to service the entire brand’s minimalist concept is proof enough of that. As a result, we fully expect there to be alchemy and magic to it, even if it is just an essence or an accord made to affect the effect of Molecule 01…
Sage photo via Pexels. Geza Schoen photo courtesy of the brand
“Clary sage is fresh, herbal, floral….” offers Schoen on the brand’s website. “It’s not sweet, but it’s got that beautiful aromatic fruity part. It has a very unique freshness, almost like an elderflower in bloom.” He’s right. Clary sage in nature is wonderfully bright and intense. Cultivate it in your garden and your life partner might so consistently note that it smells so strongly of “body odour” that you are forced to re-pot it and move it to your furthest point or boundary wall (true story). Not-so-subtle digs at your wife aside, it is rather pungent IRL but when distilled clary sage can range from a lightly herbal, floral and clean, linalyl acetate/linalool heavy smoothness to a dirtier, chalkier texture that still smells wonderfully green but captures more of that bordering on acrid sage-y aspect. While both the essential oil and absolute of clary sage are used in the composition, it’s the latter’s more tenacious aspects that feel most intertwined with the shimmering woodsy facets of Iso E Super in Escentric Molecules’ Molecule 01 + Clary Sage. The linalyl acetate in the sage essential oil offers a bergamot ghost note in the initial lift before it all settles into the sage’s characteristic, green tea like, slightly powdery yet distinctly herbal consistency.
Escentric Molecules Molecule 01 M + Clary Sage via the brand
It’s the balance of these sage extractions that feels like it might have been the most precise and considered part. Selecting the right balance of those floral highs and the herbal lows before accentuating everything with whichever version of Iso E Super you’re led to believe Schoen’s using, will definitely have been the key to the whole thing that the perfumer wanted to capture. Expressing these particular facets of the clary sage does make it feel unfussy and direct whilst offering a challenging snapped-stem kind of realness that other perfumers might avoid. But however austere and simple it might seem on skin there’s a lot more that’s gone into it that you’d ever care to realise.
– Oli Marlow, Editor
Notes: Iso E Super, Clary Sage
Disclaimer: A bottle of M+ Clary Sage was sent by Escentric Molecules for review. Opinions my own
All images by Oli unless otherwise noted.
Please read one of Michelyn’s many interviews with Geza Schöen here
J’s review of M+ Champaca here Cistus here Black Tea here. Please watch Video Contributor Steven Gavrielatos’ Black Tea and Guaiac Wood and Ginger
Molecule 01 is a ÇaFleureBon Modern Masterpiece. More here.
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