Maher Olfactive Red Skies courtesy of Maher Olfactive and Red Sky at Night. image via Peakpx

“When it is evening, ye say, it will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowring” Matthew, 16

Shawn Maher, founder of independent fragrance houses Maher Olfactive and Chatillon Lux, always pops into my mind when I think of a quintessential American perfumer. His is a born storyteller, with a wealth of inspirations drawn from his Missouri upbringing and the state’s storied past, and gives each fragrance a personality as precisely delineated as a Faulkner character. With the newest addition Maher Olfactive Red Skies, Maher ventures away from familiar shores and heads for the high seas he imagined as child. But this is no Boys’ Own adventure tale of pirates and swordfights on the creaking deck of a warship. Rather, it is an imagining of the tropical voyage of an old schooner, stop; a sophisticated “maritime chypre,” that effortlessly blends traditional and modern into the kind of scent that makes you open your eyes just a little wider and breathe a quiet “wow.”

Shawn Maher of Maher Olfactive

Maher explains the source of Red Skies: “From the first time I heard it as a kid, the expression always seemed so mystical and full of wonder. Red skies at night, sailors delight. Red Skies in morning, sailors take warning. For a kid who only knew about the high seas from books and stories, it fed into the larger-than-life idea of life at sea. And of course, it is a statement of dichotomy and juxtaposition. That idea of juxtaposition is one of my favorites in fragrance: the idea of taking two opposing notes to pull the most interesting parts of each other to the forefront … I kept imagining a chypre, the scent genre named after the island of Cyprus, as a representative of this traditional bulwark of a fragrance … It truly is a juxtaposition of bright skies and a raging storm.”

American Clipper Flying Cloud at Full Sail by Antonio Jacobsen, public domain image

Rather than starting his journey with saline and woody notes, as one might anticipate, Maher tops Red Skies with a surprising, brilliant note of kaffir lime to set Red Skies in port, awaiting the hoisting of sails and weighing of anchor under wide-leafed banana trees. In a nod the classic chypre structure, bergamot sharpens the morning air, hoisted by a splash of davana. The tang of old leather drifts in augmented by woody, earthy elemi, as the crew comes aboard. Around this swirling mix are animalic smells of ylang ylang, fruity and full-bodied, washing up against sweaty, resinous labdanum and rooty, pungent vetiver as Maher deftly sets the stage for the ocean crossing ahead.

Homer Winslow Sunset Fires via wikiart

Next, its anchors aweigh and hoist the main sails! As the ship lurches from dock on the first waves, aromas of ocean water and ozone surge against its planks and it’s fair weather ahead. The ebullient aromas of the opening circle each other like restless leaves whirred up in the breeze. For the ocean air accord, Maher used several aquatic aroma chemicals including calone but offset them with airy florals and ginger and green cognac essential oils to give bite and heighten the fragrance’s initial brightness. The olfactory picture painted is less yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum and more Horatio Nelson surveying a glimmering horizon as the salt spray slops the sides of the Victory.

The way Maher uses elemi here is remarkably evocative; I don’t get its typical warm incense so much as a conveyance of old polish and split, craggy floorboards, odors that are heightened by a superb worn leather accord that mixes dark aged patchouli and beeswax absolute. Hints of spice and dirty musk puff as vetiver and patchouli brew up, oakmoss tinges the composition with its characteristic chartreuse bitterness, and the mood above deck shifts somber. Seaweed clings to the prow, dragging the ship like a sea hag intent on ruin.

There’s a storm brewing. The skies glower starboard side and Red Skies goes quiet.

The Storm by JMW Turner, 1842

Somehow, the ozonic/saline notes seem to become moist in the way sea air does when rainclouds gather. I am not sure how Maher pulls it off, but the entire mood shifts into damper, darker territory. The big bright notes remain in place, but they are undercut by swells of weed-strewn waves, a deepening of the leather accord and a rhythmic heave and sluice of salt spray.

As Maher Olfactive Red Skies sails smaller and smaller into distance, its men no longer visible, its sails like tiny clouds, Maher leaves his seafaring tale unfinished. The captaincy is yours; the ship’s wooden wheel now spins beneath your hands as the first drops fall, and it is for you to bring her to wreck or harbour.

Notes: Kaffir lime leaf, bergamot, ocean air, jasmine, orange blossom, davana, elemi, ylang ylang, vetiver, oakmoss, labdanum, leather and musk.

Maher Olfactive Red Skies image courtesy of the brand

Thanks to the generosity of Maher Olfactive, we have a 50 ml bottle of Maher Olfactive Red Skies for one registered reader in the U.S. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what strikes you about Maher Olfactive Red Skies, whether you have a favourite Maher Olfactive fragrance. Draw closes 5/4/2022.

Happy Second Birthday Maher Olfactive 4/30/22

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Shawn Maher was named Best of 2020 Artisan Perfumer

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