AI-generated images, collage with Rook Undergrowth perfume official photo

A perfumer, performer, and physician, Nadeem Crowe is a renaissance man who mixes dedication with inspiration and effortlessly shows us that there should be no clear line between the organized scientific logical approach to life and living it filtered through the sensitive lens of an artists’ eye.

Born in Jordan but raised in the UK, Nadeem studied medicine at University College London but during his medical training, he also applied to the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and trained there as an actor before returning to UCL to complete his medical degree in 2010. When his agent asked him where he saw himself in 10 years, he replied “A practicing doctor with a few West End credits under my belt,” Almost 10 years later, we find Nadeem with a career in acute and emergency medicine as well as performances alongside Glenn Close in “Sunset Boulevard” and “School of Rock” in the West End.

Nadeem Crowe, image via the official site

“When I say I’m in a musical but I also practice as a doctor, people tend to reply “ Those two careers are so different!’ But I consider both worlds to overlap more than you would first think. Both require huge amounts of dedication. Oh, and an element of performance. When people learn I also create my own scents, they automatically assume that that world is also detached from the other two. For me, perfume sits comfortably in the middle. I spent years studying science and feel totally comfortable with pipettes, beakers, and weighing scales. The outcome, though, is a piece of art. Scent is very theatrical.” Nadeem Crowe – via website

Rook triangle, via the official website

The Rook triangle is at the heart of every fragrance, as a symbol of the balance and harmony that so often comes from three aspects of life working in symbiosis. For Nadeem is medicine, performing, and poetry. The fragrances in Rook Perfumes portfolio are an invitation to define the axes of our own life, not being afraid to look outside the proverbial box.

And with undergrowth, maybe looking at places we wouldn’t otherwise gaze…like for example the soil under our feet.

Undergrowth dictionary definition

A note from the brand:  “Picture pulling fresh garden mint from damp soil just as the sun starts to pour in between the trees. Now imagine that scent bottled. That’s undergrowth.”

Blondine and the tortoise, Virginia Frances Sterrett’s illustration

From the first seconds, I am drawn back in time to a very specific early childhood memory. I must be around four, it’s early morning, late September, so the last days of roaming free before my parents come and take me back to the city. But now it’s still holiday, time is still endless and I’m at my aunt’s house deep in the mountains, there where the garden has no back fence and it continues in the forest. Both scary and thrilling, every morning I move my picnic blanket and my toys further and further down in the garden, to the edge of the forest. The adults have begun their daily chores, preparing the autumn batch of berry confitures and are more than happy with my new boust of independence. I have my small backpack with me and those days I carry around everywhere the book my aunt falls asleep every night reading to me from, the story of Blondine written by the Countess of Ségur. I am at the part where Blondine is supposed to ride on the back of the tortoise for six months, without asking any questions and the night before, she fell asleep right when I was sure we were going to find out about Bonnie-Biche, and Beau-Minon’s fate.

AI-generated image, PS edited, inspired by Rook Perfumes Undergrowth by Nicoleta

“If you have the courage to mount on my back, remain there for six months, and not address a single question to me during the journey, I will conduct you to a place where all will be revealed.”

Roleplayer since very early childhood, I decided that day that I am going to play Balaioara, so I walk all the way to the end of the garden and into the forest, looking for a large rock that would be my play-pretend tortoise. I finally find one, I wipe aside the drops of rain, sit on it, and embrace my knees. That day I wanted to just sit there, in complete stillness, just like Blondine did, in an exercise of patience and stoicism that would be called a  mindfulness exercise these days. I am sure those magical hours, spent on the rock, my back to the house, in complete stillness, sponging in the spirit of the forest, inexorably wired my little brain to the insatiable quest for the hard-to-name but-easy-to-recognise sensorial – spiritual frequency.

AI-generated image, PS edited, inspired by Undergrowth by Nicoleta

Rook Perfumes Undergrowth smells like that memory, in a compressed dose. The mix of the exhilaration of adventure softly woven upon the comfort of being safe, the smell of the wet forest in the morning, after a heavy rain, the September morning light, filtered through the thick canopy of –still- green leaves. And mint, peppery, sharp, refreshing, earthy, and green mixing in with the smell of fresh soil. I remember the old name for wild mint and roll it around in my memory, thinking of all the spells it was used for. This is izmă bună, the forest kind. And beneath it all, there it is a green undercurrent, mixing in the wet and cold presence of vetiver and rooty depth of orris into an almost breathing, sentient presence of a forest. In my triangle of alternating odor, chaos and memories, Undergrowth scuttles across the floors of the silent sea of my forgotten self.

Top notes: soil, garden mint, grass; Heart notes: green notes, mandarin, orris; Base notes: vetiver, patchouli, white musk, petrichor

Nicoleta Tomsa, Senior Editor

Disclosure:  Sample kindly provided by Rook Perfumes, opinions are my own

 

Rook Undergrowth perfume via official website 

Thanks to the generosity of  Nadeem Crowe we have a 50 ml of  Rook Perfumes Undergrowth for one registered reader in in the US, UK, EU (WITH THE FOLLOWING EXCEPTIONS ROMANIA, RUSSIA. SPAIN, GREECE AND TURKEY). You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what sparks your interest based on Nicoleta’s review and where you live. Draw closes 11/25/2022 EST and the winner will be posted within ten days after.

Editor’s Note: Support our artisan perfumers. There is from 25 percent to 40 percent  on Rook Perfumes sitewide

Please read Karl Topham’s review of School and Nicoleta’s The Scent of the Metaverse: Verse1

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