UERMI UD Ikat, EN Lace, OH Denim Extreme, My Tuxedo

The UERMI project is an olfactory wardrobe. But not in the sense that fashionable perfume stylists understand. Creators Aurora Carrara and Palmiro Picquin sought to combine scents with the tactile and visual sensations of textures and fabrics, conveying through perfume the touch of silk, the roughness of denim, or the creak of vinyl. It's a challenging task, but UERMI never stops exploring new combinations.

New to the collection is UD Ikat. Many designers have been inspired by the vibrant Indonesian ikat patterns this season and released perfumes of the same name, but UERMI, with its love of fabrics, was a natural choice.

It's fitting that oud, vanilla, and patchouli were chosen for the composition. All of these originate from the same places where the art of dyeing and weaving using the ikat technique originated. The composition was created by Symrise perfumer Pierre Constantin Gueros. He took natural oud oil and precious resins and blended them with the achievements of modern aromachemistry to bring the scent to life and shine.

UD Ikat confirms its pedigree from the very first moment. Powerful oud, in all its animalic beauty, warms and melts on the skin, transforming into a sweet strawberry rose surrounded by smoke and resins. A black thread runs through the scarlet and pink pattern of Symrise's Captive Ambrostar, redolent of unsettling, smoky woods and salty amber. A thick golden-chocolate border of vanilla and patchouli runs along the bottom of the pattern.

I find this difficult to wear, but in Italy, they've recently embraced bright and long-lasting scents, like in the Gulf countries.

UD Ikat UERMI,

Pierre Constantin Gueros

Elemi, bergamot, red berries, patchouli, vetiver, cypriol, oud (Ajmal), sandalwood, cedar.

EN Lace was released in 2020. Once again, Symrise's perfumer is Aliénor Massenet, a master of weaving delicate lace from floral scents. EN Lace is also lacy, enticing, and provocatively naked. Windows overlooking a garden, night, nightingales under a jasmine bush, a basket of fruit, young wine with residual fermentation, and après l'amour sheets strewn with the petals of dying gardenias. Not a drop of oud or any special animalic notes. Just hints, and the mood is set. Bravo!

IN Lace UERMI,

Aliénor Massenet

Mandarin, carnation, jasmine, gardenia, carissa, vetiver, cedar

OH Denim Extreme is a version of the familiar OH DENIM theme. Also tuberose, shining in all its tuberose power and surrounded by jasmine and hot spices. Somewhere in the heart of OH Denim Extreme, I detect a slightly cloying sweetness of pink lipstick and blackcurrant liqueur, and in the finish, extreme denim heats up, like an early '80s-style chypre. For me, the scent is somewhere between the "proper" Jardins de Bagatelle by Guerlain and the swashbuckling Gio.

OH Denim Extreme UERMI,

Sylvie Fischer

Bergamot, mandarin, cinnamon, black pepper, tuberose and jasmine absolutes, neroli, ylang-ylang, patchouli, vetiver, olibanum, cedar.

My Tuxedo is one of those scents I call IQOS. It has the overheated, dry, and recognizably sour tobacco of electric cigarettes, the ash of saltpeter paper, and the smooth coffee from capsules.

My Tuxedo UERMI,

Maurice Roucel

Cardamom, bergamot, jasmine, vetiver, tobacco, musk.