Description
4160Tuesdays, the London indie perfumery, has released Paradox, a citrus, iris, violet and musk fragrance, created by perfumer Sarah McCartney for a friend with a damaged sense of smell. Each bottle will raise funds for Fifth Sense, the UK organisation for people with smell and taste disorders.
Paradox was made with Louise Woollam who lost her sense of smell after a viral infection. As a perfume and cosmetics blogger (Get Lippie) Louise was devastated, but as her sense started to return, the situation got worse. Her brain interpreted coffee, vanilla and sweet smells as sewage. Louise identified citrus fruits, ionones (violets and iris) and musks as three accords which her sense of smell was interpreting correctly. Louise tweeted hoping to find a fragrance with these notes, and Sarah answered offering to make one for her.
Paradox is available as 30, 50 and 100ml bottles. Each bottle raises £5 – £25 for Fifth Sense.
Paradox was launched in 2015.
nuKo – :
This is a beautiful violet fragrance with added depth from iris and herbs. It’s not overpowering, so you can wear it to the office, but it smells beautiful on a scarf. The petitgrain adds a light delicacy to it. Gorgeous.
kulibin1958 – :
I’ve been trying out my big back log of 4160 samples this week, and Paradox was the first I turned to.
Initial thoughts were that this is a masculine, citrus and woods fragrance – not unpleasant, but nothing in the world like what I gravitate towards.
After 20 minutes or so I get a powerful iris, which is a note I dislike in high doses, so I was ready to toss this on the rejects pile.
But the dry down is better. My husband immediately said ‘Parma Violets’, and he is right! A powdery, old fashioned and very charming sweet shop violet.
So, this isn’t a love. I can’t think of a day when I would wake up and say ‘today is a Paradox day’ (which would be a great sentence to say!). But it’s interesting and worth a revisit down the line, I think,
mottJilmich – :
4160 Tuesdays Paradox thoughts
iris, violet, petigrain citrus fruit and musk
It opens with a big shot of petitgrain and citrus that I find a bit too strident for my tastes. The petitgrain and citrus calm down after half an hour or so and then the iris and violet takes over. In its fading phase its all about the violet. It immediately reminded me of a little bottle of Devon Violet perfume bought for me in Looe when I was but a youngster. Gran decided to treat me as she could see how taken I was with it. The opening is a bit too much for me but I love when the iris and violets kick in.
Its definitely unisex and I imagine would make a great refreshing summer scent. Not much sillage and it only lasts a 3-4 of hours on me.