Athenaeum is the distillation of a once forgotten yet fond olfactory memory, awakened upon a chance encounter at the local athenaeum. It is the fragmented and hazy reminiscence of a rural childhood found once more in the urban landscape.
Upon entering the athenaeum one is struck by the overwhelming aroma of degrading pulp and ink, shrouded in a haze of sun-kissed dust. Without haste, the smell transports you to arable mid-summer fields and days lost in swaying pastures, nose buried in hundreds of papery leaves, crops and mulchy woodland all around.
Like gauzy sunshine whistling through rugged lands, Athenaeum is as comforting as it is solitary. A fragrance crafted for reflection.
Athenaeum expertly showcases sustainably-sourced, hand harvested Scottish Lavender. Jorum Studio Athenaeum is the first master-crafted perfume to make use of Scottish-grown, harvested and distilled biodynamic perfume materials.
SELECTIVE MEMORY
The Selective Memory collection is all about the blurred boundaries between memory and imagination. Inspired by distorted recollections of shared experiences, each perfume translates emotion into evocative scent, combining artistic storytelling with Jorum Studio’s innovative approach to modern perfumery.
NOTES
Scottish Lavender, Beeswax*, Fennel, Apple, Honey, Neroli oil, Hyacinth, Flouve, Patchouli, Morocco Leather*, Gurjun Balsam, Oak, Ink
*of synthetic origin
PERFUMER
Euan McCall
HOW IT WEARS
For us, Athenaeum begins with lavender, crystalline in its purity – more aromatic and soapy than floral. This is accented beautifully by the sweet spice of fennel, as well as apple and hyacinth. These notes would usually feel more dewy and crisp, but in Athenaeum it’s almost as if they’ve been dried in a flower press – still intact, but gentler and more delicate. It’s only once the fragrance has settled that you begin to pick up the hazier, balmier notes of honey and beeswax, which beckon the fragrance smoothly into its dry down. Here it reveals patchouli, leather, oak and ink – subtly camphorous and woody. Overall, this scent feels clean, but not in a sterile way, more in a clothes-dried-out-in-the-sun way.
LORE LOVES
This fragrance is so evocative and nostalgic, but in a way that’s hard to describe… which after all is the whole point of the Selective Memory collection it’s part of. For us it brings to mind a hazy scene of running around outside in a white pinafore, plaiting your friend’s hair, poring over the lines of a book together under the shade of an enormous oak tree. It definitely feels a little bit vintage (maybe because of the lavender), but at the same time, it’s a vintage smell created with a modern memory. Maybe it can be thought of as the scent of your inner child, a fiction of self that perhaps you treat with a little more tenderness and care these days.
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