Obsession

The house breaks Obsession down into three tiers: mandarin, bergamot and vanillin at the top; jasmine, orange blossom and exotic spices in the heart; oakmoss, musk and amber in the base. Its list of notes also names coriander and tagetes, without placing them.

Citrus, vanillin and green notes at the top

Mandarin and bergamot open the fragrance for the house as for Osmoz, and Wikiparfum counts them among its materials. The brand speaks of green top notes, which Osmoz also names; vanillin arrives from the opening, where the house places it.

Robin first perceives a green, bitter, herbal edge laced with spices, which lingers longer than one would expect; that, she writes, is where the fragrance keeps most of its bite.

Jasmine, orange blossom and spices in the heart

Jasmine and orange blossom form the floral heart for the house, for Osmoz and for Perfume Intelligence. The brand’s exotic spices take the name of coriander at Osmoz, which Wikiparfum also lists. Robin finds these flowers rich, anchored in the amber.

Amber, musk, oakmoss and incense in the base

Amber, musk and oakmoss close the house’s reading. Incense, which Osmoz and Perfume Intelligence place in the base and which Wikiparfum names, completes the accord. Robin finds the vanilla in the base pleasantly dry, far from the overbearing desserts of 2008.

What stays outside the declared accord

Sandalwood and vetiver, which Osmoz and Perfume Intelligence describe for the 1985 creation, stay in the prose, as do Osmoz’s basil, the house’s tagetes, and the rose and mugwort of the list published by Now Smell This in 2008.

The brand’s American page currently shows lavender, myrrh, spices, musk, sandalwood and patchouli, a list that no other description of Obsession repeats, and which therefore stays apart from the accord retained here.

What the label declares

The European list runs to twenty-eight lines: alcohol, Parfum, water, limonene, coumarin, linalool, citronellol, geraniol, a UV filter, farnesol, eugenol, citral, propylene glycol, benzyl benzoate, benzyl cinnamate, two more UV filters and benzyl alcohol.

Then come amyl cinnamal, cinnamyl alcohol, cinnamal, an antioxidant, BHT, an acrylic copolymer, hydrolyzed jojoba esters and four colorants, orange, violet, red and yellow. No oakmoss extract appears on it.