Paradisi is a fruity floral with an unctuous opening of exotic and near-indescribable fruit notes and augmented citrus oils. It presents a novel freshness and odd familiarity albeit from a fruit that you have never experienced before. The secret here lies in the collision between specific citrus extracts and key aldehydes pivoting around a peculiar berry extraction, which is subsequently buried within the formula being used primarily for its hidden secrets over its aromatic properties. With notes of pear, rhubarb, grapefruit, honeysuckle, orange, guava, cucumber, pink pepper, magnolia, passionflower, tree moss absolute, mushroom, cedarwood, patchouli and soil. Paradisi is an extrait de parfum.
JORUM STUDIO PARADISI REVIEWS
Fragrantica: "This is the only vegetal fragrance in my collection…so far. This scent reminds me of a jungle commune with very sexy hippies that tend to the land with their bare hands…and it’s hot (in every sense of the word). This is wet soil, moss, grapefruit, guava, and cucumber (I know it’s not listed, but I get tomato on the dry down) - and to me, it’s addictive. After spraying this for the first time, I just kept smelling my wrist and saying, “damn” over and over - it’s so damn good. Someone earlier said this is Frida Kahlo’s self portrait, and I couldn’t agree more. This is a jungle, Mexico City, Barcelona, and childhood memories wrapped in one. This feels raw and unkempt. This is not for yacht boys or anyone that aspires to be. This is an old artist that doesn’t care if you like their art or not, and they’re legendary because they are singular. This is not for everyone - absolutely not. But, I would love to know the people that it’s for. I live in New York, and it’s cold here right now, but this makes me want to take a vacation to somewhere untamed. For a green, vegetal fragrance - 9/10."
Fragrantica: "The way Paradisi opens made me think of Terre d’Hermes - right or wrong - except if Terre had significantly more muscle on its bones. There is no transparency or translucency to Paradisi in the way Ellena presents Terre. Luminosity, sure, but mist-like weightlessness - definitely not. The grapefruit is definitely there, as is the mineralic-rocky-flintiness sitting underneath, but in Paradisi it’s quite a bit more wet and soil like. There was something very “modern masculine template” to the early stages of Paradisi, but very pleasing and not derivative. I was all smiles. The opening is cucumber water and their sweetly vegetal green skins, but the bitter green aspect of the cucumber gets a bit conflagrated against the bitter and zesty-sour fruit skins that take up a lot space in this opening as well. The fruit has an obvious tropical lean, I can certainly smell guava with its musky-strawberry-white tree fruit character, and perhaps oranges as well. Passionflower doesn’t have a smell, so, no, this is not present - ignore that part of the pyramid, and there is too much overlap between guava, orange, and grapefruit to probably call out passionfruit; Paradisi is also missing a lemon facet that is present in passionfruit, so vis-a-vis passionfruit can be ignored as well. But, it is clear at this point that the theme and the drive behind the perfume is sour soil. The sourness carries into the heart with a verdant and determined energy. The soil accord is beautiful, like a much simplified, more sour, and sans fecal version of Amouage’s Figment Man. Paradisi is pumped full of a good quality synthetic moss material, which helps with the feeling of “masculine template” refinement as the damp woodiness makes it highly approachable, but there are plenty of mushroom-y and wet top soil-like notes thanks to the sourness that is still continuing on, and that sourness dominates the sweeter and earthier notes forced underneath it. Paradisi is likely to become one of my new spring and summer favorites. It’s so very full of character, energetic, and addictive to smell - managing freshness while also managing to smell of biological decay. Criticisms? The only one I can levy is that it falls a bit into the typical McCall trap of “so many synthetics, so little definition” - it’s almost too abstract - everything is presented as a solid mass with few discernible beginnings and ends to the notes. That makes it tough to read for a perfume geek like me, and tends to trip some of my hair triggers; this isn’t a perfume for the keen-on-details. However, that is part of what needs to be remembered with McCall’s style, generally speaking, and it also seems to be the theme of Paradisi delivered in a very convincing and well-balanced way: don’t focus on the trees, focus on the forest. Paradise isn’t a tree, after all."
Fragrantica: "I think at the moment this is my favorite "vegetation" scent out there. It's very crisp, humid and lush from the get-go. Main notes are grapefruit, tomato stems, cucumber and soil, but every other sniff reveals another layer of complexity. It's still grapefruit forward, so if you tend to associate it with sweat - stay away."
Fragrantica: "9/10. Ever imagined how fresh it feels lying on grass with dews on it? One of the most beautiful fresh, Earthy, green, citrusy, mossy kinda frag I've come across. This is beautiful & unique at every sniff."
Fragrantica: "I would liken this to a garden harvest agua fresca. I get the cucumber and the guava like crazy. Picture guava nectar juice can and fresh cucumber slices, right off the vine. The magnolia adds a bit of a subtle creaminess that is really light and cozy. The mushroom is strong in the base but it’s really delicate, not overwhelming. This is so different and although it is not full bottle worthy for me, what a COOL scent. Perfectly unique, intriguing, and innovative. Sample first! Perfect unisex garden fresh fragrance."
Fragrantica: "This is so special. I sampled this a few years ago when it came out and was taken by it. I just found the sample in my collection and dabbed it on the back of my hand- almost immediately it bloomed into an impossible to ignore, damp, earthy and MOSSY ABOVE ALL burst of fragrance. The dry down has a ripe fruit rind accord I associate with Byredo Pulp. Gorgeous atmospheric tropical scent."
Fragrantica: "I plan to get a full bottle this spring/summer. Its a unique take on a fresh clean scent. Instead of the typical citrus this has tart rhubarb and citrus balanced out by watery cucumber pear and honeysuckle with a clean geosmic dry down. A unique uplifting earthy scent which sounds like an oxymoron but this manages at doing just that. It’s like smelling fresh water from glacial runoff filtered through forest things like soil, moss, roots, leaves, twigs, mushrooms and flowers in the spring."
Fragrantica: "Lovely green, zesty and earthy fragrance. A photorealistic walk through a garden with green fruit and vegetables with after the rain earthy notes. Just masterful perfumery! The opening is super fresh, but the earthiness comes in and creates a beautiful yin/yang balance. Highly recommended!"
