Epicea by Creed

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Prologue:

Sometimes in Life, it is important to 'go back to basics'. Think about it for a moment.

This maxim can be applied effectively to almost anything whether it concerns issues of technique in sport; music; or the creation of the most fundamental of dishes when cooking, such as a basic risotto. Even writing.

In short, the absence of 'more of' the 'x,y,z', is actually better when the 'Law of Parsimony' is applied.

Act I

With respect to this, 'Epicea' by Creed exemplifies this principle when applied to perfumery. Rather than bombard the creation with a plethora of complex 'interlocking facets', the nose behind this old-fashioned beauty has made an intellectual appeal to William of Okham, hsitorically noteworthy for his so-called 'Razor' and created a simple olfactory tale based around 'Pine'.

'Epicea' is the fragrance of the 'great outdoors': there are no perfumistic implications of sweetness; that which is edible, fanciful, dainty, or 'ozonic'; and even the 'world of leather' is absent. At best it approximates a rich woody/chypre-esque quality.

This is a bracing perfume to be 'applied' rather like the way in which an old-school masseur would rub in a therapeutic linament. It is a nostrum: an old-fashioned 'sport' fragrance before the media 'commodified' the term. 'Epicea' is a tremendously invigorating, aromatic perfume with staying power. Yet it possesses an allure: a 'charge': something enticing, and that element of 'wanting more' at a physical level.

This is a perfume of the cinematic landscape inhabited by Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman in a classic Douglas Sirk's film, as they romantically 'engage' their life together: Rock, the outdoor 'Hunk' (sigh!) with his heavy red/black checked jacket and outdoor boots, chopping wood, and Jane, planning their next intimate 'encounter': the scenes awash with blowing autummal leaves, the characteristic Sirksian signature and tense, sexually charged drama.

Epilogue

This fragrance is a triumph of 'pine-meets-lavender-and-clove'. Simple; 'outdoors'; adventurous, and utterly uplifting!

Andyray

Ps A big, big thanks (again) to Chat Lunatique for reminding me of the virtues of 'Pine' in her superb review of Krizia's Uomo!