BYREDO 1996 - dare to dream

Byredo 1996 is a poem about the most tempting moments of human life: childhood, dreams, sensuality, pleasure, Christmas, and comfort.

On their website the house gives us some information about Byredo 1996:

“1996 was inspired by Kirsten 1996, a picture of a young girl taken by iconic photographers Inez & Vinoodh in that year. To them, “This picture represents the duality that underlies our work and our life together and the scent is very much Ben’s impeccable and sensitive interpretation of that”, a warm blend of black pepper, leather and patchouli. Each box is decorated with a ‘Kirsten 1996’ photograph.”

What they are not telling you on their website is something that you can find only if you buy the perfume:

Byredo 1996 was, in its inception, a Christmas scent made to celebrate friendship and a very close and personal universe. This fragrance was not meant to be taken by the world and to be made popular, but the strange mixture that it generates made it often chosen by those who know and love Byredo.

What is the signification of 1996?, well, as you might already read on Byredo’s website, the fragrance’s creation has a close connection to a photo taken in 1996 by iconic photographers Inez & Vinoodh.

Concentration: Eau de Parfum (EDP)

House: Byredo

Parfumeur: Ben Gorham

Initial notes:

Byredo’s 1996 starts with a melange of contradictory smells that remind perfectly of Christmas, convincing the wearer that life can be wonderful again by inviting him/her/they to take a journey into this specific moment of the year: winter’s celebrations.

Pointing out the sweetness of chocolate, cookies, and cognac, Byredo1996 behaves like a comforting blanket that you can put on whenever you feel the need to.

That is, I can say without a doubt that Byredo 1996 is the first perfume I met that has a pure and genuine effect on my psychic, meaning that it gives me a sense of wellbeing and calm.

Middle notes:

Later on, making their own way throughout the sweetness, there are some subtle Christmas tree needles that temper somehow the sugary beginning transporting you from the syrupy boozy taste to a space of joy.

This is the moment when we can talk about how a perfume can contain, like a snapshot, an image of a moment. Sounding super posh, this a synesthesia of senses, combining together various senses: visual, gustative and olfactory. This gourmand sensation you will meet in Youth Dew, but there is about a drink, while in Byredo 1996 is all about cookies, pudding and food in general.

When you wear Byredo’s 1996 is like placing yourself, voluntarily, in the middle of a Christmas party where nothing can be bad.

Base notes:

You if ever have been in a bibliotheque with very, very old books, you will remember that dusty sweetness generated by paper. I don’t know why, but aged paper has this sweet vanilla fragrance.

Well, Byredo 1996 remains in this Christmas area reminding of that moment when grandmother reads the bedtime story to her nieces on Christmas Eve.

The comforting sensation becomes deeper and deeper thanks to the iris which provides a narcotic calm that surrounds you until the lastest phase of the perfume.

Drydown:

The very good aspect of Byredo 1996 is that it will stand still there in a sort of linear manner, not moving too much from the original smell.

So, if you like the initial notes, you will be able to smell them until late in the evening.

Sillage:

Byredo 1996 is not a monster that spreads its tentacles and grabs those around you, instead, this perfume acts very softly, so that the ones very close to you will smell the fragrance.

Longevity:

Though a soft fragrance, Byredo 1996 has very good longevity and sticks to clothes until you wash them.

Initial sensation:

When I smelled Byredo 1996 for the first time, I was impressed by how well Byredo succeeded to replicate that feeling of sniffing something so, so familiar like the well known Christmas atmosphere with all that it implies: candies, pudding, Christmas tree, cookies, cognac and a good book.

The reaction of others:

Byredo 1996 is a huge hit when it comes to talking about how others will perceive you while you wear this perfume.

It’s worth the money if:

Yes, it’s worth the money and, in this care, there is not an “if”.

Being a unisex perfume, like all Byredo’s perfumes, Byredo 1996 offers pure pleasure, a sense of wellbeing and calmness of mind. These are, in fact, the attributes of happiness, and, I think, there is not one single person on the face of the Earth who does not want to be happy.

If you want perfume for yourself, you need Byredo 1996.

Another huge plus is the quality that Byredo put in every single product that they sell.