Island Lavender (Caldey Abbey Perfumes)

By Thomas

For some reason I avoided Lavender like the plague. The lavender I recalled was a sickly pale soapy-powdery-flowery-lilacky prim little miniature hand soap like you might find in granny’s washroom. For God’s sake, the last thing I want to smell like is granny’s hand soap.

Enter the Caldey Island monks. Monks they may be, but they thankfully are also men who have no wish to smell like granny’s hand soaps, either. Caldey Island Lavender is a stark, brawny lavender, an olfactory slap in the face. This is not your granny’s bath soap.

Caldey Island Lavender primarily focuses on anise. The anise gets dominant perhaps 30 minutes into the scent and – depending on how recently you bathed - gives it a sweaty, salty feel. Spray it first thing in the morning, and it’s well mannered. Apply towards the end of the day, and it gives a construction worker vibe. At the opening it's slightly sweet in the manner of Guerlain Vetiver, not much camphor to speak of. Towards mid-point, fairly dry anisic lavender, but gets mildly sweeter and salty/musky as time goes on. Slightly reminiscent of Azzaro for Men.

Out of curiosity I pulled one of my bottles of Guerlain Vetiver for comparison. Where GV is soapy vetiver with tobacco undertones, CIL is astringent lavender with anise dominant. They are of similar sweetness, weight, and are almost interchangeable excepting for their shades (Vetiver green/ Lavender purple). It's more austere than your normal women's scent, which for me makes it classical masculine. Those monks are still men under those robes.