I love a fragrance that is both lovely to smell and intriguing to consider. I also love floral fragrances, although I am branching out as I learn more about perfume. Laboratorio Olfattivo Nirmal is all three. I have previously declared my love for that house’s Decou-Vert.  Nirmal is a new love, though I don’t see myself wearing it more than Decou-Vert, generally speaking — maybe in the fall, when I don’t crave the green notes of my beloved muguets.

The firm’s website describes it in terms of soft white fabric brushing against skin, sweetness, serenity, tranquility, a cloud of white notes. The top note is carrot, followed by heart notes of iris root and violet, drying down to a base of sweet suede, cedar and amber. The name is a Hindi or Sanskrit first name for boys, which means pure, innocent, tranquil. And yes, this is a fragrance that could easily be worn by a man. The iris note is really orris root, the violet is very hushed and the sweet notes in the base are well-balanced with the cedar.

The carrot top note is very clear and leaves no doubt that it is carrot. It is a fresh carrot, though, the kind one might buy at a farmer’s market, with its ferny green foliage intact as well as its fresh-from-the-earth sweetness, that vanishes before carrots reach the supermarket. The carrot slowly gives way to iris root, the two merging imperceptibly until you notice at some point that the carrot is gone and the iris has taken over, with a blush of violet. Then the iris slowly yields to the violet, and the undertones of cedar, “daim” and amber begin to appear softly.

Olfactoria’s Travels had a lovely review of Nirmal two years ago; the author did not perceive the carrot as strongly as I did, and she sensed the sweet “daim” notes more strongly, although they do get stronger and more candied as Nirmal dries down. She made a lovely comparison between Nirmal and the lone white iris in one of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings, noting that like the white iris, this scent is pale and delicate.

Irises, by Vincent van Gogh

I agree — there are no grape notes, as one finds in some iris flowers; the only purplish fragrance note is the faint flush of violet, and maybe that’s a white violet, too.

Sweet white violet

Nirmal has good longevity on my skin; five hours or more. I would say that its sillage is moderate. As it dries down, the sweet “daim” notes do become stronger, but they are never cloying or too sugary. There is a warmth to the sweetness that probably comes from the amber note, and a nice balance from the light but woody cedar. After eight hours, most of what I still smell is the amber, which has come shyly out of the background to outlast the other notes.

I will be interested to try this next summer, when the weather is hot, to see how it fares. Right now, my favorite fragrances for the kind of hot, humid weather we get in the South are Ellena’s Un Jardin Sur le Nil and Un Jardin Apres La Mousson.  Right now, the weather is cool and overcast but not chilly, and Nirmal feels just right.