MAIL CALL: MIDKNIGHT VALENCIA Jin Studio is exactly the kind of small independent house I enjoy discovering. This isn’t some big corporate niche brand with fragrances designed by committee. Jin Studio describes itself as a personal creative project, with the fragrances being developed out of a genuine obsession with scent and experimentation. Everything is based out of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and that small-batch, hands-on approach is why I would put them firmly in the American independent niche/artisan category. The house has a pretty interesting personality. Their Based Arts fragrances include the Original along with variations like Pomelo Twist, Mango ❤️ and White Label. They aren’t just trying to make the same fragrance over and over. Pomelo Twist goes bright and juicy with pomelo/grapefruit, red berries, jasmine, ambergris and soft woods, while White Label takes a cleaner, more modern direction built around Asian pear, frozen berries, sandalwood and oakmoss. The original Based Arts is described more as a warm, mysterious, understated signature scent. MAIL CALL — MIDKNIGHT VALENCIA This is the one that just came in, and I’ve already recorded the mail call. Midknight Valencia immediately caught my attention because this sounds like my kind of warm-weather fragrance, but with quite a bit more going on than just another citrus. It is handcrafted and poured at a 34% extrait concentration, opening with Japanese yuzu, Calabrian bergamot, Valencia orange and Taiwanese mandarin. Then you get dry and sweet vanilla, coconut milk, red berries and botanical musk before it settles into cashmere, white musk, ambergris, tonka, ambrette and warm woods. What interested me is that on paper this doesn’t sound like a citrus fragrance that’s going to give you a bright opening and then disappear. You’ve got all that citrus up top, but underneath it you’ve got vanilla, coconut milk, musk, ambergris and woods giving it some body. Valencia orange is really the star, and I’m interested to see whether that orange actually hangs around deep into the wear instead of disappearing after twenty minutes. That’s what I’m going to be looking for when I spend some time with it.

Went with ATH Haze today. This is exactly the kind of fresh fragrance I like because it isn’t some thin little citrus that disappears after an hour. Right from the opening I get a big blast of grapefruit, orange and lemon, followed pretty quickly by that juicy pineapple and black currant. There is definitely some sweetness here, but the citrus keeps it bright and energetic instead of becoming syrupy. As it settles down, the musk, ambergris and patchouli give it some body and keep it from smelling like just another basic summer freshie. You can certainly make some comparisons to the Aventus/Tygar type of world, but I don’t think Haze smells like a straight clone of either one. To me, the grapefruit is really the star, and ATH gives the whole thing that thicker, louder style that he tends to do. This is fresh, fruity, masculine leaning and extremely easy to wear, especially here in the Arizona heat. More importantly, it actually has enough presence that I can smell it around me. Haze is basically a freshie with some muscle behind it—and that works for me.