Amber Repose

Cumin, cut into the citrus.

Cumin is the material that decides this one. Savoury, close to skin, a little animal, it stops bitter orange from reading as breakfast. The orange tangles with it, lively and pithy, and dried fruit lies underneath the two of them like a bed.

Benzoin and labdanum warm it, slow and sticky where the citrus was sharp, and that sharpness mellows as they do. Sandalwood takes the edge off both without drying them. Magnolia and rose come through warmly spiced, and sensuous musk brings it to body temperature.

Jean Robert takes its name from Jean Robert Charles, a Haitian-born high school French teacher who played for Haiti's national team and ran a men's clothing store called Justin's. Tennis was for recreation, and taken very seriously all the same. What the son remembers is a father who always smelled good, of citrus, spice and wood, and who kept a tray of bottles a child could hold and spray.

Justin Charles came to making fragrances from online media, design, technology, academia and political organising, after ordering an introduction kit online out of curiosity, with a five-month-old daughter at the time. Blending accords came first. Everything is hand-crafted in small batches and filtered several times, with sediment or cloudiness sometimes showing for the natural material in it.