Vetiver Ambrette

The root refuses to sweeten.

Cool, green and solid, the grass root holds its position while everything over it turns tropical. Frangipani is lightly creamy above that, and sweet with it. Hibiscus comes in fruity and spiced, and the musk mallow seed sits beside them, juicy and soft.

Orange and grapefruit are bright and invigorating where they touch it. The wood behind the root picks up a warmth that is salty as much as sweet.

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.