The trend-setting cosmetics company MAC recently released a fall trend collection inspired by urban architecture, including makeup in a palette of charcoal gray, slate blue, and deep plum, as well as a fragrance called Asphalt Flower. Asphalt Flower is billed as “a limited-life scent as bold and urbane as the modern metropolis,” in which “glossy violet and iris petals cast an ebonized sheen over dark clouds of vanilla and patchouli.” (As Robin has previously noted, it may or not be exactly the same MAC fragrance released under this name in 1999; I missed the chance to try that earlier iteration, so I can’t verify this theory either way.)
Asphalt Flower is packaged in a sleek, portable roll-on dispenser of shaded gray glass. It looks androgynous and urban, and it smells that way, too. Yes, there is a candied-violet note in the opening phase of the fragrance’s development, but within a few minutes, it’s surrounded by dusky swirls of incense…
