MASQUE MILANO
RAY-FLECTION

2020

PERFUMER
Alex Lee

mandarin
aldehydes
cardamom

mimosa absolute
Violet
solar notes

beeswax absolute
cedarwood
musk

‘A dream. A flower, with an incredibly intense smell. And huge, humongous. Not a normal flower, one that you can find on earth. This flower was emitting a surprisingly bright light. As the time passed by, and the light grew even more dazzling, the flower starts melting, dripping like honey from a rich and mellow honeycomb. “For this new chapter of the collection, we decided to create an “alien flower”, a floral perfume that has never been smelled before.” – Masque Milano

I attended the virtual launch even for Ray-Flection, where we also heard a break down of the composition.

We were teased with honey before the launch, but it’s not an all-out honey fragrance. Instead, the honey serves as a cozy blanket on top of a mostly floral and citrus composition for a good part of the wear. Mimosa is the name of the game here, and you get a very realistic, musky, bright, powdery (pollen) flower… with a blast of citrus.

For the first hour a very bright and transparent mandarin is in charge. I’d say it smells natural, though I don’t get any rind or pulp, it’s clear, acidic and juicy. It smells like a lemonade to my nose. Initially, I wanted more honey out of Ray-Flection, because the separate honey accord that I got to smell, was really addictive. However, most honey scents that I’ve tried are quite linear, and I ended up much preferring the way this one handles it. It’s when the sparkliness of the citrus fades, that the beautiful honey comes through, not too sweet, and definitely easier to wear than Zoologist Bee and Hiram Green Slowdive for example. It remains a good mix of floral, citrus and honey for a couple of hours, before transitioning again into a honeyed woody skin scent.

Out of all the Masque Milano releases, Ray-Flection might be the most accessible and the easiest to blindly recommend. Perfumer Alex Lee did something here, that I think is often very underrated; he created a relatively safe, mass appealing scent, while remaining unique, complex and fitting in the Masque line-up (it’s a step brighter and sweeter, but a logical small next step, not a leap).