Paying homage to the chypre genre, a concept of perfumes devised by Francois Coty almost one hundred years ago, Hiram Green’s new fragrance Shangri La stays true to the original nuances of this distinguished genre of fragrance, known for its embodiment of light citrus notes complemented by deep and woody undertones. A beautiful natural representation of a century old scent, we love Shangri La‘s retro, but never old-fashioned, elegance.
With a name inspired by the fictional land in James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon, Shangri La evokes the mystical fragrant paradise envisioned by Green in his inception of the scent. In light of the launch, Hiram filled us in on his vision for Shangri La and the complex process of formulating his latest creation….
“Other than using the fictional land of Shangri La as a starting point for inspiration of this fragrance, I wanted to create a classic chypre-based fragrance. However, I found it quite a challenge to construct this classic accord only using natural ingredients primarily because of the restrictions that exist on the use of key natural ingredients needed to make a chypre fragrance. For example, the amount of natural oakmoss you may use nowadays is highly restricted. It was a challenge to create an oakmoss base to Shangri La while sticking to the current restrictions, nevertheless, we managed to do it and are very pleased with the result.”
Designed to elicit a fragrant journey, Shangri La opens with a sharp burst of citrus enhanced with a rich bouquet of peach, jasmine, rose, iris and spices, all grounded by an earthy base of vetiver and oakmoss. Fans of Hiram’s first scent, Moon Bloom, a Content facvourite, will find similarities between the two, with Shangri La being the warmer of the duo – perfect for the months ahead.
