Tom Ford Métallique

Ask anyone, aldehydes are kind of my signature. With a scent profile that ranges from metallic to starchy, green to citrusy, fatty and waxy, aldehydes are an organic compound present in many natural materials, though now mostly synthesized. Aliphatic aldehydes (those featured in such icons as Chanel N°5, Lanvin Arpège and Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche) are named C-6 to C-12 and were initially discovered in natural sources: C-9 and C-11 in rose essential oil, and C-8, C-10 and C-12 in the zest of citrus fruits. Comparably, aromatic aldehydes have a more complex structure, but are easy to identify by smell; for instance, anisaldehyde smells of liquorice, and benzaldehyde like almonds.

Hidden in the shadows of many contemporary compositions – there only for nuance – it is the aromatic aldehyde we are more familiar with in modern perfumery; the classical aliphatic aldehyde’s fatty, soapy characteristics having long fallen out of favour with consumers and perfumers alike. Now though, after a too-long hiatus from the perfumer’s palette, some big-name releases are reviving the fortune of the aldehyde – bringing the aromatic variety out of the shadows, and the aliphatic aldehyde back from exile.

Cue: Tom Ford Métallique.

The designer himself describing Métallique as a “high-shine armor of addictive aldehydes”, Tom Ford’s Métallique shines the spotlight on aldehydes – the saccharine N°5-esque aliphatic variety – to brilliant effect not seen in a designer release since Rive Gauche in the ‘70s.

Tom Ford, and I tend to agree, lists these notes for Métallique:

Aldehydes, bergamot, pink pepper, hawthorn, lily-of-the-valley, heliotrope, ambrette, peru balsam, vanilla, sandalwood

Much like its gleaming two-toned platinum and gold bottle, Métallique opens with a glimmering veneer of aldehydes, lily-of-the-valley and bergamot. Soapy, champagne-crisp and severe with the chill of the its partnering lily-of-the-valley and bergamot, the aldehydic opening is, as the name promises, distinctly metallic. Immediately though, from behind the frostbitten metallic sheen of the aldehydes, the composition promises a golden contrast – again, like the bottle – as rosy pink pepper cushions an increasingly persistent oriental accord. This accord of vanilla, ambrette seed and balsams is marshmallow in texture and sweetness, wearing like a springboard from which the aldehydes project, lending a weight heft to the composition, but never stealing the limelight from the aldehydes in the opening.

Later relinquishing their cold metallic grip on the composition, the aldehydes turn saccharine in the heart as heliotrope and hawthorn impart a milky, floral, almost waxy character to their feel. For a brief minute here in the heart, Métallique smells of an underdone butterscotch caramel; the milky aldehydic-floral and marshmallowy vanilla-amber accords commingling to cacophonous, crystalline gourmand effect. Thankfully, this stage is only momentary, a transitional rough patch as Métallique evolves into its oriental base of warm, golden-glowing balsams, vanilla and ambrette backboned by the sharp edge of those still present aliphatic aldehydes.

Sweet without being gourmand, aldehydic without coming across aloof nor classical in the Chanel N°5 and Lanvin Arpège manner, Métallique is an aldehydic fragrance for the contemporary market. A perfectly marketable sweet oriental sheathed in an overdose of aldehydes, Métallique is just as likely to captivate the well-healed urbane demographic to whom the Tom Ford brand appeals as it is broader audiences drawn in by its oriental nature or aldehyde revivalism. Vive la aldehyde revival!

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Year of Release: 2019

Creative Direction: Tom Ford

Perfumer: Undeclared

Alternatives: Rosendo Mateu Nº 5 Floral, Amber, Sensual Musk

Available: David Jones and www.tomford.com from $210, 50ml