Tomorrow you’ll be thinking to yourself, “Yeah, where did it all go wrong?”

CB I Hate Perfume M1 Narcissus

The story of Narcissus and Echo is a famous one. Echo, cursed by Hera for detaining Hera while the other nymphs Zeus dallied with ran away, could only reply the words spoken to her. One day she saw Narcissus, and attempted to gain his love. He shunned her. In her sadness, Echo retreated into a cave, where she stayed until nothing was left of her but her voice, cursed forever to reflect what others’ say.

Narcissus got his, though. After spurning woman after woman, eventually one plead to the heavens that Narcissus might fall for someone who ignored him and that he would feel no return of his affection as punishment. Venus cursed him accordingly, and he eventually fell in love with his own reflection. Each time he tried to touch the beautiful creature, its watery reflection retreated. Eventually he wasted away to nothing, but when the water nymphs who loved him came to dispose of his body properly, they found none – only a single flower.

I loved this story of unrequited love and deserved punishment in high school. I even wrote a poem in Latin from the perspective of Echo. It won fourth in the state at the state Latin competition.

Christopher Brosius has attempted to bottle the great spurner turned flower in M1 Narcissus. He describes the scent as being “the scent of narcissus, clean running water over mossy stones, the wind gently blowing through green leaves,’ capturing the love Narcissus only felt for himself until it consumed him. While enjoying the scent, I reflected on Brosius’ reflections on the scent:

The narcissus is not a simple flower. What does it mean?

A legend of a beautiful man destroyed by vanity. Is this true? What lies beneath? Realities dim as the world grows old, convention is laid over truth but the truth remains.

The ancients believed that the eye was the window to the soul. Looking into another’s eye was to know that person truly a dangerous pursuit. The narcissus flower was thought to represent the eye. Where is the link from man to flower to eye?

What then was this beautiful man really searching for gazing into the rippling waters of that clear brook? What really did he find there bending lower, lower, lower still? Gazing into his own eyes until the water engulfed him and he was lost. Vanity is too simple an answer.

What then really destroyed him? What is the secret hidden in this transformation? Man to flower, flower to eye. What do we find when we look into this blazing eye that gazes out at the world each spring? The narcissus is one of the first spring flowers there is no mistaking this significance in myth. Spring is a time of transformation. The time of contemplation is over and the world changes. Something is lost this is inevitable but something greater is gained. We are changed and are the wiser for it.

This is the secret hidden in the heart of the narcissus and this is the true power of spring.

On application, it's a lovely green with just hints of flowers. Then it gets a little muddy, that lovely dirt note Brosius does so well peeking in, and then the greens and white florals begin to balance out with the same sweet cinnamon-y notes you get in To See A Flower. This is a super clean, innocent scent. Quite frankly, I think it might be more appropriately named Echo or even Daphne, given their respective mythos. It’s a nice scent, but I think it might be nicest for a younger girl, maybe a girl who is breaking hearts all over town and simply does not even realize it because, in her teen-aged youth, beauty, and self-absorption, she embodies that classic archetype: The Narcissist.

Hell, if I could reach back to my sixteen-year old self, I'd hand her a bottle.

You can buy M1 Narcissus for $80 in either 15ml perfume absolute or 100ml water perfume direct from the perfumer. You can also get samples from the CB website or from The Perfumed Court.

“If you find a man that’s worth a damn and treats you well.
Then he’s a fool, you’re just as well, hope it gives you hell.”
- “Gives You Hell,” All American Rejects

Try as I might, I cannot seem to locate more reviews of the M1 Narcissus. Too bad for you reviewers out there. It’s worth a try.

Images from CB Hate Perfume, & David Revoy.