WÚ GĀNG

IMPRESSION
An osmanthus tree on the moon.

LORE
/wú gāng/ noun (Mandarin Chinese)

吳剛

Wú Gāng is a mortal man who sought immortality and angered the heavens through impatience. He was punished by being sent to the moon, tasked to cut down an osmanthus tree that heals each time it is struck. Each night he raises his axe, and the tree grows back as quickly as he cuts it. His labor is Sisyphean, an endless task that can never be completed.

OLFACTORY FAMILY
Fruity, Tea, Leather, Animalic, Woody, Mineral

PERFUMER’S NOTES
“Wú Gāng is my first fragrance since my opening collection, built from one of the earliest formulas I ever finished for family and friends. I wanted to revisit it to mark my growth as a perfumer. It stands apart from the opening collection because it centres on a single note - the osmanthus in all its facets: the tea, the apricot, the tobacco, the leather, the animalic edge. The concept was straightforward: how does an osmanthus tree on the moon smell; the challenge was how it smells after being struck down. The fragrance follows the trajectory of the story, moving from a bright, resonant opening into a sharp decline that becomes suffocating, mineralic, and dry.”