Cognoscenti is defined by the Company’s website as persons with superior knowledge, usually specialized or highly refined tastes   After one cursory sniff of this company’s four fragrances I knew exactly what they meant. Created for those who expect more than the usual fruity floral or woody aquatic, Cognoscenti truly delivers wonderfully blended and utterly unique scents that stay with you, in more ways than one. Landing squarely between vintage powerhouse and modern niche fragrances, these perfumes all stand out. Created from the finest ingredients, both local and exotic, these scents are another choice for those who seek something truly out of the ordinary and appreciate both craft and craftsmanship…those in the know.

Dannielle Sergent

No. 8, like all this company’s scents, contains a high percentage of natural raw materials and is unisex. Being named with only a simple number, this perfume changed many times during the blending phase but its name always stayed constant. Having had the chance to speak with the perfumer a few times, Dannielle Sergent is as down to earth and as classy as her perfumes are. Each of these numbered perfumes comes about when it is ready and ultimately it is listening to and “following” the ingredients that lets the perfumer know when it’s done and what it will be called. Oak moss is the perfumer’s favorite note currently and she wanted to create a mossy aldehyde perfume that was woody and elegantly sweet but smoothly flowing.

The notes I was given by the perfumer are listed linearly: one after the other with no top, heart or base. No.8 is a line that starts flowing beautifully, curving and descending sensually on a ribbon of soft leather and luminescent bergamot. As it slides and slinks downwards aldehydes spin and sputter off the skin like sparks from a child’s sparkler at a fourth of July picnic. On its sharpest curve, it pivots on a muted ylang ylang note that never really materializes, but adds a just enough warm floral energy to function as a fulcrum to the airy explosion of aldehydes in the opening and the warm slightly dank but sweet oak moss in the ultimate finish.

While this line continues to the bottom and rises again to cross itself it runs a gamut of woodiness. Rich cedar and dry vetiver keep the verdant line flowing. The perfumer’s hand deftly twisted notes of amber, tonka bean and cocoa into the line, returning it to its source point-only now it does so sweetly, lifted by the woods and coumarin. This scent really does twist and turn, just like the numeral chosen to name it. Ironically, it was only after the fragrance was complete that the correlation with the physicality of an actual eight and the scent structure was realized. It was unintentional, on the perfumer’s end anyway…the perfume, it always knew.

Disclosure: Reviews based on samples sent to me by COGNOSCENTI.

Thanks to Dannielle Sergent we have two draws. For our US readers we have a 50 ml bottle of No.8. For our international readers we have a sample of No. 8. To be eligible leave a comment on what the number 8 means to you or why you would like to try it .  Let us know whether you are a US or international reader. The draw ends November 30, 2013.

We announce the winners only onsite and on our Facebook page, so Like CaFleureBon and use our RSS option…..or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.

-John Reasinger, Senior Editor

Editor's Note: EIC Michelyn Camen named Dannielle Sergent her Rising Star of 2012,, Cognoscenti was my favorite Discovery of 2012 and Senior Editor Tama Blough reviewed the first fragrances last year.