# Ormonde Jayne — Kashmir

> Kashmir is Ormonde Jayne's 2024 study of a single, rarely used material: Deodar oil, the Himalayan cedar known in Sanskrit as devadaru, "wood of the gods." Founder Linda Pilkington built the whole pro

## Essence
Kashmir is Ormonde Jayne's 2024 study of a single, rarely used material: Deodar oil, the Himalayan cedar known in Sanskrit as devadaru, "wood of the gods." Founder Linda Pilkington built the whole project around sourcing that elusive oil, then took it to Geza Schoen to compose. The result is an idealized portrait of cedar that is dry, creamy, powdery and resinous at once - dressed with spice, soft florals and incense, and meant to recreate the textile sensation of cashmere in scent.
## Scent Profile
The opening tingles. Citruses, pepper and cardamom prickle "like sherbet on the tongue," while rose and jasmine whip up the champagne-like fizz familiar from the Ormonde Jayne house style, with a creamy-suede saffron rounding the edges. It reads bright and effervescent rather than sharp.
The heart is where the cedar study unfolds. Rather than drop a single cedar note in, the fragrance assembles the wood from many parts - a pointillistic rendering that critic Claire Vukcevic likened to the way Chanel Bois des Iles builds Mysore sandalwood from a palette. The effect is "freshly milled cedar - citrusy, bitter-coniferous, a bit fruity or boozy," with the texture playing so finely between powdery and creamy that perception wavers between the two. A dry green-blackcurrant or cassis-leaf facet adds lift and is, by several accounts, what makes the composition sing.
The drydown is warm, woody-resinous and skin-like. Cashmeran lends a milky, almost living-skin muskiness associated with old-school sandalwood, and a faint incense-and-benzoin smudge trails "like a trail of powdered sugar." It settles into a soft, sweet-resinous wood that stays close and refined.
## Performance
Performance is a strong point. Longevity is widely reported as excellent - a full day into the evening, with one logged wear around nine hours and roughly two hours of arm's-length projection. Sillage is noticeable but controlled rather than overpowering, reaching out widely from even a single small spray. Because a little travels far, conservative application is the repeated advice.
## Wearing Context
Many noses place it best in autumn and winter, where the warm resinous drydown feels most at home, though the brand and several reviewers call it genuinely all-season and unisex. It skews slightly masculine - one wearer framed it as "unapologetically manly, high-fashion, old-money understated" - but is comfortably worn by anyone. Its crisp-woody, fresh-mountain-air character makes it a versatile sophisticated daily wood that ranges from office to evening to formal occasions.
## Comparisons & DNA
Kashmir sits in the build-a-wood-from-many-notes lineage of Chanel Bois des Iles, which it openly references. Vukcevic places it alongside her favorite cedar fragrances - Serge Lutens Feminite du Bois and Hermes Cedre Sambac - as a tentative third member of that family. For the dry cassis-leaf topnote effect she draws a parallel to Diptyque L'Ombre dans l'Eau. Within the house, some detect a chunk of Ormonde Jayne Evernia in the background, though Evernia leans far harder into oakmoss. The honest framing: an abstract cedar soliflore distinguished by its specific dry-creamy Deodar facet and Schoen's signature woody-musk extenders.
## Reception
Reception among the niche audience and the blogs that covered it is positive, with one structural reservation. Admirers praise its "classical elegance and appeal, rather than faddish novelty," and one enthusiast called it "a masterclass from Geza Schoen, with Linda's soft, airy touch." The candid limitation, raised by Vukcevic, is that as an exploration of a single basenote it "can never rise above a study of its star material" - a soliflore by design. A minority find it synthetic, a bit mature, or simply familiar. The split is less about quality than appetite: lovers of dry abstract woods tend to admire it, while those who dislike single-material studies or are sensitive to Schoen's woody-musk aromachemicals are the ones who cool on it.
## Versions & Reformulation
Kashmir is a single 2024 composition with no known reformulations, offered as an Eau de Parfum made in England in Ormonde Jayne's refillable bottle. One note of clarification: the "blue poppy" in the pyramid is, by Pilkington's own description, a fantasy accord - "the way I imagine blue poppies to smell" - not a real extraction. The base consistently centers on Deodar/Himalayan cedar, sandalwood, cashmeran, benzoin, vanilla, patchouli, incense, myrrh and musk.
## Acquisition Notes
Kashmir sits in niche pricing and is sold through Ormonde Jayne directly and through worldwide stockists. Confirmed formats are an 88 ml EDP at $215 (£175 / €195) and a 10 ml travel spray at $45 (£35 / €40), with 2 ml samples circulating through sample services. Authentic channels are the brand's own site, its London boutique, and authorized niche retailers; no counterfeit problem is documented for this recent release.
## Notable Facts & Lore
- The project hinged on sourcing the "elusive" Deodar oil; Pilkington has said the creative process could only start once she received it.
- Pilkington and Geza Schoen developed the composition in his Berlin kitchen over several months before the formula went to IFF for compliance.
- Kashmir belongs to the La Route de la Soie (Silk Road) collection, themed on ingredients of the Himalayan-Kashmir region, including wild blue poppies and Kashmiri saffron.
- The name traces to devadaru, "wood of the gods," the Sanskrit root behind Deodar cedar, traditionally used in incense.
- 5% of all Kashmir sales made in the boutique or online are donated to The Himalayan Trust and its regional reforestation project.
- The fragrance is conceived to recreate the textile sensation of cashmere in olfactive terms.