Calvin Klein Truth
Truth, to my nose, is one of the better Calvin Klein eau de parfums introduced since the noughties (2000) began. According to basenotes.net (link at right), it was created by Alberto Morillas, Jacques Cavallier, and Thierry Wasser. It is a green scent, but more at green woods than green leaves. The scent glides along like a casual walk through a forest in the Columbia River Gorge. As it makes its progression, you can smell the cool humidity of cascading waterfall spray, and the ferns that rise up along the fall’s pool basin. Truth may begin sharply on some folks. It smells cedar-like on my skin most noticably at the start, and this note seems to imply bark as a spice. Interlaced into the greens and woods is a dewy floral accord. I’ve read some sites credit a “white peony” in the composition, and that sounds right, but before I looked the notes up on the internet, I certainly couldn’t have named anything in particular. Frankly, the flowers here occur to me as a bouquet, rather than in specific notes. As Truth settles on my skin, a neat little bamboo note makes itself known. I most like this aspect of it. The florals and greens surprisingly become more pitched towards the middle of wear, rather than at the top. Next, a piquant sandalwood grows into this blend. The drydown itself remains quite floral - even after most of the other notes have evaporated. Patchouli in this fragrance wears on me as unusually flowery. I detect a wee smidge of something vanillic way towards the end of wear. It’s so light I’m unsure that some people will even find it on their skin.
The Truth shower gel is a nice balance of all the above components, but was a little too perfumed for me to use in the morning. I ended up just passing my barely touched bottle on to someone else. Still, if you like using strong but cool smelling bath products, it’s not a bad choice.
Calvin Klein at one time also briefly offered a “Sensual Bedtime Fragrance/ Eau Sensuelle de Nuit” version of Truth. I dimly recall that they also released it with complimentary bath cubes and incense. I could be mistaken on this point, however, so feel free to correct me if your memory is better. This Bedtime version is a lighter, more pine needled floral formulation in my opinion, and seems more linear in wear. I think it was a poor marketing decision to label this as “bedtime,” since to me it makes a rather decent day scent. I find it a little bit easier to wear than regular Truth. To the best of my knowledge, this version is quite tricky to get ahold of here in the U.S. It may be worth stalking Ebay for it if you’d like to like Truth, but wish the original was not quite so strong. (For the record, I don’t personally consider it strong, but some do.) One hazard of the Bedtime version: it attracts insects. Specifically? Bees. You’ve been warned. I wish I’d been.
I suspect Truth has never gained a ton of popularity partly due to the fact that it’s too woody for green-lovers, too green for those who like woody scents, and a bit too “masculine” for floral lovers. I am also confused by all the pronouncements of this as a warm scent. To me it is an earthy, cooling scent.
Photo above was taken at Wahkeena Falls in Oregon, located in the Columbia River Gorge.