Jigsaw puzzles have always been irresistible to me to varying degrees. I have in my lifetime so far completed three 1,000-piece jigsaws on my own and several others of different shapes and sizes with my other half and/or with friends.

I don’t remember where I first came across Puzzle Parfum, with their puzzle piece–shaped perfume bottles and kaleidoscopic surface designs. It was probably during a period when I wasn’t actively curious about new perfumes. More recently, I learned that this Turkish brand had won an honorary Marie Claire Fragrance Award this year for Best Bottle Design. I decided to give them a try and purchased a discovery set at a very reasonable price as one of the discount sites was having a big sale.

To challenge myself, I tried each fragrance without knowing anything about it, to let my nose form impressions without bias and practice identifying notes unaided. This turned out to be trickier than I’d hoped.

Each is an eau de parfum created by artist and perfumer Cengiz Yatağan. The brand’s website seems to emphasize his visual works, which are more established; the perfume brand was founded only in 2023. The scents are meant to match the prints on each bottle.

Sarcastic

This was the first one I tried, as I was intrigued by the name, which gives no hints as to what it could smell like. Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything sweet and fluffy. The first note I recognized was an astringent cedarwood, followed by something flinty that reminded me of Hermès Terre d’Hermès. Then angelica—no, not warm enough… artemisia? Something that’s also in Frédéric Malle French Lover. Perhaps a bit of cypress. It’s a little abrasive, as sarcasm would be.

My other half smelled lemon. I get the citrus peel as well, bitter and fresh. This could represent the sour, biting, witty aspects of sarcasm.

I looked up the notes: angelica! Also nutmeg, but fortunately not so much that I noticed. Sarcastic warms over time to a powdery orris and mild incense, rounded by tobacco. It settles into an aura of cool spices, very dry, with cedar and a smoky vetiver in the base.

Overall, true to its name, Sarcastic is not very welcoming, but rather than relying on contrasts, its framework is pretty square. Sarcasm doesn’t work without a good foundation of how things should be. It makes sense to me.

Daylight

With the name, I expected a bright citrus. It opened familiarly indeed, with what I interpreted as an orange note with a powdery and creamy background. Definitely amber—vintage, with something dirty or sour amplified by the cosmetic creamy aspect.

Apparently this has huge sillage, as my other half could smell it in the next room and visualize it wafting over in a mist (like the way it’s drawn in cartoons). From afar it was described as powdery, spicy, and incensey. Closer, it was sweet and woody with some brightness.

The listed citrus note was lemon, not orange. A main heart note is clove, which I was glad I hadn’t detected, although it could be the thing I didn’t like about the fragrance that I couldn’t put my finger on. There is orange blossom, which comes across as chemical to me. Other notes include rose, tonka bean, patchouli, vanilla, amber, sandalwood, and caramel.

To me, this is daylight but on a cloudy day (as it was when I wore it). It’s mostly linear until it fades into dusk.

Fibonacci

This opens pleasantly and familiarly as well. Am I losing my perfume vocabulary? I smell some citrus.

Fig? Not quite… something grainy and toasted, like pastry but not sweet.

Oh, no, there’s clove, my scent nemesis. It’s starting to smell like Mauboussin Histoire d’Eau, a spicy amber, but toned down. The citrus is proportioned well and provides a nice balance.

Sure enough, clove and nutmeg are the main top notes, along with bergamot (“the citrus”), saffron, and cinnamon. Heart notes are violet, jasmine, and black orchid. Base notes are amber, vanilla, oud, and patchouli. I don’t detect most of these on their own, as they are parts of a whole. Unfortunately, what my nose does keep singling out is the clove…

Purgatory

At hello, we could be friends. Purgatory has a plastic note, as well as fruity. I want to say orange, but I’m wary after getting it wrong with Daylight. Could the fruity note be osmanthus? I also sense a bit of strawberry. This brings back vague memories of Serge Lutens Nuit de Cellophane. The plastic is shielding something smoky, probably vetiver.

I had less patience with this one before looking up the notes, and was baffled—how could I not have recognized the prominent note of rose?! Now that I know, it’s obvious, a very pink rose absolute. The fruits are plum and orange, rendered slightly plasticky by saffron. Other notes are orris, patchouli, oud, vetiver, amber, honey, and musk. I suppose this is meant to be an interpretation of the legendary rose-oud duo, or a purgatory of other strong notes before it becomes apparent.

Lal

To be frank, I was afraid to wear this, because the first spritz emanated clove before any liquid even came out. I considered placing it somewhere public for the taking without trying it at all. However, that wouldn’t be in the spirit of perfumistahood (would it?), so I looked up the notes to see if perhaps others were waiting behind the clove curtain to be discovered. Beyond the top notes of clove and nutmeg, we are promised patchouli, frankincense, and rose, as well as vanilla, sandalwood, amber, and musk.

I sprayed some on a scent strip to start. There is a warm sweetness that makes the clove palatable. I’m glad I braved wearing it, as after the initial blast of clove, a delicate rose unfurls, and this warm floral phase leads into a smooth amber base. At times it even has a fruity undertone. For the most part, it’s still a clove scent, but it’s milder and more approachable than the opening would suggest.

It’s not every day that we get to discover something without expectations or prior knowledge, so this was an enjoyable foray into Puzzle Parfum. Sarcastic and Purgatory were probably my favorites in the set. Now to unpack what that means…