Invigorating top notes of chili pepper leaf, pink peppercorn and juicy, thirst-quenching pomegranate vibrate like atoms against an intensely masculine smoky base of Bourbon Vetiver and woody amber, coalescing with the heady exoticism of patchouli and complex floral heart notes of peony, lavender and geranium essence.
"Monumental came out of a desire to find a new template for masculinity, to create a modern, confident men's scent," Karen Walker says, "There's something so deliciously rakish and edgy about this fragrance. I wanted it to be subversive and yet classic at the same time."
French Perfumier Veronique Nyberg, stepped up once more to collaborate with Karen on her first-ever men's Eau de Parfum. She describes her experience this time in creating Monumental saying "It was like sculpting granite. There was a sense of permanence and heritage in what I was doing and yet I felt revelation too, because the man who wears Monumental understands traditions but is never bound by them."
Nyberg founded the fragrance itself in a classical masculine structure of fougere with accents of lavender and geranium, twisted with modern elements such as woody ambers. "The inclusion of delicate flowers such as peony also conveys an unexpected and resolutely modern facet to this masculine fragrance," she says. "The warm scent of chili pepper leaf brings a fiery facet and character that seizes and attracts from the first instant, and pomegranate brings a chic, fruity note that's crunchy and addictive."
In monolithic, matte black with embossed black-on-black M, Monumental's bottle is as subtle and self-possessed as the fragrance held within.