LUSH Gorilla Gallery Tour Dallas Volume 04 (Part 2) ~New Perfume Reviews +Home Comes in Many Forms Draw

Hal Samples of LUSH Gorilla Perfumes

Fourteen fragrances were presented as "installations" that chronicle the sensory memories of Simon Constantine, Lush’s head perfumer and Dallas born artist Hal Samples. This year’s theme centered on “Home” and what it meant to the olfactive artists and documentarians of the human experience. Sebastian Jara, Ida Meister and Lauryn Beer represented CaFleureBon. We have watched Sebastian’s brilliant comprehensive youtube video and now Senior Editors Ida Meister and Lauryn Beer review each of the14 fragrances (Lush Gorilla IV Fragrance Installation which runs through 11/7/17 in Dallas ).-Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief

Home comes in many forms, many smells. On a brilliantly blue Dallas evening on October 23rd, Lush Cosmetics Creative Buying Director Simon Constantine teamed with artist Hal Samples, who was in attendance,  to examine in fragrance and multimedia: what is home? The result was Gorilla Vol. 04, a kaleidoscopic installation of sensory memories, ranging from the literal smells of a grandmother’s living room to more abstract fragrances of self-esteem and surgical mesh.

From his travels, Constantine’s first stop was a Lebanese tent where he was offered Coffee and Cardamom. This perfume’s savory-sweet spices are accentuated by dusty cocoa sweetness and harmonized with rose. Manouche Za’atar, with dried, piquant herbs, represented the pita-and-oil that was served in his host’s home.

Amelie Mae Installation

Thinking of his own home, Constantine recreated the smells of breakfast, benzoin, vanilla and cocoa standing in for oven-warm sweets. Home also meant family, including the playdough and berry smells beloved by his daughter Amelie Mae. Her eponymous perfume is a playful, wearable, fruity-floral confection with grown-up notes of lavender and ylang ylang.

“Each perfume is like an album,” said Samples, who drew inspiration from both his own life and the men who populate his documentary Something for Nothing. Complications from an operation, and Samples’ long convalescence, were the source of "Iammesh", a metallic animalic that conjures both surgical instruments and human skin.

Samples celebrates the return of his mojo with "Self-Esteem Machine", set in a private, tinseled disco where the music is played for one (on headphones) — a citrusy, fizzy, papery fragrance that shouts “I’m baaaacckk!”

The most poignant part of the exhibition was Samples’ painstaking recreation of a forgotten water tower that was converted into a home by Tachowa Covington, a formerly homeless man and artist of the everyday, who turned discarded objects into poetic slices of beauty.

Tank Battle represents that water drum’s exterior, with smells of humanity and outdoors (represented by labdanum, clove and patchouli). Tachowa’s fanatastic interior is encapsulated in Rentless, an alternately jazzy and loamy collection of aromas – patchouli, labdanum, citrus and tonka — and was my favourite scent from the gallery.

— Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

Simon Constantine’s’s global search for fine aromatics led him to war-torn Damascus where he spoke at length with refugees. "The Road From Damascus" is a gravel path strewn with roses and forsaken intimate items conveying the fingerprints of the uprooted. A perfume full of hope in spite of adversity’s visage: effusive roses ally their fruity muskiness with bigarade and limpid violet leaf – tenacious, glorious, concentrated. Beauty endures in the face of horror, if only by the drop (sold at the Gallery).

I’m Home reflects Simon’s personal sense of home and comfort. An old stove stands in the corner; upon one burner, a covered saucepan – lift its lid, and benzoin, vanilla and cocoa, a caramel nuance dusted with a soupçon of cinnamon fill your nostrils. Thoroughly gourmand and cosy I’m Home will be available online and in all shops across North America.

Secret Garden isn’t Frances Hodgson Burnett’s tale; it’s Simon Constantine’s ongoing endeavor in permaculture right in his back garden – shaped like the Millenium Falcon, of all things. We discern immortelle immediately as it rears its maple-syrupy head, complicit with a peachy osmanthus aspect, celery, vestiges of mint, crushed tomato leaf, a dash of dill and warm myrrh in the base. Fertility, humidity, promise: these three elements pervade Secret Garden, (to be sold solely at the Gallery).

Sweet Grandma and Model: In Hal’s fond memory, throughout hard times and sweet – grandma Mary Ellen was his safe harbor and his best friend: life of the party and reliable all at once. This is as intimate as it gets: rose and jasmine interwoven with rosewood reflect a mature woman – there are mothballs in there as well. It’s a time capsule which embodies her warmth and practicality, a no-nonsense dame.  

Mary Ellen was a looker and a Model before she was a grandmother: her allure peers out of her wardrobe of glam gowns ready for the wearing, accompanied by a full-length mirror emblazoned with photographs taken in her salad days and a Polaroid camera for your own selfies in sepia tint. Model is a carnation-intense perfume that reeks of the high life – spicy with a woody base – redolent of the glamourous 40s and 50s.(neither Sweet Grandma nor Model are available for sale).

How we are seen or unseen is the leitmotiv for Hal and wife Janine; the homeless/rentless are engaged in Hal’s films about them entitled Samples of Society. Hal’s Blackcurrant Angel is such a fragrance: a woody, fruit-laden scent which had to include hints of “bubblegum, urine, booze”. Gaiacwood leans against a ripe cassis note (often perceived as urinaceous in absolute) which in turn brushes up against a leathery osmanthus, tempering sweetness; I wouldn’t be surprised if a kiss of patchouli was present for good dirty measure. Blackcurrant Angel will be available at the Gallery.

Janine has a mission: to let folk know that they are not alone, to which end she leaves written messages on windshields, anywhere she hopes they will be found, intending that the unsung heroes will find them and glean comfort and realize that they matter. What Would Love Do? envisioned as blank wall – closes the exhibit on an uplifting note, a clear mood-elevator with tangerine, benzoin and lavender. Lively, balsamic, herbal, tender: this perfume-as-tonic will be available online and in all shops across North America.

-Ida Meister, Sr. Editor

All Photos© CaFleureBon

Like a bittersweet parting with old friends, the Gorilla Gallery exhibition left newly-minted memories — of lives that happened to other people but who were generous to share with us -Lauryn Beer

Thanks to our friends at Lush/Gorilla we have a sample bag of select Volume 04 perfumes for a  registered reader in the U.S. or U.K. Please be sure to register. To be eligible please let us know what appeals to you about Ida’s and Lauryn’s reviews, which appeals to you, a memory from home and where you live. Draw closes November 1, 2017

We announce the winners only on our site and on our Facebook page, so like Cafleurebon and use our RSS feed…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.

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11 comments

  • Christi says:

    I am so happy to see these reviews for all of the Gorilla fragrances! I enjoyed the simplicity yet vibrancy of the descriptions (great for my ADHD!) and Tank Battle stood out for me, the touching story, and also the scent sounds like something I would like with labdanum and clove. I also enjoyed spotting Ken and Bethany in the photo! Scents that remind me of home: blackberry vines, honeysuckle and the green leaves of tomato plants. I am extra thrilled to have a chance to win samples because I was invited to the event in Dallas and couldn’t attend because I had to work and really felt sad because I missed out. I am in the US. Thank you for the chance!

  • Marzipan says:

    I loved how Ida and Laura described each fragrance beyond their mere notes. the fragrances that really appeal to me are Coffee & Cardamom, I’m Home and What Would Love Do? Memories from home are the smell of essential oils and burning soy candles. I reside in the USA.

  • Precious says:

    It was great to see both video and read the reviews of all the fragrances. Cardamom and coffee sounds wonderful. I would love to experience Vol 4. When I think of home I think of my great aunts thanksgiving dinners and the drive there
    USA

  • rustee45 says:

    I have never tried any fragrances to date from this house, but Coffee & Cardamom and I’m Home sound like fragrances that would appeal to me. I like the backstory of how each scent was created–a true and honest context, not a fantasy. When I think of happy memories, smell is also at the forefront for me, whether it is my grandmother’s rose-scented perfume or her baking peach cobbler or cutting up fresh pears from her tree for us children. I live in the US, thanks for this chance.

  • doveskylark says:

    I felt like I was in attendance when I read Ida’s and Lauryn’s reviews of the fragrances in the installation. The Tank Battle and the Rentless fragrance indeed sound poignant. I checked the Lush website and i was touched by the idea of making something out of nothing and also the idea of never without a home.
    My memories of home always bring me to my grandmother’s house–I remember the black rotary phone, her refrigerator from the 60s, her console TV, chenille bedspreads, Jean Nate splash.
    I live in the USA.

  • roxhas1cat says:

    I have smelled all of Lush’s fragrances that are in U.S. shops, I don’t own one…..yet. A few of these might be possibilities. Cardamom and coffee sounds most interesting to me. I have been watching my local Lush shop’s Facebook for when they will arrive. That exhibit sure looked like an interesting event to attend. Lucky Sebastian and the people of Dallas. I guess a memory from “home” would be visiting my grandparents houses and the smell of coffee. My parents never drank coffee, so it seemed mysterious and grown up to me. Thanks for bringing the event into our homes!

  • Lola N says:

    I watched the video Sebastian posted and now this article. Ida and Lauryn captured the ambiance of the installation well. I have not tried any Lush fragrances. I am a huge fan of their body products though. I think Coffee & Cardamom will be up my alley. A memory from home would be fresh baked cinnamon rolls. Yumm. Ca, USA

  • Diana D says:

    I was so touched by this sentiment – “Janine has a mission: to let folk know that they are not alone, to which end she leaves written messages on windshields, anywhere she hopes they will be found, intending that the unsung heroes will find them and glean comfort and realize that they matter”

    My memory from home is when I was a little girl living in Brooklyn. My Italian grandmother would make homemade raviolis and saw on Sundays. When we’d go to her apartment on Sundays, her kitchen table would be covered with flour from end to end. She’d have raw dough rolled out and she’d cut circles, fill with ricotta cheese and cover each one with another dough round. It was my “job” to take a fork and press around the edges to seal the raviolis.

    I live in the US.

  • Lean S says:

    Hello Cafleurebon! I live in the US. The scent which appeals to me most is Secret Garden (Celery, Maple, Tomato leaf, mint).

    I love the ties of scents to memories offered in the review. ““Each perfume is like an album,” said Samples, who drew inspiration from both his own life and the men who populate his documentary Something for Nothing” The way in which all of these scents are presented as memories, and familiar feelings of Simon’s. Thank you for offering us a peek.

    My memory from home is the scent of roasted red peppers cooking in big black iron pots on an outdoor fire. My aunts and mother would stand over the pot, stirring the homemade pepper spread in the heat, while my cousins and I played outside. Thank you

  • girasole638 says:

    I’ve been a fan of LUSH since their early, just-a-couple-of-small-shops-in-the-UK days. They can always be relied upon to come up with unique and evocative scents and these sound like no exception. I love the sound of Amelie Mae (childhood-in-a-bottle scents are always interesting) and Tank Battle and Model have also piqued my interest. What fun it would be to get to smell them all!

    If I had to pick a scent memory from ‘home’ it would be of the moss that grew in the cracks of our driveway when I was six. Sometimes I catch that same smell when walking/hiking through densely grown places on damp days; it never fails to take me back to afternoons spent playing on that driveway.

    Thanks for the mini reviews of some very unique scents! I’m in the US

  • Rob says:

    I designed and built all of these installations and traveled with them from Vancouver to Chicago and Dallas. a one man show for sure, Thxs to Hal for your support.