One of my favorite lines launched in 2011 was Celine Verleure’s Olfactive Studio perfume house. Mme Verleure commissioned three fragrances where she used as her brief for the perfumers a photograph. All three were excellent with Chambre Noire being my favorite of the three and one of my top 25 new fragrances of last year. Just based on those first three releases I was anticipating what would come next. Mme Verleure is not keeping me waiting for too long as the fourth release, Lumiere Blanche, is due this Fall and she has kindly sent me a sample to preview. (EIC Michelyn Camen named Olfactive Studio "the best collaboration of 2011")
Like the first three Lumiere Blanche, begins with the photograph above by Massimo Vitali. The picture used to inspire Lumiere Blanche is from Sig. Vitali’s Beach Series which he started in 1995. He wanted to depict a “sanitized, complacent view of Italian normalities” while also revealing “the inner conditions and disturbances of normality; its cosmetic fakery, sexual innuendo, commodified leisure, deluded sense of affluence and rigid conformism”. Those words should give you some insight into Sig. Vitali’s version of activist photography. When I first saw the picture above the whiteness of it all made me think snow not beach. Then I realized the people were wearing bathing suits and the foreground was water. The sheer stark power of the white was transfixing to my eye. What kind of fragrance would this lead to?
Mme Verleure chose Sidonie Lancesseur of Robertet to create Lumiere Blanche. Mme Lancesseur is one of my favorite perfumers and I also believe one of the most underrated perfumers out there . Her By Kilian Cruel Intentions is my favorite of that entire line and both creations for Frapin- 1270 and L’Humaniste show how amazingly creative she can be. Working off of Sig. Vitali’s photo Mme Lancesseur vision was “Lumiere Blanche is a fragrance with beautifully contrasting hot and cold notes”. From the moment I first sprayed this on my skin I have been mesmerized by it. It is a perfume that feels like it was made for me as it is spicy and milky and woody and altogether enveloping.
Mme Lancesseur opens up Lumiere Blanche with the heat of that mid-day sun in the photograph as cardamom, cinnamon, and star anise provide the olfactory warmth. This spicy opening has an energy and brightness that just pulled me in. Where it pulled me was into that milky looking dazzling white water as iris and almond create a milk accord that arises from the spicy beginning and cools things off. As we arise from the water and get back on shore the sun dries us off and that sun-warmed skin accord of cashmere wood and sandalwood mixed with a very light application of white musk supplies that fragrant cue. Cedar and tonka signal the end of a day in the sun as you walk away feeling clean and refreshed.
Lumiere Blanche has outstanding longevity and excellent sillage.
For all that Lumiere Blanche is inspired by a sun-drenched photograph this is a fragrance that will be at its best in cooler weather. Which should work out well as it should become available in stores just in time for the Fall. It is definitely my favorite of the Olfactive Studio fragrances and once again I find that Mme Lancesseur speaks to my fragrant aesthetic perfectly.
Disclosure: This review was based on a preview sample provided by Olfactive Studio.
I have to share my good fortune, courtesy of Mme Verleure, so I will make up one 2.5mL sample to giveaway to one reader. To be eligible I want you to be the perfumer with Sig. Vitali’s photograph and leave a comment naming one perfume note you would use to design a perfume based on the photograph. Draw ends on May 2, 2012.
We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize will be just spilt perfume.
-Mark Behnke, Managing Editor