The Alchemist by Carl Spitzweg (1808-1885)

For those who don’t know, my day job is as a research chemist. My fascination with fragrance sprung out of the molecules I synthesized as my graduate work. I would be the first one to tell you that the kind of chemistry I practice rarely smells good and my co-workers often complain about the baseline odor in the labs. I would also expect most people’s opinion probably would be that chemicals tend to smell unpleasant. Thanks to Alberto Borri and the creative team at nu_be Perfumes they are creating perfumes named after the elements which are trying to change that general impression. When I reviewed the original five releases I was impressed at how I was able to recognize the element they were named after but the creative teams captured the essence of each element. Now there are two new elements to add to the Perfume Periodic Table, Mercury and Sulphur.

In the original releases perfumer Antoine Lie was responsible for Hydrogen and Oxygen. M. Lie was able to capture the duality of energetic heat for Hydrogen and ethereal cool with Oxygen. Mercury and Sulphur make up the backbone of the predecessor to the science of chemistry, alchemy. Alchemy was obsessed with the idea of using coarse materials and somehow combining them into something of greater beauty. M. Lie is almost the ideal perfumer to take on this kind of subject in olfactory form as he has been perhaps the most adept composer who likes to use components which are often thought of as coarse and turns them into something beautiful.

Mercury is an excellent example of this aesthetic. Mercury is liquid flowing metal, as anyone who has broken a thermometer can attest. Just watching it in its natural guise it has a glossy fluidity and a heaviness which belies its size. M. Lie captures all of that nature in his version of Mercury. The top notes of Mercury are there to remind you that it is a metal. M. Lie uses a full array of aldehydes mixed with rhubarb. This imparts a charged metallic surface upon which the development flows into a violet heart full of ionones which also share a metallic aspect but also impart a palpable energy. Mercury eventually flows into a wooden container consisting of cedar and sandalwood, much more of the former than the latter. The cedar keeps Mercury very delineated throughout its development. M. Lie says in the press materials he wanted Mercury to “evoke modernity and technology”. Mercury feels like it is right out there on the bleeding edge of olfactory art. There are so many ways this could have gone wrong and instead M. Lie got this deliriously correct.

Sulphur is what most people would think of when they think of ancient investigators heating things up hoping to find a precious nugget in place of the noxious components. Even I often think of sulphur having a slight curl of smoke coming off of it when I look at the bottle of elemental sulphur on the shelf. M. Lie states that he wanted Sulphur to be, “A juice coming from the shadows, a Satanic elixir.” To capture that darkness he created a perfume which bubbles like a vigorous reaction of spices, resins, and animalic notes. The opening takes advantage of the natural sulphurous nature of grapefruit to start and then M. Lie layers on angelica, pimento, and cinnamon. The cinnamon provides that imaginary curl of heat and the angelica intensifies the pungency. Myrrh and opoponax add a deeply resinous heart to this allowing the spices to swirl around them alternatively destroying the harmony inherent between those notes and then allowing them to come forward. It felt like the precious material in the heart was trying to break free and transform itself all throughout the days I wore Sulphur. In the end they just can’t make it all the way to sublime beauty and so patchouli, castoreum, oakmoss, and vetiver literally bring it crashing back down to the deepest darkest earth. This is a masterful bit of development as just as you feel Sulphur is becoming something smooth and beautiful it dives deep into a rich dark base of shadows and just maybe a bit of brimstone.

Mercury and Sulphur have all day longevity and average sillage.

As with all artistic forms there is a common refrain which goes like, “there’s nothing new”. For those who feel that way about perfume you really need to try all seven of these fragrant elements. It has been a long time since I have been as excited about the first releases from a perfume house as I am about these. Sig. Borri and his entire team are to be commended for making perfume which is true to their vision but also perfume which is not like anything else you will find. With Mercury and Sulphur M. Lie transformed my coarse glum face into a beatific smile by making two of the best perfumes of the year….and that is truly alchemy.

Disclosure: this review was based on samples provided by nu_be Perfumes.

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor