Poster from the film "The Life of Pi"
When you appreciate fragrance and come across so many, your nose becomes keenly aware when it encounters a perfume that interrupts the ordinary, and suddenly you find yourself sitting very close to the extraordinary. This is exactly how I experienced the latest offering from Aedes de Venustas, Oeillet Bengale.
Oeillet Bengale completes a triptych. In 2012, Karl Bradl and Robert Gerstner, co-owners of the famous NYC boutique Aedes de Venustas, launched their eponymous perfume house, a natural progression given their passion and knowledge of perfumery, past and present. It started with their signature perfume Aedes de Venustas, created by Bertrand Duchaufour and centered on crisp rhubarb; 2014 Fragrance Foundation award winning, Iris Nazarena, (created by Ralf Schweiger ) centered on the lone flower of the same name. Now with Oeillet Bengale, * Senior Perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux of Givaudan has interpreted a variety of China rose. The thread between these three strikingly different fragrances is the ancient and divine frankincense.
"Bengale Oeillet Still Life" by Pierre Joseph Redouté (1759-1840)
"Œillet" is French for carnation,but Bengale Oeillet is actually a type of China rose. Interestingly, it is the flower’s appearance, not the scent that was the inspiration for the fragrance. Karl Bradl came across a rendering of the flower by the 17th Century botanist Pierre Joseph Redoute and found himself “seduced by the shape-shifting blossom.” This powerful shape-shifting blossom image comes across clearly in the composition. The perfume feels sculptural, (think Brancusi) as it hits on many olfactive perspectives as it lives on the skin. At the same time, its dynamic movement and fluidity also have moments of suspension that creates intimacy. I have always enjoyed the way Rodrigo Flores-Roux brings brightness and radiance to his fragrances even when he is working with an intense palette. Oeillet Bengale is an oriental that does not cling, it pounces; it is a 21st Century take on rose and incense. Mr. Flores-Roux brings luminous light and reverent smoldering smoke to the table creating, “a flower on fire.”
The opening stays bright and flickering as peppery notes collide with bergamot and burst onto the skin, soon this fades and we are left with warmth that rises from an herbaceous spicy accord that interacts with a faceted floralcy. Rose and ylang ylang spin fiercely together with saffron, clove, cardamom, and cinnamon. All is balanced with a surprisingly delicate frankincense note that is porous and acts as a sieve for the other notes to slip through and allows them to be experienced through its lens all at once. A comforting amber and sweet balsamic base keeps the fragrance precise and steady, and leads to a tender dry down, after the flame a tamed ember remains.
I asked Rodrigo Flores Roux about his experience creating and wearing Oeillet Bengale and he wrote, "As I was leaving my father's house, which is where I stay when I visit Mexico City, my hometown, I sprayed some Oeillet Bengale on and my step mother, who has a very good sense of smell said: You smell as if you had travelled to India and you are coming back, with a wealth of exotic flowers in your arms…There and then, I know the blackened rose that looks like a carnation had travelled from my imagination and had revealed itself into sheer reality".
From India and back…my nose to to my wrist… Oeillet Bengale is what happens when a flower seduces, and takes hold.
Disclosure: Special thank you to Aedes de Venustas for the sample for this review.
Valerie Vitale, Editor
Sr. Perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux
Writer's Note: I am going to digress a bit here and write about the wonderful Rodrigo Flores Roux from my personal experience. Mr. Flores Roux was a guest teacher while I was attending a perfume course at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology in New York); he taught the history of fragrance in 3 hours from Jicky -present. We smelled them all! Masterful in his knowledge of historical fragrances, and putting it in context, fashion, political, art history–to the personal. He shared what his mom wore on her wedding day, and told stories about making Clinique Happy (which was just voted into the Fragrance Foundation Hall of Fame earlier this month) and finding inspiration from a trip to MOMA. He’s genius, and a generous teacher. It all stayed with me and needless to say he made a lasting impression. My very first post for CaFleureBon on March 9, 2012, was titled The Scent Track for The Artist (the Academy Award Winning Movie for best film of 2011); Rodrigo Flores Roux's Beau Bow for Six Scents Series 1 was my pick that exemplified the film… my article posted on his birthday.
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