Natassja Kinski in Cat People 1982

“I wanted to make it smell of instinct, wild cat, courage, puma, loyalty, and magic”- Sarah McCartney of 4160Tuesdays

4160Tuesdays Dark Queen is the third collaboration, (this year commemorating CaFleureBon’s 10th Anniversary) between UK’s Sarah McCartney and  New York City’s Michelyn Camen. This Queen brings a very different energy to the  throne. Whereas White Queen and Red Queen were mythical chess pieces, with a mélange of the playful, the logic and the daydream, Dark Queen has a hint of seductive and irresistible menace about her.  Whilst White Queen was whipped marshmallow with jasmine and incense and Red Queen a jammy rose with a trail of incense intrigue, Dark Queen arrives at the party in a catsuit and makes the music jerk to a stop.

All rights to Faith Hunter©

4160Tuesdays Dark Queen was inspired by a book that Michelyn had just finished reading, Dark Queen by Faith Hill. It’s the story of the last Cherokee Skinwalker, Jane Yellowrock, who shares her body with the soul of a mountain lion. Throw in her role as Enforcer to the Master Vampire of New Orleans, and you have black magic on a night so hot your body sweats foam: a sultry night where danger and seduction lurk around every corner and down every street.  It’s a world away from Sarah’s uniquely British style but of course, she pulls it off and like all her fragrances, she once again puts pictures in my head that weren’t there before: a moving montage of colour and imagination, except this one has streaks of black that move too fast for me to see what they are.

Cougar at Night by the SETI Institute

Animalic and feline are two things I can write about with authority. I have four cats and I am intimately acquainted with the scent of every stripe and pelt so I can vouch that Dark Queen has that visceral pull that’s part leather and part sleekness whilst being the scent of something not quite human.  It’s impossible to talk about Dark Queen without talking about the purring animalic undercurrent, vibrating like a slumbering panther, with a threatening unexpectedness- is it asleep? Is it awake and faking it? How big are its teeth? How fast can I run?

Dark Queen: The Golden Forest by Gustav Klimt

Yet before we reach fight or flight stage, there’s a mysterious forest to explore. The darkest berries beckon you into a wood that has a drift of smoke hanging unsuspended in the air like a fallen cloud. The incense is intense and ritualistic, adding to the distinct shiver that a spell is brewing as an unseen animal brushes past you in the blackness. Feel your way past delicious plump fruits, ready to burst alarmingly at your touch, leaving you with purple stains and thorns in your hair. A touch of oud leads you into a sunburst of heady resins and woods that cradle you in their shadow like a canyon on either side.

The darkness heats up as sensual musks wreathe around, leaving their sexy animalic marker on you as wisps of leather and woods rise like mist. You smell so much of the forest that you don’t know if you are human or beast and it doesn’t seem to matter as your silhouette changes and you and the forbidden forest merge as one.

4160Tuesdays Dark Queen is the bad sister. She’s the unforgettable stranger you can’t get out of your head. If you want some of that mystique then you know what to do. Put on your Dark Queen and unleash your inner beast. For this, an English perfumer left her comfort zone and you will follow, as if hypnotized, by amber eyes in a dream.

–Samantha Scriven, Contributor and author of I Scent You A Day

Notes: Animalic amber, oudh, leather, woods, tonka, forest fruits, wild animals, styrax, labdanum and musks

Disclaimer: I was sent a bottle of Dark Queen by Sarah McCartney of 4160Tuesdays for this review. Opinions are my own.

 Dark Queen photo by Samantha Scriven

Thanks to Nir Guy of Perfumology we have a draw  for a 50 ml of 4160 Tuesdays Dark Queen for a registered CafleureBon reader in THE USA ONLY (if you are not sure if you are registered click here (you must register on our site or your entry will be invalid). To be eligible please leave a comment with what you thought of Samantha’s review and your suggestion for the next “Queen” Collaboration.  Draw closes 4/14/2020

$150 ml/$130 and 100 ml $180 quantities are limited.

Now is the time to support our independent perfume boutiques and perfumers. Please… our scented future might be at stake. Here is the link to Dark Queen at Perfumology here

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