État Libre d’Orange Soul Of My Soul Review (Shyamala Maisondieu) 2021 + Soul As Perfume Draw

May 5, 2021May 5, 2021

État Libre d’Orange Soul Of My Soul (photo composition/digital editing by Despina Veneti©)

“I love you neither with my heart
nor with my mind.
My heart might stop
my mind can forget.
I love you with
my soul because
my soul never stops
or forgets.” – Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

État Libre d’Orange founder/creative director Étienne de Swardt, Givaudan perfumer Shyamala Maisondieu & promotional poster for État Libre d’Orange© Soul Of My Soul

After a year as a Selfridges exclusive, État Libre d’Orange Soul Of My Soul has just been globally released, joining Experimentum Crucis, Spice Must Flow and 500 Years in the brand’s Orange Extraordinaire Collection (available online, and at selected stockists). Composed by Givaudan perfumer Shyamala Maisondieu, in her second collaboration with État Libre d’Orange after the 2008-released Charogne, Soul Of My Soul is a highly extroverted, explosive aromatic fusion of spices, resins, florals, woods and musks, under an ultra-diffusive milky/buttery cloud. The fragrance’s name references a fond childhood memory of the brand’s founder/creative director Étienne de Swardt, while the idea for the scent itself was born out of his fascination with Hindu cosmogony.

“Aladdin and Princess Badoura”, illustration by Niroot Puttapipat© for the 2011 book “Aladdin”

Étienne tells me that as a boy he was constantly drawn to a scratchy 45 rpm record of an adaptation of “One Thousand and One Nights”, with Gérard Philipe as Aladdin. What he was particularly mesmerized by was the way Aladdin addressed Badroulbadour, spoken with the French actor’s famously warm, mellifluous voice: “Ma Princesse, Âme de mon Âme” (My Princess, Soul of my Soul)… No more than seven years old at the time, he asked his mother what “soul” was; she replied: “There is no single definition. It is an invisible presence that links us to the divine”. Many years later, that answer would bring to his mind the lingering presence of perfume trail. “The soul travels to infinity in space and time, connecting us to the whole. It is a fragment of that which is beautiful and perfect in each of us, that returns us to heaven and remains on earth when we disappear. Perfume continues the presence of this fragment”, Étienne says. “After studying “One Thousand and One Nights”, I learned that the relationship with the body is nothing without a relationship with the soul (though, for some, sensuality seemed to be an excellent substitute for the soul!) To embrace one another could be an innovative way of instilling in each other a drop of the white and cosmic soul that flowed into the primordial ocean before the world came into being. And that brings us to the main inspiration for the fragrance, the gods of India, the Hindu beliefs about the origins of the World, milk and clarified butter as divine offerings. All that in a scent that reflects the soul’s foaming whiteness.”

Clockwise: Hindu pouring milk onto an idol of bull Nandi, mount of Shiva (AP photo/Anupam Nath©); Hindu priest holding an earthen lamp filled with clarified butter (AP photo/Anupam Nath©); “The Churning of the Ocean of Milk” ca. 1825 (South Indian School/San Diego Museum of Art©)

According to the Hindu legend of Samudra Manthan, many natural and otherworldly treasures surfaced from the churning of Kshira Sagara, the “Ocean of Milk”; the familiar task of turning milk into butter was used to make the concept of eliciting order out of chaos understood by all. As the story goes, at the time of the great deluge many invaluable gifts (including amrita, the nectar of immortality) were lost beneath the primordial ocean. The gods (devas), weakened by a curse, resorted to the assistance of their antagonists, the demons (asuras), to recover these valuables. With the additional help of tortoise Kurma (an incarnation of Lord Vishnu) who steadied a gigantic churning rod made of Mount Mandara at the ocean’s bottom, and the serpent king Vasuki who was used as rope, many wonders were raised: the moon Chandra, new plants, precious gems, a wish-fulfilling tree, a magic bow, celestial dancers, a trio of animal deities, the goddesses Madira and Lakshmi, as well as Dhanvantari, the physician for the gods who emerged holding the supreme treasure of amrita… With this story in mind, as well as the sacred status of cows in India (they’re considered embodiments of goddess Kamdhen), it is no wonder that milk and clarified butter (ghee) are granted special significance as purifying elements in Hinduism: both are used as offerings to the gods (especially to Krishna, whose love of butter is legendary), and as essential components of religious rituals (deity idols are bathed in milk, while ghee is burning into lamps); moreover, on purely physical level, dairy products are timeless pillars of Indian diet.

État Libre d’Orange Soul Of My Soul (photo composition/digital editing by Despina Veneti©)

Before composing État Libre d’Orange Soul Of My Soul, perfumer Shyamala Maisondieu took some time to delve into the vivid, imaginative Hindu cosmology, and even met Étienne’s friend Jean Delmas, author of the 2018 book “Dieux de l’Inde – Images et Signes” (Gods of India – Images and Signs). She tells me that, in order to illustrate a powerful phrase like “Soul Of My Soul” with olfactory means, she primarily tried to capture the purity and essence of love. Her central idea was combining rich, sensuous ingredients like vanilla, orris butter, balsams, and woods, with raw materials and accords that she “dressed” in luminous white: rose, jasmine, iris, lavender, musks, suede…

Images from the promotional video for État Libre d’Orange© Soul Of My Soul (screen captures/collage by Despina Veneti©)

État Libre d’Orange Soul Of My Soul opens with a nebula of beaming bergamot, high-voltage pink pepper, and burning incense, like the aftermath of an aromatic explosion that left behind a trail of solar warmth, lingering smoke, and electrically charged air. As this cloud dissolves, softer yet luscious treasures emerge from the depths of the fragrant abyss: delectable, caressing waves of creamy sandalwood and scrumptious orris butter successfully evoke the lactonic and butyric aspects of Hindu rituals, supported by voluptuous vanilla, dulcet-toned benzoin, and nutty tonka bean. Above the waves surfaces a lovely rose, ambery and almost edible, that serves more as a blooming reminder of the Soul’s connection to sensuality à la “One Thousand and One Nights”, than as a means to infuse the scent with dominant floralcy (unlike the three previous “Orange Extraordinaire” fragrances, État Libre d’Orange Soul Of My Soul is not really rose-centric). Soon after it rises – like a floral Venus – from the frothing scented ocean, the rose gets dressed in elegant suede and silky musks, before it safely steps onto grounding, solid woods. All that with a persistent sillage that elevates heart and spirit for hours. “My Soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that. And I intend to end up there”, writes Rumi. In the meantime some earthly delights like fragrance can uplift, and elate it.

Notes: Bergamot Italy Orpur, Incense Somalia Orpur, Pink Peppercorn CO2 Orpur; Orris Butter Orpur, Rose Absolute Orpur, Suede Accord; Sandalwood Essence Australia Orpur, Georgywood Accord, Vanilla Absolute Madagascar Orpur.

Disclaimer: Many thanks to Étienne de Swardt for my bottle of État Libre d’Orange Soul Of My Soul. The opinions are my own.

– Despina Veneti, Senior Editor

Thanks to the generosity of Étienne de Swardt and État Libre d’Orange, we have a draw for a 100ml bottle of État Libre d’Orange Soul Of My Soul (value: 200€/$225) for one registered reader in EU, UK, USA or Canada. You must register here or your comment will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what you enjoyed most about Despina’s review, if you have an État Libre d’Orange favorite fragrance, and where you live. Draw closes May 8, 2021

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