Maher Olfactive Velouria courtesy of the brand
Velouria
Her covering
Travelling career (traveling career)
She can really move
Oh velveteen
My Velouria, my Velouria
Even I’ll adore you
My Velouria
Even I’ll adore you
My Velouria
Say to me
Where have you been
Finally through the roof (finally through the roof)
And how does lemur skin
Reflect the sea?
We will wade in the shine of the ever
We will wade in the shine of the ever
We will wade in the tides of the summer
Every summer, every summer, every
My Velouria
My Velouria “Velouria” by The Pixies
Album cover art 1990 via wikipedia
Guitars like raw nerves, exposed and jangled, distort as a beat comes in a repetitive wave. A voice, genderless but aware and sweet like an aging choirboy, skims the riff, a windswept boat sailing into calm. But a certain weirdness hangs about the edges of the song as the lyrics reference the “shine of the ever” and we know we’re in another here, one with lemur skin reflecting on the sea that is forevergreen. Maher Olfactive Velouria is artisan perfumer Shawn Maher’s evocation of the alt rock ballad of the same name by the Pixies. The song’s fantastical lyrics and its juxtaposition of “raw, crunchy guitars” and “smooth, angelic vocals” provide the frame for Maher’s similarly chimerical fragrance.
image via pexels
With its strange, contrasting accords of sweet, candied violet and turbulent vetiver, Velouria feels like something from the pages of a Phillip Pullman novel. From its first moments until drydown, Velouria is arrestingly, strangely enticing, one of those perfumes that draws you in, then pushes you away, then draws you in deeper. The opening is like a quick flash of crackling bright light, the scent equivalent of the way a central stage spotlight breaks the dim when after the lights go down and the band is playing its first chord. The composition is an interplay between moody, petrol-y green and wood notes that stand in for the edgy darkness of the song’s staccato hook and the cloudy orris and rainwater candy violet that parallel the lyric’s searching romanticism.
Maher Olfactive Velouria image by the brand
On first spray, there’s a huge puff of face powder and a bushel of dark violet punctuated by brash, turpenic sharpness. A smooth, polished wood note I initially mistook for sandalwood, but which turns out to be frankincense, fills in the top. It provides a foundation for the orris-violet to stand out against as it finds its place in the perfume’s melody. In trying to find the right introductory note for the perfume’s top, Maher ultimately landed on turpenic Somali frankincense. Coupled with the innocent, fruity-green scent of blueberry (why isn’t my favourite fruit’s aroma used more often in perfumery, I wonder?), the incense both piques and bridges the sweet violet-orris accord that represent the echoey, Byrds-like vocals of the verses.
Shawn Maher, courtesy of the Perfumer
Frankincense is also the heart of Maher Olfactive Velouria, providing a spectrum of aromas that recede and push forward at unexpected times. In the perfume’s first stage, the incense’s turpenic characteristics add the brightness that Maher was looking for to elicit the hard twang of Velouria’s escalating initial guitar riff. The grassy greenness of Indian vetiver adds twang. Partnered smoky Javanese vetiver, the two rooty notes gives the perfume its dark, woolly texture. At this point, Velouria smells like one of those dislocating dreams about searching without knowing what you are looking for: hypnotic, ebbing and flowing between light and dark, soaring and furrowing. But just wait for the drydown.
As Velouria settles, Maher brings the notes together in harmony: the sad, violet-orris sweetness and caliginous vetivers merge with the frankincense, the woods grow sleepy, and a deliciously animalic musk wraps the whole thing up in a sweaty, rock n-roll bow. This is one of the most unique fragrances of the year so far, and perhaps Maher’s most daring since his brilliant Weinstrasse for his brand Chatillon Luxe.
Notes: Candied violet, orris, blueberry, frankincense Frerena, Indian vetiver, Javanese vetiver, musk.
Disclaimer: Sample of Maher Olfactive Velouria kindly sent to me by Shawn Maher. My opinions, as always, are my own.
Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Velouria, image by the brand
Thanks to the generosity of Maher Olfactive, we have a 50 ml bottle of Maher Olfactive Velouria to give away to one registered reader in the U.S. To be eligible please leave a comment saying what strikes you about Velouria based on Lauryn’s review. Draw closes June 8, 2023.
Shawn Maher was Michelyn’s Best Indie Perfumer of 2020 for both Chatillon Luxe and Maher Olfactive.
Chatillon Luxe Weinstrasse was an Art and Olfaction Finalist 2020,Maher Olfactive Red Skies was an Art and Olfaction 2023 Honorable Mention
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