Audrey Hepburn keeps perfume in her Mailbox in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1961
What defines a perfumista? A lover of scent and its intricate connection to memory and emotion? Someone who craves the beauty, sensuality, even brutality, of fragrance? Who seeks out olfactory pleasures and aromatic oddities with the obsessive zeal of a treasure hunter? Anatole Lebreton, one of independent perfumery’s great artists, created a scent inspired by fragrance fanatics who get as excited over smelling a new fragrance as a wine connoisseur tasting a rare vintage burgundy or an antiquarian book collector finding a first edition at a yard sale. I’m one of them. Chances are, you are, too.
Anatole Lebreton
Perfumista was developed as collaboration between artist and audience, between perfumer and perfumista. Lebreton invited fragrance lovers into the creative process of developing a perfume. He sent samples of raw materials to participants to invite them to understand “the choices of essences used, their origin, their quality, and the emotions they evoke.” He gradually revealed key elements of his perfume as he answered questions about the composition. But he kept a necessary bit of mystery – the finished formula – under wraps. The result of the project is Perfumista, a stunningly beautiful, timeless fragrance that shape shifts into different styles seamlessly: green chypre, indolic floral, fruity rose.
Scene from an American in Paris, 1951
Anatole Lebreton Perfumista is full of ghosts. The great chypres of the thirties and forties float through it like gentle transparencies without ever making their presence too keenly felt. The first time I dabbed on Perfumista, I thought it was gorgeous green chypre, a cedarwood forest hung with oakmoss growing above moist, mulchy soil. The fragrance’s elegance and classic structure made me feel a pang of nostalgia for something I didn’t quite recognize; a suggestion of retro without referencing anything specific. Yes, there was an echo of the cloaked, winey plum of Femme, but then, a drip of sweet pear juice and a bouncy, brilliant raspberry note brought me back to present day.
Photo by Bella Kotak©
I sprayed Perfumista on my arm. Now a rose opened in slow motion: silk velvet, expensive lipstick, shadow, old silk – an imaginary bloom becoming real before me. At first, I thought of L’Arte de Gucci, perhaps the greatest rose chypre ever made: luscious, black rose twined about thorny greenery. But, as I smelled Perfumista again, and again, it no longer seemed like L’Arte but as a portrait of that perfume drawn in tempera; less bitingly green, warmer, softer. The playful raspberry settled right in the lap of that dark, sweet, almost edible rose. I left the forest for the orchard and then a wild garden.
Photo by Maria D’Souza©
Later, Perfumista slinks. An indolic jasmine slips in, looking over her shoulder in sloe-eyed invitation. The composition turns deeply sensual; the rose and fruit lie across each other like odalisques. In the background, the woods and oakmoss nod knowingly to each other.
Anatole Lebreton Perfumista (Image by Anatole Lebreton)
Lebreton’s creations, including Cornaline, L’Eau de Merzhin, L’Eau Scandaleuse and Grimoire are dream-like, indelibly lovely, unlike anything else. Perfumista is clearly of the same lineage, and any true perfumista will recognize her singular beauty immediately.
Notes: Pear, plum, raspberry, Bulgarian rose, Indian jasmine, patchouli, Virginia cedarwood, Peru balsam, musk.
Disclaimer: Bottle of Perfumista generously provided by Anatole Lebreton. My opinions are my own.
– Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Anatole Lebreton Perfumista
Thanks to the generosity of Anatole Lebreton, we have three 10 ml bottles of Anatole Lebreton Perfumista for three registered readers in the U.S. or Europe (you can register here). To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about Perfumista based on Lauryn’s review and where you live? If you have a favourite Anatole Lebreton fragrance let us know. Draw closes 12/08/2019.
Editor’s Note: Anatole Lebreton won our 2016 Rising Star Award.
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