Antonio Alessandria Parfums Nuit Rouge, artwork by Brooke Belldon
A silver moon shrouds her face in clouds as the sky suddenly panics red. Lava, crawling and grabbing at the sky, casts bloody streaks across the vast darkness of winter. Watching from afar, a small boy feels its strange dislocation of fire and freeze and gazes transfixed at the interplay of heaven and hell before him. Inspired by feelings of fear and fascination stirred by a winter volcanic eruption seen from Sicilia, Nuit Rouge, the second in perfumer-storyteller Antonio Alessandria’s trilogy “Hommage à la lune,” explodes in ruddy notes underpinned by a dark, enigmatic incense accord.
Antonio Alessandria photo courtesy of Esxence
“An aroma can trigger an elusive memory, like a story in a series of frames,” writes Alessandria. Alessandria’s fragrances are built brilliantly around particular memories of his childhood, and his genius is his ability to convey a very personal and precise series of moments that bring you into his world with such specificity that it is like jumping into the pages of a diary.
The construction of Nuit Rouge follows Alessandria’s recollections of the distant volcanic spectacle, bubbling with vibrancy and strangeness. Alessandria arranges his composition into contrasting cold top notes against a warm heart that begins with an eruption of brilliant rhubarb, citrus, and blackcurrant as Nuit Rouge flares from its bottle. Alessandria uses rhubafuran, an aromachemical that smells of rhubarb, grapefruit and ganja, and accentuates its tart aggressiveness with blackcurrant leaf absolute. The combination of these notes is immensely clever; the ganja aspect of rhubafuran suggests sulfur and scorch, while the metallic, acid ting of blackcurrant, tinged with iris, adds a ripple of coolness.
Volcano God of Fire by Henryk Gorecki
In the half hour or so, the fruit begins pour their acidic juices over older, emerging aromas of saffron and spice. And all the while, a swirl of incense gathers slowly, deliberately in the background, as crackly black pepper and nutmeg warm. As the incense accord grows stronger, bitter notes pop and retreat like small explosions. Soothing, cossetting cashmeran and creamy sandalwood add a comforting quality that adds balance. The clash of sharp fruit and those grounding notes ebb and flow between modernity and timelessness for close to an hour.
Antonio Alessandria Nuit Rouge, artwork by Brooke Belldon.
Nuit Rouge feels like the fragrance of some ancient, earthbound god, rising angered from a millennia’s sleep. The effect teeters between enticing and disturbing so addictively that the perfume brings you back to it and back again, like the pull of Father Brown’s invisible thread. Its incense and woods drydown, with touches of leather and tonka bean, is blanketing and cozy, a lovely and welcome as a warm, downy bed after a dramatic night, when the sky became crimson, the moon hid, and the stars seemed to melt.
Notes: Bergamot, lime, black currant, grapefruit, rhubarb, geranium, iris, saffron, black pepper, nutmeg, coffee, leather, cedarwood, patchouli, sandalwood, frankincense, vanilla, tonka bean, musk.
Disclaimer: Sample of Nuit Rouge kindly provided to me by Antonio Alessandria. My opinions are my own.
Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Antonio Alessandria Nuit Rouge, artwork by Brooke Belldon (with filters).
Thanks to Antonio Alessandria Parfums, we have a draw for a 50 ml bottle of Nuit Rouge for one registered reader USA, UK, or EU ((You must register or your comment will not count). To be eligible please leave a comment about what strikes you about Lauryn’s review of Antonio Alessandria Parfums Nuit Rouge, where you live, and if you are familiar with Antonio Alessandria Parfums. Draw closes 11/4/2020.
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