Bogue Profumo Douleur!2

“For without pain, there can be no pleasure. Without sadness, there can be no happiness. Without misery there can be no beauty. And without these, life is endless, hopeless, doomed and damned.”
― Harlan Ellison, Paingod and Other Delusions

From the bold suffering in Frida Kahlo’s sunlit canvasses to the unconstrained atonality of Schoenberg’s compositions, the theme of pain as a correlative to creativity has drawn artists from all mediums. While the goal of much art is to venerate, the confines of overt loveliness can be restrictive. But it is a certainty that beauty can rise from even the darkest of places, that pleasure is experienced by its contrast to pain, and creative freedom requires challenging norms.

Freddie Albrighton via Instagram

It is through this lens that Bogue Profumo founder and perfumer Antonio Gardoni, one of the most original and talented perfumers working today, conceived his two Douleur fragrances in collaboration with tattoo artist Freddie Albrighton. Douleur played with the familiar, cosseting toothsomeness of a sweet gourmand a la Prada Candy by amping the sweetness to the size of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Douleur! 2 is its sibling’s photo negative, top notes stripped of sweetness and familiarity, replaced with aggressively bracing, astringent aromas. Both perfumes share a sado-masochistic desire to make their wearers hate, then love, them.  They dare their wearers to think past discomfort, a tangle of uneasy and seductive smells, onto something strangely addictive.

Antonio Gardoni of Bogue Profumo

Gardoni uses high concentrations of notes that are not usually central in perfumery, and this gives Douleur!2 an aura of both detachment and dislocation. As Gardoni cheerfully points out, there is “nothing pretty or comfortable of reassuring” about its first act. Following the briefest moment of something animalic and inviting, Douleur!2 then attacks with what Gardoni describes as “high pitch balsamic and green notes” of eucalyptus, tea tree and the coldest crushed mint note I can recall. Smelling like frozen spearmint, the herb cuts through the opaque tree leaves so that the perfume turns on itself like a prism, reflecting facets of the same body of frigid, mentholic aromas. As I continue to wave my hand back and forth, I suddenly get a whiff of a skewed jasmine, naked of its lushness, with a scratchy, sandpaper quality.  There’s a cucumber/bitter melon note in there as well, and everything smells as if submerged in ice water.

If the first stage of Douleur!2 was like an expressionist painting of a winter jungle – all menacing edges and cold emotionalism – the second stage is enigmatic, not giving up its secrets willingly. That bodily note from the first second of the opening returns but doesn’t fully expand into something recognizable. It hints at decay, of something living past its prime. It is joined by something I recognized from Masque Milano’s Times Square – a rose that is part, plastic, part metal, part silken bloom. Using a substantial concentration of rose oxide, Gardoni emphasizes that aroma chemical’s stemmy floralcy as well as its artifice. As it warms, the rose opens out expansively, all but swallowing the top notes. All the while, water washes in and out rhythmically like an inexorable surf, unbothered by the cacophony above it.

Animal notes claw at the rose and a spray of sweaty salt sweeps over the flowers and leaves. A chewy candy note comes through, and, as it does, it gradually becomes clear that the barbed mint of the opening was simply boiled sweets playing at dress-up. While there’s no mention of it in the notes, I smell ionones pretending to be violets, and ripe fruit wrapped in plastic. This may all sound too odd, but Douleur!2 is fascinatingly wearable, a jolie laide perfume, equal parts invitation and rejection. There is no obvious drydown but an elongation of the middle, as the composition shifts from its initial jagged expressionism to the surreal calm of Modigliani. And the water washes back in again. Bogue Profumo Douleur!2 is perhaps the first piece of performance art I have experienced in perfumery. It elicits an emotional response that is not always comfortable, nor is it intended to be. But, as Science Fiction writer Octavia Butler observed, “In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn.” For those who stick around, Douleur!2 reveals itself as feisty, multi-layered, even sexy concoction that is both one of the most inventive and compelling fragrances for some time. True hedonists will understand its fascination readily. But don’t let that stop the rest of you.

Notes: Douleur! accord, metallic rose, jasmine, mint candy, tea tree, water, oyster, civet, resins.

Disclaimer: Bottle of Douleur!2 Generously given to me by Bogue Profumo. My opinions are my own.

All photos courtesy of Antonio Gardoni, unless specified

Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

photo courtesy of luckyscent.com

We have a 10 ml hand decanted sample of Douleur!2 for one registered reader in the U.S., UK or Europe. To be eligible, please leave a comment describing what intrigues you about Bogue Profumo Douleur!2, whether you have a favourite Bogue Profumo fragrance, and where you live. Draw closes 11/11/2020.

This is our Privacy and Draw Rules Policy

We announce the winners only on our site and on our Facebook page, so like Çafleurebon and use our blog feed … or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume

Follow us on Instagram @cafleurebon @elledebee @bogue_profumo @freddiealbrigtonperfume @luckyscent

Doleur!2  is sold exclusively at Luckyscent.com in the USA  here