Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline – ©Olivier Durbano

“NIgra sum, sed formosa” The Song of Songs

“Dark of skin, and yet I have beauty”. These words traveled the oceans of time to bring us perhaps one of the powerful presences of a woman but also showed us the spiritual depth and heights of a human being.  Some guessed the verse referred to Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, but there was a time she was called Isis, Goddess of the night giving birth to the God Sun.

 

Artemis Efesia at Museo Archeologico in Naples©

Later she was named Artemis. In other latitudes she was Miriam, fecund virgin, “tota pulchra” (completely beautiful). Her song inspired prophets and artists whose black artworks still exude that creative force and spiritual momentum, along with the mystery of turning darkness into light for they are two sides of the same energy. I imagine her warm voice and her smooth skin glowing like a precious stone, and that stone is black tourmaline.

The Black Madonna of Einsiedeln, Switzerland, close to where K.G. Jung studied © Shrine of Einsiedeln

As suggested by Psychiatrist Karl Gustav Jung, the Dark Mother is an archetype spread across many cultures and represents life, death, earth,sexuality, and deep transformational energy. Her miracle making darkness beautiful epitomizes the age-old talismanic properties of Black Tourmaline; to protect and ward off danger by converting negativity into positivity. Tapping into his own spiritual  beliefs and inner karmic history, architect and jewelry Designer Olivier Durbano pushed the creative boundaries with the third in his series of Parfums de Pierres Poèmes (The Perfumes of Poem Stones) Black Tourmaline marrying oud with his signature incense.

 

Agarwood bowl commissioned by the Qianlong emperor of China, carved with the 7 Buddhas and inscribed with poems (1786)

Agarwoood, also known as aloeswood or simply oud, is a raw material that became known in niche perfumery in the late 1990s with Parfums M. Micallef  predating the erotic Yves Saint-Laurent M7 break-through. At the same time, while Pierre Montale was setting his Parisian United Emirates signature, Olivier Durbano revealed agarwood for the first time in the West as never before. Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline sweeps away the glossy  commerciality and sets the raw material back into primal territory: spirituality. That is why it is a game changer and well deserves to enter our Modern Masterpieces.

 Olivier Durbano Black Flowers Necklace – Black agate, fluorite, jasper, hematite and black tourmaline

I remember the first time I met Olivier Durbano. Those were the days when niche perfumery still had meaning- independent and genuinely artistic. I was impressed by his shy gentleness and his almost meditative aplomb. His breathtaking jewelry  speaks of this as well as his  perfumes. At first sniff Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline was a shock; the minty fierceness of cardamom and coriander juxtaposed with the inky coolness of incense topnotes.  Smoke swirls rising from the hot ashes of a purification rite bonfire; bridged by the human presence of cumin and leather adds to the hypnotic litany of oud. I definitely wasn’t ready for this larger-than-life sacred “scent” sculpture with its magnetic power. It’s love or hate, although you cannot help but admire it. As you inhale you are transported to the darkness of a temple, worshipping at the feet of a “Madonna Nera,”, which is so much a part of European religious culture. You smell the fumes and you feel protected under her mantle, close to her inclusive dark woody features.

If in ancient times fragrant oils were poured on statues both as a devotional offerings and as a connection with the divine, Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline perfectly renders this invocation of protection as you  anoint yourself. No menace can defeat this fragrant shelter, for its powerful woody warmth will blunt every arrow and turn it into a caressing feather.

Notes include cardamom, coriander, cumin, frankincense, pepper, smoked woods, oud, leather, precious woods, musk, amber, moss, patchouli.

The writing is based on a personal sample of Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline, opinions as always my own

Ermano Picco, Editor and Perfume Expert with contributions from Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief

Olivier Durbano Poem Stones Perfumes Black Tourmaline – ©Olivier Durbano

Thanks to the generosity of Olivier Durbano  we have a 100 ml bottle of Black Tourmaline  for one registered reader (you must register or your comment will not count) in the EU or U.S. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about based on Ermano’s s essay on Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline  as a Modern Masterpiece, where you live and whether you have tried other Oliver Durbano Perfumes. Draw closes 8/7/2021

Note: Olivier was also the inspiration for the character Robby L’ Etoile in M.J. Rose’s The Book of Lost Fragrances. For our reviews of  Rock Crysta l(#1)  Amethyst, Pink Quartz, Turquoise, (Managing Editor Tama Blough’s Fragrant Awakening may she RIP), Citrine, Heliotrope, Lapis, Philosophorum. Promothee, Labrodorite, Pyrit AmaTra SpemM PetraM  and #16 Aram please click on their individual hyperlinks.

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