White Whale by Masque Milano illustrated flacon courtesy of Masque Milano
“Smell is a word, perfume is literature” Jean-Claude Ellena.
Whereas many fragrances have been created inspired by a novel, and even entire collections are dedicated to literature, not all the fragrances were up to their inspiration. The greater the novel, the higher the expectation, so when Masque Milano founder Alessandro Brun took the challenge to create a perfume based on the American writer Herman Melville’s masterwork Moby Dick, he sounded as ambitious as Captain Ahab. If you think this would have been the final release in the acclaimed Opera Collection, you can swear this lit a fire under this mission, making even a seasoned scent designer shake in his boots, I can tell you.
Hiring the lesser known IFF perfumer Christian Alori that immediately got excited by the project, and elevating the inspiration from ambergris, a fabled raw material that’s widely described in a dedicated chapter of Moby Dick, into a whole smellscape navigated the fragrance development away from the typical marine or solinote fragrance. White Whale by Masque Milano is a game changer offering an immersive experience giving new meaning of “violets” and “salty wood” from accords to Olfaction. That’s what makes White Whale by Masque Milano a Modern Masterpiece, and a testament to what Alessandro Brun defined as Slow Perfumery.
The Vision Behind White Whale by Masque Milano
The sperm whale by William Home Lizars (1788-1859) via wiki
Closing the Opera Collection, Alessandro Brun wanted the fourth and last scene of the Act of Dreams to be the climax, an epic chimera that pushes you to dream big, and act bold. What best than Moby Dick, the original novel Melville wrote in 1851 embodies this attitude in the most valiant and most dramatic way? The sailor Ishmael ‘s narrative is full of olfactory references that trigger genuine emotions and visions casting you straight into his world. Of course, aromas from the Pequod Nantucket whaling ship like driftwood, and ocean breeze are there, but also more symbolic elements like humid hemp-like ropes, as salty and twisted as one’s destiny can be, and candles that chapter CXIX renders in their waxy glowing warmth.
Melville surely trained his nose on top-quality real ambergris, for he paints with words a detailed description of its smell with masterful strokes in chapter XCII – “I say, that the motion of a Sperm Whale’s flukes above water dispenses a perfume, as when a musk-scented lady rustles her dress in a warm parlor. What then shall I liken the Sperm Whale to for fragrance, considering his magnitude? Must it not be to that famous elephant, with jeweled tusks, and redolent with myrrh, which was led out of an Indian town to do honor to Alexander the Great? “.
Chapter XCIV gives a final line on the smell of sperm whales with Ishmael’s sensorial debauchery at hand – “As I bathed my hands among those soft, gentle globules of infiltrated tissues, wove almost within the hour; as they richly broke to my fingers, and discharged all their opulence, like fully ripe grapes their wine; as. I snuffed up that uncontaminated aroma – literally and truly, like the smell of spring violets”.
The Master Perfumer: Christian Alori
IFF perfumer Christian Alori
“I am fascinated by water. When I practice surfing, I have the sensation of dancing on the water. Riding the wave, looking for speed or, on the contrary, enjoying the calm; the movement of the sea is never boring. Water is alive”
The introduction to Christian Alori’s profile titled “fluidity” from the IFF book “art(ists) of perfumery” it also says about his deep connection with the world beneath the waves. Born in New York from Argentinian parents, he spent his life as a mix of these two elements. Passionate about rock music, after college he enrolled at the University to become a sound engineer. So one day attending a Psychology course, his teacher talked about a friend perfumer at Givaudan who was a scuba diver that composed a perfume after having been to an underwater cave. The creative process fascinated Christian so much he decided to become a perfumer and attended a three-year training program in Buenos Aires. In his thirst for knowledge, he came back to New York with a few bucks in his pocket and found a job in IFF.
He spent five years in various roles, from evaluator to assistant perfumer fulfilling his dream to learn from Master Perfumers like Sophia Grojsman, Carlos Benaïm, and Dominic Ropion, and finally graduated from the IFF school. It was Christophe Laudamiel that introduced him to artistic perfumery while finalizing a fragrance collection illustrating Süskind’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.
For Christian Alori creating a fragrance literally means bringing it to life – “I try an accord, a mix in my own way, and sometimes the result is magic. As though my formula contains some adrenaline”. Smelling White Whale by Masque Milano the magic is palpable, as the skin warms it up and brings it to life.
The Olfactory Composition
Following the unusual narrative pyramid of White Whale by Masque Milano, the opening is described as “Candles, Ropes, and the Vast Ocean” that translates to the sweeping wind from the ocean, as bracing as the metallic glares of Somalian olibanum boosted by the cold, airy radiance of Black Pepper from Madagascar blowing over the salty seawater crystal lettice of ozonic molecules. As the lovely smell of sperm whale oil evokes Ishmael’s rugged life at sea, blooming violet flowers here lend glee anticipating the supple warmth of jammy osmanthus shining in the heart of the composition.
Given the centerpiece of the fragrance is ambergris, Christian Alori used the natural raw material as a reference to build his own ambergris accord, that he poured abundantly at the core of the formula. The powerful primal register of this mythical note, sacred and secular, seamlessly melts with the animalic suede facets of the floral bouquet, like having your fingertips graze Ishmael’s ones, sharing their heavenly anointment. We’re part of the crew now, and right before meeting our fate, it’s worth downing a nightcap of absinthe with the boozy bitterness of armoise, intoxicatingly green and heady.
The Pequod illustration artist unknown
At last the waves subside in the nostalgic and familiar dust of orris concrete and patchouli redolent of old books and yellow pages. Silence is broken only by the rhythmic creaking of the rustic woods on the Pequod ship cradled by the sea; we lay on the weathered rough planking looking at the North star, inhaling deep smells of cedarwood, vetiver, and resinous cypress brushed by the savory dryness of oakmoss as the signature of this reverie.
Photo by Salvatore Capizzi of the Masque Milano White Whale Display at Premio Aromata 2024
Since its release, White Whale by Masque Milano has made a significant impact on the world of niche perfumery, giving birth to new trends such as a reinterpretation of the marine fragrances from the ‘90s to a less obvious future and more refined landscape of salty woods and floated ambergris on the shore. Moreover, the chill of moist spring violets running through the top and heart notes of White Whale by Masque Milano makes a stunning reinterpretation of the classic floral violet theme so en vogue during the Victorian Era. Such a new take breathed new life to this floral note long deprecated as old fashioned making a great come back of violets as the centerpiece of various successful launches in the last couple of years.
Premio Aromata 2024 first prize jury
The wearer is instantly transported there at morn, inhaling the cold breeze while looking at the horizon, smelling his fingers reeking of the sacred yet animalic floating gold of perfumery. The sensory experience that is both profound and transformative feels so intense that the perfume gained two accolades over the past year. First came the Art and Olfaction Awards 2023 assigning for the first time a special mention to ten outstanding perfumes, among which White While sparkled in the independent category. Then, the first prize of the Premio Aromata 2024 was given to Christian Alori for White Whale by Masque Milano as the best fragrance based on literature, that was the theme of the first awards edition.
Alessandro Brun took this photo during a trip to Massachusetts©
One of the most compelling aspects of White Whale by Masque Milano is how the fragrance mirrors the narrative arc of Moby Dick. The fragrance unfolds like prose, taking you on a journey that parallels the epic quest of Captain Ahab and his crew. From the initial excitement of setting sail, through moments of introspection and contemplation, to the tumultuous depths of the soul, “White Whale by Masque Milano “masterfully captures the essence of Melville’s masterpiece.
White Whale by Masque Milano (2022) notes read like the chapters of a novel:
Top notes: “Candles, Ropes, and the Vast Ocean”, olibanum LMR (Eastern Africa), salty rope accords, black pepper Madagascar LMR
Heart notes: “There she Blows”
ambergris accord, osmanthus China LMR, violet flower, orris concrete Italy LMR,
Base notes “The Pequod Ship”
cedarwood Virginia, patchouli Indonesia MD LMR, vetiver Haiti MD LMR, cistus labdanum.
Disclosure: review based on a full bottle of White Whale by Masque Milano By Masque Milano edp from my own collection, opinions as always, my own. I was the evaluator since 2017 for Masque Milano. It was Michelyn who encouraged me to write this article.
Alessandro Brun via Masque Milano
Editor’s Note: I asked Alessandro Brun in 2022 to share with our readers his thoughts on the finale fragrances of the opera collection:
”When I embarked in this journey, I did not visualize the finish line We planned many details of the journey – 16 fragrances, a different perfumer for every fragrance, the different inspirations, the main “themes” of the 4 acts… – but we left a door open to serendipity. Meeting some noses has taken us by the storm, getting to know some raw materials up-close-and-personal (from visiting the field, to the processing plants, the quality laboratories, the warehouses, …) changed the way we smell some perfumes forever.
Cap Final “opera” via Masque Milano
But the last fragrance… you know… it is different. That’s why the last fragrance is inspired by captain Ahab’s life-long chase of the White Whale by Masque Milano. In case we did not manage to complete the collection, at least we tried, and we can claim that “the last one was a beast too hard to defeat. Now I look back at the road I traveled with Riccardo, and with all the noses. CaFleureBon never missed one milestone (thank you, Michelyn, for believing in us since the beginning!).And today I can say it: we made it. Our “Opera Collection” is more than a bunch of 16 different fragrances. It is a journey in modern artistic perfumery.
Ermano Picco, Editor, Evaluator and Perfume Expert
Alessandro Brun passed away on February 19, 2024. Please read Ermano’s tribute to his friend, associate and here
Thanks to the generosity of Masque Milano, we have a 10 travel spray of White Whale by Masque Milano for one registered reader in the EU, USA or UK. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what strikes you about White Whale by Masque Milano By Masque Milano, whether you have a favorite Masque Milano fragrance, and where you live. Draw ends 9/14/2024
Please read Michelyn’s introduction to White Whale by Masque Milano By Masque Milano and Sleight of Fern here
Lauryn’s review here
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