DSH Perfumes Saku Heirloom Elixir no. 30 (an Osmanthus perfume) image courtesy of the perfumer
Crows live in white trees in the atrium, and sweet-scented osmanthus is wet with cold dew .
Tonight, when the moon is bright and everyone looks around, I don’t know who is missing my autumn thoughts. ~ Looking at the Moon on the Fifteenth Night by Wang Jian, Tang Dynasty
Autumn at Mt. Takeo Tokuriki Tomikichiro 1950s wiki art
The above evocative poem may hail from China’s Tang dynasty, but it represents award-winning artisanal perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz’s latest Heirloom Elixir no.30 {an Osmanthus perfume} Saku lyrically (Saku translates from the Japanese as simply, ‘bloom’). Our perfumer was inspired by her transcendent experience while walking through the flowering streets of Tokyo in autumn: she sensed her own blossoming. DSH Perfumes Saku will likely have to be added to my list of the year’s finest; it is that singularly moving and intricate. This elixir embraces the exquisite veil of transition between summer and autumn, a painterly joy tinged with muted melancholy.
Hu Zhenyong’s painting of bird on flowering osmanthus branch via Harvard Art Museums©
“A gorgeous blossoming confluence of green olives, osmanthus bushes in full bloom, teas, and a drydown of ‘fruity oud’ mixed with sandalwood”, is Dawn’s concise summation of DSH Perfumes Saku – and as usual, it feels spot on. I feel the truth of it so clearly, and follow her mind’s hand-in-glove progression in tandem with the senses: osmanthus = fragrant olive blossom/sweet olive/sweet tea blossom; from olive blossom to green olive’s oily seduction, winelike and complex; from olive-to-olive wood; from green-to-green tea. Champaca provides the perfect complement to osmanthus on many levels, with its velvety, peach/apricot-nuanced tones and sweet tea/hay notes, further enhanced by the accompaniment of peach; grandiflorum jasmine contributes its indolic ripeness and completes a floral triad that requires nothing further. The fruity and distinctively leathery aspects of osmanthus are blissfully augmented with oud Maleki (a potent Firmenich material which combines both natural and synthetic molecules) – intensely woody and animalic, with delicate rose-enhancing properties and muskiness – and oud Crassna, a more smoky, honey-redolent heartwood with tobacco and castoreum facets. Well-aged East Indian patchouli furnishes an earthy modicum of leathery aroma as well. The perfumer’s employment of deeply resinous, balsamic cypress, Atlas cedarwood, and the inky beauty of oakmoss (both green and woody in character) afford dreamy equipoise. DSH Perfumes Saku is such a subtle, equilibrated fragrance, truly an olfactory work of art that I was immediately smitten and profoundly affected by it.
image courtesy of Dawn Spencer Hurwitz
DSH Perfumes Saku bears the indelible seal composed of love, memory and desire. It is a hovering spectre caught between two worlds, two seasons: a haunting aromatic presence endowed with prismatic loveliness. Even if one does not consider themselves an admirer of oud, Saku is one to sample; it may well change your mind about the potent heartwood which has become a staple in Western perfumery over the past few years. If such a category existed, I would classify Saku as a tender symphonic chypre.
Notes: bergamot, peach, leafy green accord, osmanthus absolute, grandiflorum jasmine, white champaca, green tea absolute, green olive accord (fruit and leaves), olive absolute, olive wood accord, cypress, Atlas cedarwood, Mysore sandalwood, Australian sandalwood, East Indian patchouli, green oakmoss, oud Crassna, oud Maleki
via wiki Tang Dynasty
Fujiwara no Yoshitaka
For your precious sake,
Once my eager life itself
Was not dear to me.
But now it is my heart’s desire
It may long, long years endure. ~ Ogura Hyakunin Isshu
Sample provided by the perfumer – many thanks! I love it. My nose is my own…
~ Ida Meister, Deputy and Natural Perfumery Editor
DSH Perfumes Heirloom Elixir no.30 Saku via DSH Perfumes
Thanks to the largesse of DSH Perfumes, we have a 7.5 ml of DSH Perfumes Saku Heirloom Elixir no. 30 {an Osmanthus perfume} valued at $115.00 for one registered reader in the USA. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what piques your interest about Saku, based on Ida’s review. Draw closes 9/13/2023
Please join us in wishing Dawn Spencer Hurwitz a Happy Birthday September 11th!!
Editor’s Note: Saku is a limited edition. Although this giveaway is for USA addresses, if you reside elsewhere you can go to Dawn’s Esty Shop and buy her fragrances here
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