Members of the Paris Ballet, Elle, Jan. 2015
There are times when everything in the universe seems to cohere, as if you’d ordered the day to your specifications and a heavenly tailor stitched it together with gold thread. On the roof in the middle of a city, the sky is a perfect blue, the air at once warm and cool, stirred by a slight breeze that just keeps the heat from tipping into summer. A few fat clouds roll lazily by, and somewhere in the near distance, voices rise and fall in a gentle hubbub. A glass of something innocent glistens on a nearby table. All the sharp edges of the city blur and the traffic noise hums instead of barking. Life smiles, knowing it doesn’t get better than this. Dawn Spencer Hurwitz’ luminous ylang ylang perfume, Wild Coyote, is how I imagine this moment smells. An utterly, breathlessly beautiful, waltzing, scent as perfect and fleeting as the days that never come often enough.
Dawn Spencer Hurwitz via Dawn Spencer Hurwitz
A second dab of Wild Coyote on the wrist; I’m by a lake now, deep Spring. The watercolour creaminess of pink magnolia drifts upwards accompanied by an aqueous green note like water lily vine. The effect of this union is like impressionist melon: delicate, fragrantly sweet as honeydew, but translucent; light wavering between the sun and shadow, pale green against silky mauve petal. I catch tiny, glowing spatters of rose and jasmine, then fleeting catches of warm tropical fruit. All the notes in Wild Coyote – and there are many – seem to have been have been chosen for complementarity rather than resemblance – the green cardamom plays off the lotus-like leafiness of the opening, but in the middle section; the subtle coconut and vanilla that emerge echo the milky magnolia and creamy jasmine in the first moments.
Ylang watercolour, stock photo
It’s a contradiction: a translucent ylang; a contemplative heartbreaker. Dawn Spencer Hurwitz teases out every facet of this sometimes overbearingly rich, golden-scented flower so that, as she herself describes it, the ylang becomes a shapeshifter, hinting at honey-dripping vamp, then girlish white-green floral; tropical sloe-eyed sexpot, then milky Southern belle – without becoming any of them exactly.
Pygmalion and Galatea by Ernest Normand, 1886
First I catch the banana creaminess this luscious flower can have. It lingers, its thickness cut by a tickle of fresh, almondy cardamom. There’s a squeeze of peach juice that sidles along that banana; then, honey, as the ylang shifts into Sofia Vergara mode, less banana and cream, more animal purr. A squashy hint of marshmallow follows, and silky spice, a trace of fresh coconut. Wild Coyote is not a single note perfume but a Thumbelina orchestra, small traces of each flower, spice and accord augmenting the ylang so that she becomes as fully dimensional as Galatea stepping off her pedestal.
Petrovsky and Ramone Photography©
Ylang-centric perfumes have perhaps disappointed me more than any other florals. This metamorphic flower can be, as the perfume’s name suggests, an untamable beast: an overtly 80s flower in its tropical bigness and voom. Wild Coyote is something I never thought ylang could be; translucent, its evanescence part of its soulful loveliness. Reapplying brings back the exquisite magnolia mermaid top note, and lets you smell that origami ylang opening and spreading out again. Dawn Spencer Hurwitz proves that this often voluptuous showgirl can be the most piercingly beautiful blossom this side of narcissus. I have smelled some gorgeous ylang ylang perfumes before, but this one takes not only the cake but the pie, the crème brulee and the after-dinner mint. If you’ve yet to be lured by ylang, DSH Perfume’s Wild Coyote is your last seduction.
Notes: Coconut pulp co2, green cardamom, peach skin accord, southern magnolia, yellow champaca, yellow mandarin, yellow orchid accord, ylang ylang Absolute, ylang ylang Nosey Be, amber, Australian sandalwood, frankincense co2 Absolute, French beeswax, Mysore sandalwood, Tahitian vanilla, damask rose absolute, grandiflorum jasmine, orris concrete, Sambac jasmine, leafy green accord.
Disclaimer: sample of DSH Perfumes Wild Coyote generously provided by DSH Perfumes. My opinions are my own.
Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
DSH Perfumes Wild Coyote
Wild Coyote is part of DSH Perfume Heirloom Elixir collection of limited editions, so don’t hang about if you want to get hold of some of this splendid ylang before its gone June 31, 2019. But thanks to the generosity of DSH Perfumes we have a 5 ml sprayer of DSH Perfumes Wild Coyote for one registered reader worldwide. You must be registered or your comment will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about DSH Perfumes Wild Coyote based on Lauryn’s review, and whether you have tried any of the Heirloom Collection. Do you have a favorite Ylang Ylang Perfume? Draw ends 6/12/2019.
Editor’s Note: DSH Perfumes Wild Coyote is the 6th in Dawn’s Heirloom Collection perfumes which are all limited edition. You can read Ida’s review of #5 White Rabbits here and Love is Everything #4 here, Number #2 and #3 Oudh Blanc and Aoud Noir by Lauryn here. The first was Essenza dell Ibisco, I had the honor of collaborating with Dawn and reviewed by Ida here. You can read about the Heirloom Elixirs here. –Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief
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.