Dusita Paris Light of Bangkok AI enhanced photo by Nicoleta 

I have always been deeply moved by bonds that transcend time and by the power of art to keep the presence of someone we love alive.

Dusita has long felt like one of the most poetic expressions of this. Through perfume, Pissara Umavijani has lovingly tended her father’s memory, allowing it to blossom into scented time capsules that preserve what time might otherwise have softened and blurred. With every fragrance, a poem, a belief, a place, or a shared moment is brought back into the light, and a daughter’s enduring love breathes new life into memory, and, somehow, allows it to touch us all. In Light of Bangkok, this ongoing dialogue between father and daughter returns to a single luminous childhood memory: the two of them walking along the Chao Phraya River, while a majestic hotel rose above the water and filled a little girl’s eyes with wonder. Decades later, Pissara has transformed that wonder into perfume, offering us a glimpse of that fairy-tale moment when light, love, and connection became one: a memory she now regards as one of the most magical of her childhood.

And for anyone who has ever met Pissara, “light” may also be the first word that comes to mind. She possesses such rare warmth and genuine positivity that she seems to radiate light herself. I have never visited Thailand – not yet. But through Douceur de Siam and Erawan, the two Dusita creations that, to me, feel most deeply rooted in Thai culture, I have travelled there in my imagination many times.

Image of Pissara Umavijani, via the brand

This time, we are Pissara’s guests as we embark on a journey to Bangkok. We awaken to a sunlit morning at the iconic Mandarin Oriental, a cup of green tea in hand and dappled sunlight dancing across the river, wrapped in that timeless feeling of the first day of a holiday, in those precious hours when time slows down, the senses awaken, and excitement mingles with the profound serenity. Pissara Umavijani tells us” I was deeply honored to have been entrusted with the creation of Light of Bangkok, an Eau de Parfum that marks the 150th anniversary of this majestic Hotel. I envisioned the scent as a reflection of its elegance and hospitality, drawing inspiration from its graceful architecture and its signature color, Celadon Green”  (…) “I envisioned Light of Bangkok as the aromatic essence of the hotel’s grace and sophistication, blending Thai and French ingredients to capture its warmth, elegance, and serene luxury.”

Mandarin Oriental Artwork via the brand website

For a century and a half, Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok has stood on the banks of the Chao Phraya as a sanctuary, a place where royalty and wanderers, writers and artists have found not only refuge, but inspiration. From its beginnings in 1876 to its place today among the world’s most celebrated hotels, it has remained true to one promise: to make every stay unforgettable. This year, as the hotel celebrates its 150th anniversary, Light of Bangkok arrives as one of the celebration’s most intimate tributes: a fragrance created to capture and honour its spirit.

Browsing old photographs and pages from the hotel’s history, I found myself day-dreaming over the elegant Authors’ Wing, the surviving heart of the original Oriental. Commissioned from Italian architects and completed in 1887, its two-story European design, originally adorned with imported Parisian wallpaper and chandeliers, was a striking early expression of Western influence in the city. Its white verandas, celadon-green details, wicker furniture, and light-filled rooms still preserve that quiet, old-world grace as if frozen in time. Yet the wing is more than an architectural capsule; but also the artistic soul of the hotel, with The Authors’ Lounge lined with portraits of the writers who passed through its doors, while suites bear the names of Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, Noël Coward, and James Michener, allowing something of their presence to linger alongside the stories they left behind.

 

Mandarin Oriental via the brand

And almost all of us, whether consciously or not, make synesthetic connections between scent and colour. Smell a fresh note, and the mind immediately reaches for a palette: orange, yellow, perhaps a flash of luminous green. Light of Bangkok opens in precisely this bright register. Its very first gesture is deeply painterly: before the story, before the memory, the nose “sees” green.

That green is more than a coincidence, because celadon ia the soul-colour of the Mandarin Oriental. In 2025, the hotel group partnered with the Pantone Color Institute to create a bespoke signature shade: Mandarin Oriental Celadon Green, a softly powdered blue-grey green inspired by ancient celadon ceramics. Prized across Asia for more than a thousand years, particularly during China’s Song and Ming dynasties, their serene blue-green glaze came to evoke harmony, purity and an enduring connection with nature. The new colour ties this much older artistic heritage to Mandarin Oriental’s own story – one that reaches back to the first days of the hotel, back 150 years ago.

Pantone© Celadon Green image

Celadon is a well-tempered green: cooled by blue, veiled in grey, its vitality turned inward. This delicate balance is what makes celadon feel so restorative. It gives the eye a place to rest: green softened just enough to soothe, a nuance that seems to slow the pulse and quiet the mind. Pissara: “ With that serene hue in mind, I paired sparkling lemongrass, a plant treasured in Thailand, with velvety orris butter, a cornerstone of French perfumery. The luminous freshness is amplified by bergamot and clary sage, the floral heart of jasmine and ylang-ylang pays further tribute to Thailand, while the woody, airy base comprises sandalwood, vetiver and musk.”

And, uncannily, this is precisely the colour spectrum through which the perfume’s emotional arc unfolds. It begins in pure green: lucid, invigorating and wide awake, with Thai bergamot meeting its Italian counterpart, sharpened by the brilliant herbal edge of lemongrass, a beautiful olfactory nod to Thailand. On skin, Light of Bangkok carries the energy of early morning on the Chao Phraya, when the first sunlight breaks across the moving water in restless points of gold. It feels serene and exhilarating at once, and the mind translates it into light, movement and possibility. Imagine throwing open the hotel curtains on the first morning of a holiday and breathing in the promise of a new day.

Ingredients mood board, via the brand

The fragrance appears to follow the changing palette of the hotel itself. By day, sunlight washes its architecture in soft beige, celadon and the muted gleam of metal. As evening approaches, the colours gather intensity: yellow turns playful, red deepens, and the entire spectrum slips into a richer, darker register. The saturated, bitter green of tea meets the sparkling aromatic clarity of clary sage, which moves through the composition like a breeze across the river, a breath of cool air casting subtle, dancing shadows upon the water. Then blue deepens into an aristocratic violet as orris butter emerges, powdery and timeless, lending the perfume both the well-tailored backbone and an unmistakable atmospheric old-world elegance. Iris dials down the exuberant lemongrass, softening its bright edges into something silky, pale, beautifully diffused, powdery and transparent. Jasmine adds warmth while ylang-ylang brings a whisper of tropical radiance, but the flowers never arrange themselves into a conventional bouquet; they hover in an abstract composition, weightless and luminous, like sunlight passing through the fine Thai silk of the curtains.

Brightness becomes texture, melting into a milky embrace as creamy sandalwood folds into calming musk, so clean, intimate and almost impalpable: an angelic, weightless, my-skin-but-better halo. A milk-softened haze suffuses the composition with white light, blurring its edges, and the entire journey carries the unmistakable feeling of being on holiday: the thrill of arrival, the brightness of an unfamiliar morning, and the luxurious sense that the day belongs entirely to you. In this final hectic week before my summer vacation, few perfumes could put me more instantly in the mood to pack my suitcase and leave everything behind as soon as possible.

Mandarin Oriental Bangkok hotel – image via official Instagram page,  fair use 

Light of Bangkok blooms in warm weather. Even in the humid, 40°C-plus air, beneath the heat dome currently pressing down on much of Europe, it remains luminous and cooling, with the heat lifting the citrus and lemongrass into a shimmering aura, while orris, sandalwood and musk prevent the fragrance from becoming unidimensional or fleeting.

Sophisticated, elegant and oh-so-pleasurable, Light of Bangkok captures luxury in its truest form: a fleeting moment of equilibrium and serenity experienced so deeply that its glow remains with you long after the moment itself has passed. It smells like a cherished memory polished by time, like golden morning light trembling across moving water – held for one luminous instant before the current carries it away.

Dusita Paris Light of Bangkok – AI enhanced pack shot by Nicoleta

From green to grey-green to blissfully serene, the Light of Bangkok completes its chromatic journey. You are wearing celadon, breathing in green, breathing out cool blue,  floating on endless celadon waters.

P.S. — Editor’s note: I can hardly believe Parfums Dusita is already ten years old. When I think back to my first encounters with the house, they still feel as vivid and close as yesterday. Dusita’s fragrances have always seemed to me like vessels for poetry, tenderness and remembrance—proof that love can be transformed into art, and that art can carry those we miss gently forward through time. It makes me deeply happy to see the house receive the affection, recognition and appreciation it so richly deserves. Happy tenth anniversary, Dusita. May your light continue to shine on!

Top: Bergamot, Clary Sage, Lemongrass; Heart: Orris Butter, Jasmine, Ylang-Ylang; Base: Sandalwood, Vetiver, Musk

Nicoleta Tomsa, Senior Editor

Disclosure: Perfume kindly gifted by the brand, as always, opinions are my own.

Dusita Paris Light of Bangkok sample image via the brand

Thanks to the generosity of Dusita Paris we have two samples for one registered reader from EU and two samples for one reader from the US. There are two winners. You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what sparks your interest based on Nicoleta’s review and where you live. Draw closes.8/10/2026

Please read the interview with Pissara here. Pelagos was awarded a Best of Scent by Olya, Ida and Nicoleta for 2024. Michelyn awarded Dusita Paris Cavatina a top 10 perfume of 2021 and Nicoleta Anamcara, and Rosarine. Olya for La Rhapsodie Noire 2022, Editor Emeritus Robert Herrmann (RIP) awarded Oud Infini Best of 2016

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