ÉLISIRE In Fabula, photo by Nicoleta 

Ever since I can remember, perfume has been a synesthetic playground for me – I’ve never smelled a fragrance without “seeing” something; sometimes it’s a color, sometimes a sound, sometimes something completely different, fluttering, suspended between my senses. Imagine my joy when I discovered that In Fabula, the newest creation from ÉLISIRE, opens a new collection- inaugurating a series of olfactive delights that explore the other side of colors.

 Perfumer Bérénice Watteau of DSM-Firmenich With Franck Salzwedel

Born in France to German parents, Franck Salzwedel grew up between light, color, and sound. His childhood moved from the French countryside to the lush vibrancy of Indonesia, where scent became his first language of memory, a way to translate the world’s textures into emotion. Bali taught him that color has a pulse and fragrance has light; both can shape the way we feel. After returning to France, Franck translated this vision into perfume — first for Armani (Acqua di Gio, Mania), then for Viktor & Rolf (Flowerbomb) before dedicating himself fully to painting and, later, to creating his own scented universe. ÉLISIRE was born from that dialogue between color and scent, a collection of luminous, high-concentration perfumes conceived as elixirs of desire: sensual, modern, and saturated with light. Franck calls them “auras,” stories painted in scent and light, designed to ignite the senses and speak the universal language of color. “With ÉLISIRE, I wanted to tell the story of my love for fragrance and painting, driven by my fascination for nature. The world, the sky, the sun, the light, the stars, and the elements. But most of all, the miracle of colors, and their impact on the sensorial and emotional spectrum. Color has a transcending power, which acts on the body and the soul. Whether it is bright, vibrant, dark or muted, alone or interacting with one another, color relates to emotions in a direct manner.”- Franck Salzwedel

Who better then Bérénice Watteau for Franck to team up with – a perfumer with a rare sensitivity for translating the emotions of colors into perfumes. In her own words: “When I compose a fragrance, I experience a form of synesthesia. Scents appear to me as shapes, colors, textures, even light. I see each formula as an architectural structure, full of volume, contrast, and balance, or like a painting, where ingredients are my pigments and brushes.” – Bérénice Watteau

Mark Rothko  – Four Darks in Red (1958) painting, fairuse

There’s a phenomenon art historians call “the Rothko effect” – that hypnotic pull you feel standing before one of his paintings, where boundaries dissolve and emotion are triggered in the most unfiltered, primal way. Rothko believed his paintings were about “basic human emotions – tragedy, ecstasy, doom” –  and that color, stripped of form, could speak directly to the soul. ÉLISIRE In Fabula operates on this same principle. Like Rothko’s luminous rectangles that seem to breathe and pulse with inner light, this fragrance doesn’t simply smell like fuchsia – but somehow triggers the same emotions as this color does. The sensation of fuchsia distilled into one journey: that electric, vibrating threshold between red’s passion and blue’s mystery, where desire meets playfulness, where the physical world blurs into something transcendent.

And what does fuchsia feel like when it’s no longer bound to sight?

ÉLISIRE In Fabula opens like a canvas still wet with light – a burst of pink pepper that crackles and shimmers, electric and alive, meeting the tart-sweet pulse of tart fruits, sliced mid-air. Sheer movement captured in the collision, with the spark struck sending vibrations through the senses, mouthwatering, effervescent, fruity and alive. Sharp, prismatic rays illuminate through ruby swirling liquids, with citric brightness piercing the composition like refracted light through stained glass – rays slicing through the berry’s crimson flesh, refracting fuchsia in all its impossible, saturated glory.

AI mood picture of rose petals, Nicoleta

Then comes the heart, and here Ms. Watteau reveals her mastery of chiaroscuro. Rose emerges not as a single note but as a spectrum  – from the palest blush of dawn, veiled in orange blossom hues, to the bruised, wine-dark petals of twilight. It’s a rose that has absorbed both airy translucence and narcotic shadow, creating layers of depth that shift and breathe at every facet, like color fields dissolving into one another. Amber and vanilla thread through like molten gold leaf, adding a honeyed, resinous warmth that keeps the structure from floating away entirely –  added weight of oakmoss and patchouli anchor the composition to earth, to ground, to the roots felt, not seen, beneath the surface.

Pierre Herme Ispahan macaron ad, fairuse

At one point comes the delicious nutty roundness, curving all the edges into something intimate, sensual, almost edible. Now it’s all about textures: the decadent sheen of a Saint Honoré, all caramelized cream and delicious softness, or the velvety-crusty contrast of an Ispahan in that perfect marriage of rose, litchi, and raspberry held together by the fuzzy architecture of the perfect macaron. And then, the final alchemy: woods and musk create a halo effect, that diffused luminosity that makes you question where the fragrance ends and your own warmth begins. Everything is now soft focus, blurring boundaries  – the kind of glow that hovers in your wake like the afterimage of staring too long at something beautiful, that retinal ghost that proves you’ve witnessed a powerful thing – one that changes the way you see the world even after you look away.

ÉLISIRE In Fabula, photo via the brand

ÉLISIRE In Fabula is an immersive sensory experience – one that bypasses the intellect and speaks directly to emotion. The other side of color isn’t its opposite, but its essence: the feeling it evokes once freed from the visual world and translated into pure olfactive vibration. And I must say, I’m addicted to this feeling, and I can’t wait to see what color comes next.

Top: Red Berries, Blackcurrant Buds, Mandarine, Orange Blossom; Heart: Rose Absolue, Hazelnut Accord, Amber; Base: Cedarwood, Sandalwood, Patchouli, Vanilla, Musks, Oakmoss

 Nicoleta Tomsa, Senior Editor

Disclosure: A bottle of ÉLISIRE In Fabula was offered by the brand; opinions are always my own.

Perfumer Bérénice Watteau Young Perfumer Series essay here.

Also read our reviews for Extrait Noir, Oderose, Desired, Jasmin Paradis, Eau Papaguéna

 

 

ÉLISIRE In Fabula, Packshot photo by Nicoleta

Thanks to the generosity of ÉLISIRE, we have a 30 ml for one registered reader from the EU or USA.  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 October 18, 2025

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