Australian coat of arms features its national flower
I wasn’t at Esxence in Milan this year but I got reports from our editor-in-chief, Michelyn, on the ground. One news bite I was especially excited about was that Goldfield and Banks was launching a new perfume. I had met Dimitri Weber, the founder and creative director of the brand, last year and had fallen hard for the line. Michelyn and Ida Meister fell as well and included the new Goldfield and Banks Velvet Splendour as one of “the best in show” in Milan this year and cited it as a great example of the trend in using indigenous ingredients in perfume. I was very excited to try this new release.
Dimitri Weber, founder and creative director of Goldfield and Banks. Photo courtesy Mr. Weber
Michelyn told me the name of the new fragrance but I was taking in so much information from Milan that I forgot it. I did remember that it sounded luxurious, decadent and smooth. The other fragrances in the line have a hint as to what might be inside the bottle like Southern Bloom, White Sandalwood, Pacific Rock Moss, Blue Cypress, Desert Rosewood, but from what I remembered of the name there was no hint as to what indigenous ingredient Dimitri was highlighting. I ran my jumble of possible names by a very insightful and intelligent Australian perfume friend, Pep Dalessandri aka The Scentinel, and he guessed by the vibe of the words that Dimitri was using wattle.
Sun kissed wattle against a blue Australian sky. © Sandi D
And wattle it was. Wattle is so prevalent a flower in Australia that it is considered the national flower, appearing in the coat of arms of the country and on the crown of Miss Australia. When Queen Elizabeth II visited for the first time she warmed the hearts of her Australian subjects by wearing a Norman Hartnell gown embroidered with wattle blooms. The people of Australia in turn presented her with a yellow diamond brooch in the form of a spray of wattle.
Sir William Dargie’s ‘wattle painting’ of Queen Elizabeth II, 1954. © National Museum of Australia
Okay, but as an American I had NO clue what wattle was until I looked it up. It’s the original acacia, a.k.a. mimosa. Now a perfumista could relate! In fact, it was Joseph Banks, the 18th century botanist that gave Goldfield and Banks half its name, that introduced the flowering tree to Europe. I was lucky enough to spend time with Dimitri Weber last week so he could walk me through the differences between Australian wattle and the European “mimosa” we know in perfumery (he should know; he spent years in Paris in the fragrance industry.)
Design by Ross Allan for the wattle brooch presented to Her Majesty The Queen © National Gallery of Australia and a photo the completed piece © Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences
Usually when we discuss mimosa notes in a perfume we are actually talking about the scent of acacia, or cassie…. the bright yellow floral pom-poms that have a sweet, soft aroma. Dimitri wanted to build a perfume around a specific wattle grown in southeastern Australia, the silver wattle, or Acacia dealbata. It has a deeper honeyed, vaguely spicy aroma. It was very hard to put down the bottle of the absolute he had me smell. I immediately understood the name “Velvet Splendour” as soon as I inhaled the absolute.
‘Woman holding a wattle branch’, ca. 1900. © National Museum of Australia
Goldfield and Banks Velvet Splendour is a luscious, vintage-y, floral. It is smooth and chic. The opening (or “sunrise” of the scent as Dimitri likes to say) is definitively floral with lush jasmine, smooth wattle and heady orange blossom brightened up with mandarin. At this stage you could be tempted into thinking this is a very feminine floral fragrance, but rather quickly the perfume brings you somewhere else.
“First of August, Wattle Day”, 1980. © Pamela Griffith. Collection of National Gallery of Australia
It brought me right to some of the scents of the 1970s-80’s that I love so much like Opium, Coco and Lagerfeld. In fact, Goldfield and Banks Velvet Splendour shares many of the same notes as my beloved Chanel Coco Parfum: jasmine, orange blossom, sandalwood, tonka bean, opoponax, and mimosa (a.k.a. acacia/wattle). This floral oriental phase last quite a while. I can’t help but think this would be a delicious fragrance sprayed on a scarf or jacket collar, somewhere you can nuzzle your nose throughout the day. The dry down, or “sunset”, of the perfume is absolutely lovely. The leather accord, patchouli and sandalwood are smooth and dry. It is the perfect scent to fall asleep to, and it will last that long with its 20% concentration if you sprayed it on after your morning shower.
Open road in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia © We Are Explorers
Goldfield and Banks has done it again. The love the brand has for Australian ingredients has led to another excellent perfume. Dimitri Weber worked with the team at Firmenich in Dubai to find the right perfumer to create a fragrance that captured the dry, sunburnt feeling of Australian wattle/acacia/mimosa.
Wessel-Jan Kos of Firmenich courtesy of Firmenich
Wessel-Jan Kos of Firmenich was the one to present him with a formulation that was true to the experience of driving through the sunbaked roads of South Australia with the windows open. (Obviously the luxury car drives smoothly and has leather seats.) Bravo to both creative director and perfumer for giving me this experience without traveling ten thousand miles.
Notes: Mandarin, Hedione, Australian acacia absolute, Orange blossom absolute, Jasmine sambac, Australian sandalwood, Patchouli, Hatian vetiver, Leather accord, Tonka bean, Opoponax, Heliotropine
Dimitri Weber of Goldfield and Banks very generously provided me with a bottle of Velvet Splendour for review. My opinions are my own.
– Marianne Butler, Senior Contributor
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Goldfield and Banks Velvet Splendour and the Australian terrain which inspired it. Courtesy Goldfield and Banks
Thanks to the generosity of Dimitri Weber of Goldfield and Banks we have one 100 ml bottle of Goldfield and Banks Velvet Splendour for one registered reader in North America, The EU and Australia. The draw is for registered readers only, so be sure to register if you have not done so. To be eligible please let us know what you enjoyed about Marianne’s review, if you have a favorite Goldfield and Banks fragrance and where you live. Draw closes June 21, 2019
Available at @zgosanfrancisco @Luckyscent @etiketboutique in Canada and Barneys N.Y as well as other fine stockists
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