Etat Libre D’Orange She Was an Anomaly photo by Ermano Picco from Pitti Fragranze
A deviation, a peculiarity; an anomaly is the exception that proves the rule, a malfunction in perfection. On its flipside, it is the exceptional, the eccentric, the genesis of genius. Think of the relentless Stanley Kubrick and his heartlessly visual masterpieces 2001 and A Clockwork Orange, whose images bore into your memory like stylized nightmares. Or Nina Simone, whose song “Sinnerman,” with its urgent, scrambling beat, was sung with a bestirred, fierce river of a voice unlike any other. Or consider a fragrance whose intensely personal viewpoint was created with the aid of a disembodied intelligence. This is She Was an Anomaly.
Still from 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968
The credo of misfit fragrance house Etat Libre D’Orange’s is to create “authentic, shocking and sensual … even disruptive and unlikable perfumes” that are true to the vision of founder and creative director, Etienne de Swardt. The starting point for She Was an Anomaly in Etienne de Swardt’s mind was twofold: the first was Stanley Kubrick’s breathtaking, quietly terrifying 2001, whose calm-voiced supercomputer, HAL, turns murderous through an anomaly in his programming. The perfume, he says, is meant as an “allegiance to Kubrick’s talent.”
Nina Simone by Jim Marshall circa 1960
But the name for the perfume came from an entirely different source: Nina Simone. In a recent documentary on Simone’s life, her daughter described her thus: “My mother? My mother? She was loved, she was brilliant, she was an anomaly.”
Portrait de Etienne de Swardt PHOTO JOHANNA DE TESSIERES
How to marry such disparate anomalies in a single fragrance was the challenge presented to Givaudan perfumer Daniela Andrier for their third fragrance (Une Amourette Roland Mouret, reviewed by Sr Editor Emeritus Robert Herrmann in 2017 and I Am Trash was created in 2018, you can read Despina’s review here ). Etienne de Swardt explained he wanted to create something that captured Kubrick’s genius, the malfunction of 2001’s artificial intelligence, Nina Simone’s darkness and vibrancy and the concept of anomaly. Mme. Andrier had been experimenting with Givaudan’s new AI technology, Carto, and – through an apparent anomaly in the algorithm – came up with a formula with an extravagant excess of musk and iris. The result, she said was sublime. And serendipitous for M. de Swardt, since this iris-musk combination provides the luminous centerpiece to She Was An Anomaly.
Transcendence, photo by Robert Bridges
Mme. Andrier, creator of the silky Prada Infusion D’Iris, bends fresh floral and woody notes around the iris-musk accord to create an incandescent skin scent that, for once, isn’t boring. In She Was an Anomaly’s early stages, the iris glows quietly like winter sun; natural-smelling, dewy, and green-tinged, as if its stalky leaves had grown into the flower it. Cedar is fleeting – right at the very top –and then flutters down softly like sawdust to the base of the fragrance. Vanilla ice melts into some warm, fluffy ambrette.
Imagery Anomaly, photo by Tammy Cantrell
There’s a cheeky, chilly dose of cucumber that puts a smile on my face because its watery verve is unexpected and rather perfect. Girlish flowers rush by indistinctly like passersby seen from the window of a moving car – a glimpse of young jasmine; perhaps lily-of-the-valley; but stripped of sweetness so that only an impression of fresh white flowers remains. In fact, everything about She Was An Anomaly feels fleeting, like it could disappear at any moment or simply fade away. But it doesn’t. Rather, the notes that flutter by initially begin subtly to ebb and flow before coalescing together in a shimmery bouquet that clings to the skin like a memory. She Was an Anomaly is not, despite its moniker, one of Etat Libre D’Orange’s shockers, like Secretions Magnifique. But, in its hushed loveliness, it is unusual amongst the bold idiosyncrasies of line. You might say it is something of an anomaly.
Notes: Iris, musk, sandalwood, cedarwood, vanilla, fresh white flowers accord, green tangerine Orpur© (a Givaudan natural ingredient), ambergris.
Disclaimer: bottle of Etat Libre D’Orange She Was an Anomaly generously provided by Europerfumes, USA distributor for Etat Libre D’Orange. My opinions are my own.
Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Editor’s Note: Thank You Etienne for taking the time to send me so many details, answering all my questions and divulging the back story via email from Hong Kong. Your readiness to share your vision with me and our readers is not an an anomaly.-Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief
Photo via @etatlibredorange
Thanks to the generosity of Etat Libre D’Orange, we have a 100 ml bottle of Etat Libre D’Orange She Was an Anomaly for one registered reader in the U.S, EU or Canada. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what draws you to She Was an Anomaly based on Lauryn’s review, what your favourite Etat Libre D’Orange fragrance is, and where you live. Draw closes 10/27/2019.
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