Pierre Guillaume reminds me of a great Renaissance artist who can create using any palette. When he is creating fragrances for Parfumerie Generale he has his palette loaded up with rich colors and uses oil paints. When he is composing for his Huitieme Art Parfums line or for Laboratorio Olfattivo, artistic sketches come to mind,creating fragrances that seem to come alive with just a few ingredients and bold strokes .

 

Parachute sketch by Leonardo da Vinci

 

Laboratorio Olfattivo, is an Italian store run by Roberto Drago. Besides selling some of the best fragrance lines, in 2009, they began to produce a line of perfume under the title of the store. One of those first fragrances, Daimiris, was also by Pierre Guillaume. The fragrances M Guillaume makes for Laboratorio Olfattivo share the same construction that we found in the Huitieme Art Parfums. Mainly a focal note in the middle surrounded by complementary and contrasting pieces eschewing a normal top, heart, base pyramid. In other words a linear fragrance. In lesser fragrances that can be a detriment, in M Guillaume’s hands it is something to be enjoyed.

 

Es Vedra Island via planetware.com

 

The new Laboratorio Olfattivo fragrance is called Esvedra and is named after one of the Balaeric Islands off of Ibiza which is said to have unusual magnetic properties. Es Vedra the island has even been theorized to once have been part of Atlantis. Es Vedra looks like a stark piece of limestone jutting out of the ocean. For Esvedra the fragrance M Guillaume chose to have a stark piece of vetiver jutting out of an ocean of aromatic notes including petitgrain, coriander leaves, musk, and a proprietary base Nevenolide. They combine to make a unique vetiver watercolor.

 

 A Portrait by Leonardo da Vinci

 

Vetiver can sometimes have some sharp edges to it but in the case of Esvedra those edges are blunted, or at least camouflaged, by the petitgrain and coriander. The petitgrain adds a tart freshness and the coriander adds piquancy which allows the grassier aspects of vetiver to predominate. The Nevenolide adds powderiness and a sheer musk closes the circle with a slight animalic sensuality. All of these notes are there and detectable from the first seconds straight through for the next few hours on skin. Like the Huitieme Art Parfums, and Daimiris, before it I find that even though there is no real development that does not mean there is not complexity aplenty to appreciate.

Esvedra has average longevity and above average sillage.

After the rich and opulent Tonkamande and Praline de Santal; M Guillaume once again breaks out his sketchbook and creates a simply beautiful piece of perfumery.

Disclosure: This review was based on a sample of Esvedra obtained at Esxence 2011 from Laboratorio Olfattivo and KAON.

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor

-Michelyn Camen, E-I-C, Art Direction