Laboratorio Olfattivo Tiglio Mirabilis courtesy of the brand with collage by Michelyn courtesy of the brand’s Instagram video
When smelling a fragrance for the first time, I often experience it as symbiotic art or material – a catch of poetry or a song lyric, a certain paint stroke or colour, perhaps a piquant trill of piccolo or baritone thrum of bass. Sometimes, it’s a syncopated dance patter or a sparkling fouetté, a velvet curtain or patch of silk embroidery. In the first seconds of Laboratorio Olfattivo Tiglio Mirabilis, it was Gabriel Fauré ’s ethereal “Sicilienne” from Pelleas and Melisande, a shimmering opus I’ve loved since childhood. From the deft hands of perfumer Luca Maffei, Tiglio Mirabilis is a watercolour abstract of heady linden blossom; translucent, fluid, and quite lovely, a fragrance for water nymphs and airy spirits. If Shakespeare’s Ariel had a fragrance, it would be this.
Luca Maffei courtesy of the perfumer
Linden’s honey-lime cordial bouquet is one of my favourite floral scents. But light it isn’t. One of the glories of early summer is to walk down an avenue of these generous trees and let their opulent sweetness overtake you every time the breeze shifts. Reading the notes for Tiglio Mirabilis – which include cardamom, ginger, and jasmine – I expected it to be a pre-Raphaelite voluptuary, rich and narcotic as a clump of lindens whispering together is in nature. But Maffei takes linden in a different direction, attenuating the blossom until it is a near-transparency of itself, and brightening it with soft dabs of sweet spice and white flowers.
Linden blossom wiki art
An initial spray brings not linden but a rush of elegant neroli, stripped of its usual sudsiness so that only its delicate citrus remains. Fresh young ginger stem is stretched to transparency so that its warm sweetness is emphasized rather than its bite, and green, girlish jasmine offers a silky cushion for the linden to settle on. Now for the linden. At first, it smells like a sketch of itself: the outlines of its lime syrup aroma arrive first, before its customary richness fills in. I think again of Sicilienne, with its pastoral flute and waltzing midtempo. Tiglio Mirabilis develops in a similar movement; flowers and spice circle like a corps de ballet, swaying forward then back around the linden heart like Faure’s strings around a central flute. There is a liquid quality to Tiglio Mirabilis that is hard to define. As each note as it joins its sisters, its flows into a single current that runs beneath the linden by the time the fragrance is fully developed.
LindenAllee, J. Stridbeck, 1691
After a time, I am less aware of any particular scent and am more attuned to the perfume’s diffuse sheen. The notes melt into each other and Tiglio Mirabilis takes on a warm shimmer like yellow satin. Smelling Tiglio Mirabilis after half an hour or so, linden and ginger stand out most, but alongside them neroli and clean musk course quietly, while cardamom adds its sweet dustiness to the dry-down. But while I can pick out these individual notes, Tiglio Mirabilis threads them together in a radiant tapestry of diaphanous flowers and gentle spice. Listen to its scent.
Notes: Neroli, ginger, cardamom, linden, jasmine, cashmere wood, musk
Disclaimer: My thanks to KAON, distributors for Laboratorio Olfattivo, for the bottle of Tiglio Mirabilis they so kindly gifted me. My opinions, as always, are my own.
Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Bottle of Tiglio Mirabilis via the brand
Thanks to the generosity of KAON the distributor we have a 100 ml bottle of Laboratorio Olfattivo Tiglio Mirabilis for one registered reader in the EU or USA. You must register to be eligible. Please leave a comment saying what sparks your interest based on Lauryn’s review and where you live. Do you have a favorite Laboratorio Olfattivo perfume? Draw closes 8/10/23.
Please read reviews for Laboratorio Olfattivo Vanhera, Nun and MyLo, also composed by 3x Art and Olfaction Award Winning Luca Maffei
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