Masque Milano White Whale courtesy of Masque Milano

 “Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear.” – Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Old Whaling Ship remains discovered, image NBC News

Last night, I dreamt of a joyous, undersea world for which I needed no breath, where I swam like a mermaid towards an unseen treasure that would bring perfect happiness. I knew the underwater islands where it lay, had visited them earlier, if I could just find my way to them once more. Just once more. The intensity of my unconscious pursuit was such that waking brought a moment of confusion. And then, a rueful, sweet sadness that it had ended. Such is my feeling knowing that Masque Milano White Whale is the the final act of the Masque Milano opera collection. But I could not have asked for a more characteristically elegant, thoughtful, and heartbreakingly beautiful coda. From its ambergris and violet heart to its rope and wood edgings, White Whale is a magnificent and poignant conclusion –  not to the Masque Milano brand, mind you – but to one of independent perfumery’s best flagship lines.

Riccardo Tedeschi and Alessandro Brun, image via the brand

Herman Melville’s Moby Dick provides, as you might have guessed, the inspiration for Masque Milano White Whale. As co-founder Alessandro Brun relates, Ahab’s obsessive chase of the leviathan mirrored Brun’s and partner Riccardo Tedeschi’s desire for the elusive “perfect” perfume with which to complete the Opera collection: “The first and foremost inspiration is the obsessive quest for something. Most of us, in our own lives, have a “white whale” to chase. This chase will tear us, make us weary, torn, but eventually it’s the most intimate meaning of life. In the past 12 years I have been chasing the white whale of creating the “perfect” perfume collection… if the “quest of a lifetime” is the overall concept, the quest at sea is the specific inspiration. The mighty sea, that immense and mysterious entity, one is attracted to and scared by, at once … Then I imagined myself on board the Pequod ship. The ship, with the wood, the salty ropes, the captain cabin with cheap liquors, is one of the two sides of the scene. Captain Ahab is on board the ship, the whale swims in the blue waters. These are the two sides of our scene.”

 

Christian Alori of IFF

 Young IFF perfumer Christian Alori was chosen to interpret the brief in part based on his relationship with the sea. The fact that Alori mixed his own ambergris accords sealed the deal for Brun. He sets Masque Milano White Whale in three acts, each with a particular character that represents key elements of the novel, then uses the primary notes of ambergris, salt spray, and violet to bridge them to each other.

 

Sailing vessel, image via Pixabay

“The wideness of the sea”

Part one is the vast ocean and those murky depths wherein the leviathan travels. The journey starts with a distinct smell of salt spray, briny and weedy. It is quickly followed by one of the smoothest, most elegant olibanum I’ve come across; herbal, flinty, and intensely woody. These notes merge with a spike of just-cracked black pepper. Together, they give a sense not just of the salt spray but of the murky deep that moves in unknown currents beneath the ship. Candlewax drifts through the top notes along with a faint redolence of kerosene and wood shavings from the ropes. It is wonderfully evocative, and immediately fills my mind with seagull cries, clouds lowering, and the lulling splash of the waves on Nantucket’s shores.

Invoice of Violets by Paul de Longpré, Paul via PICRYL

“As I sat there at my ease, cross-legged on the deck; after the bitter exertion at the windlass; under a blue tranquil sky; the ship under indolent sail, and gliding so serenely along; as I bathed my hands among those soft, gentle globules of infiltrated tissues, wove almost within the hour; as they richly broke to my fingers, and discharged all their opulence, like fully ripe grapes their wine; as. I snuffed up that uncontaminated aroma,- literally and truly, like the smell of spring violets; I declare to you, that for the time I lived as in a musky meadow …”

The second part introduces Moby Dick himself. The centerpiece of White Whale’s heart is a wonderful, saline ambergris accord glinting with pyrite-like mineral aromas and an undercurrent of animal. Alori is faithful to the novel’s pacing and Melville’s detailed description of the odor of the whale. Cool, bready orris smudges the ambergris followed by a thick spatter of violets, woodsy and velvety, as the great whale surfaces for the first time.

The Pequod, illustration from Moby Dick, 1851

“A tramping of sea boots was heard in the entry; the door was flung open, and in rolled a wild set of mariners enough.”

With part three, we find ourselves aboard the Pequod heading for the endless blue horizon. Sailors swash the deck and pull up the ship’s sails. As they gather the ropes and tie bowline knots, singing their rough songs, a fair wind billows and blows us sturdily to sea. Cedarwood is Pequod’s chief note, dense, and reassuring, the cozy, familiar smell of linen chests and polished kitchen tables that wait silently at home. A small tang of masculine sweat from labdanum, and the seaweedy, rooty smell of vetiver, wash over the floorboards like damp shadows.

Stepping back and smelling the Masque Milano’s White Whale now, it is a chamber piece of ambergris, violets and olibanum, with rivulets of saltwater hurrying along the wood planks of the Pequod. This combination is so beautiful and so compelling that I raise my wrist over and over at frequent intervals. The next day, wearing something sensible to the office, I am caught by a memory of violets and ambergris that call like a siren from their glass vial across the city. White Whale haunts. As I raise my wrist to my nose over and over, enraptured by White Whale’s beauty but sad that it, like Moby Dick, is the last of its kind, I realize that Alori has quite cleverly and poignantly captured the novel’s theme of obsession.

image via the brand

From Luci et Ombre, Terralba, and Montecristo to Lost Alice, Sleight of Fern, and White Whale, Masque Milano has in its Opera collection created an oeuvre of brilliantly conceived, artfully expounded and beautifully made fragrances that together set a standard for creativity and execution against which any other perfume house may be measured. Few perfume brands have produced such uniformly high-quality, distinctive, and lovable fragrances. In the end, Alessandro and Riccardo’s search for the perfect perfume reminds me less of Ahab’s dark compulsion and more of another great quest, one of idealistic yearning for the sublime folly of adventure. I think of the most indefatigable obsessive of them all, Don Quixote, in his response to the prosaic Sancho Panza: “Now look, your grace,” said Sancho, “what you see over there aren’t giants, but windmills, and what seems to be arms are just their sails, that go around in the wind and turn the millstone.”
“Obviously,” replied Don Quixote, “you don’t know much about adventures.”

And oh, my friends, what a wonderful adventure the Opera collection has been.

Notes: Candles, ropes, and the vast ocean, olibanum LMR (Eastern Africa), salty rope accords, black pepper Madagascar LMR, ambergris accord, osmanthus China LMR, violet flower, orris concrete Italy LMR, cedarwood Virginia, patchouli Indonesia MD LMR, vetiver Haiti MD LMR, cistus labdanum.

Disclaimer: Sample of Masque Milano White Whale graciously provided by Masque Milano. My opinions, as always, are my own.

Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

Thanks to the generosity of Masque Milano, we have a bottle  of Masque Milano White Whale for one registered reader in the  EU, U.S. or UK. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what strikes you about Masque Milano White Whale, whether you have a favorite Masque Milano fragrance, and where you live. Draw ends 5/21/2022.

Follow us on Instagram @cafleurebonofficial @elledebee @masquemilano @brunalessando @riccardo.tedeschi @artofperfumeryatiff

Please read Michelyn’s  introduction to Masque Milano White Whale and Sleight of Fern here

This is our Privacy and Draw Rules Policy.

We announce the winners only on our website and on our Facebook page, so “like” CaFleureBon and