Meo Fusciuni Luce courtesy of the perfumer
Meo Fusciuni Luce is part of a poem cycle of two fragrances, Luce and Notturno, light and dark, a ying and yang of perfume that feed into each other. Notturno was one of the first perfumes I experienced from Giuseppe Imprezzabile’s hands; memories from my now emptied sample are of this boozy swirl of spiced floral ink that left its epitaph inscribed on soft leather and on my skin. A dark note of love enrobed in a swirl of mysterious incense, glowing with a golden amber warmth. Its scented words have stayed close in my mind since experiencing Notturno’s dark beauty.
Meo Fusciuni (Giuseppe Imprezzabile) courtesy of Meo
Meo Fusciuni Luce takes Notturno’s words into its heart, letting its meaning resonate in the leathers, drawing those notes inward forming this creamy sensual woody vanilla leather musk. In Luce we get balance; it takes the darkness of Notturo adding a new structure allowing the materials to be what they are, while functioning. For me there’s something of moonlight too, it has that strange beautiful glow making the colours meld into this creamy light and giving it this mysterious stillness.
Aram Saroyan and image of his poem “lighght”
The use of materials in Meo Fusciuni Luce gives you this beautiful enticing effect, one that grabs your attention drawing you into this instant of self-reflection and light. Two things come to mind as I smell Luce and get lost in its beauty, the first is “lighght”, a minimalist one-word poem by American poet Adam Saroyan, his minimal poems are meant to be seen as much as read, giving the immediacy of an image, with the physicality of sculpture and in a way that for me feels close to how we experience scent. Sculpture, poetry and perfumery are all linked too, they all involve this carving and refinement of materials to relay the message to those experiencing the work, it allows you the space and time to reflect on its form, feeling, tones and meanings. Just like the careful insertion of the extra ‘gh’ into the word poem “lighght”, it’s refracting the image of the word, just like the materials used here bending light and dark tones so smoothly around each other.
Clarice Lispector and the Passion According to G.H. New Directions edition
Clarice Lispector’s mystical novel The Passion According to G.H. also comes to mind when I smell Luce. It’s a story that takes place in the moment, where G.H. is locked in deep moment of contemplation, considering her experience of the events of the past day and how it connects with an instant (I won’t spoil the novel). Luce has this very meditative feel, almost like it has stopped time. It’s like the story exists in this space of silence and thought, the materials of the perfume have this inward feel, bringing you closer into this quiet moment. Like Clarice Lispector’s novel, Meo Fusciuni Luce captures the complexity of human nature, where darkness and light can exist simultaneously in thought and being, there is no edges just a smooth flow of thinking in a quiet space.
Meo Fusciuni Luce has me thinking of some classic Guerlains such as Jicky and Shalimar with an Italian twist. Luce is more paired back to this sensual woody leather and herbal creamy benzoin musk. All the flowers of the Guerlain’s are gone with a darker more intense passion at play in Luce, it’s got this elegant stripped back feel with that raw seductive leather and sweetness, while patchouli, tobacco and resins tease this smooth supple sensation into sweet purring pleasures, with that Italian green herbal twist, inherit in the many of the classic Italian perfumes of the past while also giving a nod to Giuseppe Imprezzabile’s past as an herbalist.
Meo Fusciuni Luce opens with a moonlight glow of benzoin turning birch into this soft leathery sweetness, with a creamy pale woodiness and cedar musk. The leather has a gentle purr to it, a soft fur that’s cosy, with creamy amber and sandalwood giving it this softly sensual powdery feel, or rather a feel of tobacco in a pouch that you pinch and pull out, a soft light woody powder, with a sweet darkness. Greens arrive with fir and patchouli adding an earthy grounded forest feel to the composition, its rounded and sweeten by benzoin and vanilla, which in turn plays off the birch and cedar forming this seamless feel. It’s very hard to tease this apart, as one material leads you to the next, like a snake eating its tail.
Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute for Biological Studies. La Jolla, San Diego, California, USA. Via Wikipedia
Gentle herbal facets keep it from being gourmand, placing it back into a more natural musk territory, yet it also has this herbal liquor quality, from patchouli and benzoin’s richness. It fizzes adding this quietly playful alluring side, while a subtle char of labdanum adds whispers of darkness to the soft creamy moonlight of Meo Fusciuni Luce. These resins add depth and again tease out the soft animalic side of the leather, making Luce’s ambient musk haze this a very sensual, refined wear. The way the notes are used to add tones of light and shade is rather beautiful and you can see the influence of the architect, Louis Kahn on this composition, there’s an elegant balance of shape and form in his construction which mirrors the composition of Meo Fusciuni Luce, the materials too feel seamless, yet gives this a beautiful form, exuding confidence while also feeling Zen like, almost as if it’s a soft earthy leather musk incense to contemplate.
Meo Fusciui Luce by J©
Luce feels as elusive and as beautiful as moonlight, quietly confident and creating this contemplative space that flows seamlessly between light and dark. Even the smallest can last a thousand years; Meo Fusciuni Luce gives me an eternity to dream.
Fragrance notes: Fir, Tobacco, Vanilla, Birch, Leather, Sandalwood, Benzoin, Patchouli, Amber, Cedar, Musk.
Disclosure: The bottle was kindly offered by Meo Fusciuni. As always, my opinions are my own.
–J Wearescentient, Guest Contributor
Meo Fusciuni Luce
Thanks to the generosity of Meo Fusciuni we have 100ml of Luce for one registered reader in the EU, UK, USA or Canada. You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please leave a QUALITY comment saying what sparks your interest based on Wearescentient’s essay and review of Meo Fusciuni Luce and where you live. Do you have a favorite from Meo Fusciuni? Draw closes 8//11/23
Enjoy: Sr. Editor Nicoleta Tomsa Meo Fusciuni Parfums Songi and Narcotico, Guest Editor Danu Seith Fyr’s Notturno, L’Oblio, Little Song and Spirito, former editor Elena Cvjetkovic of The Plum Girl Varanasi, and Deputy Editor Ida Meister’s Encore du Temps.
Encore du Temps was an Art & Olfaction Finalist 2023
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