Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Bob Hope and Judith Barrett.The Road to Singapore 1940

House Of Matriarch aficionados, rejoice. Artisan Perfumer Christi Meshell has launched a new perfume named L’Arrivée and it has quickly become one of my all-time favorites from the line. Described by Christi as a “Masculine-Floral jasmine soliflore”; it is anything but a simple a soliflore. It is complex and nuanced, with multiple levels that drift, float, engage and enchant throughout its journey. L’Arivée, (The Arrival) is a stroll through a flower market in Thailand surrounded by the intense fragranced pleasure of the small jasmine wrist garlands known as "Phuang Malai”, which are given for celebrations, ceremonial offerings, greeting friends, and other occasions. The scent of these small wristlet garlands is intoxicating and unforgettable, a softly-pitched, heady white floral, mixed with the green and sweet fragrance of pandan and sometimes kaffir lime. A white floral for a hot climate.

House of Matriarch's Perfumer Christi Meshell

Originally created as a Parfum d’Coif or hair mist for a friend of Christi Meshell’s, circumstances prevented production and the perfume formula languished for many years, but never out of mind for Christi. Finally an opportunity presented itself, and the perfume was fully realized last year as a Limited Edition for Lincoln Motor Company's “Black Women in Hollywood” event. It was a lavish gifting for the Lincoln Motors influencers and was very well received.  So well received in fact, that Christi named it L’Arrivée and added it to House Of Matriarch’s High Perfumery Collection. It has in fact “arrived” and we are all the better for it.

IRINA SHAYK by Mert & Marcus for Vogue Paris ©

 Like the faint and exotic but unmistakable whispered scent of night-blooming jasmine on a soft evening breeze through a moonlit garden, this singularly stunning 100% natural perfume opens with a mixture of jasmine, soft powdery mimosa, and a slight waft of a truly luscious vanilla gently stained with cacao. The marigold and broom add a dusty, earthy note while the magnolia and tiare provide a tropical humidity that is fairly dripping off the woody junglesque stem of a giant philodendron somewhere in the wild.

Rooney Mara for Vogue US November 2011 | Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott ©

Indeed wild it is, and slightly lascivious but without the heavy indolic feel of many tropical white florals. Rather it’s the feeling of laying on cool sheets in a hot shuttered afternoon, a single bead of sweat lazily meandering down your side, as the fan above your bed chills you slightly and provides the wished-for delicious coolness you seek. Wearing L’Arrivée is like awakening from that somnambulistic state, and languidly stretching the full-body stretch that makes you shudder a bit with its glorious almost climactic feeling. The jasmine lasts a good long while, almost throughout the entire drydown ultimately becoming softer and creamier with the emergence of the sandal and rosewoods. This is a perfume that will make you smile, not broadly but slyly with a knowing gleam in your eye, it’s just that kind of scent; private, intense, bordering on “naked-under-the-trench-coat” sensual, and unabashedly gorgeous.

Notes: Jasmine, marigold, bergamot, magnolia, tiare, broom, Omani frankincense, neroli, rosewood, Hawaiian vanilla, Grand Hawaiian sandalwood, African Gia, civet accord.

Disclosure: Thank you so very much to Christ Meshell and House Of Matriarch for the sample. My opinions are my own.

–Robert Herrmann, Contributing Editor

-Art Direction: Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief

Thanks to House Of Matriarch, we have a 15 ml Travel spray of L’Arrivée valued at $120 for one registered reader  worldwide. Please be sure to register if you have not done so. To be eligible please let us know what appeals to you about Robert’s review, if you are a fan of tropical florals, (or jasmine) which House Of Matriarch perfume is your favorite, and where you live. Draw closes on July 11, 2017.

We announce the winners only on our site and on our Facebook page, so like Cafleurebon and use our RSS feed…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.