Jasmine is one of my favorite floral notes. One of the reasons that I enjoy it and the many iterations available in perfumery is the different faces it can show.
For the latest release from By Kilian, Love and Tears; perfumer Calice Becker chose to create a jasmine soliflore.
Love and Tears attempts to use the central note to provide its own contrast as jasmine moves from the greener aspects early on to the cleanly floral aspects by the end.
CB- aka Christopher Brosius- speaks to our collective unconscious, our amygdala, our “lizard brain”.
Sometimes, what I crave is utter simplicity; I don’t need much to be content.
I keep many of CB’s scents around for the sheer comfort of triggering memories and emotions.
My favorite ones concern my keen love of the natural world.
to see a FLOWER….
CB describes this as “delicate spring flowers [hyacinth, daffodils, jonquils, crocuses], green shoots, wet dirt, and a bit of moss “.
Bas de Soie is the latest release from Serge Lutens and based on the early information it seemed as this was going to be a continuation of the recent “anti-perfume” theme. It was described as a fragrance focused on two notes that of iris and hyacinth. That pair has also had occasion to leave me cold in the past as both of those floral notes have had a distinct metallic character on my skin. I was expecting an olfactory sword fight when I tried Bas de Soie. Much to my surprise I did find that both of these central notes would do battle but of a lyrical kind akin to a balletic pas de deux. Each has time when they are the only player on stage and then they interact differently and find a lyrical poetic harmony that changes over time on my skin.
Querelle.
This masterwork- and I really perceive it as such- is an approach/ avoidance fragrance for many.
It seethes with complexity; if it were a color, it would be the darkest green imaginable, tinged with black.
Amanda Walker’s company A Perfume Organic …well, they are for real. The minimally packaged perfumes are presented in charming glass roller bottles inside flower seed embedded paper boxes printed with soy inks. The little sample pouch is similar with its simple undyed fabric, unbleached paper sample cards, simple glass perfume vials. All good. I am reminded of the I Ching’s 22nd hexagram “Grace”. The highest form of “grace” also means “undyed”. The explanation is that true grace is achieved when the outside and the inside match, in a simple, graceful, undyed manner. Perhaps this is the definition of Natural Grace.
