Parfums Quartana Forest of the Golden Dream Collage Artwork by Carlo Zambotti
Parfums Quartana Forest of the Golden Dream is the first perfume in an all-new collection called Les Potions D’Entéléchie inspired by Founder and Creative Director Joseph Quartana’s personal healing experiences. Joseph’s avant-garde and intellectual approach to perfumery led him to investigate the healing practices of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Parfums Quartana Forest of the Golden Dream is specifically informed and inspired by the Aristotelian concept of entelechy [ en-tel-uh-kee ]: when all one’s personal potential is fully realized and one has mastered one’s own vital force directing growth and life. An important part of the ancient Greek practice of entelechy was exposure to combinations of sacred essential oils. Parfums Quartana Forest of the Golden Dream puts us in the mindset to live our full potential all day, every day. Created minutes from the site of the original Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in Bethel, NY, this new fragrance is a supercharged reboot of aromatherapy into fine perfumery that blends the best of cutting-edge science with the wisdom of ancient wellness formulae.
IFF Perfumer Céline Barel and Art Director Joseph Quartana, courtesy of the brand
Pafums Quartana Forest of the Golden Dream was created in partnership with IFF perfumer Céline Barel. Through childhood memories growing up in Grasse, France and years of experience in the fragrance industry, Céline Barel has refined her approach to creating scents. She believes that perfume should trigger synesthesia and invoke color, sound, shape, and ambiance. IFF Perfumer Céline Barel makes an especially dynamic teammate for Creative Director Joseph Quartana, as she feels that perfume can be conceptualized in terms of fashion. Joseph Quartana’s background is in exactly the type of experimental and high fashion that provokes artistic synesthesia. According to Joseph, “this was an experiment to see if we could elevate the common pine to a level of ‘divinity.’ Céline was a dream to work. We were both really into the idea of perfumes as healing mechanism, and we looked at formulations for meeting gods and goddesses in the Classical world to find and keep that ‘spark of life’ within yourself as a result. Both of us have synesthesia, so we were nicely matched.”
Parfums Quartana Forest of the Golden Dream Queen, courtesy of the brand
Parfums Quartana Forest of the Golden Dream opens likes the warm sun on one’s face, a beautiful day out in nature. The leading citrus accord is excellent, as spices with citrus, floral, and green aspects are layered together with Lemon and Pamplezest® to create a warm and complex encounter. Cardamom, Coriander, and Pink Pepper contain lemon facets as well as cool aromatics like eucalyptol and camphor undertones. These spices round the harsh citric edges of the lemon with fresh floral linalool and eugenol facets. Pamplezest® is an IFF citrus material with camphoraceous and earthy undertones that can weave through a fragrance and even be felt in the base. It pairs wonderfully with Laurel Leaf, the slightly woody and camphoraceous green material streaked with eugenol and spicy cinnamic pepper touches. The Pink Pepper has a big crossover with olibanum (both having spicy, terpenic, and lemon aspects) that brings us to the heart.
Parfums Quartana Forest of the Golden Dream Collage Snake Pine, courtesy of the brand
The heart of Parfums Quartana Forest of the Golden Dream walks us to an enchanted forest, where pine needles crunch underfoot, crisp evergreens hang in the air, and a golden solar radiance follows from the opening. Olibanum creates a bridge from the spicy materials of the top with its lemony, spicy, and terpenic qualities. Mimosa extends the floralcy to a deeper place with a woody backbone and helps the blend achieve a sweet-soft, slightly powdered texture and honeyed smoothness. Violet Leaf and Eucalyptus keep the scent reaching toward the heavens and create harmonious parallel energies, a kind of dynamic current flowing skyward and earthward. Siberian Pine Needle, Fir Balsam, and Fir Balsam Resin work together to embody a sublime sense of place. Woody and coolly aromatic, we are transported to a sacred forest of ancient wellness.
Parfums Quartana Forest of the Golden Dream has a reserved and intimate dry down. Inward-looking Cypress is fresh, green and quietly resinous with a balsamic ambergris-like undertone that connects the enchanted forest to our human flesh. Sandalwood, Patchouli, and Moss lay us gently down beneath the towering pine trees to contemplate how we can achieve our full potential. We draw in deep breaths of sacred energy on our way to becoming our best selves.
Notes: Guatemalan Cardamom Oil, Pink Pepper Oil CO2, Coriander Seed Oil, Laurel Leaf Oil, Sfumatrice Italian Lemon Oil, Pamplezest, French Mimosa Absolute LMR, Olibanum Oil, Violet Leaf Absolute LMR, Siberian Pine Needle Oil, Canadian Fir Balsam Needle Oil, Fir Balsam Resin Absolute, Eucalyptus, Coolwood, Cypress Ultimate Absolute LMR, Sandalwood, Patchouli Oil LMR, Moss
Disclosure: a sample of Forest of the Golden Dream was kindly provided to me by Parfums Quartana, opinions, as always, are my own.
~ Rachel K. Ng, Senior Contributor
Thanks to the generosity of Joseph Quartana we have a 50 ml bottle of Parfums Quartana Forest of the Golden Dream for a registered ÇaFleureBon reader in the USA ONLY, (if you are not sure if you are registered click here – you must register on our site or your entry will be invalid). To be eligible please leave a comment with what you thought of Forest of the Golden Dream and where you live. Draw Closes10/12/2023
You can pre-order Parfums Quartana Forest of the Golden Dream here.
Editor’s Note: Parfums Quartana Ierofante is the 2023 Art & Olfaction Awards Winner of the Independent Category. My review of Ierofante is here.
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