Miranda, John Williams Waterhouse

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea…

 …when I did not know anything about vintage Guerlains, nor did I even knew who Guerlain was and had just discovered what perfume could be about. Just like many of us I have been reading the blogs and learning, and learning more, trying the new things and finally graduating into buying my first  sample pack. Love, perfume, reflect, learn, repeat. At some point I aquired a dab sample of Sous Le Vent. I disliked the sharp and chilling (on that many-year-ago day I said “masculine”) blast of green and slightly woody that took my breath away. No, I did not scrub. I waited along, smelled a beautiful base and concluded that the top notes and the base did not match. End of the story, decided I. Oh indeed I was a child.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee

 Monet's Rocks on the Mediterranean Coast

Who doesn’t love these beautiful rolling lines? I haven’t yet admitted my weakness toward the long lines of poetry, not long poems necessarily but the long lines, with each line containing a lot of words and a rolling rhythm. These lines do not look long, but as you start reading them out loud you realize that they are drawing out, unfolding in a rolling motion, as regular as the waves crushing into the shores. Poe creates the sound rhythm of the waves as the painter works with the color. I cannot help by digress and say that a perfumer may decide to use marine notes to envoke the sea, or perhaps work by riding on our associations – tropical flowers for “a beach” perhaps, or citruses for the Mediterranean.

 When I smelled Sous Le Vent in my more recent perfumista time I thought of the citruses and the Mediterranean. And it was clear enough that there was a blast of a cold wind in this potion – but this time I did not think of that refreshing yet brisk mixture of citruses and tarragon as particularly masculine. I was ready to be windswept, and I did not mind the coolness and the crispness. I enjoyed every bit of it. And, unlike poor Annabel Lee, I survived it.

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee

Close up of 'The Angel' by Giulio Monteverde, Giulio Monteverde family grave, Verano Monumental Cemetery, Rome, Italy

 

 I did not think of Sous Le Vent as masculine any more, be it a case of different formulations and vintages, or be it a case of my own changing perception and taste in fragrances. The newest edition I tried at Neiman Marcus in San Francisco has the chilly wind starting and then it keeps going into the flowers. The green edge does not disappear (she was a child after all), but the flowers make their entrance and they are there to stay.  Carnation and jasmine listed in the heart notes may scare off those who are steering away from a heady white floral perfume – but fear not. This one is not heady. Nor is it white floral.  This perfume always stays green and elegant. It stays vibrant and full of life. Annabel Lee is gone and the scent of the funeral flowers starts to fill up the closed up space where she is buried, but the chilly wind turned into a fresh breeze and is never too far away, as those seem plentiful in the kingdom by the sea.

So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre

Edmund Dulac

In this kingdom by the sea. And even in my earliest days I could not dismiss the base of this beauty. It is heavenly. Amazingly blended, with a slight hint of powder, but not powdery (at least to my taste and I am a great lover of some old orris-vetiver-hint of musk in the base classics).  I am a lover of this one too as this is classy. It is never too woody.  Guerlain site lists the precious woods and undergrowth as base notes, as I have discovered, and as I discovered it, I felt a chill running down my spine as I thought of the smell of the forest undergrowth and this hint of damp earth is definitely there, although it never loses the classy  profile. To me this accord became even more connected with Annabel Lee’s and Edgar Allan Poe’s journey to the underworld, as Annabel Lee is the last published Poe’s poem if not his last written one.

My experiences of reading the last lines of the poem and of gluing myself to my own wrist (there is no need to do it until you’re in the deep drydown, Sous Le Vent has a marvelous projection) are similar. The beautiful soft run of the rolling lines – the whirlwind of an elegant classy green notes that never completely lose the floralcy, thank iris for that – soft as a feather yet absolutely definitive – and a declaration of love that will not lose its strength and dedication.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

 

Casper David Friedrich Wanderer above the Sea and the Fog

 

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Almost the entire month of January since the beginning of the new year I was inseparable from Sous Le Vent.  I adore that chilly wind. After all, it is said in the poem that was brought on by the angels from above.

–Olga Rowe, Contributor

Art direction: Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief

What was your first vintage Guerlain or your favorite Edgar Allan Poe story.

Edgar Allan Poe January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849. One of the great American writers, Poe is known as the father of  American Gothic. He married  his 13 year old cousin Virginia Clemm in 1836 and she died of consumption at age 23.  Annabel Lee was written in her memory. Poe died of mysterious causes less than two years later. Guerlain's Sous Le Vent was created in 1933 by Jaques Guerlain for Josephine Baker.-MC