Providence Perfume Co Lapsang Lover photo courtesy of the perfumer
The time has come when swaying on its stem
Each flower exhales perfume like a censer;
Sounds and perfumes spiral in the evening air;
Mournful waltz and languorous vertigo!
Each flower exhales perfume like a censer;
The violin trembles like an afflicted heart;
Mournful waltz and languorous vertigo!
The firmament is sorrowful and lovely as an immense altar. ~ Charles Baudelaire, Harmonie du soir (Evening Harmony) from Les Fleurs du Mal (my translation)
Charna Ethier of Providence Perfume Co. photo courtesy of the perfumer
Award-winning natural perfumer Charna Ethier of Providence Perfume Co has been on our radar here at ÇaFleureBon for 12 years now; she never ceases to surprise and edify our collective voracious nose. I personally believe that one secret of Charna’s success is this: she follows her intuition and listens intently to her inner voice. The end result is unfailingly a beautiful, iconoclastic fragrance which resembles absolutely nothing else on the market. Providence Perfume Co’s latest oeuvre, Lapsang Lover – sent me swooning and running immediately to her website to purchase a bottle.
Franz Von Stuck The Sin, 1912 via wiki
One whiff of Providence Perfume Co Lapsang Lover conjured (for me) dangerously erotic paintings of Franz Von Stuck and the decadent, sensuous verse of Charles Baudelaire – synesthesia that dances before your eyes, murmurs in your ear. If it were music, it would be Erik Satie’s Gnossiènne No.1: an exquisite melancholy intonation of solitary burning desire. If Lapsang Lover was a fabric, it would be a plush, deep velvet of blood-red hue approaching black. Hyperbole? Sample for yourself and tell me if I’m wrong; odds are that you will feel similarly.
black tea via Getty
There is no seduction without mystery, a whispering of risk, the peril of being swept into an abyss. In this wise, Lapsang Lover meets all these criteria gracefully. Like Leonard Cohen’s rose on its ladder of thorn, bosomy rose blooms amidst a maelstrom of aromatic black tea and the perfumer’s proprietary lapsang souchong tincture: smoky, voluptuous, a cavern embedded in leathery labdanum. Any bitterness must be smoothed with amber for illumination, sweetened with rich and animalic honey, bathed in cardamom. I’ve always adored the lovely aridity of a fine myrrh when it accompanies rose – and in Providence Perfume Co Lapsang Lover Charna employs both myrrh and dulcet resins for balance. One of the aspects which I find particularly compelling is the masterful composition here; unlike so many other smoky tea treatments, we are not suffocated in order to make a point. It is all too easy to overdose on such a note, amplify it with a strong dose of guaiacwood, a vanilla creosol or birch tar (or countless other materials) – to which Charna does not resort. In spite of its seamlessness, Lapsang Lover gleams darkly; each fragrant voice is clearly heard while forming a harmonious whole. There is no doubt in my mind that Providence Perfume Co Lapsang Lover is both one of the best natural perfumes and overall fragrances of 2022. Notes: lapsang tea tincture, black tea, labdanum, fossilized amber, myrrh, rose, resins, cardamom, honey
Sample kindly provided by the perfumer – I loved it immediately. My nose is my own…
~ Ida Meister, Deputy and Natural Perfumery Editor
photo courtesy of the perfumer
Thanks to the generosity of Charna Ethier we have a travel size bottle of Providence Perfume Co Lapsang Lover in the USA or to a reader with access to a US address for a registered reader. To be eligible please leave a comment about what appeals to you in Ida’s article. Do you have a favorite Providence Perfume Co fragrance? Draw closes 11/14/22 and then the winner will be announced within ten days
Charna Ethier was a 2010 and 2012 Best of Scent Award recipient for best natural perfumer. She also received Michelyn’s Best of Scent award “For the hardest working Perfumer of 2014”
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