Ramon Monegal Kiss my name, photo by Nicoleta ©
“And if my kisses have been strangely red
You must ask meadowsweet and tuberose,
Or pale like them and mutely sung instead;
If each flower cannot tell, at least each knows,
And either scent remembers, white and strong,
One worth my kisses, kisses worth my song.
Give me thy voice, thy breath, thy lids, thy presence,
Thy arm, thy neck, and much too sweet, thy breast;
And bruise my life until thou find its essence,
Love’s deepest poppy for my soul’s dear guest.
Let them be crushed beneath thy darling feet,
Darling, my tuberose and meadowsweet!” Marc-André Raffalovich – Tuberose and meadow-sweet (1885)
The fame-fatale of flowers – tuberose – has countless legends woven around its deeply seductive aroma, and rivers of ink have flown, over time, trying to tame, describe and decipher its bewitching effect. A dangerous temptress, linked to both sex and death, it was said to heat the blood to such a degree that virgins were prohibited to walk through gardens in which it grew, for fear they would lose reason and modesty; used in wedding bouquets, or as offering to gods, in various religious ceremonies; as scented amulets strategically placed underclothes, to attract lovers, or, at the opposite spectrum, used in funerals, or to cover the smell of death – it’s clear that tuberose comes with a plethora of associations and its no wonder tuberose is one of the most polarising flowers used in perfumery.
Kiss my name, Ramon Monegal, photo via official site
Ramon Monegal: “My revenge. At the beginning of my training, the first classic accord I had to learn and replicate, without much luck, was the legendary floral tuberose with jasmine and orange blossom. I’ve now been able to regain that satisfying experience and to interpret the myth, reformulate the accord fragrance with my learned language.”
“Kiss my name” is a scented glove thrown back in time by Ramon Monegal, like an aristocratic invitation to duel his younger self. A Count of Monte-Cristo not seeking “revenge” per-se, but the treasure of the golden ratio white floral, to be discovered and shared with the world.
Luke Besley background via unsplash, Ramon Monegal bottle Kiss My Name Nicoleta
From the first spray, the perfume blooms on the skin exuberant, glistening, like a ray of light bouncing between mirrors, creating the most delicious golden kaleidoscope, uncovering new facets with every angle of its rotation. We have the rounded curves of ripe peach, highlighting the sensuousness of the floral bouquet, a tactile soft peach fuzz, that mimics the electrified response of the skin to a lover’s touch, the fizziness borrowed from the blackcurrant juice, all pulsating, alive, radiant and tingly, like the wings of a hummingbird, hovering in the air, drawing the nectared sweetness right out of the flowers. For this review, I felt I need not my nose and the usual “perfume-lover jargon” but the help of spectrometry*, as it seems to be made out of alive, everchanging, and pulsating vibration, light, and color. (*spectrometry is the measurement of the interactions between light and matter and the reactions and measurements of radiation intensity and wavelength.)
There’s a green juicy undercurrent flowing underneath the surface, throughout all the stages of the perfume, that acts as a cooling safety mechanism, of this perfectly oiled (pun intended) white floral engine, to keep it from veering out of its elegant and poised décor.
Ramon Monegal logo & photography, collage with “sacred geometry flower” by Nicoleta
In the heart of the fragrance, we are opening the doors of the classic white floral triptych (tuberose, jasmine, and orange blossom). Although the trio has its famous flamboyantly hefty presence – that has the potential to conjure up a gravitational pull around the wearer – the floral bouquet stays in comfortable and effortless balance: not too clean, not too indolic; with enough vegetal bitterness to cut the sweetness and with its “old world” timeless elegance that has somehow still kept its youthful joyfulness.
With fine strokes, the lights are dimmed gradually in the drydown, with a powdery iris root, the dryness of cedarwoods, and an intimate whisper of musk. As expected, when holding the trademark inkwell bottles from Señor Monegal, we have exquisite craftsmanship, good quality ingredients, opera-hall-filling sillage, and undying vampiresque longevity.
Ramon Monegal Kiss my name, collage of flowers via Unsplash
On a personal side-note, tuberose-centric perfumes, especially the ones build on the classical mix with jasmine and orange blossom have a nostalgic and “aspirational” feel for me, translated in the child-like thought “one day I will have the presence to match this scent. With PEARLS!” (Might I add, as my skin tends to amp up the indolic effect of the combo, sometimes I’m feeling like Wile E.Coyote after being run over by a steam-roller, or, at the opposite spectrum – as a predator feeling its own gleaming thermal olfactive presence, suffocating everybody around). The first perfume from this genre, that I had worn (almost ironically), as a raven-haired teen goth was Blonde by Versace, a beautiful and tactile blue purse edition that I still vividly remember (and periodically scour eBay for). A staple in my wardrobe is Truth or Dare by Madonna, (a dialed down reinterpretation of the infamous Fracas) – a feel-good celebratory – celebrity perfume that has not left my collection ever since its launch; Juliette has a gun Moon Dance – a demure, dreamy, and soft tuberose and – last but not the least – Carnal Flower by Frederic Malle – which is the “Procrustean Bed” that I use to measure all tuberose to. To put it short, I have looked, high and low, for many years, for a classical white floral that would be easy to wear without needing Jedi mind tricks to prepare for, but with enough elegance and va-va-voom that it would fulfill its intended purpose.
I’m thinking of a kitten heel comfort with a stiletto-like effect. Ramon Monegal Kiss my name is, for me, exactly that.
Notes: Top: Cassis, Peach, Coconut; Middle: Tuberose, Jasmine, Neroli/ Orange Blossom; Base: Amberwood, Cedarwood, Musk
Nicoleta Tomsa, Senior Editor
Disclosure: Bottle kindly provided by Ramon Monegal, opinions are my own
Ramon Monegal, Kiss my name, photo by Nicoleta
Thanks to the generosity of Ramon Monegal, we have a 50 ml bottle of Kiss my name for one registered reader in the USA or EU. You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what sparks your interest based on Nicoleta’s review and where you live. Draw closes 12/1/2021
Kiss My Name was composed in 2009
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