Beyonce in still from Mrs. Carter tour promo video
“It was there, in particular, that I confirmed the truth that love, which we cry up as the source of our pleasures, is nothing more than an excuse for them.” ― Madame de Merteuil, “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Sarah Baker of House of Sarah Baker saatchi
Sarah Baker’s fragrances are bold, out-of-the-box affairs that make you sit up and take notice. They can growl take-me-or-leave-me-baby in full, long-lashed drag, as Jungle Jezebel does; reverberate a whisper in an empty room, like Lace; or they can murmur seductively from behind a jeweled fan, communicating through a cloud of carnal flowers what cannot be spoken aloud.
Baker’s Rules of Attraction is described as a “re-consideration of a ball at Versailles” where the flowers in the garden are all beautiful, but some signal danger. Romantic, certainly, but hardly innocent.” With its smouldering florals and unabashed animalism, Rules of Attraction minuets between jaded hedonism; girlish, Lolita sexuality; and rock star sex goddess in a perfume version of Liaisons Dangereuses rewritten by Nabokov and turned into a film by Guy Ritchie.
Miguel Matos, perfumer via Instagram
Created by perfumer Miguel Matos in concert with Sarah Baker, Rules of Attraction is meant as an homage to a “famed fragrance” that is undoubtedly Bal a Versailles. But while it shares some of that classic’s vanillic-woody purr, it is undoubtedly modern. Matos has taken just about every sex-bomb note in creation and dropped it into Rules of Attraction with no apologies and great panache. Huge white florals, all decked in a glittery veil of aldehydes, feel like an olfactory rock concert. And the way Rules of Attraction plays with sexuality – covert one minute, in-your-face another – would have Bal a Versailles running for her smelling salts.
Scene from the television series Versailles, Canal +
Rules of Attraction throws wide the doors on the Hall of Mirrors with a thousand brilliant aldehydes swathed across a gardenia the size of a rococo wig. After that brazen opening, you might expect the composition to brazen its way through its buxom white florals. But, unexpectedly, more subdued company enters. Silvery iris, powdered and silken, steps forward. The tempo of the dance slows as the iris gathers its skirts and weaves in and amongst the gardenia and aldehydes, reminding them of their manners. But not for long.
Queensland Ballet’s Dangerous Liaisons, photo Limelight magazine
Smack in the middle of the pavane, the animalic notes slink, sultry, almost quiet. But then, suddenly, an electric light snaps on, a guitar squeals into the amps, and the rest of the party tumbles in: indolic jasmine is partnered by unruly civet; disheveled cumin and buxom, buttery tuberose; dark-browed musk and woods. As the candles burn, and the heat rises, the room fills with sweat and flowers. Glove leather is there, watching coldly from the sidelines, iris by his side. Grabbing hold of a handful of flowers, thick vanilla syrup trickles as the night grows older. The air is heady and dense with the smell of the garden and sex.
As the hours wane into morning, the band is mingling with the toffs, the aroma of melting wax, the hall smells of warm skin and soap as couples retire behind the screens and ingenues loll on the chaises longue of the parlour, men with naughty thoughts at their feet. There a catch of grape soda. Iris, staring into the dawn, is alone.
Sarah Baker Rules of Attraction moves between brash, two fingers bigness and a dozen subtler touches that make it feel entirely current. The chameleon-like way it changes from time to time on the skin make it great fun to wear, and the dry-down is wonderful: iris-y, slightly salty, waxy, a bit skanky and almost rosy. I dare you to wear it to bed and dream.
Notes: Cumin, grapefruit, aldehydes, iris, gardenia, jasmine, tuberose, neroli, civet, musk, leather, vanilla, woody notes, animalic notes.
Disclaimer: sample of Sarah Baker Rules of Attraction kindly given to me by Sarah Baker at Pitti Fragranze 2019. My opinions are my own.
Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Sarah Baker Rules of Attraction, courtesy of Sarah Baker photo Gicquel Boris Aphano
Thanks to the generosity of Sarah Baker, we have a 50 ml bottle of Rules of Attraction for one registered reader in Europe or the U.S. to be eligible, please leave a comment saying what strikes you about Rules of Attraction based on Lauryn’s review and whether you have a tried a Sarah Baker fragrance. Draw closes 7/2/2020
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