Aroma M Amber Rouge – Amber Heat

This perfume is a modification of Geisha Rouge, fundamentally changed by the addition of a vintage Moroccan amber accord.  I have written before about Geisha Rouge, the strong cinnamon/carnation heat it generates on the skin, and how it develops from a fiery beginning, to dry down balanced by its incense-wood-vanilla base.

In Amber Rouge an amber accord that can hold its own casts a warm, mellowing, candlelight glow over the strength of the base perfume.  All the power of the Geisha Rouge version is wedded to an enveloping, seductive form of heat.  The fire is now radiance.

I definitely feel like a warm blooded animal wearing this one. It  has a real throw of singular beauty, stronger and more distinctive than most perfumes these days, and complex so that what others get at the distance of sillage is warm amber cinnamon sandalwood and vanilla but come in close for the true powerful heat of the ambered clove. 

 Toward the end of a long day I noticed it coming up from my skin, still, and notes that were almost floral in their grace were (but not floral at all, there are no floral notes) hanging in the stillness of the air around me.  As the fire becomes a glow over time, the warmth becomes relaxing.  The light touch of star anise keeps it fresh, and lifts it so it is not a heavy perfume, strong as it is.  The sensitive complexity holds it firmly within the realms of sophistication.

This is not a shy perfume, it reminds me of certain aspects of vintage Opium, and even with its strength it has the kind of beauty that those around you who are not normally fans of perfume can relate to.  I have received compliments wearing this perfume from those who generally don’t notice or at least don’t mention the perfumes I’ve worn. That may be because the elements of spice and vanilla are there.  The amplified amber and the glowing radiance caused by the underlying fragrance are what excite me about it. 

I feel the mood for travel to exotic places and a different culture's sense of beauty is being introduced into the Aroma M Japanese Geisha theme.

I find it almost unbelievable that for thousands of years wildly disparate regions were touched by traders bringing aromatic spices and perfumes by caravan, who basically walked, rode and sailed many thousands of miles because of every culture's insatiable desire for beautiful and aromatic substances. I wish I could time travel and participate in the caravans that brought spices and perfume materials across the continents.  That experience of slow travel and seeing the whole ancient world while carrying a  luxury cargo of beautiful materials must have been profoundly exciting.

The sense of pleasure in the refinement of feminine beauty remains the same.  I know that Maria Mcelroy of Aroma M traveled to Morocco last summer and spent time with the perfume materials suppliers and sellers. She is deliberately reaching into the tradition and lore of how precious perfume materials were carried on the  Silk Road routes that stretched from Japan to the Mediterranean and so brings it to us now in the present.

A Young Lady Reclining After a Bath
Leaf from the Read Persian Album
Herat (Afghanistan), 1590s
By Muhammad Mu’min
MS M.386.5. Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1911

 I suggest a little Arabesque flavored trance music to get something of the mood of the perfume:  

Invaders of the Heart/Jah Wobble: Yalili Ya Aini

Abdul el Karim:  Haschisch

Perfume available at the Aroma M site and at Luckyscent

Vero Profumo - Onda and Rubj EDP - Dark and Bright

I have fallen down the rabbit hole with my small sample of Vero Profumo's Onda EDP.  I am husbanding the small quantity I have left until I can get more, and following up with Rubj EDP, so I may stay in this atmosphere of olfactory intoxication yet a little longer.   I have worn them every single day since receiving the samples (by purchase, as inspired by Olfactoria's gorgeous review) Olfactoria is so right, it is a form of olfactory armor -- worthy of Joan of Arc, as she listens to her angel in the woods.

It creates a surrounding enveloping cloud, within which to enter into an ideal version of the material world in which we live. Something like wrapping myself in an aromatic guilt-free fur coat, a cloak of light yet dense warmth and space around me.  The notes play together in a kind of voluptuous and beautiful melancholy, like the deepest sounds of a cello, or a piano sonata meant for midnight.

I know I am late to the party, in that these  were released in an extrait form a few years ago and in this EDP form in 2010.  I gather there are differences in formulation as well as strength, and avidly look forward to trying the extrait incarnations very soon. I feel lucky to have found them now, though there have been reviews by a number of my favorite perfume writers.  I've been preoccupied so I missed them, until recently when I caught Olfactoria's review, and now I've  looked up others who have fallen under the spell too.  This is an all or nothing perfume experience.  I will even say that those who have a taste for this perfume are those who I would find an affinity for, and would relate to the perfumes I rave over.  

I have ordered a sample of the extrait strength, which is almost frightening to think of, the EDP is so powerful in itself.
 
The perfume calms me and at the same time has the strength to be a barrier-filter to any aesthetic rudeness that may intrude into my psychic interior space.  It acts like an exoskeleton of beauty. For me it acts in a similar way as do other totemic signs of beauty, such as long shiny hair, dark red lips, smooth skin.  It calls to all the classical signs of appeal yet is modern and open to individual interpretation and style.  The earthy quality grounds the romanticism.

There is talk of vetiver as being the signature note of this perfume but while it is there it is melded into the rest, listed as bergamot, citron, mandarin, ginger, coriander, basil, passion fruit, iris, ylang-ylang, honey, Bourbon, patchouli, musk, and cedar wood.

What I experience is a depth that is lifted and made delicate and cool by the almost menthol qualities of certain materials (iris and cedar especially) in contrast to the musk, honey, patchouli. Sort of like drinking fresh icy water as you bask in a hot sun that relaxes every muscle in your body. I suspect the bergamot citron and mandarin are acting as go-betweens, melding all into a whole that is not to be broken down into its parts.  This perfume is seamless.

Rubj is at the opposite end of the fragrance spectrum.  Creamy orange blossom and tuberose blended together with smooth musk, very heady, with glimpses of anise in feeling and tone.  The notes are listed as bergamot, mandarin, neroli, passion fruit, cumin, orange flower absolute, tuberose, basil, cedar, oak moss, musk.  The soprano/bright aspects of the notes are most emphasized, and so completely opposite to Onda's low tones.

After some time for dry down, the creaminess is stronger but the upper register of the passion fruit, mandarin, neroli, tuberose and orange flower continue to hold forth.   This perfume is all about the highlights of each component, and it is the essence of sweetness without sugar, more of an olfactory nectar.  In a later stage of the dry down, the headiness turns almost marine, like breathing  fresh sea sprayed air through transparent gauze curtains of light musk.

My preference is for the darker low-lit Onda, but Rubj is also a very complex, if otherworldly almost ultra-violet high-pitched intelligent perfume, that spells elegance to the fingertips on those who would wear it.  I find it would not be suited to my personality, but I can well imagine it on a strong blond or redhead.  It would make a creamy/velvety foil for a peaches and cream style of beauty, in all the variegated highlights.

Vero Kern is a fascinating perfumer, and I look forward to anything and everything she does.  An intriguing exclusive interview with her may be found here, by Sorcery of Scent.

Above illustration: Jan Van Eyck Detail from Madonna With Canon van der Paele (via artdetails)
a flacon of Vero Profumo EDP from Luckyscent ($195 for Rubj, $165 for Onda, samples $5)
Highlighted hair from Beauty Insiders

DS & Durga - Mississippi Medicine, Freetrapper, Poppy Rouge, The Orchid Drinkers

I appreciate the perfume-Americana channeled through a Brooklyn style of contemporary male dandy-ism that DS & Durga has established, and their mirror image for an American female of neo-romantic liberated elegance. They keep their air of Brooklyn based artisanship yet have fanned out to appeal to a national audience, in that they have created a special feminine perfume at an affordable price, carried by Anthropologie, whose aesthetic works well with a bohemian vintage/heritage touch of perfume.

This perfumes follow a form of modern dandy-ism with a contemporary feel. You can wear them to meet a friend on the weekend, or go to the bookstore café to read and write, or go about your daily life
in stylishness with intelligent reference to our vernacular history.

A lot of the charm of the line is in the inspirations for the perfumes. I love that perfumers are enacting their interests in American history and local legends through the medium of fragrance. I get the impression of perfume-nerds who have read all the garage sale vintage botany books, poured over antique illustrated encyclopedias and lost themselves in local histories. The website tells these stories as illustrated vignettes to the perfumes.

These perfumes are divided into masculine/feminine but as we know today ladies are just as likely to wear the perfumes made for gentlemen, especially if their tastes run to the darker deeper dry chypres.

Mississippi Medicine is based on ancient Indian rituals in the Southeast and Gulf areas that involved burning pyres in the forest, with offerings of sweet plants  to ornament the smoke. After the burned woods cooled all was covered over by freshly dug earth.

The notes are described as native birch tar, viola and white spruce on a base of incense and cypress root. The sweetness of birch and viola comes through the smoky incense, reminding me a little of Avignon but with a lot more smoke and sweetness behind the woods and incense. This is the kind of fragrance that clings to hair and clothing. That is, not a big wide range of throw, but just enough to make your presence felt.

Freetrapper is another masculine, based on the world of the young men who cut the trails through the American wilds to get to the beavers; so much in demand by the hatters, doctors and perfumers of the day. They hunted and lived in the woods on their own, in a lawless self-reliant existence, a lot like cowboys did later in the far West. Notes are listed as dark cedar, snakeroot, wild bergamot (bee balm) and black pine. Again, there is a resinous sweetness like the smoke of a fine cigar coming through the woods and herbs. In my opinion this would be an excellent scent for a winter coat or scarf. Unwrapping yourself from woolens holding this scent would definitely register with those around you, in a intriguing and pleasant way, and be lovely to breathe in through the brisk air of the fall and winter months walking outdoors, either in the country or city.

Poppy Rouge is based on an old song about a woman getting herself ready to go out and find someone: “Give me red lipstick and a bright poppy rouge -- A shingle-bob haircut and a shot of good booze”. The jazz age flappers were the first generation  of women who openly wanted and knew how to have a good time for themselves, rather than be just show a good time to others. Orange flower, jonquil and parma violet are listed in the notes. 

So for those bright occasions when you want to signal a cheerful joie de vivre,

without coyness, a fragrance that has that aura of liberated brightness, a spicy sweetness that holds a delicate floral feel and the sense of fragrant lipstick and rouge and a faint touch of powder on the knees, this would be it. Actually I see that red bloomers have come back, useful for biking in skirts, especially for the group Tweed Rides (no fleece, no spandex).

from Modern Foppery

The Orchid Drinkers – is based on tea made from powdered orchid tubers with a pleasant flowery scent and flavor, called Salep, that connected the Georgian English drinker to what was then the very fashionable exotic East. Drunk by wealthy ladies before coffee and regular tea came into England, in ancient Rome powdered orchid roots were used as an aphrodisiac. Notes are listed as airy orchid, sandalwood, bergamot and white tea. There’s a lightly potpourri quality to this, a soft Earl Grey tea overlaid with a sheer orchidaceous-ness, very civilized in a feminine way. Would go very well with powdered hair bedizened with diamonds and flowers.

Above images: from The Dandy Project;
Thirteen Things About Flappers;
Melrose & Spaulding Brooklyn Tweed Ride;
Modern Foppery on neo-Rococco hair and
DS & Durga The Orchid Drinkers flacon, from their site.
See my prior post on DS & Durga.

Soivohle – Violets and Rainwater, & Green Oakmoss

Heinrich Kuhn 1908

These are perfumes that keep quite a few tricks up their and your proverbial sleeves.

They unfurl at their own pace, are as delicate and changeable as a mood and yet come on at the start with forthright strength and straight-forward honesty. But you need to be quiet and pay close attention. They transmute and shape-shift. They are perfumes that may even be best appreciated by those with a well-developed introverted side to their character. Quiet types who like trance perfumes that encourage giving themselves up to all the nuances.

This is a perfumer who starts with idiosyncratic concepts, favorite physical/mental states, then mixes those energies up from perfume materials, while staying entirely grounded in respect for what the perfume materials can do to a sensitive person. I would say they are the physical evidence of love for the lusciousness of certain aromatic sensations. One of the most independent of indie-perfumers, Liz Zorn has gone her own way and has grown into true originality, experimenting with accords and strengths of perfume to bring both natural materials and aroma chemicals into a modern marriage.

These two perfumes are in her mixed media demi-absolutes category, which are perfumes of predominantly natural essences that also contain man-made aroma materials, in a higher than usual concentration (18-22%) of eau de parfum.  Hence their staying power.

Violets and Rainwater  is as changeable as fast moving weather.  It opens with pure sweet delicate violets over a mist of clean skin-scented musk, settling down on freshly watered earth. These violets are still growing, watered by rain. After a few minutes all softens down to a fresh creamy child's skin scent, wrapped in crocheted cotton, lacy enough to let the cool air through (possibly the  iris note). A trace of violet continues to hang in the distance as well as a trace of moist earth but all eventually resolves itself into an aura of delicious skin as soft as pale suede. The closer you get, the stronger it gets, of course. It really absorbs into my skin and bonds with it. Yet the sense of youthfulness is not immature. It’s a delicious fragrance to wear after a warm bath and to relax in before going to bed, and nice to wake up to. It has the tenacity to still be there in the morning.

Notes: Parma Violet Flowers, Violet Leaf from the Absolute, Fresh turned Soil, Rainwater, Iris, Light Patchouli, White Musk, Labdanum Absolute and a hint of Centifolia Rose

Green Oakmoss – is a green chypre floral, again not what you’d expect – an ultra-refined nectar sweetness over powdery bark and bergamot that puts sparkling highlights on a green mossy heart. All pleasantness and grace, due to a floral element that does not identify itself except to exert its influence to smooth the edges of the composition together. The fragrance stays a glittering green that is dry and astringent in the sparely elegant way a chypre must be, for some time. Then a darker mossy muskiness makes itself known which must be the touches of vetiver and animal musk accord which are still somehow not in the least dirty.  No, simply coming to the fore to present themselves after the brightness of the green dims down to a modern interpretation of an oakmoss accord. It’s cedar water moistening this earthiness. If you’ve ever gone swimming in a cedar water lake you know that kind of water I mean, earthy and a little dark even in the sun. *

Notes: bergamot, clove, tuberose, geranium leaf, carnation, oakmoss accord, leather, animal musk accord, vetiver, patchouli, labdanum, woods.



I recommend spending some time browsing the site. There is a section of natural perfume accords and aroma chemicals/materials with precise descriptions for those of us who are curious or who might want to experiment or learn more by physically handling the materials ourselves.

Please see my other posts on Writing Lyrical Poetry and Riverwalk.

Tom's River New Jersey is Cedar Water

* The term “cedar water” is used in several different ways, but most generally, it refers to water of a rather unique composition found in areas such as the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. This water has a distinctive dark color and earthy scent which reminds some people of cedar, explaining the name. (from WiseGeek)

This line comes in three sizes, 11ml $35, 32ml for $95 and samples for $4 (scroll down to bottom of page) 

Above top photo - please see this site on the photography of Heinrich Kuhn, an innovative photographer with unique techniques of photography from the early 1910s. Another original who experimented with delicate materials.

Second photo from demi-absolute page of the Soivohle site, 
Third photo of Tom's River cedar Water photo from a trout fishing site.

Some Delights of the Year in Indieperfumes – 2011 – Perfumes Not Safe for Work

This was a year where I wanted and found a number of perfume experiences that plunged into romanticism, ornamental decorativeness and grace. I’ve been craving dimensional, rich, deep perfumes that would transport me into the power of the materials and associations around them. Even give a sense of participating in the symbolic worlds the olfactory materials have worn themselves, bestowed on them by wearers over time.

Sonorous incense, delicate powders, creamy and luxurious musks, incandescent florals, bright honeyed herbs and grasses, and all their associations to times of day, times of year, the weather, luxury, nature and decadence. To live within such perfumes’ atmosphere for a time, is like entering an alternate and deeper reality, as it can seem sometimes when carried away by a poem or by travel far away to another beautiful country.

Lately I have wanted to be able to fall into and rest inside a perfume composition almost narrative in its ability to invite me into its well developed character.

One of the best things about the indieperfumers is that they do everything themselves, from beginning to end. This means truly everything, from the concept of the perfume, the choosing of the ingredients, the final execution, the packaging and finally the orchestrating of the customer interaction, which is often as personal as can be. They can take an inspiration or vision to the ultimate end as envisioned by their own tastes and predilections.

This year there were a number of perfumes that broke far away from the understated, the “clean”, the stereotypically “young” light sugared gourmand scents that we’ve become accustomed to, that were created in response to market research as shaped by identity branding for a more mass market and so everywhere for some time now.

In the alternative world of the indieperfumers, there has been movement and reach into other forms of worldly beauty. Warmth, both in bright and dark deep versions, romanticism, pointed references to the traditions of the past, the highly decorative and ornamental, the lush, and all-out passionate and sensual forms of perfume expressions. They made perfumes that are Not Safe For Work.

Here are my favorites from this direction of this past year – they make real in olfactory terms the experience of stepping into a 19th century French, Russian or English novel steered by the imperatives of fate and romance:

Amber Rouge – by Aroma M – the spicy base of Geisha Rouge heated by an amber accord with the kind of warmth that relaxes the mind and body into an enveloping sensuality. An intoxicating hot amber heightened by spices and toned by precious balsam and myrrh and other precious ingredients.

Which brings me to Immortal Mine, a real gothic bombshell of a perfume, by Aroma M’s Maria Mcelroy and Alexis Karl for the Clarimonde Project. They combined their perfume personalities and instigated each other to go into the depths of the darkest, warmest, most mysterious and enigmatic dark violet/blood-red of a perfume, like a silk velvet heart infused with every aromatic trick in the book, like vintage Opium crossed with deeper resins and ouds, yet cooled with a distant note of mint jumbled into the fragrant hay you fall into as you swoon away. Absolute madness. I believe this one will become more generally available in the coming new year, samples may now be obtained online.

Secret Garden by Aftelier – to fully immerse yourself in the beauty of distilled nature as it is encapsulated here is strengthening to the body and soul. The florals are edged with the gold of vintage animalic notes that ground them and bind them to the skin like honeyed nectar poured over a bowl of jasmine roses and raspberries. There are subtle layers to the interplay of many notes, mediated by blue lotus which is always the essence of peace and calm for me, detailed by unusual herbs peeking through (deertongue). This is a true rich tapestry of a perfume.

Which reminds me of Aftelier Haute Clair, a bright creamy floral, full of honeysuckle and sweet grass, ylang ylang, vetiver and vanilla, and it sings out with uninhibited joy. Like liquid golden light captured in perfume form, each detail is picked out in this magic hour it creates around you as it rises up around you.

I was carried away by Wildflowers by Aftelier, the essence of summer itself, a mood elevator in solid perfume form that captures the sun within the mille fleurs, and the feeling of freedom in the air itself as wafted up by a thousand flowers. A romantic landscape painted in the form of a perfume.

There’s the almost unbelievably prolific and also beautiful work of Dawn Spencer Hurwitz.  This year, her Paradise Lost, also of the Clarimonde Perfume project, encapsulated for me all the essential elements of her best qualities as a perfumer. Which are, in short, refinement with relentless dedication to corporeal beauty and physicality. I believe I finally discovered the equivalent in artistic description so I can explain the DSH form of beauty – it is similar to that of the ballet, beauty in discipline, ethereality, strength, and elegant grace. Paradise Lost enwreathes the wearer in another dimension of violet coolness alternating with soothing earthy depths fixed in candle wax. Individual notes reach out and touch your face over the course of wear in an almost magical way, like being visited by different beings.

DSH has a traditional seasonal character to her perfumes. In May it’s all about the lily of the valley, in Winter spices are crossed with the soft white smoke of a musk burned as incense. I recently received Caravan Spice, this year’s DSH Holiday fragrance (a new one every December) - oakmoss, clove, patchouli, vanilla, frankincense and jasmine. This perfume holds so close to the skin  as to seem like your own skin adds a form of musk itself to the perfume’s composition. It comes in many forms, among which are as a perfume and as a body oil, which I think would be ultimately luxurious, especially to fall asleep with in winter. There is always for me a feel of clarity to all the DSH perfumes, a lightness and limpidity, like seeing the world through crystal lenses.

The Patchouli Summer of Love conducted by Monica Miller the Perfume Pharmer was an extraordinary project that rehabilitated a beautiful material unfairly categorized by less than optimal materials over-marketed at one time and then over identified with a certain era. Monica maintains a wild open field in her projects and all directions are welcome and celebrated, resulting in a creative explosion that celebrated a material with deep lines reaching into the deeper past and now back into the present.

Her own version, Patchouli No. 9 aka Rags and Feathers is a citrus tea and chocolate mixed into a potent dark summer hay with the tang of sea shells. Rich waves of chestnut brown patchouli cloak the skin while it continues to shine through as a gentle transparent note as part of the perfume. It is intimacy itself.

My top three choices of the 13 were Liz Zorn's River Walk, Shelly Waddington's Go Ask Alice, and Rodney Hughes' Royal Water, each a patchouli like you've never tried before, rich, dimensional, refined and romantic.

Neil Morris has been making heartbreakingly beautiful perfumes for years, based on varied personal experiences and topics, and I am not so sure as to the release date of this one, but it came to me this year and so I count it as such – A Rose is a Rose is like the spirit of the rose itself, almost a headspace quality of a true rose out in the open air, but, with a darker edge to it too that clings to the skin tenaciously and pulls you into the heart of a red red rose. I also love his atmospheric perfumes such as Storm and Drifting and I see many of his perfumes as elements that could be layered and orchestrated and calibrated to the winds of mood as needs must.

All of these perfumes connected me to nature beauty and sensuality through the sense of smell, with the most graceful sensitivity and nuance.

I look forward to the new year, and I think that there will be more perfumes along these lines. A romantic style of perfume in the true sense of the word, passionate, soaking us to the skin in nature, ornamental with a modern sense of fluidity and down to earth sensuality. I keep thinking of a new version of the values of the Baroque and Rococo and the Enlightenment.


The waterfall of sense impressions in which such perfumes immerse an attentive wearer are among the exquisite beauties of this physical life. I hope I am right to believe that the more people know of them and take the opportunity to sample them the more they will fall in love as I have.

Above images:  Blond curtain - Nicolette Brunklaus (Dutch, b. 1959)
 from a show on the influence of the Rococo on modern design in The Netherlands.
Ostrich and Luna Moth fans;
Fur and Feather - a fractal by Sharon Apted
Arabesque - from Tales of the Arabesque

Hedera Helix by Roxana Villa

This fully natural botanical perfume by Roxana Illuminated Perfume was inspired by the dark evergreen English Ivy.  It came to me in solid form, in an oval engraved late Victorian style bronze-toned locket. It smells of twigs and vines and transparent green shadows falling on dry autumn leaves. The green tone is influenced by the astringency of late autumn’s dryness, like the green patina on bronze. This is a true green perfume in the chypre style. The evergreen aspect reveals itself as a core of vitality, and in the solid form it is held even closer to the skin than in liquid form.  The beeswax and jojoba base feels silky and sinks into the the skin instantly (especially on my dry skin)  so it is best to apply on multiple points, such as both wrists, inner arms, and nape of neck.

Subtle and gentle, it is a quietly contemplative perfume, a potion made up of precious and carefully gathered and calibrated substances. If you are recently coming away from perfumes with a big presence you will need to recalibrate your nose and awareness to fully appreciate all the subtle beauties that reveal themselves here. Once you have allowed this perfume to soak into your skin and your awareness, there is a complexity and mystery that unite you with the essence of nature.

The ingredient list is very long. There are multiple and varied shades and aspects of green-ness that have been used to arrive at this density of green:

Tonka Bean
Sandalwood
Oakmoss
Orris Root
Labdanum
Cedarwood
Guaicwood
Seaweed
Choya
Styrax
Peru Balsam
Tolu Balsam
Beeswax
Hay
Mate
Vanilla
Tobacco
Peach Leaf
Boronia
Orange Blossom
Jasmine
Rose
Pink Lotus
Galbanum
Clary Sage
Elemi
Geranium
Parsley
Lavandin
Violet Leaf
Rhododendron Leaf
Howood
Angelica
Ambrette Seed
Bergamot
Clementine
Yuzu
Grapefruit

I have always been fascinated by climbing, clinging plants, that spread both along the ground and up into the trees and onto walls.  For a fascinating look into the inner workings of making a perfume and the original art work and inspirations behind it, please visit the site here.  I agree with Roxana that such materials and subject matter are a worthy theme for a modern perfume. To look out through an ivy border around a window frame adds grace and liveliness to a scene. English Ivy is so densely green it is almost black, and this perfume holds this aspect of green-noir within itself in certain facets as it unfurls.  There is no sweetness here, so I can see it as good for men as well as women.

This perfume and Roxana's perfumes generally require and will develop the same kind of sensitivity and appreciation of subtle beauty that is required to value the tones of greened patina on these ancient Chinese bronzes.  The influence and workings of the atmosphere created these beautiful patinas on metal, and these examples of patina also go to show the evidence of how the atmosphere and elements affect everyone.  The perfume in the air must act on us in the same way as the various elements in the atmosphere act on metals over time.  Roxana's perfumes are forces for refinement and contemplative mindfulness, in that they present the essential nature of a fragrant inspiration and invite the wearer to be aware of all the layers and elements of beauty within and without.

 

Roxana does everything herself, from creating the tinctures to pouring and packaging the perfumes.

Above illustrations:  Chinese Bronze Objects - top - Bian Hu Wine Vase, Han Dynasty and Zhou Bronze Bell, from  Galerie 41;
Roxana Illuminated Perfumes photos of liquid perfume and mini solid compact locket perfume
Please visit the Roxana Illuminated Perfume Etsy shop for more details.

Surrender to Beauty – A lesson from the Clarimonde Perfume Project

Dear All,

The experience of all the perfumes created in honor of the story of Clarimonde, almost makes it seem like she was a real being that has been brought to life again. I now know her more deeply through these perfumes, essays, songs and the imagery she inspired.

As the perfumes arrived at my door, one by one, and upon re-reading and listening to the story read by Joy Chan, the story’s themes revealed themselves in layers. I understood that this story fascinated me so much because it was set within the idea of leading a secret life, an alternate dream life that might be as or even more vivid than the waking one. The possibilities of a parallel existence powered by the energy of emotion and the deepest subconscious desires and purest aspirations.
 
Our dreams reveal such possibilities.  In the vivid dreams the narrator Romauld has of the powerful and beautiful vampire Clarimonde, he discovers another part of himself that he did not know. In an alternate world without limitations a parallel life can be lead that stands apart from dogmas, rules, necessities or fears, one that is emboldened to reach for beauty and its pleasures.

It was a great pleasure to read the inmost thoughts of the writers, and sense the reactions of the perfumers through their fragrant interpretations of the story. I felt I got to know everyone who participated in more depth because so much was revealed by what they chose as the focus of their attention.

There were certain themes that emerged in common. The perfumes all had a basis in heat, or dark earthiness. For Monica Miller, the focus was on the mouth, and a juicy ripeness of fruit against a sacral balsamic presence like incense. With Mandy Aftel, the layer of deep upon deep of several variations of oud, building a physical link between the sacred and profane. Maria Mcelroy and Alexis Karl expressed unbounded passion in warm amber laid over the darkest woods, infused with a thick nectar of florals, a swooning into sensuality. Both Dawn Spencer Hurwitz and Ayala Sender reached out from a warm base into the coolness of a sweet and ethereal presence by means of violet and herbal notes, for an almost mentholated refreshing chill, something like the presence of a spirit in the dark.

Trish Vawter of Scent Hive depicts the plot line that infused the heat into the perfumer’s creations:

"When he first gazed upon Clarimonde, he fell instantly in love with her, with a religiosity to rival the most devout priest. “She breathed her will into my life… I no longer lived in myself but I in her and for her.” He could have been speaking about God in such a manner, and actually was, just moments prior.”

Yet there is a fragility, a sense of mortality, very different from the usual theme of other vampiric stories, because in this one the magical being’s hold on life in this world is tenuous, even if Clarimonde was called back from death by the pure intensity of Romauld’s longing.

Scent Hive on Ayala's  fragranced dream pillow, infused with herbs and a perfume that calls forth the scented presence of Clarimonde in the dark:

“Ayala’s Clarimonde Dream Pillow emanates the most earthiness. It’s not a freshly tilled soil though, rather a soil on the edge of decay that is infused with rose, violet and carnation.”

As I said, in reference to Dawn's perfume Paradise Lost, there was a sense of movement and development.  The base situated you first within an environment, as a background to individual notes that then  stood out and made you aware of them, like a presence had come into the room:

"There is a strong sense of movement and development from the initial symphonic combination of all the notes to the separating out into individual ones. Fleeting moments of the metallic blood accord, and the violet and dry immortelle reach out, and then the fragrance moves on to the dry down and a sense that the skin has been perfumed clear through.  As if it had soaked in, and become part of the wearer's identity and signature. "

The dreams that Romauld have are of the kind that could even satisfy the hungers of waking life, as a gift from the unconscious mind to the inner self that might be thirsty for fragrant wine. Something like the wine perfumed with rosewater, honey, nutmeg, ambergris and musk by Deana Sidney of LostPastRemembered:

“something darkly perfumed, warm like blood with an air of the ancient”

Were such detailed experiences of freedom and beauty self-created by an inner life longing for outer expression? Which one is real life, the dream of union with Clarimonde or the dutiful striving for unattainable union with an elusive Spirit? Both are motivated by desires that embrace the supernatural as real.
 
Sheila Eggenberger, as the Alembicated Genie, formerly known as Scentless Sensibilities, has described Mandy's precious Oud Louban, depicting the affinity between the sacred and profane forms of worship:

“Blended from eight varieties of oud, it glows its unearthly, animal aura through a decadent velvet patchouli dream that lingers with the smoky burnt aroma of choya ral, opoponax and benzoin and conjures visions of Clarimonde, blonde hair embers of gold over her pearly white shoulders and in another wisp of smoke, she is gone, a haunting dream that never left him or a reality that negated all Romauld’s other life into nothing more than a dream.”

As we know, the ouds have also been used for centuries in religious worship as incense. The religious use of the ouds marries needs for beauty and sensuality of the body to a spiritual consciousness. An offering of fragrance as an ethereal ephemeral incense smoke of material beauty sent up to the open air and sky.

As the Perfume Pharmer Monica Miller says in regard to Immortal Mine by Maria Mcelroy and Alexis Karl, a dark smoky amber perfume that transforms itself into caressing floral jasmine soaked resinous roses :

“Fragrant Sisters in Sin,
I suggest a little tag on your bottle
a warning
because this magic is real
it is a real love potion
a nautilus
a living fossil
the ancient amber you put in this perfume
tree sap
inner sap
releases the passion inside
please be careful
it is a precious commodity
and only a little is needed
to
be inside
the spell.”

The story of Clarimonde contrasted within one person so many opposite desires and forces at constant war within. Austerity and luxury, severity and pleasure, sensuality and denial, tension and relaxation. The perfumes and fragrant things made brought both those aspects to life in a physical yet ethereal form. Intense contrasts and developments of light layered over dark, warm against cool notes, bright against deep notes, illuminated a road traveled ever more deeply into the pleasures of beauty.

Monica’s two lip stains, completely botanical, contained essences of myrrh and cinnamon in ways that lightly stung the lips as they sent out fragrance around the face that matched and exalted the notes of the perfume she created, Sangre – as Jade Dressler says in her wild ride through the perfumes, stopping to light upon each one with a detailed description of her experience:

“Dusk quickened and Monica lights a Roman candle of Roman Chamomile with dark berry fruit essenses for the sex-in-your-face top note, and for the heart, a cocktail of Jasmine CO2, honeysuckle absolute, geranium absolute, white and red rose tinctures, which rise up instantly as I tap their names into the blog. (Blood of Christ! What is this love between plant scents and our desire!?) The base is musks (had to go there!) honey absolute, ambrette, Frankincense CO2 and Patchouli CO2 and you are crushed inside the mosh pit of Infernality for sure!

A little mosh pit of purpose is the Lip Stain Monica created called “Purple Shadow” a caldron of melting shea butter plus myrrh, peppermint, lemon balm and spices…again each of which enters my smell receptors as I type. Ok, yes it’s slathered upon my lips for easy access to the love canals of my nose…but still. Old news to anyone who follows me, I firmly believe “aliens” are among us, in the DNA of plants.”

The sadness of this story is that the narrator fought against the gift of his extraordinary dreams, and the side of himself that was drawn to love, beauty, and sensuality. The gift of this story is the vivid detail in which all those aspects of the narrator’s Clarimonde experience is described. As if dreaming the same dream, you ride with black horses at night through the forest, your eyes catch the sight of pearls against satiny skin. You experience the luminosity of many forms of beauty, you enjoy the palace in Venice hung with Titians, and the swooning emotion between entranced lovers exactly portrayed.

While with Clarimonde, the narrator’s pride and esteem grows and transforms his soul. She acts like water on the dry soil of a self-effacing martyrdom based on the burdens original sin and guilt. Theophile Gautier gives the narrator’s deep sense of regret and life long sense of deep loss as a message to us so we know that Romauld made the wrong choice in giving up Clarimonde.  

Beth Schriebman Gehring gave a passionate recounting of all the perfumes while delivering her own understanding of the story's theme of male to female relationships:

"We need men who are fearless in the face of our passions and our frailties. It saddens me that Romauld and Clarimonde lived in a time when she couldn’t be honest with him about who she was and because it was a time when women were by their very natures suspect, it would have impossible for her to have been honest with him, she who held such a deep and forbidden secret. "

Then she perfumed a pair of gloves, with all the perfumes, having found a perfect embroidered white kid leather pair, that she imbued with the scents by perfuming her hands and then wearing them.  She also used a pad scented with the perfumes that the soft leather drank in:

"It was the scent of Clarimonde and it permeated my senses, filling me with an odd mixture of joy and passion tinged with a touch of regret. It was amazing to realize that we had ventured into unknown depths to bring her most intimate secrets into the light."

With their interpretations of this story, the perfumers and the writers all carried me along with them into their own depth of surrender to beauty.  The personal perception of beauty can act to integrate the mind the body and the soul.

Romauld’s lifelong regret on his betrayal and loss of Clarimonde proves he was most himself and most alive when living in his dream of surrender to beauty in the person of one with whom he could sometimes forget what he believed himself to be.

With deep gratitude to all the participants, and to the story itself, I present a list that will bring you directly to the sites where you can lose yourself for a time in the dream of Clarimonde and the perfumes made in her honor. 

Click here to download and listen to Joy Chan reading Clarimonde
The Perfumes  - please contact the perfumers at their sites for samples:
Sangre and the violet and red lip stains at the Perfume Pharmer;
Oud Louban by Mandy Aftel;
Immortal Mine by Aroma M and Alexis Karl info@cherrybombkillerperfume.com
or call (646) 415.7650
Paradise Lost by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz
Dream Pillow and Perfume for Clarimonde by Ayala Moriel
Please note some perfumers are in the process of presentation design but all have samples available if you contact them directly.

Clarimonde Posts

Clarimonde Part 1 Indieperfumes 

Clarimonde Part 2 Indieperfumes

Letters to Lucy Part 1 Perfume Pharmer

Indieperfumes -  Perfume Pharmer Sangre and Lip Stains

LostPastRemembered- Clarimonde, Voluptuous Vampires and Perfumed Port

Aroma M Musings

Ayala Moriel  - Dream Pillow

Indieperfumes - Immortal Mine and LostPastRemembered

The Alembicated Genie: Perfume Pharmer  Sangre and Lip Stains

Scent Hive - Part 1 Clarimonde Introduction 

The Alembicated Genie: Immortal Mine

Indieperfumes Aftelier Oud Louban

Indieperfumes Paradise Lost 
Indieperfumes Ayala Moriel's Dream

Perfume Pharmer Oud Luban

Perfume Pharmer Immortal Mine

Scent Hive Oud Luban

Scent Hive Part 3

The Alembicated Genie - Aftelier's Oud Louban

Jade Dressler - The Clarimonde Perfume Project

The Alembicated Genie:   Paradise Lost

The Alembicated Genie:  Dreaming Venetian, Ayala Moriel 

 Poetry and Song by Alexis Karl Immortal Mine 

 Beth Schriebman Gehring at Perfume Smellin Things and The Windesphere Witch 

Above image - one of the creamy nudes by Ingres that Theophile Gautier loved.

 Samples of the perfumes were sent to me by the perfumers for this Project.

Ayala Moriel - Clarimonde Dream Pillow and Perfume, Part 7

 

Fragrance in the dark:  inspired by the role that dreams play in the Clarimonde Story, Ayala Moriel (aka Sender) made perfumed dream pillows, sewing them by hand while listening to the Joy Chan reading of Clarimonde by Theophile Gautier.  They are made of white silk with a garnet bead sewn in the center like a small drop of blood.

Dream pillows are sachets meant to be placed inside the larger pillowcase to sleep on at night.  The scent is released by your movements, present as you fall asleep and very much present if you wake in the night, and again first thing in the morning.   

In the words of the perfumer:

"They are all filled with a sachet of dried herbs that should invoke a restful sleep: valerian roots, violet leaf, lavender buds, and some orris root, patchouli leaves and rose buds for their scent and evocative colour of blood and passion."

And also perfumed with the fragrance that Ayala devised:

"For the Clarimonde perfume, I decidedly chose essences that would build a classic and “typical” spicy-oriental; that which is heavy on the patchouli and eugenol (from cloves). But I also juxtaposed it with notes of flowers that are mentioned in the story: the blue violets in her hair, the red carnation of her lips, the white rose that symbolizes Clarimonde’s life at her chamber (it is not until the last petal falls that we know she is really, truly dead). These all took a life of their own as I read the story, with clear colours, textures and scents… The sensuality of Clarimonde is contrasted (and balanced) by the distance of her beauty and the coldness of her touch, which Romauld feels when she is alive at their first encounter at the church; and is no difference after her death. The story had very interesting palette of colours: mostly black and white, with splashes of colours on the appearance of Clarimonde, mostly of red and blue hues, and the blood is purple… There is only one thing that is yellow in the story: Clarimonde’s blond hair (or gold, as Romuald describes it).

So, I have chosen notes that are warm and spicy, such as vintage patchouli and vintage cloves, saffron and carnation to portray the warmth; and a violet accord to bring the cold, moist element to the perfume. Aside from violet leaf and cassie (both very wet and cold smelling essences), I have also used the velvety, candied-violet note of alpha ionone – and this is my first time to use a natural isolate in a perfume. I chose this note not only because I wanted the violets to have a dominant presence; but also because there is something very pure, clear and surreal about this note, which reminds me of Clarimonde’s voice as she speaks to Romuald for the first time in his dream."

The first time I used the dream pillow at night, I got an amplified experience of the perfume lying still in the darkness. Certain notes appeared to unfurl singly and larger, especially the cool note of violet as a highlight.

Even so, the fragrance is gentle, and though the perception of it is heightened in the darkness, it is not overwhelming.  Yet is still very present, like there is a Being in the room with you.  I am sure this references the times Clarimonde woke Romauld from sleep by appearing at the foot of his bed. 

The perfume itself is classical in its beauty, as an Oriental type, and while close, it remains according to the perfumer still a work in progress.

There is a dimensional complexity in the combination of the perfume and the influence of the herbs in the pillow.

As the perfume's violet note singles itself out, the herbs in the pillow emanate a dry warmth.  The valerian which could be difficult if too strong is controlled at the right amount, softened but still definitely there.  The lavender is very present.  The perfume acts as an ornamental overlay on the herbs. The spiciness of the oriental framework behind the coolness of violet comes to the fore.  It moves into the carnation next but its marriage to the cooling violet influence makes it almost mentholated in a subtle way.

Yes, the violet still dominates over the carnation and stays with it but you can decide what aspect you would rather focus on, the cool of the violet or the warmth of the background notes. I have had vivid dreams.

Ayala had a strong sense of the tragedy of Romauld’s ultimate betrayal of Clarimonde.  I agree.  Even after all she gave him, the wealth and luxuries and freedom, he strangled their affair because he was blinded by dogma he could not rise above.

This vampire story is one of the first, and unique, in that the bodily harm the vampire does is minor.  She took only a single drop of blood each night, similar to the garnet bead sewn on to the silken dram pillow. His withdrawal from and betrayal of her completely destroyed her bodily and their connection to each other forever. 

As it also destroyed any further connection to that aspect of himself who was Clarimonde’s lover, living a privileged life in a Venetian palace filled with art, moving among the nobility with ease, pride and perfect freedom.

In the sense of physical embodiment of an idea, there is a room in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, taken from a Venetian palace, circa 1700.  I have been fascinated  by it for years.  There is a feeling of melancholy luxury and humid decay about it.  The ornate style is very different from any modernist ideal of less is more.   I can imagine Clarimonde and Romauld in this room, having their nightly glass of perfumed wine, after an evening of Carnival parties, gliding through the canals in elaborate masks  and savoring their last luxuries before the austerities to be practiced for Lent come due.  The romantic legend of Venice itself is such that it still remains one of the great honeymoon destinations, a reputation built over centuries.

The dream pillow and the perfume are entirely hand made and all natural.  For sample information please contact Ayala Moriel directly at her site online.

I will be presenting a separate online site for the Clarimonde Perfume Project which will preserve the posts, inspirations, links and connections to the perfumes.

Above photos, top:  Venetian bedroom, 1700 by me. Next, the dream pillow, photo by Ayala Sender, and the Venetian Carnival Mask from 2009 Deviant Art.

Please scroll down for more posts on the Clarimonde Perfume Project, and the perfumes:

Cherry Bomb Killer Perfumes - Immortal Mine
DSH Perfumes - Paradise Lost
Aftelier Perfumes - Oud Luban
Perfume Pharmer/ Skye Botanicals - Sangre, and two fragranced lip stains

Please also see the postings of The Alembicated Genie, the Perfume Pharmer, Scent Hive, Jade Dressler,  LostPastRemembered and the haunting Clarimonde songs of Alexis Karl.  There will be a further posting down the line by Beth Schriebman Gehring.

Disclosure:  I received the perfume sample and dream pillow from the perfumer, and have been made very happy by all this wonderful and inventive creative outpouring for this story and this project, but otherwise have not been compensated.

DSH Paradise Lost - Clarimonde Perfume Project Part 6

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz was inspired by the colors and the textures of the Clarimonde narrative, the tiny blue flowers in Clarimonde’s hair that faded, as she did, into the next world while waiting for Romauld, her satiny hand and the coolness of her touch, her sumptuous dresses and jewelry, the flickering candles that paled beside her luminous blonde beauty and vivid green eyes.

In the words of the perfumer herself:

"Just as T. Gautier was inspired by the luscious colors of Delacroix, I found the sensuously atmospheric descriptions throughout the love story to evoke otherworldly perfumes and luminosities.

The phrase “ A twilight blue oriental perfume” most captured my imagination from the first time I heard it along with the image of faded flowers along side a bed of gold and silver, attended by a negro page wearing black velvet holding an ivory cane; and the satiny hand of “Clarimonde” as she lay dying. This cool, almost misty scene that might have been a last glimpse of Clarimonde paired with an alternate universe of warm opulence in Venice were always shimmering in my mindʼs eye as I created “Paradise Lost”.

( As you can tell, I do not want to give away too much of the story for those who have not read it).

The colors always flickering and wafting about my mind were cool periwinkle blue, the rich cobalt of “the blue hour”, faded terre verte earth & faded pinks, golden naples yellow, vermillion, deepest black velvet and oxblood.

This Bronzino portrait was also a great source of inspiration. (Thank you Alexis Karl for bringing it to my attention). 

*********************************************
Paradise Lost Perfume:

perfume notes: topnotes: wild blue chamomile, immortelle,
pressed violets, golden champaca
heart notes: faded flowers, candlewax, oriental lotus, black orris
basenotes: sable fur, fossilized amber, myrrh gum,
bloody sweet accord, mitti "

I find this an immediately graceful and purely lovely perfume. It begins like a fast run along the keys of a harpsichord, hitting warm golden highs and then develops into cool mentholated orris, and violet without sweetness, then separates out for a few of the floral notes that come up and reach into the air for a moment. I catch a transitory scent of iron, like blood, a cool metallic tone that still allows room for the amber in the base. I assume the sable fur is an accord. The dry airy warmth of thick fur makes a haze in the background against which sharper foreground notes stand out.

DSH drew inspiration also from this Bronzino portrait of a lady. I see this style as fully inhabiting an era that revered aristocratic beauty as defined by tremendous discipline in self-presentation. 

The most similar vestige left of this manner of being in the present day is the female ballet dancer. The erect posture and gestures of the hands are cultivated with elegance and self control as the ideal form. This perfume is very much within that type of aristocratic, elegant, and composed manner of beauty. This might be the fragrance of a great lady among her silks and wealth. 

There is a strong sense of movement and development from the initial symphonic combination of all the notes to the separating out into individual ones. Fleeting moments of the metallic blood accord, and the violet and dry immortelle reach out, and then the fragrance moves on to the dry down and a sense that the skin has been perfumed clear through.  As if it had soaked in, and become part of the wearer's identity and signature.  

There is something fiercely intelligent about this form of elegance.  I can imagine this as something that an Audrey Hepburn type would wear (she was a ballet dancer before becoming an movie actress, and you can see that she always composed herself in that graceful, perfectly light and erect way).

This is a limited edition.  13 “Paradise Lost” Perfumes are being produced and include an Art Nouveau, Paris-made charm bottle in silver and ochre colored glass with 5 ml of perfume.  Please contact the perfumer at her site if you wish to obtain a sample.

The name of the perfume, Paradise Lost, refers to the beauty and regret called up by the story of Clarimonde. It also recalls the great poem by Milton, which was most concerned with spirituality, so it is a well chosen name for this particular circumstance.  The little Art Nouveau flacons are of the era of the translation of Clarimonde by Lafcadio Hearn.  The idea of wearing this perfume around the neck also recalls the favorite point of passion of the vampires of legend, even if this vampire in particular was far more gentle and affectionate than the frightening ones we know today.  Perhaps that is what makes Clarimonde and Paradise Lost all the more seductive and dangerous.

Above, Bronzino portrait of Lucrezia Panciatichi
1540; Oil on wood; Uffizi 
Photo by me of the flacon.
Please scroll down for my reactions to the inspired perfumes by Mandy Aftel, Maria McElroy & Alexis Karl, and Monica Skye Miller (aka The Perfume Pharmer) for the Clarimonde Project, and links to the story in both audio and ebook form (free downloads).
Please also visit The Alembicated Genie
Scent Hive, The Perfume Pharmer, and LostPastRemembered and Jade Dressler for more on the Clarimonde story and fragrances it inspired.  There is more to come!


Disclosure: I received the sample of perfume and flacon courtesy of the perfumer but have not received and do not accept compensation for this or any of my descriptions and personal opinions on perfumes.

Aftelier Oud Luban – Clarimonde Part 5

Mandy Aftel created her perfume  interpretation of the Clarimonde story in solid form. Solid perfumes are a big favorite of mine for many reasons, the portability, the hold  close to the skin, the longevity, the softness. Of course, Oud Luban is fully natural, of the finest materials available, so I have been wearing it above my upper lip, in a trick I learned from Mandy Aftel in a lecture she once gave on natural perfumes, as one of the best ways to fully experience such precious and ephemeral natural materials. Used that way the scent will eventually wreathe around your face and be inhaled with every breath.

I will begin with her own words, as she describes the perfume herself:

“This perfume takes its inspiration from Theophile Gautier's Clarimonde, a story of extremes: austerity and opulence; sin and holiness; carnality and abstinence. Luban, the Urdu word for frankincense, means "the milk" which refers to the color of the finest quality frankincense – the milky tree sap that exudes from the cut bark. Oud, the dark, resinous and infected Aquilaria heartwood, is the most expensive essence in the world. To create the oud notes I wanted, I blended eight different varieties.

Oud Luban is a perfume of great highs and lows, with no middle notes. It opens with the fresh citrus top notes of the finest hojari frankincense, coupled with sweet incense and resinous notes of elemi and luban. This evolves onto the sweet balsamic notes of the faintly vanilla benzoin, the spicy balsamic opopanax, and the fine cognac-like notes of aged patchouli. Threading through the drydown, and softened by the resin, are the smoky choya ral and precious oud, which is intimate and softly animal like a lover's body. This perfume is perfect for layering with florals -- the oud brings an earthy richness that allows the florals to bloom on the skin.

Perfume notes:
Top: elemi, orange terpenes, blood orange, frankincense CO2
BaseBase Notes: oud, opopanax, choya ral, benzoin, aged patchouli”

I find it sonorous, meditative and centering. Once it has released some of the top notes, so closely married to the dark base, moments of a fully celestial air waft up around me.

I love the idea of this as a base for florals, and tried a drop of Aftelier Honey Blossom perfume beside it. Oud Luban provides that dark background from which Honey Blossom shines out all the more.

It reminds me of the first times I listened to the story Clarimonde, as read by Joy Chan, whose beautiful voice I now identify with this story. Even when reading it from a page myself, her voice and intonation repeats in my mind. 

It was at the time of year when the giant linden trees are in full bloom down the side streets around here, and the fragrance is held in the fog of early evening against the darkness of the night air. The words of the story became imbued with fragrance and darkness.

The intimate quality of Oud Luban acts like a personal memory that is yet tied to all the sacred things the ingredients are associated with. I imagine the young Romauld intoxicated by the traditional incense that uses frankincense and myrrh, and the lit beeswax candles and masses of flowers used on holidays. I believe the seductive visual and sensual aspects of the ceremonies entered into the soul of our narrator Romauld at a young age, as they did mine, as they are meant to do, and related back to all the old stories of saints and miracles, which is why he was so in love with the church and wanted to marry into it. Also why he was prepared to personally engage with the miraculous.

I believe he could sense that Clarimonde embodied the powerful elements within her own person and character, similar to those he had already lived with in the church. I believe she struck him so forcibly because he had been prepared to be open to that peculiar form of beauty mixed with supernatural power from his years of entering into the spirit of the church’s sacraments. He had also cultivated a powerful capacity for devotion, which attached to Clarimonde once he became aware of her.

The stories of the miracles of the saints, the artfully embroidered vestments and ornamented chalices, the incense, the music and singing, the golden gleams in the vast dark interior spaces, the stained glass windows, all the artful decoration of the most extraordinary and most beautified building interiors of the old cities, often contained much of the wealth of the past and the art of the culture. For so many centuries the artists had lavished all their skills on the interiors of churches.

Yet here was a person, “a young woman, of extraordinary beauty”, whose vivid color and perfection of form embodied all the principals of beauty the young Romauld was used to using to worship the sacred, in her own self.

Her gaze was imbued with affection, with personal attention toward him as a special individual that she chose above all others, almost like a vision of the Madonna, but with the added power of sexuality as an expression of all this wrapped into a personal connection to another human/supernatural being he could actually embrace.

Clarimonde appeared to be a goddess herself, come to life and gazing at him with full undivided attention. How could he not fall instantly and deeply in love with someone who embodied everything he had associated with worship so far in his young cloistered life? The incense surrounded him as he genuflected on the cool stone floor and the censers swayed around him during the ceremony marrying him to the church, just at the same moment he saw that luminous being Clarimonde, his alter ego in female form, from out of the corner of his eye, and he was instantly enraptured and entranced. You could say he was preparing for that moment his whole life, and his life in the church was even an aid to that preparation.

I can imagine the substances associated with the sacred, as of Oud Luban, as the basis for his intimacy and feeling for beauty. His associative sense of smell must have been deeply imprinted with the traditional forms of incense made of the finest materials available as a smoky gift wafted up to heaven, most often right at the moments of procession and display of sacred gestures and symbolic objects.

All was ethereal and transitory yet deeply connected him to spirituality and the extraordinary made real. Why would not a novice who believed in the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of the supreme being not be also open to the reality of other supernatural powers that could personify the powerful energies of life and love and liberty? Because he was not used to women, this one woman being all she was had all the more impact upon him.

The socially perceived decadence of the writer Theophile Gautier, was based on the idea that the worship of beauty for its own sake was essentially a decedent characteristic of a failing culture. I don’t know if we can still believe that, since now we know how beauty in this world is so difficult to preserve and to achieve in any form, whether natural or composed. Gautier was very attuned to beauty in all its forms, and he wanted to I think contrast the sacred and profane in this story, as their forms crossed back and forth across a fragile divide.

As I have written before, and as is well known, fully natural perfumes, even those of the best materials, are ephemeral by their very nature, not fixed in time, exceedingly precious, difficult to source for the best quality materials as they become more rare. The luxurious aspect is bound to the ephemeral nature, like taking a sip of wine that is exquisite and then is gone as it passes over senses in the mouth and nose.

Yet nothing of this natural world can hold the ephemeral nature of changeable beauty like the inherent strength of the wood derived Oud and Louban, the milky Frankincense of the ancients who used it for sacred purposes for thousands of years.

I agree with Scent Hive in the comforting nature of the perfume when used on its own. The mix with the high notes lends it an even more celestial air than it already possesses on its own, like a reach to heaven in physical form. Romauld seems primarily fixated on reaching heaven, by whatever means necessary, either by losing his body in the strictures and service prescribed by traditional religion or by abandoning all that to indulge body and emotions with Clarimonde.

It has been a delight to receive and try these perfumes creatively based on the story of Clarimonde.  Please read or listen to the story to get the full impact of what the perfumers and writers have done, and also for your own enjoyment. It is an engaging and sumptuous tale, especially at this Halloween season.

Please also visit The Alembicated Genie, the Perfume Pharmer, and Scent Hive to get their beautiful words on the perfumes already released.  More perfumes to come from DSH and Ayala Sender, and writings too, with Beth Schreibman-Gehring and Jade Dressler.

Please scroll to parts 1-4 for more and a wealth of other links.
Above photo: a thurible, otherwise known as an incense censer, used in Roman Catholic ceremonies.  Next, the Rose Window of Chartres Cathedral.

Right:  Delacroix painting that influenced Theophile Gautier deeply, Death of Sardanapalus

Disclosure:  all samples in the Clarimonde project were provided to me by the perfumers, and I have received no other monetary compensation.  My opinions are personal and I  hope my biases are entirely transparent.