Countdown day 15

It is day 15 of our Christmas countdown and I am casting my mind back to one of the rare times I am able to cast my mind back to a pub visit. I was with the beloved, sat outside The Builder’s arms and feeling special things from the smells of Sunday Roast emanating from the kitchen. If I had to pinpoint the smell I loved the most, it would be the herbaceous stuffing. I would wear it if it wasn’t crumbly and strange. All was calm, all was impressively bright when suddenly my nose burst into song, it was a familiar song and yet I couldn’t identify it. I looked over to my left and a Russian lady had taken her seat having gone unnoticed by everybody but me. This was a Rose of the most staggering beauty, and full of a boldness which this Kensington pub was sorely lacking. Long and drunken conversations then took place between the beloved and I, would it be dodgy to ask what this Russian nose whisperer was wearing? No was the resounding answer, as long as I was with the beloved, this most valid question would not be creepy. Too shy, Too shy! I wouldn’t ask, I would just lean. Of course, I waited until the beloved had gone to another room before I asked the question of great profundity. The answer, given in her deepest Chocolate Baritone? Portrait of a Lady of course! I slapped myself for I knew this already, it was a smell I knew well. I am putting my humble little nose on the table and telling you all that this is one of the most stunning perfumes in the world today. Portrait of a Lady (2010) by Perfumer Domiqiue Ropion is an offering from the innovative house Frederic Malle, and is an example of what great perfumers can do given an unlimited budget, a novel to embody and the support of an inspiring master who knows of what they speak. We open with a monumentally beautiful Turkish Rose, it is everything I want a Rose to be. It is bright and Jammy, and yet also full of dark gothic aspects. It has an earthiness and also feels shrouded in a dusty and peppery cloud. It is an opening chapter which is arresting, and warrants you to stayinghome and enjoy its story. The middle feels the weight of the top and so brings forth some sweetness from a beautiful and, again Jammy and sweet Raspberry alongside a darker Blackcurrant. These make the middle and remnants of the top a rich and syrupy affair. Before this middle is allowed to get too familiar, we are treated to a sharp and spicy clove, full of brooding intensity. It somehow manages to be warming and yet send a shiver down your spine. The way in which this middle develops out of the top is so magical, I would happily leave and exclaim that I have found the Rose for me and that all others are pretty wimps! I have more for you. There is more wonder to be had in the way this beauty dries down. We take all of that gothic splendour, all of the early nuance of earth and angst, all of the attitude of the clove and all of the underlying sensuality of the fruits, and we pull them further down into the depths. Patchouli, lends a layer of Chocolate and Soil, which melt into a yet more austere Sandalwood. This is creamy, and yet not easily so, having that austere and unapologetic Sandalwood I get from Guerlain’s Samsara. Should you struggle to bury your senses in the earths depths, fear not as the Frankincense will bring it to you in its gentle consoling smoke. All in all, a fragrance to make you weep at its beauty, or Laugh at its empowering armour. I love it, and think it represents an as yet underrated peak in the art of fragrance. Happy Smelling. J xxx