No surprises – we begin with Etat Libre d'Orange, who continues to wave the avant-garde flag, representing one of the most creative, transgressive, and imaginative fragrance houses. In Jasmin et Cigarette, they contrast pure white jasmine against warm tobacco. Sacred jasmine and profane ‘cigarette’, the fragrance explores the namesake floral ingredient, as its fruity and lactonic qualities are picked up by apricot, while its slightly shadowy underside – indoles – has a pungency shared with tobacco. Andy Tauer’s Incense Rose similarly works on the principle of juxtaposition, light and dark, as brilliant extracts of rose shoot into the atmosphere thanks to effervescent orange citrus fruits and cardamon. This midnight background is the work of patchouli, incense, and castoreum, which lend a classical feel to an otherwise boundary pushing work.
Also from Etat Libre d'Orange, Vierges et Toreros ("Virgins and Bullfighters") poses a duel between animalic leather notes and bloomy petals and stems of tuberose. Carnal grace – a battle of masculine and feminine codes that results in a mutual victory. Vierges identifies – at a technical level – shared resonances between these two notes: balsamic, ripe, fleshy, spicy, and animalic, drawing them together for impressive effect. Contrast this with Tauer's Lonestar Memories, a gritty, smoky ‘cowboy’ campfire leather that calls to mind vintage leather jackets and well-loved denim. The key here is contrast, surging the intense leather note with lashings of clary sage, geranium, myrrh, and jasmine. It takes a brilliant artist to look at a composition laterally, to see its affinities and patterns, and Tauer has done just that with this fragrance. Naomi Goodsir's Bois d'Ascese takes this general theme and tells a different story: one of fighting fires in the Australian bush, defending an old church on the family property. One imagines old timber set ablaze, the aromatic smoke of dried aromatic materials – pine needles, tree bark, and, to develop this fantasy, charred peaty Islay Scotch.
To conclude – an eschatological fantasy - La Fin du Monde (Etat Libre d'Orange) imagines the "the end of the world" and for Etat Libre d'Orange the end of the world smells like buttered popcorn, gunpowder and pencil shavings. Boom!
