Eau d’Italie released Au Lac just over a year ago, describing it as a feminine floral with top notes of water lily, bitter orange leaves, and panarea fig leaves; middle notes of osmanthus, rose bud, and sambac jasmine petals; and base notes of cedar wood, papyrus, and mineral amber. I was preoccupied with some non-perfume matters last spring, so I somehow didn’t get around to trying Au Lac until recently, although both its notes and its “back story” appealed to me. According to Eau d’Italie, this fragrance conveys the impression of “a gorgeous Italian garden at the height of summer, the air filled with the scent of flowers and the fresh waters of a lake” and was “inspired by the love affair between Italian Princess Vittoria Colonna and Futurist artist Umberto Boccioni.”

There isn’t anything particularly Futurist about Au Lac — what would a Futurist fragrance smell like? I’m imagining a mix of scorched rubber, hot metal, marble dust, and red wine — but the idea of a rendezvous in a sunny garden is definitely there. Au Lac opens with a lemon-tinged note of water lily petals. There’s also something lightly salty and bright in the initial phases of this fragrance, perhaps some unlisted neroli. The creamy lily petal note never really disappears, but it’s joined by a slightly warmer second phase of closely-knit floral notes. I caught a hint of osmanthus, which always reminds me of peach skin, but the jasmine is very subtle and not at all indolic. Au Lac’s garden-in-bloom development gains some structure from a greenish wood note (the papyrus?) and a light cedary base. Overall, Au Lac strikes a nice balance between clean and lush notes. I wouldn’t have minded just a touch more dirt in this cultivated landscape, but as it is, it’s a very appealing scent…

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