The wind was blowing. The graceful petals of the cherry blossoms were dancing like snow flakes. Suddenly, she got closer to him and he fell into her jet black eyes. He thought that his spell started to take hold. Her beauty was unique. Despite feeling guilty, he kissed her.
Sad. Falling into her poor black eyes (ouch!) and then giving a guilty kiss … as recompense? (thanks for nothing). I guess we’ll blame the translator of Atelier Cologne’s Encens Jinhae1 PR…
I’ve “smoked” myself with incense perfumes since they first appeared on the market. I can’t believe it’s been over 20 years since Etro Messe de Minuit was released; I always think of it as the grand-daddy of incense fragrances and as my first ‘incense boyfriend.’ (Yes, in perfume years you can go from BOYfriend to grand-daddy in two decades.) Along with Messe de Minuit, I was a big fan of Comme des Garçons Avignon (2002) and Armani Privé Bois d’Encens (2004). All these fragrances, and today’s — UNUM LAVS1 — are based on incense you would smell in a European Roman Catholic church.
The brand UNUM was founded by Filippo Sorcinelli (see image above). Sorcinelli is an artist, tailor and organist (his new perfume line SAUF has bottles in the shape of the stop knobs of the great organ of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris). LAVS (Laus) stands for Laboratorio Atelier Vesti Sacri and is the Latin word for “praise” (as in, Praise God/Laus Deo). Sorcinelli has made vestments for Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, and before delivery, these vestments were scented with what is now the perfume LAVS…
Even the most jaded perfumistas like myself are not immune from the occasional jerky motion or drool as we read about a new fragrance. I’m sometimes brought out of the glazed-eye/nodding-off stage when a new perfume is by a house I love and a perfumer I admire, has a great list of notes and a well-done backstory. Diptyque Kimonanthe, the newest fragrance in the La Collection 34 series, sparked desire (and hope) for all these reasons.
Diptyque provided me with some of my earliest (and greatest) niche perfume experiences: I’ve owned (or own) L’Eau Trois, L’Ombre dans L’Eau, Olène, Ofrésia, Oud Palao, Tam Dao, Philosykos, Oyédo, Eau d’Elide, Eau Lente, Jardin Clos, L’Autre, L’Eau and Virgilio. I won’t even mention countless candles and gallons of Essence of John Galliano room spray…
Along with glorious statues, ritual objects and religious texts and scholarship, incense arrived in Japan with Buddhism in the sixth century. Incense experienced in temples during Buddhist ceremonies must have inspired Japanese (who could afford it) to burn incense in their homes, not only to commemorate ancestors, deities and important life (and death) events, but to show they were sophisticated. Houses were scented, clothes were hung in ways and places to absorb incense aromas, hair was perfumed. Over the centuries lighthearted ways to enjoy incense were developed: the incense ceremony (kodo) and incense games (one of the most famous, Genji-ko, was associated with the eleventh-century novel The Tale of Genji).
Japanese incense blends changed over time, from complex mixes of ingredients formed into a variety of shapes to “purer” enjoyment of prized, rare, exorbitantly priced wood chips. Raw materials used for incense included shells, figwort, clove, benzoin, cinnamon, star anise, machilus (a member of the laurel family). The royalty of incense ingredients (enjoyed singly, too) were sandalwood and varieties of Aquilaria…
Dot is the latest fragrance release from Comme des Garçons. It comes in the melted light bulb bottle,1 which I did not like in clear glass, but which looks great fun in opaque black with polka dots (see below). Also in its favor, in my book at least, it’s supposed to be about osmanthus, one of my (yes, many) favorite floral notes: “The aim was not only to capture the smell of the flower but to reproduce the mysterious allure that penetrates the air of a park filled with Osmantus trees in bloom.”2
Throw in a few berries, and Dot pretty much follows its lists of notes…