Exposed; The Scent between Words

“she walked on, between kaleidoscopic peonies massed in pink clouds, black and brown tulips and fragile mauve stemmed roses, transparent like sugar flowers in a confectioner’s window – until, as if the scherzo of colour could reach no further intensity, it broke off suddenly in mid-air.”

from:  Tender is the night by F Scott Fitzgerald

What a remarkable paragraph; ones that sums up colours and fragrance as well as the sense of the sun on the skin.. almost like a Monet painting of ‘candy/ sugar /sorbet ‘colours.  So then it makes sense why a Perfume brand may well use this as a creative starting point for a fragrance brief.  Well in fact Miller Harris have done just that but to make it even more of an interesting project they gave these few lines to two perfumers..thats it;  no other brief, no specific client,  no intended notes, no commercial boundaries just undulating pure creativity for two bright lights in the perfume world Bertrand Duchaufour and Mathieu Nardin,

The end result? Actually two very different takes; Tender and Scherzo, and although they are very different they can almost be viewed as a day and night if you like of the same scene.

Scherzo – Mathieu Nardin

The word actual is a primarily a musical term which means a shift to something light and playful in a second or third movement of a piece of classical music but can also refer to a person or moment in general.  A word used here to show up  almost a wild flower garden, in a  sugar floral day  height of sunshine, with a modern take on vintage notes of powdery rose and peony,  

Opening up with blood orange tangerine, bright purple davanna and golden olibanum resin followed by white and yellow flowers rounded off with vanilla and Oud to carry the full boded fragrance with you all day.

Top Notes: Tangerine, Davanna

Heart Notes: Olibanum, Narcissus, Pittosporum, Dark Rose

Base Notes: Patchouli, Vanilla, Oud

Tender presenting the same garden in the coldness of night.

Tender. Bertrand Duchaufour 

A  skilful creation of  green sparkling floral, spice notes which move to darker florals, water and leather then rounds off with resin and woody notes.

This perfume is one for those that certainly love the full body of a Chanel no 5 or such classics, it’s rich and sumptuous and is the darker of the two fragrances and interestingly is reflected in the packaging

the wonderful dripping floral motif is set on white for Scherzo and on darkest midnight blue for tender

Top: Pink Pepper CO2, Aldehydes, Green Hyacinth Note and Cinnamon

Heart: Black Tulip (Tulip + Ink), Leather, Saffron, Geranium Cyclamen, Incense Oil and Rose Turkey Absolute

Base: Amber, Cedarwood, Myrrh Absolute, Patchouli Fraction, Frankincense Resin, Vanilla Absolute, Storax Resin, Sandalwood and Musk

Available soon at Miller Harris