Lust by S-Perfume

Lust is a part of /7S/, an olfactory installation of the Seven Deadly Sins by Mother S (Sacré Nobi, founder of S-Perfume) in collaboration with seven perfumers, Thierry Wasser (Acedia or Sloth), Harry Fremont (Avaritia or Avarice), Ilias Ermenidis (Gula or Gluttony), Annie Buzantian (Invidia or Envy), Annick Menardo (Ira or Anger), Alberto Morillas (Luxuria or Lust), and Jacques Cavallier (Superbia or Pride). Alberto Morillas is the nose behind such fragrances as Bvlgari Omnia, Cartier Le Baiser Du Dragon, Givenchy Pi, Flower by Kenzo, and S-Perfume’s Jet-Scent. Lust is one of my two favorite S-Perfumes (the other one being 100% Love), it is a remarkable, unusual fragrance, a shadowy, dark scent; actually, to me it is a place rather than a scent. It is a fragrance to step into, or dive into. On the other side you will find a different world, a gray, dim, dusky universe. This is how I imagine Hades, where Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness flows, would look and smell like. There is nothing overtly lusty, blatantly sensual, or over the top erotic about this scent. This is a scent of a sin that has already been punished, a wistful, sorrowful and heartbreakingly beautiful scent of the lustful in Dante’s second circle of Inferno, of Paolo and Francesca, Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Iseult. Lust starts with a raw and earthy note that makes me think of iris (I was unable to find a list of notes, so this is all my own perception/imagination). The scent grows darker, patchouli becomes evident and so does chocolate. Then a cold, camphoraceous note joins the composition, bringing with it that misty, grey, ethereal quality that is perhaps what makes me think of Hades and Inferno. The drydown of Lust is of course animalic (well, this is Lust after all), but that dirtiness is understated, just like all other accords in this scent. If pressed to compare Lust to another scent, I would say that it is somewhat reminiscent of Borneo 1834. In my opinion, however, Morillas’s creation is a superior blend. (Critisizing a scent created by Lutens The Great does not come easy to me, beleive me) The chocolate note in Borneo 1834 has a powdery and plasticy smell of cheap cocoa, here it is a softly bitter aroma of high quality dark chocolate. The camphorous note is subtler in Lust, less pungent then in Lutens’s scent, it is well blended with other notes and does not feel like an alien accord that has been added for the sake of making the scent different, at the expense of wearability. Having said that, to me Lust is not an everyday kind of scent. It requires a certain melancholy, quietly creative state of mind; it is an atmospheric scent and one must be prepared to deal with that dark, otherworldly atmosphere before putting Lust on. I love Lust the way Pablo Neruda describes in his poem below, “as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul.” You can buy a generous sample of Lust in S-Perfume online store. According to Scentzilla, bigger, 15ml, bottles will be also available late January or early February. And now as promised, I do not love you... by Pablo Neruda: I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz, or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off. I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul. I love you as the plant that never blooms but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers; thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance, risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way than this: where I does not exist, nor you, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep. *The photo of Lust (Luxuria) installation is from compressedart.com. *The painting is The Ghosts of Paolo and Francesca Appear to Dante and Virgil by Ary Scheffer (Musée du Louvre, Paris).