Girl With The Golden Pearl - Creating Perfect Perfume for March.

You might remember that a couple of weeks ago the very lovely and the very talented March of Perfume Posse decided to help me in finding my Holy Grail Fragrance. She created three versions of what she thought would be my perfect scent by mixing the already existing perfumes. The time has come for me to get back at her thank her. My gratitude comes in form of four fragrances (and a bonus) concocted by me using the same method as March, i.e. by shamelessly using the scents created from scratch by Real Perfumers.

March described her Perfect Fragrance wonderfully well. I quote:

What I am looking for is something I will call The Golden Pearl. Mitsouko is a pearl to me – it is luminous, it is haunting. But it is a baroque pearl – it is not something I wear easily, or often, as much as I love it. Guerlain’s Plus Que Jamais is a different pearl – ladylike on me, but not anywhere near enough of whatever it is I’m looking for. The two scents that probably come closest in terms of golden luminosity are Hermes’ 24, Faubourg and Jil Sander No. 4. But Faubourg, a supremely elegant scent, lacks the comfort and warmth I am looking for. Jil Sander I am completely in love with but, while it has the comfort and warmth, it is missing the depth and resonance of The Golden Pearl. (…)I guess I am looking for a rotund floriental with a stronger, more interesting base? Incense. Some skank, possibly. Perhaps leather. Perhaps (I quake writing this) even some amber, which in large doses nauseates me the way big blasts of vanilla make me queasy, but I see amber in a small dose as perhaps complementing the resinous quality of incense.

Since I personally cannot wear 24, Faubourg, it is hard for me to imagine it being (a basis of) anyone’s Holy Grail, nor do I own any, that is why I decided to take Jil Sander No. 4 as a point of departure for March’s Holy Grail adding to it some comfort, warmth, incense, leather and skank.

In fact, the first prototype, which I called The Golden Pearl March No 4, was Jil Sander No. 4 re-created by yours truly. How did I do that? Easy peasy. Here is the list of notes in No. 4: rose, geranium, peach, plum, galbanum, violets, jasmine, rose, tuberose, heliotrope, ylang-ylang, carnation, tarragon, myrrh, ambergris, moss, vanilla, sandalwood, patchouli, musk. And here is the list of perfumes I used to re-build No.4 for March, hopefully amplifying the darker, warmer, skankier aspects of it: Chanel No 19, Meteorites, Crown Rose, Heliotrope, Songes, Carnation, Parfum des Merveilles, Yatagan, Musc Blanc, Patchouli Magique, Fleur des Comores, Ambre Dore (all these basically a drop each), plus a double dose of Mea Culpa (tuberose), Mirra & Mirra (myrrh), Egoiste (sandalwood) and a generous dose of Colombinade.

A word of explanation. Colombinade (the aforementioned bonus) is to these four …um, creations, what Guerlinade is to Guerlain’s masterpieces; it is the base of all The Golden Pearls. It consisted of: Lonestar Memories for leather (sorry, Andy!), Egoiste for sandalwood, Chanel de Cuir de Russie for more and a different kind of leather, Messe de Minuit for incense, Mirra and Mirra and Eau d’Iparie for myrrh, Patchouli Magique for a tiny bit of patchouli skank, and Ambre Dore for some amber.

The second prototype of The Golden Pearl, called The Golden Pearl Sacred Feminine, was my favorite “blend”. I was striving for the soft, mysterious femininity and mixed such perfumes as Jo Malone Vintage Gardenia, Caron Parfum Sacre, Rosine Coupe d’Or, Balenciaga Talisman, Caron Narcisse Noire and, you guessed it, a hefty dose of Colombinade.

The third “mod”, The Golden Pearl Rotund Floriental, was the one hopefully fulfilling March’s desire for, well, a “rotund floriental”. It was produced by recklessly mixing Yves Rocher Nuit d’Orchidee, Orchidee Blanche, Dior Poison (if it is not “rotund” then I don’t know what is), Opium Fleur de Shanghai, Guerlain Apaisant, MPG Fleur des Comores, and of course a quite a bit of Colombinade. Was it voluptuous? You betcha. Was it so heady it almost suffocated me in its rotund fumes? Yeah…I considered sending it in a leaden container.

And last but not least, The Golden Pearl Temple of March was a soulful, spiritual one of the four samples. Its incense note was more emphasized then in the rest of The Pearls. It was made of CdG Kyoto, Donna Karan Labdanum, lots of Messe de Minuit and an inevitable splash of Colombinade.

Have I “created” something at least remotely evocative of March’s vision of the perfect scent? Have I completely discredited, disgraced and embarrassed myself? Is March still alive after testing the samples (especially The Rotund one)? Is she still my friend? Find out for yourself by reading her impressions on Perfume Posse. Me, I will find courage and comfort in words of Camus:

…The failure is complete. I turn my head and go away. I took my share in this fight for the impossible.