Absolue Pour le Soir by Maison Francis Kurkdjian

By Marina Umberto Eco defines the poetic effect "as the capacity that a text displays for continuing to generate different readings, without ever being completely consumed.” I find it justifiable to replace "text" with "perfume"; after all, the latter undoubtedly generates different "readings" under different circumstances, on different wearers and simply during the course of its development. In that respect it too can never be fully grasped or totally consumed, forever escaping full understanding. Having said that, not every perfume has that evasive quality or provides that poetic effect. Simplistically put, only the better ones do. Absolue Pour le Soir does. With every stage of its development and from day to day wearings, it turns to me with a different facet. Sometimes, it is gourmand... cumin coated in chocolate, sprinkled on honeyed petals of a black rose. Sometimes, the cumin has nothing to do with food and is all about flesh, lending the composition a sensual, lustful quality. And sometimes, Absolue is all about incense, leathery, husky, thickly enveloping smoke, Bois d'Armenie on steroids, a perfect comfort scent for a winter soir. The play of ingredients aside, this creature can't even be categorized in terms of its species. As soon as I start thinking that it is human, all too human, a distinctly animalic feel takes over, and the perfume acquires a supple and rugged texture of bullhide. Rich as it is, the blend is fairly streamlined, and thus I find it to be distinctly modern. And yet there is something not even old-fashioned, but ancient about it. Smelling Absolue Pour le Soir, "I look through the eyes of the beast to find the man." Or vice versa... Highly recommended. Available at Luckyscent and Franciskurkdjian.com, $175 or 115€ for 2.4oz respectively. Image, The Minotaur by George Frederick Watts.