L'Artisan Parfumeur Seville A L'Aube

L'Artisan Parfumeur Seville A L'Aube is a result of a collaboration between perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour and fragrance writer Denyse Beaulieu, and is a limited edition fragrance that sits in the 'Exotic Travels' L'Artisan stable. I was recently invited to a blogger event to meet Betrand and Denyse and try the fragrance.

Denyse told the olfactory story of a romantic night in Seville to Bertrand, who remarked it would make a very good perfume and then actually made it, while Denyse wrote a book (The Perfume Lover) that details the original story (and other personal stories), the process of making Seville A L'Aube and some history of perfume generally.  I'm not going to repeat the story here; you can read it from the extract of The Perfume Lover on Denyse's blog, Grain De Musc.

Seville A L'Aube is an oriental orange blossom fragrance. The main notes are orange blossom and incense, with petitgrain, beeswax, luisieri lavender and jasmine. It opens on a green and fresh note from the petitgrain and luisieri lavender, then the orange blossom takes centre stage with a warm musky floral skin-but-better heart, and finally the incense is quite soft and gentle (the ghost of incense that has been burnt, rather than a still burning censer).

I found the luisieri lavender note very interesting. It is very green and almost balsamic - it's not a sweet and powdery lavender, it has a darkness and slight bitterness to it. Betrand Duchaufour had some of the individual ingredients (are they called ingredients in perfume?) at the blogger event and when I sniffed a little of the lavender on its own, I fell in love with it. It's dark, syrupy and sharp all at once - like shadow lavender. This was the note that made the orange blossom and incense play well instead of being altogether too much together. The overall effect is warm, beautiful and refined, which is interesting as the story that inspired it is quite racy!

Seville A L'Aube has strong sillage and it lasts all day on my skin. I'm used to the more gentle sillage of all natural perfumes these days, so I actually find it a little too strong sometimes for my personal preference (and acute sense of smell) if I apply more than one or two sprays. If you expect your perfume to last well, Seville A L'Aube will not disappoint, and it's not overly heavy, it's just intense and long lasting.

Compared to Jo Malone Orange Blossom, Seville A L'Aube is less aquatic and more complex. Compared to Andy Tauer's Orange Star, Seville A L'Aube has less bitterness/zestiness, is more smooth and more instantly accessible/wearable (I love Orange Star but it is weird).

Available from the Covent Garden L'Artisan Parfumeur shop and online from www.artisanparfumeur.com this costs £88 for 100ml. I hope this makes it as part of the permanent line up, as it is lovely.

Disclosure: sample.