The art of high perfumery has always been about creating emotions and the ability of great noses to capture different aspirations and atmospheres in their creations. From the Italian renaissance and the French courts through to distinguished British barbershops and avant-garde maverick noses, the great perfumers have always strived for their blends to evoke a certain mood or sensation.
Apart from romantic, sporty, fresh, or dreamy impressions, in this section -
Decades of Decadence - I'm going to focus on debauchery and self indulgence... Or rather the fragrances from the last few decades that bring these adjectives to mind.
The French have, like in so many other facets of perfumery, always had an edge in this genre. From
Guerlain's civet loaded
Mouchoir de Monsieur and
Jicky to
Etat Libre D’Orange's entire catalog, French houses have been the masters of exploring the gritty and more sinister sides of olfactory creation. First out therefore, a ravishing blend from Parisian
Creed, released in 1973 -
Acier Aluminium.
In my initial review of Acier Aluminium on
Basenotes (
http://www.basenotes.net/ID26120039.html) I wrote that the visual representation of this elixir is the masked orgy scenes in
Stanley Kubrick's
Eyes Wide Shut. And this truly is the type of setting that comes to mind when smelling this pagan juice.
It's very different from most contemporary offerings from Creed. Far from the safe, clean virtues of for instance
Erolfa or
Millesime Imperiál, Acier Aluminium projects a sinful image in an absolutely intoxicating way.
The unorthodox blend of raw ambergris, resins and sweet fruits with a slight lemony edge create a voluptuous, smouldering and massive impression. This is not one for the office... There is also a metallic edge to the scent, slightly reminiscent of the one found in
Caron's
Anarchiste, but without the nauseating bits of the latter.
Longevity and sillage are well above average, which is unusual for Creed to begin with and especially in the Eau de Toilette format.
To conclude, Acier Aluminium is both a testimony to the brilliance of earlier Creed creations,
Ambre Canelle and
Orange Spice also come to mind, but first and foremost it's one of the premier carnal fragrances of the last decades. Corruption extraordinaire.
Overall Rating: 8/10
SUBTLE SUGAR RUSH. Heliotrope - a very nice, albeit understated, cologne from the Italian masters of eccentric paisley Etro, is often unfairly overlooked in the discussions about the great gourmands. This is the aroma of bitter sweet almonds on a bed of white flowers sprayed with caramel milk. Even though heliotrope notes have been quite widely used historically, this rendition adds beautiful layers of cherry and soft tobacco creating a sublime pastry like impression. This is not just pure marzipan.
just make it overtly sweet and cloying. Also I was quite surprised to learn that this was released in 1989 as it comes across as much more contemporary and soft compared to what stuff generally smelled like then. A fact that further proves Heliotrope was ahead of the curve and probably has served as an inspiration for fragrances like Dior's Bois d'Argent, L'Artisan Parfumeur's Bois Farine and Cerutti Black.
