January is for many a month to press reset, a time to define goals, detox the body, simplify or declutter living spaces. In other words it is a time to start afresh after what may have been a holiday season of excess. Erawan by Parfums Dusita strikes me as the perfect perfume to accompany you on these tasks.
Erawan is Pissara Umavijani's scented tribute to Erawan the elephant god of historic Thai myths, as well as Erawan National Park, home to beautiful cascading waterfalls. The Erawan of Hindu mythology is the mount of the god Indra. Together they ride across the heavens and bring rain clouds and lightening which results in life-giving rain. An area northwest of Bangkok in Kanchanaburi Province is the location of Erawan National Park and Erawan Falls with its seven tiers of falls and pools. It is located in a lush green area surrounded by rainforests. Erawan the perfume captures these colors and sensations: the green of the forest, the freshness of the pooling waters, and the sense of calm that a day communing with nature imparts.
Just before the close of 2018 I read an announcement that Erawan won "The Breakthrough of the Year" Prize at FIFI Russia. This was a gentle reminder that I have been meaning to write about this perfume ever since I sprayed it all over myself when visiting Pissara Umavijani at Parfums Dusita in Paris back in July, and consequently spent the rest of the day in a perfumed cloud of blissfulness.
It is a good thing no one asked me to name the perfume for I would have called it Serenity, a truly descriptive depiction of the scent but not nearly as evocative of a name as Erawan. For me wearing Erawan is like a visit to a day spa, cocooned in a robe and turban, soothing music, mellow lighting and a therapeutic head massage. The day in Paris when I doused myself in Erawan, I walked in a happy cloud of calm, and neither getting lost five times or long ticket lines were able to shake that cool equilibrium.
How is this achieved? First there is a distinctive note of hay and tobacco. It is strong and very identifiable, but very quickly green notes enter and soften the scent. Clary sage gives a herbal/green scent and as other notes start to emerge I find this scent is very distinctive with notes that aren't easily identified. Petitgrain Paraguay adds a herbaceous and floral touch. Soft lily of the valley gives the impression of clear pools of spring water. This is a whisper of floral, a very soft and subtle interpretation of the muguet note. Gradually notes of vanilla lend a creamy texture to Erawan, and notes of oakmoss and vetiver give it a slightly smokey, earthy vibe which gives it a masculine touch.
Liatris, or deers tounge, was the mystery ingredient for me. I looked it up and courmain liatris as is used in Erawan gives off a herbaceous and sometimes balsamic note and can resemble tonka. It also enhances the smell of green hay and forest notes and is used in fougeres, chypres and oriental perfumes. There was something in the green creaminess that slightly reminded me of another perfume in my collection and I finally realized it is DSH Perfumes Celadon. Although they smell differently overall, they both share this creamy green aspect and sure enough latrix (or latris) is listed as an ingredient in both, leading me to conclude that this dusty vanilla/tonka aura may come from the latris/latrix note.
When I visited Parfums Dusita in Paris this last summer I talked with Pissara about the creation of Erawan. I asked if she started out wanting to make a perfume about the legend of Erawan, the Thai name for the elephant god, or did the notes come together first.
"For Erawan, it came from the idea that I wanted to express the natural forest with a masculine touch," said Pissara. "At the same moment I listened to the material and I realized that there is a petit grain that really had this masculine but soft presence; there is an aspect that is a fougere structure. The clary sage is similar to that I use for Issara. I did many formulations. I gave myself this charter, to make it softly masculine, but I tried different styles. I did one extremely smokey formula, then I went to this formulation and realized it is something that I like. After that I thought, this perfume should be like Erawan, because of the Erawan waterfall in Thailand. It's always a name I personally relate to because I lived near the Erawan shrine in Bangkok. After that I chose the poetry from my father."
I did not know how I got there,
I walked through an autumn wood,
It was wonderful how I
Journeyed into the light.
- Montri Umavijani
"My father talked about walking the transition of life. After I chose the poetry I imagined that this poetry can relate to the elephant Erawan, and the forest."
When Pissara introduced Erawan last year she wrote, "The perfume Erawan, will I feel appeal to both women and men, with its sunny, slightly earthy and woody fragrance, similar to a fougere style. What is sure is that a large percentage of the men to whom I have presented it have loved it."
What I find most appealing about Erawan is the calming green hay notes that persist through the life of the perfume on my skin. It is a calming scent that hearkens to the comforting grains that have nostalgic memories of cereals and comfort food. This is combined with a very mellow green that feels like you are breathing in nature's scents. Like Issara, it brings images of a walk through a woods, but for me Issara is a trek through piney woods and Erawan is a natural rainforest with pools of clear water nearby. Both are soothing and offer the comfort of a return to nature that I think is wired into our DNA. With the introduction of Erawan, Parfums Dusita has added another totally distinctive fragrance to the brand.
Photos of waterfalls and elephants show Erawan National Park and are from www.ThaiNationalParks.com. The perfume sample was generously provided by Parfums Dusita. The opinions are my own.
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