Dusita Pelagos, A Journey To The Greek Isles

 

Once a year there is the excitement of a new fragrance introduction from Dusita Paris, a fragrance house created by Thai perfumer Pissara Umivijani, now based in Paris on a quiet side-street just a short stroll from the big designer houses in the first arrondissement. Ms.Umivijani has proven herself to be very diverse in her scent creations. Her first three scents included a classic floral gardenia, an evocative and aromatic fougere, and an Oudh that meant serious business and took no prisoners!

With each new fragrance introduction, Ms. Umivijani adds a new facet to the collection, but one type of scent missing in the lineup was a beach or sea scent. I heard back in the spring that Ms. Umivijani was releasing a scent based on the ocean, specifically the Greek Isles and the Aegean Ocean surrounding them. Pelagos is the Greek word for seas and open water, and more expressly, it indicates a deep sea. 

View of the Aegean Sea In Oia, Santorini.

I was so excited when I heard the inspiration for the scent was the Greek Islands. It has been a life-long dream of mine to visit Greece, and even though I've traveled quite a lot, I never made it there. I'm getting older, and I finally had booked a trip for this summer. It seemed totally serendipitous that I would be able to test the bottle of Pelagos in the actual place of its inspirational conception! We were going to Santorini and Paros, and on Paros I had just so happened to book a quaint little guest hotel called, wait for it, Pelagos Studios! Everything just seemed to align!

Perissa Beach in Santorini.

If you're like me, when you think of beach or marine scents, you think either ocean freshies, suntan lotion skin scents, or bright citrus colognes. Pelagos is none of these. Remember how I said that the word Pelagos can translate to deep water? Well, that became very instrumental to me in understanding this perfume. Just like the bottomless deep blue water that surrounded us on the island of Santorini, Pelagos hints at depth and mystery.

Ms. Umivijani wanted Pelagos to represent some of the natural aspects she found beautiful in Greece, so this included the land and landscape as well as the ocean. Pelagos takes a while to settle on my skin. The opening doesn't really remind me of the sea. It features bergamot, litsea cubeba, and sea breeze accord in the opening, but I don't smell any of these lighter notes. On me it is woody. Back in May  Dusita created a Zoom call to introduce Pelagos, and it seemed that people were getting a lot of different reactions on their skin. Some got brighter notes, for some the scent opened with florals, and some, like me, smelled more salty wood.

Port in Naoussa, Paros.

After about ten minutes Pelagos becomes like a compilation of all the elements surrounding me as I gaze out on the Greek shoreline. The rugged landscape of rock and stone, and depending which island you're on, perhaps some marble columns from 100 B.C.  Heart notes of orris butter, white thyme, and tonka bean soften the wood notes I'm getting, and it becomes more of a meditative skin scent, redolent of the scrubby bushes and herbal vegetation, the tang of the ocean breeze, and the salt left on the skin as the water evaporates in the breeze. 

The base notes are leather, sandalwood, and patchouli, and again, Pelagos was somewhat muted and quiet when it reached this point I found Pelagos to be a softer scent than the others in the Dusita line, and it's the first that I would call a skin scent. However, a skin scent seems fitting for a fragrance that is meant to represent the basic natural elements of a Greek isle. We visit these islands to be immersed in the beauty, to walk the arid shorelines with their sparse vegetation and on the warm pebble beaches, diving into the dark waters and rising up with the salty water droplets glistening on our skin like a thousand tiny diamonds, stripped to our elemental self!

Pelagos Studio on the island of Paros.

Pelagos was both a shape shifter and a crowd pleaser. My husband and I were vacationing with my daughter and son-in-law. Everyone tested it and everyone enjoyed wearing it, but we all smelled something slightly different. My son-in-law smelled florals at the start, which I didn't get at all. My daughter and I noticed more of the woodiness of the scent. I especially enjoyed the later life of the scent, with its subtle aura indicative of the moody dark blue waters of the Aegean Sea.  I have to be honest and say that when wearing this on a Greek beach it really bloomed into something totally beautiful, and I've never quite captured that same feeling when I spray it back home and hop in the car to run to the grocery. It is as if Ms. Umivijani painted a beautiful scene of the Greek Isles, but in scent. It seemed to know when it was at home, and put on a spectacular performance! I have the 15 ml. bottle which is just so perfect for traveling. I enjoy the quiet stillness that is Pelagos on my skin, and it makes me long for those few glorious days in Greece. I may just have to go back there to experience Pelagos it in its full glory!

Pissara Umivijani is a talented painter and she did this watercolor to try to capture some of the inspiration she found in the beauty of Greece. 

Ms. Umivijani always includes a line from one of the father's poem. Her father, Montri Umivijani was an esteemed Thai poet, and with her perfumes she seeks to honor her father's legacy by putting  scent to his inspiring words.

"Tell me where my limit lies, so I may go up to it and knock just so gently to show I am human."

The photos are all my own. The sample of Pelagos was provided by Parfums Dusita.

Puredistance Papilio, The Butterfly

 

I took a little break from blogging. I wasn't feeling inspired by what I was smelling, life was busy and a bit chaotic, and I took to wearing perfumes in the "easy, breezy" category that smell nice but don't require much notice from the wearer. Recently, though, I felt those stirrings coming back that have made me eager to explore new scents, and to write about those that touch or inspire me. So I finally reached for my sample of Puredistance Papilio which came to me during this off time.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jan Ewoud Vos several years ago when I lived in Singapore. Not only was I impressed with the quality of his fragrances, which numbered around seven at the time, but I liked his absolute commitment to producing a quality product that would withstand time. To do this, the creation of a new Puredistance perfume starts to germinate with an idea in the very creative mind of JEV, and then goes on to a storyboard. Picking a perfumer is key, and I can only imagine how exciting it must be to be picked as a creator of a Puredistance perfume, knowing that cost of materials takes a back burner and quality and execution of the scent are all important considerations.

Nathalie Feisthauer had completed work on Puredistance 12, and JEV decided to have her bring his vision of Papilio to life. I can understand why. When I wrote about Puredistance 12 here I spoke of how its subtle beauty and quiet presence stood out to me as a departure for the line, which in the past has not backed away from making a bold statement. Butterflies are ethereal, fluttery things, so when expressing that in perfume, one would look for a light touch. Perhaps this delicacy is Ms. Feisthauer's signature, at least in regard to Puredistance creations.

What are my impressions? Knowing that it is about butterflies and their cycle of life, I let me mind go with what I smelled. Fragrantica lists this as a floral musky scent, which are a favorite category of mine. When I first smell Papilio I get a woody, musky scent, with just a touch of light in the form of bergamot. The cumbersome caterpillar has transformed into a chrysalis. It hangs by a slender thread, waiting for the transformation into a beautiful free being which can fly through the skies. The smell is quiet, musky, cocoon-like if you will! On my skin there was no dramatic moment of transformation as the figurative butterfly transformed from its pupa state to a fluttering winged creature. Instead there was a light emergence of florals, unveiling their scent as if carried on the wind, the overall effect a gossamer lightness and transparency.

The notes listed in the heart of the fragrance are gentle and quiet. They are magnolia, orris, heliotrope, carrot, lily of the valley, and peach. The notes seem to speak more of the ethereal nature of the butterfly, with its delicate wings and floaty, airy movements. Some other butterfly themed perfumes tend to gravitate to using notes of the nectar it consumes, with strong white florals or honeyed notes. That is not the case here. Ms. Feistheuer has chosen to zero in on the butterfly in all its stages. It is always delicate, understated, but a airy, beautiful and transparent scent.

I found Papilio a gorgeous scent, but it hasn't replaced my love for some of the heavier hitters in the Puredistance family. Warszawa will always be my number one, and I love Antonia and Gold, in particular. But there is a place for quietness and understatement, and Papilio will cloak the fortunate wearer in their own gossamer wings of flight

Thank you to Puredistance for the sample of Papilio. The photo is from their website. 

Jo Malone Honeysuckle & Davana for Autumn Transition

 

I am currently in Australia, now that we live this retirement life of wintering in the Australian summer during January through April at my husband's home city of Adelaide, and then back to Texas spring once autumn arrives here. If you can see the tree in the background of the photo above, the leaves are beginning to turn rust and golden colors. In another two weeks the tree will look like a ball of fire, but by then we will be on our way to Texas, transitioning from autumn to spring.

Many of us who wear a lot of different fragrances, loyal to none, are vitally influenced by the changing seasons and even the daily weather forecast. The scents I will choose for spring when I'm back to Texas will be ones of light green hopefulness and gentle florals. For autumn, something totally different is called for. I want scents that may have elements of the fading summer but that strongly allude to the cooling nights and crisper air. Jo Malone Honeysuckle & Davana fills this need perfectly.

Honeysuckle has always been a favorite note of mine in summer scents, referenced here and here in posts about finding the perfect honeysuckle scent. I think as I get older, the memories it stirs of childhood roaming and the joy of smelling wild honeysuckle trailing across a fence are sweet souvenirs of the past.

Jo Malone scents are very hit and miss for me these days, as I find their newer releases never offensive but also never exciting. However, they have had a few releases in recent years that I do like, and this is one of them. This is one instance where I think the descriptive copy for the fragrance really does capture the essence of the picture the fragrance conjures in my head when I wear it. From the Jo Malone website:

The wildness of honeysuckle, winding through the English countryside. Climbing. Twisting. Ever more alluring after dark. Fresh with rose, and the aromatic, fruity twist of davana. Woody with moss. Warmed by sunshine. 

The juxtaposition the aromatic, woody, mossy notes, but then warmed by sunshine is the essence of the autumn transition to me. Here in Adelaide our days are usually filled with golden sunshine, but the sun's bite is gone and the glow is softer. Then at night the coolness moves in like a cloak of fog, a harbinger of what is soon to come. 

My little bottle of Honeysuckle and Davana that I have here in Australia is a few years old, and I feel that it has mellowed and aged a bit, like a wine. The initial spray does give the aromatic notes from davana, a bit of tea and fruit. But it now feels like it is fermenting, infused with a wine-like presence. This gives it a more formal "perfume smell" than many of the lighter offerings in the Jo Malone range.

The davana is the top note. It is an aromatic plant from India and has a smell reminiscent of dried fruits. The fruitiness is pleasant but not at all sweet or tart, more rich and edible. Heart notes are honeysuckle and rose. The honeysuckle doesn't have the fresh innocence of a summer scent. It smells more of the honey aspect and less of the floral. The rose is very subdued and just a subtle sweetness underneath. The base is mossy, and this is what gives the perfume the autumn vibes for me. 

Overall, Honeysuckle & Davana comes across as a more polished, old-school perfume scent than the name might imply, but being a Jo Malone scent it is not in the least overbearing. The honeysuckle does give the scent a warm, golden feel to me, which feels like the waning days of summer and the more chilly days to come. Try it if you're looking for a scent which hasn't totally said goodbye to summer, yet brings the comfort of autumn days.

The perfume and photo are my own. 

Parfums Dusita Rosarine & A Journey To Flåm, Norway

Parfums Dusita launched Rosarine, their newest scent, this past May. I was very kindly sent a mini bottle and invited to the online launch. The scent was newly poured, and my memory was it being a pretty rose, rather innocent and fresh. After the launch, I proceeded into a very busy travel period and tucked the bottle into my baggage. When I eventually smelled Rosarine again, I was in for a surprise!

Dusita perfumes are released -- one per year -- and they are always an event! I decided that Rosarine would be my focus on a special part of our trip to Norway. We flew to Bergen, and from there took a train to the town of Gudvangen. It's a tiny town at the foot of the UNESCO listed Nærøyfjord, one of the most scenic fjords in Norway. From there it is a two hour cruise around the horseshoe-shaped fjord to the tiny town of Flåm. 

You have to plan ahead when going to Flåm, there are only about three hotels, not enough to house all the people who may come for the day on the ferries. When we got to Flåm we were greeted with the sight of a large cruise ship. Groan. So much for our idyllic hidden village! 

 

Happily, they loaded up their passengers and sailed away before five, and suddenly it seemed we were the only people in town!

Our hotel choice was born of necessity, it was the only room in Flåm we could find. But the Fretheim Hotel turned out to be a very fortuitous choice, considering I was doing a story on Rosarine, a rose-based perfume. It just so happened that the hotel had a gorgeous rose garden in the front lawn. Photo opportunities abounded!

 So now it was time to smell Rosarine again. Like a fine wine, Rosarine had aged in the couple of months since I last smelled it, and morphed into a lush, brilliant rose scent!

These deep red roses well represent the lushness of Rosarine. I get a very wine-like scent from the perfume. In my mind I picture harvesters stomping grapes for wine, but instead of grapes, they are stomping rose petals, and it is turning into the most rich, indulgent rose scent!

The opening of Rosarine contain a succulent raspberry note, a slightly tart lychee note, and a little bergamot. As the richness increases, the rose is joined by orris butter, jasmine sambac, wood, incense, and ambrette. The heart of the perfume is intoxicating!

After many hours Rosarine will settle into a gourmand base. Notes listed are patchouli, vetiver, cocoa, vanilla, sandalwood, and benzoin. What is amazing to me about this scent, at least on my skin, is how long the sumptuous richness of the rose permeates.

Even the next morning when I wake up, my wrist is near my nose, and the first thing I smell is the whisper of Rosarine. It's a beautiful way to wake up!

Anyone familiar with Parfums Dusita knows that Pissara Umivijani always selects one of her father's poems to represent and introduce her scents. Her father, Montri Umivijani, was an esteemed poet in Thailand. As corny as it sounds, when I first smelled the luxuriant, opulent roses in Rosarine, I thought, "this smells like a poem". Her are the words from her father that Pissara chose:

On my lips, "leaving" is love, A thousandfold from the outworn heart.

If you are a lover of roses, Rosarine is a must try. I find when I wear it, I experience the uplifting feelings of joy and optimism that rose scents can impart. 

Thank you so much to Pissara and the Dusita team for allowing me to experience this beautiful perfume! And I loved it so much, I took the opportunity to order it during Dusita's Christmas box special, and got all these extra goodies with it! And I just saw today that Dusita is having a similar generous special for Valentine's. Go to their website and have a look!

Thank you to Parfums Dusita for the sample of Rosarine. All opinions are my own. All photos are my own.