Bois de Turquie is the latest composition by Jean-Paul Millet Lage, the perfumer and owner of Maître Parfumeur et Gantier. It is the first fragrance by the house since 1989 explicitly marketed as a unisex perfume and is classified as a woody aromatic composition. Despite its name which means "Wood(s) of Turkey", its incense-y facet is more important than its woodsy one it seems as here sandalwood is made part of an incense-rich mix. "Woodsy" is a term that can be used in a more figurative sense to designate aromas like vetiver and patchouli and here it applies to patchouli.
A hitherto hidden woody violet note emerges in the end which tilts the balance more in the direction of a woody perfume. Complexity is the name of the game.
The scent aims to bridge the gap between the West and the Orient seeming to do so by resorting to references to an antique historic substratum located in Anatolia while inscribing itself in the Mediterranean geographical continuity.
Inspired by the Millet Lage's travels within Turkey, the scent is a shockingly beautiful fragrance offering both austere and sensual facets with an undercurrent of discreet gourmand notes marked by a religious quality. The beauty of this perfume is such that it is able to provoke a genuine physical aesthetic emotion of poignancy and even suffering in the wearer. One feels strangled at the throat, tears are ready to pour and one attempts not to give in to the strength of one's emotions.
Bois de Turquie perfectly illustrates the difference between what is pretty and pleasing and what is beautiful and more difficult to bear. In the experience of Beauty there is longing and the fear of loss while at the same time there is also the revelation of one's mortality and transiency. I will never be able to stand here for all eternity and drink from the source of this river for my thirst never will quench and the beauty that is contained in this place, person, or scent cannot last because all things and all sensations are meant to disappear.
The perfume shuns exoticism and a classically rendered Orient and prefers to turn to a mythical antique pagan Mediterranean landscape filled with protective deities.
The explicit "unisex" treatment of the perfume can be felt at one level in the contrast between austere, dry and voluptuous notes as mentioned above, but also more deeply, between the opposition and marriage of paternal and maternal principles.....
Continue reading "Maître Parfumeur et Gantier Bois de Turquie (2008) {Perfume Review & Musings} {New Fragrance}" »
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