Atelier Cologne Collection Azur available at Sephora

Creative Directors Sylvie Ganter and Christophe Cervasel of Atelier Cologne are celebrating five years as the visionaries who reinvented cologne. This anniversary began with the launch of Pomelo Paradis, which completed the Collection Originale, and now follows the Collection Azur. These four new fragrances, encased in beautiful Venetian blue glass bottles, will be sold exclusively at Sephora and at ateliercologne.com as of March 2015 and are currently available at the Atelier Cologne Boutiques in New York, Paris and Brooklyn. Using their trademark  EDP/Cologne Absolue concentration, The Maison de Parfum presents Manderine Glaciale, Sud Magnolia, Figuier Ardent and Cedre Atlas. The miniature tableaus and narratives  that always accompany Atelier Cologne fragrances tell of lovers traveling far across land and sea to be together, to kiss under an azure sky…

Mandarine Glaciale, created by Jerome Epinette (Robertet) is a bright, chilly winter morning captured in sparkling lemon, mandarin and bergamot. It has a surprisingly pithy texture, like damp strings of grass clinging to boots as one pushes through the undergrowth.

'Willow Wood' by Charles Rennie Macintosh

The ginger in this fragrance is in no way dry or spiced, rather it brings the hum of crisp fire that accompanies freshly grated ginger roots. Bitter petigrain and more rising damp from the oakmoss and vetiver keep Mandarine Glaciale feeling cool and wintry far into the development, only warming slightly when the base of white amber works a little alchemy with the ginger, turning it candied and chewy. I love that each of fragrances in the Collection Azur feels uniquely 'of here', they seem to conceptualise environments in which the characters of each tale can play out a story.

The second fragrance in the line from Jerome Epitette is Sud Magnolia, set hundreds of miles from  the chilly damp of Mandarine Glaciale. Sud Magnolia opens with bitter sweet fruit juices of orange, pomelo and blackcurrant, seamlessly woven with a huge bouquet of rose, magnolia and saffron flower. It's fluffy as a soufflé and heady with lustrous petals, blackcurrant and rose dancing a rather beautiful duet centre stage.

Backstage image from Eli Saab 2011 Spring Summer Couture Show

The floral interplay invokes images of twirling ladies in full skirts, waltzing in graceful circles on a warm spring evening. A garden party perhaps, the surrounding trees heavy with creamy magnolia. Sandalwood and musks warm the air and the earth beneath dancing feet, romance blossoming as the sky is tinged with dusk.

Figuier Ardent, from Ralf Schwieger (Mane) is a lustful, milky fig scent that verges on gourmand; the kind of edible, sensory pleasure that comes from not knowing whether to eat it or slather it all over your skin. The scent unveils itself with a crunchy green verdancy from bergamot and fig leaf, which quickly turns warm and lactonic with salty fig flesh lavishly spiced with anise and cardamom.

Turkish bath  Felix Valloton 1907

This is a creamy, unctuous fragrance full of the scent of warm, clean skin that brings to mind a day at a luxury Turkish spa. Beginning with a revitalising, citrusy scrub, followed by a blissful massage and a long, lazy afternoon by the poolside. The combination of fig, iris and tonka is sensual heaven, perfectly balanced and very addictive.

Cedre Atlas, again created by Jerome Epitette, is an intensely cold, dry citrus, like the air at the very top of a snowy mountain.

Mountain Keith Negley

Beginning sharply with lemon, bergamot and blackcurrant, it is a blast of chilled white light that persists throughout the whole development. To keep the fragrance from evaporating too quickly there is an anchor of woody cedar, raspy papyrus and green vetiver. The only softness is buried deep within Cedre Atlas' icy layers, where jasmine, amber and apricot combine in a sorbet just smooth enough to relieve the brutal, elemental chill of this cologne. One might almost be able to see a frosty corona forming around the wearer of Cedre Atlas.

All four fragrances from the Collection Azur have been skilfully engineered, with amazing depth and longevity. The use of citrus fruit is gorgeous, as it always is in Atelier Cologne creations. I would urge you all to seek them out, splash them on liberally and travel in your mind to far away places. A new scent is as good as a holiday, right?

Disclaimer- Samples gratefully received from Atelier Cologne, opinions my own.

Susie Baird– Senior contributor and editor of Epiphany.

Manderine Glaciale, Sud Magnolia, Figuier Ardent and Cedre Atlas

Thanks to our friends at Atelier Cologne we have a set of all four Cologne Absolues from the Collection Azur (rollerball 7.5 ml) to offer one reader in the EU, USA or Canada. To be eligible, please leave a comment with which appeal to you and where you live. Draw closes March 7, 2015

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