Mood Match by Damien Blottiere Magazine Photoshoot For Vogue Gioiello Magazine September 2013
It is interesting how many jewelers offshoot into niche scent. The application of glittering minutiae, luxury materials, the close affinity with skin and our obsession with adornment all make the relationship fascinating and very rewarding for us as lovers of olfaction. CHANEL, Cartier, Bulgari, Lalique and Van Cleef & Arpels have been creating beautiful and genuinely interesting perfumes for many years now. On the more artistic side, Joel Arthur Rosenthal aka JAR, Bertrand Duchaufour’s gorgeous creations for Parisian jeweller Ann Gerard, Martine Micellef’s decadent formulae housed in Swarovksi flacons and Solange Azagury-Partridge whose stardust drenched Cosmic and Stoned fragrances were created for her by British perfumer Lynn Harris.
Olivier Durbano Perfumer and Jeweler
To this eclectic list we must add French gem lover Olivier Durbano, who originally trained as an architect before becoming a jeweler. His Bijoux de Pierres Poèmes (Perfumes of Poetic Stones) launched in 2005 with Rock Crystal. Prometheé is the latest addition to his lapidary library, a collection of notes such as nutmeg, myrtle and narcissus bundled like kindling around a really fragrant anisic fennel scent which smells increasing roasted as the base elements of rocky, earthy resins and smoke green kick in. Each one of his releases is inspired by the legends, love and symbolism of precious stones. Many people believe in the protective and age-old magical properties of jade, citrine, lapis, quartz and turquoise. Olivier has tapped into his own beliefs with his imaginative and talismanic range, creating a collection of vivid aromas and accompanying spiritual and karmic history.
Olivier’s 2007 launch Black Tourmaline is a remarkable inky, wraith of a scent. No floral notes, no gourmand intonations. It is glowering low skies, flat lands and barely any luminescence. It is like staring into Kubrik’s 2001 A Space Odyssey ’s terrifying monolith; the notes repel and consume simultaneously.
Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline necklace Photo: MC
The stone itself is unusual, used for talismanic purposes, to protect and ward off danger by coveting negativity into positives. By using piesoelctricity – ie rubbing or heating the stone it can be charged to repel and attract like a magnet. 17th century Dutch traders referred to the stone as aschentrekker or ashpuller as it could be rubbed and charged to pull ash from their meerschaum pipes.
Mark Rothko Black on Dark Sienna on Purple
The notes in Black Tourmaline read like a scented storm, clouds of spice such as cardamom, coriander, cumin and pepper shot through with smoke, incense, ubiquitous oud, woods and the barbarous reek of frankincense. There is scant relief in the smear of amber and sweet burn of patchouli and yet somehow Olivier Durbano makes this scent of oblivion addictive and oddly contemplative. The ferocity of the darkness is like the tenebrosity of an unlit chapel space. What I am reminded of most forcefully is the darker canvases of Mark Rothko, whose monolithic panels of colours seem to shimmer, dissolve and swallow our senses as we stare into the chromatic abyss.
Rothko Chapel Painting
His extraordinary set of near black canvases for The Rothko Chapel in Houston, by philanthropists John and Dominique de Menil are ones I see in my mind’s eyes. The chapel was dedicated in 1971 to all faiths and is supposed to have a remarkable effect on visitors. James Elkin’s amazing book Pictures and Tears looks at the phenomenon of people weeping in front of artworks including The Rothko Chapel panels. I had a chance to see the profoundly beautiful Seagram panels in the Tate Modern a couple of years ago. The light is kept low, the room and arrangement ominous. Sadly, the peace is so often shattered by herds of rampaging kids or clattering tour groups. It’s hard to properly appreciate the contemplative oppression of Rothko’s vision. There is something of this intensity in Black Tourmaline, in the force of sombre strata and layering.
Sniffing Olivier Durbano’s olfactory darkness I realise how sealed down the composition is; there is very little space between the notes for light to breathe through. Black Tourmaline casts a strange spell and is defiantly Olivier’s magnum opus, a baleful work of oblique malevolence and ambiguity in his cabinet of strange perfumed stones.
,Disclosure – From a bottle kindly gifted by Olivier Durbano
-The Silver Fox, Senior Editor and Editor in Chief of The Silver Fox
Photo: Olivier Durbano
Thanks to the generosity of Olivier Durbano we have a signed 15 ml bottle of Black Tourmaline in the 2007 formulae for any CaFleureBon reader in the world. To be eligible please leave a comment with what intrigues you about Black Tourmaline, your favorite Olivier Durbano Perfume and where you live by October 26, 2014
Olivier Durbano offers his perfumes and his jewelry on his website. Black Tourmaline is sold in the USA at Luckyscent 100ml/$205, in Paris at Jovoy, in Sweden at Fragrance & Arts. Olivier was also the inspiration for the character Robby L’ Etoile in M.J. Rose’s The Book of Lost Fragrances. For our reviews of Pink Quartz, Turquoise, Citrine, Heliotrope, Lapis Philosophorum and Promothee please click on their individual hyperlinks
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