“I’m sick to death of this particular self. I want another”

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of discovering the perfumes of  Anais Biguine under her Jardins D’Ecrivains label. Jardins D’Ecrivains means The Garden of Writers and Mme Biguine looks for literary inspiration for her fragrances. Despite having discovered four new fragrances I always “want another” and so Mme Biguine has delivered Orlando based on the 1928 novel by Virginia Woolf. Those who prefer the visual to the printed page will also be familiar with the subject from the 1992 movie starring Tilda Swinton. The story in a nutshell is a young Orlando who is male, and an Elizabethan Era Lord, falls asleep for a week and wakes up as a woman in the next century. Ms. Woolf’s prose was scandalous for a time when the concept of gender roles was just beginning to gestate. Women over 21 were able to vote for the first time in Britain in the same year Orlando was released. Mme Biguine wanted to capture “an unusual character” in fragrant form.

“As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking.”

One of the things I admired about Mme Biguine’s first fragrances was there was a clear direction and imagination at work for each of them. Orlando shows she is a perfumer who is inspired by her literary inspiration and is thinking about how to capture her subject with essential oils and aromachemicals. For Orlando she wanted to capture not only the eclectic nature of the character but also the timelessness. To make this happen she uses an almost discordant set of top notes full of kinetic potential before presenting a heart of depth which evolves to a base of delicacy; poised as if between one breath and the other.

“One can only believe entirely, perhaps in what one cannot see.”

Mme Biguine takes the juicy quality of orange, the piquancy of pink pepper and the zest of ginger and mixes them together in her first chapter. The first time I smelled this on a strip it was unsettling and weird. When I put it on my skin the weird smoothed out as the notes felt like frantic electrons competing for my attention. This sense of clamorous potential is something that will not be to everyone’s taste, I found it to be very interesting especially when I was wearing it. The heart becomes a bit less challenging as amber and patchouli combine for a more traditional second chapter. Mme Biguine uses a bit of clove to keep it from being completely traditional. Those heart notes would be the base in many another perfume. In Orlando a really beautiful transformation occurs as it moves from those heavier notes to a base of gaiac, peru balsam, and musk. Orlando actually lightens up and turns almost fragile. This reverse kind of development makes you feel as if you’re traveling up the pyramid rather than down and almost making time stand still.

Orlando has all day longevity and above average sillage.

“Thoughts are divine.”

I think it had to be difficult to take on such a multi-faceted literary creation as Orlando and do it justice. Orlando is a fascinating olfactory study which accurately captures the duality inherent in its inspiration. Orlando is as divine as the thought Mme Biguine put into composing it.

Disclosure: This review was based on a bottle provided by Sens Unik.

Courtesy of Sens Unik we have a 100mL bottle of Orlando to giveaway. This is a US only draw. To be eligible leave a comment on why you would like to try Orlando and your favorite Virginia Woolf novel or Tilda Swinton movie. The draw will end on August 18, 2013.

We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.

-Mark Behnke, Managing Editor

Editor’s note: All of the quotes are from Orlando by Virginia Woolf and all the pictures are from the 1992 movie Orlando starring Tilda Swinton and directed by Sally Potter.