Helmut Newton, for Vogue 1960, courtesy of pleasurephoto.wordpress.com
Blood red, expensive, French and dangerous. As old as time but as beautiful as the day she wed. Equal parts loyal and lethal, my favorite character in the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness is Ysabeau de Clermont, vampire Matthew Clairmont’s mother. A woman that first tries to drive off her prospective daughter-in-law Diana Bishop by inviting her to a vampire feeding, and later saves her life by singing away her pain.
Rouge Nocturne Perfume/F Nishe via Flickr
The new release Rouge Nocturne from Terry de Gunzberg, creator of the luxury cult cosmetics line By Terry, is a perfume worthy of the matriarch of the de Clermont clan, presenting a complex dark rose with equal parts power, beauty and mystery. Its bottle is almost as stunning as scent; the minimalist chic flask accented with silver metal and filled with garnet juice would look perfectly at home in Ysabeau’s hunting pack.
Terry de Gunzberg’s press release described Rouge Nocturne composed by Perfumer Michel Almairac as a “voluptuous ambery and powdery eau de parfum with notes of Bergamot from Italy, Rose Damascena from Turkey, and Amber Patchouli from Indonesia", but I detect other components that give it the dimensionality of multi-facted crystal. It opens with a lush velvet rose that is pure but mature, at the height of its ripeness that would offset Ysabeau's own body scent of "caramel and sarsaparilla soda" perfectly (Chapter 18 A Discovery of Witches). Underscoring the lead floral appears to be jasmine sambac and a boozy accord that lend a throaty quality to the composition, like Ysabeau’s voice when she first begins to sing after years of disuse.
The Real Sept-Tours via comtessedorgandy.com
Over time the patchouli becomes more prominent, and with it a strong sensation of vetiver. While Rouge Nocturne is classified as a floral chypre, the greens in this scent are from deep in the earth. There is no mustiness, but one is reminded of the vines covering Sept-Tours, Ysabeau’s chateau in the Loire.
Ysabeau’s Ring courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum website
Eventually, the alchemy of the scent morphs the patchouli and vetiver into oud, strong and natural without a hint of the barnyard. It brings to mind the strength that comes from inhabiting the same land for centuries, and Ysabeau’s scribble ring, presented to her by her husband Phillipe centuries ago and inscribed “A ma vie de couer entier, mon debut et ma fin, se souvenir du passe, et qu’il y a un avenir (To my life with my whole heart, my beginning and my end. Remember the past, and that there is a future).”
The quality of the ingredients Parfums Terry de Gunzburg is immediately apparent as Mme De Gunzberg uses fresh flower extracts in her beauty line as well. Longevity and sillage are both excellent; this powerhouse perfume belongs in the collection of all rose lovers.
.Disclosure: I received a sample from Parfum1.com
— Nancy Lichtenstein, Deputy Editor and Beauty Editor
Thanks to the generosity of Eric and Stamatis of Parfum1, we have three samples of Rouge Nocturne available for three U.S. readers. To enter, please comment indicating what about this review makes you want to try Rouge Nocturne. To our fang banging sorcery loving readers of supernatural fiction, ( if you read All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness) what actress could play Ysabeau de Clermont, (hint she is written as blonde who looks younger than her son). Draw closes August 27, 2014
Editor’s Note: Terry de Gunzberg is one of the icons of the beauty industry, hired by Yves St. Laurent in1985 to develop the cosmetic line bearing his name. She is the genius behind Touche Éclat, the brush-on concealer-highlighter in a pen which revolutionized cosmetics in 1992. As a makeup artist she worked with photographers Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin. She launched her own beauty line By Terry in 1998 (By Terry Rose de Baume, a hydrating emollient healing balm for lips and cuticles has been a staple in my beauty regime for many years). Mme de Gunzberg's eponymous perfume collection debuted in 2012.- Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief
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