In the Times of Dark   Silvia Travesio 

Candles are seemingly simple blends of waxes and oils, burning softly, radiating ambient fragrance into our personal atmospheres.  Yet the majority of scented candles are sickly concoctions of plasticised fruits, gourmand excess and air freshener violence. True chandlery is an art form, demanding tremendous skill from its practitioners, many of whom like Cire Trudon for example have historical ties with churches and royal courts.

Paolo and Tiziana  of Tiziana Terenzi

Tiziana Terenzi are chandlers by trade, established in 1968 by Evolino Terenzi in Cattolica, Italy. His father had been involved in wax, making candles for the church. It was a family business, private and close, as it is today, run by brother and sister Tiziana and Paolo Terenzi. Tiziana designs and Paolo is the nose. The candles are extravagant and beautiful, created almost as fragrances with many levels and reveals. The rise and dispersion of aroma as candles burn is a frivolous and beautiful thing, where once the poor relied upon the flicker of flames to live by, we burn them purely for ambiance and aroma.

 

Chimeara Limited Edition 2014

Tiziana and Paolo Terenzi have carried this smoky family obsession into a small collection of intensely concentred perfumes. In 2014, there were three new scents – Laudano Nero, Chimaera and Casanova. The packaging floored me, the bottles expensively enclosed in leather, adorned and embossed with lavish attention to detail. Gold moulding on the boxes, pyrographical inscriptions and most astonishing of all on the limited edition Chimera and Casanova boxes, lights that came on when you opened the lids highlighting the medallion tops of the bottles. I actually applauded in my apartment, much to the bemusement of my cats.

All three are suitable for ladies and gentlemen, indeed I was impressed by the ambiguous fugues of all three. Laudano Nero as it name suggests was the darkest of the trio. A stormy palette of wormwood, tobacco, myrtle, oud, ash and slate is barely sweetened with honey and vanilla. Lashings of patchouli, grimy incense, vetiver and bleak iris float midway. There is a hint of rose, but this is buried in bittersweet fumes. An arresting scent says my friend Mr E, who smells incredible in it, like a shadow of a shrieking flame, it is one of the company's best sellers (and a personal favorite of Paulo’s).

 

Tiziana Tirenzi  Casanova 2014 art  CaFleureBon

Casanova is the dream of a masked woman glimpsed fleetingly amid the tantalising labyrinthine Venetian streets. This woody wonder is layered complexity, intercut with succulence and powered assignation. Casanova plays fast and loose with structure. Fig leaf and musks billow through dense guaiac, medicinal myrrh and leather pausing briefly to allow a rush of amber and vanillic orchid to run gleefully amok. Tonka renders the composition hypnotic and veiled. The mysterious masked woman leads a merry chase, but her voyage through the ambiguous streets of a decadent, convoluted city is anything but light, there is a glint of knife in the shadows.

Tiziana Terenzi Chimera  (Christy Turlington)  art by TSF for ÇaFleureBon

My favourite of the three was Chimaera; I hoped it would be, as I loved the name. In mythology a chimera is a terrifying fire-breathing hybrid creature composed of different animals. I loved this thick, luscious scent; it wrapped around me and would not let go. The grab was soil tincture, it tumbles out of the notes, it’s an effect I love. Oddly, in Chimaera, it sits at the top of the scent, filtering its loamy influence downward as the scent develops. Some of my most treasured notes are checked: honey, saffron, leather, tolu, caramel and iris. Remaining faithful to his fumy roots, Paolo uses his precious oud, mixed with patchouli, benzoin and labdanum to reinforce the mulch precipitated above by soil and saffron. There is a lot of sweetness though, a sticky, glazed attar that works perfectly in counterbalancing the raven plumes of oriental smoke. Its chimeric nature implies difference, a sum of many parts and while this is true, each wearing revealing a yet un-glimpsed facet, the structure as a whole moves and settles with consummate fiery grace.

Search out these dark smoky scents from Tiziana Terenzi; they will surprise you I think and invade your senses with fumes of love.

Disclosure:Fragrance kindly supplied by Tiziana Terenzi. Thank you.

 –The Silver Fox, Senior Editor and Editor of The Silver Fox

Thanks to Tiziana Terenzi we have a draw for your choice of 100 ml Laudano Nero extrait de parfum,  100 ml Eau de Parfum Casanova and Chimaera for a reader any where in the world. They are  limited editions for 2014 and quite hard to find.There are just a few left,  and are sold in Barneys New York and Harvey Nichols to name a few prestigious stockists. To be eligible please leave a comment with which perfume appeals to you the most, why  and where you live. Draw closes December 26, 2014.

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