Tina Modotti/ Frida Tango from the 2002 movie starring Salma Hayek and Ashley Judd via Miramax

It has been 18 years since Julie Taymor’s iconic film “Frida” was released. Perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz’s aromatic evocation of an imagined erotic tango between legendary photographer Tina Modotti and the young artist in a seedy tavern provided ample inspiration for DSH Perfumes La Casa Azul Frida Series 1.1. Against the backdrop of a drinking dare proposed by Tina (portrayed by a wily, sinuous Ashley Judd) in order to quieten a burgeoning bar fight, the even-then-hard-drinking Frida Kahlo wins the pleasure of a dance. It is her choice that that dance be a provocative tango – heartrendingly sung by Lila Downs (a longtime favorite of mine). Enter smoldering sensuality, overheated flesh and the heartless beauty of youth. Sexual fluidity without a care in the world: both women took male and female lovers without a second thought, perhaps rendering them all the more desirable and inscrutable to their Communist-leaning comrades and revolutionaries… It’s a glorious image, and one of three which Dawn wishes to explore; so many facets to Frida Kahlo – how can one alone possibly suffice?

The Two Fridas via en.wikipedia.org

Exploring Frida Kahlo the artist and persona was part of my young children’s upbringing, strange as it may seem to some. If you take very young children to museums you must be ready to explain things which might not otherwise crop up in casual conversation. They wanted to know why there were two Fridas facing one another, dressed differently and each bearing externalized hearts. “Ah, my darlings. Frida is torn between her colonial self in Mexican dress and her European identity. Her heart is broken; Frida’s sister Cristina behaved very badly with Frida’s husband.” Gross over-simplification, I know. Art appreciation has to begin somewhere, in language understood –  or it is of little use.

Two nudes in the garden via wikipedia

The enormity of Kahlo’s curiosity and appetite for life was palpable. Expressing her polyamorous nature appears an organic outcropping of her being: enamored with existence itself, flirting with death, visited by catastrophic and crippling illness, betrayal and the perpetual reminder that she walked in the shadow of her illustrious unfaithful husband Diego Rivera – each helped form her as both artist and woman. The fact that she was surrounded by philosophical and political unrest (in which she took active interest and participation) only ups the ante. Couple these to a fundamentally rebellious nature and witness the result. Her art is personal, riveting, and celebratory of Mexicanidad, primitive art and authentic experience. It is not overtly political, turning outward as Diego’s works are; Frida explores her inner landscape, at times with a cringeworthy critical eye.

 

La Casa Azul gardens via Dalia Ceja

La Casa Azul, now known as the Frida Kahlo Museum – remains the pivotal nexus for Frida Kahlo, the one physical constant in her turbulent existence. Frida was born there, recuperated from all her surgeries there, died there. When she and Diego remarried they returned to her childhood home (which Rivera had purchased years before in order to safeguard it from debts incurred by Frida’s many illnesses) in 1939 and painted it a brilliant cobalt/ultramarine blue. That blue was homage to indigenous Mexico, and the villa was painted in vibrant fearless hues. It was La Casa Azul which provided refuge for Leon Trotsky, Delores del Río and singer Chavela Vargas, among many others of the day. La Casa Azul (the perfume) I purchased is encased in that selfsame blue hued glass crowned with copper.

 Singer Chavela Vargas and Frida Khalo via Efamilia

DSH Perfumes La Casa Azul defies adequate description, much like Frida herself: it’s full of contrasts and contradictions.  For a single blissful moment, lime zest and bergamot enter the arena. What follows forcefully is smoky bravado, a leathery swagger recognizable as birch tar. Copal – a resin burned since Mesoamerican times for devotional purpose, especially during The Day of the Dead, even today –  lays a foundation of sweet smoke which is furthered by Mexican (also known as Texas) cedar, imparting a tarry oiliness. There’s the lovely fruity/herbal verdancy of cognac, tomato leaf and clary sage. Spice is defiant and hot, peppery even (what IS a jalapeño accord???), contrasting savor of salt and the slightly sweet earthiness of a blue agave tequila.

Perhaps the florals exist to infer a femininity lingering sotto voce beneath sweat-soaked smoke enhanced with briny ambergris, embroidered through and through with musk and civet. At this juncture the perfume is beautiful AND prickly as the thorns Frida painted about her throat; it takes you unawares.

Frida and Tina kiss from the 2002 movie starring Salma Hayek and Ashley Judd miramax

Smolder+ green + balsamic = vetiver, accompanied by inky echoes of oakmoss and sandalwood’s serenity. It’s liquor-laced in a lighter vein than rum, wine, or other spirits; it dallies light-heartedly with sensual ambiguity especially in the eventual finale, which is tender as swans down, a mere whisper of scent.What began as a torrid tango results in a final pillowy kiss, reciprocated lip to lip.

Notes: bergamot, lime peel salt accord, blue agave tequila accord, cognac, tomato leaf, jalapeño accord, spice, clary sage, Egyptian rose geranium, grandiflorum jasmine, orris concrete, centifolia rose absolute, copal, musk, birch tar, Brazilian vetiver, green oakmoss, civet, sandalwood, Mexican cedarwood, tobacco smoke accord, ambergris

I purchased my DSH Perfumes La Casa Azul.  My nose is my own…

~ Ida Meister, Senior Editor and Natural Perfumery Editor

 

 DSH Perfumes La Casa Azul

Thanks to the largesse of perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz, we are offering one 10 ml edp/vdp cobalt blue perfume pen spray for one registered reader anywhere in the world. Please share with us what appealed to you about Ida’s review of DSH Perfumes La Casa Azul, and if you are familiar with the life of Frida Khalo, and where you live. Draw closes 2/23/2020

Editor’s Note: Dawn intends to explore Frida Khalo through several perfumes, thus“The Frida  Stories 1.1”. It is the second fragrance in her Women Artists Series. Maria Callas inspired the first I fiori bel canto.

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