Masque Milano Madeleine

“… the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.” — Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past

 

Photo by Arthur Elgort©

When Proust bites into his famous madeleine while sipping tea, sudden joy transports him as the combination of tastes returns him to simpler times. In similar fashion, the evocation of coffee, chestnut, and sweet cream bring Masque Milano’s Alessandro Brun to a favourite haunt, the belle epoque tearoom Angelina in central Paris, a place of special significance. Brun explains:  “Angelina means a lot to me. First of all, it was the name of my mother. And from my mother I inherited the passion for travels and for nice afternoon teas in fancy patisserie … And most of the times I ended up eating a chestnut dessert that my mother would cook for me when I was a kid, the Mont Blanc! … Stopping at the legendary tearoom – like famous artists and fashion designers did since the turn of the XX Century – means turning back time, bringing back sweet memories.”

 

Fanny Bal photo courtesy of Mme Bal

Masque Milano’s Madeleine, the third in the brand’s Le DONNE di MASQUE series, is a gourmand floral built around two central accords of creamy white florals and chestnut-cocoa. Interpreted with great style by young IFF perfumer Fanny Bal, Madeleine captures l’esprit de la Parisienne in a stunning fragrance that marries café with bouquet and turns them into something, deliciously, unexpectedly wonderful. Madeleine, which imagines in scent a “charming young girl drinking hot chocolate,” is Masque Milano’s first foray into gourmand territory. You might expect, given Brun’s love for the toothsome mont-blanc, that it goes full-on dessert. But Bal wisely eschews sugar in favour of textural smells that evoke la patissiere without being literal. Pastry and coffee notes are undergirded by buttery florals that complement the gourmand aspects in a sophisticated way, playing off shared aroma chemicals like lactones without overdosing on them.

Ella Von Unwerth©

Like Proust’s masterwork, Madeleine has two volumes: the first, an accord of lactonic tuberose and milky jasmine; the second, of chestnut, cocoa and coffee. Smelled separately, each is fully realized, easily wearable as a perfume in its own right; together, however, they become ambrosial, a fantasia of evocative scents that feel like walking past a brulerie, patisserie and flower market on one of those chilly Paris days when the city seems to paint its own canvas out of grey and gold.

 

Angelina restaurant and its famous mont-blanc pastry, photo via Angelina Paris

In the first accord, frothy tuberose gives off an array of buttery, lemony, milky smells. Soapy, snowy jasmine arrives next, then a quietly spicy geranium that cuts into all that thick creaminess just enough to hold the flowers in balance. Where the first part of Madeleine is dense and opulent, like thick duchess satin, its sister is a grosgrain ribbon tied around a fancy chocolate box. The second accord removes you from the flower vendor and escorts you through the doors of 226, rue de Rivoli for a saucer of steaming café crème. A boozy vapour of roasted coffee bean and Kahlua rises, and gradually, Bal stirs in bittersweet chocolate and vanilla bean. As I take a mental seat in one of Angelina’s small round tables, the distinctive, maple-and-cream chestnut note makes me wonder where all the marrons glaces have got to.

Photo by Bettina Lewin for Town & Country, Jul 25, 2013

And then, the two accords marry. I never thought a voluptuary like tuberose could work with the thin, burnished bitterness of coffee, but the union is utter magic. The milky flowers and Chantilly cream accord Bal uses emphasize and mellow the chestnut that now stays planted itself at Madeleine’s heart. At the same time, light, aerated musks lift what could have been a heavy fragrance aloft, and the crackly coffee and spicy geranium dance around each other in exhilarated flirtation. And all around me, les jeunes filles sit sipping Café Africain and nibbling their cakes, every one of them Madeleine.

Few houses understand how to fully convey a memory or an inspiration with as much precision and inventiveness as Masque Milano. From the decayed, dandyish romanticism of the superb Romanza to the outrageous, smack-in-the-middle of the city hustle in Times Square, Masque Milano do more than evoke another time and place: they bring you right into Hemingway’s study, to that dance floor in Ibiza in hot summer, and to Angelina for a shared mont-blanc and hot chocolate. In Madeleine, Messrs.. Brun and Tedeschi and Fanny Bal have created one of the best gourmands of the last decade.

Notes: Chestnut accord, chantilly accord, cumin seed oil, tuberose absolute LMR , cypress oil LMR, geranium oil Egypt LMR, tonka bean absolute LMR, milky musks, vanilla pods extract LMR.

Disclaimer: Sample of Masque Milano Madeleine kindly supplied by Perfumology. My opinions are my own.

Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

Masque Milano Madeleine 10 ml bottle photo courtesy of Masque Milano

Thanks to the generosity of Masque Milano, we have a 10 ml travel bottle of Masque Milano Madeleine for two registered readers worldwide. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about Masque Milano Madeleine based on Lauryn’s review, if you have a favourite Masque Milano perfume, and where you live. Draw closes 12/19/2020.

Note: Editor Ermano Picco was the Evaluator for Madeleine

Follow us on Instagram @cafleurebon @elledebee @masquemilano @fannybalparfumeur @brunalessandro @riccardo.tedeschi @magnifiscent

This is our Privacy and Draw Rules Policy

We announce the winners only on our site and on our Facebook page, so like ÇaFleureBon and use our site feed … or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume