The Perfume Chronicles X The Rising Phoenix Perfumery Andralia Attar Review (Alexandre Helwani and J.K.DeLapp) + Inner Garden Draw

September 8, 2020September 19, 2020

The Perfume Chronicles X The Rising Phoenix Perfumery Andralia Attar by Melissa Wago-Lala

“Stepping into a Greek monastery after the Divine liturgy. Sullen and solemn yet lush and bright. A tribute to our inner garden.” ~ J.K. DeLapp and Alexandre Helwani

J.K. DeLapp and Alexandre Helwani drinking coffee photo via J.K. DeLapp

Last autumn, Alexandre Helwani of The Perfume Chronicles and ÇaFleureBon Contributor traveled all over the United States, cementing friendships wherever he went. He spent some wonderful time with perfumer and mutual friend John Biebel early on, then stayed with J.K. DeLapp of Rising Phoenix Perfume and his family in Georgia over Thanksgiving. During that visit with J.K, they decided to collaborate and jointly compose 100% natural attars – both of which were formally released on August 11th of this year. Alexandre has an ongoing love affair working with and collecting rare and precious aromatic materials. He had brought along some fragrances which he had composed; Joseph loved them, Alex loved Joseph’s – and the rest is a fait accompli.

The Rising Phoenix Perfumery Andralia and Ambralia attars: photo by Melissa Wago-Lala

When I recently received attar samples from The Rising Phoenix Perfumery, the two collaborative perfumes were among them (J.K. and Alexandre), and I chose The Rising Phoenix Andralia to review because it felt more complex and shape-shifting than the Ambralia, (which is a magnificent amber in the great tradition). While both attars are listed on J.K.’s Etsy shop with a nod to vintage Caron, Alexandre has since clarified for me that this applies only to Andralia Attar: a perfumer friend smelt it and noted that it smelt “like an old Caron my mother had” – ergo, the tag “vintage Caron”. I happen to love (and have collected) vintage Caron perfumes, and I’ve adored attars for years, so my choice for review was obvious.

La Traversée de l’Orient Alexandre Helwani x La Place

Andralia Attar was a perfume which Alexandre first created when he was invited to hold an exposition in February 2019 at Paris’ ll ͤ arrondissement Galerie La Place entitled: L’Exposition Éphémère – La Traversée de l’Orient (Ephemeral Exposition, The Oriental Journey). La Place is the creative brainchild of Virginie Roux (Creative Director of Au Pays de la Fleur d’Oranger perfumes) and partner Emmanuel Pierre (architect, interior designer and art collector): a vital pop-up community which embraces all the arts as well as perfume, a dynamic scented salon

Alexandre reading sacred texts via Instagram

Alexandre had held incense preparation classes there; during his presentation of three different spiritual visages of ancient perfumery, he also provided representative medieval music, chants, prayers and spoken texts (Alex also sings medieval music!). A borrowed perfume relic (on loan from a bishop), incense burners and paraphernalia from his own collection were on display, including his own photography and perfume organ of rarities.

detail BBC The Coronation (2018) recipe for Coronation Oil

Andralia was initially known as Bogoroditsa – an Orthodox (Church Slavonic) name for the Holy Mother of G-d. Its name derives from both Greek and Hebrew: the Greek andra refers to humanity, and Hebrew aliyah to ascent: Ascent Towards Humanity. Of the four perfumes he composed, Andralia proved to be the most popular – a surprise to Alexandre, as it was the most quirky (his term, not mine) of the lot. It is based upon a centuries-old formula for Holy Chrism, aka consecrated anointing oil. The 14th century Orthodox Christian recipe is comprised of anywhere from 38 to 57 aromatic components prepared (boiled) over 3 days in an olive oil base; wine is usually included as well – and prayers are sung or recited during the process. Alexandre’s receipt was obtained through a monk. While there are numerous formulae (most are kept secret), a form of the Chrism is used to crown the regents of England: it consists of both sesame and olive oil, roses, orange flowers, jasmine, cinnamon, benzoin, musk, civet and ambergris.

It took several mods for Alexandre to reach an approachable approximation of the original formula – after which he proceeded to concentrate on a chypre structure. When it was completed, J.K felt that Andralia would make a wonderful attar; the receipt remained the same, and what began as perfume extrait assumed the form of an attar instead.

Incense burning via Alexandre

First and foremost, Rising Phoenix Perfumery Andralia Attar smells divine, as if someone had flung open a door to the past and let in a rush of new breath, mingling the earthly with the sacred. It is a perfume of contrasts, replete with beckoning seductive florals such as tuberose and ylang-ylang, all buttery and indolic. First, the crispness of bergamot, a ray of illumination; then gentle rose and herbal/floral geranium glow beside the innocence of German chamomile with its haylike tones. Violet adds its grassy tenderness, flush with ionones which distantly echo the rose. Osmanthus initially smells juicy as an apricot, then melds with intense shadowy elements such as labdanum, oakmoss and Laotian oud to effect a leathery texture, offset by the dissimilar animalic nature of beeswax, ambrette and ambergris.

Jan and Hubert van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece 1432 public domain

The enlivening aspect of cypress is a joy, chanting its resinous deeply green refrain tinged with wood smoke and redolent of ambergris; paired with the queen of sandalwoods it imparts a consecrated feeling to the composition, ceremonial in character and dignified. It is a beautiful marriage of opposing forces lain together, as the lion with the lamb.

Notes: geranium, violet, bergamot, blue chamomile, rose, osmanthus, tuberose absolute, ylang-ylang, Laotian oud, beeswax, ambrette Co2, moss, cypress absolute, labdanum, ambergris, Mysore sandalwood oil

Samples provided by JK DeLapp – I love them! My nose is my own…

~ Ida Meister, Senior Editor and Natural Perfumery Editor

Andralia Attar by Melissa Wago-Lala

Thanks to the generosity of Joseph DeLapp of The Rising Phoenix Perfumery we have two 1ml bottle of Andralia Attar for two registered readers in the USA (register here) and leave a comment with what you enjoyed about Ida’s review of The Rising Phoenix Perfumery Andralia Attar. Draw closes 9/11/2020

This is our Privacy and Draw Rules Policy

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