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Friday, January 13, 2006

Lust by S-Perfume

Lust is a part of /7S/, an olfactory installation of the Seven Deadly Sins by Mother S (Sacré Nobi, founder of S-Perfume) in collaboration with seven perfumers, Thierry Wasser (Acedia or Sloth), Harry Fremont (Avaritia or Avarice), Ilias Ermenidis (Gula or Gluttony), Annie Buzantian (Invidia or Envy), Annick Menardo (Ira or Anger), Alberto Morillas (Luxuria or Lust), and Jacques Cavallier (Superbia or Pride). Alberto Morillas is the nose behind such fragrances as Bvlgari Omnia, Cartier Le Baiser Du Dragon, Givenchy Pi, Flower by Kenzo, and S-Perfume’s Jet-Scent.

Lust is one of my two favorite S-Perfumes (the other one being 100% Love), it is a remarkable, unusual fragrance, a shadowy, dark scent; actually, to me it is a place rather than a scent. It is a fragrance to step into, or dive into. On the other side you will find a different world, a gray, dim, dusky universe. This is how I imagine Hades, where Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness flows, would look and smell like. There is nothing overtly lusty, blatantly sensual, or over the top erotic about this scent. This is a scent of a sin that has already been punished, a wistful, sorrowful and heartbreakingly beautiful scent of the lustful in Dante’s second circle of Inferno, of Paolo and Francesca, Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Iseult.

Lust starts with a raw and earthy note that makes me think of iris (I was unable to find a list of notes, so this is all my own perception/imagination). The scent grows darker, patchouli becomes evident and so does chocolate. Then a cold, camphoraceous note joins the composition, bringing with it that misty, grey, ethereal quality that is perhaps what makes me think of Hades and Inferno. The drydown of Lust is of course animalic (well, this is Lust after all), but that dirtiness is understated, just like all other accords in this scent.

If pressed to compare Lust to another scent, I would say that it is somewhat reminiscent of Borneo 1834. In my opinion, however, Morillas’s creation is a superior blend. (Critisizing a scent created by Lutens The Great does not come easy to me, beleive me) The chocolate note in Borneo 1834 has a powdery and plasticy smell of cheap cocoa, here it is a softly bitter aroma of high quality dark chocolate. The camphorous note is subtler in Lust, less pungent then in Lutens’s scent, it is well blended with other notes and does not feel like an alien accord that has been added for the sake of making the scent different, at the expense of wearability. Having said that, to me Lust is not an everyday kind of scent. It requires a certain melancholy, quietly creative state of mind; it is an atmospheric scent and one must be prepared to deal with that dark, otherworldly atmosphere before putting Lust on. I love Lust the way Pablo Neruda describes in his poem below, “as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul.”

You can buy a generous sample of Lust in S-Perfume online store. According to Scentzilla, bigger, 15ml, bottles will be also available late January or early February.

And now as promised, I do not love you... by Pablo Neruda:

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

*The photo of Lust (Luxuria) installation is from compressedart.com.
*The painting is The Ghosts of Paolo and Francesca Appear to Dante and Virgil by Ary Scheffer (Musée du Louvre, Paris).

21 Comments:

Blogger Heather said...

Colombina - the poem is truly wondrous - in fact I think I love your poetry choices almost as much as the reviews.

In fact I will add - that I am in 2 weeks time getting married (oh at long last everyone here is shouting!!)- and I had thought of giving him a card with a poem on the day - but until now couldn't fathom the right poem.

Thank you

Heather

5:03 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Heather!
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is such wonderful news, I truly have goosebumps :-)
So you think you might you use this Neruda's poem? Better still!!
I hope to have a chance to wish you that in 2 weeks time, but just in case, in adcvance- Have a wondrous days!!!

10:03 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Christina,
It is not chocolatey at all. IN fact I don't know how to describe the most prominent accord. It is all very well blended and understated. I would highly recommend. Did you like 100% Love?

10:05 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Christina,
I didn't mean it that way at all! There is a couple of samples that you sent me that I haven't really tried yet *hangs head in shame*
:-D

11:30 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Patty,
Lust and Sloth, that's right. I don't know if the other 5 Sins will be avaialable to purchase. I am not sure whether you will like Lust or not (yet another sentence I never thought I'd right LOL). Have you tried Borneo? or Kilim by Carrement Belle? It is somewhat, kind of, sort of along the same lines.

11:33 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Patty,
Kilim has a chocolate note on my skin. But not over the top chocolattey, not like Jessica Simpson's Dreamy or anything :-D

I think you will like Lust.

11:59 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

V, I am so glad to see you mention Borneo as well (means I am not completely mad :-)). I am starting to think that my skin absorbs cumin and civet and that is why neither of these two notes ever seem overwhelming to me.

1:55 PM EST  
Blogger NowSmellThis said...

The cumin in this was too much for me. Much prefer Sloth, which suits my generally lazy nature. But both are interesting scents & like V, would have loved to have seen the actual exhibit.

1:59 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

R, I gave Sloth a couple of tries and am starting to really love it. Not surprising really, considering that is one my biggest sins too LOL

2:24 PM EST  
Blogger Kyahgirl said...

that fragrance doesn't sound like something for me but I love their naming convention!!

4:46 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

L,
Very original company in every way.

4:56 PM EST  
Blogger marchlion said...

My computer quit refreshing the page when I went to your blog -- couldn't figure out why you hadn't posted in two days. Duh. Well, better late than never.

I share Robin's cumin-phobia, mine amplifies it obscenely. The only one I can bear is SL Fleurs d'Oranger, as long as I keep my nose away from my skin. Wonderful poem, I've read some Neruda but not that one!

9:57 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

M,
I hate when mine does that, which is quite often.

I don't get the fear of cumin, but I do think I am lucky in a sense that my skin kind of absorbs it in a way that makes it less overwhelmning. The same with civet. And recently I noticed I became less afraid of patchouli as well. Hmm

10:07 AM EST  
Blogger katiedid said...

M, you know, the scent makes subtle shifts and changes on me on the different occasions I wear it, too. Some days the civet seems more prominent than others, some days it seems more like a spicy forest.

6:59 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Ooh, I would have liked spicy forest, but I don't get any woodiness here...which is ok, I love it just the way it is :-)

10:01 PM EST  
Blogger risa said...

you've now made me tear up twice in this post - once for the poem and once for your gorgeous description of the perfume Lust.

beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. thank you.

6:23 PM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Risa,
You are too kind!

I am also glad to know that I am not the only who cries reading perfume blogs. Seriously, I do too! (((hugs)))

6:27 PM EST  
Blogger muscravageur said...

that was beautiful!. I like Pablo Neruda.

4:32 PM EDT  
Blogger Marina said...

Thank you so much! I absolutely adore his poetry.

4:35 PM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I really must try 100% Love, Lust, & Sloth (also one of my biggest sins), what are your thoughts on 100% Love MORE? I have always loved this poem as well as wishing my work was as beautiful and evocative, but now it always makes me sad. If you have seen Patch Adams starring the incomparable Robin Williams that is the poem he reads to Monica Potter.

S
P
O
I
L
E
R

A
L
E
R
T

The scene where he finishes reading it to her at her graveside has me bawling everytime. He deserved an Oscar for that movie. It was based on the biography written by the real Patch Adams who does a wonderful interview on the DVD.

Timidly unlurking,
Skye

5:47 AM EST  
Blogger Marina said...

Skye,
Welcome! I love 100% Love More :-), I think maybe I like it just a tiny bit more than the regular, because it has a little more chocolate AND a little more incense, to my nose.

I haven't seen that movie, but your description has already put tears in my eyes ...I don't need much to start bawling :-) Must find it on netflix!

9:49 AM EST  

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