PICHOLA

Eau de Parfum

Octopussy, released in 1983 was the thirteenth film in the lucrative James Bond franchise. Starring the laconic Roger Moore, it is not considered one of greatest entries in the Bond canon but drew plaudits for its lush locations. One of the most striking places used in the spectacular floating palace on Lake Pichola.

The titular Octopussy played by Swedish actress Maude Adams holds the attention, a smuggler and businesswoman using a travelling circus to move goods, protected by Octopussy’s band of assassins. The reason for this Bond preamble is that Octopussy’s base of operations and luxury home is the fascinating Lake Garden Palace placed like a glittering white jewel on the island of Jag Niwas in the waters of Lake Pichola in Udaipur. The film's interior shots provide a detailed look at the inside of this remarkable palace.

It is an architectural wonder, classic Indian designs reflected in still, contemplative waters. The bone white marble reflects morning and night skies when the water is at its most mirror-like. The inside is a carefully curated kaleidoscope of hypnotic colour, pinks, iridescent peacock blues and greens, gold, red, saffron and minty pistachio. One of the most beautiful events is the daily dusk to sunset, as the colours change and the water glows with rippling fire, the palace is illuminated, the profound whiteness reflecting the sun’s lake-captured rays.

Understanding the importance and iconic beauty of the Palace adds so many more layers to Neela Vermeire’s Pichola composed by her perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour. Pichola is a perfume of alluring beauty, effortlessly luxurious and composed in beautifully unfolding layers. The materials reflect one another in a skein of aromatic spices, resins, soft woods, and the trademark NVC heart of sensual white flowers. Saffron is always a gorgeously pungent note in perfumery; used delicately, the volatile oil Safranal that gives the spice most of its flavour and scent, imparts a distinctive golden leather earthiness. Adding the dried spice to water creates gilded water, deep orange with ripples of gold, echoing the sunsets on Lake Pichola.

The most beautiful part of Pichola is the mix of clementine, neroli and orange blossom, it takes a little time to realise how much these sun-soaked citric aromas contribute to the overall allure of the composition but as soon as you are aware of it, the warmth and glamour is like the sun of a fading day setting fire to that astonishing lake.

A gentle smokiness rises in the final stages, ultrafine, like the aftermath of snuffed incense and cooling candles. Bertrand has used a driftwood note in the base of Pichola, a somewhat woolly abstraction of an idea, but if you think about it, driftwood is an evocative idea, sea-washed smooth limbs of wood, permeated with salt, sand and bleached by the sun. As a fragrance note it suggests a ghostly finality, something perfectly fitting for a perfume preoccupied with the stillness of water and our lives reflected therein.

Composition:

• Cardamom, Cinnamon, Saffron, Juniper, mMgnolia, Neroli Oil, Clementine, Bergamot
• Orange Blossom Absolute, Rose Absolute, Tuberose Absolute, Jasmine Sambac, Ylang-ylang
• Benzoin Absolute, Sandalwood, Driftwood, Haitian Vetiver

Perfumer: Bertrand Duchaufour, 2015