ESSENSE DU SÉRAIL N°4.

Eau de Parfum

Essence du Sérail is inspired by this strange world of enforced living. They were worlds within worlds. The famous Seraglio in the Topkaki Place in Istanbul had over three hundred rooms, including nine baths, a hammam, two mosques, a hospital and wards, laundry, kitchens and dressmakers. Over time the idea of the seraglio has become idealised by writers, travellers and painters who could only really guess what these secretive places were like. Painters like Ingres, Addison Thomas Millar and Rudolphe Weisse created fantasy harem scenes that have deeply influenced our view of seraglios and the women who were confined within.

Essence du Sérail by Sous Le Manteau continues this mood, but more abstracted, suggesting the atmosphere, the whimsy and collective strength of the Harem. Perfumer Natalie Feisthauer and creative lead Olivia Bransbourg have created a beautiful fruity, fleshy floral scent dusted in the trademark SLM powdery musks. Plum, downy peach, orange blossom and amandine heliotrope are enriched with erotic jasmine, ylang-ylang, rose and saffron.

A hazy gourmand vibe surrounds the composition like the scent of sweet incense in the imagined seraglio, drifting like murmurs and fragments of sweet song. Milky sandalwood, vanilla and the dust of ambrette seed round off Essence du Sérail.

Sous le Manteau perfumes all have this sublime awareness of skin, musky, personal and carnal. The fantasy construct of Natalie’s seraglio is fertile with suggestion, perfumed whispers and a sense of feminine tenacity and longing. A touch of bergamot at the top of the perfume is sharp enough to illuminate the powder and steam of such a feminine space.

Composition:

• Bergamot, Ylang-Ylang
• Jasmine, Lily o f the Valley, Orange Blossom, Rose, Plum, Heliotrope, Peach
• Sandalwood, Ambrette, Vanilla

Perfumer: Nathalie Feisthauer, 2016

Alcohol, Parfum (Fragrance), Benzyl Alcohol, Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Cinnamate, Cinnamal, Citral, Citronellol, Limonene, Linalool, Coumarine, Hydroxycitronellal, Isoeugenol, Geraniol, Eugenol, Farnesol