LA DOULEUR EXQUISE

Eau de Parfum

La Douleur Exquise is a study of unrequited love. The words translate as Exquisite Pain, a beautiful and poetic way to describe lovesick martyrdom.

With this lovesick concept in mind, Antoine Lie presents the compelling allure of rose absolutes, both Bulgarian and Turkish, illuminating them with orris and the dry-sweet smoky citrus of frankincense. A triumvirate of cumin, saffron and medicinal clove lend a gustatory edge to the blooming roses, pushing them close to a modern patchouli-chypré status.

The roses don’t fade in Lie’s ode to love lost. A delicious mood of fruit and rainbow hued petrol diffuses as La Douleur Exquise reveals the complex roots of animalic woods, resins, opoponax and elegiac myrrh. The base notes read like a catafalque of sacrificial odours, any of them could be burned on altars, lifting prayers of lamented desire to the heavens.

La Douleur Exquise proves once again that rose perfumes are immensely diverse and what could be a weary use of love and thwarted desire; in the hands of a Master Perfumer like Antoine Lie, rose perfumes will continue to obsess and seduce us.

Composition:

• Bulgarian Rose Absolute, Turkish Rose Absolute, Iris Pallida, Frankincense
• Clove, Cumin, Saffron
• Castoreum Absolute, Patchouli Aceh, Atlas Cedar, Spanish Labdanum, Oppoponax, Myrrh

Perfumer: Antoine Lie, 2022

inci list: Alcohol Denat., Parfum (Fragrance), Benzyl Alcohol, Citral, Citronellol, Limonene, Eugenol, Farnesol, Geraniol, Linalool, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, BHT, Ethylhexyl, Methoxycinnamate Butyl, Methoxydibenzovlmenthane (Avobenzone), FOOO93-1