RAHELE

Eau de Parfum

Rahele is a journey scent, a genre of perfumes that muse over the materials, ambience, and cohesion of the voyage to an atmospheric destination. Its haute quality materials built around a core of osmanthus and anchored by the distinctive bosky odour of oakmoss.

Rahele takes its inspiration from the romance of writings, travels, and biographies of jeweller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605-1689), physician Francois Bernier (1620–1688) and linguist and botanist Jean Thévenot (1633-1667) who journeyed to the east in the 1670’s.

Of the three men cited, it is jeweller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier that intrigues the most. He wrote a book called Les Six Voyages De Jean Baptiste Tavernier: ... En Turquie, En Perse Et Aux Indes, detailing his travels, encounters, and perceptions of new places.

In the mid-1670’s, a large rare blue diamond was extracted from the Kollur mine on the eastern side of the Indian continent. Usually of very high quality, Kollur stones are known as Golconda diamonds, the haute couture standard due to their colour and clarity. The blue diamond was bought by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who had it cut and sold it to the Sun King, Louis XIV. It was renamed the French Blue, renowned not just for its size, but its exquisite steel blue tone. Golconda diamonds are composed of pure carbon with no nitrogen. This results in stones of exceptional clarity.

The French Blue, disappeared in 1792 during the French Revolution and reappeared recut as the Hope Diamond, passing through several owners including wealthy American socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, Cartier, and Harry Winston. It is now on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

Rahele is one of the most unusual perfumes in the NVC collection. Clear and flawless like Tavernier’s diamond, reflecting a blue-shadowed world. There is mystery and power in the composition and blend of materials, all slowly coalescing around the apricot powder and creamy yellow osmanthus, one of the most beautiful scents in nature and only rarely used with elan and attention to its delicate green nuances.

Rahele evolves from a zesty green mandarin and cardamom duet in the bright opening down to moist woods and oakmoss in the base. A trembling jasmine gilded white suggests the lace-like feel of the notes as they expand on skin. Osmanthus has a delicious singularity but also harmonises with petal soft moments of cinnamon, cardamom, and the boudoir melancholy of violet.

Rahele is magical, transportive perfumery, a unique blend of fleeting fragility and impressionable revelation. It shimmers with jewel-like intensity and the mimeographed osmanthus through romantic bygone scentscapes.

Composition:

• Green Mandarin, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Violet Leaf Absolute
• Osmanthus Absolute, Rose Absolute, Magnolia, Jasmine Absolute, Iris, Violet
• Cedarwood, Sandalwood, Oakmoss, Patchouli, Leather

Perfumer: Bertrand Duchaufour, 2016

inci list: alcohol denat., parfum (fragrance), aqua (water), alpha-isomethyl ionone, benzyl alcohol, benzyl benzoate, benzyl salicylate, cinnamal, citral, citronellol, eugenol, evernia prunastri (oakmoss) extract, farnesol, geraniol, hydroxycitronellol, isoeugenol, limonene, linalool