HÉLIODOSE

Eau de Parfum

"My work has always involved the human body, its social identity, how it communicates, how it is represented." - Briac Frocrain, founder of Marlou

The hélio part of this unsettling and addictive new perfume from Marlou nods at the sunlit voyeurism of vacations by azure pools.

Héliodose, composed by the talented Stéphanie Bakouche gives us sweat-glossed flesh, indolent heat and the sensuality of Jonathon Glazer’s ominously sensual film Sexy Beast. As always with Marlou perfumes, the beauty of the complex fragrances lies in the combination of prurience and fantasies.

There is a humid fecundity to Héliodose, the name hinting subconsciously at overdose. It is a perfume of slick hot skin, lying in hot still grass with a lover, words unnecessary, fingers brushing electric and moist. The body is a flower, its purpose to attract desire.

An unexpected base of gold-tooled bookbinding crumbling over time provides a pomaded anchorage of green galbanum, tiaré and musky indoles. There is disturbance throughout Héliodose, a sense of what is smelled is not in fact the full story. Can perfumes be menacing? The answer is yes, and Marlou is a brand exploring this with off kilter beauty.

Héliodose brings to mind Jacques Demy’s 1969 film La Piscine, starring Alain Delon and Romy Schneider, with a young Jane Birkin as the beguiling ingenue. Shneider and Delon had had a very public and difficult break up, but Delon was obsessed and wanted her back, demanding to Demy she be cast in La Piscine or he wouldn’t do it either. It led to palpable erotic tension on set in a film already immersed in sun-soaked jealousy.

As befitting a film about vacation indolence and sexual suspense, there is a lot of sunbathing, an activity that seems to exist purely to elicit the erotic gaze. Marlou’s Héliodose is the scent-track to Demy’s film, a perfume that simmers with humid want and weaponised skin. It is another triumphant composition for Briac Frocrain’s inimitable brand.

Composition:

• Galbanum, Tiaré, Indole, Musk

Perfumer: Stéphanie Bakouche, 2025

Artistic direction: Briac Frocrain