Prince Sardanapal

Extrait de Parfum

The month of December will witness the release of our last two Elixir Attars planned for this year.

Originally we had one planned for November and the other for December, however the project of releasing my friends’ and perfumery students’ perfume changed the plan a bit, we decided November for both his compositions, and December for the remaining two Elixir Attars.

Today i am presenting the works of one of my best perfumery students, i had several students of perfumery over the last few years, Sardanapal Abelar (pseudonym at his request) is one of the most notable due to his deep dedication to the craft.

Generally when he undertakes something he immerses himself almost completely in it, and perfumery was not his first very successful indulgence, to conclude, he is a very multitalented and successful person and i wish him the best in life moving forward.

I wont talk about both compositions myself, if i did not think they were excellent, i would never have offered them, i can only say, i wear both of them, Tango Fleuri is a heavenly Gardenia/tuberose composition with insane amounts of gardenia enfleurage, and Prince Sardanapal is one of the best frankincense perfumes i have ever smelt.

In his own words about Prince Sardanapal

I have been asked once how I define myself.

I answered, as it came to me: I am an aesthetic hedonist. I like beautiful things, I like beautifully crafted objects, I love art, I love life and I f… love scents. All of them: the flowers, the animal ones, the human ones, the complex ones and the simple ones.

Time passed and in a private discussion with a good friend I learned about Sardanapalus, the king of Assyria that was known for it’s extreme self indulgence. The story goes that when his enemies surrounded his palace he threw a party complete with orgies and wine and scents and music and everything that can be considered to be a wrong way to day. But he just didn’t care.

In the meantime, I had been working on  a composition straight in the middle of a pandemic when the world seemed to go to hell. And me with it. So I decided: sod it, sod conventions, sod structures, sod scent pyramids, sod it all. And I dropped in all the components that shouldn’t go together in a classical or standard perfume: thyme, patchouli, violet leaf, ambergris,  citruses, you name it.

What started as an desperate attemt to defy perfume aesthetic, ended up to have a new aesthetic in its own right. It didn’t smell common. But I was wearing it every day for weeks. In spite. In defiance. Instead.

And guess what: not only people noticed it but appreciated it and congratulated me for the boldness of it. For the surprise of it. Even my wife who says that all my perfumes smell the same (I know, there are probably more of you guys in the same situation) said that this is something interesting. And that was it: a perfume born in the spirit of Sardanapal. The f— you all perfume. For those that don’t care how they will go into the end of the world.

PS: my friend (the same that told me about Sardanapal) told me that it radiates a wild tenderness towards a world that is about to end. I guess he’s right.