Eternal living, Jardins d’Ecrivains Orlando

Jardins d’Ecrivains is a young niche perfume brand established in 2012 by Anais Biguine, who is also a nose behind all of her compositions. The concept of the brand is to create fragrances inspired by characters from literature. Just a short time ago the fifth perfume was introduced to the Perfumeland. It’s name is Orlando. This scent was inspired by the fictional character – Orlando, the main figure of a novel by Virginia Woolf of the same name.

The story of Orlando is a complicated and twisted one. Readers of the novel get to know the character as an England-born young man, the elderly queen lover. The turn of events led Orlando to falling asleep for a couple of days. When he woke up, he was no longer HE. Orlando turned into SHE, transformed into a woman. What more – Orlando was still the same person, had the same personality, memories… Only his/her gender changed.

Orlando the perfume is supposed to show a thin line between being a man and a woman, a border between the substantial world of reality and immaterial world of visions.

On my skin the composition begins with a blast of spicy cloves. Handfuls of cloves start surrounding me swallowing me deep into their intoxicating smell and structure. Their aroma might be a little bit harsh at the beginning but after 5 minutes it’s totally fine. Orlando manifests on my skin with a powerful sillage at the moment, it floats really high above my skin. 20 minutes later the perfume becomes more complex and another notes slowly start to appear.

The second aroma that reaches my nose as I breathe the perfume in and out is the orange accord. Forget about a joyful juiciness and freshness of the orange pulp. This note in Orlando is nothing like a fruit straight from a tree. To me it smells mostly of a peel. A candied peel along with its white elements. After another 15 minutes it develops an interesting and slightly sweet vibe that could be compared with nothing else but a bottle of an orange liquor.

I must say that I have always enjoyed the combination of smells of cloves and orange. Every Christmas I decorate oranges with cloves and put them close to the candle – that’s when they fill the entire house with this wonderful Holiday aroma. In Orlando the effect is similar, but darker, wilder, definitely not in a spirit of Christmas. Another shift to the perfume arrives at the mark of 1st hour.

That’s when the new Jardins d’Ecrivains creation gains a deep and rough woody quality. Guaiac wood is a kind of dark tree and so is its smell. Powerful, intensive with balmy and resinous facets. This note somehow cuts off the earlier accords and marks the new beginning of the scent. From now on Orlando is untamed, wild and slightly unpredictable. Now is the moment when the character turns from he to she. This effects in perceiving things in a different way.

Closer to the 90 minutes of wearing this perfume I begin to smell the musky notes. Since Orlando has gone wild some time earlier one cannot expect the fluffy, airy or coconuty musk. Instead we can experience the oily, kind of greasy and sweaty tincture. It’s animalic, lusty and provoking just like the novel Virginia Woolf wrote many years ago. Amber also isn’t a shiny note within Orlando.

To me the ambery tones in this perfume blend are rough, just like the amber lump that had been brought to the shore by the waves of the sea. This precious material is not polished yet, not prepared to shine and to show its hidden beauty to the world. On the other hand balsam of peru brings undeniable mineral quality to Jardins d’Ecrivains Orlando. It creates a feeling like you were wandering around the forest just after the rainy season. All is damp, the ground is loose and muddy.

Patchouli in this specific composition doesn’t play a significant role on my skin but I can see it turning more dominating on other people. Its smell evokes fall, with its fallen leaves, pine cones and nature preparing for a winter sleep. Moldering leaves are a quilt for the earth…

Just like Orlando wasn’t a typical literature character, this perfume created by Anais Biguine is not a typical fragrance. It’s complex and complicated, even difficult to understand sometimes. The effect of chiaroscuro that accompanies it is really something that could’ve only been inspired by a novel such as Orlando. This perfume is excellent and it has a hidden charm. It also is a kind of perfume that I personally find difficult to wear on a daily basis. It requires more focus, more space and more attention to fully appreciate it. Once you fall in love with it, you’ll never regret purchasing it!

Jardins d’Ecrivains Orlando is a new perfume that was introduced just a while ago. It’s and eau de parfum available in 100ml bottles of a simple design you can notice on the pictures above. It’s longevity is excellent as the perfume lasted on my skin for at least 10 hours. The initial sillage is very strong, after a couple of hours it drops down to just a few inches above the skin surface.

[note] All pictures in this review were shot by myself, all rights reserved.

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