Mother’s Touch, Gabriella Chieffo Lattedoro

A bond between mother and her child is something that cannot be imitated. It’s like an invisible thread that connects their bodies and their minds that allows them to communicate on a completely different level. Many times even words are unnecessary and our moms knew exactly what was going on. This special bond and gift of caring touch every mother offers to her child served as an inspiration for Gabriella Chieffo to compose a new fragrance, an expression of motherly love.

Lattedoro opens with an abundance of warm and cuddly spices. There is a beautiful cinnamon shimmer that’s leading the fragrance. It has a lovely tingly sweetness in the back. Shredded nutmeg adds its own spicy vibrance but it has a dry manner that’s reminiscent of the smell of old book or parchment, with a hint of something peppery. Curcuma introduces an orange tinge and adds an element of Indian culture to the perfume. All these ingredients mingle together really nicely and their scents entwine, bringing the feeling of comfort and warmth to anyone who wears it.

As some of you could conclude or check in translator, Lattedoro translates directly into ‘golden milk’, therefore you should be able to guess easily what this perfume can reveal next. Milk accord appears quickly, within 10 minutes from spraying on skin. Lactonic notes build up gradually, creating the effect of slow immersion. It’s an important part of this perfume as it combines all of the different pieces into one. Milkiness of Lattedoro is powerful, as to me it’s the loudest note in the fragrance. But at the same time it has a gentle and caring feeling to it. Very cosy and embracing.

When milky notes blend together with cinnamon, nutmeg & curcuma, Gabriella Chieffo Lattedoro becomes a tasty and aromatic liquid. At this stage I could catch a whiff of iris but it easily gets lost in the vast ‘milk sea’ that surrounds the wearer with a tight & fluffy cocoon. On the other hand coconut vibe is clearly noticeable, adding more deliciousness to the perfume. Milk and coconut have similar olfactive profiles, that’s probably a reason why there were no issues to smell it. Press release mentions jasmine among heart notes but I didn’t smell it. I smell something else though.

For example honey – its sweet and shiny-luminous facet is yet another ingredient to add more taste the glass of milk Lattedoro is. The whole perfume smells like a honeymilk a mother would make for her child on that night when they can’t fall asleep. It’s a blend of those aromas that soothe senses and calm your mind. Drydown becomes more gooey and creamy through a woody element of sandalwood. It’s a bit like pudding. Vanilla joins the composition to add even more sweetness and make an edible impression of this fragrance even stronger. Finally there is some leather.

Lattedoro by Gabriella Chieffo is a gourmand perfume from top to bottom yet it’s not repulsively sweet. It has that kind of flavor that brings back childhood memories as probably every one of us was treated to a glass of warm milk & honey infusion at least once when they were few years old. I like the idea but as a person who is not after foody scents I’m not sure if I’d like to smell this way more regularly. I think I’d like it more in a candle. Lattedoro is an eau de parfum with good sillage and longevity. It’s available in 100 ml bottles. How does this sweetness appeal to you?

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Carnal Glow, Atelier des Ors Crépuscule des Âmes

I don’t know a person who wouldn’t like to experience happiness in their life. Everyone seeks their own way to find it and, once it’s found, to keep it by your side as long as you can. As many there are people in the world, as many there are recipes for being happy. Some find it in friends & family, others in possibility to travel across the world or in doing things that let them express who they really are. Atelier des Ors wishes that you find happiness in their new fragrances, inspired by Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze. A search through art, music and scent.

Crepuscule des Ames opens with a mandarin orange note that falls far from your usual understanding of a citrus fruit. First of all I can’t smell much juiciness or freshness from it. Actually it gives off a vibe of a sliced mandarin that is drying in the scorching sun of Sicily or other summery place. Instead of the juicy burst you can experience aromatic zestiness of the rind. It has a tang with a tiny bit of sweetness behind it. While smelling it with a nose pressed to my wrist I can catch a whiff of a freshly squeezed orange juice aroma. I find it really appealing how not obvious, how different and undefined this perfume is.

After a couple of minutes cardamom joins the composition. Citrus and spice is unusual pairing and it smells just as unusual as it sounds. The warm spiciness of cardamom, its slightly roasty, crunchy aspect combines with a dry mandarin, the latter one more green now. The smell is bizarre but satisfying. Plus even though it has a warm character it smells quite fresh and not overpowering – even on a hot summer day. Clary sage in Crepuscule des Ames brings a second wave of aromatic nuances. But this time those are more herbaceous, mentholated with a hint of sweat.

To be honest with you from the very first moment I tried this new Atelier des Ors release I realized that Crepuscule des Ames definitely has more of a masculine DNA, or to put it in other words, it’s the most masculine one in the White Collection. It’s not only clary sage that convinces me about that. I don’t know how a hyssop smells but later on I get a vegetal spiciness of a pimento. It has this fiery peppery smell that tingles inside your nose and at the same time there’s something seductive & very manly about it. It’s the element that could introduce a sexual tension between two lovers. An evening invitation to discover the unknown.

For the next 2-3 hours the perfume was changing a little bit. I could smell all of the earlier notes present in different proportions depending on the moment I smelled it. After that time I noticed that some balsamic qualities are building up in deeper layers of Crepuscule des Ames. Eventually they surface et voila – now you can smell some frankincense. It’s more balmy, chewy and sense rather than airy and spiritual kind. Hyraceum (or hyrax) is a core element of this composition. In description it smells like a combination of musk, castoreum and civet. In this case it’s mostly musk.

Musky aspect of hyraceum is definitely animalic but at the same time it doesn’t have the pungency or repulsive smell like many animal-derived smells (now synthetic of course). It’s somehow elegant and sophisticated if you ask me. It has the sensuality and warmth, like the smell of man’s skin but more dirty, more wild. It’s just another part of Crepuscule des Ames that has a trail of seduction and lust. Together with patchouli that completes this fragrance, you receive a multi-layered, multi-faceted composition with depth, dimension and more than 1 nuance to play with your nose.

During my first smelling of a White Collection in Milan I remember making this funny remark to Atelier des Ors Jean-Philippe Clermont and Megan Paki that it smells like Paco Rabanne Invictus. Even if resemblance is small I still get it up to this day. Obviously Crepuscule des Ames is way more elegant, not sporty at all, and very sophisticated. Perfumer behind this fragrance is Marie Salamagne. Crepuscule des Ames is an eau de parfum presented in brand’s signature 100 ml bottle with white elements (cap, name plaque). Would you like to give this intriguing creation a try?