Orange You Romantic (Perfume Review: Seville A'Laube , L'Artisan Perfumiere)

So here goes another Valentine's Day, or in my case another SAD (Single Awareness Day)  I was looking for an appropriate scent this morning, and was going to reach for something rose, but thought, wearing a rose scent today would be so boring, so expected, so trite. So I searched and told myself, get something that would give a vibe of romance, but make it unexpected. I found the perfect perfume: Seville A'Laube by L'Artisan. It is based on a love encounter, after all, specifically perfume blogger Denyse Beualieu. 

"I am in Seville, standing under a bitter orange tree in full bloom in the arms of Román, the black-clad Spanish boy who is not yet my lover. Since sundown, we’ve been watching the religious brotherhoods in their pointed caps and habits thread their way across the old Moorish town in the wake of gilded wood floats bearing statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary. This is the Madrugada, the longest night of Holy Week, and the whole city has poured into the streets: the processions will go on until the dawn sky is streaked with hunting swallows. In the tiny white-washed plaza in front of the church, wafts of lavender cologne rise from the tightly pressed bodies. As altar boys swing their censers, throat-stinging clouds of sizzling resins – humanity’s millennia-old message to the gods – cut through the fatty honeyed smell of the penitents’ beeswax candles.


And it's centered around orange blossom (which is one of my favorite notes) a note that is normally strong and heady. But the perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour has created an orange blossom that is subtle, poetic, sweet. It's romantic, just like Ms. Beauliieu's copy. At first, the interpretation seems literal - all the other prominent notes are incense, (for the church) violets (Spanish men love violet cologne) and beeswax (candles)  But brought together, it creates something smooth and fragrant - the violet doesn't smell barbershop-like, the beeswax gives it a finesse and shine, and the orange blossom is still a blooming one, the citrus fueled by a moon not a sun. It is so good I want to hoard bottles, and I may, because this is a L'Artisan "limited edition" release, and for all I know it may already be gone. So today, on Valentine's Day, I may not have the most romantic experience, but I will smell as romantic as can be.