The Tears Of The Heartbroken. (Perfume Review: Love And Tears, Surrender, By Killian)

Sometimes, in my quest of finding perfumes, most of the time I get caught up in something innovating, artistic, new. I sometimes forget what brought me to perfumes in the first place: the evocation of beauty, of what's familiar, of what's just plain good. Perhaps this explains my current fascination with Killian Henessey's scents for By Killian. There are perfumes I admire for being bold strokes, and there are some I appreciate just because they are solid, great examples of what a perfume should be. I think I finally get the By Killian brand: these perfumes are not created to reinvent the wheel. Rather, these are solid wheels that can take you to journeys near and far, far and wide.

It's Valentine's Day, and today I have on Love And Tears, Surrender. Created by Calice Becker, this is a perfume with a capital P, and jasmine with a capital J. It's a soliflore, and it's a big blooming one. It starts out very green in the beginning, akin to picking it with the leaves and thorns, and then it's like that photograph of a flower blooming - the sweetness and the just so very slight indolic note comes in, and it's a full bloom. Then it mellows as the photograph of the jasmine is developed. It stays with you but never overpowers. I love other jasmines too - there's the mega jasmine of Serge Lutens A La Nuit, the sheer watery jasmine of Ormond Jayne's Sampaguita, the darker jasmine of Keiko Mecheri's jasmine, but if you ask me right now, I will tell you that Love And Tears is my absolute favorite. It's a beautiful, behaved perfume that doesn't wear you, and it's wearable and comfortable, like a perfectly tailored suit. It's not cooky or artistic for art's sake. It's just...beautiful. 

On the most romantic day of the year, I feel it with me, beside me, like what cupid has ordered.