Scented Snippets: Mendittorosa Le Mat

07/14/15 13:57:59by: Ida Meister

Nothing can conjure the image of The Fool on his journey into the unforeseen future for me like this song, the second in Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen —Songs of a Wayfarer.

I've listened to many recordings of it, and Christa Ludwig's expressive and clarion rendition feels so right, full of joy and trepidation.

Which is precisely the point.

Enter The Fool, or the Jester, the only unnumbered card in the tarot deck.

He has been called The Madman, The Beggar, The Vagabond; Le Mat, Il Matto, Der Narr.
He is depicted in a variety of ways: young, old, handsomely garbed, ragged and threadbare; his pants torn by a wild cat of sorts, or his poor bottom bare as the day he was born. He is wounded, he is whole; it is anyone's guess, dependent upon the deck which you hold in your anxious palm.

Always, he carries his staff with all his worldly possessions, few though they be. He is accompanied by a beast, too—be it faithful dog or clawing cat—and he is traveling to an unknown destination. His visage is drawn as hopeful, haggard, gormless, naïve.
His is the card of approaching change in one's destiny.

And Mendittorosa has created a perfume about it.

What a world!

Le Mat Notes
Head: nutmeg, black pepper, cloves
Heart: Egyptian geranium, rose de Grasse
Base: Indonesian patchouli, cashmere wood, Spanish immortelle

Le Mat may appear deceptively simple to the eye; we have seen incarnations of rose-patchouli in abundance. It has appeared in the guise of the dry thin, whispery voice of the repressed Victorians, the lush voluptuary seraglio of Tom Ford's Noir de Noir.
And more besides...

But this one is unique.

Mendittorosa Le Mat sings the song of the wayfarer, with its olfactory augury of metamorphosis, reversal of fortune, reinvention of the individual and his circumstances.

Spices speak to us of foreign lands, different cultures, eternal promise of the new.
Variety is the spice of life [La variété est l'épice de la vie!], taken quite literally. The pulse quickens as we sense the winds of change afoot; we are on the edge of the abyss, already positioned and in motion. Whether we like it or not, movement is a given and we are urged forward as momentum builds.

We can take faith in the fullness of the rose [and the rose-like], who gladdens the heart and imparts courage and good cheer to temper our audacity as we sally forth into the unknown fate which awaits us.

Parts unknown are revealed in fine, winelike patchouli while immortelle lays bare its herbal face, the vegetation The Fool trods underfoot on his path to tomorrow. Woody facets are silky and grounding; perhaps our wanderer will not venture off the edge of the cliff or the mountain [as it appears on some decks].

His destiny is uncertain, but his journey will be beautiful and it will alter him forever; we can smell it.

What impresses me most is the remarkable quality of the materials perfumers Amelie Bourgeois and Anne-Sophie Behaghel have utilized; they are stunningly beautiful.
How could one create anything but loveliness from such beautiful essences as these?

Le Mat is distinctly oriental and resinous, so very comfortable and comforting, like some tender waking dream. It manages to be both sensual and deeply meditative and is a joy to wear.

N.B.: A word for tarot enthusiasts:

In the Rider-Waite tarot deck, The Fool is always depicted as a handsome young man holding a white rose in one hand; it is said to represent freedom and earthly desires. He is blithely ambling towards the edge of the precipice, unperturbed, perhaps even unaware.  The sun shines brightly; his small dog accompanies him and appears to be barking, trying to capture his attention. The Fool's parcel of possessions on a staff represents untapped collective knowledge.

In the Marseille Tarot, however, we find Mendittorosa's Fool: an older man of some experience, walking with staff and torn trousers, the clawing beast behind him.
Is he weary? Hopeful? Wounded? Clearly, he is ready to exit from his present existence.

What does The Fool card augur, when presented straight up?

Innocence, insouciance, immaturity, idealism, luck, energy, impulsivity, marginality, the unknown. Travel, new projects, liberty, optimism, new ventures.

When The Fool card appears reversed?

Foolishness, blindness to a situation, chaos, excess, immorality, violence, incoherence, incompetence, passivity, foolishness, materialism, lack of conscience.

We are each The Fool, in turn.

It is our choice which path we take; may it be a blindingly beautiful, insightful journey to behold.

I'd like to thank Jakub Piotrovicz of Mendittorosa for sending me samples with which to familiarize myself; they are a delight.

[And gazing at the website, it's been awhile since I've seen such artistry in presentation, too. Really spectacular—both bottles and packaging.]

The Awkward Marine Beauty of Sogno Reale

by: Miguel Matos

Nowadays, very few perfumes can make me say “I have never smelled anything like this before.” Well, Sogno Reale sure can take home the prize of “Unusual Perfume of the Year.” The new edition from Italian house Mendittorosa was created by the hip and cool, talented and proficuous Amelie Bourgeois and Anne-Sophie Behaghel from the Parisian atelier Flair. The "Flair Girls” are the new stars who seem to be the artists everyone wants to work with. And there's a reason for this. They always create very honest fragrances that manage to be original but not too strange and still wearable. This is a hard balance and the best two examples of this were seen (or rather smelled) at Esxence, in Milan: Room 1015 Atramental and this gem, Sogno Reale for Mendittorosa.

The concept of Sogno Reale was based on a dream Stefania Squeglia had, as she told Fragrantica in the interview she gave me. Her dream was about a king of the ocean, a sea urchin. But it also has the smells of citruses and leather in it. So she called the Flair Girls, who always make the perfumes for her in a special spiritual connection. Stefania asked Amélie and Anne-Sophie to translate her dream into a perfume. And never in my dreams I have encountered such a strange and compelling smell.

Sogno Reale is undoubtedly a polarizing fragrance. It's tart/sweet/salty/animalic vibe is not related to any perfume that I know of. And the first thing I can associate it is fresh seafood with a big dash of lemon and caramel. I come from a country where there are beaches everywhere and seafood is not a rare thing to eat. But somehow, aquatic scents are not my thing. This is an aquatic/marine that was thrown into an oriental ambery heart and was given a considerable dose of animal smells. Over all this mix there's a huge glass of fresh squeezed citrus juice. When you first apply it, there's a strangeness, a seafood-y smell. It sounds so very awkward, but I was immediately hooked on the opening.

Lemon tartness, salty oceanic breeze, sweet notes of amber... it all seems so wrong but it's oh so right on. I have to tell you that this is useless on paper, you have to try it on your skin, for it works with it. More than that, it melts like butter. And yes there's a certain greasiness about it. When you wear it and you start to think that this could be overwhelming, it immediately fuses with your body in a very strange way. Well, almost all of the scents created by the Flair Girls have a specific airy quality (not Frapin's Nevermore, though). And even when they make this awkward smell of sea and animals, they can infuse it with space for breathing. It's a breeze, an animal dream breeze that comes from my skin. And sometimes I even wish it was stronger, for I became addicted.

This is a shy scent. It stays close to the skin, although it has a pretty decent longevity. But I tend to forget I am wearing it, apart from the occasional whiff, when I have something like a small olfactive orgasm. I started to carry this dreamy heavy bottle with me and for a whole week I was reapplying it every two hours, just to get that rush of strangeness. It seems that the people around me could smell it better than I could. Another thing: I normally cannot wear the same fragrance two days in a row. However, during the first days, when I wore something else I found myself craving Sogno. It is addictive, intimate and carnal. It started to be MY scent and when a friend sprayed it on herself I felt angry. That's how “mine” I felt it to be.

I eventually got over this initial obsession and now I can wear other perfumes, butSogno Reale has the ability to detach itself from everything else in my collection. It is one of my favourite perfumes in a way that I can't seem to explain. Well, I guess sometimes you can't explain your dreams; you just dream them.

Product Images: Mendittorosa; Paintings: Noronha da Costa