Papillon Perfumery Tobacco Rose, Anubis & Angélique + Midsummer’s Day in the UK

Midsummer’s Day Debut of Papillion Artisan Perfumes Tobacco Rose, Anubis & Angélique

One of the great joys of Twitter is making friends and getting to know them. There is a sense of community, the reassuring flow of news, trivia and shared olfactory expertise is both cocooning and stimulating. This is how I met Perfumer Liz Moores, founder and creatrix of Papillon Perfumery, based near the New Forest in southern England. Liz launched her three debut fragrances Tobacco Rose, Anubis and Angélique, today, June 24st, 2014, Midsummer’s Day which Ms. Moores hoped (and I do too…) will be an auspicious day for her triptych of truly beautiful fragrances.

 (Photo Credit:Jasmine Moores) Perfumer Liz Moores of Papillon Artisan Perfumes

Liz Moores has arrived at this moment after years of hard work, trial and error, endless mods, sleepless nights and a sense of perfumed intuition telling her that she was good, damn good. Her background has a ballet story and some remedial massage mixed in. Both these elements strike me as vital, using poise, control and carefully applied force where needed to achieve specific effects. Both mediums demand patience and continuous application of technique.  The handling of essential oils in massage led Ms. Moores to broaden and deepen her understanding of aromachemistry and the building blocks of fine fragrance. She completed a Fragrance Foundation CFSS (Certified Fragrance Sales Specialist) course in 2009, submitted to further training then and set about scent making, for friends and family, art and literary projects with one eye continually on a more definitive perfumed future.

Photo: Elizaveta Porodina  Most Precious Blood

“But he who dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose.”- Anne Brontë

I’ve written for years about my gradual swoon into the world of roses. The velveteen symbolism, thorns, love, blood, sexuality, the feel of petalled flesh, death and funereal decoration, the vortex of giddy romance. I find rose scents so alluring and thankfully they work beautifully with my skin chemistry. I do like my roses on the darker side, the hue of wine, night and papal misconduct. Touches of spice, civet, amber, oppoponax, oud, and chocolate are things I love. But a part of me obsesses over a lipstick accord, the smeared boudoir nostalgia of roses and violet with a dusting of orris and a sparkle of raspberry.

Photo: Elizaveta Porodina for Vogue Ukraine

Papillon Artisan Perfumes’Tobacco Rose is intoxicating; a blend of two different roses (Centifolia and Damascena), sweet smeared beeswax, oakmoss, ambergris, damp ashen hay and a gourmand patchouli base. The dirtiness of the rose is gorgeous, rubbed and daubed, a hot echo of saddle and ridden skin. For me, the blooms are kept beautifully in check by the beeswax/honey; this was a very clever addition. It happens to be one of my favourite notes in perfumery, but can sometimes get lost in the constructions. Here it has been spread with a golden knife, ecclesiastical and sweet. The whiff of hive and wing is rendered with fleeting subtlety beneath the stained glass light of the roses. (Tobacco Rose is my favorite of the three inaugral Papillon fragrances, but then I am biased about all things rosaceous. I have been wearing it to death. I like to wear it in the stillness of dim candle-lit rooms. I am beautifully tired and my wrists smell of cigars stubbed out in rose jam. How fantastic is that…)

Photo: So Schoen Wie Gamalt for German Gala Elizaveta Porodina

Angélique is cedar, osmanthus, white champaca, mimosa and orris. The mimosa is really delightful, a very French note in my olfactory lexicon; Côte d’Azur roads and sea breezes tugging at the sweet waxen yellow blossoms. Liz Moores has blended this most Grace Kelly of blooms with tremendous elegance, marrying it to the soothing tea tones of osmanthus, another note that can sometimes drown under the weight of expectation. Angélique is French for angelica, a member of the fennel family and there is definitely a bite of something anisic over the ground of woods and violaceous drift of orris.

Photo: Elizaveta Porodina “Tribal” for Madame Germany

The third in the Papillon Perfumery collection, Anubis, is a sueded oriental with saffron and jasmine that smells divinely spiced and febrile as it blooms on skin. Ms. Moores has used immortelle for its sombre tobacco-like aroma that mingles so alluringly with the olibanum and bitter cistus lying provocatively in the base. A basmati rice facet rises through the notes and simmers gently into the drydown. It’s a streamlined and artful composition with an eye for effect, drama and beauty.

–The Silver Fox, Contributor and Editor of The Silver Fox

Disclosure: samples provided by Liz Moores

Photo:  Elizaveta Porodina Dark Beauty Magazine

Editor’s Note: Check out Papillon Artisan Perfumes’ website here. I chose the evocative surrealistic Fashion photography of Elizaveta Porodina to bring The Fox’s perfume reviews to life. –Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief