A perfume brand has to know when to take risks and when to please their audience. Creative director/owner of Olfactive Studio Celine Verleure has tread this fine line very well over the five years of its existence. After a 2015 which saw the more adventurous side of things with Panorama and Selfie; 2016 is going back to the more comforting side of things. The earlier release this year Still Life in Rio was related to one of the original releases Still Life. The latest release is called Close Up.
Photo: Suren Manvelyan
Those familiar with the brand know that Mme Verleure chooses a photographic brief to give to her chosen perfumer. I knew Close Up was going to be interesting because she chose a picture by Suren Manvelyan. It comes from a series of photos of the human eye in extreme close up called “Your Beautiful Eyes” In this case it is of an iris floating in blackness. It is a blue eye with orange/red flecks like solar flares puncturing the serenity of the blue. It looks like it could be a galaxy being swallowed by a black hole but it is that which we use to see.
Annick Menardo
The perfumer Mme Verleure asked to interpret this is Annick Menardo. Mme Menardo usually spends most of her time in the mainstream perfume sector. The beautiful thing about her work is on the rare occasions she ventures into the niche space with a creative director who appreciates her style she has had a fantastic track record. Mme Verleure is one of those creative directors who allows enough space for her perfumers to excel. For Close Up Mme Menrado was allowed to shine.
Celine Verleure
One of the first things they must have agreed on was that this was not going to be some transparent opaque composition. It was going to carry the intensity of Mr. Manvelyan’s photograph with a host of bold notes. After a year of so much lightness it was a treat to have something which wasn’t afraid to swagger a bit.
Close Up struts its stuff from the very first moments. Mme Menardo combines green coffee with a cherry liqueur note. It is like getting a single blend coffee flavored with cherry syrup. It may sound weird but it goes together unusually well. This transitions into a cherry flavored tobacco while the coffee grabs ahold of the patchouli in the heart. These four ingredients form the part of Close Up which lasts the longest. It has great intensity to it as it wears throughout the day. Once Close Up moves on Mme Menardo has one more surprise as a suite of animalic musks provide the final flare. The musks are ameliorated with a bit of tonka and cedar.
Close Up has 24 hr longevity and average sillage.
My most-worn Olfactive Studio fragrance has been Lumiere Blanche it is probably my favorite fall fragrance I own. The testament to that is my bottle is almost empty. I was expecting to go pick up a replacement before the weather turned cooler. After having worn Close Up I am not so worried about that anymore as I think it might just nudge Lumiere Blanche off of its perch. If you are looking for a new fall fragrance you can’t go wrong with embracing Mme Menardo’s vision of Mr. Manvelyan’s eye.
Disclosure: This review was based on a press sample supplied by Olfactive Studio.
–Mark Behnke
