Ah, inspiration! Cire Trudon, in collaboration with Arquiste, created the Mérida* candle to memorialize "...a balmy night described by Empress Carlota of Mexico on her visit to the city of Mérida, Yucatán, in 1865." Empress Carlota (also known as Charlotte of Belgium) arrived in Mexico as an invader (though we must cast more blame in the direction of her hubby, Archduke Maximilian of Austria/Emperor Maximilian I, and Napoleon III — the instigator of the French invasion of Mexico in 1861 and the one with the daft idea to install Europeans, Carlota and Max, on the "throne" of Mexico. More history later; first, the Mérida candle.
Mérida is an homage to guava. Once a year, I make a large batch of guava jelly for a friend's birthday present; to her, guava jelly evokes her childhood in India. (She puts guava jelly on buttered toast and tops it with cream.) While I cook the guava fruit for the jelly, I'm amazed at the guavas' intense aromas: tropical, sweet, musky and floral. Cire Trudon/Arquiste did an excellent job in the recreation of guava scent. As the Mérida candle burns I smell ripe/pungent guava fruit, a slightly powdery white floral accord, and, for a time, a green note that makes the candle smell more savory than sweet. If you pay close attention and let the candle burn for a good while, you may detect a hot metallic powder/incense note (the gunpowder/fireworks accord). The wood notes in Mérida are mild and let the fruit and flowers dominate. I think Mérida would make an excellent addition to Arquiste's perfume line-up. Mérida is a year-round candle: perfect for hot summer and even better in winter when you yearn for warm weather and fresh fruit.
Carlota arrived in Mexico in 1864 and enjoyed two "good" years as empress before things got ugly. In 1866, as Benito Juárez fought to regain power and as the French army abandoned her and her husband, Carlota fled to Europe to beg Napoleon III and Pope Pius IX for help (she was ignored). It was in Europe, in 1867, that she got word that her beloved husband had been executed by firing squad — that incident gives a strange (intentional? unintentional?) twist to Mérida's "gunpowder" note. Carlota suffered a mental breakdown and was declared insane (women were always being declared insane, weren't they; perhaps Carlota suffered from unrelenting depression and sadness — having a loved one killed by firing squad can do that). Carlota never talked about Maximilian's death even though she outlived him by 60 years; she died, age 86, in 1927. Carlota did love the exotic scents, tastes and sights of Mexico...and she's not the first doomed queen to inspire perfumers, though she'll never outdo the empress of scent in that regard: Marie Antoinette.
Cire Trudon Mérida Arquiste is 9.5 oz and burns for 55-60 hours; $95.
*Listed notes include: guava fruit, blossom and wood, citrus, Mexican salvia (Salvia leucantha), green notes, gunpowder accord, orange flower, "Flor de Clavito," (which I assume is the clove flower), Choisya absolute, mahogany, cedar and "Palo Primavera" (palo santo?)
Note: top images of guava branch and Charlotte of Belgium via Wikimedia Commons.
What a bitter-sweet story
Isa…yes, a complex story.
What good is a tragedy if it can’t inspire a decent candle 😉
Merlin: Indeed…an endless supply of ideas!
Great article Kevin! This candle sounds delish, and agree that it should become a perfume.
GirardEAU, thanks…would love this as perfume…but won’t hold my breath. Ha!
The notes sound divine.
UdayP…good notes…at Barneys NY the raves from staff seemed genuine.
Wonderful review! I’m history lover as well as a perfume lover. Knowing the back story/inspiration for a scent gives it so much more depth and complexity. Sadly, $95 for a candle isn’t exactly in the budget, but this does sound lovely!
And, yes, they did seem to declare women “insane” pretty often. If I had lived back then, they would have locked me up and thrown away the key 😉
Oh, I did live back then, and they did throw away the key. I remember it quite well, now that you are mentioning it! 😀
annawilde: thanks! $95 is expensive but I must say Cire Trudon candles are wonderful…those and Astier de Villatte are my favorites.
I have this candle and love it for it’s guava-ness. It’s the most true guava note I can think of in fragrance. I can’t help thinking, though that if they ever make a liquid/body version – a girl can dream – that it could use a wee bit more gunpowder. Gunpowder seems to be increasingly cited as a note, but you don’t often get much of the odour of it. I would like a guava firework 🙂
Erin: yes, more gunpowder and more mahogany in the perfume!
I don’t burn candles but ai am tempted to buy this and just huff it unlit. If not perfume then maybe a room diffuser.
that would be “I” and not “ai” grrrrr
hajusuuri: I’d take the scent in soap, too…. A room diffuser would be great.
Such a tragic, but fascinating, story. That gunpowder note slays me.
I’ve been on something of a Cire Trudon kick lately, having just bought my second candle of theirs (Balmoral). I love how you can still smell them even when they’re unlit. Makes me feel slightly less like a schmuck for having spent so much $$$. 🙂
Bookgirl…60 hours of pleasure is a lot! Think of the drinks/meals you’ve had that last just a few hours. LOTS of ways to justify candle habits. Ha!
Serge Lutens does those weird wax samples of his perfumes – why can’t Cire Trudon et al provide candle wax samples? Or perhaps little birthday-candle-sized trial candles?
The Different Company has sent me tiny candle samples…a few other brands as well…but they can’t be bought, which is too bad.