Italian niche house Maria Candida Gentile has launched Elephant & Roses, a new fragrance.
Elephant & Roses A late afternoon, sitting at my desk, exercising to recreate an elephant smell, while writing my perfume formulae I had a kind of a vision, which merged the elephant’s image, its smell and a large field of roses, of an intense colour, almost fuchsia. Within this vision the elephants were running and, trampling on the roses, were dispersing a scent of flowers, mixed together with the strong smell of their bodies. Slowly - while I was weighing and smelling my formula - after trying it on my skin I realised that it was mine. I used the Turkish rose: this fragrance is derived from the blending of two different formulae, using the so called “dans le tiroir” method, by which I merged animal notes with skin and floral ones.
Name’s origin : The elephant comes from a remembrance of Indian and African colonies, and the rose is the British rose. An encounter between an elephant and the roses has got some British sense of humour. There is an assonance with London district Elephant & Castle.
The notes include thyme, costus, osmanthus, rose, jasmine, amber, vetiver, sandalwood and animal accord.
Maria Candida Gentile Elephant & Roses is available in 15 or 100 ml Eau de Parfum.
(via mariacandidagentile)
Other than the unnecessary nostalgic nod to a time in history where a wealthy empire exploited its colonies… this fragrance sounds very much worth hunting down and sampling. I am trying to imagine a warm, skin, animalic scent interwoven with rose, and failing. But I am very curious! (And, thank goodness the bottle is not entirely decorated with colorful little elephants…think what that might make me do!)
HA…have to agree about the elephants, I’d probably already have it on the way. And I’m not even an elephant freak!
I am with you that the comment was unnecessary … but I have to admit that I do get annoyed.
well, so many other fragrances around to try …
Thank you for saying that. Such a gross reference to colonialism.
finally, a frag to wear while reading Babar to one’s children! It makes me think more of Celeste, though.
If I could I would give you a bit of an elephant trumpeting here. But since I can’t I’ll just give you my actually literal LOL. Thanks for a fun start to my day.
Yes!, my 2 year old son is elephant mad, & loves babar, he calls all elephants ‘Boba’, as this was my pathetic attempt at the trumpeting noise they make. It’s very sweet, I will be sad when he can say elephant!. He insisted that we watch colonel Hathays march in the jungle book over & over, about 5 times this afternoon, & he gets cross if I don’t sing along, definitely need an elephant perfume to go with these exhausting elephant antics!
Oh, he does need a bottle of Assam of India!
Ha! This reminds me of when a Now Smell This commenter said that his partner told him that his Dzing! made him smell like an elephant’s ass.
Found it! It was BobH At
https://nstperfume.com/2014/11/19/wednesday-scent-of-the-day-1119/
Excellent, kindcrow!
Agree with Oakland Fresca, we don’t need any return of the Raj, but I do think “A late afternoon, sitting at my desk, exercising to recreate an elephant smell” has to be the best opening line of perfume backstory ever.
(Even assuming they meant “striving” rather than “exercising.”)
Agree! And the idea of the perfume itself is awesome, I was at the Zoo this Sunday and wore Putain des Palaces, and the musky rose was amazing with the animals’ funk. The elephant rose sounds like the best idea ever to me. But after the stupid adendo I’m totally put off, I mean, go read a little history…
In the early 2000s, I lived in Eritrea, where the Italians built so much of the infrastructure and still maintained the best school. The 1930s modernist architecture was amazing, and Eritreans have maintained and restored it, as well as restoring the old railroad. I don’t mean to whitewash the colonial period, but there was some nostalgia for those days.
I can only assume MCG has NOT been to Elephant and Castle in London……. though maybe that is the reference to the English sense of humour….
Moving on… I’m not a rose lover but the list of notes intrigue me and I do love her Sideris so will look out for a sample.