Darkly Audacious is the third fragrance from The Pink Room, the niche company founded by stylist-designer Sarah Barton-King. It was created in collaboration with Cyrille Carles of Société Grassoise de Parfumerie, and it’s a “woody amber” composition with top notes of lemon, bergamot, and rosewood; heart notes of jasmine absolute, cashmere wood, and plum; and base notes of dark patchouli, incense, amber, tonka bean, and vanilla.
Like The Pink Room’s previous releases, Darkly Audacious is accompanied by a short prose-poem that sets the mood for the fragrance. The story for this perfume evokes the decadent nightlife of Paris between the World Wars, describing an encounter between two chic, mysterious figures in a bar or club — it’s the sort of scene captured in photographs by Brassaï. Like the characters in Barton-King’s fantasy, Darkly Audacious’s composition opens on an androgynous note, with its citrus and rosewood combining in a mellow, boozy way that reminds me of a fancy brandy cocktail. The heart of the fragrance is slightly more feminine, with a jasmine-vanilla chord and a hit of plummy spice; there’s also a glossy sandalwood note running throughout the rest of the fragrance’s development. The dry down phase is a blend of tonka and amber with just a suggestion of powderiness…