Else

Sepia-tone bottled. The smell of old photographs with worn edges, books with pages yellowed by time, antique furniture, and garments. A full ashtray left on the table with a dirty, half-full glass of whisky next to it, the smell still lingering in the air. Else from Francesca Dell'Oro, composed by Michele Marin. Here is a fragrance that impressed me recently. Something that rarely happens these days. If I remember correctly, the last time I was so captivated by a new release was when I was trying Rauque from Roberto Greco, and we all know how that one did. Else was another one of those "wow" moments the first time I smelled it. It made travel back in time a few decades. The perfume is built around the well-known Mousse De Saxe base, hence, it triggers a strong feeling of vintage and nostalgia, although, some twists and modern touches pull it out of the monotonous. It unfolds like a spicy-oriental-leathery-chypre infused with a prominent "smoky ashtray" accord. The ashtray vibe is one of the few ways I perceive tobacco accords in perfumes, with a few like Luten's Fumerie Turque coming to mind, yet here, it is far more tenacious and holds strongly throughout. I think this effect is incredibly well-placed and gives Else a strong personality. The second aspect that pulls it out of the ordinary is the way Marin uses the vanilla/amber accord to keep the perfume from going too bitter and dull. That, together with the licorice, provides a constant sweet and warm sensation to maintain the harmony. The opening is fiery, smoky, and warm. The blast of spices with the ashy tobacco accord and the licorice hit hard, and feel like gulping down a shot of whiskey. Sharpen the mind and warm the chest. As for the floral component, I pick up the carnation that also helps to perpetuate the spiciness of the composition and the retro vibe. The orris adds texture with its chalkiness. The base is dense, as you'd expect from an Oriental playing on the Mousse De Saxe accord, and it smells of wood, leather, moss, benzoin, vanilla, and smoke. What I find utterly fascinating about this creation is how it evokes this Sepia shade throughout. Nothing about it smells contemporary, and somehow it never calls back any of the vintage perfumes I can recall. It makes me think of my grandparent's furniture and clothes, an old hotel lobby, or smelling those old photographs and books with yellowed pages. All of that, perhaps, and a dirty ashtray to spice things up. It is powerfully evocative of times when people were taking things slower, and the emphasis was on quality and not on quantity. Else is a fabulous release and a time machine for those who want to go back to those times for a quick break from the nowadays haste. IG:@memory.of.scents

While this was inspired by the protagonist Elsa, of Arthur Schnitzler's 1924 novella Fräulein Else, I would prefer to set that aside for now to be left with a clean slate on which to draw my own inspiration. To me, Else is a love letter from perfumer Michele Martin to the legendary Mousse de Saxe ("Saxon Moss") base. Produced by Fabriques de Laire and originally intended as a marketing tool to highlight 6-isobutyl quinoline, formed the basis of many classic mythical compositions composed by Ernest Daltroff such as Nuit de Noel and Tabac Blond, and it heavily inspired the works of another favorite perfumer of mine, Guy Robert. Mousse de Saxe forms the core of Else, stirring and shapeshifting, a kaleidoscope of bitter-green, licorice-sweet, tobacco smoky, and rose geranium tart. It’s fleshed out from this core by a dry mandarin peel, warm cinnamon and antique carnation, with impressions of dried prune and apricot. Else dries down to a patina of a long lost past resurrected and made anew, in a way that unfortunately the houses of Caron and Guerlain have not quite managed to preserve in the modern interpretations of their classics. I've been cut to the quick so many times by the feeble whispers of these legends, and Else is a remedy in its authenticity. It is so respectful to the classical time in perfumery, but serves not merely as a facsimile, it has its own stories to tell, and they are spellbinding. It feels like traveling with ghosts from the past, exploring the dark corners of the darkest secrets of the long lost and the long gone. The dust of old postcards from one sweetheart to another, both just echoes in the vastness of eternal energy. That dust may contain the detritus of their lives that were lived, skin cells that have morphed back into stardust, waiting for one day when they will be swept back into the cosmos, even if that day is a billion years from now. Old boxes containing dreams lived to completion, or never lived at all. I cannot tell, since a whole century has passed and the world has regenerated itself many times over. But love still lives, bittersweet and haunting, it still lives on, somewhere else.

Masterpiece. Really, truly, a masterpiece. Don’t get me wrong, this review is positive, I really love this perfume, it takes me back to my childhood memories. My grandmother once had a huge, heavy antique cabinet with mirrored doors. I loved to climb on top of that closet and look down on everything. The closet smelled of some kind of protection from the moths, dust, dry paper lining the shelves, and clothes that hadn’t been used in a long time. New Francesca Dell’Oro’s Else gives me shivers as it smelled almost like this closet. Bitterly camphoric patchouli, tart dust, old floral soap - did it smell like rose or lily of the valley? Who can remember... To all that is the sour-sweet smell of prunes or maybe dried cranberries. Also a pinch of strong tobacco. There’s some nutty butteriness in the base (probably orris). It smells decadence, foreboding, something old and forgotten. It smells like time has stopped. Dust, dancing in the evening sun, and absolute, dead silence. The scent is inspired by a literary work: young Elsa receives a letter saying that her daddy lawyer has lost an insane amount of money in cards, and he’s facing arrest. Her mother begs Elsa to go to a well-known art dealer and ask for help. The latter agrees to help if Elsa will arrange a « striptease » for him. As you can imagine, the story ends badly. And this perfume reflects the story o it’s complex but beautiful. Although I’m not sure for which occasion I could wear it, but it’s truly a masterpiece.

Else is one of the greatest discoveries of last year for me. I grabbed a bottle after I had kept returning to this small perfume shop in Budapest 3 days in a raw just to test this. Jägermeister is a German bittersweet liqueur made from 56 varieties of herbs, fruits and spices, macerated in spirit for up to 6 weeks and then matured in oak before blending. To me, Else evokes drinking Jäger in front of the fireplace of an ancient German hunting cottage. It's warm and cold, bitter and sweet, full of contradictions so perfectly balanced into the smoothest thickest black liqueur. Licorice root, star anis, cinnamon, salvia, thyme, mousse de saxe together with sugared fruit-stew reminiscent of green walnut preserve sing in perfect harmony. 10/10

A piece of art for sure, but so difficult to wear. I always like the sound of scents that are melancholic, ancient, medicinal, but in practice they are so difficult. While I want perfume to be an intellectual exercise, I also need to enjoy it! This is so bitter, the most bitter moss I have ever smelled with anisic qualities. Could be a Vietnamese ointment-balm or an herbal medicine. The dry down gets much better though. One to appreciate and experience, but not to enjoy with abandon.