Olivier Durbano Prométhée (2014) {New Fragrance}

French niche signature Olivier Durbano has released a new perfume to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the house with an opus entitled Prométhée in the Poems Stones Jewelleries & Perfumes collection...

The trademark ambience of the house is one where mystical numbers, mythology, stone properties intersect to be decanted into perfume forms as well as jewelry.

Prométhée does not bear the name of a stone like the first 8 perfumes but is in the same line of thinking with more emphasis put on Greek mythology with the previous composition Lapis Philosophorum serving as a transition phase from stones to stories.

The new opus takes an olfactory cue from the myth - that moment when Prometheus hid the sacred fire of god into a fennel stem to give it to men - to create an "ambery woody anisic" fragrance. It also includes lily from the Caucasus region as the myth is located in its mountains with Russian sage to add to the symbolic authenticity of the scent.

Orientalist and comparatist mythologist Georges Charachidzé - one of my doctoral thesis referee judges - wrote a reference book precisely, entitled Prométhée ou le Caucase (Prometheus or the Caucasus) which showed the origins of the myth to be coming from a cycle of Caucasian legends.

The Eau de Parfum, which reads complex, opens on top notes of fennel, pink peppercorn, nutmeg, myrtle, olibanum and cistus. The heart features notes of narcissus, lily from the Caucasus, absolue of lavender, fenugreek, Russian sage and styrax. The base rests on cedarwood, vetiver, myrrh, labdanum, ambergris and musk.

Aniseed is always a bit of an off-kilter note so it's interesting to see it accentuated with its cousin scent fennel - and even turned into a self-conscious sub-genre.