Alamut, Lorenzo Villoresi

One of the most beautiful journeys that a perfume can provoke is when it leads me away to an universe where literature and perfumery are joined so together that there is no way to separate them. The act of smelling is transformed into the pleasure of picturing images and the poetry of the written art and then is possible to touch the soul of a fragrance as touching the pages of a book. Alamut, fragrance created by the florentine perfumer Lorenzo Villoresi in 2006 is part of the "Fantasy collection" and features notes of osmanthus, rose, jasmin, rosewood, exotic flowers, narcissus(daffodil), tuberose, ylang ylang, orange blossoms, labdanum, amber, musk, sandalwood, patchouli, benzoim, leather and powdery notes.
Alamut is also the name of an antique mountain fortress in the Persia lands, a place of deep knowledge where was cultivated the phylosophy, field in which Lorenzo Villoresi is an expert. Through these delightful references, Alamut inspires me for an incredible journey in which the olfactory experience is a magical tale.

Behind the concept in the release of Lorenzo Villoresi Firenze fragrances, it is worth noting a masterful book of the Arabian Literature which antecipates the magnitude that may be the fragrance scent. It is understood to imagine Alamut smell coming from the lab of this renowned Italian nèz winner of the international awards "Prix François Coty" as 2006 best perfumer.

The release functions as a book short prolog and while I read it the space is filled by the scent of Alamut, the oriental woody fragrance described as "rich, opulent and velvety flowers of a Thousand and One Nights, dreams of secret gardens in the moonlight of the fresh Oriental nights".

The sultry power of the composition immediately transports me from the routine involved by  the oriental dreams fugacity through the dark warmness of balsamic notes into the relaxing sensation of laying down on fine fabrics in a king palace surrounded by exotic flowers and, after all, the unique place where are formed all the images of each One Thousand and One Nights word and each Alamut sniff is in my mind.



One Thousand and One nights is a masterpiece of the world literature, a joint of Arabian tales told by the creative and fearless Scheherazade, the wife of Sharyar. Sharyar is the Great King who after being betrayed by one of his wifes, decided to get married to each different woman each night in order to command her execution in the following morning possessed by revenge. This brutal spirit is because of his fear to be betrayed again.

Scheherazade decided to face the dangerous challenge of being his wife and stopping his deathful behavior. Every night Scheherazade tells him a story what makes him to feel interested in listening to her more and more, then her tales keep her alive until he falls in love by her and his killing cycle is interrupted. A brief summary to continue this olfactive experience that refers also to Alamut is that the fortress is also named the castle of the death in the Arabic language, then the remebrance of a mortal sultan castle is evident as Sharyar home.

Obviously Sherazade was living in a castle where the death was so closer of her putting into risk her own life in the name of life. Ironically and beautifully, there is no death in the fragrance and discover it is the stunning end of this journey. Stay with me!

After smelling this gorgeous scent, I look myself as one Scheherazade of the fragrances having the great responsability through my writing to lead some thoughts to a fragrant discovery, a possibility of change to a new world of many worlds in the perfume industry: the fabulous world of the niche perfumery. Lorenzo's work is including in this fantastic world which searches for new boundaries where falls to anyone to explore new emotions through scents, mainly the aroma of the Orient, so inspiring in the olfaction aesthetics of other noses such as Andy Tauer, for example.

Lorenzo is one of the perfumers who have been worked with an interesting approach to the Orient influences and the valuable quality of its raw materials. Fragances as Incensi and Piper Nigrum evoke these memories, the road of a man who never abandoned his Middle Eastern inspirations. Through his outstanding  perfumery creations, I am placed in this imaginary and also so real universe where the fragrance will not only save me, but also you from a sensorial death without experiencing pungent smells on you to fulfil your life bringing some art, some beautifulness without limits as the tales of this amazing princess of One Thousand and one nights. At the end, I expect you being a saved Sharyar and be in love by many Scheherazade fragrances which are not known or are disregarded as valuable books which are forgotten on the library-shelf.

(Ala)mut reaches me as an type of Allah smell, God spirit in the air. Sweet, exotically floral enveloped by a powerful scent of Labdanum embraced also by the seductive amber basenote.

The first sniff reminds me of this unique living athmosphere where the flowers have their contemplative beauty and the power of joy on the oriental environment, mainly the jasmin, the narcissus and the osmanthus, amazingly included in the mix.

These floral notes are not so evident and easy to be identified; they hide the mystery of the bouquet, still well mixed and warmed up by the ylang ylang. Heated by this seductive note, the flowers are very feminine and the reminiscences of Jasmin and Narcissus praise some traditional olfactory undertones very common in some fragrances of Pierre Balmain and Caron.

The Rose, even it is an important cultural component in the perfumery of the Orient, in Alamut it is not the relevant as are the roses whose petals are so brilliant and deeply rosy-scented in other niche fragrances; the rose is only integrated in the blending of marvellous flowers and is melt into an adornment of woman beauty, the hidden beauty that may be revealed in Scheherazade in the course of One Thousand and one nights in each story that faces the dark Sharyar, a beauty which can make the love flourish. It is like to imagine Scheherazade and her delicateness in the middle of blooming flowers in a gardened-place where her beauty is above all the flowers, she is unique but also cannot be apart of the floral pureness of this decorated place which make Sharyar the king. Her presence has some flourish that will reveal the mercy in his heart.

When the floral bouquet starts to tone down, Alamut become delightfully fascinating rendering the flowers with resinous undertones of labdanum which flows into the fragrance heart. For a second, this Labdanum scent reminds me of the Ambergris in the fragrances of Tauer Fragrances and some arabian traditional oil perfumes. This stick opulent Labdanum is very ambergris-like and softly, sustains some sweetness on the fragrance and balsam-like chords which bring a dry radiance to the fragrance. A marvellous darkness which also, in a extraordinary way as the tales of Scheherazade, sparkles Alamut as a rare jewel of the East.

Later in the dry down, the odour richness is celebrated by me as to fall in love by a marvellous chapter of the Antoine Galland masterpiece version. The woody chords are ornamented by the labdanum and the pleasant amber reinforcing the oriental opulency of Alamut, strongly a trace of long lasting on the skin during about 8 hours, such the dreaming book memories after a night reading.

Surrounded by this captivating scent Sharyar says to Scheherazade: "O Scheherazade I have listened to you for one thousand and one nights and now my soul is changed and joyful, it beats  with an appetite for life. I give thanks to Him who has perfumed your mouth with so much eloquence and has set wisdow(1)." The warm and absolute power of her words changed the heart of a hard man because there was a perfume on her, a  perfume in her character, a fragrant soul. Suddenly Alamut filled the room and the castle of death become palace of life.

In Alamut, the fragrant tones transformed into words as the words of Scheherazade, because of that the perfumery and the literature, as any art which someone can produce, are soul matches for those who believe that a word, a scent move us to a different sphere of imagination  and, consequently, a high level of raised emotions. Smelling this Lorenzo's fragrance, I truly believe that its intention is to bring the smell of life, the moving scent which set free any prisoner as Sharyar. Most of times, the prisoners are our noses guided by ours careless attitudes that avoid to let the smell floats into our deep thoughts and feelings, so what I can tell you is to set your nose free and be part of these tales. 

If the perfumery could be a tale, this tale would have started its first paragraph in the sumptuous and mysterious lands of the East, from the dryness of the lands, our noses could smell the warmth of exotic  scents and contemplate the glorious blessing of being olfactively rebirthed where the perfumery was born, indeed, for a fragrant life celebration.

Alamut is an unisex fragrance in EDT and EDP versions. Lorenzo Villoresi Fragrances are available at some retails around the world.  For others buying information, contact the official website of  Lorenzo Villoresi fragrances.
 

Images: Lorenzo Villoresi, jeanricard.broek, EricGjerde, alfaneque, heroin's journey
 

Author: Cristiane Gonçalves (crisgonc)
Fragrantica Member

Cristiane Gonçalves (aka Cris Rosa Negra) is fragrance writer from Brazil and has a multilinguistic background and education. She is  self-taught in perfumery issues, owner, editor and writer of her two international blogs, Perfume da Rosa Negra (the pioneer Brazilian Perfume Blog) and El Perfume al Aire (in Spanish).

Cris's writings are highlights at Perfumecritic.com as a active contributor writer. Cris is also a Senior  Human Resources professional experienced in renowned companies and is involved in the development of the attars culture  as a  oriental fragrance expert/consultant.