Atelier des Ors: Blanc Polychrome and Rouge Sarây

Hey Posse, Atelier des Ors is one of those consistently revered houses. They make smooth, gorgeous and elegant fragrances. Just off kilter enough to be interesting to perfumistas but super wearable and plush. The bottles are gorgeous. Floating gold leaf a la snow globes or Goldschläger is also a fab kitschy, retro, reminiscent idea that pops. My mate Megan is in their marketing team and she sends me decants of their newest stuff to try. Getting a Megan padded envelope is ALWAYS an exciting thing. One arrived a few days ago with the new 2020 releases: Blanc Polychrome and Rouge Sarây. I’m going to try them and write in real time how they wear.

Atelier des Ors: Blanc Polychrome and Rouge Sarây

Blanc Polychrome

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Mandarin orange, Lemon, Rhubarb
Heart: Petitgrain, Jasmine, Fig leaf, Lavender
Base: Ambroxan, Moss, Musk

OOOOH! Open is a fizzy citrus with lovely rich green overtones beautifully buoyed by white flowers. A tart blend and the first time my nose has been really able to smell the rhubarb. It’s like fresh picked from the garden. If you like that rhubarb note you’ll love it continuing well into the heart. I’m smelling torn leaves but they aren’t necessarily fig and the lavender doesn’t make itself down to me at all. TBH I’m getting hints of broken tomato leaves. I’ll be interested to see how other reviewers and wearers perceive Blanc Polychrome.

It’s amazing how the perfumer Marie Salamagne has treated greenery. There’s a wildness, Blanc Polychrome is a little bit witchy, yet manages to do it so beautifully there’s no hint of indie or natural perfumery. Does that make sense? Like all the witchy greenery but none of the dank swampiness or shady-creek moss. The base continues the green story but adds a cold metallic twang and some vegetal musks. Seriously, this is not what I was expecting from the note .list, or the brand. A space age, green, sunlit, herbaceous weirdo of a perfume. You know how they have plant rooms in space movies, where they grow food? Usually hydroponics with drip systems. That’s the smell, wet metal and vegetation.

Fully unisex, a challenging and gorgeous new composition.

Rouge Sarây

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Jasmine, Cinnamon, Plum
Heart: Heliotrope, Date, Patchouli
Base: Peru balsam, Sandalwood, Vanilla, Gaiac wood

OOOH! Cinnamon, plum and a dried date, drizzled with sweet, chocolatey patchouli. Rouge Sarây lays its cards on the table early and has a beautiful warmth and coziness. As we move through to the heart the vanilla makes its way into the equation. It is vanilla but smells caramelised, without being gourmand, amber-ish. No, I’m wrong. It is gourmand, but not a sickly, super rich one. Foody but not fairy floss. We see how broad Marie Salamagne’s talent is in this pairing, opposite ends of the spectrum but both such complete and interesting offerings.

I think this will be the hit of the pair. Not nearly so challenging and a perfect winter warmer. It smells like an expensively produced fragrance, though I’m no expert on ingredients and costs. The richness feels lavish and tapestried. Personally I can much more imagine myself wafting Rouge Sarây even though I’m more impressed by the ingenuity of Blanc Polychrome. Dry down is sweetly resinous and dark woody, beautiful all the way to the base.

Unisex again but leaning traditional winter fem. I think this will smell mazing on Jin too.

Do you love Atelier des Ors yet? Patty wrote about her love for them too.
Portia xx