Blame Portia: Fath’s Essentials Lilas Exquis

A couple of weeks ago our own Portia wrote about Fath’s Essentials Lilas Exquis (linked here– click on it, read, then return.)

Now that you have re-read the post you can imagine if you have read any of mine that the phrase “high-pitched white floral and dark recesses of wild dogs” would have me typing the search criterion into Google so fast my keyboard would melt.

You would be correct.

Lilas Exquis isn’t necessarily lilac, although frankly it’s been so many decades since I have smelled the real thing I can’t tell you if this is even a simulacrum. Portia insists that it’s the smell of wisteria. I know the Chinese variety is somewhat common in California but I can’t say that I could identify it enough to say “oh, yes, Wisteria” with anything but put-on snooty-pantitude. The closest I have been to it that I am aware of was at the Barnsdall House, the Frank Lloyd Wright home which was recently renovated (again) and uses an abstraction of the flower in it’s decoration. Whatever: it is it’s a delight, and it has a fair bit of dirt to it, and a fair bit of skank. It seems in a way the olfactory manifestation of one of those soft-core David Hamilton photos: innocent young yoof posing innocently among the innocent white flowers just before not so innocently grinding the stable boy like a fresh cup of coffee in the loamy soil at the roots.

It’s not at least for me really even a wild dog sort of thing, but more like CB I Hate Perfume Musk Reinvention: it’s more fecund and less fecal and I am really glad I popped for the blind buy.

Lilas Exquis is available at Neiman Marcus, but I would do as I did and dig a little further. I purchased my 3.3oz bottle for only $20 more than N-M charges for a .5oz one. The only bad part is that now I have to wonder if everything else from Fath’s Essentials is this good..

Photo of my bottle is mine, others are from Pexels and Wikimedia.

PS: This post will be up in time for Thanksgiving, which you may or may not celebrate depending upon where you live. If you do I hope you have a peaceful holiday filled with delicious treats and delicious memories. I will be spending my turkey day having Fettuccine Carbonara (for which I am truly thankful), bad old movies, and a drive along the coast with the top down if it isn’t too cold. I am thankful for my health, my relative safety, and all of you- you always brighten my week.