Scentzilla!

I have a complicated relationship with Nocturnes. It took me a while to figure out that while I admire it, I can’t particularly carry it off. According to Basenotes, it was created by Gerard Lefort for Caron in 1981.

Nocturnes smells as if the notes were blended together in a giant lacquered box before finding a home in a bottle. Its quality of being hidden away in a dark place, only lit by the stray reflections bouncing of the lacquer, gives the fragrance a somber feel. Rose and orange notes glance off the shades of Nocturnes’ cold wood and warm musk.

I don’t notice some of the other notes individually, such as neroli, ylang, tuberose, jasmine. They mix and swirl around one another without drawing attention to themselves. Despite all those white florals, Nocturnes doesn’t wear as light on me. It is not weighty or bogged down by its heavier elements, but the fragrance is most certainly characterized by moving shadows. Through the background of this fragrance I sense something rather amber-y glowing, lain within the wood like a strip of marquetry.

Nocturnes is a beautiful, smart scent, but as I mentioned, sadly isn’t one I believe I ought to be wearing since the fit isn’t quite right. I wonder if it is not a tricky scent to wear for many others, too.

Top image from jssgallery.org, of James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s Nocturne in Black and Gold, the Falling Rocket. Second image is Childe Hassam’s Fifth Avenue Nocturnes. I was sooooo tempted to exclusively use Hassam’s city street pictures, but this was the only one that felt right. If you have a moment though, do check out Hassam’s Paris Nocturne, as well as Whistler’s (yes, he’s the one with the mother) elegiac Nocturnes series.