Francesca Bianchi The Dark Side Extrait de Parfum

Fragrance Family:
Woody Amber

Notes:
Honey, Spices, Iris, Violet, Sandalwood, Cedarwood, Vetiver, Amber, Styrax, Incense, Patchouli, Vanilla.

Concentration:
Extrait de Parfum (25%)

Occasion:
Buttery and smoky resins - a dream for those who seek intensity with style and elegance. A statement fragrance but not necessarily a loud one. For cold days and eventful evenings.

Francesca’s Inspiration:
“I love woody warm sweet woody oriental stuff, and this scent is my attempt in this category. Its formula is very complex, made up by lots of components which I tried to mix in the smoothest way I could. So many components that, if you ask me, I have to look up the formula, the pyramid being just a synthesis. 

The funny thing is, I worked so much on the balance of so many ingredients that I forgot how it all started. It all started in Marrakesh, one of my favourite city, which I visited at 28 and then 39, always coming back with plenty of fake oils, scented stones, resins to burn, carpets, swords, and other useless but crucial objects.  Last time I came back with many smelly bottles, among which a deliciously fake oud oil. I have never been a fan of it — as it was so fashionable lately, and I really hate trends — but this one is different. So, once home, I tried to make my own base inspired by this Moroccan fake oud, thus creating a sticky sweet woody smoky oriental stuff, which I called ‘My Oud’.”

Made in Italy

For those who love rich fragrances and nearly indecipherable ones, The Dark Side is a complex of resins crossing over each other, layer upon layer. You might first notice not the smell of this fragrance but its texture, somehow velvety, powdery, raspy, waxy, earthy, animalic-musky, and pristine all at once, inextricable in consideration from the scent itself. It's about the whole rather than the parts here - an achingly beautiful and seamless melange of quality iris, resins, amber, and patchouli oozing with smoky honey. Peeking through this is tangy and smoked violet flower and dry animalic cedar wood, then picked up by creamy sandalwood, always flushed with incense. This incredible fragrance booms with vitality and significance - it could almost be a found object - a precious discovery - a journey through shadows with ingredients that glow and smoulder in the soft yet dangerous darkness. A triumph, but also an addiction, a seduction, an anamnesis.