Isabelle Larignon Bangla Yasaman Eau de Parfum

Fragrance Family:
Floral

Notes:
Bergamot, Buchu, Cardamom, Lemon, Tumeric, Bitter Orange Petitgrain, Jasmine Accord, Celery Seed, Osmanthus, Saffron, Clary Sage, Fir Balsam, Indole, Peru Balsam, Tobacco, Green Vanilla

Concentration:
Eau de Parfum

Occasion:
Could very nearly be the definitive jasmine fragrance, bringing together the most splendiferous and spectacular aspects of the two varieties: sambac and grandiflorum. A floral stunner. 

Isabelle Larignon's Inspiration:
“I am annoyed by the tendency to discriminate against synthetic products in order to promote 100% natural products, or the agricultural folklore of the ‘gentleman farmer’ as a paragon of quality and environmental awareness in our extremely polluting sector, considering the very low content of absolutes or flower essences in the formulas used as eponymous ingredients.

For this formula, I had fun doing my job as an illusionist, building a jasmine accord from scratch, then dressing it up with spices and accentuating the celery facet of the cis-jasmone. Like curry and immortelle, celery seeds essence reminds me of the warm, sensual scent of skin. And at certain times of the day, jasmine exudes animalic, even visceral facets that are heady and intoxicating. I wanted to highlight these, as well as the tobacco and cold, slightly metallic ashes of jasmine grandiflorum.

I created a jasmine hybrid that has the fruity, animalic aspects of sambac and the green, tobacco-like qualities of grandiflorum. The accord is softened and warmed by Peru balsam supported by green vanilla. Cardamom adds a fresh, creamy top note. Osmanthus flower provides natural support for the leathery and stable notes of paracresol, while adding the velvety smoothness of apricot skin.”

Made in France

A nearly unbelievable jasmine, even more so that it contains exactly 0% natural jasmine material. Is not perfumery an illusory practice, where perfumers are conjurers in addition to artists and technicians? Isabelle Larignon’s assertion becomes an aesthetic declaration: “In this jasmine soliflore, I’m claiming that there is not an ounce of jasmine absolute that would have grown on my Parisian balcony or any land in the world”. This does not stop Bangla Yasaman from being, quite simply, an oozing, decadent jasmine - multiple impressions of the flower in one, forming something far beyond the sum of its parts. There is immaterial too, in its form and in the incorporation of happiness: the happiness found in the smile of a flower peddler, which gives the scent its name “Bengali Jasmine” - inspired by the merchants selling garlands on the streets of Bangladesh.

In Isabelle’s case, it is no faceless, anonymous smile, but the memory of a man in the 11th district of Paris, who “fought with flowers as his sword” to survive. Bengla Yasaman is thus not only the flower, but the strength that emerges from a brave smile or a fresh sense of humour. It is an outreached hand, the one that offers, caresses, and holds, wrapped up in the concentrated scent of these singing petals - exuding their animal power, swooning and intoxicating. Nothing by half here - the fragrance is taken as a whole, as pure force, and the fine-grained inspection comes later. It is immediately human and animal, flesh and fur, natural though evidently more, dreamy and grounded. Everything merges in more ways than one, soft ripe stone fruit with yielding velvet skin and snappy green leaves that have a rubber-like sheen. A warm narcotic breath of tobacco and sage rides on radiant sunshine, captured in bergamot and osmanthus, set against a spicy, balmy earth in the scent of peru balsam, celery seed, and turmeric.

Bangla Yasaman is remarkable, a sensory feast that behaves like a sine function: curves on a complex plane, lawfully repeating.