DIVING INTO THE THREE GOLDS

Launched in 2012, the Three Golds collection is a tribute to the fascination that gold has held for all peoples and times. Conceived as three trilogies, each linked by a raw material that served as a common thread, our Three Golds collection has recently been reduced to its most quintessential expressive trinity - this is Veni, Rosam and Fidelis.

Veni, I came. Like an antiphon encapsulating the full meaning of the psalm it introduces, Veni suggests the coming, the vision and the victory. The first of a trilogy linked by Cardamom, Veni opens with a fresh, frank and conquering greeting. Lifting, green essences such as Galbanum and camphoraceous Lavender warm up with equally vibrant Cinnamon, evoking the almost decadent opulence of Rome’s triumphant banquets.

Once the freshness is passed, the opening becomes calmer and more assured - it warms up. Cinnamon gives way to a burning accord of Carnation, eugenolated, more generous, racier, even more invincible. Like a spear, like horseriders launched into the flank of enemy lines, it announces a scarlet heart reinforced by the majestic leather of Saffron and the smoky, slightly milky notes of Guaiac Wood. Supple tension: Veni now sees and evaluates, the battle has begun: the die is cast.

And victory appears. It is a gourmand triumph, an explosion of Caramel, Vanilla and Benzoin anchored in a chypre base of Oakmoss. Animalic Ambergris rubs shoulders with celestial and oracular Musks. The conqueror returns to Rome under the vivats of the crowd; Veni avoids a floral pitfall and chooses instead the brightness of pompous eagles and of resounding trumpets. With strength and honour, Veni weaves the freshness of a fougère into a modern chypre cuirass.

Rosam is wiser. Reflective, it is a hymn to the Moon that keep thwarting the Sun's plans. The white gold, the cold gold, takes on the guise of a nocturnal Rose, a solitary flower growing in the green and deserted cloister of a countryside church. Bristled and dry, metallic petals, they hide under a thick veil of Labdanum, that thick, black, amber, chthonian in essence, distilling a resinous but stark heat, neither forgiving nor ambiguous.

It is a dichotomy between the light of the gold reflection and its coldness to the touch; between the Rose absolute, powdery-sweet and serene, delicate and praline, and the vertical and mineral Incense, sparkling with lemony and soapy aldehydes, barely warmed by Saffron pistils, heatless here with their scent of dried bluegrass.

The scent of damp stone walls. The greenness of dew-covered blades of grass at daybreak. Rosam is always, somewhere, pierced by light. When the Oud appears in the background with its implacable darkness, the cottony and milky Sandalwood balances it. And when finally the Patchouli languishes on the skin - imperceptibly cocoa-like leaf - Amber covers it, with its fire, its coumarin and comforting balsams.

Fidelis takes yet another route. That of inveterate, uncontrolled splendour. That of unabashed romance. Of faithful and undying loves. Cardamom is back and so is Saffron - the pink gold is partly yellow after all - but they are tinged with a new sensuality and roundness. The lightly roasted Guatemalan Coffee injects its tenacious aromas of roasted nuts and pyrazines, while the terribly carnal Cumin oscillates between the smell of sweat and that of aniseed, between lust and gourmandise.

It is then that the flame of the first hours, without flickering, weakens. Far from consuming them, it lights up the hearts of those who burn with it. The Turkish Rose Absolute is here in overdose, for it is indeed the flower of love. It unfolds all its facets that are usually kept silent for there is rarely enough room for them to express themselves. The honeyed facet of a kiss, the lemony facet of a glance, the powdery facet of a wrist, the spicy facet of a lock of hair, they all express themselves, they widen without escaping, held back by an omnipresent Raspberry, musky, woody, illuminating and softening its features.

And it is then passion that takes back its due. Evoking musk as much as civet, Animalis suggests above all warm skin and lovemaking. Set in a base of Vanilla that never seems to fade away, and Oud that never seems to want to be forgotten, Animalis infuses this composition with a voluminous, precious and pious carnality with its remnants of aldehydes.