Letter in Red Arts&Scents 2016
2
The red letter
Whether Manuela Pfannes-Völkel was thinking about Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel - The Scarlet Letter - when creating this wonderful perfume is beyond my knowledge, but the perfume is just as dramatic as the book.
The opening is already extremely powerful, but here it is still more fresh-green, less citrusy, and the lush rose-saffron-wood-vanilla mixture is already emerging here. First, dark red roses bloom, which almost take on the accord of gold lacquer and levkojen thanks to the other fragrance components. These flowers are sweet and powerful, accompanied by green notes of citrus leaves in the background.
Spices - and I couldn't claim that it's just saffron - gradually bolster the flowers more and more. The scent becomes warmer, more expansive and incredibly sensual. Only later is a fine, almost creamy wood tone added and the vanilla and the saffron provide the spicy base.
Based on the scent building blocks mentioned, one might think that the scent progression is linear. But it is by no means that and Manuela Pfannes-Völkel also calls it a pyramid:
Head = Hesperides chord
Heart = red roses, saffron, rose liqueur
Base = Iris, woods, oriental vanilla accord
This pyramid almost corresponds to my perception of the scent, but I find that the alcoholic note in the rose liqueur only appears after the woods and vanilla. It's also less of a liqueur and more like a wonderfully smooth, sweet Scotch, such as a Singleton, which soaks up the dark red roses and spices and breathes new life into them.
A very dear fragrance friend sent me a sample of this fragrance, and she could hardly have given me a nicer scent. I fell in love with this scent the first time I tried spraying it and even though it's definitely not a summer scent, I'll definitely spray it on every now and then in the spring, just for myself.
Letter in Red is one of Manuela Pfannes-Völkel's extraits. The Extraits with 35% to 40% fragrance content in an innovative oil-alcohol base come in a puristic bottle with a gold cap. With this fragrance, the perfumer has created an absolute work of art that deserves widespread attention.
The labels are designed by Manuela Pfannes-Völkel's sister and are very appealing and imaginative. It's nice that a perfumer dares to bring color back into the labels.
At the very beginning of commercial perfumery before the turn of the last century, beautifully designed labels were often the only feature that helped distinguish perfumes on a shelf. At that time, almost all of them came onto the market in apothecary bottles, and the customer then poured them into her own bottle at home until the perfumers teamed up with crystalries and individual bottle design came onto the scene.
Letter in Red is my first Arts&Scents fragrance that I got to know and it immediately landed on my wish list. For me it embodies what Ramón Monegal called "author's perfume" at the time.
ADDENDUM September 2nd, 2022: I treated myself to the fragrance some time ago, but it has since been reformulated and differs from the original version. Immediately after spraying, you can notice a clear smoke note, which I'm not a fan of at all. And it takes some time for this smoky note to subside and give way to the lovely soft, round, gourmand notes. Honestly, I would gladly trade this scent for the previous version...
The opening is already extremely powerful, but here it is still more fresh-green, less citrusy, and the lush rose-saffron-wood-vanilla mixture is already emerging here. First, dark red roses bloom, which almost take on the accord of gold lacquer and levkojen thanks to the other fragrance components. These flowers are sweet and powerful, accompanied by green notes of citrus leaves in the background.
Spices - and I couldn't claim that it's just saffron - gradually bolster the flowers more and more. The scent becomes warmer, more expansive and incredibly sensual. Only later is a fine, almost creamy wood tone added and the vanilla and the saffron provide the spicy base.
Based on the scent building blocks mentioned, one might think that the scent progression is linear. But it is by no means that and Manuela Pfannes-Völkel also calls it a pyramid:
Head = Hesperides chord
Heart = red roses, saffron, rose liqueur
Base = Iris, woods, oriental vanilla accord
This pyramid almost corresponds to my perception of the scent, but I find that the alcoholic note in the rose liqueur only appears after the woods and vanilla. It's also less of a liqueur and more like a wonderfully smooth, sweet Scotch, such as a Singleton, which soaks up the dark red roses and spices and breathes new life into them.
A very dear fragrance friend sent me a sample of this fragrance, and she could hardly have given me a nicer scent. I fell in love with this scent the first time I tried spraying it and even though it's definitely not a summer scent, I'll definitely spray it on every now and then in the spring, just for myself.
Letter in Red is one of Manuela Pfannes-Völkel's extraits. The Extraits with 35% to 40% fragrance content in an innovative oil-alcohol base come in a puristic bottle with a gold cap. With this fragrance, the perfumer has created an absolute work of art that deserves widespread attention.
The labels are designed by Manuela Pfannes-Völkel's sister and are very appealing and imaginative. It's nice that a perfumer dares to bring color back into the labels.
At the very beginning of commercial perfumery before the turn of the last century, beautifully designed labels were often the only feature that helped distinguish perfumes on a shelf. At that time, almost all of them came onto the market in apothecary bottles, and the customer then poured them into her own bottle at home until the perfumers teamed up with crystalries and individual bottle design came onto the scene.
Letter in Red is my first Arts&Scents fragrance that I got to know and it immediately landed on my wish list. For me it embodies what Ramón Monegal called "author's perfume" at the time.
ADDENDUM September 2nd, 2022: I treated myself to the fragrance some time ago, but it has since been reformulated and differs from the original version. Immediately after spraying, you can notice a clear smoke note, which I'm not a fan of at all. And it takes some time for this smoky note to subside and give way to the lovely soft, round, gourmand notes. Honestly, I would gladly trade this scent for the previous version...
Florblanca
