Traversée du Bosphore L'Artisan Parfumeur 2010
6
Helpful Review
An Eccentric Assortment of Disparate Notes with an Intriguing Result
I tested L'Artisan Parfumeur TRAVERSEE DU BOSPHORE when it was first launched and didn't really understand it. Having recently received a fresh sample, I've decided to give this fragrance another whirl. Yes, it was created by Bertrand Duchaufour. Luck of the draw, I guess.
It's somewhat difficult to believe that anyone would consider rolling so many diverse notes into one perfume, but Bert did just that: tulip, iris, leather, loukhoum, ginger, saffron, apple... what's going on here?
Apparently this fragrance was inspired by Duchafour's trip to Istanbul. This is a jumble of distinctive scents all rolled together to produce a strange open-market kind of effect, so maybe that is what he had in mind. There seems to be a waft of sweet gummy resin (gurjum?) which I first met in one of the Montale perfumes (VELVET FLOWERS), but I detect it (or something similar) only lightly here.
Initially I seem to smell camphor, or something along those lines, and after a few minutes amidst the floral-fruity mélange, the leather comes to dominate. But it is a soft, gentle leather, nothing like the black oily leather of some of the fragrances of Etat Libre d'Orange, and nothing like this house's DZING! (which I dislke).
This leather-fruity-floral-nutty perfume sounds like it should be a (hot?) mess, but somehow it is not. I like it a lot, and it is definitely unique in my experience of perfumes. Fortunately TRAVERSEE DU BOSPHORE was launched at eau de parfum not eau de toilette concentration, so the longevity and sillage are somewhat better than what I have come (grudgingly) to expect chez L'Artisan Parfumeur.
It's somewhat difficult to believe that anyone would consider rolling so many diverse notes into one perfume, but Bert did just that: tulip, iris, leather, loukhoum, ginger, saffron, apple... what's going on here?
Apparently this fragrance was inspired by Duchafour's trip to Istanbul. This is a jumble of distinctive scents all rolled together to produce a strange open-market kind of effect, so maybe that is what he had in mind. There seems to be a waft of sweet gummy resin (gurjum?) which I first met in one of the Montale perfumes (VELVET FLOWERS), but I detect it (or something similar) only lightly here.
Initially I seem to smell camphor, or something along those lines, and after a few minutes amidst the floral-fruity mélange, the leather comes to dominate. But it is a soft, gentle leather, nothing like the black oily leather of some of the fragrances of Etat Libre d'Orange, and nothing like this house's DZING! (which I dislke).
This leather-fruity-floral-nutty perfume sounds like it should be a (hot?) mess, but somehow it is not. I like it a lot, and it is definitely unique in my experience of perfumes. Fortunately TRAVERSEE DU BOSPHORE was launched at eau de parfum not eau de toilette concentration, so the longevity and sillage are somewhat better than what I have come (grudgingly) to expect chez L'Artisan Parfumeur.