What seems far away is sometimes very close. And what is right next to you can feel so far away. Deceptions? Sometimes! When thinking of a mirage, it is indeed an optical illusion caused by rising hot and falling cooler air masses. A mountain that is 30 kilometers away can appear as if it is only 3 km.
And a person standing right next to you can be, in a "mental" sense, a thousand miles away.
The "in-between state" is probably reality.
Now this fragrance embodies both "states," which it carries interchangeably and always unpredictably within itself. The cool distance of the incense and pepper feels almost unattainable, even though both fragrance notes are "THERE" and very clearly present. The opposite, at least for a certain duration of the scent, is caused by the woody and "grassy" notes. They seem to be in close proximity, even though they wait quite subtly within the perfume for their moment to shine. The warmth of these notes brings them closer than they really are. A "mirage effect," as I call it.
Completely independent of this, the slightly herbaceous-rough leather note remains ever-present in every phase of the perfume at a consistent "distance." Everything else adjusts itself interchangeably for as long as it takes until everything is perceived as a "complete, simultaneous reality."
And yet it "pulses" inside, as if wanting to change its "location," to step forward or retreat. But it is precisely this activity within itself that makes it magical and very interesting.
This spicy-woody-smoky wavering is a skillfully crafted refinement of this fragrance.
And it makes "Santal Insolent" unmistakable. If it didn't say "Molinard" on it, one might think it was a "Lutens"!
