Blu 1901 Atelier N°7 Erika Gualtieri

There is a forest near the sea. Slender, bright, tall eucalyptus trunks. Ethereal light. Soft moss and patchouli earth at the feet of the trees. You breathe in the fresh, medicinal, green, earthy scent of the forest deeply. Behind the trees is the sea.
Tu mi hai chiamata
ed io ti ho sentito …
The sea has called you. You heard the call and followed it. Now you stand barefoot in the sand. Then beneath your feet, the seaweed, still warm from the day's sun, caresses your soles as you walk over it.
Tu mi hai amata
ed io ti ho sì onorato…
Once again, you breathe deeply, the scent of the seaweed, the iodine-rich salty air, your chest expands wide, somewhere behind you is blooming ivy, mixing its salty aura into the sea air. You feel, yes, you are right here, you have always been loved. And within you rises a great love for everything and everyone, almost bursting your heart and chest. You don’t even know where to put this oceanic flow. Ancient pains and fears rise within you like sad resins, they become lighter and lighter, you let them rise and drift away. And you gaze further at the infinite blue of the sea and the sky.
Vasto è il nome Tuo
certo è
l'Amore mio…
In the sky, you now see delicate blossoms blooming and sandalwood starry meteors reflecting in the water, their reflections broken and multiplied by the small waves.
Per Amore, per Amore
solo per un Grande Amore.
All of this, the sea, your breath, the sky, the light, is outside and at the same time within you. Softly, wonderfully soft-sweet-starry-powdery. You are completely enveloped in this quiet and peaceful affirmation of the Great Sea Star Balm. Beyond all pains and fears. Loved.
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Blu 1901 takes me on such a meditative journey to the sea and into old feelings. Eucalyptus with its medicinal-ethereal freshness in the opening creates the impression of a bright forest by the sea, together with mossy and earthy patchouli notes. Added to this are seaweed and salty ivy, which together evoke the sea and the vastness of the sea and the sky above. It’s wonderfully executed here - no classic aquatic (which I rarely like). Sandalwood with a very, very fine sharpness and a hint of flowers again create light-like moments before benzoin, spicy powdery vanilla, and a soft powdery amber accord with olibanum form the base.
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Does the name “Blu 1901” refer to the beginning of Picasso's Blue Period or simply to the sea? Or to both? I do not know. Erika Gualtieri often references works of painting when it comes to her fragrances. Chagall and his work with colors and blue are likely also involved here. In a Facebook post from July 19, 2023, she quotes Bella Chagall, his first wife, from her memories of her husband: “You dip your brushes. Red, blue, white, black splatter. You pull me into the streams of colors. Suddenly you lift me off the ground, as if you were catching the swing with a foot, as if it were getting too tight for you in this small room. You rise, stretch, fly up to the ceiling. Your head tilts back and you turn mine. You touch my ear and murmur.” From: Bella Chagall, Burning Lights. Here, in Bella Chagall's description, the act of painting transitions into what is depicted in the painting, much like in Chagall's frequent representations of the flying couple. The fragrance here can also do this - what is evoked becomes very real in the imagination and generates pictorial stories of forest, sea, vastness, fears, and peace.

The poem integrated above in sections also comes from a Facebook post by Erika Gualtieri from July 8, 2023.