Champs Délaissée Pictura Fragrans 2024

Champs opens with a refreshing musky, citrusy, and almond opening. After letting it sit for 1-2 hours the citruses fade away and florals start to come through. Dries down to a soft musk and a slight smell of hay and tea. Champs is also very fairly priced. Overall very good work by a very talented perfumer :)

You are walking along a field on a summer afternoon. The grass was cut just a couple of days ago and lays there, spots of bright wild flowers here and there. It has been sunny the whole past week, and the wilting green is at the peak of giving out its aroma enhanced by sunshine and warmth. The air is thick with scents and insects buzzing. The sun is low, you have nowhere to hurry, your feet are dusty as you walk there thinking about nothing and everything. It's calm and melancholic, slow and pleasant. Life is good.

This opens up with citrusy almonds, some musk and beeswax. During the dry down the musk starts getting stronger with some civet being introduced. Oud and some soft florals also start blending in, the citrus persisting through the entire fragrance. It's pretty complex but very enjoyable in my opinion.
Nice nutty citrus in the opening with some musk and civet in the dry down. 7.5/10

The perfumes of the brand Pictura Fragrans follow an exciting approach. It always starts with a scene. With “Champs Délaissés” (translated: the “neglected fields”), it aims to take us on an olfactory journey through the old and often abandoned farms in the heart of Provence. Thematically, the scent is meant to represent the “poetry of landscapes left to nature itself.” All the plants in the fragrance are found in Provence and correspond to the scents of meadows, plantations, and fields.

Upon entering the farm, we are greeted by disorder and wildness. Bitter green slightly dominates, growing between cracks and formerly well-trodden paths. A hint of fermented fruits from neglected fruit trees lingers in the air. Along with this, there’s a somewhat piercing bitter almond note and a sweet-balsamic touch from the beeswax, wafting over from the beehives standing under the almond trees. We quickly make our way to the abandoned fields. We smell fenugreek and immortelle, which have spread out, somewhat caught by white flowers with light citrus hints. We are surrounded more by spice than by floral notes, the initial waxy sweetness has vanished. During the heart notes, the fragrance takes on something reminiscent of falafel dough, as fenugreek and immortelle are dominant. The scent then becomes very umami. In the base, we look into the old, dilapidated barn. Sunshine falls through the holes in the roof onto carefully hung oud leather saddles. The frankincense resin, along with woodiness, likely cedar, creates the impression of dusty, old wooden beams. Despite some animal notes indicated in the fragrance pyramid, there are hardly any remnants of animal life to be sensed in the corners. Presumably, the civet slightly emphasizes the umami note, but no more animal presence is evident. Life turned its back on this place a long time ago.

And with that, we turn the wheel to modernity, as “Champs Délaissés” strongly leans towards anti-gourmand for me. Since classic flowers hold back significantly, it is actually already an umami scent and appears much more coherent from that perspective. The perfumer Douglas Jenkins is said to be known for bridging the gap between classic “vintage” perfumery and modernity in his creations. Let’s be generous and assume that a modern direction was intentionally chosen here and that it is not a matter of imbalance.

With thanks to BeJot.