Les Impératrices Japonaises

The Great Empresses of Japan

Roméa d'Améor 2009

Asuka 594, the former capital of Japan, Empress Suiko in her role as the 33rd Teno of the country had little time for her beloved gardens.
She was said to possess elegance, dignity, intelligence, and a sense of justice. She was also wise and introduced Buddhism to the country.

As a businesswoman, time was slowly but surely running out for her… Her beloved gardens were just a memory for her.
She employed many perfumers to capture her cherished gardens in flacons.
Many failed to meet the high demands of the empress, but one succeeded in making her happy.
The expression of her gardens should evoke a memory of sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, and herbaceous, such was her impression of the gardens.

Edit: What has been created with this fragrance is a parable, a geometry, an incredibility.

About the scent: This bitter note of iris, both radiant and strict, no bergamot, no neroli to bring cheerfulness as in Prada Iris.
A note of bitter marzipan… High summer, here lavender and catnip waft from stone walls, this bitter, spicy scent… lavender in fire, the same note… bittersweet
So what is an empress who cannot visit her gardens due to lack of time and cannot brush her fingers against the lavender, crush it… not smelling her peonies, let alone snagging a simple
lily of the valley… what a poor being who cannot enjoy simple things, my personal sympathy for the Teno.

Paragraph: I love iris scents, almost idiotically as I embark on my search. I have the Prada Iris in variations… created and based on radiant neroli, wonderfully fresh, but over time it will bore me. Hermes… already more exciting because the ambrette for me is not a carrot, but embodies radiant cleanliness and brilliance. A class of its own.

The Teno is something entirely different, nothing compares. She is incomprehensible in her bitter beauty, flawless, pure, immortal, strict yet at the same time elfin.
For me, as an iris novice, it is the absolute; I even retrieved a bulb from my sandbank (surplus stock) and sliced it open… bitter, astringent, so many components, bitter, earthy, and the sharp spice of the bulb.
I know what will come when it blooms, and it will not be the sweetness of the flowers but bitterness, yet thanks to its radiance and the flawlessness of the flowers, it makes one forget the earthiness.

Les Imperatrices is a statement, always elegant and graceful. This scent does not play with you; it is present, and the reward after about an hour is an almost intoxicating purity, never experienced, not even hoped for… to claim that it requires humility would be hmmm how should I put it… appropriate!