Les Souveraines d'Egypte

The Sovereigns of Egypt

Roméa d'Améor 2008

Knowing what a heliotrope fan I am, the lovely Guusje sent me a generous decant of this scent.

Reading the notes, I'd expect it to be a thick, spicy oriental. But it is more of a light amber to my nose. No hint of the cloves, nor of the other florals. Just calm, soft, vanilla-heliotrope-amber with hints of melon at the start. It's amber for springtime and, while it doesn't especially enchant me, it's entirely pleasant.

you know him,
of course you know him,
who doesn’t know the 3-hour tear-jerker sandal film "caesar and cleopatra".

the film in which not only marcus antonius falls for cleopatra, but richard burton falls for liz taylor.

cleopatra, who frolics in turquoise waters in the bathtub and plays with little boats.

cleopatra, who then has her slaves massage her with precious ointments.

cleopatra, who brought both caesar and antonius to their knees at her feet.

cleopatra, that’s me, yes me, here, now, today. me!

before you think I’ve gone mad, let me explain:

today I received a fragrance package from a dear parfumo with sovereigns of egypt.
it was a blind swap for me, I had never heard of the scent before.

while unpacking, I felt like a child at Christmas and then held a beautiful bottle in my hand.

the sprayer on my wrist.......it catapulted me straight into scent elysium!!

my blissful daze begins with a wonderful clove, whose sharpness is softened by the passion fruit, creating a spicy-fruity opening. (richard burton as marcus antonius sees me for the first time!)

then the heart note hits right in the heart: precious flowers blend in perfect harmony (richard burton falls in love with me!)

the base: amber, vanilla, and a hint of vetiver give the fragrance stability and sweetness.
(richard burton is at my mercy and completely powerless!)

balsamic-spicy, noble and precious is this scent.

do you understand now why I feel like cleopatra herself?

I certainly don’t look anything like liz taylor, I don’t have violet-blue but frog-green eyes and instead of black curls, I have dreadlocks down to my knees.
I’m also not sitting in a palace in egypt but in a cow village in upper swabia and
my husband doesn’t look like richard burton, but he is currently making cheese spaetzle.

but now I’m floating, lulled in my cleopatra scent into the living room, where my dogs are waiting for me instead of slaves, and I feel regal.

one should still be allowed to dream!

I have found a treasure, and it bears your name...

This line comes from the song 'Das Beste' by Silbermond, and to say it right away: I don't like Silbermond, but I think the title of the song and this very sentence fit me and Les Souveraines d'Egypte perfectly.

Now, I’m not really the spontaneous type; I’m more of the hesitant, cautiously weighing kind. I usually wait to see what else might come along. This is also how I feel about fragrances, especially since I’ve discovered so many niche perfumes (and others) lately, and there are still so many waiting to be uncovered by me.

But I’ll tell you one thing, dear Parfumos, after testing LSdE, other fragrances will have a hard time evoking the same enthusiasm in me as this legendary Egyptian lady does.

As I open the decant from dear Hermi with trembling hands and smell this perfume for the first time, I almost hold my breath. It nearly knocks me off my feet. What an indescribable scent! It’s... I really find it hard to describe because it’s so elusive. It’s as many before me have characterized it: No note stands out particularly, but that’s exactly what makes it so wonderful, so unique.

The Egyptian lady is, of course, allowed to go straight onto my skin, where she unfolds all her glory. She smells floral, fruity, vanillic, spicy, sweet - all of that together, but not too much of any one thing. No note overshadows or overwhelms the others. The Egyptian lady is simply perfect. A work of art.

This is how paradise must smell. And this Garden of Eden accompanies me almost all day long.

On the test strip that has been sitting here on my desk for several days now, the scent is a poem. Perfect, enchanting, overwhelmingly beautiful. Kneeling-worthy.
Well, right after the first spray, I was a bit confused: A wave of sweet, fruity balm overwhelmed me, almost a bit intrusive. However, I have since learned to give fragrances time. I had to leave anyway, so I left the strip lying there. When I returned home in the evening, a captivating fragrance greeted me as I entered the apartment. Spicy, sweet, incredibly multifaceted. I traced the scent trail back to the test strip: What a wonderful fragrance. I find it very difficult to describe it concretely or identify individual notes. Figuratively speaking, it’s like a warm sparkle of thousands of delightful facets, perfectly coordinated, bright yet mysterious, a bit oriental, but also fairy-like and light. A truly aristocratic scent.

Cheerfully, the skin test followed the next day (the whole apartment was still a fragrant dream). I tried to ignore the first, somewhat strange impression, optimistic that the true magic of the fragrance would soon unfold. It did not. All day long, I was surrounded by a rather unpleasant, herbal, almost sour sweetness, reminiscent of fruits and herbs that have recently been in a midsummer trash can. I also perceive the spicy note on me quite differently than on the test strip, somehow unclean and anything but delightful. The whole time, I felt uncomfortable in the presence of other people and fervently hoped that I was not perceived as a walking compost heap. Fortunately, the longevity on my skin was also significantly worse than on the test strip.

Now I know what incompatible skin chemistry means, and I mourn a fragrance I was very much looking forward to.
I still give it 80%, as the scent can’t help it and is apparently dreamy on others.

Edit:
Half a year later, I must revise my rating. What happened? Did 400 (parfumo-related) fragrance tests turn me into a test strip? It’s more likely that my scent perception and perhaps my preferences have changed. In any case, I now find the Egyptian woman wonderful, not just on the strip, but also on me.
A happy ending.

Even as a child, I was fascinated by the ancient Egyptian high culture. Pyramids! Sarcophagi! Mummies! Hieroglyphs! Canopic jars! Grave goods! Sphinx! Pharaohs! Scarab! It all sounded so exotic, so foreign, so fascinating. Once, I was even allowed to admire the bust of Nefertiti in Berlin, extraordinarily graceful. And the fact that Cleopatra supposedly bathed in milk fueled little girls' dreams of beauty, luxury, grace, and majesty.

What I found most fascinating was the mummification. As a child, you get the toned-down version a la "What is what?" and that's just fine. If you look at this process in detail "for real," much of that naive and innocent idea goes down the river, pardon, down the Nile. But I don't want to go into that here; I want to return to my "What is what?" world, where it was simply called "embalming."

And that is the keyword. "Embalming" sounds so exciting, like oils and essences, like pastes and wax, fragrant, intoxicating, numbing, caring, like balm for body and soul. Countless ingredients are slowly and gently ground in a mortar with a pestle until a smooth, precious essence is created, worthy of its purpose.

And "balsamic" was my first thought when I sprayed Les Souveraines d'Égypte for the first time. An immediate "must-have" reflex followed. This dense, intoxicating, delicious perfume dream is wonderfully composed, incredibly harmonious, and beautiful. Many fragrance notes, none of which particularly stand out in my nose, are woven into this unique work of art that smells so precious, noble, and graceful. The fruits in the top note do not create a fruit salad; the flowers in the heart are compact and subtle at the same time, and the unusual base carries this scent for hours. It is a bit sweet, a bit warm, a bit fruity, a bit floral, a bit milky, a bit resinous, but above all, balsamic. I imagine the color as a warm beige with a golden shimmer and very delicate light green speckles. The scent comes across as rather soft and reserved, yet it is also very three-dimensional and intense, and it is precisely this quality that makes it a high-quality and sophisticated perfume. A silky feel-good scent with confidence. Made for Egyptian queens. And, of course, for all other women as well.