Let's talk about the Tudor period, when "beauty is pain" was more than just an expression.

Many famous Tudor lives were claimed early by poisonous beauty regimes- Kitty Fisher at 25, Maria Gunning at 27, even the Countess of Coventry didn't make it to 30. Not to mention Elizabeth I's alabaster glow might've come with a side of suffering, though she was no spring chicken by the time it did her in.

Perhaps the worst offender of all was 'ceruse', a finishing powder made from white lead, with the most desirable variety being from Venice, boasting total purity in the face of competitors' 'inferior' products, which were thought to be bulked up with chalk. Chalk might have been safer, but apparently "less poisonous" wasn't on trend at the time.

So, this is a cheeky tribute to those powdery cosmetics of yesteryear and a nod to those lives tragically lost to the pursuit of aesthetic virtue, with a dash of "oh no, they really did that?".

Profile Description:
A white powder accord makes up the majority of the composition, built around natural heliotropin, old-school nitromusks, and ultra premium orris Pallida absolute with an astonishing 75% irone load.

This is freshened up with a trace of a vintage inspired green chypre accord, including natural linalool from rosewood, unrectified green bergamot, hand picked artisanal Cyprian labdanum, unrectified oakmoss, Mysore sandalwood, and a 13 year old civet tincture that has completely aged out of its animalic notes.

The result? A perfume so evocative of a vintage bombshell, it might just make your grandma say 'This smells like my grandma!'.

Notes:
Top: Rosewood, Bergamot
Mid: Heliotrope, Orris, Labdanum
Base: Musk, Oakmoss, Civet, Sandalwood, Vanilla

Vintage: 2024 Reserve
Quantity Produced: 24 x 40ml
Olfactive Family: Chypre
Concentration: 2.5% EF
Complexity: 19 Lines

Final Comments:
As an eau fraiche, a style of perfume that has been out of fashion for many years, this composition presented unique challenges. Few perfumers today have experience working at such extreme dilutions, myself included, which meant lots of tedious research and failed trials while trying to revive this long dead tradition. I hope you find it does so successfully.