Le Sillage Blanc

Ooh la la – a green smouldering leather chypre! ‘La Sillage Blanc’ fumes and broods like hot matcha tea, with an earthy, hazy cloud, whilst still managing to remain clean, light and airy (if a little melancholic like fallen leaves).

It’s sharply bitter with the herbaceous aromatics of artemisia, along with the equally intense ‘turpentine’ green of galbanum. It smells like the green smoky fume which comes from burning masses of still moist grass. It’s almost like Pissara Umavjani was given the challenge of making the oil-painting/art studio scent of green turps smell tantalising.

It’s little wonder that artemisia is traditionally used as an anti-parasitic treatment; it’s a potent herbal shaman. Oakmoss absolute offers a strong earthy-mossy accord, complete with tree bark and sweet tanned leather. The ambrette seed and patchouli provide a fuzzy green velvet texture, since they add a sweetly nutty, floral musk with a kick of tobacco. I must have missed the opening of orange blossom, neroli and ylang ylang as these don’t hang around.

What could be a very bitter, acrid and complex green, spicy, woody, balsam-like scent is actually fresh, uplifting and agreeable. Having said this, the dry-down smells like my neighbour’s not-so-secret weed farm, which they grow inside of their house and the pungent aroma seeps through to my house via the loft – so to me it smells oddly homely. It’s like Chanel No.19 went for a hippie-high. The very final stages of the vanishing dry-down reminds me of Ralph Lauren’s ‘Safari’.

It’s very gentlemanly, as I envision acres of green land, pipe tobacco, quality slippers, Barbour outdoor clothing and a British Racing Green E-Type Jag. I can’t quite pull this off as a non-smoking woman.

If you could capture the colour green in dry-spice powder form, then ‘La Sillage Blanc’ would be it.

TOP – Orange Blossom, Neroli, Ylang Ylang

MIDDLE – English Leather, Artemisia, Persian Galbanum

BASE – Ambrette Seed, Oakmoss Absolute, Patchouli