GARDEN OF PLEASURES

Don’t expect a floral frenzy here. The flowers in this garden are all around, but GARDEN of PLEASURES is really more about the frantic collision of two bodies caught up in a passionate love affair.

FEATURED NOTES INCLUDE:- Champaca, White Lotus, Frangipani, Mysore sandalwood, Vietnamese and Hind oudh.

My previously released vintage style fragrance, Jacques was inspired by the original Shalimar perfume created by Jacques Guerlain, as a fragrant musing on the legendary Shalimar Gardens where Mughal Emperor, Shahab-ud-din Muhammad Khurram (Shah Jahan) and his Empress, Arjumand Banu Begum (Mumtaz Mahal) spent time basking in the radiance of their love for each other. What intrigued me was to learn how, if possible and through a restricted palette of naturals, the original composition may have smelled.

What follows is my own musing on the story of the love affair whose passions and tragic heartache remain legendary in this world, centuries after the lovers have long since departed.

This is a floral amber mukhallat featuring a solid ground of Hindi and Vietnamese oudh over which blooms a floating garden of highly fragrant flowers. The intensely strong animalic scent of the Hindi oudh represents the mighty Emperor Shah Jahan and the gentler, sweeter Vietnamese oudh in this story is the Empress Mumtaz Mahal.