Luxuriance. Abundance
Обновлено: 12 окт.
Chilini Special
She sharpened the pencil with a knife over the sink, and the lead snapped twice right at the tip. That afternoon she was taking her mugs to a shop, and the night before she had written in her notebook how far she was ready to come down: ten per cent if they frowned, fifteen if they said no, and delivery at her own cost. The desk lamp was still on from the night, and the paper under it was warm to the touch.
She had kept the notebook for eleven years. Bread, clay, electricity for the kiln, every mug given to a friend. The figures ran small and even to the very edge of the page, and she drew the total in pencil and circled it twice.
Her sister had given her the bottle of Luxuriance for her fortieth birthday. All winter it stood on the shelf by the mirror almost full: she took it down on holidays and sprayed once, on one wrist, as if measuring out medicine. That morning she put it on both wrists and on her neck. Something dark and dense rose at once, resinous, like bark warmed by the sun until it turns sticky.
She carried the box of mugs across the whole city in her arms. The cardboard handle cut into her fingers, and the jumper under her coat grew damp at the back. In the buyer's office the air conditioner hummed and blew straight onto her neck. The buyer, a young woman with a tablet, turned a mug over, tapped the glaze with a fingernail and said the price was a little high for their shelf.
She opened the notebook on her knee and put a finger on the first line. Her hands were burning after the box, and warmth rose from her cuff: dark resin, heavy wood, a white flower and an oriental sweetness coming through them, and beneath it all an animal note, thick as the fur of a cat that has slept in the sun.
The buyer stopped scrolling, raised her head and asked: "What is that smell?"
She closed the notebook and named the price on the tag. Then she said it again, more slowly, looking the buyer in the eye. The buyer nodded and typed in the figure.
She walked back with the empty box, and the wind pressed the cardboard to her chest. In the evening, under the lamp, she drew a single slanting line through the whole column. Then she took the bottle from the shelf and sprayed her wrists twice, generously, for the night, for herself. A drop ran off her hand onto the page and left a clear spot on the crossed-out figures.
The natural essence of nature is to grow and become greater.
How it wears
It opens dark straight away: dense resin and heavy wood, thick as bark warmed by the sun.
Then a breadth unfolds inside that darkness. A white flower comes through, with an oriental sweetness thick as honey held to the light, and spices, dry and warmed.
Towards evening the scent settles into spiced wood, and musk gives it an animal depth, that same fur of a cat asleep in the sun. It lasts longest on the wrists and the neck.
What sets it apart
Luxuriance came out in 2020 in the Chilini Special collection, an oriental woody fragrance for women and men. The brand dedicates it to an abundance that begins with attention: noticing what is already there and keeping a light on it, like a searchlight. The composition is kept secret and mixed by hand, no more than five hundred bottles are made a year, and every thirty-three bottles sound their own way: the main notes stay, the proportions change, so the nose never grows used to it. One owner on Fragrantica wears it before important negotiations and writes that it tunes her to confidence. It is worn on days when you want to name your own price and spend something generously on yourself.
Notes
The composition is kept secret.
Encyclopedias
Fragrantica · Aromo · La Parfumerie · Reviews
