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| The Lion & The Lamb, Heather Cooper |
You
crouch, hidden in the garden bed. The smell of leaves and stems, bitter and
green, kicks up with each small movement. Your heart pounds. You are shake.
Sweat beads on your forehead. A small bird lands on nearby tiger lilies; you
startle. Your mobile rings. You fumble in the leather messenger satchel around your neck but cannot
find it. The sound of footsteps on gravel come closer... and the clapperboard
snaps: "CUT!" The director wanders over. You stand, stretch. Five takes of that scene
were MORE than enough.
Later
that day, you sit by the hotel pool, with a mai tai and watch seagulls dodge
the incoming surf...
Song
of India Kama Sutra (KS) opens bitter, green, leathery, like an extract of
some innocuous looking but incredibly toxic plant, like the threat in a storm. It
is the kind of scent that triggers panic attacks in the original Ancient Greek
sense of the term. All this makes the Moth Woman seriously wonder whether her
take on the classic Indian text that shares this scent's name, is all wrong…
Upfront, KS is very sharp, crushed
stems and leaves combined with paper money in a leather wallet and strongly
reminiscent of the leather chypres of the seventies like Lentheric Tweed. In the background is a quiet but distinct note of
stargazer lily. This is not your standard lily though. The perfumer broke down
the bloom into it component parts, boxed the petals, stems, leaves and stamens
separately then arranged for them to arrive at the observers nose at different
times. They also kindly left out that screechy note that tends to dominate lily
based scents. The Moth Woman does not
normally enjoy lilies due to the screech factor but she loves this one and wishes
more perfumers would take this approach. There is also a hint of green capsicum
lurking amongst the stems. Overall, on first impression, KS is an intimidating
and foreboding fragrance.
Things change though and KS drops
the moodiness and becomes light open and breezy after about half an hour. Hints of spice emerge, primarily the clove
from the deconstructed lily note and overlay the softening greens. The lily
phases in and out, different facets emerging at different times.
The final phase arrives two hours
in, heralded by citrus note very much like the opening of Lush Karma, a bright citrus with sherbet/fruit tingles angle. By
four hours it is very close to the body but it will abruptly reappear in gusts
as you move or your skin warms. Toward the end, there is also a suggestion of
salt, marine air/chlorinated pool. It is faint and strange but not unpleasant—and
rather clever the Moth Woman feels—because such a small note works hard,
powerfully evoking summer holidays and lazing by the pool at dusk. By eight hours, all that remains is a faint
marine note.
It should be noted that as well as
its dichotomous nature, KS displays other odd behaviour. Every time the Moth
Woman wears it, it seems little different. The notes shift around. The
longevity differs. The fragrance cycles too, changing intensity and top notes
and back again. Unaccountably the fragrance also occasionally becomes stronger
again around five hours.
Much to the chagrin of the Moth
Woman, this is becoming harder to get. Because it is outside this manufacturer’s
core group of scents, she suspects KS is about to be discontinued. Enjoy it
while you can.
Key Notes: bitter greens, leather, lilies, citrus
Pros:
- Good longevity for a green scent
- Decent sillage in the first hour
- Total seventies chypre flashback
- Cheap
- Very different
Cons:
- Too weird for some people
- Short opening compared to a lot of oils
- Hard to find a seller
- Possibly about to be discontinued
Available on Ebay and here.
