As the weather gets warmer there also comes with it a desire for simplicity. It is the time of year my linear style of perfumes receives the most use. It is generally because once it gets hot the simple beauty of a great ingredient done well is just the right choice. Van Cleef & Arpels Neroli Amara uses neroli in just this way.
This kind of style of perfume has become a staple of the Van Cleef & Arpels Collection Extaordinaire. When it gets it correct these become perfume still lifes featuring a single ingredient. For Neroli Amara perfumer Quentin Bisch was asked to do this with neroli.
Quentin Bisch
The name of the perfume and the brief is inspired by the real-life Princess of Nerola. In 1675 when she married to the Prince of Nerola she found the province north of Rome covered with Amara Orange trees. The story goes that the Princess scented her clothes with orange blossom, adding them to her gloves. The scent would become so entwined with her it would become the etymology of the perfume ingredient neroli. M. Bisch captures a regal version of neroli in Neroli Amara.
Neroli Amara opens on a top accord of citrus. It is as if M. Bisch wanted to have every citrus note pay court to the princess to come. Then like an announcement trumpet a bit of baie rose commands the citrus to calm down. Over the next few minutes the neroli rises in presence. The princess has arrived. M. Bisch has black pepper and petitgrain escort her to the throne. The neroli chosen is all of what I enjoy in the ingredient; a soft citrus-like floral atop an astringent green underpinning. The use of the petitgrain, in particular, focuses the neroli more towards the floral but the green is also a presence. Much later on there is a bit of light woody cypress but by then the princess has retired to the palace.
Neroli Amara has 6-8 hour longevity and average sillage.
This is one of the least complex perfumes I have encountered by M. Bisch. That’s not a bad thing it just means if you have come to expect something innovative from him Neroli Amara isn’t that. It is a perfumer showing off his still life of Princess Neroli; in this case that is more than enough.
Disclosure: this review is based on a sample provided by Van Cleef & Arpels.
–Mark Behnke
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