White Peacock Lily

Perfume Chat Room, September 28
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Perfume Chat Room, September 28

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Sunday, September 28, and we’re having a mix of weather this week before the possible arrival of tropical storms/hurricanes on the East Coast. I live far enough inland that hurricanes usually affect us only insofar as we can get heavy rains and wind from their edges, but as Hurricane Helene reminded us all a year ago, an inland location is no guarantee that one won’t be more seriously impacted. However, Helene was preceded by many days of heavy rains, so the ground was already soaked and couldn’t absorb more. Lately, it has been very dry here, so that’s less of an issue.

This weekend’s SOTD was D.S. & Durga’s White Peacock Lily, from a decant. It is a strong white flower fragrance with some aquatic notes. I’m not a big fan of strong white florals, but this has enough other notes that I’m not overwhelmed as long as I spray it with a light hand. It has a touch of grapefruit in the opening, which cuts through some of the sweetness, and another opening note, oleander, is the first white flower I smell. It moves quite quickly into the middle notes, which are dominated by white lily and jasmine. The jasmine is more green than indolic to my nose, which helps lighten the white lily.

Like many white florals, this one elicits strong reactions. Some people love it, others hate it and scrub it off. I fall in between. I don’t hate it, but I might if I applied it more lavishly. And it does last a long time, so if you don’t like it, you will have to scrub!

I haven’t tried many D.S. & Durga fragrances, have you? Any you particularly like?

White peacock, Lake Maggiore, Italy

May Melange Marathon: White Peacock Lily
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May Melange Marathon: White Peacock Lily

D.S. & Durga is a niche brand I haven’t experienced very much, partly because of their price point (high, even for samples). But when I had an opportunity to buy a reasonably priced decant of White Peacock Lily, I jumped at it, because it sounded so intriguing when it was launched in 2016. It is indeed a very lovely lily-focused fragrance. Its notes include: Top notes of Oleander, Cabreuva Rouge, and Grapefruit Pith; middle notes of White Lily, Egyptian Jasmine, Cream and “Alabaster Violet” (which I assume means white violet); base notes of Ambrette (Musk Mallow), Vanilla, and Fog. The perfumer, D.S. of D.S. & Durga, also mentions on the website that it has notes of bergamot, melon, and rose Otto.

One thing I like about the brand’s website is that each fragrance comes with detailed “liner notes”, describing the inspiration for it, with references to literature, music, etc. The liner notes for White Peacock Lily state:

The piece that inspired this perfume is called “The White Peacock” by Fiona Macleod — a Scottish woman famous throughout the highlands for her dreamy works—and set to music by Griffes. It is one of the few tone poems based on an actual poem. The music, scored for a small orchestra, takes direction from the words. Mercurial/magic harps, winding strings, quirky brass horns, and the comical buzz of clarinets describe the beautifully soft language: “cliffs of basalt, fronds of cactus, where the bulbul singeth, cream-white poppies.” In Griffes music, the listener can hear the cream white poppies, the sweeping seas of flowers, and most important the silent noble glide of the grand bird that floats above the fields of flowers.

The composer mentioned is unfamiliar to me: Charles Tomlinson Griffes. Sadly, he died of pneumonia at the age of 35, at the outset of a very promising career, in 1920 at the height of the last century’s global pandemic, influenza. Apparently one of a few of his works that are still performed is “The White Peacock”, inspiration for today’s “May Melange Marathon” fragrance.

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