Love Is A Many Splendored Perfume

The word “love” can have a variety of related but distinct meanings in different contexts. We mostly think of it in terms of romantic relationships between people, but just as often, a love affair can be platonic, distant or even a relationship built on respect. This feeling of mutual love can be seen in collaborative projects, and the latest perfume from David Benedek of BDK perfumes is the perfect example of how two people collide in a perfect perfumed affair, one of respect and creativity between him and Anne Flipo. Read all about this in Love Is A Many Splendored Perfume

Magnificent, impressive, dazzling, excellence and quality; Splendid if you like. Powerful words that sum up the best creative people, those who drive their own paths and who are not afraid to take roads less travelled, strong enough to stand with their unique beliefs. These people are few and far between, but when two collide, a miracle, a love story of extreme, beautiful power unfolds. This is the story behind the newest scent for French perfume brand BDK: Nectar Oud.

Words like genius are thrown around today as though it’s something you can buy at a local supermarket: you can’t only about 0.27% of the world falls under this category.

In 2016, a young French man, David Benedek, at the tender age of 24, started a perfume brand, launching it at age 26, which he called BDK. An audacious, passionate ideal saw him go on to evoke the superb Parisian tradition of perfumery, but bring to it a modern twist. Each bottle is an imagined scented story of characters, movements, and moments.

Always working with the very best raw materials, David, as creative director, because of his level of prestigious talent, has worked with some of the most prestigious noses in perfumery, including the likes of Julien Rasquinet, Dominique Ropion, Alexandra Carlin, Ralf Schwieger, and Jordi Fernández. But his latest scented tincture is not just a bottle crafted with nose, creator and materials, it is a love affair in a bottle.

David had long admired the elegance and precision of one particular nose, whom he felt an almost sense of reverence for; Anne Flipo. Unbeknownst to him, she had smelt his potions and admired him too, so this, their latest project, has a magic to it that is woven into the juice.

Aware she had created a Raspberry accord over the years, David knew he wanted to revisit Oud but in a new way. Together, Nectar Oud was born. This extrait de parfum, concentrate, brings together three exciting core ingredients, Oud, Raspberry, and Saffron in unexpectedly harmonious, rich, sensual magic; an enchanting union of perfume in a passionate embrace. After all, the creative process, singular or jointly, is a very private, very intimate affair.

As much as David drives the brief, his starting point for this liquid gold was Gustav Klimt’s gilted canvases; he is known to give true freedom to the creatives he chooses to collaborate with. So here in the scent, there is a sweet, rich warmth and a mingling of wood and fruit with a dark, faceted finish.

The opening notes of Raspberry are not the childish sweetshop vibes, but realistic, vibrant, fresh and a ‘green-sharp’ facet with the added sweet, earthy, and leathery notes of soft spice from Saffron and a kiss of Amyris.

The scent moves into a complex heart (and it is a heart here) of smoky, sensuous, musky, yet resinous Agarwood, in partnership and aiding the Agarwood (Oud) woody facets find smoky-woody Cypriol, with balsamic, and warmth of peppery and ambery undertones from biblical Olibanum. Also find wrapped in this heart Resin, Leather, Amber and of course the flower of love, Rose.

This is my first collaboration with BDK Parfums, and I’m truly delighted to be working with David. I’ve been following his work for several years now, and I’m very happy to be part of this story. David gives perfumers a lot of creative freedom, which makes the exchange incredibly enjoyable.

Anne Flipo

This love is rooted in longevity, so the base doesn’t just wrap, like a velvet scarf, it finds, it holds, comforting and expressing at the same time. The perfume unfolds and deepens with smoothness of Amberwood, dry spice of Cedarwood, a tinge of vanill-balsam from Benzoin, earthy wet Patchouli that hugs with the Oud to flourish every part of this majestic wood, yet bringing a dark depth of fruit alongside making it a very original and sensuous take on wood and fruit.

Like the fusion of fruit and wood, this perfume is a fusion of two skilled scent-lovers, who have joined forces and crafted this elixir. This nectar can be seen as a metaphor for the profound emotional and sensual fulfilment experienced within this relationship; a scented meeting of hearts and minds

Nectar Oud Extrait by BDK is exclusive to Harrods.com

If you enjoyed reading Love Is A Many Splendored Perfume, then why not read Protest Records Are A Bright Light here

.Cent Magazine London; Luxury Minded