Séville à l'Aube

House: L’Artisan Parfumeur

Perfumer: Bertrand Duchaufour

Release: 2012

Fragrance Notes

Petitgrain, Petitgrain citronnier, Orange blossom, Beeswax, Incense resinoid, Luisieri lavender, Siam benzoin resinoid

Review

Read enough online reviews in fine perfumery and you may notice a peculiar distaste for the work of Bertrand Duchaufour. Certainly, Jean-Claude Ellena has his detractors, particular for the more spare recent works, but these are offset by equally ardent admirers. Complaints about the work of Duchaufour often refer to something other than the current perfume, such as an unhappy reference to the condensed milk note in Penhaligon’s Amaranthine, but really all references point back to Avignon, as in, “Why can’t this be Avignon?” And we have here the incense reference, with some missing the frankincense note, perhaps in the petitgrain, and others ignoring the benzoin for the incense material that it is. Overall, this gets a positive response for the treatment of petitgrain and the careful integration of incense into a scent that still retains orange blossom as the central theme.

In our wear of a decant from the 2020 version, the narcotic waxiness of the orange blossom emerged at the same time that a subdued, but happy sweet powdery citrus from the petitgrain. You get this kind of powdery note from petitgrain absolute. The lavender incense accord joins in just a moment, a powdery incense and Seville lavender that blend with the orange blossom to create a powdery soap narcotic. Seville lavender is so different from every other lavender that it seems like a different plant altogether. We get leather, dried fruit, honey, and spice from the essential oil. In this blend, it does not stand out as much, but we do get a leather and deeper fruit sweetness that melds with the hay-like notes from the beeswax.

This is fairly linear for a number of hours. The benzoin note is well executed. You get the powdery, slightly medicinal base with sweetness, but nothing with the body of vanilla to interfere with the orange blossom. There is one more surprise here. The deep, sweet, slightly spiced drydown without the orange blossom or the powder is delightful in its warm embrace.

This is not something we would wear regularly, but it would suit someone with a love of orange blossom and powder. Because of the quality of this execution, we include Séville à l'Aube in our Top 10 Orange Blossom Perfume lists. To our taste, it would be more interesting with a sharper petitgrain and at a higher dose as well as a bright citrus opener, and a bit heavier hand with the incense, although this was not the intention. We love the use of Seville lavender and will be looking for more scents that employ its magic.

Limited projection and no noticeable sillage. This performed well for 6+ hours off the skin, but with no more than a foot of projection, making this a nice scent for a romantic evening.