Papillon Perfumery Spell 125 by Elizabeth Moores

“With feathered fans, a gilded hall

glinting fires and salt wet rocks

your hands and face papered in gold foil

a bright stone door with timeworn locks”

Poem by Jasmine Moores. © Papillon Perfumery

From the archives: From the heart of the forest, a newly birthed perfume emerges, fully formed and finished like a ready masterpiece. Spell 125 is the seventh perfume from Elizabeth Moores and it’s so beguiling that I make no apologies for using words like spellbound and enchanted.

Like all six of the previous Papillon fragrances, Papillon Spell 125 is magically transportive, evoking vivid images as if you’re wide awake in a dream. To me, it’s the scent of ancient castle walls that are trying to speak their secrets but have only whispers. You have to use your modern nose and a little magic to listen to the lichen mottled mysteries held within the stones.

We have over a hundred castles here in Wales and even more Roman ruins. The scent of them is one of the early memories in my olfactory database. It’s a combination of damp, outdoors and centuries of smoke. It’s the scent of nature trying to claw back, with spiralling hands of ivy and blankets of moss, what we took from her land. It’s a unique aroma. You don’t get it in modern buildings or anywhere else. It’s the scent of love and war, birth and death and the stories of all those who came before us: their voices tingling in the stones that we can still feel under our fingertips.

Spell 125 coaxes secrets out of these ancient walls with Black Hemlock and Green Sacra. In case you were wondering, (I was), Green Sacra is the Godmother of all incense; regarded as the finest possible category of frankincense, and it shows. It is exquisite. It aligns perfectly with the pine, which can sometimes overwhelm, but here it is blended to harmonize and enhance rather than do a high octane solo. Sandalwood brings its unique mystery, lingering with a dear and familiar benevolence.

Spell 125 is about to usurp several classic incense fragrances from their thrones. I’m even going to say that it nudges Comme Des Garcons Series 3 Incense Avignon off the plinth. Until I smelled Papillon Perfumery Spell 125, Avignon had been the last word on incense, but now it has a rival: a rival that (yes, I’m going to say it), bewitches, enchants and beguiles its way, irresistibly, into your perfume collection, as it must.

Had Elizabeth Moores made this a few centuries ago, she’d have been burnt at the stake for making such a mesmeric potion. Resistance is futile.

Where to buy it

You can buy Papillon Spell 125 from the Papillon website. Try the stockists page too, as there are many around the world and there might be one near you.

Disclosure

I was sent my sample by Papillon Perfumery for my consideration as a blogger. My opinion and the choice to review are both my own.