Parfum d'Empire- Corsica Furiosa

If I were blind-testing the sample of Corsica Furiosa I'd have probably attributed it to CB I Hate Perfume and not to Parfum d'Empire, the line that brought us Ambre Russe, Cuir Ottoman, Wazamba, Fougere Bengal, Osmanthus Interdite, and Musc Tonkin (among others). Corsica Furiosa has such a strong sense of a place that I'm immediately transported. Where to? It could be many places, all of them very very green.

Imagine a kitchen garden. Not the one I have here in my Jersey backyard, suburbanly manicured and within the view of the neighbors. Instead, think of an old cottage, stone-built and obviously continental. The garden is overgrown in a charming way that miraculously doesn't include weeds, and right by the ancient back door there's a vegetable patch and an herb area where several aromatics grow wild. You smell the place as soon as you step out of the kitchen: mint and basil, tomato vines and green peppers, and everything is intertwined with the delicate scent of the lemon trees further in the back, the various flowers you will pick this afternoon, and the damp and mossy grass that grows everywhere.

Corisca Furiosa is much more delicate than most of the fragrances from Parfum d'Empire. The perfume, a tribute to owner-perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato's native Corisca is a very obvious labor of love. There's a tenderness to the leaves and stalks that can only come from cherished memories; the longing is palpable. Ever since sniffing Corisca Furiosa I've been googling photos of various parts of the Mediterranean island. I think I'm going to start bombarding the husband with them, along with questions such as : "why haven't we been there yet?", "can we go there, like, now?", "shall I book us a villa for next spring?".

Testing from a dab-on sample is probably giving me a false impression of Corisca Furiosa's longevity and projection. It appears very mild, but with my experience with other Parfum d'Empire fragrances I know that none of them is lacking in potency. So I'll take Mark's word from his Colognoisseur review that the sillage and wear-time are above average.

Notes: mastic resin, lime, grass, hay, honey, moss, labdanum, mint, tomato leaf and pepper.

Parfum d'Empire- Corsica Furiosa ($145, 100ml, eau de parfum) is available from Luckyscent.

Art: Corsican Hilltop Village by Steve Mitchell, 2010.