Where endearing begins

 Francesca's perfumes are larvae that take off layers of translucent skin and slowly metamorphose into a colorful butterfly. We just have to have patience to experience the change, as to all the greatest things in life, to the magic that transports us to a fantasy world, as a an ensemble of many carefully arranged parts and delightful details. 

 Luxe Calme Volupte opens a door previously locked in Francesca's complex and obscure range of fragrances, a door that makes mundane pleasures visible into its wearer's eye, because it's the easiest one to be loved (liked would be an understatement). Even so, it keeps alive Francesca's recognizable signature. It's like that perfect tailored piece of clothing that although adapts well for anyone's type of body, not everyone ends up looking good in it.

  

 Alluring and intoxicating, disguised as intentionally unobtrusive with a soothing effect, Luxe Calme Volupte swifts from citrusy-fruity-tart-bitter-green to floral-tropical-sweet-powdery and, later, to resinous-leathery-ambery naturally, manifesting the acquired experience of its perfumer throughout every stage of its evolution. 

 Luxe Calme Volupte starts big and bold with a bite of intensely green and bitter resulted from the combination of galbanum, bitter citruses, pineapple and hyacinth. The galbanum offers a distinctive dry, earthy, piney and luscious fresh scent whose facets are enhanced by bitter/sweet/aldehydic citruses and the ethereal floral aura of the hyacinth. Pineapple comes naturally with a savory sweet smell, but here it isn't ripe and it adds a bit of sharpness to this bitter green phase of the fragrance as a perfect counterbalance to the amber/woody base. A thread of leather-saddle left on a branch covered in moss (Isobutyl Quinoline has that animalistic/Mousse de Saxe/mineral facets) spreads from the base up to the top leaving its traces quietly, but noticeable enough, during each stage. Once the green starts to dissipate, without leaving completely the scene, the floral accord begins to shine, creamy, lush, oily, lactonic, sweet and powdery, moving the fragrance in a whole other direction than it originated. The flamboyant opening starts losing almost all of its elements' identity into an atmosphere of innocence, that purity hidden in a blossom before it seductively stretches its petals and release its scent into the air. Stillness sweetened with the subdued scent of exotic flowers. Heady, fruity and sweet with a rubbery edge, the ylang-ylang infuses into orris, heliotrope and violets creating a floral accord that once it starts to soften, it melts into the warm, dry, unctuous, powdery and resinous base. Vetiver spreads its roots with a subtle earthy, mineral and grapefruit-like nuances under a beautiful amber accord (vanilla, lots of labdanum and benzoin), where from Francesca lowered substantially its animalic side. Sandalwood and opoponax play an important role in adding a soft woody milkyness and a smoky velvet-like feel and conferring the fragrance a sensual dark side, gently enfolded in a creaminess that results to be familiar to endearing. 

 Luxe Calme Volupte is equally virginal to sinful. It's not young enough to be grounded for its naughty behavior nor sufficiently mature to be aware of its sensuality, it meets right in the middle, mixing between compos mentis and senseless, burning sanity and marking its presence even through its absence. It's the well needed drive to run to when we look to escape our (occasionally) monotonous existence.