It has been a difficult year for all of us. And it isn’t over yet. But at least there now does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
If Dusita Paris’s previous two fragrance releases – Pavillon D’Or and Moonlight In Chiangmai – reflected the shared introspection and more ruminatory, solitary feeling of nighttime melancholia, the new release, a floral bouquet that would not be amiss at May nuptials, there is a certain bridal giddiness – revels in precisely the olfactory opposite: a proclamation of spring and the sense of desperately wanting to finally burst out of your confined shell.
Composed with highly strung joies de vivre of neroli, tea rose, jasmine, tuberose, ylang ylang and lush greens, Cavatina is a florid rush to the brain; high-pitched, tingeing on insanity and viridescent joy. I don’t have the official list of notes, nor the poem that the fragrance has been inspired by, but the energy and sheer sense of RELEASE that the perfume puts across to the sprayer effortlessly conveys what Pissara Umavijani presumably intends to express. To me this perfume smells of sharp white magnolias on the bough, in all their lemon cream greenness, demanding to be set free.
A ‘cavatina’ is apparently a short operatic aria ( or piece of instrumental music with a classical refrain ); and the scent does have the exuberant directness and alacrity of a soprano’s coloratura. Unweighted by woods or the heavier notes, all here is in the higher registers, very feminine and unrestrained. For me personally, the word ‘cavatina’ evokes childhood summers playing the piano, when my grandparents and other relatives would always request me to play the main theme from The Deerhunter – also called Cavatina, with the windows opening onto the garden outside on Sunday evenings when it was still light, and a piece of music I don’t think I could bear to listen to right now for its heart-rippingly emotive melody, at a moment when we have no idea when we will be able to actually get back to England again. Will it be next year? or the year after that ? Or even the one after that … ?
I know, of course, that we are not alone in our own predicament. It is the same for so many people around the world at this unprecedented, stressful time. In many ways, we are stuck. With our memories, in one place. Thwarted. On the pause button.What Pissara Umijavani seems to be saying is, yes, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t still enjoy the world around you, the flowers of summer and spring; that – if you enjoy high octaved rushes of garlanded green flowers – some will find this shrill – that the small, enjoyable pleasures in life can still be precious.
The Black Narcissus 
Too late !
A preview – like a cinema trailer. Got it today and the weather is perfect for it. I like not having the information or notes and just taking it all from there.
Didn’t you get the email? 😄
I don’t think so.
Nice to be surprised.
I love it. I got mine 3 weeks ago or so, but I won’t tell you the notes then 😉
!
I watched a question and answer video she did yesterday for the perfume blog Eau My Soul, and this was never mentioned. I knew she was doing a special fragrance just for the group and people were going to have the opportunity to name it just like she did for Splenderis. I had the pleasure of meeting Pissara at Parfums Dusita in Paris in December 2019 and she is a very special and lovely person. I look forward to all her perfume releases. Thanks for the oops.
I am known for my natural spontaneity and poor impulse control…
This new perfume is very bright and exuberant, so I felt immediately like writing about it because the weather was so lovely today ( forecast is rain and colder tomorrow).
I can’t get away with florals this fresh ( quite gingery citronella daphne flowers, this one; there is a slightly dirty indolic edge from the jasmine but I feel it is clean enough to appeal to the American market ); nor her woodier scents like Moonlight; I work best in the ‘middle’ with scents like Douceur De Siam, Village Blanc or Fleur de Lalita ; all very romantic and full : I can’t pull them off completely convincingly but do wear them for my personal pleasure D smells great in Pavillon D’Or.
I have all of her scents (with the exception of Cavatina) and enjoy all of them for different reasons and seasons. I find Pavillon D’Or very easy to wear and it remains special to me because I bought in person from her.
Cavatina and the EMS fragrance are different releases. The EMS one hasn’t been named yet. I’m curious to smell that one too.
I imagine Pissara will go in a completely different direction with that one: do you think she will ever give us a patchouli or a vanilla ?
Couldn’t resist a preview…
It would be nice if she did either a patchouli or a vanilla.. I know that a lot of people are not patch fans, but I, for one, love that note in perfumes.
Me too. And I can imagine it being given interesting deep facets by Dusita.
The only Dusita scent that has really appealed to me is Splendiris and this one doesn’t sound like my thing either, but I admire her brand and her sweet demeanour when I’ve seen her on FB live. Thanks for the scoop!
Cavatina is definitely for a specific perfume wearer or seasonal moment – very high as the sky floral euphoria; sheer and slightly disturbing. I would LOVE to smell someone getting on a train wearing this.
This oops can do Dusita no harm whatsoever. Quite the contrary.
Cavatina sounds gorgeous and set at just the right pitch for these extended dreary times. The antidote. I think I would love it.
I think the timing is perfect and I love the unselfconsciousness of releasing something so unabashedly sheer floral. My skin isn’t right for it but some people could induce hallucinations in this.
The Deerhunter theme Cavatina is so beautifully, sweetly sad.
It is.
Your interesting asides on theatre just got trashed for some reason, incidentally; extraordinarily infuriating when I was in the middle of replying.
Damn. I was wondering if you concurred. I will never know!
I totally agreed and hadn’t realized it was precisely as you say; the loudness of the voice having to reach the back. Sometimes amazing, but not relaxing or easy to lose yourself in. I think some people enjoy being ‘assaulted’ in that way as it opens them up emotionally maybe. I find loud voices generally quite hard to deal with : my brain is too delicate.
You must believe in spring
And love … song by Cleo Laine
Out of the lyrics
And live
I once met her !
She sang at a bookstore in Cambridge promoting her autobiography – it was a weird evening in which I later got into a bar brawl