Francesca Bianchi - The Dark Side
This is my dark side, and many others' too. Straightforward at first sniff, then hauntingly soft, turning dry and intense like wood, intimate and delicate like lace. It is a warmly sensual, addictive, dark scent which evokes the private, mysterious side we like to keep secret.
Alchemic transformation
Sometimes I mention Alchemy, which has always been mostly a cultural interest to me. It’s not a direct source of inspiration but more a sort of hidden pattern in the process of perfume making. The magic of Alchemy is the transformation into a new status or dimension (either material or spiritual) through a particular process. Talking about perfumery, the materials I add in my experiments end up creating something new, they evolve into something new and unpredictable, which simply didn’t exist before.
Like an Alchemic transformation, which is not theoretical, you HAVE to go through that very process to achieve a new dimension. In other words, if you limit yourself to the theoretical aspect or the formula (or just reading a book without living your life), and you don’t physically go through a process, or an experience, you will NEVER achieve the transformation. There’s something mystical and carnal at the same time in this truth, and I feel so satisfied in doing something which put together such opposite elements and allow me to witness the creation of something which ‘was not’ before.
I will tell you a secret about The Dark Side
I love woody warm sweet woody oriental stuff, and this scent is my attempt in this category. This is the most complex among my scents, made up by lots of components which I tried to mix in the smoothest way I could. So many components that, if you ask me, I have to look up the formula, of whom the pyramid I published is just a synthesis.
The funny thing is, I worked so much on the balance of so many ingredients that I forgot how it all started. It all started in Marrakesh, one of my favorite city, which I visited at 28 and then 39, always coming back with plenty of fake oils, scented stones, resins to burn, carpets, swords, and other useless thus crucial objects. Last time I came back with many smelly bottles, among which a delicious fake agarwood oil. I have never been a fan of it — as it was so fashionable lately, and I really hate fashions — but this one is different. So, once home, I tried to make my own base inspired by this Moroccan fake oud, thus creating a sticky sweet woody smoky oriental stuff, which I called ‘My Oud’.
Some time after, I started my Dark Side project (at the time named ‘Into Darkness’) and integrated this base in it. By doing so, I added in due proportion all ingredients of ‘My Oud’ into the bigger formula of Dark Side. After that, I made so many other variations during the following months while searching for a further harmony, that I simply forgot that the soul of ‘My Oud’ was in.
Only a frag lover’s review — wondering about the possibility of the presence of Oud, which of course was not enlisted in the pyramid — made me remember about my lovely fragrant memory from Marrakesh. So, if you really want to keep a secret, you just have to forget about it, like I did with ‘My Oud’ base.
