Maria Christofilis - Fleur 09

It really isn’t a big stretch of the imagination to know that Fleur 09 (“Fleur”) is a floral.  What does, however, strike at the imagination is how this fragrance came to be and how and why it was released in 2014.

If you’ve followed my fragrance blog, you know that I adore it when a fragrance tells a story.  With Fleur, the story is more about the fragrance’s genesis than the fragrance wear.  As the story goes, this fragrance was first created by master perfumer Rodrigo Flores-Roux of the Swiss fragrance house Givaudan as a personal gift to Maria Christofilis.  Can you imagine such a gift!  Anyway, the story continues that Christofilis quickly fell in love with the fragrance and “the more she realized it was a treasure to be shared”.  Her generosity is our benefit.

Fleur is a glorious symphony of white florals with just a touch of vanilla bean absolute and benzoin tears extract to round out the composition with a light vanilla base that is just at the edge of perception.   On me, a restrained, warm, tuberose takes some prominence.  Its handling makes it soft and lilting instead of screechy as tuberose can often be.  Orange blossom seems to also shine bright in this bouquet.  There is a fresh, bright, somewhat greenness to the arrangement that lends a clean sophistication to its wear.  This is a floral that manages to be both contemporary and classic. 

Fleur 09 wears on me with soft projection for roughly 5 – 6 hours.

Notes: Sicilian yellow mandarin essence, Calabrese bergamot essence, bitter orange tree leaf water absolute, Moroccan orange flower extract, Tunisian orange blossom absolute, Indian tuberose absolute Orpur, Mexican Vanilla bean absolute, Benzoin tears extract from Laos

Photo Credit: Maria Christofilis