Balsamo Della Mecca/ Mecca Balsam by La Via del Profumo, 2010

If I can sum this scent in one word it would be this: COMPLEX. It took me more than a few days of wearing before realizing I came nowhere close to unraveling its mysteries. On my skin BALSAMO DELLA MECCA plays a symphony comprising of three main accords: balsamic labdanum, dry frankincense and aromatic tobacco, interspersed with the nuanced sweetness of dried fruits. The rose note is subtle at best, wearing close to the skin. Overall I find the scent warm and inviting with a texture that is dry but not quite as dusty nor as Lutens-like syrupy as I had initially feared. I don't know if it's my skin but the tobacco is surprisingly tenacious. Despite its formidable charms, it failed to move me though I smiled a little when I caught a glimpse of a cleverly hidden tuberose. Perhaps I have simply grown accustomed to the composer's use of labdanum and tobacco as a central axis ( try Grezzo, Gringo, Don Corleone & Tabac). I also suspect some of the more glowing reviews could have been influenced at least in part by its rather exotic name and the association it carries with the annual Muslim pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. But it matters not. For what it's worth, I think this release is nothing short of 'stellar'.

I think of Balsamo della Mecca as a body and soul fragrance. It awakens the senses, then calms the mind. The first spritz is bracinga mixture of labdanum and something else. All body, no soul. But wait. There's more.

Next, I notice a good deal of benzoin or tonka or both which lasts through the drydown. The dosage is just right: a hintonly a hintof lulling sweetness.I also picked up on a gentle but tenacious cinnamon note. Just enough to add brightness, not candy.

The big surprise for me was the dry down. I used the computer a lot the first time I sampled Mecca, and throughout the day I would notice a lovely, ambery sillage wafting from the keyboard. Aunique, gentle, slightly floral, woody amber.

For overall mood, Mecca reminds me very much of Tauer's L'Air du desert maroccain. I do not mean that they are note-for-note siblings. But both l'Air and Mecca satisfy the same perfume craving for me, or complement the same mood: not traditionally feminine, nor traditionally masculine; gently dry; somehow consoling and nurturing without being big, warm or blanketing; a nod to a 60s or 70s alternative aesthetic without smelling like a head shop.

When juxtaposed, arm to arm, with Hindu Kush (my current Profumo favorite), the distinctive character of each one shines: Mecca's subtle damask rose note blooms against the fresh-cut wood note of Hindu Kush. The overall effect of Mecca is fuzzier, richer, larger, more sumptuous. In different ways, they share a quality I cant quite describe: I think of them as animated.

Understanding Mecca Balsam was itself something of a pilgrimage. I've revisited it again and again, as my decant permitted and from an initial discomfort and skepticism I have come to deeply appreciate it. I am, I suppose, a convert . To me Mecca Balsam is not soothing in the sense of providing complacent tranquility. It carries within it the whole spectrum of a pilgrim's path. Dusty, forlorn roads, rocky, forbidding terrain (the austerity and dustiness of dry resinous labdanum), the pleasure of being hosted by a gracious stranger (dry, but rich tobacco, sweet enticing tonka) the deep, sweet satisfaction of reaching the sacred destination and finding there: yourself (the divine licqourous wine of those amazing florals, interacting with the dry resins & the tobacco). The sum is rich, complex, distinct and yet has the typical subtlety of a natural perfume. The result, surprisingly, is somewhat two-faced. Mecca Balsam exudes a spiritual quality worthy of its name, but make no mistake, it could just as well be employed to seduce those around the wearer in very worldly ways - like a subtler, more genteel Caraceni pour homme for men of the world. The abscence within it - of the stereotpyical loud synthetic amber, of screechy metallic florals - imparts it with a serenity and exclusivity that would make it grace a plain white hermit's tunic no less than the bespoke-tailored, gold-buttoned navy blazer and crisp white shirt of a yaughting millionaire. One can thus choose what sort of wealth one wishes Mecca Balsam to display - that of the pure spirit or that of the art of fine living.

First, I found the experience of sampling this from a swipe or from paper to be totally different from an actual wearing. In the wearing, the body heat (I assume) governs the development and many more subtleties are revealed to me. It seems somewhat linear on paper. Also I found the thinner distribution from a spray application helps to reveal this beauty. Just for clarity, it contains no Oud, I asked profumo.

It begins with a sweet labdanum infused with a resinous incense, not high pitched top-note frankincense oil but a woodier, deeper, slow burning note. Already there at the top is a little tuberose, just inside the balsams, giving just a touch of an animalic edge. Rather quickly, the sweetness, which briefly threatens to overwhelm, drops down and the hay-like, sunshine-and-raisins tobacco starts to emerge, giving structure and combining with tonka, to provide a significant dry, herbal aspect. After twenty minutes, or thereabouts, this is firmly established. Some smokiness is balanced by a little sweetness from rose, though the florals are very much background flavours here.

There is a great deal of subtle complexity, especially in the base with whiffs of smoke and dark resins. It is as if my spectrum has to reset a few octaves down from the usual citrus-floral-balsam/wood and zoom in on the beautiful natural aspects near the bottom. In some ways this reminds me more of wearing a nutural oud oil, or a pure vetiver, than a conventional Western perfume. Not that it smells of either of those in the least, but rather that there is a core, low pitched vibration which contains higher register subtleties within itself. This adds to the authenticity of the atmosphere it conjours.

Its persisitence is exceptional for an all natural perfume. Two sprays were detecable into the evening. The frankincense is ever present, like the murmur of many low voices. Alongside this are the woody resins and the coumarin and hay of tobacco and tonka, the florals a gentle decoration.

Into the next day, I smelled a faint tobacco on my arm...

It put me a little in mind of a lutens without the monsterous sillage or synthetic notes.

This is a very special oriental which is built from the very best natural ingredients and works extrememly well. Everything it smells of is good to my nose and it mercifully lacks the harsh synthetics which so often ruin this genre for me. It is very wearable and an uplifting and pleasant companion for the day.

I will be wearing it often.