Jo's Scent Notes: Éditions de Parfums Frédéric Malle Portrait of a Lady (special edition)
Portrait of a Lady is celebrating its 15th birthday with this gorgeous flame-red lacquered flacon. For 14 of those years, however, I didn’t feel grown up enough to wear it.
Preposterous, I know. I am a grown woman, with decades of working experience and a lot of living behind me. Yet somehow… its sophistication is so off-the-scale that I didn’t feel I was worthy of ‘POAL’ (as it’s known for short in perfume circles).
POAL was created for the perfume ‘editor’ Frédéric Malle (read more about him here), by one of the world’s greatest noses, Master Perfumer Dominique Ropion, sometimes called ‘the master of flowers’. It is, many agree, his greatest of Dominique’s litany of masterpieces – and though really pricy, a must-smell for anyone who’s educating themselves about fragrance. (On that note, you could do worse than spend a half-hour at a Frédéric Malle counter, sniffing your way through the portfolio. And then come back another day, and keep going. You won’t love it all – that’s impossible, because in reality our personal fragrance preferences tend to be fairly narrow – but this is a collection created by the top scent creators in the world, a one-stop educational perfume deep-dive. And a joy for the nose, with it.)
I decided I’d better man up and veil myself in Portrait of a Lady after I was interviewed by the wonderful Instagram videographer @aliceduparcq in her ‘Desert Island Spritz’ series. I had told Alice that I loved it on other people, but – as I say – didn’t feel ‘grown-up’ enough to be a Portrait-wearer, myself. How she scoffed. And honestly, she was right to.
So straight away, I slightly shame-facedly went out and bought my first bottle. I’ve bought three since (and blagged a couple from the PRs, including this red edition). I switch up my perfumes on a daily basis, but POAL’s somehow on repeat more often than the others, during winter months.
Offering up a giant bouquet of roses at its heart (apparently the petals from 400 are required for a single 100ml bottle), Portrait of a Lady is a member of the Chypre family – my favourite of all the family ‘classifications’ (so no wonder I love it, eh?) The key notes listed are those roses – Turkish rose essence and absolute – and patchouli. Raspberry – which probably explains its jamminess – and clove apparently feature in the top notes, but personally I also get a nose-tingle of black pepper, an ingredient I love. Sandalwood and frankincense nestle alongside the patchouli in the base – and a gust of cedar emerges on my skin, for sure.
Dozens of times over the years since it launched, I’d asked other women (including quite a few strangers) what perfume they were wearing, only to be told: ‘Portrait of a Lady’. Now, all perfumes smell subtly different on their wearers, but there’s something about this creation that somehow melds with the skin, morphing to make it your own. Weirdly, even though I wear it myself a very great deal, nowadays, I still get bamboozled when smelling it on other women, and continue to ask them what perfume they have on – always being surprised-yet-not-surprised when I hear the answer.
A funny thing happens, when I wear Portrait of a Lady, myself. I’m not pretending to be grown-up, like stepping into Mummy’s shoes; I just feel it. That bit more confident. That bit more elegant (not a word I usually associate with myself, EVER). And guess what? Other people ask me what I’m wearing, all the time.
So, in a world of here-today-gone-tomorrow fragrances (most launches don’t even make it to their first birthday), a 15th anniversary is truly a red letter event, never mind a red bottle occasion. I’ve a hunch, though: Portrait of a Lady will be back to celebrate its 25th, and its 50th. Maybe it’ll even ‘do a Chanel No5’, and make it to 100.
It’s that good.
Limited Edition £290 for 100ml eau de parfum – buy here
