Parfum d'Empire Aziyade Eau de Parfum

Fragrance Family:
Amber

Notes:
Pomegranate, Candied Fruit, Prunes, Plum, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Ginger, Cumin, Rose, Carob, Cistus Labdanum, Patchouli, Incense, Vanilla

Concentration:
Eau de Parfum

Occasion:
Outrageous and carnal - sensorial and sensual, powerful, opulent, and striking - leaving a unique imprint. For those fond of serious amber perfumes with a sweet vanillic accent. 

Perfumer’s Inspiration:
With Aziyade, I wanted eroticism. My obsession was to research and gather all the plant extracts used for carnal pleasures throughout history by different cultures. I wanted an excessive creation that concentrates aphrodisiacs of all cultures. It was long bibliographic research at first, and then a lot of work to get these different extracts, including a lot of spices. Aziyade is dripping with sensuality, the expression of flesh intoxicated by luxury and pleasure." (Marc-Antoine Corticchiato)

Made in France

An elixir blending the aphrodisiacs of many cultures throughout history, Aziyadé draws us into a sensuous feast where the pleasures of love are intimately entwined with those of the palate. More than a fragrance, Aziyadé is a flavour. The flavour of the yielding flesh of Aziyadé, the heroin of Pierre Loti’s eponymous novel, the story of a harem in the twilight of the Ottoman Empire – though we now know that Loti’s heroin, the very embodiment of love, started out as a hero…

Is Aziyadé a forbidden fruit? The fragrance opens with pomegranate: for the Greeks, to taste it was to drink the blood of the drunken god Dionysius in order to experience the cosmic union… Candied dates, almonds, oranges and prunes are set alight by aphrodisiac spices: cardamom, favoured by the Ancient Egyptians to make their kisses more burning; Ceylonese cinnamon, an essential ingredient of erotic feasts for the Romans, who dedicated it to Venus Libentina in her temples; ginger, used in China to stimulate mucous membranes, and finally Egyptian cumin, used in the sacred prostitution rituals of the Sumerian empire.

Aziyadé’s sillage draws us into the smoke-laden atmosphere of erotic celebrations. Tobacco leaf is conjured with raw Indian patchouli, used in magic rituals to stimulate sexual desire. Vanilla, an aphrodisiac in the Aztec empire, exhales its tawny accords, rounded out by the unctuous notes of carob pods. Tears of Arabian incense blend love and sacred ecstasy: did Queen Hatshepsut not display her naked body, rubbed in incense, to honour the god Amun-Ra?

Drunk on luxury and pleasure, Aziyadé delves deeper still into sensuousness. Its animal accords recreate the penetrating scent of the mythical Tonkin musk; the absolute of Moroccan cistus unfurls its resinous facets. Overdosed and concentrated, the refined materials of Aziyadé require slow maceration to develop into a naturally dark-coloured nectar.