Parfum d'Empire Mal-Aime Eau de Parfum

Fragrance Family:
Green

Notes:
Wild Corsican Inula, Bramble, Nettle, Iris Roots

Concentration:
Eau de Parfum

Occasion:
For the realest realism when it comes to green, Mal-Aime appeals to those seeking naturality, with its distinctive signature and original notes. A disconcerting opening leads to a leathery, woody, and earthy base - a surprise that's surprisingly versatile.

Perfumer’s Inspiration:
“In French, weeds are called ‘mauvaises herbes’, bad herbs. I think it’s unfair, because they are bountiful and have many healthful properties – like inula or nettle, for instance. I’ve never had the heart to pull out the wild inula that grows in my garden in the heart of the maquis.” Mal-Aimé is a tribute to a friend. The essence used by Marc-Antoine Corticchiato is distilled by Stéphane and Alexandre Acquarone, the sons of Lucien Acquarone, “my companion from the maquis and the bush, from Corsica to Vietnam by way of Madagascar and La Réunion”, the perfumer explains. An engineer specialised in botanical extraction equipment, “Lucien was a wizard who could obtain the best of a plant’s fragrance without altering its original scent, always as close as possible to nature.” He was also an adventurer, “who could decide overnight to embark on some crazy project on the other side of the world”.

With Marc-Antoine Corticchiato, he shared, along with his love of good food, wine and perfume plants, a fondness for inula, “a plant with a very special scent, though it is rejected by all. For a great many years, we talked about introducing the uncommon fragrance of this ‘weed’ to the world. But he left too early.” Mal-Aimé, a fragrance gorged with inula essential oil extracted by his sons, is “a nod to Lucien. Lucien, who must be having a laugh up there, with a glass in his hand and a twinkle in his eyes – eyes as green as the essence of inula, and as sparkling as his favorite champagne.” (Marc-Antoine Corticchiato)

Made in France

In praise of weeds, roots, and unloved plants. As Baudelaire spoke of evil flowers, perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato finds a love for the unloved, beauty in the neglected, a place for the unwanted, and rarity in the all too common. It is right to call Mal-Aime weedy – but we mustn’t let our prejudices take over – it is a salubrious green, curiously bitter and sweet at once, sticky like sap, soapy in the way green herbs are. A hay note in the heart of the fragrance intensifies the dry sensation of the fragrance, while something moist reminds us of vegetable patches and gardens after a light misting. It offers a strange and new sensation of freshness – like encountering a new shade of green in nature. Mal-Aime is a fascination, a work to be appreciated more than it is to be savoured.