Deeply, Madly, Truly (Alessandro Gualtieri for MariaLux, 2011)

The three MariaLux fragrances explore emotions related to the theme of love: Madly ("Oh, lover, make me yours again"), Deeply ("Pleasure & Pain, Fear & Faith") and Truly  (I will wait for you 1000 years "). And since love, with its overwhelming force can pull off both the best and the worst from people, here you have three perfumes where nothing is gentle and serene or linear, but they all express a friction between the ideal and the real thing, notes sometimes are harmonious and often dissonant, in some places caressing and in other brutal. These perfumes are wearable contradictions. Although pleasant and perfectly wearable both by men and women (emotions bear no sexual definition), they express a not-so-obvious concept of love, in a way evidently congenial to Alessandro, that is with no sentimental fuss. They seem to come out from a real romance, not the typical chocolate-&-heart thing, but real romantic "Sturm und drang" mood, that is a storm and a breathtaking emotional assault. "This is the result of a real challenge, a work done by the two of us together, in all the complexity that this implies" are Lilian Driessen's (MariaLux founder) words about composing the scents with Alessandro. Since this concept comes out as strong as a punch in the stomach, it’s obvious that someone will not like it. You need a little soundness and mind-openness, you must have lived conflicting, passionate, desperate love stories, to appreciate the fact you’re wearing perfumes like these on skin. You can’t wear them without knowing what they express!  I found them very challenging, they helped me move my limit a little further. 

I haven’t found pyramids and this is obvious, given that Alessandro doesn’t disclose them. However, I found a perfect balance between high quality naturals and synthetics used in the smartest way (that is, not hiding them but making them significant to the composition); Deeply features strong woody notes as sandalwood, guaiac perhaps, cistus labdanum, birch, beeswax, and a powerfully hypnotic note you find also in Black Afgano, the whole is shady, moist and sticky, explicitly sensual. In Madly citrus and herbs (sage, rosemary, wormwood and helichrysum perhaps) come together in a troubled history of light and shade, dry and wet, I found fascinating. Truly shines with a aldehydic, metallic note,shining like a razor blade, speaking of a strong, unwavering, determined love, made of solid metal. They're all in perfume concentration, so their lasting power is pretty good on skin and excellent on clothes and paper; while Deeply roundens and gets more liqueur-y with the passing of time, the other two get dryer, sharper and brighter.
In all three Alessandro’s aesthetic vision is present from the beginning, as concrete as one note in  the pyramid.
This is not a comparison, but only one way to explain how I see it his way of composing: when Ernest Daltroff introduced his first works, perfumery of his time was all about bouquets of roses and violets; but his compositions instead were romantic in the sense of wild, "raw", violent; many preferred the smooth and rounded charm of the Guerlains and Cotys (which I love), but many others were attracted to his strange, moving, evocative perfumes, and today, almost one hundred years later, the old Carons have become emblems of a certain way of brutal, romantic composition. You know Narcisse Noir? M.me Cellier also, decades later, composed in a similar way. Times have changed, our taste has changed, too, yet even today there are those who prefer taking a very emotional, intense, challenging direction, and this is a choice that I do appreciate a lot.


Want to try them? The first five commenters will get  free sample of the three!