“…If I had them, I’d be King”.
But it’s the juicy green balls of desire – figs! that we’re talking about here!
Balls Said the Queen by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz of DSH Perfumes is not a beach-y or tropical fragrance at all, and yet it feels lush like a late summer’s day, like the moment when you realize that the summer is almost gone and each and every minute of a hot day suddenly feels like a precious gift you don’t want to let go of. It’s not gourmand either, and yet it is mouthwatering and inviting. You might call it „green“ but that’s a hot hue of green, like a green leaf placed over strategic places on a naked body. And even though it feels openly sensual, its balance is refined.
Dawn thinks it’s „kinda badass.“, and I think it’s a fragrance that’s wonderfully sensual in a very playful way.
Oh, my fig! The word itself deriving from Occitan (Provencal) figa, and from Latin ficus: cultivated and loved since ancient times, a source of food, shade, and life, the delicious fruit of heaven!
Well, technically not a fruit at all: figs are actually inverted flowers. And when you’re actually eating a fig, you are eating multiple fruits inside of the outer skin.
Figs are fascinating even when pollinating: it takes a female fig wasp to enter a male fig, to produce male wasps without wings to mate later with female wasps, who then exit the fig and carry the pollen with them. Mhm, it’s kind of gender-complicated. Some figs are self-pollinating, to take things to another level. The fruit itself, soft with thin skin is among the juiciest, sweetest, and most fragrant fruits of late summer: one of the things that make me squeal in delight is the approaching of Assumption Day – because my Adriatic fig tree then bears loads of ripe, green figs that taste divinely!
Let’s talk about figs some more: it was always used as a metaphor for…well, just about everything, and ever since Adam and Eve. Its symbolic potency has been mighty throughout ages. Buddha was enlighted under a fig tree, Romulus and Remus were found abandoned as infants under a fig tree, it was often associated with sex and fertility.
A very sexy fruit too, resembling both male and female genitalia, considered an aphrodisiac – and not by eating only, the scent of figs is what allegedly gets you going, or at least it’s supposed to increase blood flow at all the right places.
“Balls said the Queen. “If I had two, I’d be king.”
If. Or not.
There have been real queens in history that ruled like kings, like my beloved Hatshepsut – and I bet she ate figs on daily basis. „Queens“ of courage and audacity, without if’s and or’s, no matter what gender role we are talking about.
So here comes Dawn Spencer Hurwitz with a witty fig-themed perfume creation! Even if you have smelled or owned many a perfume featuring figs, may it be milky, greenish, gourmand, or just fruity – prepare yourself for a different, and a very creative approach to this particular theme, revolving around – green figs. And what a sexy, ripe, and tempting green Mediterranean fig this is!
Dawn paints the fragrant canvas surrounding the fig tree with bright sunshine at first, and I can almost see myself, still sleepy, peeking around the olive tree to check out how many ripe figs I can see on the tree that morning. The air is still fresh, and it has a lovely, seaside saltiness taste to it, and the breath of the Mediterranean garden is invigorating, slightly woody, just a bit fruity as it rolls over the drystone walls surrounding it. Smelling its development, I can visualize the gray of the drystone wall against the green of those thick, heavy fig leaves, and scattered fruit that fell to the ground, semi-dry, and smelling ripe to the point of earthy.
And I can feel my hand reaching out to pick the fruit, the touch of leaves, and a tinge of milky sap on my fingers as I pick up a ripe fig, rip off the stem and open it with two fingers: it’s the inside that’s sweet and juicy, crunchy, honey-smelling and fleshy at the same time that I eat in one bite, sucking the sweet pulp and throwing away the white skin, now turned inside out.
I seriously have the same expression on my face as Bacchus with a bowl of fruit in Caravaggio’s painting… M-mmm! Life IS good!
Balls…Said the Queen by DSH Perfumes is not a beach-y or tropical fragrance at all, and yet it feels sunny like a late summer’s day, like the moment when you realize that the summer is almost gone and each and every minute of a hot day suddenly feels like a precious gift. It’s not gourmand either, and yet it is mouthwatering and inviting. You might call it „green“ but that’s a hot hue of green, like a green leaf placed over strategic places on a naked body. And even though it feels openly sensual, its balance is refined.
When the lust of biting into this heavenly fruit simmers down, more carnal facets follow. A playfully erotic jasmine grandiflorum flirts openly with labdanum and two lovely and light ouds at the same time. while any excess is smoothed out by a gentle touch of sandalwood here and a deliberate stroke of cedar there.
Patchouli acts more like a voyeur in this play: its presence is felt, it’s never explicitly visible, and yet it influences all the other „players“ on the stage. Add to that some musky tones that feel like warm skin (first sun-kissed then kissed), and I couldn’t stop sniffing my wrist: what a sensuous scent!
„I think it’s kinda badass. The notion of gender and gender roles is always in play in society and the world at large as we navigate how to live together on the planet and how we want to live as individuals. This phrase and how it is adapted to the perfume concept will, I hope, give us a moment of levity, a wry smile and a giggle perhaps, but also a moment to pause and consider how we approach gender and what it means in terms of freedom, power, and expression in our lives.” – Dawn Spencer Hurwitz
Notes: (as stated by the brand): peach skin accord, coconut pulp co2, green grape accord, green tiger fig accord, stone fig leaf accord, grandiflorum jasmine, olive absolute, olive wood accord, salted rose accord, East Indian patchouli, honey beeswax, costus, labdanum, Virginia cedar, Australian sandalwood, honey musk, ambrette, Oud Crassna, Oud Maleki.
Balls…Said The Queen / DSH Perfumes is available as 10 ml Antique Art Deco Presentation Flacon – Perfume / Extrait, 10 ml EdP perfume pen pulse roller, 10 ml VdP perfume pen pulse roller, 3 ml deluxe sample spray – Eau de Parfum, 3 ml deluxe sample spray – Voile de Parfum, 30 ml Eau de Parfum spray, 30 ml Voile de Parfum spray, 5 ml Antique Présentation Flacon Voile Parfum, 60 ml Voile de Parfum spray, individual sample vial – Extrait / PERFUME, individual sample vial – Voile de Parfum, individual sample vial -Voile Parfum, sample vial – Eau de Parfum, Bath and Body- Organic Shea Butter Body Creme – 4.5 oz.
Test before you buy!
The Plum Girl
Elena Cvjetkovic
Photos: DSH Perfumes, The Plum Girl, Adam, The Garden of Eden Painting Kristian Zahrtmann, The Fall of Man, 1592 Painting Cornelis van Haarlem, Bacchus by Caravaggio
Disclaimer: A sample of Balls…Said the Queen was kindly sent to me by DSH Perfumes. My opinions are – as always- of my own.
If you like what I do, you can buy me a coffee:
