Cavatina by Parfums Dusita offers bitter, lush greenness, a vibrant rush of white petals soaked in citruses, a most delicate and utterly beautiful construction of Lilly of the Valley as a centerpiece, and this joyous sparkle amidst a bouquet of jasmine, tuberose and tea rose in its heart – continues to shine until the drydown.
Pure joi de vivre!
“Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.”―
One would think that working on a fragrance for two and a half years, during constant lockdowns would result in a melancholic, restrained fragrance with hues of shadows or soothing notes to ease one’s soul. Oh yes, we were all carrying a heavy load of “winter” on our heads, coping and adjusting to the “new normal”, threading through lockdowns, separations from friends and family, and business difficulties. And behold! Underneath all the layers of gray, there’s life blooming: the indestructible joy of life!
Cavatina nourishes the eternal spring in your heart, it feels like it elicits sounds of cristal bells ringing around Persephone just released from Hades, running her hands through every blooming branch as she merrily runs around, surrounded by a flock of butterflies with vividly colored wings. The joy of feeling the sunshine on your face, fresh air tingling your nostrils and filling your lungs fully, and running barefooted on dewy grass! Free, free, set me free: my thoughts, my voice, my movements, my soul – it whispers.
For the first time after many a fragrance tested in a quite long period of time, I stand in awe with Pissara‘s poetic interpretation of Muguet /LOTV: THIS IS IT. After all the screechy, somehow aggressive-feeling interpretations of Muguet I have smelt in the past decade that did so much wrong to this beautiful flower, I have finally converted into a LOTV lover – again. Thank you, Pissara!
Muguet interpretations/accords vary and depend largely upon the skills of a perfumer. Yes, there are ready-made accords of LOTV which you can buy, already formulated bases for perfume – but Pissara decided to make her own: a very modern take, indeed. She openly admits that it took her two and a half years to perfect it.
The undisputed queen and an endless source of inspiration is Diorissimo/Christian Dior, the pre-IFRA Edmond Roudnitska’s masterpiece. It is no secret that Pissara was indeed inspired by Diorissimo while creating Cavatina. The second runner-up for me is Guerlain’s Muguet, but there are also other equally interesting creations (and more approachable), and just a few more oldies but goodies, either nonexistent or heavily reformulated. Times, they are a-changing: IFRA banned some materials previously used to build LOTV, but new molecules were and are being developed. And they’re getting better and better.
It is not the price tag, or an attempt to recreate the exact smell of the flower that makes any a Muguet-centered perfume ooomph, not at all: it’s the feeling, the atmosphere, the fine play between all the dualities it represents: mortality and eternity, youthfulness and decay, purity and poison, death and rebirth, sensations of interchanging cold and warm-earthy feeling, with tamed (rather than screeching, please, easy on that part) sharpness as a contrast to the softness and fragility of its flower-bells.
Cavatina is so much more than just a beautiful LOTV accord used. The fragrance behaves differently on a blotter than on my skin, and as it develops, I feel nuances that give it more depth on the skin than on paper. Tones of tuberose and jasmine becoming deeper, sparks of slightly fruity notes that have a sharp edge, and resinous touches that glow on my skin.
The opening is a vivid, sparkling melody of white floral bells ringing, swaying in the sunshine, and surrounded by a cloud of citruses dipped in herbs. The invisible links function perfectly in this composition, lemony tones blend with greener ones smoothly, moving on to connecting very discreet indolic aspects of LOTV to jasmine and tuberose which form a bouquet of white flowers around the backbone made of Muguet, which holds the whole composition from the beginning to the end.
The heart of the fragrance, enriched with a lovely tea rose accord, is simply beautiful, getting denser and denser but without any heaviness – the texture changes but it remains well-lit from the inside.
As we follow Cavatina and it develops further, it exhibits firm and well-shaped muscles under smooth and glowing skin, like when you observe a ballet dancer: the base is very addictive to observe. There were moments when it reminded me of Gucci’s Envy (the first one, oh, I remember it so well, at the top of its fame…).
I love Cavatina’s drydown: it is musky-soft, with traces of bitter tinges which keep rolling down all the way from the opening, mixing with soft woods and gaining ambery depths.
Cavatina has it all, in any and all seasons in a year: purity and joy, and deep undercurrents of fluttering, joyful – hope, seamlessly blended and flowing with ease. What’s more, it feels perfectly gender-free. So chic.
I wish the indolic aspect was more pronounced, maybe more roaring than muted, but this is my personal preference. I’m certain that Cavatina will be widely accepted and loved.
Notes (as listed by the brand): Bergamot (Calabria), Litsea Cubeba (China), Petitgrain (Paraguay), Muguet Accord, Tea Rose Accord, Jasmine (India & Egypt), Tuberose (Egypt), Ylang-Ylang (Indonesia), Siamese Woods (Vietnam), Ambrette Seed (India), Sandalwood (Australia), Vanilla (Madagascar). / Available at Parfums Dusita and listed stockists.
The Plum Girl
Elena Cvjetkovic
Photos: Elena Cvjetkovic, Dusita Perfumes
A PR sample of Cavatina was kindly sent to me by Parfums Dusita. Opinions are – as always, of my own.
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2 Comments
Elena, you are a magician with words to describe Cavatina. Beautiful
Thank you! I don’t even start writing if a perfume hasn’t inspired me.