Curionoir Orpheus Incarnate Collage by Danu, Orpheus -Frank von Stuck 1891, all others Curionoir
Rivet me to the whims and tides of Nature,
Inseparable, I am, welded and wrought of her fibres
The timbre of notes struck upon the lyre, an echo of immortal memory.’
Tiffany Witehira
In the blessed, before time, pre Covid, the time of freedoms and liberties, I travelled to my other place, New Zealand and spent an idyllic summer on beaches and with family. During my three months there I visited and spoke with a few of the established and emerging perfumers that call New Zealand home. There is an upsurge in the perfume world in the antipodes in general, a gathering interest in the botanicals available within the rich and luxuriant New Zealand and Australian flora. This is representative of a growth in a terroir of perfume, akin to wine, a coming home to touch the soil of one’s place through the distillation of those plants surrounding the vicinity. My first call in the city of Auckland is to the inner-city suburb of Ponsonby, there, perfectly hidden is Curionoir, the public yet discreet frontage of perfumer Tiffany Witehira. Its vintage tiled façade with opulent brown velvet curtains speaks in whispers of what may lie behind, giving nothing away and no need to fanfare itself, it beckons you to enter. The first time it feels like a quintessentially ‘Alice’ moment as the mind anticipates as to what may lie within.
Orpheus Incarnate campaign for Curionoir @eviemackay
“Time slipped and slid around him, unanchored by any fact that could be verified. Perhaps it did not matter. ‘Where does our story take place, and when?’ asked Cocteau at the start of Orphée.
‘It’s the privilege of legends to be ageless. Comme il vous plaira. As you please.” – Orpheus -The Song of Life, Ann Wroe.
Orpheus Incarnate campaign for Curionoir @eviemackay
Tiffany Witehira is a slow creative, allowing the space and breath for her new creations to emerge under her guiding hand. There are many of her creations that I feel a deep affinity for as each one is blessed with her unique style and energy. Orpheus Incarnate arose out of an abiding love of nature and the culmination of a deep catalyst, the book by Ann Wroe, Orpheus- The Song of Life. I, too have read this book and it is quite indescribable, compelling and hypnotic, the same can be said of this perfume.
‘A Modern Myth Translating Ones Inner Desire To Transform And Reconnect With Nature. Lured By The Beckoning Call, Orpheus Incarnate. ‘ Curionoir.
Tiffany’s notes and impression for Curionoir Orpheus Incarnate
Curionoir Orpheus Incarnate is a lulling, a lullaby, sweet, compelling intoxication that surrounds and cajoles us into a dream-like state, an enticement to step beyond, a opening to a realm that always exists and yet we are often blind to. The narcotic carnation, hypnotic in its encounter is laced through with milk-soaked fig and a softly billowing blond tobacco, making for a somniferous trilogy, however the sleep induced is a waking one. Drawing us forth to a threshold where the gods cavort, nature visibly breathes and life and death are inseparable companions, akin to Janus. Spellbinding it clears the vision of the opaque occlusions of modern life, revealing the eternal constancy that surrounds us yet we become oblivious too. Of an otherworldly, breathtaking trance, Orpheus Incarnate is a mystic experience.
Curionoir Orpheus Incarnate
Interwoven filaments that cross planes without hindrance between man and myth, legend and dream. Each pluck of the Orphic lyre an enchantment, resounding in our inner being, each string plucked a droplet that ripples out upon the surface of reality before submerging beneath into the unseen realms. It is the whispering of ancient trees, bending to a listening ear, the concentric waves upon the pond of dreams, the reverberations of rock and stone, of spellbound creatures of wood and valley. The Charmer, the Seer, the Prophet, Interpreter of the Gods. Inhale deeply of its vapours and you will see as Rilke and countless poets, musicians and writers see, with uncompromised eyes, gods in all that surrounds us.
Curionoir Orpheus Incarnate campaign @eviemackay
Its comprising elements act as an incantation to an ancient remembering of who we are, where we are from and of the substance of our fabric. A clarion across spheres to reconnect. This is a magical concoction, one whose trancelike quality is transcendent and ethereal, it is a light touch of the beyond and a beauty rare and refined, in its wearing we unravel to ourselves, transformed by the ancient melody. Tiffany Witehira has extracted an Orphic lullaby into a liquid legacy of poetical enchantment. Prepare to be entranced.
A tree ascended there. O pure transcendence!
O Orpheus sings! O tall tree in the air!
And all things hushed. Yet in that very silence
A new beginning, beckoning, change appeared.
Translated excerpt from The Sonnets to Orpheus. Rainer Maria Rilke.
Notes: Carnation, Fig, Blond tobacco, Pimento leaves, Tonka, Heliotrope, Liquorice, Musk, Orris.
Editor’s Note: This article was first published on Danu’s blog Profimiscribe
All photos courtesy the brand unless otherwise stated
Danu Seith-Fyr, Contributor
Thanks to the generosity of Danu we have one 4ml bottle for a registered reader in the EU only. You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what sparks your interest based on Danu’s review of Orpheus Incarnate and where you live. Draw closes 2/10/2024
Available on Curionoir website and at Indigo Perfumery
Enjoy Lauryn’s reviews of Curionoir Diaphanous and 415 AD and Ida’s review of Moon Moss.
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