Diane St. Clair of St. Clair Scents and Diane St. Clair for American Perfumer Call Me courtesy of American Perfumer© collage
“Seduction is always more singular and sublime than sex and it commands the higher price” – Jean Baudrillard
American Perfumer© is a fragrance boutique in Louisville, Kentucky dedicated exclusively to American perfumery and founded by Dave Kern. They also work with domestic olfactive artists to create limited edition, small-batch releases.
Call Me by Diane St. Clair was just such a limited release. Only 50 bottles were made and a buyers’ lottery was needed to handle all the interest (I was very lucky to snag a bottle). Diane St. Clair for American Perfumer Call Me is a handcrafted masterpiece. It ranks among rare treasures like Jean Desprez’s 40 Love and brings to mind the ultra-sensual power of musky, animalic-floral fragrances. Diane St. Clair of St. Clair Scents is an independent perfumer working in the bucolic countryside of Vermont. She told me her inspiration: “my intent with this fragrance was to create a warm, rich scent that would be perfect for wearing on chilly autumn nights. Something embracing, soft and sensual that you could wrap around yourself like a cashmere blanket.”
Signed Labels for the Bottles, photo courtesy of Perfumer Diane St. Clair
Diane St. Clair for American Perfumer Call Me (opens with a beautifully-tuned abstract citrus accord. Sweet Red Mandarin is used to balance the lightly bitter and dry aspects of Petigrain Bigarade and Bergamot while allowing the freshly sparkling, green leafy and floral aspects of these materials to shine. Diane St. Claire creates an aerated sunlit alcove of winter light, effervescent yet slightly distant and acerb. Just as sunbeams through stained glass take on rich hues, the citrus accord here is buoyant with leafy greens and incandescent with a complex orange blossom floralcy. Diane St. Clair for American Perfumer Call Me was aged and macerated for 3 months before release and it shows through the refined and exceptionally well-integrated blend. The luminosity of this scent’s allure is certainly magnetic.
The Beginnings of Making Call Me, photo courtesy of Diane St. Clair for American Perfumer©
Interest turns to yearning as Civet and Castoreum start to purr in the background. Jasmin Grandiflorum and Jasmin Sambac add their rich floralcy while Black Currant Bud keeps a current of bright energy pulsing through these heady materials. Beeswax adds its resinous and sweetly tempered touch. All of these materials are joined at the root by the fleshy and overripe narcotic tones of indole shaping the heart of Diane St. Clair for American Perfumer Call Me into a sensual rendezvous in the making. Jasmin Grandiflorum connects opulent and creamy fruit tones like banana, guava, and pear with Jasmin Sambac’s tea-like freshness and spice in the clove and cinnamic direction. More musky and aqueous, Jasmin Sambac leads us into a glass-paned greenhouse, where sweetly balsamic and warm beeswax mixes with the fresh clean sweat of ambergris body heat. Slight smokiness from vetiver gives a final touch of ambiance to the heart.
Debby Harry aka Blondie via Getty apped wrapped in leaves from a tree on Michelyn’s street
As the evening unravels into its deepest shadows, we find a soft, animalic leathery musk, well-turned with no rough edges, created from Shangralide®, Labdanum, Benzoin, and Veramoss®. The gentle nuptials of these materials create a largesse of élan, almost starlike, burning and febrile. Labdanum and benzoin keep Diane St. Clair for American Perfumer Call Me) earthbound and sublunary with woody, earthen and powdery-vanillic facets. Dark dried fruit tones of cherry, date, and fig swim in the soft cinnamic spices of the volute base accord. From the golden elation of autumn leaves to the softest warmth of musky skin, Call Me (reminds us how it feels when autumn light drops from the very heights of the sky to embrace our skin.
Notes: Petigrain Bigarade, Red Mandarin, Bergamot, Vetiver, Jasmin absolute (Sambac and Grandiflorum), Beeswax, Black Currant Bud, Civet, Castoreum, Shangralide ®, Labdanum, Benzoin, Veramoss®
Bottle my own, opinions my own, I was fortunate to win the random lottery.
~ Rachel K. Ng, Senior Contributor
Thanks to the generosity of Dave at American Perfumer, we have a 2 ml sample of SOLD-OUT Diane St. Clair ‘s Call Me for a registered ÇaFleureBon reader USA ONLY, (if you are not sure if you are registered click here – you must register on our site or your entry will be invalid). To be eligible please leave a comment on this site with what strikes you about Call Me and where you live. Draw Closes 10/25/23
Editor’s Note: Diane St. Clair is an Art and Olfaction Finalist 2020 for St. Clair Scents Eve, (reviewed by Ida here). St. Clair Scents Gardener’s Glove was awarded a top ten perfume of 2018 by Editor Emeritus Robert Herrmann (R.I.P.). Please read more about Diane St. Clair in her Profiles in American Perfumery our Perfumers Workshop: Artisan Perfumers Who Do It All
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