The Ellena workshop opens this first chapter with a return to Jean-Claude Ellena's childhood, in which he recounts the birth of a troubling desire. An instinctive, nascent emotion, given narrative form through the combination of White Musk and Jasmine.
Intensity: strong
“I have a strong attachment to jasmine that stems from my childhood. In the mornings, during the summer holidays, I would accompany my grandmother as she went to ‘pick the flower,’ an expression that referred to jasmine. These were terraced gardens where the men were absent. The women picked, chatted, laughed, and seemed to enjoy being together while their children ran around. The youngest picked with bare arms. Their skin, golden from the caress of the sun, seemed soft to me; beads of sweat trickled from their faces to the neckline of their white blouses, which revealed the roundness of their breasts when they bent over the bushes laden with flowers. On the ground, the baskets were filling up. I didn’t dare look at them, or only fleetingly, distractedly. The musky scent of their sweat and the narcotic floral fragrance of the jasmine mingled and unsettled me.”
Jean-Claude Ellena
Olfactory families : Floral & Musky
Top notes
Jasmine*
Heart notes
Blackcurrant bud*, Cloves
Background notes
White musk
* natural ingredient
