Étoile Eau de Toilette

Étoile is the star one is told to look for after the fall: far, silent, and reliably there. It opens cold and green: crushed leaves, and cardamom turning slowly from sharp to soft, the way a house smells when someone else is doing the cooking. Then the flowers: mimosa, powdered and yellow and scattered; sambac jasmine underneath it, creamy, a little too alive, blooming as it does after dark. And these do not leave. Hours on there is still white lily, cool and green with pollen at its centre, and musk beneath it at the warmth of skin.The freshness goes first. The flowers stay, and the warmth stays.