A SONG OF LONGING ~ Mitzah Christian Dior Paris

Deep in the most ancient part of Istanbul, a honey yellow Turkish crescent moon of midnight creeps over the walls of the Topkapi palace. Summer dreams on the Bosporus are heady with the heavy exotic fragrances of the Grand Bazaar that linger in the  serpentine streets as they waft toward the incense filled gardens on the edge of the city. In such gardens on just such a night  as this lovers have met ever since scandalous Theadora danced before the infatuated Emperor Justinian at the dawn of Byzantium.

  

    Rare and sensuous this night is filled with promise and sweet delights of desire tinged with danger. Women of ripe beauty peek in the moon glow from behind screens of carved ebony. They whisper to one another that the night is never long enough when He is near and always unending and eternal when he is not. That is the song of longing, of loves promise never fulfilled. Desire and dust wrapped in silk put away to save for the thing that can never really be. It is the dream of love.

This is all and everything I have found in the glorious perfume from Dior called Mitzah. Named for Christian Dior’s muse and friend Mitzah Bricard it is heady and hypnotic but never overwhelming. It is what I would call deep and multi layered in its design, a real stunner for me that never shouts but rather insinuates and seduces the one who wears it. And in so doing casts a spell of enchantment beyond the wrist, or from behind the ear out into a waiting world of yes.

Mitzah opens in a temple garden loaded with incense where a smooth coriander feeds and supports an ethereal velvet red rose. Then suddenly oriental fresh spices scatter across the skin as if spilled from huge terracotta jars in the bazaar at Alexandria.

It is so well made that the middle notes slowly unfurl like Cleopatra wrapped in an oriental rug that lay for years on the floor of a cinnamon warehouse. The highly erotic labdanum snakes over this rug and licks like a cat the creamy warm vanilla within this bowl of golden scent. You dare not close your eyes or you will be lost in a sumptuous whirlpool.

There is a long lazy luxurious slow stretching dry down where the thick honey still sticks to the honey comb and drips down over a layer of pungent patchouli.  All of this majesty and resplendency is carried on the remaining whisper of that first incense from ancient temples dedicated to pagan gods of love.

 

Mitzah has a stable and long lasting silage that speaks of quality and lasts on my skin a good seven to nine hours. It comes on strong but don’t let that scare you. It is an oriental with a genteel soul and the longer it lays languorously on the skin the softer it becomes. It never powders down but rather wafts on with that incredible smoky slightly sweet incense. Mitzah is listed as a woman’s fragrance but in my experience it is remarkably masculine in a smart Near Eastern manner. When I wear it men invariably ask me what it is and where they can get a bottle. Mitzah is a sly seducer that works well on a man and is his equal on a woman and will blend with both chemistries  The chemistry it inspires is of skin upon skin that sparks the heart to a sweet madness.  This meeting is in fact the Algerian love knot fragrance that two lovers could wear. Smelling of each other when they are apart and bending into a kiss of fragrance when they meet.

FIVE GOLD STARS *****

20 Comments

  1. You’ve described magically the world I enter as I touch that scent to my skin–gorgeous writing.

    • Mary! Hello again. My very first sniff of Mitzah was on your wrist! I was hooked.

  2. I do hope the “parfum” is as wonderful as the description. … on the skin … It makes one head to the airport and fly to Istanbul right way. But is Justinian still there, I wonder ? Bravo.

    • Ciao José Marcos I am so happy to see you here my Fragantica friend. Funny thing about perfume is that what knocks me out and puts me in a Byzantine dream may not do the same for you. But I don’t see how this one could fail you. It is a very lush romantic fragrance. As for Justinian, well I don’t think he is hanging around the Grand Bazaar these days.

  3. Really GREAT post! The magic of a place and the poetry of a scent! Thank you!

  4. Desire and dust wrapped in silk put away to save… You are on a roll, Doll! Do you remember Antonia’s Flowers? A friend of mine used to help himself liberally to it whenever he came to visit. Male\female perfume? I don’t know. I just bought him his own bottle for Christmas 😉

    • I don’t know where that “desire and dust” came from but it felt just right. No I have never heard of Antonia’s Flowers but I am off like Yankee Doodle Dandy to look it up. Male smale, I like to say… Wear what you love and the world be damned. (Oh!… giggle and wink)

  5. I almost don’t want to comment for fear of breaking the spell of your gorgeous description. I feel dizzy from my imaginings.

    • shhhhh….say nothing. Just close your eyes and fall into that sumptuous whirlpool. (oh…that sounds like a visit to a day spa!) Thank you luv for going along with me on this olfactory adventure.

  6. Whew. I’m also feeling intoxicated by your prose. Woozy is how I now feel. I need to try this scent. I love your line: “Sparks the heart to a sweet madness.” Off now to read more about Mitza Bricard. It’s high time to wear leopard this weekend, I do believe. I have a new obsession. As always, thank you for the sentimental journey. T.

    • Yes Mitzah was a stunning woman and she seems to be in Leopard in every picture I see of her. Theadora I am so pleased you enjoyed the post. And I couldn’t help but think of you when I mentioned the Byzantine Empress and her scandalous dance.

  7. Stunning. Rapturous. And that’s just your post, Lanier. I’m heading to the Christian Dior boutique here this week to try Mitzah and Oud Ispahan. I can’t wait!

    • I can’t wait either!! I hope it works its magic on you. Thank you as always for your kind words Madame W.

  8. […] (scents memory): Named for Christian Dior’s muse and friend Mitzah Bricard it is heady and hypnotic but never over… multi layered in its design, a real stunner for me that never shouts but rather insinuates and […]

    • always a thrill to be in the Laughs, Lemmings and Loves of Undina! Thanks luv!

  9. You are such a great writer! You always manage to get me lost….

  10. Dear Lanier ,this review of Mitzah is amazing!!!!! Thank you.
    Best Anita


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