Absent Presence
Sidney's "absent presence" in scent: a green, fleeting opening, then violet returning again and again through leather, woods and musk.
Perfumer: Julie Dunkley
Absent Presence takes its name from a line in Sir Philip Sidney's Elizabethan sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella: "O absent presence, Stella is not here." Its subject is a person who is missing yet never quite gone, and it is the fifth and final scent in BeauFort London's Revenants collection.
The house says it holds more natural material than any other BeauFort fragrance, with heavy doses of violet leaf absolute, vetiver bourbon oil, smoky leather and black pepper oil. Bergamot, galbanum and pepper make the opening green and sharp, slipping away almost before it can be held.
Jasmine and violet then open with real density. Leather, sandalwood, musk, amber and cedarwood settle underneath, and the violet keeps resurfacing through that warm base in returning waves, the ghost the title promises. Like the rest of the Revenants, it is a 30% Eau de Parfum.
