Sirenide
An Orkney selkie tale retold as revenge: bitter almond and water flowers, then pinseal leather, ambergris and cedar.
Perfumer: Euan McCall
Sirenide is set in Orkney, the archipelago north of Scotland, whose old stories tell of selkies: shapeshifters who live in the bodies of seals, come ashore, shed their skins and walk among people. In the usual telling a local man finds and hides the skin, and the selkie is forced to marry him. BeauFort London turns the tale around. Finding that he has tanned her skin, the selkie poisons her captor, takes back the leather and returns to the sea.
The opening carries that menace. Blue flag iris and water hawthorn bring cool waterside flowers, pierced by bitter almond and the sharpness of aniseed. Water lily and pink lotus form a brief, pale heart, flowers that open on the surface and sink back into it.
Ambergris, cedar atlas, woodruff and pinseal make up the base. The house describes PVC melting into pinseal alongside an unsettling bitter almond, so that layered "skins" develop on the wearer's own. Salt-soaked ambergris and cedar hold the dark leather in place.
