Le Pavillon D’Or by Parfums Dusita was inspired by three different lakes that bear special meaning for Thai-born perfumer, Pissara Umavijani. First and foremost, it draws on the Sun Moon lake in Taiwan, where her father, the poet Montri Umavijani (1941-2006), wrote “A Wish”, a poem that reads: “Will I ever have a chance/to sleep by the River of Love/look on the mountain of Long Life/and dip my vision in Sun Moon Lake/to be able to live more happily/in just any confinement”. But Pissara was also inspired by her love for Guerlédan Lake in Brittany, a place where she has vacationed in utter tranquility and quiet, as well as the Aisawan Triphya-Art pavilion in Thailand, a stupendous piece of Thai architecture that seems to float weightlessly several feet over the waters of the palace lake. Regardless of geography, however, it is the sense of calm, emotive beauty common to all lakes that pervades the bones of Le Pavillon d’Or.
Le Pavillon d’Or is constructed as intricately as a Thai floating pavilion itself. Opening with the crisp, green chill of orris root and mint, the perfume feels immediately cooling; a hot brow soothed by splashes from a mountain stream. The peppery, citrusy nuances of the wild mentha citrata give the opening a fresh, almost classical feel. Soon after, an astonishing fig leaf accord moves into place, managing somehow to be both juicy and dry at the same time. Notes of sweet honeysuckle, boronia, white thyme, and Somalian frankincense render the fig leaf far more interesting than it oughtta be, with tendrils of sweet florals, smoky, and resinous herbal accents creating a heady-but-light whorl of scent. Underneath this all, a divine sandalwood dressed up with a complex, 30-note heliotrope accord give the scent a luxuriantly creamy, almondy base to bed it all down. Both aromatic and warm, Le Pavillon d’Or is a clever series of contrasts wrapped up in a bottle. We think it’s as delicately beautiful as the trio of lakes that inspired it.
