Grigia Extrait de Parfum

GRIGIA. This is the story of a digestion and the olfactory profile of an element of nature that flows from it.Ambergris is among the most precious and rare materials in perfumery and in this fragrance it is tuned with her majesty the jasmine Auriculatum of Indian origin. The sensation is that of being part of the sperm whale’s digestive process by participating in the breaking down of waste elements that will,soon, be ready to be expelled and left to float in that sea that will coagulate them and turn them exactly into ambergris.

IV

Let’s drift together –
upon the smooth oceanic surface,
dissolved in its vastness,
and losing our senses –
let us offer our bodies to this depth.

Let us be absorbed –
by the maw of the sea beast,
curious about the truth of its entrails,
let us allow ourselves to be digested –
wrapped in the soot of a smoldering candle.

Let us notice the writhing guts,
steaming with tender warmth,
and, how modestly they gleam,
from sticky digestive secretions
surrounding the blackened remains,
and let us slip through –
embraced in the foul labyrinth.

Until in the final stage
a stately cluster of innards will form, drifting with the waves,
patiently shaped in salt and false light,
finally growing into glory,
to excite refined circles,
lifting up to a pedestal –
an aphrodisiac from the remains of digestion.

/Julia Kolacha