Opal

Opal is an uncompromisingly bold and enchanting perfume that sparkles strikingly on the skin. Opal is danger, transformation and sensual change. Our skin allows a perfume to change and transform in different ways. Opal is an alchemy of scents. We cannot help gazing at the lights flickering in the reflected night of a powerful fragrance, and falling in love. Some desire opals, others avoid them, but the shimmer in iridescent stones is hypnotic, evoking worlds within worlds.

Looking at opals, especially the rare black stones, it is easy to understand the reputation for talismanic magic associated with them. The iridescence arises from the interplay of light in crystalline layers of hydrated silica. One of the most legendary black opals was a 700-carat stone given by Napoleon to his wife Joséphine de Beauharnais. She called it “The Burning of Troy” because of the flashes of crimson fire flickering in the opal's dark depths. It always caused a sensation when the empress wore it in public. After her death the opal disappeared, probably remaining with one of her heirs. It reappeared in 1924, when it was acquired by the city of Vienna for $50,000, but then vanished again. Since then this opalescent stone has not appeared in public, which has only strengthened the beautiful legend of “The Burning of Troy”.

The aura of Opal is pervasive and confident. A perfume with myth and refined modernity. In a majestic overture of notes lies flawless beauty. A ghostly sense of a capricious rose and lilac lipstick is heightened by bay leaf and rich black coffee. Coffee is a note to be used with soft seduction, recalling perhaps earthy Ethiopian highland beans, carefully roasted to extract an oily sediment with a bubbling richness. The addition of bay leaf in Opal recalls traditional men's perfumery, the herbal citrus scents of old-fashioned gentlemen's barbershops.

Cinnamon, saffron and black pepper dust the enchanting top notes, leading into the heart of Opal with the luxury of rose, soft suede and a refined, transparent note of iris. Cedar and cashmeran combine with musk, healing oakmoss with touches of tonka beans and leather. In the depths of Opal lies an intriguing mood, the smouldering haze of a herbal bonfire, scattered by a considered phosphorescence in the twilight of the perfume's hypnotic development.

Cocoa butter, nutmeg and sage highlight Boadicea's beautiful Opal, giving it complex, striking effects, a silkiness that wraps radiant skin, shadowed and crimson, changing shades under the influence of penetrating and refracted light. Opal unites myth, history and the brilliance of precious stones in a truly unique perfume of dark and fiery magic. One can imagine a golden torc gleaming on the neck of Queen Boadicea. The centrepiece of the torc could have been a dazzling black opal, lit from within by a flame of power. The confidence and mystery of an oracle run through this dynamic new fragrance.