The Lover's Tale

A story of lovers meeting in secret, pulled together by desire and held in place by everything they were taught.

It opens the way the first moment does — bright, a little nervous, bergamot and honey softened by the cool air of an early spring night, pollen drifting from peach trees just coming into bloom. Then the room gets warmer. Egyptian jasmine moves in heady and narcotic, wrapped in a powdery rose that reads as almost demure, until leather arrives and quietly takes over. Castoreum and labdanum settle underneath, animalic but polished, vetiver and oakmoss keeping the whole thing shadowed and adult.

It is dramatic without being theatrical, sensual without asking for permission — the kind of thing worn for a long dinner, a late arrival, a night you are not going to explain to anyone the next morning.

Notes: Bergamot, Honey, Mimosa, Egyptian Jasmin, Bulgarian Rose, Peach, Iris Butter, Heliotrope, Leather, Castoreum, Labdanum, Sandalwood, Vetiver, Oakmoss

Francesca Bianchi Perfumes is the self-titled house of perfumer and founder Francesca Bianchi, an Italian creator who develops her emotional, sensual and intimate fragrances in her Amsterdam studio. Her extraits are conceived as perfume as art, composed with a strong focus on high-quality raw materials and a long, meticulous creative process for each formula, inviting wearers into a deeply personal and expressive olfactory world.

• Francesca Bianchi