Blue Silk
Agent Provocateur (2018)

Agent Provocateur has offered some excellent value perfumes since its inception, but in recent years, it seemed like they were becoming more generically musky-floral type things, and I stopped paying attention. Blue Silk has changed that. I do not know if it is an anomaly or a return to form, but I hope it is the latter, and it makes me want to explore the rest of the house's current perfumes.

The house DNA is here; Blue Silk picks up where the house's fun, loud, decadent, and at one time very affordable L'Agent ended--L'Agent's powerful, sweet/spicy incense, so heavily augmented with woody ambers that it requires a very light dusting on application and still occupies the house whenever I wear it. Next to L'Agent, Blue Silk has the volume turned down considerably, with a hint of soft fruit and culinary spices along with its foresty juniper accord, with the result being an incense perfume with a contemplative personality, the love child of a less sweet and fruity Dolce Vita, a less gothy CDG's Jaisalimer, a more projective and long-lasting Maitre Pafumeur et Gantier's beautiful Bois de Turque, and several classic Serge Lutens as well.

The marketing pyramid is misleading. Looking at it, I would assume it's a musky floriental lite, with only patchouli missing from the blend that makes up about 95 percent of inexpensive designer perfumes right now. The top notes are close enough, a sharp slice of lemon with pith and zest, a surprisingly interesting and accurate pink pepper (one of the most boring and overused accords in modern perfumery), and the aromatic green and resiny juniper, a scent that reminds me of both majestic pine forests and scrubby desert rocks, not to mention the sharp profile of quality gin.

Then the middle opens up. The note tree promises rose and jasmine, but I only smell a trace of something like nag champa incense and nothing even remotely rosy. There's just enough plump stone fruit (nectarine, supposedly, but I don't smell anything that specific) that the perfume doesn't turn dusty or austere. Cinnamon follows, dry enough to marry well with the perfume's other spices, but with its characteristic warmth giving the perfume a more inviting character, hinting at sweetness without compromising the perfume's spicy profile.

The perfume then transitions with a mysterious and almost undetectable myrrh accord (yes, I smell myrrh everywhere) that I don't see in the notes, but I smell its signature earthiness almost from the perfume's opening, and it picks up steam as the scent develops. Then, vetiver emerges, its gentle bitternesss matching the myrrh, and a sandalwood accord that utilizes some cedar without turning to sawdust. I smell some tonka, but, as with the perfume's cinnamon, it's a compositional element that has comforting associations without intruding sweetness. Then an accord appears that could be cannabis, a green accord with a pleasant funkiness, and the scent ties together with a a little fuzzy musk that buffers the dry spices and almost makes them pop like fresh seeds toasting in a skillet, especially sweet green lemon of coriander, hot and almost floral piquant pink pepper, and subtle of stone fruit that reminds me of Christine Nagel's signature overripe plums, peaches, cherries, and, yes, nectarine. I sometimes also detect a phantom iris impression, perhaps because of the perfume's blue packaging and subdued projection. It seems to have the braininess of many iris scents, but without their melancholy--or their cost.

My bottle of Blue Silk is still brand new, just out of the box, and I suspect that it will probably develop more fruit, more tonka, and probably more florals than I smell right now. But I don't mind if it doesn't move in that direction. It smells wonderful as it is, a marvelous dry-spicy accord that would work on everyone--no obvious gender signaling here at all, aside from the house name and the egg-shaped bottle that reminds me of the old L'Eggs pantyhouse, a lingerie reference that I'm not sure if is intentional, or not.

I found this perfume completely by surprise, on an afternoon cruising the new perfume reviews on Fragrantica, when I saw a surprisingly interesting account of it. It was a perfect discovery for this time of year, an perfume that feels and acts like an incense without full-tilt official incense perfume's stridency, with a soft and fresh yet spicy and assertive quality, something to add to this season's usual mix of greens, florals, green florals, and of course, irises. The perfume it reminds me most of is MPG's Bois de Turquie, a very subtle blend orange blossom and myrrh--Blue Silk shares it citrus top and spice melange, but its spices are more distinctive, and Blue Silk has a little stronger performance and seems to last much longer than Bois de Turquie's notoriously short life on skin.

This perfume would be appropriate for any time of year, and pretty much any occasion. It feels especially welcome right now, as my favorite spicy and incense-y perfumes become too strident to wear during our scorching summer days. It has soft but persistent projection and sillage, and middling longevity, which I suspect might mature into stronger presence as my bottle settles in. It costs just a little over 20 USD, an incredible bargin for such an interesting perfume. Betweeen IFRA and an apparent general lack of either inspiration or aversion to risk on the current perfume market, I feel excited to have found a perfume that threads the needle of all these challenges and actually smells like nothing else out there, and I also can't wait to have a reason to wear it out of the house. It is a wonderful perfume for a quiet day or evening inside, but I also find it inviting enough that I expect it will pull compliments as well.

I shall be searching out perfumer Beverly Bayne's work, and I hope that Blue Silk is only the tip of the iceberg, possibly the first of many scents helmed by someone who could be one of my new favorite perfumers. I also feel less cynical about Agent Provocateur's current offerings. It is a house that always inspired faith, especially for its excellent prices, from its original rose chypre onwards, and perhaps the house has not lost the plot after all. Four stars, for originality, wearability, interest, and quality of composition, and two metallic blue thumbs enthusiastically up.