Mortal Skin – sensual and hypnotic and seductive

Photo: perfumeniche

When I was in primary school, one of my favourite things was Show & Tell. I loved to see what the kids brought from home to talk about. I remember one boy who stood at the front of the room with what looked like a pile of lace in his hands. He asked the teacher to take the edge and hold it as he unrolled it. This thing was long. It turns out it was a shed snake’s skin. I was fascinated at first, but by the time he finished, I decided that snakes were slithery, unpredictable and untrustworthy, and I wanted nothing to do with them.

As often happens, perfume prompts me to reconsider some of my long-held notions. I was at l'Ó Profumo in Florence a few years ago, checking out some Italian niche lines, when the owner brought out tons of samples for me to try. I tried Mortal Skin on my skin without knowing what it was. Turns out, it was fabulous.

Luckily, Stéphane Humbert Lucas, owner of French indie line Stéphane Humbert Lucas 777 and creator of Mortal Skin, doesn’t feel the way I do about snakes.

Launched in 2015 as part of Lucas’s “Snake Collection”, Mortal Skin is a study of the art of seduction – the danger, passion and hypnotic obsession inspired by the lethal lure of a viper's pursuit of its prey.

It opens with a note of sticky, sweet blackberry, paired with a cool, metallic, ink accord joined by sweet and balsamic rockrose, creating an opening that’s fresh, gently sweet, exotic and complex. It smells familiar yet foreign, generating a tension that makes me want more. What an enticing start. As it moves into the heart, a note of opoponax comes forward. It’s sweet, balsamic aspects echo the rockrose at the opening. It blooms spicy and resinous, with a hint of smokiness, and adds depth and warmth to Mortal Skin. A note of powdery, soft iris adds a floral dimension that’s bolstered by herbal, bitter green davana. Then myrrh joins the mix. It’s a favourite note of mine. Resinous and earthy, it’s also smooth, erotic and arousing. Too much and it would overpower the fragrance, but Lucas takes it, and me, to the brink before a note of cardamom, warm, spicy, and slightly sweet, calms the myrrh, because a good seduction takes time. Ambergris, warm and musky, launches the base notes. Storax joins the ambergris. It’s sweet and balsamic, with a seductive vanilla facet. I smell incense coiling up from my wrist from labdanum, its animalic undertone links to a note of musky, animalic civet. Then a trio of woods appears: creamy sandalwood, warm balsamic cedarwood, and the scent of birch, which is foresty and outdoorsy. Musk, warm and sensual, is comforting and serene.

Mortal Skin is a complex and compelling fragrance that dries down to a soft, sensual, hypnotic skin scent. There isn’t one note, one moment, one change that I would make to this fragrance.

I have been seduced by this snake.

Check out Mortal Skin in our Shop.