Natalia Outeda intended this fragrance to recall the Welsh tea-and-pastries of Chubut province in southern Argentina. I remember once landing in Trelew (Lewistown in Welsh), only two flying hours south of Buenos Aires, but already in a different, subpolar world. I ended up standing, in tears of emotion, before the bust of Saint-Exupéry in the airport luggage hall. He opened the Aeropostal Argentina line from Buenos Aires to Comodoro Rivadavia via Trelew and loved the place. I wonder if, when the airport was socked in by fog, he ever ended up passing the time in a Welsh tea shop and tasting the torta negra galesa on which Teisenddu is based. I hope no one ever dreams of calling Teisenddu (pronounced taysen-thee if you're going to be accurate) a gourmand, because gourmands are invariably repulsive, whereas Teisenddu is delicious, with a strange, caramellic-burnt, oddly marine note up top, combined with a warm spicy leather heart and dusted with a powdery-floral cloud. Brilliantly original, and brilliantly executed by perfumer Roxanne Kirkpatrick, a junior at Givaudan who will go far. LT
sample kindly sent by Frassaï