Battaniye Extrait de Parfum

Battaniye, meaning blanket in Turkish, is a technically what we might term a comfort scent. Well, you see amber and patchouli, and you draw your own conclusions. But to leave it at that does the scent's enormous complexity a great disservice. Because, although undeniably rich and comforting, Battaniye leans far more towards the dry warmth of textiles ? wool, leather, silk ? than it does dessert. The perfumer intended for Battaniye to evoke the feeling of watching the rain from a balcony in Trabzon, a mountainous town on the Black Sea, and once an important gateway to Persia on the Spice Route. And it certainly captures the aromas of such a scenario ? the scent of rain hitting soil, soot from chimneys, and the oily warmth of an old wool blanket pulled across one's legs to ward off the chill. But for us, Battaniye is all about leather. A spicy, molten core of leather roiling at the heart fuels the scent and gives it a resolutely masculine feel. It morphs slowly from a syrupy wetness that's almost animalic to the dusty warmth of old leather. Surprisingly, for a scent with so many oriental references, Battaniye comes off as distinctly Western, with a cowboy's dusty leather saddle firmly at the heart of things. Battaniye is comfort, yes, but it's the comfort of memory and atmosphere, not that of pudding.