A perfume of strange, nocturnal beauty, La Douceur de Siam is like walking into a Thai spice garden overhung with night-blooming flowers. Creamy, dreamy, what could have been another pretty, classically composed white floral is sparked by vivid green notes and given a voluptuous exoticism with ylang-ylang, frangipani and champaca. La Douceur de Siam opens with a hothouse smell of stemmy greenery and a thorny rose so sharp you’d swear it had fangs. But soon, warm sandalwood arrives along with a soothing hint of vanilla to blanket the composition, and the rose becomes lush and welcoming.

But the heart of La Douceur de Siam is the heady champaca flower – a cousin to gardenia with a suggestion of lime blossom and gentle spice. Douceur’s champaca is hypnotically beautiful, languorous, suspended between peachy frangipani and dense, ripe ylang-ylang. As the notes develop and intertwine, the white flowers, rose and champaca harmonize on a bed of velvety clove and dry amber. The silken thread tying together spicy, fresh and silky notes in perfect harmony shows once again creator Pissara Umavijani ‘s ability to introduce unexpected elements into classically composed genres. Hypnotically lovely, La Douceur de Siam is like half-waking from an enchanting dream.