Pryn Perfumes - Mogao : A whiff from the caves of Mogao | Perfume Review.

  PRYN PERFUMES – MOGAO

Most perfumes which we usually encounter or own fall in a category of daily use. They are inoffensive, not always challenging and can be carried easily by most of us. Once in a while we come across a house or a fragrance which defies all the above. I have encountered a few such fragrances just as many other fragrance aficionados might have. There’s something unique about such perfumes or more commonly known as Indie perfumes, they have a distinguished style, pattern and they feel very raw. I have come across one such perfume by the grace of a fellow fragrance enthusiast and a very dear friend, Srivathsa bhaiya. The fragrance I am talking about is Pryn Parfums – Mogao. I felt the need of expressing myself about the fragrance but it isn’t my scent of the day, I cannot afford it to be, I treasure every drop of it.

          "Story is a must for art” – Prin Lomros. 

One question regarding fragrances that I always worry myself with is ‘what came first, the perfume or the story?’ This thought always bothers me to a point where if I read a story by the creator of a fragrance if I don’t feel the connection, it puts me off. Story seems like a very important part of a fragrance for Prin Lomros, the founder of the house and also the perfumer of Mogao. Story telling being an art in itself becomes more difficult and complicated when it has to be expressed in the form of a liquid and stored in a bottle and Prin Lomros has definitely mastered the art of such form of narration.

 

Mogao is the name of caves in Dunhuang, China. A place which is also the longest used treasure house of Buddhist art in the world. The city was the only oasis on the Silk Road and a point where all the trade from China to the European countries started. Being situated near an oasis these caves hosted a lot of travellers and merchants from neighboring county and afar which played a very important role in the exchange of artistic things between China, Central Asia and India. These are the aspects which have been tried to be captured in the bottle, the importance of the caves, the existence and flourishing of Buddhist culture and values, the caravans that crossed path, the people who communicated and travelled with the word of Buddhism, of art, of the oasis itself and much more that helped it make an important place in the history and the present. The scent has managed to convey a lot about these caves and their importance, especially about the peace, the art that prevails inside them and the travellers around the place. 

 After numerous tries I’ve only managed to unwrap it a little and be startled by it a lot. In the initial blast, I get champaca, creamy and smooth, along with it a lot of citruses with sweet nuances, which might be the mandarin and kumqwat. There’s an herbal facet to it too, can't point at what it comes from. Nutmeg could be responsible for its balsamic touches. It gets a lot of Warmth from osmanthus and star anise. I love this phase. Dry spices and pepper note which comes from Sichuan pepper from what I could gather by reading about it. All 

of this will stay for good 3 hours, where it’s a creamy floral and fruity fragrance, full of life. Once this phase passes, the leather and the incense take over, this is my favorite part, because it literally feels like a weary traveller visits the temple and lights floral incense. This phase lasts nearly for an hour on my skin, but I don’t prefer to wear this perfume on me, I enjoy it on a strip more. This perfume ends in a very beautiful way, floral, creamy, smoky and leathery.

Mogao is a perfume I often sniff from its nozzle and enjoy a meditative state for a few seconds, it makes me want to introspect and rejoice about the choices I made, it calms me, puts a smile on my face and all this with a single whiff, this is what an artist does, shakes inside out without even touching you. To me it’s a perfume which is complicated but it simplifies me mentally and emotionally.

 ——- Rajiv Burad.