Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
95 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The bergamot and peach arrive with quiet insistence, offering a brief moment of brightness before the white florals begin their gentle ascent. There's a fresh, almost soapy quality here—clean without being detergent-like—as the citrus plays against the gardenia's creamy honeyed edges.
The lotus and water lily create a cool, slightly translucent floral accord, whilst the white rose emerges as a refined, almost dusty presence rather than the typical honeyed bloom. The powdery quality intensifies considerably as the florals settle, creating a soft, almost skin-like texture that feels closer to your body than to the room around you.
The sandalwood becomes evident, lending a creamy vanilla-tinged warmth, whilst musk and amber surface as barely-there base notes. What remains is a barely-scented skin scent—less fragrance, more the memory of fragrance, intimate and elusive.
Black Pearls arrives as a paradox—a fragrance named for nocturnal luxury yet constructed almost entirely from the luminous vocabulary of white florals. Sophia Grojsman has crafted something deliberately soft-spoken, a whispered rather than shouted statement of elegance. The bergamot and peach opening provides just enough citric brightness to prevent the heart from collapsing into the predictable white floral cliché, whilst the lotus and water lily create an almost aqueous transparency that makes the white rose feel less like the typical rosy-powdery sweetness and more like the cool dampness of petals after rain.
What defines Black Pearls is its restraint paired with an almost obsessive commitment to powdery texture. At 88% powdery accord, this isn't a fragrance that blooms outward; instead it settles into your skin like talc-dusted fabric, creating an intimate second-skin effect rather than a projection. The sandalwood in the base doesn't provide woody bite—it's been softened considerably, acting more as a creamy stabiliser that prevents the florals from turning soapy. The amber adds a barely-perceptible sweetness, whilst musk rounds everything into a gauzy veil.
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3.8/5 (136)