Sarah McCartney holding 4160 Tuesdays Faerie Queen
“The Faerie Queen we picture isn’t a little Tinkerbell or a sweet, friendly fairy of modern children’s stories; she is powerful and wayward and lives in an alternate reality which intersects with our own and will use the glamour to draw unwary humans into her world”.– Sarah McCartney
4160 Tuesday Faerie Queen marks the fifth collaboration between London based perfumer (White Queen, Red Queen Dark Queen and Pirate Queen) Sarah McCartney and Editor-in-Chief Michelyn Camen of ÇaFleureBon, in celebration of an astonishing fourteenth birthday this year. This Queen follows her colourful antecedents, and carries both an ethereal beauty and a veil of mischief. Be wary of this Sovereign Ruler; first impressions can deceive.
Cicely Mary Barker- The Harebell Fairy-this is NOT a Faerie
Traditionally, fairies have a spotless and wholesome public image, encapsulated by the famous illustrations of England’s Ciceley Mary Barker (1895- 1973). Her artwork depicted fairies wearing bluebells as hats, with peachy cheeks and woodland creatures as pets. Barker’s fairies were fully embraced by their public and frolicked gaily in the imagination of sleepy children for generations. However, the faeries (to give them their old school spelling) that inspired Faerie Queen are playing a long game and you may not even know you’ve been seduced until it’s too late. Replace the bluebell hat with a slash of lipstick and a glint in her eye. The peachy cheek is a chiseled cheekbone. Change the woodland creature to a raven.
Faeries are everywhere, if you know where to look, photo Sarah
This faerie beguiles with her beauty, her red lips and her violet breathed kisses, and leaves no fingerprints at the scene of the crime. You may find yourself helpless in her thrall, despite the great PR job that faeries have pulled off about their ostensibly spotless reputation. If you’re familiar with the Rivers of London series by writer Ben Aaronovitch, then you may feel at home with Sarah McCartney’s muses. They may reel you in with their beauty, but they will always have a secret agenda.
How can you capture such mischief in a bottle? Therein lies the perfumer’s alchemy. With an accord of violets, lipstick (powdery and lustrous) and of course, big old-fashioned tea roses, you are already wide eyed at your first encounter.
Iris by John Atkinson Grimshaw
The patina of powder (and here it is the work of orris butter and a careful hand) evokes Elizabethan Comfits, also known as rose or violet scented breath sweets. I have a vague recollection of them from my 1970s childhood when handbags were mysterious, and every wardrobe housed stockings and a smart frock for town. The unmistakable lipstick accord lands and lingers mere seconds after spraying. It could be the glossy cupid’s bow of centuries of glamour, or it could be the disembodied and mesmeric mouth of the Samuel Beckett Play “Not I.” Faeries are capricious, and like Mary Poppins, they never explain anything.
So far, so comfort zone, until the classical string quartet starts playing Ziggy Stardust and you’re not sure what world you’ve just entered. This where the well-behaved princess takes you on a journey until she is Queen of your Soul. Through the portal you must go, experiencing the Narnia strangeness of fir leaf and kumquat with its alluring golden sheen and its sharp and sour centre. Sensual musks beguile your senses and heady, strident jasmine absolute lures you into a world where inhibitions lie crushed underfoot on your way in, along with the bluebell hats.
Sarah McCartney and 4160 Tuesdays Faerie Queen in their spiritual home of London
My overall verdict of 4160 Tuesdays Faerie Queen? I smell as if I have just awoken to find myself in a flower bed, feeling slightly drunk, madly in love and with a feeling that I need an alibi, but I’m not sure why.
4160 Tuesdays Faerie Queen is the most playful of all the 4160 Tuesdays Queens but you will need your wits about you not to surrender to the disarming charms of your captor. Or maybe just give in and enjoy the adventure?
Sarah McCartney is holding 4160 Tuesdays Faerie Queen in their spiritual home of London
–Samantha Scriven, Contributor, perfume writer and co-author of The Perfume Companion with Sarah McCartney.
Notes: orange, kumquat, vanilla, violet, orris, jasmine absolute, rose, fir balsam, musk, styrax.
Disclaimer: I was sent a bottle of Faerie Queen by Sarah McCartney of 4160 Tuesdays for this review. Opinions are my own.
4160 Tuesdays Faerie Queen photo by Samantha Scriven
Thanks to Nir Guy of Perfumology and Sarah McCartney we have a draw for a 50ml bottle of Faerie Queen by 4160 Tuesdays for a registered ÇaFleureBon reader in THE USA ONLY. If you are not sure if you are registered click here (you must register on our site, or your entry will be invalid). To be eligible please leave a comment with what you thought of Samantha’s review of 4160 Tuesdays Faerie Queen. Draw closes 4/15/2024
Michelyn’s Note: We welcome back Samantha Scriven, who is a former contributor and also reviewed our 10th Anniversary Queen-Dark Queen
Available only at Perfumology HERE in the USA and soon on 4160Tuesdays site.
Read Sarah and Michelyn’s creative process here
Aether Arts Perfumes Vampire Queen reviewed by Lauryn here.
Can you guess our third Queen?
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