The Unicorn Spell

If by dawn still linger on your skin mixed scents of leaves, frost and violet
blooms, and that relentless yearning for stellar sights, you will know that,
at night, you felt the milky breath of a unicorn.
(Isabelle Doyen)

The Unicorn Spell is an iris scent, and a very magical one at that. It starts off like a shake of frost from a unicorn mane, with a cool tinge of violet, and crisp, frost-bitten white rose petals in a crisp foggy November day. There is an underlining softness, milky indeed, of the orris and a tad of wood. This is the most floral of the trio, and the least approachable for me as it has that coolness, slightly sharp greenness that makes most green scents difficult for me to wear. But after overcoming the first sharpness I can enjoy the rose and the softness of milky orris.

Like Mandragore, which was inspired by the Mandrakes in Harry Potter’s herbalism class, I can’t help but associate this scent with the trails of silvery glowing spilled blood of the dying unicorn in the Forbidden Forest. This perfume is like searching for the unicorn in a dark, damp forest. The unicorn’s presence is there, the steam of its breath as its running away frozen in the air, the trails glistening with the quiet mist of its magical spell, but we can’t find it yet…

Image credit: In Search of the Unicorn, by bigbird3