Angel's Dust
Francesca Bianchi (2016)

Dama Koupa from Baruti really set the bar for me in terms of what a compelling iris fragrance can be. This sits in a similar space but leans more heavily into yellow florals and significantly increases the powderiness. I still pick up the beeswax note, which overlaps nicely with the iris accord, but what slightly detracts from the experience is a persistent sour, fruity nuance—possibly coming from the rose. I’m not convinced the rose needed to be here, and I wish it had either been omitted or handled differently. The benzoin and tolu balsam are clearly present, adding warmth and depth, with a soft white musk in the background supporting the structure of the scent. Performance is solid, and I’d reserve this for fall and winter.

I really wanted to like this, but there’s one note that throws the balance off for me, pushing it into a sour, rose-leaning direction when I would have preferred more focus on the iris and the balsamic elements.

Angel’s Dust is my first experience with the Francesca Bianchi catalog. As I stare at the discovery set and the names upon the vials, I am struck by an obvious theme: Bianchi is not afraid to let physical and taboo pleasures, carnal pleasures, and lascivious thoughts drive a lot of her perfumes.

Angel’s Dust certainly seems to be a play on the street drug PCP, otherwise Angel’s Share or Fairy/Pixie Dust would’ve sufficed. The opening gives a distinct hallucinogenic presentation, with aldehydes shimmering away around you. If you’ve seen the movie Dune, and can recall the way Spice sparkles with a golden orange light as it unfathomably navigates the space around it, creating hallucinations and mystical powers in many who inhale it, Angel’s Dust is like that. The aldehydes pair very nicely with a fruity black pepper, taught and lean, giving the aldehydes more body like they are actual particles of fairy dust. A heavenly color and sensation fills in the rest of the space presenting rose, mimosa, iris, and a seriously voluptuous and voluminous animalic amber. Those opening many minutes when the aldehydic pepper and floral heart dance with each other on the amber stage is seriously gorgeous and evocative. Rose provides richness and elegance, and deep fruity red light; mimosa casts an orange and yellow glow into the mix to keep the whole soft, warm, comfortingly floral and gently honeyed; iris keeps everything in check from becoming super-heated or too close with its cooling, dry, powdery, and starchy character. The amber base gives the whole of the perfume a loud, slinky, and sexual purr with ample sweet benzoin and animalic musks. Also, be warned: at this stage the perfume has an incredibly strong projection and sillage. Anyone within a few paces and/or following behind you will definitely take notice, so go easy on the application the first time or two wearing it until you learn how the perfume works for you.

Unfortunately, the dry down seems to lose the brief. The floral notes do not last nearly as long as they could or should - I seem to lose them around three hours - and Angel’s Dust descends into sweet balsams, musks, and vanillics. The dry down is extremely heavy on the sandalwood and benzoin, which gives a very sweet, creamy, woody, and vanilla impression to the point where Angel’s Dust seems to switch from a heavenly floral Oriental to a rather pedestrian gourmand. Some of this creamy powderiness gives quite a strong makeup impression as well. Odd. And, I must say, it is feeling like a bit of a screw-up. The gourmand amber base is nice, a bit on the sweet side for my tastes, with good materials and deft blending, but it is such an undesired left turn from what we got in the heart section of Angel’s Dust. There is nothing pixie dusty, magical, hallucinogenic, colorful, glowing, or dynamic to the base, just a makeup-powdery and yummy gourmand. Unfortunate. But the worst part of a drug high is the part immediately after it ends, isn’t it.

EDIT: I woke up one morning after applying it the previous day, and scrubbed my arms and hands with a Brillo pad and Dawn dish soap. So, yes, the longevity is excellent, but I wish that it wasn’t.

Powdery iris with depth. Similar in feel to Ashoka and Angelique.

Good projection and longevity. Highly wearable while maintaining artistry and an undercurrent of skank. Fantastic!

animalic, dusty, mildly spicy, dry, musky. In the same vein as musc kublai khan, lombre fuave.

Lovely scent. Wil enchant you.

It's a little bit powdery and very, very waxy. Very slightly sweet, too. That waxiness is the main aspect of the scent to me, it stays through all the duration - although it gets slightly powderier and sweeter and less waxy as it dries down.

If it is how angel's dust smells like, this angel really loves their make up and unlit beeswax & parafin candles.

Angel's Dust is unabashedly romantic. This is like being in the chamber of luurrve where there is nothing harsh, the senses are fanned with the sweetest, kindest airs and just when you thought things were getting a bit too much hearts-and-flowers in the Hallmark sense there's a welling up of sensuality.
On the face of it this is a powdery, cosmetics-inspired creation. But that is just the barest outline within which beats a passion that many will want to embrace. The first impression is of a billowy floral bouquet, rose and mimosa done in a style that makes one feel like one is subsiding into a feather bed, with the powder of the mimosa further accentuated by iris. This boudoir effect is lit up by a plump, golden vanilla note. It's rendered as an unabashedly gourmand accent giving body and further comfort. But if so far this bedroom of bliss seems to have been promising only fluffy dreams and restful sleep, a short while in the oriental foundations make themselves felt and the promise of something more awakens. A speck of black pepper in the opening had signalled this progression, but now we have warming balsamic notes and smooth and creamy sandalwood, and they are as welcome as the lover's touch. Unobtrusively backing the whole thing from start to finish is a skin-like musk, keeping it in sympathy with the wearer.
For an hour or so Angel's Dust feels like a minor masterpiece, but then two disappointing things happen. First the projection takes a dive, so it becomes just a little better than a skin scent with the consequent loss of detail that involves. Then a short while after that the florals lose much of their vibrancy, and now the distinction between Angel's Dust and other perfumes of the powder compact type is much narrowed. A pity.