The story of Pierre Guillaume’s fragrance Stælios immediately caught my attention: Allegedly, a merchant ship traveling from St. Petersburg to Genoa sank in the 18th century, carrying Russian reindeer leather. This special leather is now said to have been reproduced by a French tannery. And who received a sample of the material? Pierre Guillaume, of course. And made it the center of this creation. That sounds very exciting.
This noble leather exudes a warm, delicate scent of infinite preciousness, an animal elegance … the scent of luxury. This material will be the heart of this fragrance, symbolized by a fire horse: a powerful stallion, elegant and racy, fiery, like the sun: Stælios.
Pierre Guillaume is known for giving his works artistic names. Here, he created the word Stælios from the words Stallion and the Greek sun god Helios. A truly mythological quadruped galloping across the firmament.
A glowing violet wood
What is meant by the subtitle “a glowing violet wood” becomes clear quite quickly when testing the fragrance. Although the violet has not yet grown to tree size, the fragrance opens with a strong, dynamic pepper — ashanti pepper leaves, to be precise. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any further information on the fragrance characteristics of this pepper. Here is the Wikipedia article for those who are interested. So the scent is immediately powerful, just as you would expect from a fiery steed in full flight. Without any mythological heaviness, simply good-humored and positive, I would say.
Right from the start, dry woods are far ahead. I would guess cedar wood. They perfectly encapsulate the herbaceous-green violet notes and bind them. It is only on the skin that davana comes to the fore with liqueur-like, dry fruity notes. There, the fragrance gains pleasant complexity, with new facets constantly coming to the fore, sometimes the green notes, then the spiciness of the pepper, then the herbaceousness again. The question remains as to what has actually become of the legendary reindeer leather.
As you know, leather can only be recreated in perfumery as an accord and cannot be extracted directly as a fragrance. If you now take the triad of pepper, violet and woods, the impression of leather is definitely created. In my opinion, this tends to take second place in the fragrance, which is why I would not immediately classify Stælios as a leather fragrance. But leather notes are definitely there.
Stælios’ male muse
Part of the Stælios campaign is the model Louis Nichols, pictured above, who was photographed by renowned photographer Sasha Olsen. The press release for Nichols is so rapturous that I strongly suspect Pierre Guillaume must have fallen head over heels in love with him. For example, Nichols is associated with the gods of Olympus. All you have to do is listen to the original soundtrack of the text:
“When I compose a perfume, I naturally have images, places and faces in my head that develop in my imagination, around the perfume story, which I try to materialize accordingly … a mental mood board that inspires my creative process of olfactory retelling. When I first met Louis, it was like interacting with a character from my imagination. Louis is an athlete who, with his elegant appearance and blond locks, is like a Greek statue that attracts all eyes. I have seen the effect he has on women and men, but Louis inspires not only with his looks, but also with his personality and values. Modeling is a playful side effect that allows him to discover the world, but he always introduces himself as a farmer first. The man is a cattle farmer and grows grapes for various cognac houses – you can’t make this stuff up! Authentic and sincere, Louis shares with Stælios an immediate, almost animal magnetism and an elegant heart, which in my eyes is of the utmost importance. In all these respects, he embodies my creation beautifully.”
Conclusion on Stælios
I find that I am looking at a decidedly masculine fragrance – as always with the friendly hint that everyone should wear what they like. The combination of pepper, violet and dry woods with the resulting leather nuances is a successful blend that is absolutely wearable and suitable for everyday use. Straightforward, masculine and expressive. Please try it!
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