Rivières Luxuriance de Cartier takes you on a journey along the Mediterranean coast. Cartier is one of the greatest Parisian houses, boasting an incredible longevity. For more than 150 years, this renowned brand has adorned men and women with jewelry and perfumes. If Cartier has managed to endure through the decades, it is simply because it has worked to preserve an ancestral savoir-faire, while constantly reinventing itself according to trends.
In 2021, the house of Cartier crafts a new trio of fragrances: Rivières de Cartier. Each of these fragrances draws inspiration from nature and is created like a natural bath. As the name of this saga suggests, the idea is to follow the course of a river, taking on multiple scents according to the elements it encounters. Rivières Luxuriance de Cartier comes in a blue-green bottle, evocative of a certain freshness. It invites us to follow a wild, shaded waterway on a beautiful summer day. The result is an infinitely contrasted fragrance. Breakdown of its composition.
Rivières Luxuriance de Cartier, a composition based on wild grasses
Let us start with the very green side of this fragrance. Rivières Luxuriance is crafted as the childhood river [of Mathilde Laurent - the perfumer behind this creation], in Corsica, between shadow and light, with an almost icy freshness, along whose banks one wanders beneath the green and intense foliage of fig trees. To offer us this very green walk, Cartier relies on mastic and rosemary. These two ingredients unfold very natural and thoroughly fashionable green notes. Mastic gives off a very fresh scent. Rosemary, for its part, is more aromatic, camphoraceous and woody. The result is a sensation of sharp, spontaneous freshness, like the herbs one might find in the Mediterranean scrubland.
Geranium and mint, fresher ingredients
Then, to preserve all its vigor and energy, Rivières Luxuriance de Cartier turns toward a sharper, icier duo. This is made up of mint. This ingredient gives the fragrance all its dynamism and effervescence. To this is added the floral elegance of geranium, whose character can at times be more peppery and metallic. This combination then evokes, for some, the emblematic scent of Ricola candies.
Oak, source of the woody heart of Rivières Luxuriance
Finally, oak comes to give structure to the entire composition. Typical of chypre fragrances, this raw material smells of bark. At once smoky, syrupy and slightly vanilla-like, it is used only in fine perfumery and lends this recipe an aroma typical of dried fruits.
You may have noticed, but in this composition, Cartier decides to completely overturn the usual order of ingredients typically found in fragrances. Indeed, as a general rule, geranium is a flower that tends to sit in the heart notes of compositions. Oak, for its part, is usually placed in the base notes. Here, it stands at the center of Rivières Luxuriance. The river of Cartier seems to have met its natural elements in a wholly random way. Yet a perfect harmony emerges from this fragrance. With Cartier's immense savoir-faire, it could hardly have been otherwise...