Francesca BIanchi created Angel's Dust as an exploration of the sensuality of women's bodies through the ages. In a dusty boudoir of bygone times, a mistress is putting on lipstick, while waiting for her lover to arrive. Face powder is floating in the air, mixed with the smell of roses and the woody effusion of the boiserie.  The innocence of powdery musks blends with the decadence of sensual balsamic notes.

The making of Angel’s Dust

While working on Angel’s Dust, I was studying my way into an innocent, light-as-a-feather feminine touch but at the same time seducing, daring and corrupt.

Angel’s Dust with leaf, Marco Martelli Photo

While working on Angel’s Dust, I was studying my way into an innocent, light-as-a-feather feminine touch but at the same time seducing, daring and corrupt. The vintage, old-style twist was not voluntary but a necessary consequence of my idea of a femininity of past times, where women had a wooden boudoir and spent hours to put powder and other beauty secrets on their face and body, and didn’t care to affirm themselves through a career but would exert their power through Beauty and Seduction. Then I softened the powdery-iris-rose part by adding a mixture of resins, representing a dirty experienced sensuality.

Drawing inspired by Angel’s Dust, Chester Gibs

Some movies and books provided me with inspiration. Les Liaisons Dangereuses, for instance, represented exactly the sophisticated and corrupted atmosphere I had in mind! Another beautiful memory is Marie Antoinette as depicted in Sofia Coppola’s movie. I obviously like Rococo, but what I like specifically in that movie is the femininity she represents: shoes, sins, libertinage, cakes, and absolute mindlessness, without any guiltiness. Some reviewers have compared Angel’s Dust to some Guerlain mythological scents (Luca Turin mentioned Guet-Apens / Attrape Coeurs). I am honoured by such a comparison.