Sagan Dalya: The Subject Note of Maher Olfactive’s Latest is a Remarkable Natural Material
Fragrance Reviews

by Adam Forziati
12/05/21 13:01:19 ( 3 comments )

Perfumer Shawn Maher, known for Chatillon Lux and a separate line called Maher Olfactive, set out to create a “fuzzy blanket” of a scent with his latest, Sagan Dalya.

While elements of it certainly fit that description, I associate it more with an intense scent memory of antique stores and dry attics. If this scent is a blanket, it’s one your grandmother knitted in 1971 and stowed away in a cedar chest.

Shawn’s other mission was to use a rarely smelled natural material, the oil of Siberian Rhododendron, in the formula.

It just so happened that I already had a bit of this material in my possession from which to draw a more accurate depiction of this exceptionally unique new perfume.

Rhododendron adamsii

The species of Rhododendron used in Sagan Dalya is really strange as its oil doesn’t smell remotely floral.

Instead, it is mouthwateringly fruity, yet waxy, metallic, and even somewhat bitter. I’m frankly unsure whether I enjoy this material on its own, shifting precariously as it does on strip from a refined wine to a congealed cough syrup.

Its fruitiness is due to a high natural concentration of 4-phenyl-2-butanone, otherwise known as “raspberry ketone” when isolated for the perfumer’s palette. I suspect an analysis would also show high levels of methyl anthranilate, another naturally occurring aroma chemical used in wine and dark fruit accords.

It seems Shawn has a proclivity for wine and grape materials. His Chatillon Lux release (a 2020 Art and Olfaction Award finalist), Weinstrasse, included an accord of white, wild grapes paired with immortelle, iris, and honeysuckle. The deviously simple Yuzu/Rose/Patchouli, also from the Chatillon Lux line, relies on the contrast between rich rose + patchouli and the piquancy of yuzu, creating a wine-like depth with earthiness, oiliness, fruitiness, and zing.

Once some of that fruitiness wears off, though, Rhododendron adamsii bears striking resemblance to labdanum and it’s slightly smokey and resinous qualities. It’s no wonder Shawn chose to combine it with two different distillations of labdanum.

How Sagan Dalya wears

With mentholated sweetness, spice, and green earth in the opening, the perfume is more like a fantasy herb than a literal display of Rhododendron. Jammy rose, lightly smoked and cured, interjects after the initial blast of resinous greenery.

It is in the base of Sagan Dalya where we are reminded of the historical relationship between resinous ambers (labdanum and benzoin) and “amber of the sea” (ambergris). Though perhaps not explicitly intended, the perfume’s heavy dose of Spanish labdanum exhibits a strange quality of ambergris in its muskiness – adding credence to Shawn’s “cozy blanket” intentions.

The perfumer admits in his Scent Notes blog that he typically creates scents surrounding memories or places – but for Sagan Dalya, his “gears were turning” as soon as he first opened a bottle of the subject essential oil.

Shawn keeps aiming for the sky with his new Maher Olfactive brand, elevating one or two key natural materials in his blends in new and exciting combinations (smell: Crystal Moon, Treachery).

Lovers of wine and grape accords, dusty green smells, and obscure natural materials will find something adventurous and, yes, maybe a bit “cozy,” in Sagan Dalya.

Photographs of the bottle courtesy of the brand