When you sell something very expensive, your customer base is limited. Few companies sell more expensive items as the House of GRAFF, the famous British jeweller specialized in diamonds.
GRAFF bought the Lesedi La Rona uncut raw diamond of 1109 carats (221,8 grams) in 2017. It was one of the biggest stone of flawless quality ever found. The stone’s origins lie in Botswana; unearthed by Canadian company Lucara. In 2019, after a cautious and careful process, the stones cut from the big raw diamond where presented by their proud owner Laurence Graff to the public. The story could have ended here, with us hearing from time to time that one of the stones was being sold to a super-rich billionaire somewhere in the world. Of course, the stones would also be pictured in books about diamonds and books exclusively about the company GRAFF. A book on GRAFF’s diamonds could be indeed a worthy topic for a post in the “Art in Books” category.
Here we concentrate on the perfumes named after the famous raw diamond. Laurence Graff decided to add perfumes to his jewellery product line to honour and celebrate his acquisition of the stone Lesedi La Rona. An added thought has probably been the option to gain additional customers, as perfumes are the preferred way to add something more affordable to the product line. All perfumes are exclusively named Lesedi La Rona, but with numbers to differentiate them. They were 6 scents, all launched in 2020. The perfumes were from the beginning marketed by the company Interparfumes. During the last years, 4 others were added, also carrying the name Lesedi La Rona, this time numbers VII to X.
Trying to buy them today is not straightforward. If you google “GRAFF Perfumes” you find a website from GRAFF where you can see the scents. If you go to the website of GRAFF independently (googling only “GRAFF”), you find an identical website without the perfumes. I did not try to buy one lately, so I do not know what this means. Time will show if only the distribution has been concentrated or the perfumes are taken from the market. The latter would be a pity.
This long pre-read brings us to the main topic: “Lesedi La Rona VI” by GRAFF. The perfume is a prime example of the craftmanship and excellence poured into the scents. All of them have very high consumer ratings on the parfumo platform. The FRAGRANTICA platform names the noses behind them, in the case of “Lesedi La Rona VI” it is Gino Percontino of the company Mane. Mane is a French-based, international diversified company with over 150 years in the fragrance creation.
The perfume “Lesedi La Rona VI” is described on the GRAFF website as a woody oriental; as radiant, hypnotic, and sensual. This is a very fitting description. The scent notes to my nose combine the fruity with the sensual. They mention Brazilian wild orchid, Madagascan clove, Egyptian jasmine, orange blossom and oud.
The Interparfums company website, the parfumo platform, and the FRAGRANTICA platforms all mention bramble (blackberry), pink pepper and vanilla additionally.
The bramble scent accord (blackberry) is very true. Next to bramble (blackberry), I smell also red- and blackcurrant. The dark red fruity sensation in combination with the positively shining orchid and oud is the overall impression of the fragrance. The perfume is less heavy and grave than other oud-based fragrances. The very fine scent and taste of brambles, as if marzipan was somewhere in the fruit, is rarely used in perfumes. That makes “Lesedi La Rona VI” by GRAFF a special perfume. It smells elegant and well-to-do. The fragrance oozes the expensive ingredients that were used.
The durability of “Lesedi La Rona VI” by GRAFF is medium, which is fine. Oud perfumes can easily become too obtrusive and difficult to wash off. This is not the case here.
The colour of the scent is a radiant dark red.
Laurence Graff’s idea to venture into less expensive domains than multi-carat jewels through adding perfumes to the product line, was a first step only. Today one can see on the GRAFF website that they have next to the high jewellery line also a “normal” jewellery line. There bracelets for as less as 4000€ can be bought. For a company like GRAFF this is like venturing to another world.
The question of the continuation of the perfume line cannot be solved here. I am glad I bought my “Lesedi La Rona VI” by GRAFF when it was easily available. With those many new niche-perfume lines mushrooming today one must be prepared to see a few dying out again as well. Of course that is never nice. We like good things to stay as they are and good times to continue forever. This is not the nature of life, as we all know. It is better to concentrate on the good we have, even if it is only a perfume, when we have it and make the most of the pleasure it gives.
Tomorrow will take care of itself.