Description
Mary Celestia was originally launched pre-1864 for Piesse and Lubin by Septimus Piesse and then recreated 2014 by Jean-Claude Delville. Comes in Eau de Parfum 100 mL (3.4 oz) in an elegant square glass bottle decorated with a blue ribbon and an engraved silver medal inspired by a three-dollar coin depicting the shipwreck Mary Celestia, issued in 2006 by the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
Mary Celestia by Lili Bermuda is a Citrus Aromatic fragrance for women and men. Mary Celestia was launched in 2014. The nose behind this fragrance is Jean-Claude Delville. Top notes are grapefruit and bergamot; middle notes are neroli, orange blossom and palisander rosewood; base notes are white musk and ambergris.
katbir98 – :
The backstory on Mary Celestia is interesting and certainly a worthy read on the Lili Bermuda website and news articles. Cassiano recounts it well below.
Certainly the “eau de cologne” concept that was about as popular in the nineteenth century as it remains today is explored in Mary Celestia, a freshie rooted in familiar citrus notes, which serve in a rather brief hour-long opening that soon dries down, with a hint of rose, into a bed of amber, and more interestingly, rosewood. The rosewood is the wildcard in Mary Celestia, the note that gives the whole mix some character and in which the fragrance really resides mostly for the latter part of its life. The rosewood/amber leaves a sweet and even slightly spicy residue following the freshness at the opening, and it’s pleasant and unusual in this respect.
Now it’s fair to point out that it’s, at best, a moderate performer, but probably a pretty good performer when consideration its composition, as fragrances like it tend to be rather fleeting. The rosewood/amber combination lingers around for several hours, though.
Performance notwithstanding, Mary Celestia is one of my favorite freshies. It’s also the fragrance whose story drew me to the house somewhat.
I highly recommend trying this one out, even to indulge your curiosity, if you have any for it.
8 out of 10
Remic – :
The perfume called Mary Celestia was announced in October 2014 and is, perhaps, one of the most emotional fragrances in the Lili Bermuda House. That’s because it was born of the attempt to recreate a perfume that was found inside the Mary Celestia ship, which sank in the Civil War, in September of 1864.
In 2011, a series of storms occurred in Bermuda, causing some pieces that were on the seabed to emerge. So, marine archaeologists went to check what was hidden in the depths and they came across artifacts of the time and, among them, a box with two intact bottles of perfume with the inscription Piesse and Lubin London in relief, a true treasure of 150 years hidden in the bottom of the sea.
Piesse and Lubin was a perfume house located on Bond Street, in London, sought after by the world’s elite in the 1800s. After a careful review of the content of the bottles by the Drom Fragrances team, the perfumer Isabelle Ramsay-Brackstone succeeded in reproduce the fragrance in a limited edition of only 1,864 bottles, in reference to the year the ship sank.
The flask features a medallion that was inspired by a three-dollar coin depicting the shipwreck Mary Celestia, issued in 2006 by the Bermuda Monetary Authority. It comes with a velvet bag for protection and a box made of Bermuda cedar containing a red seal, as used in ancient correspondences.
According to Isabelle, there are currently about 100 bottles available for sale. And part of it serves to fund the preservation and promotion of Bermuda’s unique shipwreck heritage.
Mary Celestia has notes of grapefruit and bergamot on top, making way for an even more luminous body of neroli, orange blossom and rosewood, on a base of ambergris and white musk. The result is limpid, juicy and refreshing. It is not a fragrance of many facets and great evolution and also does not have much projection. It is sold for both genres and conveys a sense of cleanliness, freshness and bathing.
In my opinion, it combines with a walk on the Island during the sunset. Unfortunately, it remains very close to the skin, but maybe it is the concept of something that has been submerged for years, and that needs to be felt with depth.
arkada211 – :
Got mine July 2017 and it’s 1561 of 1864. I too am tempted to buy another one. I do like the fragrance. I bought it for the story. It opens with a big sour citrus blast and cycles through rosewood and musk in the hours that follow.
svx985Diobtetty – :
I see this one is still off the radar… 1039 and 1082 of 1864.
fencyfellow – :
Mary Celestia is a unisex EdT strength fragrance from Lili Bermuda. It smells very good, and the story regarding its background and the salvaged perfume from the shipwreck is interesting too.
It opens with juicy grapefruit and bright orange blossoms/neroli. The graprefuit fades after a while, but the neroli remains in a subdued form for pretty much the length of the fragrance. The website says that there is rose in the base, but I don’t smell much rose. What I do smell is rosewood, which I very much enjoy. There is some amber in the base, but to my nose this is a primarily a citrus, neroli, and rosewood fragrance. The rosewood is very nice in this one.
Longevity is good for a Lili Bermuda fragrance. I get four hours on my skin and slightly longer on clothing. Like all of the other Lili Bermuda scents that I own, this one stays fairly close to the skin, with modest and polite projection and silage. Also, like the other Lili Bermuda fragrances that I have tested, this fragrance is a great choice for warm weather, and goes as well with jeans and a T-shirt as it does with a suit and tie.
This fragrance is much more expensive than the rest of Lili Bermuda’s offerings, so I recommend that you try it before you buy it. I love it and bought a backup bottle straightaway, but everyone’s nose is different. For some reason, I don’t think that Lili Bermuda sells samples, so getting your nose on this fragrance might be a challenge.
garriguddini – :
This fragrance seems to have snuck under the radar… I guess that’s better for me!
For those who didn’t read the article on this fragrantica wrote: Only 1,864 bottles of this made to commemorate the year the Mary Celestia sank. It was a Civil War Blockade Runner which sank off the coast of Bermuda. In 2011, divers found wine, wooden artifacts, and two Piesse and Lubin London perfume bottles in the bow of the ship. The Bermuda Perfumery was lucky enough to examine and reproduce the 150 year old fragrance.
The packaging is quite impressive. For $225 usd, this fragrance is quite the bargain. First there is a large velvet bag with two draw strings crossed once on each side. Next, there is a fine Bermuda Cedar box with the Bermuda Perfumery seal on the top left, a wax imprint of a depiction of the Mary Celestia, and two nice ribbons being held in place by the wax with some help of super/hot glue. To open it you must sadly cut the fine ribbons….
Finally you are greeted with a card telling the story of the Mary Celestia and this fragrance. The bottle, a clear, simple, yet elegant rectangle is adorned with a metal piece, held by blue ribbon, that again depicts the Mary Celestia.
The fragrance is very unisex. Sometimes I can’t tell who is meant to wear it, but it is darn good. A very brief citrus blast is backed up very quickly by the smell rose and a very present Brazilian rosewood. As time goes on the rosewood becomes ever more present and the fragrance takes on more of a woodsy stance.
A truly great scent with an awesome history to back it up. How this hasn’t penetrated the fragrance community, I don’t know.. I have bottle 1082 of 1864 and I am tempted to buy another.