Dianthine (Chuit Naef) - the history of a famous base

When Paris was discovering the fantastic world of Art Nouveau in the most celebrated international exhibition, Philippe Chuit (1866-1939) was designing one of the most fabulous bases in the history of perfumery. The aesthetic of fragrances was dominated by the famous creation of Paul Parquet, le Parfum Idéal, a complex floral bouquet under a very simple appearance. The effortless beauty dominated by the organic forms and the natural evolution of the line were expressed by the desire to create long lasting fragrances with a subtle evolution in time.
Philippe Chuit was the chemist and the perfumer of the newly founded Swiss company - Chuit Naef (1895) now Firmenich. If new artistic concepts were flourishing in Paris and we attach to them the term Art 1900, it would be more correct to attach the work of Philippe Chuit to the notion of design as it appeared in the second half of the 19th century and opposed to the superfluous ornament. From the very beginning of the small company Chuit Naef their main goal was to offer new molecules with high olfactory qualities (their ionones were a great success) while their bases will be both science and art - original ideas with an impeccable evolution in time.
Dianthine appeared on the market in 1902 after the study of ylang ylang oil and it is a floral spicy carnation base with a particular cachet.
Schimmel, the number one research German company for the natural products, has studied the ylang ylang oil just before the release of Dianthine and has created the first artificial ylang-ylang oil, protected by the German patent No. 142859 - September 1901. By that time the Swiss law on patents was very different and only in 1907, under the threat of trade sanctions by Germany, did the Swiss decide to extend patent protection to chemical inventions. The chemical analysis of natural ingredients was not an easy task in 1900 and also for a small company with only 5 years on the market. We could guess that the findings of Schimmel were of a great use to Philippe Chuit. But with Dianthine he was not reproducing the ylang-ylang oil, he was creating something new, daring, original and with an exceptional balance.
Last year, a very original natural product was launched by Charabot. Lys-ylang is a fraction of ylang-ylang with a very spicy carnation facet and my first thought was Dianthine. In fact, Philippe Chuit designed his floral base from the heart of ylang-ylang and for many years Firmenich advertised this product saying that it brings similar effects to ylang.
Here you have the formula of the synthetic ylang - ylang oil as it was presented in the German patent No. 142859.
Linalool 250
Cadinen 50
Methyl p crésol 10
Benzyl alcohol 150
Benzyl benzoate 67
p-cresol 1
methyl eugenol 100
geraniol 130
eugenol 2
methyl benzoate 60
benzyl acetate 100
isoeugenol 20
methyl isoeugenol 40
methyl salycilate 20
methyl anthranilate 0,5
The main theme of Dianthine is a spicy note conceived around eugenol but the hot peppery and strong facets are rounded in a magnificent way.
In fact the note is a balanced composition around 3 main ideas - the heart of ylang ylang, the garden carnation (oeillet mignardise) and rose wardia. In those years the carnation absolute was also used by perfumers and it was quite expensive. Dianthine offered a stable long lasting odor with an intense spiciness and an easy use of the strong eugenols.
To understand the concept behind this base I made several drawings to give you an idea about the scent and the relation of Dianthine to other odors.

Dianthine represents the interpretation of the spicy carnation as seen in the heart of ylang-ylang oil magnified with an extreme power. I resumed the facets of Dianthine this way (there also several other):
- a spicy bouquet where the peppery note of eugenol is balanced with the hot / burning / dry facet of other eugenols and then with their powdery equivalents, all rounded with several natural oils (from the family of clove / bay / pimento)
- a floral rosy note, honeyed, soft that recalls the beautiful scent of rose de mai absolute
- a floral ylang - jasmine note
- a cinnamon / cinamic note on the drydown very well mixed with sweet balsamic elements
- a sweet vanilla drydown, soft balsamic and powdery
- a very small woody orris effect

Benzyl isoeugenol / acetyl isoeugenol and salycilates are in a very harmonious blend accentuated by several benzoates with their balsamic / honey effect.
The evolution of the scent is really surprising and after 2 days there are still harmonies to be discovered after the storm of eugenols. In fact, the drydown has almost a sensual gourmand facet (gingerbread cookies) mixed with velvety petals.

The spices represents in Dianthine a peppery veil surrounding a flower and its beauty comes from:
- the mathematical proportion of eugenols
- the balance between spicy / balsamic sweet / floral
- the smooth evolution in time (there are almost no top notes)
Dianthine became very soon a prototype for the carnation note showing the clever reconstitution of this odor type using the new synthetics rounded with naturals. The new carnations were almost variations on Dianthine with accents on the honey rose, isoeugenol vs. eugenol, new green hyacinth notes, amyl salycilate-ylang, and even tuberose. Jean Carles will take Dianthine to a new level but that's another story.
When Philippe Chuit designed Dianthine he created a long lasting archetype with multiple uses from spicy perfumes to temper the power of eugenols to more abstract creations and even in trace to bring powdery/sweet notes.
The most famous uses of Dianthine can be found in the creations of François Coty and Ernest Daltroff. Dianthine represents a key element in l'Origan where it is mixed with orange flower / orris-violet and heliotropine notes. Ernest Daltroff used Dianthine for his rosy and spicy perfumes but also in more complex floral notes built on carnation (Fleurs de rocaille). The drydown of Dianthine is one of the most important in the history of XXth century perfumery and this type of note can be found in many creations even where this base was not used. It is one of those archetypes of odour - several simple molecules make a unique accord with an unmistakable cachet.
Firmenich is the most occult perfume company in the world and many secrets of the perfume history are well hidden in their archives (internal files), unavailable and unpublished. Philippe Chuit the founder of the company as well as other creators of historical bases from Chuit Naef / Firmenich are unknown artists who contributed to the art of perfumery. Their creations (like Dianthine) are not available to the public and not even to many perfumers for contemplation and study. The information is almost inexistent in the literature of the past (the obsession for secrets) while in modern days the products and a century of research and art is forgotten.
In the future I hope to make other drawings to explain classic bases.

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Fragrance is the 8th ART:

Burberry Sport for Women & for Men - new fragrance review

Sport is the new black after Cologne. Every brand has now this new type of perfume / flanker and Burberry does no exception.

Burberry Sport for Women is a conventional fresh interpretation of the feminine honeysuckle-magnolia note from Burberry, the classic feminine. Fresh and floral with nothing really interesting / new.
Burberry Sport for Men is actually a very good masculine perfume built with a spicy ozonic note. It follows the Dior Homme Sport accord mixed with several very potent elements - a very strong ginger note, a bitter grapefruit like in Pamplelune and a marine accord that reminds the cold notes from Burberry Brit for Men (here it is cold as ice and not boring like CKFree). Though a conventional creation following an archetype of the modern masculine fresh fragrances (there is one similar AXE if I'm not wrong), I like it very much for the power, strength and the very clear idea expressed through the notes. Like in the perfumes of Etat Libre d'Orange the main notes of the perfume are presented in full light with their brutal appearance. Preserved in ice cubes, the notes sit one next to the other like in a summer cocktail for a fresh&ice sensation.

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Fragrance is the 8th ART:

Papyrus de Ciane - Pierre Guillaume - new fragrance review

In the original Mousse de Saxe the strong IBQ note was surrounded by contrasting notes, from the rosy-green geranium to the sweet woody powdery base. It is a deep emerald green enchanted forest. The geranium rosy notes work in the old De Laire base like a sharp blade and are combined with other almost metallic notes to cut through the deep sweetness and allow the IBQ to express its power. For his new creation, Pierre Guillaume takes this effect to a new level and what was an accent becomes the theme of the perfume - a bamboo vegetal blade extremely green called Papyrus de Ciane. The proportions are reversed and Mousse de Saxe is put in a new context, so different from the sensual background of the perfumes created in the 1920's. For this he builds a galbanum "abstract jasmine" note almost woody to evoke the vegetal element. The emerald green becomes a color between anis green and lime and its fluo sharpness cuts through the musky softness. The green notes suggest leaves and not grasses. It is a green bamboo forest in a cold morning when the light is blue and yellow like a lime cocktail.
To understand the structure of Papyrus Ciane and how he constructed this green explosion, Pierre Guillaume divided the perfume into the 3 main accords and sent me the samples of these ideas: Les Racines, La Tige, L'Ombelle. From the woody roots to the very green top the notes it looks like the anatomy of a perfume.
The perfume has 2 focus points - l'Ombelle (the very fresh citrusy green top) and Les Racines (the soft powdery musky drydown) while La Tige works as a link to create the harmony between 2 separate and almost opposed ideas (green and woody powdery). It is also a "space" on the evaporation scale used to attenuate the tensions and secure the smooth transition between the elements.
Les Racines
The drydown of the perfume explores the soft velvety and powdery note of Mousse de Saxe. The famous base, already wrapped in very sweet notes is presented here under a different light. Woody, powdery and musky, the fragrance is deeply rooted not in a sweet / dark / balmy note but in something airy and cold. Pierre Guillaume rewrites the Mousse de Saxe idea with a metallic accent and what was usually warm, dense and dark like a chocolate becomes airy. In the original Mousse de Saxe there was already a nitro musk note. In Papyrus Ciane, this effect is obtained with Silvanone (Givaudan), a powdery sweet macrocyclic musk with sweet and nitro musk facets. The heavy note is floating and defies gravitation. Is it a perfume from Pandora (Avatar) where the air has the thickness of cashmere?
La tige
Green, vegetal and jasmine, this is a very soft note that evokes the scent of stems with their metallic pungency. It is fresh and minty with an anisic note over an airy base with an abstract lily of the valley - green jasmine accord that suggest the metallic pungency of very green ivy leaves.
L'ombelle
Soft like the morning breeze and the touch on the nose of the silk flower (albizzia), the top of the perfume is a contrasted accord of green and citrusy notes floating in a vegetal ocean. The evolution in time is very rapid, from the sharp green galbanum note, the pineapple accent (spirogalbanone?) to the juicy lemony / mandarin facet and the airy petals of a transparent jasmine/magnolia with woody undertones. In the end it slowly reveals a delicate honeysuckle.

Though Fleur de Liane (Artisan Parfumeur) has a similar concept, there is no relation in terms of odour between them.
This is a new and daring creation from Pierre Guillaume with a new style and a deliberate desire to reinterpret an idea created 100 years ago. He demonstrates the ability of great creations (bases) to fit the modern taste without the vintage feeling. Papyrus de Ciane is 100% modern with an audacity similar to the late 70's early 80's when several new green molecules were introduced in the personal care products to redefine the concept of freshness.
If the real name of Mousse de Saxe (deLaire) was Mousse de Sexe, Pierre Guillaume opposes to the sensual touch of the original base the clean notes and the green molecules. His perfume could be easily called a "green musk" where the sensual softness is contrasted with a green shower in a permanent tension.

Pierre Guillaume: "C'est un bois paradoxal, a la fois dense/ liquoreux et éthéré […] notre "Mousse de Saxe" devient moelleuse, crémeuse, elle se fait pénétrante et s'étire doucement et chaudement sur l'épiderme... la caresse d'une ombre "

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Fragrance is the 8th ART:

Chloe Eau de Fleurs: Neroli, Capucine, Lavande - new fragrance review

After "Eau de Fleurs" inspired by Asian flowers launched recently by Kenzo, Chloe follows this direction in an unexplainable and not very original way, with a premium price. All are to remember that Chloe is a brand of detergents and not perfumes, otherwise I can not explain the lack of inspiration and the choice of themes so popular in the functional area. I find them very aggressive, not enough rounded and not original at all (their smell is plain and obvious as any room spray). Only one brings an original green idea. It is really hard to understand why marketing people are so "blind" today and some perfumers follow them with the same lack of inspiration and desire to produce beauty. The world is full of beautiful flowers and it doesn't start and end with lavender and neroli, just because they are known in France, from Provence to Versailles. There was a time when creators were interested by the marvels of nature. Now they look in the sales chart and official descriptions of fragrances, if not in the GC of other perfumes. Similar ideas can be found at l'Occitane, 5 times cheaper.

Eau de Fleurs - Neroli starts like the name, with an orange flower note, very pleasant, strong and fresh that will evolve into a very light version of the sambac jasmine found in Alien (Mugler) and a Dior recent cologne mixed with a honeysuckle-magnolia light note over a woody ambery base. It has a very aromatic top that brings some original effects (clary sage, rosmary?) but there is also a lot of confusion inside the perfume (too many notes, not enough clarity).
Eau de Fleurs - Lavande is a luxury fabric softener where the fresh lavender reconstitution is mixed with a strong woody-ambery base (like ambraketal / karanal / trimofix) with a powerful clean lily of the valley between those extremes. It smells like a generic modern masculine cologne emaciated from everything interesting. With so many lavenders around (from soaps to detergents) it is very hard to propose something new, daring, original and with an aesthetic quality. Chloe fails the test.
Eau de Fleurs - Capucine is the most interesting and shows a very green hyacinth-nasturtium note over a pleasant soapy lily of the valley. It reminds me somehow the special note of Eau de Gentiane blanche (Hermès) and the vegetal/bitter vegetables effect.

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Fragrance is the 8th ART:

Maison Martin Margiela "untitled" fragrance - review

Is this the new Prada? The new creation of Maison Martin Margiela, now just another name in l'Oréal portfolio was a surprise for me last week at Colette. Advertised as a green galbanum fragrance with a green juice in a white lab bottle (the same as Guerlain for Vega / Sous Le Vent reédition?), the scent was rather different from my expectations. After a pungent green galbanum introduction, very sharp and almost acid, but not the divine grass note from Vent Vert, Martin Margiela goes in a very familiar and very pleasant direction. It is the clean musky soapy note found in all Prada perfumes (and mainly in the Infusions) combined with the spectacular woody-floral note from My myself and I (Ego Facto but not so daring) - all creations from Givaudan. Orris, orange flower, lily of the valley, light jasmine (with a "subliminal" dirty note), transparent cedar, velvety musk and soft animalic salty amber. It is very soft, pleasant and sensual worn on skin and it suggests the scent of a precious traditional soap with a very strange note similar to yeast, lie de vin and several alcohols. The galbanum disappears quickly and it seems rather an accent and less a theme of the perfume. The musks combined with a very small and acid rose plus a small vanilla/benzoin note give a very feminine, warm touch.
Not spectacular or very innovative, the green-musky (with a soft animalic dirty facet) fragrance from Maison Martin Margiela is still a good introduction. Rather a sketch, an idea or maybe a rejected trial for Prada recycled now by l'Oréal (there are many stories around like the myths of Margiela).
Instead of "untitled" they could have left a white space - the customer writes the name he likes on the bottle.
This creation, despite its nice lingering on my skin, does not fulfill my dream / vision about Margiela, a revolutionary name in fashion design. The design, presentation and name look very "formulaic", there is nothing special about anything. You take the Martin Margiela album and the product concept can be written in less than 24 hours. It is a recycled idea put in a "bottle", a branded product and nothing more. "Untitled" doesn't bring anything new - from the bottle, concept, distribution to the fragrance. Everything is predictable and this is sad when you respect a creator than now is just a label owned by Diesel.

The official pyramid of Maison Martin Margiela, "Untitled" - the fragrance created by Daniela Andrier:
Top notes: Galbanum essence, Box green, Bitter orange blossom absolute
Middle notes: Lentiscus resinoid, Jasmine, Galbanum resinoid
Base notes: Musk (Serenolide), Cedar, Incense resinoid

The photos in the previous post.

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Fragrance is the 8th ART:

Opium, hashish and Jean Claude Ellena

A new secret biography of Yves Saint Laurent reveals some unexpected facts about his fragrances. In the book Saint Laurent, mauvais garçon by Marie-Dominique Lelièvre there is a chapter about the creation of several YSL perfumes. We learn some hidden stories about Opium, the creation meant to seduce the "petrodollars" of the American market. Jean Claude Ellena, a young perfumer and author of the beautiful First (Van Cleef & Arpels), worked also on the Opium brief. He proposed a fragrance inspired by hashish and quite hyper realistic, as mentioned in the book where he was interviewed. But the team of Jean Louis Sieuzac (Roure) was the winner with the powerful creation of what is known today as Opium. This unusual hashish scent made very curious because, though not produced, it would be the first attempt to recreate it in the modern luxury market. The perfumes authored by Jean Claude Ellena after 1978 have not, to my knowledge, explored this note and it is improbable that the conservative brand Hermès would ever launch something similar to this concept.
Hashish, Jean Claude Ellena and Yves Saint Laurent are already a dynamite combination to make me even more curious about this fragrance. The late 70's was also the period when Jean Claude Ellena and Edmond Roudnitska were debating on the aesthetic of fragrances. Do we have here a lost masterpiece?

Saint Laurent, mauvais garçon by Marie-Dominique Lelièvre (She writes for Libération and is author of a book about Françoise Sagan and one about Serge Gainsbourg).

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Fragrance is the 8th ART:

Would you pay a tax for the safety of cosmetics / perfumes? Mais oui, en France!

In a previous article presenting the reaction of several important names in the fragrance industry to IFRA/Bruxelles/reformulation, I was wondering about this sudden "prise de position" and the things to come. The cost of reformulations, the loss of the heritage and sometime the disapproval of customers that might see their beloved fragrances changed were main reasons discussed on blogs in the past 3 years. But it seems that there is something new in the air that would determine the cosmetic giants to take a position against this never ending story of "safety".
It seems that now there is a new tax on cosmetics in France starting with 2010, something called "impôt de la beauté". Was this the reason of the sudden reaction in Le Monde, early january?
I will give you the text in French as it is presented on the website of Senat when it was discussed and adopted in December 2009 - Loi de la finance pour 2010
« Art. L. 5131-7-4. - Les produits cosmétiques définis à l'article L. 5131-1, mis sur le marché français, sont frappés d'une taxe annuelle perçue par l'Agence française de sécurité sanitaire des produits de santé à son profit. Elle est exigible des fabricants, ou pour les produits importés hors de la Communauté européenne, de leurs mandataires.
« Le taux de cette taxe est fixé à 0,25 % du chiffre d'affaires annuel hors taxes réalisé. La taxe n'est pas exigible lorsque les ventes n'ont pas atteint, au cours de l'année civile précédente, un montant hors taxes de 763 000 euros.
(there are more details in the link Article additionnel après l'article 59 bis because it's very controversial)
The collected tax (0,25% of annual CA, HT) would go to the AFSSAPS ( something like the American FDA). The reason of the tax is that this agency contributes to the safety of cosmetic products on the market.
You can imagine that this is not happy news for the cosmetic companies that now in recession would have to pay more for their products. You may consider this as the side effect of all safety concerns, now transformed into a big business.
Actually, this would not be a beauty tax but a safety tax for cosmetics and this "official recognition" in France might be adopted by other countries in EU. We might expect a new pressure on fragrances in the next future (where sales are already in a decline).

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Fragrance is the 8th ART:

Mousse de Saxe (de Laire) - the story of a famous base

Various mosses started to be used by the fragrance industry in the 1900's, the most known today, before the IFRA mutilation, being the oak moss and the tree moss. Several articles published in that era show the scientific interest of the industry for this special note found at the end of the evaporation table. Mosses were collected from many corners in Europe and maybe some of them entered in several long lost perfumes. Other mosses were Mousse de Crête, Mousse de Corse and Mousse de Saxe - later the name of several bases.  Like today, perfumers and producers were experimenting with new extraction types and different botanic "versions". There was even a moss with a strong violet note in the Alps mountains that was extracted (maybe also analyzed) in 1900. Mosses were first used as an alcoholic infusion but much powerful extracts started to be produced by the solvent extraction. Bases became stronger and stronger.

It is hard to evaluate today if the original Mousse de Saxe was based or inspired by a natural material from Prussia. Less than 10 years after the creation of this base from de Laire, I found the same name in the catalogue of another important German company - Schimmel, who published every year a report on essential oils and their research. It is also true that in those years counterfeited or similar products were not rare on the market and Edgar de Laire went through several trials to defend his products. But "de Saxe" has also another metaphoric meaning for the company. Bleu de Saxe was the name of a dye first prepared in the XVIIIth century from indigo and sulfuric acid. 100 years later, aniline dyes were the first specialty of Georges de Laire, founder of the company in 1878.

Marie Thérèse de Laire, wife of Edgar de Laire (they were married in 1891) the new director of Fabriques de Laire in 1892 was most probably the perfumer behind the bases produced by the company in its early days, after 1895. De Laire was already a very important name in the fragrance industry producing after the original patents the ionones, the nitro musks (Musk Baur) and vanillin plus other new molecules recently discovered in an amazing mix of research and industrial production. New molecules were discovered constantly but perfumers were not ready to use them. For many it was an olfactory shock and we can imagine the excitement produced by the discovery of new molecules with strange odors. Because many were hard to be used near traditional extracts (infusions, lavages, pommades, etc) Marie Thérèse de Laire was trying to give life and shape to the strange molecules. Without knowing, she was drawing the directions of the fragrance art for many decades. Those molecules, now called captives, were not available in the first years to perfumers neither for experiment, nor the simple smell. That was a time when the structure of a molecule was secret (if not unknown even to the producer), there was no analysis like today to reveal the "secrets" of a delicious fragrance.

When I say shaping the fragrance art I mean the first use and description that comes to mind about a raw material. In a previous post I showed that IBQ (isobutyl quinoleine) was not described as we do it today (leathery) but mossy. Because of the evolution of the chemical process it is also hard to know if our IBQ smells like the IBQ in the early 1900's.

Smelling now Mousse de Saxe I try to imagine how Marie Thérèse de Laire was working more than 100 years ago.

Was she thinking in terms of accords exploring the facets of IBQ?

Was she thinking about the main theme of this material and then building around a base?

Was she trying to see the effect in a popular / known fragrance of that era?

Was she trying to use it in the reproduction of a natural scent?

Apparently we know how were the perfumes before 1912 but the truth is that we know so little and maybe less than 10% than what was available to the nose of Marie Thèrese.

Mousse de Saxe has a shocking beauty. Those were the years when Poiret was bringing shocking colors to life, like Georges de Laire did in the previous century inventing several strong dyes. Paris was seeing Les Ballets Russes and this aesthetic can be found in Mousse de Saxe and as well in Ernest Daltroff creations.

It is hard to date the exact birth of Mousse de Saxe without access to de Laire archives (if they would exist somewhere) but the perfume was already on the market in 1911, being present in the product catalogue. Already in 1914 it was famous and the new catalogue presented it as a "product adopted by many clients and appropriate to give the following note: oakmoss, chypre, gant de saxe". Like the use of color by Paul Poiret, the scent of Mousse de Saxe was described as "forte, fauve et originale". About 20 years later it will presented as the most original and the strongest mossy note of the house among other mosses and suitable to be used with aldehydic, sandalwood, chypre and ambery notes. It was described both as a mossy chypre note and a powdery sweet note.

Mousse de Saxe seems to be built on a fougère shape but the new molecules gives a new and original direction.

The formula works like the classic 19th fougère perfume: a citrus bergamot top, a geranium rosy heart, a strong dose of coumarine and sweet notes, and a woody base with sandalwood, vetiver, patchouli, methyl ionone, some spicy clove notes, a nitro musk note and a small jasmine-ylang facet - but no aromatic lavender note. The presence of an anise note combined with the general sweetness and the smoky IBQ might give a licorice effect.

Mousse de Saxe has an incredible freshness (with almost a green note) combined with a very deep and powdery drydown.

The characteristic note of Mousse de Saxe is the isobutyl quinoléine and de Laire were among the first to prepare and produce the quinoléines. The refined note of the IBQ produced by de Laire was in fact given by their special process that lead to a specific mixture of isomers. This IBQ had an animalic, mossy, leather, mushroom, forest note.

The IBQ in a high dose is suspended between the rosy green sharpness of the geranium and the deep woody but also smoky notes of the drydown, everything wrapped in a sweet and musky cocoon. The choice of a rosy note is not an accident because, as strange as it may seem, IBQ works very well with rosy notes. Maybe the best example is a popular creation of Sophia Grosjman. The formula of Mousse de Saxe reveals another interesting aspect. The Unity. If you cut it in several parts (the floral accord, the woody sweet or woody spicy, etc) you will not get the essence of the perfume. But if you study the main notes, by very simple modifications you can get to many great accords popular after WWI.

Mousse de Saxe was a great success and we can see this through several perfumes produced in the early 20's, each with a new amount of this base or worked around this idea. Nuit de Noel is maybe the most famous where the base is combined with rose absolute and sandalwood. Other perfumes built around this idea include several creations of Jacques Guerlain (one with a huge costus note), Habanita (Molinard) and Bois des Iles (Chanel). A Mousse de Saxe facet / effect is also present in Cabochard, Chanel 19, Opium. Thinking of Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male I've always had the feeling that Francis Kurkdjian was approaching a similar idea with modern ingredients (but not around IBQ). Thinking of several perfumes created by Annick Menardo and her use of anise / sweet / smoky notes (Lolita Lempicka and Hypnotic Poison for instance) I would not be surprised to learn she likes this strange and original base.
With one base, Marie Thérèse de Laire has imagined the future of perfumery for the next 50 years. If we take out the rosy-geranium elements and consider the IBQ a strong accent we have inside all the elements of the drydown found in the classic feminine chypre creations and what Jean Carles was explaining with his method in the early 60's. All you need is to add the floral notes, adjust the balance after the personal taste and maybe add some original accents.

Back in 1910 I would ask my self ... how was this incredible woman, Marie Thérèse de Laire, author of this shocking and incredible base? Women were wearing the new floral delicate beauty - Quelques Fleurs (Houbigant) in 1912 but Madame de Laire had already created an incredible scent (though only a base) that is the equivalent of the modern vamp with smoky eyes. By its power, Mousse de Saxe has something from the Expresionist Movement.

Mousse de Saxe (de Laire) is one of those masterpieces of a true artist, probably the first female perfumer, that now are hidden. Old bases are lost treasures, many unknown to modern perfumers, unavailable for research, aesthetic appreciation and understanding of an era. When a formula is secret, the perfume lost, the last drop evaporated and nobody remembers the fragrance there is a sensation of emptiness.

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Fragrance is the 8th ART:

Balenciaga the fragrance & Charlotte Gainsbourg (2010) - review

The long celebrated Le Dix from Balenciaga (1947), now discontinued, was a special perfume created after WWII and celebrating the youth spirit like Ma Griffe, L'air du temps, Vent Vert and several other beautiful creations. On a  light floral aldehydic base, soft and powdery, the green violet note was the solution to express a natural elegance and a subtle sophistication.

In 2010 Balenciaga is launching a new perfume (the previous being in 2000) that follows the path opened by Nicolas Ghesquière in fashion since 1997. The designer took inspiration from the magnificent heritage of Balenciaga but his creations never looked "pastiche", "quote" or "cliché". They are rather futuristic and young and always with a touch of genius. In a similar style, the new perfume from Balenciaga is inspired by Le Dix taking several elements of the classic masterpiece into a modern interpretation and not at all a remake. Soft, airy and green, this creation of Olivier Polge is well into the mood of 2010 when the green jasmine notes are back but it doesn't take the galbanum-cristalle-70's path. If Olivier Polge was exploring the roots in Dior Homme (the orris note with methyl ionones and irones) he is now in the green scent of the leaves where the scent follows a different pattern.
The fragrance evokes the scent of green violet leaves, the magnolia soft lemony-rosy breeze and the imaginary scent of lotus. It has the freshness and the transparency of a nymphea pond but the scent is deep, textured and less ozonic. Methyl ionones and ionones are filling the green rosy scent with their creamy note but this new Balenciaga doesn't smell like the classic violet perfumes. Curiously, despite some references to other mainstream launches, the creation avoids in the first moments the shampoo effect. A soft green juicy-pear note is growing in this morning dew but it is less dominant (like in Eau Méga Victor & Rolf). We are of course taken in a huge airy lily of the valley accord rounded with transparent jasmine and powdery woods. The drydown of the perfume is musky and creamy and evokes the scent of the skin. After several hours (the perfume is very tenacious in his lightness) a curious CKOne effect appears on my skin, maybe given by the combination of 5 major molecules. Soft, delicately sweet, woody transparent and violet green (but not very green) on a cotton musk base with a hard to describe mossy touch, this new creation from Balenciaga has a modern-retro touch and represents a very nice introduction for 2010.

The perfume is presented by Charlotte Gainsbourg, a clever (and safe) choice for Balenciaga.
The last photo is from the presentation of the perfume in NY november 2009 (GettyImages)

In this video you can see the Making of Balenciaga Fragrance presented by Charlotte Gainsbourg and an interview in french with Nicolas Ghesquière where he explains his ideas on the fragrance (he speaks very well and is very inspiring). He presents also the design concept and how the bottle was made / imagined, the proportions chosen after a fashion design.

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Fragrance is the 8th ART:

Maison Martin Margiela, "Untitled" - the fragrance

The new perfume from Maison Martin Margiela, now a licence in the l'Oréal portofolio, will be revealed very soon to the public. As it happens always in Paris in this strange universe of fragrances, there are other people from every corner of the world that have the chance to be invited / informed. Of course, fragrances are to be advertised / praised and not "analysed" by those who really know and appreciate them and l'Oréal is an expert in this kind of work. Today, looking for something on fashion I came by chance across the photos made during the launch of Maison Martin Margiela fragrance, several days ago. I wish I was there, just for the design elements and other things I love from Margiella since many years. It was not the case because in this bloody business, everything is secretive and exclusive. Knowing very well the work of Martin Margiela in fashion and how he redefined the boundaries of "fashion as an art form" I thought that I and them, we had at least one common subject - The Art of Fragrances.But will "untitled - the fragrance" be less artistic now when l'Oréal is the great master? No speculation before I put my nose inside the lab bottle.

I will share with you the photos from NotCouture where you can see how the perfume was presented for the happy ones. Also on coutequecoute (the pictures) you can see the entire press presentation prepared by the marketing team.
Next week when it will be available in Paris for humble noses like mine I will tell you how this green 70's galbanum retro perfume really is. Is it creative / original as the house used to be?
Here you have the official pyramid of Maison Martin Margiela, "Untitled" - the fragrance created by Daniela Andrier:
Top notes: Galbanum essence, Box green, Bitter orange blossom absolute
Middle notes: Lentiscus resinoid, Jasmine, Galbanum resinoid
Base notes: Musk (Serenolide), Cedar, Incense resinoid

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Fragrance is the 8th ART:

Chandler Burr is back (in business)

If you missed Chandler (please read the article Nathan Branch wrote several months ago) you have the chance to meet him again... in a very artistic way! Because Chandler Burr goes to Italy where many new niche brands appeared in the past 5 years. He teamed with Intertrade, the big distributor of several luxury lines (Clive Christian and other über expensive perfumes) for an event in Padua.
It is no surprise that the last perfume presented by Chandle Burr in NYTimes after a long absence is one distributed (at least in Europe) by Intertrade - Clive Christian  1872.
"For the second Creative R’evolution 4 meeting - on Friday 22 January at 8.30pm in the Centro Porsche, Padua - Chandler Burr, the perfume critic of the New York Times, will talk with Celso Fadelli, the founder and CEO of INTERTRADE EUROPE, the leading European group in the haut de gamme sector of perfumery."

"Profumi come opere d’arte. Nel secondo appuntamento di Creative R’evolution 4 venerdì 22 gennaio alle ore 20.30 al Centro Porsche di Padova, Chandler Burr, critico di profumi del New York Times, incontra Celso Fadelli, fondatore e ceo di INTERTRADE EUROPE, gruppo leader in Europa nel settore della profumeria haut de gamme."

CELSO FADELLI
Friday 22 January 2010 at 8.30pm in the Centro Porsche, Padua

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Fragrance is the 8th ART:

Fumée, fumigation, plantes et parfums - conférence

Pour ceux qui désirent faire un voyage dans le Sud de la France en début  février, je vous suggère une conférence parfum - plantes aromatiques - ethnobotanique au Musée Salagon.
Fume, fumée, fumigation, enfumé, voyage qui nous transporte de sorcellerie en diablerie, mais aussi vers les médecines populaires, l’artisanat, les jeux d’enfants et de solides pratiques agricoles. Vidéo conférence suivie d’un débat autour d’une petite exposition et pour les plus téméraires, de quelques petites expériences enfumées.
Dimanche 7 février 2010 de 14h30 à 17h au Musée de Salagon à Mane
Ces plantes sauvages qui fument, se fument et enfument  - vidéo conférence animée par Dominique Coll, de l’association Les Coll Buissonnière. Détails sur le site.

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Fragrance is the 8th ART:

Le Jasmin (Lucien Lelong)

During the 30's Lucien Lelong had launched several soliflore perfumes mainly for the American market where the fragrances of the house were very popular (as well as the simple bouquets based on white flowers). Also, during the same period, Coco Chanel was selling a Jasmin perfume. Through the simple interpretations of basic flowers, archetypes in the perfumer's work, we can see the evolution of the aesthetics - what element of the scent was preferred, what was new and original, how it was later seen in more complex / symphonic fragrances.

With Le Jasmin (Lucien Lelong), though not a great creation of the house, we can experience the very rapid evolution of perfumery in the first half of XXth century. What a great difference when compared to Le Jasmin de Corse (Coty)! In less than 30 years, thanks to the new molecules provided by chemists (from Chuit Naef but also from several german and french companies) one of the quintessential flowers of perfumery went through a major aesthetic change. The first model was the natural jasmine absolute from France and it was still widely used in the creations from Lucien Lelong era. With the new information given by chemists, based on their research on the floral composition, new types of jasmine note appeared. But something different and creative happened when perfumers started to mix the jasmine notes with other molecules that had little to do with the flower itself. Salycilates, lily of the valley molecules and products with a pungent narcissus scent started to be used to make jasmine notes. Many famous bases, original interpretations of the flower were launched and some of them contained molecules that were still unknown to many perfumers.
In Le Jasmin (Lucien Lelong) you can experience what was called "the white jasmine", an idea of a light floral jasmine note based on many molecules and less on the absolute. It was a time when jasmine perfumes contained molecules like Buxine (Givaudan), the new jasmones, DMBC and DMBCA. Later those ideas were adapted for soaps.
Le Jasmin starts with a strong synthetic jasmine note, not so subtle, where you can detect the combination very fresh jasmine - cyclamen - soft lily of the valley. It is not an animalic interpretation, nor something to recall the absolute type. Under the white floral bouquet there is a small rose based on geraniol / nerol and the effect is almost of a magnolia with creamy petals. The drydown has a delicate but dry orris note combined with a popular precious woody accord. There are small amounts of jasmine absolute and orris concrete but also a well known lily of the valley base with a soft musky note. After the very strong (and rather dissonant) top is gone a small honeysuckle reveals its presence. The indol note is delicate in this creation but contributes to the living impression of other flowers.
If you think of several floral aldehydic creations popular since the 30's, Jasmin (Lucien Lelong) seems to be the common light white floral note with a strong jasmine accent.
Here you have a sketch of a jasmine note with the style of Lucien Lelong, just to capture the note of this simple creation.

Jasmin 231
Jasmophore
Acetate benzyle
Jasmin abs
Buxine
Hydroxicitronellal
Benzyle salycilate
Cyclamal, 10%
Muguet fleurs 16
Rose abs 1%
PEA, Nerol, base Magnolia,
Iralia
Orris concrete 1%
Sophora 10% or Vetirisia 10%
Musk ketone
Maybe some aldehydes (C8, C11)

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Fragrance is the 8th ART:

Orage (Lucien Lelong) - vintage fragrance review

Created somewhere in the 30's, Orage / Tempest became widely known during WWII when it was introduced as a new creation (previously it was distributed in USA as Opening Night). Less inspired by nature and landscape, the name of the perfume seems to be a reference to the tumultuous life of the Lelong couple. It's about "outrageous liaisons" in Paris and the decadent life of the fashion world with its many "liaisons orageuses".

Unlike the first perfumes of Jean Patou and their rather innocent idea of love, Lucien Lelong expressed "the scent of dynamite" and the strong feelings: love, hate, passion, pride. The fashion house was located on 16 avenue Matignon and we find the number 7 as a secret "couture" number, later materialized in a perfume. Was Lucien Lelong thinking of the "seven deadly sins"?
Orage should be wrath/ira and this perfume was a perfect image for a devastating beauty of that era - cold as ice, warm as a volcano with an explosive temperament - Joan Crawford indeed.

Orage (Lucien Lelong) is a floral aldehydic perfume with an important accent on the orris-woody note. It sits somewhere between the very dry note of the perfume N (Lucien Lelong) and the opulent creamy aldehydic note of Orgueil (Lucien Lelong). Another perfume with a similar theme was Coup de Foudre (Rosine) a floral aldehydic jasmine. Both were inspired by love and the effects of a terrible beauty, and not by Nature.

The most important characteristic of the perfume is the presence of several orris molecules (different types of methyl ionones, one with a fruity undertone) that are noticeable from the first seconds. The combination of fresh flowers, orris, dry woods, creamy jasmine and powdery notes will become the features of the next decade when this accord will be perfected in perfumes from Balenciaga or Nina Ricci, the last classic echo being found in the drydown of Y (YSL - but very modern). In Orage (Lucien Lelong) we find a very popular theme - the combination between aldehydes and a dry orris-vetiver base, often provided by specialties from Chuit Naef (Firmenich) or Givaudan, like Vetyrisia, Arolia, Cedarome, Sophora, Irrozol and many others.
The top is very fresh with a curious orange note and some unexpected fruity esters. This "storm" impression combined with aldehydes and several dissonant notes remains as an important feature of the fragrance opening. A small rose is laced with pear, maybe quince and some green notes plus a benzyl acetate / épicea effect.
In the floral heart of Orage (Lucien Lelong) we find a mix of delicate flowers: bulgarian rose, neroli, lily of the valley molecules, ylang-ylang, some salycilates. Very classic but there is a greater accent on the woody floral dry aspect than on the opulent bouquet. In the drydown you can smell soft orris, light vetiver / vetiveril acetate, a note similar to Vertenex, all mixed with mossy elements, coumarine and patchouli plus a very soft fruity lactonic note (C14 and C18). The very elegant effect suggest fur and the musky velvety scent of the skin. This drydown is much warmer/ambery/sweet than N but less opulent than Orgueil. The MNA aldehyde-jasmine-orris note is much dryer here, although we are in a familiar coda of the floral aldehydic family (see Arpège, Liu, No5).
Here you have an original description in french of the perfume from that era:
"La clématite, le jasmin et l'hortensia, dans une atmosphère sourdement musquée, réconcilient les saisons pour cet orage qui donne aux sentiments leur plus excessive expression."
Wearing Orage (Lucien Lelong) it's like being Marlene Dietrich in Seven Sinners, drinking Cuba Libre. You wake up somewhere in South America after a stormy night when satin, fur, white petals and aldehydes are everywhere. Young and fresh!

In the image you can see Nathalie Paley and in the background Greta Garbo in a period when they were not very good friends in public - The Wrath of Garbo might suggest the name of Orage.

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Fragrance is the 8th ART: