Fragrance project: Girl with a Pearl Earring

Set against a dark, undefined background, and dressed in an exotic costume, this young girl has looked over her shoulder at viewers for more that 300 years. Her expression is, perhaps, no less enigmatic than that of Leonardo's Mona Lisa. As once was said: her gentle smile is an external enigma; she is the sphinx without a secret

"There is an indisputably something naive, but something honest and genuine too in this finery, also something harmonious, a simple personality still living unconsciously, which grasps at the things which match is being, without caring for anything else...The small portrait at The Hague is of a simplicity and naiveté which only the greatest masters are able to reproduce."
P.T.A. Swillens, Johannes Vermeer: Painter of Delft 1632-1675, Utrecht, 1950

This famous painting was the theme for my last fragrance project I developed in the past 2 weeks.
A young girl, both feminine and innocent, both simple and enigmatic, a beauty absorbed by the light radiating of freshness but also of an unknown sensuality. A fragrance to be worn, inspired by Vermeer but not a smell and the "exact" translation of the painting.

The complexity of this classical masterpiece and the short time were note very easy to combine. But first, let's see the elements extracted from the painting that I wanted to represent:
Innocence, virgin, white skin

Lips, sensuality and shyness
Lightness, radiance, bright expression
Dark background, mystery, enigmatic
Pearl, feminine
Turban, exotic touch
Ultramarine, immaterial colour, airy

All these keywords were translated into olfactive concepts and then raw materials.
The fragrance I conceived is a lilac-freesia bouquet on a light chypre base refreshened with hyacinth green notes, with peach-osmanthus and animalic accents.
Vermeer, compared to Rembrandt, is the poet of lightness so, I tried to focus on the light aspect of chypre (without doing Ellena style). Inspired by a classical painting I worked in a very "classical" way, note by note, trying to find a balance between old school and modern school.

After a week of long and not so easy trials the most difficult was to combine light chypre with the osmanthus absolute waxy note to suggest the young skin.
The fragrance has a very subtle and sweet dry down that lasts on the blotter more than 3 days.
The formula has 32 ingredients and the price is quite OK - 35 euros/ kg concentrate.
All the Vermeer paintings are very small in real size and microscopically compared to the big Rubens compositions. A good reason to keep simpler in final price and number of ingredients !

There is still work to do on this fragrance but for the moment I moved in a totally different register waiting the evaluation results.

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art

What Givenchy forgot to mention

The new release from this fall, Ange ou Demon was everywhere in Paris. It ws said also that the name could change in various countries according to religious matters.
This perfume was supposed to be a big new release, original and bold.
But what Givenchy communication forgot to mention is that neither the name or the bottle style were not quite new or original on the fragrance market.
In the picture there is an advertising from 1927 french Vogue of a not so known fashion house.

Look and see how different or not is the Givenchy perfume.

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art

Will Chanel No22 be discontinued?

Since september 2006 when I moved to Paris, I go almost every week on rue Cambon or av. Montaigne to see the Chanel store. Mostly for fashion, to discover new collections or accesories they put in those stores. I noticed since september a strange fact happening both on Cambon, this Mecca of fashionistas and av. Montaigne.
They have a small corner devoted to fragrances and where you can find also the exclusives - No 22, Bois de Iles, Cuir de Russie and Gardenia. But since september there is no more testers for No 22. First it seemed just curious but last friday I was really intrigued by this fact. Even on Christmas .... there were no testers for No 22. Generally when testers of a fragrance dissapears from shelves it's either a stock problem or the beggining of the end. Rumors say also that the clasical Chanel fragrances would undergo some changes this year.

Will Chanel No 22 be lost? They didn't say a word at rue Cambon.

In the same time there is a totally gap between the marketing direction and the stores at Chanel. After all the information on the web about the new releases I hoped to smell them or even to find more on rue Cambon. But, sadly, when I was there nobody knew anything and they were quite surprised I knew more then they about the launches.
It's funny to see how communication in a big company is not equal and how people on the net will review fragrances in advance before they are on the market.

But finally, that's marketing ! Finding all the available channels to communicate the brand's belief.
That's a reason why today I am so skeptical about fragrance criticism because most of the time there is no opinion, nor real information but only a more or less subtle way to advertise the brand and its new releases.

But, let's go back to Chanel !

The second fear about the reformulation or even worth, the death of the old fragrances I've already mentioned is IFRA.
Cuir de Russie is particulary a problem if you want to make it IFRA - OK.

In the WWD article about the new releases there is also mentioned that the old fragrances will have a new packaging. Changing design doesn't mean changing the formula, but in most other cases on the market it was just that.

So, will Chanel No 22 still remain on the market in 2007. I do hope because it's a wonderful fragrance, underevaluated, and part of the Chanel legacy.

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art

Societe Francaise des Parfumeurs

I am pleased to announce you that since this year I am a member of the famous French Society of Perfumers. It is for the first time that a Romanian enters this old and well known society.

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art

Five reasons to love Francis Kurkdjian

A 4 pages article is devoted to this perfume star in the latest number of the famous French magazine L'Express. The perfumer explains his creations but also his background, his passion for music, fashion and dance. His latest creations are reviewed in detail. An interesting photo of his suitcase - the mobile fragrance organ he uses for private fragrance sessions is presented on the first page.

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art

Paul Poiret as a perfumer

It is said that Poiret was involved in the formulation of fragrances, trying and correcting the formulas prepared by the perfumer. Some photos, conceived more as an advertising material, tried to persuade the public that the fashion designer participated in all stages of fragrance creation. The myth was born (and it still exists nowadays) - the designer who chooses and creates himself the fragrances as an absolute master of his empire. Fragrance creation might seem easy for an outsider but a good fragrance needs time, experience, know-how and artistic sense - simple words that are crucial to achieve a well balanced and original perfume.

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art

"Les Parfums de Rosine" factory - new photos

This small factory with no more than 50 people produced some of the very famous fragrances in the beginning of the 20's. At one moment the great Coty wanted to buy Rosine. This famous moment is described by Poiret in his autobiography - En habillant l'epoque. Rosine fragrances were sold only in Poiret couture house(s).






You can find additional information about Paul Poiret in the beautiful album Poiret (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications) and about Rosine perfumes in Paul Poiret and His Rosine Perfumes.

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art

Paul Poiret: Les Parfums de Rosine - the beginnings

The house "Les Parfums de Rosine" was founded in 1910 and started to produce fragrances in 1911. However some perfumes were created before the "official" date and were integrated later in the main line.
Today there are about 58 known fragrances produced by Parfums de Rosine and 11 of them are recreated at the Osmotheque.
I had the chance to study all the 11 recreated fragrances in Versailles and I'll review all of them on this blog. I had also the luck to find in an old archive in my country sketch formulas for other and thus I can have an image of what they could have smelled in the past.


When Poiret had the idea to study the perfumes he had recourse to a friend from the college, Doctor Midy who had a pharmaceutical laboratory (Coty started almost the same in a pharmacy lab). The results of these experiments encouraged Poiret to produce fragrances. Thus he was the first dressmaker to launch perfumes challenging the great of the days, Houbigant and Guerlain, a stimulating reason because he liked the challenges and to make the revolution in everything (from fashion to decorative arts).



He arranged a laboratory in the old stables of the 39 street of Colisée, then he installed it more largely in Courbevoie creating also a glassmaking and a packaging factory. About forty young women were employed there.
The name of the house was given by his little daughter, Rosine, who will die few years later bringing lot of sorrow to Poiret family during the war.


You can find additional information about Paul Poiret in the beautiful album Poiret (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications) and about Rosine perfumes in Paul Poiret and His Rosine Perfumes.

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art

2007 - Romania enters the European Community

Finally my country was accepted in the EC. With a spectacular economic growth in 2006, lot of investments and a strong currency during the last year Romania is supposed to be an important actor in 2007.
In the same time fragrance seems to be a paradox in Romania.
There is now no fragrance produced in Romania !
There is no Romanian fragrance brand !
There is no raw materials supplier !
There is a huge desire of luxury products !

In 2003 and 2004 I published the only Romanian fragrance encyclopaedia, 3 books with more than 1000 pages. It was a huge success with almost no advertising. Most bookstores ran out of stock in a very short period.

1000 fragrances - volume I and II





Fragrance - the essential guide



During the recent years I made a lot of connections within the fashion business and everything related to the beauty, several market studies, a lot of research while building a client portfolio.
As a perfumer I hope to start a major project in 2007 - placing Romania on the fragrance constellation as it was 75 years before.

On a future post: first time published aspects of Romanian fragrance industry before the war and how I found dozens of formulas of French major perfumes.

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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art