Iris gris (II) & orris notes

Because I enjoyed very much this vintage perfume, clear as steel but soft as silk, I did some trials to understand how it was constructed. With no GC at home I based everything on my nose and my lab scale. First, some considerations.
- today orris concrete (Italy or France) came in grades - 5%, 10%, 15% representing the content in irone, a key molecule (there is also orris resinoid). There are differences between all those, in price but also olfactory. Back in 1947 the orris was "simpler" than today … but still I have no idea how it smelled and to which product of today it would match.
- methyl ionones (with their orris-violet smell) came also in all kind of grades (isomers + different ratios). They are not only different in prices, but also in smell quality, not best/worst but woodier, fruitier, dryer, etc. I do not have them all and usually work only with one of them. There is one methyl ionone that has a fruity-woody orris note - Raldeine A.
Iris gris is basically orris and peach and my idea is that Vincent Roubert was inspired by this molecule, or a similar one. That would be a very modern approach, even today. Meanwhile the combination orris and jasmine (with its heavy animalic note) was very common in that period. But the perfume is not jasmine but peach, capturing only the fresh and fruity side of the flower as will do Roudnitska later (the jasmine note based on benzyl acetate, hedione, jasmone cis and peach aldehyde, fresh and light without the heavy greasy note of the absolute). From this point of view Iris gris would be an abstract perfume (or the modernized idea) of a theme often used in classic perfumery.
In my trials I realized that:
- the formula is very simple
- the choice of the ingredients is crucial
- the harmony is vital
With no clue about the methyl ionones and irones inside, I had the general accord in 3 trials. The perfume is deceptively simple but like a fine "grisaille" it's not easy to have it all.
In my opinion it's not built as the beautiful Iris Silver Mist around the orris concrete (though it has a huge amount) but around a methyl ionone note (or Raldeine A + irone alpha).
Iris gris is like a classical haute couture dress: the shape is very simple, the materials are quintessential and the cut is like a laser. Because is so "simple", any fault of a raw material is visible if not produced properly. An exquisite perfume of the classical era.

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

Iris Gris (Jacques Fath)

Jacques Fath entered the Parisian high fashion system in 1937, continued during the war but his great moments were during the 50's the New Look Era. Until his premature death (1954) he was as famous as Dior or Balenciaga. He lacked the financial and business support that made Dior a big name, he was not a shape inventor like Balenciaga but he brought into Paris fashion a spirit of youth. A very handsome man, with his very beautiful wife (a mannequin) they were the king and queen of parties.
Jacques Fath put his youth spirit into perfume, right after the war, as did Balmain, Dior, Nina Ricci, Balenciaga, Piguet. His perfumes were not produced by Roure but he started with Coty and Vincent Roubert created the very first fragrances.
Iris Gris, an unknown jewel of French perfumery and one of the very best fragrances ever created, appeared on the market in the same moment when Miss Dior, L'air du temps, Coeur Joie made their debut and all of them bottled the youth spirit. It was 1947 - the legendary New Look - when springtime put a definitive end to the war period.
Until recent years, orris was not a common note (soliflore) in perfumery and there were a few orris perfumes but Iris gris is by far a monument of perfumery. I knew Iris gris but Denyse made an amazing discovery and found a sealed vintage Iris Gris perfume and thanks to her I was able to resmell it.
In 1947 something happened in the perfume industry. As Dior created new fashions that required a huge amount of fabric (impossible during the war) in the perfume industry ingredients became available again and also new ingredients made their way. The time when Roudnitska created Femme (1944) with what he succeeded to find in those hard days were over. Italy was liberated and started to produce orris. As it take 3 years to process the orris and obtain the concrete, we could say that 1947 (3 years after 1944) was also the time when new "free" orris entered the market again. It was also a time when the great chemists from Givaudan and Firmenich did intensive research on orris components, their synthesis and their production. Some Swiss patents from 1946-1948 show the great interest in "irone" research. Irones, a key ingredient in the orris concrete, are expensive products (even today) and though they are "cousins" of the famous ionones and methylionones (used in perfumes since the end of the 19th century) their production was far easy. The chemists Ruzicka and Naves established their chemical structure in 1947 . Providing important clients with expensive, tailor-made molecules, before they were on the market for everyone was a practice still in fashion today (the captives).
In October 1946 Firmenich came with a Swiss patent, a new production method of the highly appreciated irone that made possible new formulations for violet-orris perfumes.
In 1946-1947 orris was suddenly trendy: new molecules, available natural product.
Dior created enormous and expensive clothes. Fath created one of the most expensive and beautiful perfume - Iris gris with more than 35% of the natural orris inside. In 1946 Germaine Cellier created Coeur Joie a floral aldehydic with an orris note and in 1947 for Balmain Elysée 64-83, a floral jasmine (animalic) with aldehydes and orris concrete. Twisting the No5 formula with an orris variation was not a new idea. Chanel Mademoiselle No1, a lost perfume analyzed by Givaudan was a No5 formula with a high percentage with a special methyl ionone (violet-orris note). Orris notes were in the air in 1947 but they will not survive the huge success of Miss Dior and l'Air du temps.
Iris Gris, a perfume that captured the spirit of its time, was created by Vincent Roubert, the great perfumer from Coty, who was in charge with Coty's perfumes since mid 20's and who did the beautiful l'Aimant (a number 5 variation). But Coty created around 1913 a perfume that was never a success though it's a interesting creation - Iris. Iris by Coty is a typical orris concrete note with a spicy touch (like l'Origan) and an animalic jasmin-indole undertone.
Vincent Roubert, the Coty perfumer, was for sure inspired by the previous creation when he did Iris Gris, but he made it modern, youthful and pure. Iris Gris from 1947 is as modern today as it was in those days and though I smelled a vintage one ... the perfume has no wrinkle. It's a pure modernist perfume like Mies van der Rohe architecture (Barcelona pavilion) where simple lines are combined with expensive materials and textures.
Iris gris is clean but not soapy, rich but not old-dusty, with an idea as clear as today's Ellena creations and with a weightless lightness, hard to imagine with the ingredients of 1947. A perfume better than any orris niche perfume of today, simple and clear.
The perfume (a floral woody fruity but in fact an orris soliflore) is constructed around 2 ideas: orris notes + peach. Because orris and violet molecules are in general metallic/cold and usually express melancholy, the perfumer avoided this tendency with a soft peach note (undecalactone) that evokes a girlish skin complexion. The orris note is composed with all known orris notes (ionones, irones, methyl ionones, natural orris more than 35%). The woody note is mainly cedar-vetiver (their acetates for a light woody note). All other notes (jasmine, lily of the valley, heliotrope-lilac) are delicately drawn to support the floral-orris note and not to show their presence. There is an almost hard to detect chypre note (oakmoss - but I'm still not sure for that) and a light celery note (tuberose aspect and another trendy note in the 40-50's used in traces) still to check. There is of course musk and a very light carnation like that in l'Air du temps.
Iris Gris is the breath of angels!
PS: Iris Gris is often said to be from 1946, but as it was released later that year, I chose 1947 because I think the perfume was intended for springtime (see Fath couture collection&colours from that year) .

photo: 1949 Fath ad from okadi.com

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

No5, No22 and No21

Today the house of Chanel is located on number 31, rue Cambon. But it's not where the whole story started. The first business run by Gabrielle Chanel (in 1910) was a millinery shop/atelier located at 21, rue Cambon. Later, in 1914 she started creating clothes and with the new money she moved to the actual 31 rue Cambon, around 1918.

First picture of a Chanel hat - Les Modes, 1912

But we are still in 1920 - 1921. Gabrielle is not yet the queen of fashion, still shy and not the tough woman as in the late 30's or 60's. She adores a famous perfume by Houbigant - Quelques Fleurs. It is said that in the south of France, the prince Dmitrii presented her the former royal court perfumer, Ernest Beaux and soon Chanel would fragrance the market.
You know the story - No 5 and No 22.
The fact that 5 comes from the day of the collection (5th of the month) is not true (at least in the 20's) and can be easily verified via Vogue and l'Officiel fashion magazines which published always the presentations days for all designers in Paris.
Today, people use to compare No22 to No5. It's not wrong, but No22 is quite closer to what Houbigant perfume used to be and this can be checked at the Osmothèque.
But, as the fashion house was first at 21 rue Cambon and because Chanel loved Quelque Fleurs what if the first was not …. No5 but No22? And what if the story did not happen in 1921 but in 1922?
The simplest way to name a perfume is the number of the street - the address from where the true essence of style started. "the must go" in Paris. Of course everything would change with a new address or if the clientele prefers another perfume you've already put on the market. Another idea for the name would be the year/date of launch. A perfume on the market in the 20's was not seen as today (the product that will last for ever and produce a fortune performing in the first 6 months) and the way we see branding simply did not exist (I will discuss later the myths of today about 20's and No5).
How is Chanel fashion in 1921? We see it in rare magazines from the time were the whole collection is described: black, flowers-roses, bead embroidery, beige, some fringes.
How is Chanel fashion in 1922? Suddenly it's Russian with popular motifs (embroidery), the novelty of the season!
In early 1920 Chanel started her love affair with grand Duke Dmitrii. His sister was the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna Romanova later founder of Kitmir (1921-1928), the embroidery house that employed Russian aristocrats and had a special contract with Chanel. Maria Pavlovna and Dmitrii, prior to Paris stayed in Romania, as guest of the Queen Mary. The 2 women shared some passions: popular art, fashion and perfume (!). Queen Mary of Romania, promoting her country, organized in 1921 and 1922 two big exhibitions of Romanian peasant art (embroidery) in London and Paris, with some articles and small ads in the fashion magazines. The art gallery in Paris was located on rue Faubourg St. Honoré, a street that intersects rue Cambon, but also the street where Coco had her apartment in early 20's.
In fall 1921 Maria Pavlovna met Coco Chanel and she started a very small embroidery atelier that will provide the Russian styled fashion for 1922 (seen in Vogue). It's funny to note that in 3 magazines from 1922 the embroidery used by Chanel is described as "Romanian", though as style it's Russian (!).

"Romanian" (but Russian) embroidered dress - Vogue, 1922

I did not find any reliable evidence that either No5 or No22 where put on the market (even as gifts to clients) in 1921.
As related by Philip Kraft in his article from Perfumer&Flavorist, Ernest Beaux had already worked on Quelques Fleurs (a perfume loved by Chanel) and that he was in France since in 1919 where Rallet company moved. I do not remember any great perfume in the past created in less than a year and the earlier that they could have met (Chanel and Beaux) is 1920.
My belief is that Coco met Beaux and had the idea to put perfume on the market not via Dmitrii but via her sister, the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (great lover of perfumes) that started to work for her in fall 1921. And that the first perfume was Chanel 22, a Christmas gift for some clients, selected from the first proposals. No22 which is very close to Quelque Fleurs (loved by Chanel) was also studied many years by Ernest Beaux and was easy to be produced in a very short period of time.
If you have a set of numbered samples, like them all and have to decide quick to "produce" them as a present you either chose the closest to what you asked for either 22 - because it will be 1922! After the first batch … if the idea to have a perfume works you can either use your clients for testing or experiment more.
Questions:
- was No22 the perfume given as a gift in 1922 with her Russian collection?
- was the first "brief" to Beaux a perfume like Quelque Fleurs and so - No22?
- was the first perfume 21, a reference to the shop atelier (she started as a milliner why not making the debut in perfumery with that reference) and put on the market in 1921?
- was Chanel 21 (which existed!) renamed in Chanel 22, or was it different?
The number collection (from which it was said she choose No5) existed indeed, but all before 1924, as they are quoted in an obscure article from Vogue that year. Did Chanel put all of them on the market to see which will resist and in the end choose the "strongest"? No5 the first and then her favorite No22 … that were to be produced by the new factory in late 1924?
That's my theory but if it's true … that's something quite innovating and revolutionary in terms of marketing - the natural selection (there is no ad for them in the early 20's - although ads were used by all Chanel "competitors") and also that the first was not No5.
Did Chanel invent the first "fragrance panel" (using her rich clients) for more than 3 years before deciding in 1924 that the best choice is No5?
As No5 was not advertised in those years this technique would have been not only revolutionary but also typical for the subversive Chanel genius that liked to do everything "her way"!
To conclude, my theory is:
- for Christmas 1921 she put on the market Chanel No22, as a gift to some clients
- in 1922 she launched all the other perfumes from Beaux proposal to see which will be the best to her clients
- No5 was the winner, but because she liked No22 and because it was the first one (Chanel was very superstitious) she maintained its production from 1924 when the new business started.

Note: In her book, Christie Mayer Lefkowith says that the very first Chanel bottle was created by Julien Viard but she says also that Chanel perfume company was created in 1920 (!). She also says that the trademark date for No5 is 1st january 1921. Michael Edwards says that the official launch of the Chanel No5 is 1922, after she gave it as a present for Christmas in 1921.

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

Fleeting moment - Balenciaga

Thanks to Denyse I was able to discover this almost unknown perfume from Balenciaga and enjoy this creation from Roure, credited to the greatest Germaine Cellier. Understanding old perfumes must be done with modern eyes (and revisit them) but also within their historical perspectives. The perfume, created for the American market (one of the big buyers of French couture) was launched in the early 60's, though a French version (La fuite des heures) was created earlier (I did not sample it to check the perfume). Though my first reaction smelling the Balenciaga sample was "it's a Chanel No5", I'd like to speak how authorship was perceived in those days. Today, not only in perfumes, but also in fashion (on specific blogs) we tend to speak very much about being original, authorship and many bloggers posted not only fragrances that are similar but also fashion models from runaways (from different designer) that were very close in their design. In the past (50-60's) that issue was totally different perceived. Intellectual property was an important subject to discuss only in cases of counterfeiting, otherwise taking inspiration was well seen as a form of flattery. Chanel, the most prized fashion designer in the early 60's, speaks about the copy/imitation in her interviews (youtube) as a form of style (compare this with interior design historical styles in France). Vogue Paris, not only praised the modern Chanel style but also encouraged the imitation of that style by other brands. I saw articles-editorial in Vogue/Elle that for a today reader would seem a blasphemy - what we see today as a shameless copy was encouraged and published by the most famous fashion magazine, as a form of true style and French chic. Coco Chanel, after her comeback in fashion in 1954 had first a bad review in French magazines but a big success in USA. In a short period of time she became the ultimate icon of style (modern, young, practical and elegant) for the American women and her perfume (Chanel No 5) was already a huge success in USA (there are a lot to speak how it became that famous). It was obvious that every new French perfume would have to face this success. Balenciaga, one of the greatest fashion designers, with an aristocratic style and clientele (including the dowager of American beauty industry, Helena Rubinstein) had also a perfume line, produced by Roure. It was a rather small company, compared to Chanel, but even to Dior, the emperor of fashion in the 50's. Chanel was in the American market since the 30's, Dior 50's and Balenciaga entered later. In this context it is not by surprise that Balenciaga choose a perfume inspired by Chanel No5 - the symbol of Parisian chic and style, or, as it was said in those days to aldehidic perfumes - French type No1 perfume.
Fleeting Moment is a floral aldehydic perfume (Chanel No5 like), modern and strong, with citrus, spicy, woody notes, combined with rose and jasmin absolutes. It's fresher and lighter compared to No5, like perfume intended not for ladies but for young women.
Top notes: citrus aldehidic with a slightly aromatic touch (tarragon like): bergamot, orange, aldehyde C10, aldehyde C11-enique, neroli.
Middle notes: floral bouquet (ylang-fresh rose-jasmin) with a very light lily of the valley base (more modern than No5) and floral powdery notes (orris absolute and methyl ionones).
Base notes: Soft woody with powdery and musky notes like vetiver (+the acetate), sandalwood, vanilla, sweet coumarine and musk (musk ketone and natural musk).
The main differences to the well known No5 are the rose and lily of the valley, they are fresher and with modern ingredients. I suppose there is a muguet-base like Mayciane (Caleche-Madame Rochas). There is also more jasmin (animalic) in No5 than in Fleeting moment and also a smal chypre note (patchouli + oak moss) that I was not able to detect in Balenciaga's perfume (wich has more vetiver as does Arpège). Compared again with No5, Fleeting moment has a modern touch in the straight line of Calèche, the new type of floral aldehydic, popular in 60's and 70's.
Fleeting moment is a perfume of its time. It should be compared with Calèche, No5, Elysée 64-83 (Balmain, a Germaine Cellier perfume, maybe an earlier version of this one) but also with some very popular Avon perfumes of the 50-60's.

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Top 5 China 2007

NPD published the top 5 fragrances in China for the 1st half of 2007:
No. 5 (Chanel)
J’adore (Dior)
Miracle (Lancôme)
Chance (Chanel)
Addict 2 (Dior)

from the press release:
"I believe the fragrance industry in China is in its infancy. Culturally Chinese men and women don’t wear fragrance; it’s just not a priority,” said Wang. “Fragrance usage in China is more for special occasions and not something people do on a daily basis. However, it is an industry that is rapidly trying to change that, particularly in the male market. Just last year men’s fragrance specialized counters appeared at department stores, and we expect to see more growth in this area"

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

The best fragrance ever - Luca Turin

In his latest article for NZZ Folio, Luca Turin speaks about Nombre Noir, but also about the passion of a man for vintage perfumes collected via ebay. Because many bottles are sold for their artistic/design values for the perfume lover they become unaffordable. Also, with the rise of perfume experts, their price became even higher in the past years.
When Luca Turin speaks about this trouble in finding his beloved perfume I recognize my own difficulties to find/try/sample vintage perfumes for the book I work on.
For those living in USA its easier because vintage perfumes are less expensive than in France. In Paris, with all the tradition of bottle collecting some fragrances became over priced.

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Paul Poiret: Rosine perfumes in 1921

An article from Vogue 1921 features 2 Rosine perfumes - Pierrot and Hahna - l'étrange fleur. Beatiful examples of coordinated design the 2 fragrances are today totally lost and only rare bottles could be found.
Pierrot - a character from Comaedia dell'Arte - was a citrusy cologne perfume featuring a neroli-orange flower note. It is still an amazing composition, still fresh and with no wrinkle.
Hahna - inspired by extreme oriental fairy tales was a flori oriental perfume with a spicy note. Based on sandalwood/amber/incense it retained some aspects from the already famous l'Origan (Coty).
1921 was also the year when Chanel No5 was created, an abstract concept totally opposed to Poiret's creations. Though many Rosine perfumes are featured in the time press (Vogue, Femina, etc) I didn't find any mention on Chanel No5 before 1921. Not to speak about advertising! The succes of No5 defies any rule of today marketing. It was the genius of Coco Chanel and the masterpiece of Beaux that are a lesson for many marketing directors.
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

Licencing & Fragrance World

To understand why there are so many brands and new launches today ... one must understand the way fragrance business works today.
The 15 th issue of Beyond Beauty explores this field with a lot of unknown insights.
"THE FRAGRANCE MARKET CONTINUES TO FIND ALLURE IN CELEBRITY AND DESIGNER SCENTS AS A MEANS TO EXTEND AND STRENGTHEN BRANDS. MANY CONSUMERS, ALREADY FANS OF FRAGRANCE AS AN EMOTIONAL MEDIUM, ENJOY CONNECTING TO THEIR FAVORITE PERSONALITIES VIA SCENT. THUS THE SUCCESS OF FRAGRANCE LICENCES."

You can read the whole story on Beyond Beauty site.

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

New book: Diptyque

A new fragrance book is available on the market, this time dedicated to Diptyque, famous also for its refined candles. The book was written by the historian Elisabeth de Feydeau and is rich in photos and very beautiful insights on their famous fragrances.

The book is available at Amazon.

Around 23 famous people (from artists, writers to actors, fashion designers) are featured at the end of the book with a photo and quotation / hommage about Diptyque products.

The book is a very nice and friendly marketing tool for any brand that want to position itself very high-exclusive. The same strategy was applied since many years by Guerlain and a lot of the treasures of their archives became available to the general public.

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

How to lie with fragrances

Reviewing the way brands communicate fragrance (in the past 5 years) I learned a lot about how truth is relative and how to lie with the perfect smile. Because there is no other legislation than health and no authority to rule what is said officially about fragrances, as a brand you are free to tell and invent everything. When information is scarce (the secrecy), experts lack, advertising is good with press and there is no legislation … the freedom of speech allows you to tell almost whatever you want.
- press releases arrive to journalists and brands do not sign articles published in magazines. They are not so responsible of what is written to people and in an imaginary trial it would be hard to prove a "lie".
- natural raw materials presence. You have a 100% synthetic composition and you claim jasmine absolute, rose absolute, etc. It's perfectly legal. There is nothing to stop you telling that, other than ethic. People do not know how absolutes smell, a GC analysis is not cheap and who would do that? So, if the world is still so relaxed why not inventing? Perfumes is about dream and marketing about what people want to hear …. we are told that since many years. Increase the phenyl ethyl alcohol and damascones/damascenones and you will indeed feel a big rose! The illusion is perfect.
- natural raw materials origin. You have in your formula the cheapest Chinese jasmine but you claim Grasse absolute. No rules to stop you telling, and not so easy to analyse (you have to look for that difference to find it). So, why not becoming noble if everyone wants "prestige"?
- reformulations. The fragrance formula is the property of who produces it and the name is a trademark of a brand. If you reformulate a fragrance (price/regulations/market taste) you don't have to tell it to your consumers, so why bother to keep the same expensive/old perfume when you can twist it. With 400 new and coloured launches it's hard to keep in mind all the perfumes on the market and their personality/profile even if you wore that. So, why not to take advantage of this confusion? When customers are no more loyal to one fragrance, why should you be to them and not change Mitsouko?
- historical perfumes. There are few people left who smelled old fragrances, some of them don't even remember the smell. Why shouldn't we "invent" the history? The Cleopatra's fragrance with Hedione, the Napoleon cologne with Galaxolide. One can even invent an old formula: take an old paper from flea market, some ink and feather and write something … here you have a document found in convent in Italy with 30% Galaxolide! It will not go to Louvre or Sotheby's, so it can be "authentic". Ethic stopped to be a value of our times and again, nothing would stop acting like that. There are still a lot of very young perfumers who do not remember when Galaxolide/Hedione HC/Lilial were discovered, so, why shouldn't we put them in a "formula" from 1910?
- research. In the past there was a lot of research work from big fragrance houses (IFF, Givaudan, Firmenich, etc) that was not published or not available to public (the "secrecy" and the difficulty to protect that work). So, as a brand, why not inventing a research? It could be secret, exclusive and you may find all the reasons to justify the lack of details! Instead of paying a lab to do a real fragrance research … it's not so difficult to claim it because nothing would stop you! You can invent a trip in a jungle, a photo album of the research team, some unheard plant extracts and molecules that do not exist … a nice script for a Spielberg movie. You can even co-distil rose+jasmin+osmanthus and present to people a very rare "pink orchid" absolute that inspired the fragrance. Because you do not publish in a scientific magazine you can fake the reality. There was quite a number of scientists who faked science (read the article were Luca Turin revealed the fraud in neurobiology in France) … so, why not a fragrance (that is completely inoffensive)?
In art "faking the truth/reality" is a form of expression associated with post modernism. In the industry it can be a way to make a lot of money when there is nothing to stop it.
Losing faith and credibility is a major problem that brands will face in the next 5 years.

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

4-MethyI-phenoxy ethanol

In one of his articles (P&F) Arcadi Boix Camps says about this ingredient: "…is a tenacious, weak, jasmine fragrance that blends well with n-propyl benzyl carbinol, dimethyl benzyl acetate. Benzyl Isoeugenol, acetyl eugenol and phenoxyethyl propionate. One of the most important bases in perfumery is based on all of these chemicals, which are known to very few people. Perfumes that contain this base are Joy by Jean Patou, Blue Grass by Elizabeth Arden, Chanel No. 19…"
I would be very curious to know that curious strange base. Any idea?

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Lanvin in 2007

Lanvin perfumes were sold again in 2007. To a very clever team! So smart that they forgot that in 2007 Arpège, one of the monuments of world perfumery had 80 years.
So .... there was no anniversary of Arpège, as it was for L'air du Temps (scentedsalamander wrote about that).
It's a pity but also a reflection of our time. People with no respect/knowledge/soul .... manage a lot of "lives" in fragrance world.
In 2008 you will have a miriad of flankers from Rumeur family ....

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

Miroir des Secrets - Mugler

Thierry Mugler launched a very interesting series of perfumes inspired by the theme of the mirror. I will not review them now but I will speak about aldehydes.
The official description of the perfume says … " aldéhyde doux-amer : aldéhyde d'origine naturelle, patchouli, musc...". Bitter sweet aldehydic with aldehyde of natural origin.
Well … that's hilarious and a typical marketing speech.
There are many aldehydes in perfumery (aldehyde is a generic chemical function) with all kind of smells: green (Triplal), lily of the valley (Lyral, Lilial, Hydroxicitronellal), "aldehydic". The term aldehydic is a reference to a typical fatty-waxy-rosy-citrusy kind of smell possessed by a class of aldehydes (the fatty aldehydes or aliphatic) made famous by Chanel No5 and all the perfumes of that kind.
The most used fatty aldehydes (a reference to the fatty acids) are:
Aldehyde C7, C8 (octanal), C9 (nonanal), C10 (decanal), C11 (undecanal and also the unsaturated C11 called undecenal), C12 (and its isomer), etc.
Most of them are widely present in nature in citrus oils (orange, lemon) but also rose, citronella, pine. They are responsible for green/citrusy/tangy smells and are widely (before No5) in the reconstitutions of rose oil, citrus oils, etc…
But No 5, presented as "the modern perfume that doesn't smell of any flower and used aldehydes in a high percentage" … made famous the fatty aldehydes as the ultimate synthetic, modern, anti natural smell. Though they are present in nature!
Coming back to the Mugler description of the perfume … "that uses an aldehyde of natural origin" it is sooooo hilarious. It sounds as all aldehydes are synthetic but Mugler did a big Nobel prize discovery with a natural aldehyde!!!!!
Marketing people should take basic chemistry classes and stop telling nonsense.
Maybe in a short time we will hear about organic / bio aldehydes!

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

Science and falsification - Luca Turin

I read this very interesting article about a possible fraud that took place at Institut Pasteur some 20 years ago, when Luca Turin was a young scientist at CNRS in the field of neurobiology. The article with quotes of Luca Turin about his boss and his unusual way to play science is maybe the beggining of the story about how Turin was fired from the prestigious scientific cercle because he found some not so academic practices.

«Je me suis trouvé en présence de quatre personnes, dont Syrota et Naquet, dit Turin. Je leur ai expliqué la situation. J’ai dit que le devoir d’un scientifique était d’établir la vérité et que je m’étais trouvé dans un laboratoire dont le directeur agissait comme un faussaire. On m’a répondu que j’avais cinq jours pour me trouver un autre poste, de préférence hors de France ! » Le CNRS ne pousse pas l’enquête plus loin...

What Luca Turin did after is already history.

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

Molyneux

Molyneux was a great fashion house founded by captain Edward Molyneux in 1919 and located in Paris, rue Royale at number 14 and from 1922-1950 at number 5 on the same street. Very famous in the 20's, this fashion house launched some perfumes and few of them had quite a success. One of them was Cinq, written 5 (the number) on the very first bottles and lately, due to trademark issues written in letters. Named after the number of the fashion house it was also a very clear reference to the Chanel perfume, already famous. It was a chypre fruity (peach) with some aldehydic notes and a powdery musky undertone, but not a copy of No5 Chanel.
In the photo from Vogue 1925 you will find also another perfume, 14 (the first street number of Molyneux), a number that was lately used by YTEB fashion house (that moved in that building) for a perfume similar with Chanel No5. Molyneux had also a perfume called Vogue - a clear reference to the famous fashion magazine.
What is curious to notice is that in the 20's you will not find any advertising of Chanel No5 (I didn't find any) but you will find Molyneux, Yteb, Rallet and other perfumes with a clear reference to Chanel.
In the ad from Vogue 1925 you might notice also the bottle shape and the cofffret of 3 fragrances, quite close to that one used by Chanel.
Apparently for Molyneux, a very famous fashion house, there was no problem to have the main fragrance quite similar to the major success of another and rival fashion house.
Today, more than 80 years later the world did not change that much. Big names take advantage of a success launched by another big one … just the story told is different. In the 20's the term marketing was not used for perfumes. Today an imitation needs an entire story to justify it. Just look at the pattern rose(damascones, phenylethyl alcohol)-patchouli-ambroxan and all the stories built in the past 2 years (from Dior to Mugler you have all the range). Today the name is trend.

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