1000fragrances: February 2009

Saturday, February 28

And there was 1919

“I think we all know that Ponselle was simply the greatest singer of us all!” said Maria Callas about Rosa Ponselle. She was the star at the Met Opera when she debuted in 1918 with Carusso. In 1919 she was singing "Un bel di vedremo" from Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. Not only was a great succes but she recorded soon this aria. No surprise that the story went directly from the stage into a great parisian perfume.

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

Friday, February 27

Manoumalia - LesNez (photos)

When I presented Manoumalia (LesNez) and took the interview with Sandrine Videault, I had no images for this beautiful exotic floral. The perfumer kindly sent me some photos taken at Nouméa in Nouvelle Caledonie. I wished they were scented but modern technology didn't go that far.

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

What they smell and what they are

The efforts around La Petite Robe Noire seem rather hilarious. Today I read an article in Le Figaro about an event done at 68, Champs Elysées.
"Dress code oblige, toutes ou presque affichent la black attitude avec un chic parisien discutable" everything is done to give a vintage feeling to their perfume, even the collaboration with the expert Didier Ludot. If you read the description you would love the perfume: "rose, de thé fumé, de patchouli, de musc et de vanille.". Indeed, it sounds very good and everything seems perfect.
But it is hilarious and forcé to pass a cherry-almond-sweet lovely sorbet to a distinguished perfume. This kind of cross pollination between the suggested image and the real client is very strange to accept. As I said in the past, there is no shame to be girlish, pinky, bling bling and even to sell delicious macarons. What gives me headache is the pretentious attidude.
But that's enough for this week with La Petite Robe Noire de Guerlain.
You can read the official LVMH presentation and their stereotypes.
It's not easy to enter the fashion world. You don't stick a name and speak about style :)

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

Ocean Lounge (Escada)

The greatest orchard in the world is German and has a name. It's Escada. I've recently tried their latest Ocean Lounge and I was in a big trouble. Do I smell a perfume or a flavor. This time no doubt about the creation - pure cocktail with soda and haribo. Take all the Fanta versions from around the world and mix them. Mango, kiwi, raspberry, grenadine. You can't be wrong with a fruit cocktail. And a fruit cannot be wrong! Everybody loves fruits and you can mix them in any proportion. Fruits today are like Kölnisch Wasser yesterday or the citrus family. An old perfumer told me once that for citruses you do not speak of accord but of mixture/blend. Any proportion is good and pleasant. What is funny about Escada and fruits is that most of their components are known since early 20th century. But those esters were used mainly by the flavorists. Those type of perfumes have though a quality. You can transform them into bases and incorporate them into other creations. In 10 years soli fruits will fade on the market. It happened decades ago with solifores and their formulas became floral bases. Fruity perfumes are also a good technical lesson for flavorists. When you prepare a flavor you don't use only molecules but also all kind of extracts that are not available for the perfumer. If you study Escada, you can prepare a flavor that is 100% synthetic, easy to mix. Add some sugar and citric acid and voilà the cocktail for the lounge.

The official description says: violette petals, jasmine flower and mimosa, tonka and cedar.
I'm still searching them into the fizzy salad fruit with pear, litchi and light strawberry.

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

Thursday, February 26

La Flambée (d'Orsay) 1913

World was different before WWI and perfumery lived one of its most exciting decade. Almost every year saw the birth of a new creation and it was nothing but pure creation. New materials every year and perfumers were inventing new structures that were the base of the next decade. Aldehydes were around since the early 1900's and No5 came later as a coronation of their use. Their power was like a firework into a formula and each boosted a particular note. From citrus to rose, orris, tuberose, amber, incense, there was nothing aldehydes were not able to support. They were "la flambée", the storm, the light, the fire like the color in the fauve paintings. We still do not know exactly the ground on which No5 was born because few of the perfumes from that time have survived and because the war made a great gap. Perfumers started to use aldehydes single, than single and in overdose, than by 2 (C9 and C11, C11 and C12, C10 and C12MNA). By 1913, after Quelques Fleurs (Houbigant), the aldehydes were in a tango. Right after the war there was the ménage à 3 and ménage à 4. Like the flower bouquet, there was the aldehydic bouquet. Special blendings of aldehydes to be used in specific perfumes.
La Flambée was a perfume of d'Orsay in a beautiful Lalique bottle. Now, the history of the house is not fully understood, nor their very old fragrances. La Flambée is an obscure perfume from this house, produced right before the war by a major house in the south of France. It was rose+jasmine with several very new and fashionable notes on a woody base.
Aldehydes were also able to generate new accords with salycilates and musks. C11, C12, salycilates and musk ketone is already the heart of a famous perfume (not No5 :)

Last month I remade a formula from 1911-1913, rather conventional. But it is curious to see that it had already the structure of an entire family of perfumes. It smelled like the abstract of 3 decades of perfumery. It can be resumed as an rose-jasmine sweet accord:
Bergamot dtp. ess
Rose de mai absolute (+++)
Rose oil
Geranium B. ess
Jasmine absolute (+++)
Orris concrete
Heliotropine (+++)
Coumarine
Isoeugenol
Patchouli dtp. Ess
Oak moss
Musk ketone

With several twists you can obtain several major perfumes.

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

Breaking news at Guerlain

I've been criticizing Guerlain (not only me, AlbertCan wrote a good analysis on their PR) on many aspects but things are about to move into a new direction. One aspect was the closed doors strategy but several brands worldwide have already started to embrace what is called Feedback 3.0 by trendwatching. Sylvaine Delacourte announced on graindemusc her intention to open the subject of criticism and debate on her personal blog EspritdeParfum (only in French for the moment). No matter the consequences (improving quality, better fragrances or just a debate for more online buzz), that's an important first step. At least the Sleeping Beauty (Guerlain) seems to wake up to the new technology and that is good news.
I can only congratulate Mme. Sylvaine Delacourte for her intention and quick reaction and that's new for Guerlain. There are many hot and delicate subjects to debate but that's like an exam for the brand (though we speak only about the creations that involved Mme Delacourte).

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

Wednesday, February 25

Eroticism, dress and fragrance

I remember I saw this Symrise video about 2 years ago during a conference made for cosmetic chemists in Paris (or for Comité Colbert, I don't remember quite well). Several interviews in french with women about their relation to scent, love, fashion, emotion. It's interesting to hear how people perceive fragrances.

Symrise fragrances

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

Tuesday, February 24

Art goes to Italy

Esxence - The Scent of Excellence is a new event dedicated to special perfumes and it will take place in Milan, from 2 to 5 april.
I liked the way that Italians described this kind of perfumery - Profumeria d’Arte italiana and then ... Profumeria Artistica. At least they had the first book called L'Arte profumatoria (centuries ago) and they had this brilliant idea before the French. In Paris it is still called "parfumerie de niche" and I think of Printemps shop and their desire to enlarge the niche area.
Parfumerie d'Art - I must recognize has a very good connotation, though I should admit that french people would call it prétentieux. How much Art is inside ... that's another subject to analyze. It is also true that not all of the brands are oriented towards Art, whatever art could be.
Some of the brands that will be present at this event include: Parfumerie Generale, NasoMatto, Lorenzo Villoresi, Miller Harris, Creed, Etro, Eau d’Italie, Clive Christian, Esteban, Parfums d’Orsay, Knize, Nez à Nez, Lubin, Juliette Has a Gun, Bond No9.
For those who understand Italian (my second language after French) there are a lot of information on the website EXTRAIT.
There is also an interview with Pierre Guillaume, from youtube, that I put here. That's because me and several friends, we didn't believe he was a real person. Very good fragrances surrounded by mystery. Voilà!
He explains Louanges profanes and that's amazing to hear him. You understand how the perfume is built and this kind of presentation could be a lesson for several great brands. Guerlain wouldn't be able to do this kind of passionate presentation, which in the end is the best form of advertising (Estée Lauder did it ages ago for the cosmetics).

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

How cold was the Cold War?

In the movies the Iron Curt is represented in a very black and white manner and if you believe propaganda East and West were 2 separated entities that did not interfere very much (except for military reasons, espionnage and couture). How much truth is in the known history, or at least in our cosmetic/fragrance history?

Some facts
- Russian fragrances were advertised in France and for a short period they were sold in Paris (near the Opera).
- several extraction and manufacturing technologies (+ machines) used at Novaya Zarya were French, bought in the 60's
- mixing machines for cosmetics were also French and a short time collaboration with L'Oreal and Revlon existed in the late 70's and early 80's
- in the most difficult times there were perfumes /cosmetics with the inscription Moskva New York and Moskva Paris
- several important cosmetic congresses were organized in Poland and Czech Republic and companies like DROM, H&R, Dragoco were already present there in the 80's
- research articles (science, marketing and creation!!!) produced in Poland were very often featured in the American Perfumer and Flavorist. And I insist on the word marketing because it is unusual to hear such an approach from a state owned company.
- intensive advertising on Russian cosmetic products (+ soaps, perfumes) existed in the 60's in British, French and American trade magazines
- latest research articles were available in the east, as well as latest books, often translated in Russian (until mid 80's they translated almost everything in science)
- research articles (fragrance, cosmetics, flavors), but also patents were quoted or described in American, British and German magazines (I didn't find polish magazine of the factory Pollena in Romania but I found the abstracts in Paris!)
- french cosmetic patents were quoted in romanian cosmetic patents
- before the mid 80's French perfumes were available in the East and sold on the market. It was a limited number but names like Ricci, Lancôme, Revlon, Dior were not strange at all. Also local versions of famous perfumes existed. It is still unknown if they were created there or the concentrates were sold by the companies in the West (Drom, H&R, Dragoco, etc).
- marketing reports about those countries were available in the west and some of them published in P&F, Cosmetics & Toiletries, etc
- cosmetics from the east were exported in the west and a very known case is about a Romanian cream quite famous in USA
- Nivea original cream was available in the east. It was produced in Romania in the German factory (nationalized after WWII) using the original formula and original color code / packaging. Even the original perfume.
- western deodorants were available in the east on black market - many of them were already "bottled" in the east as it was very cheap to produce them there. Socialist countries started to work for the West long time ago (like China today) and it was not only the fashion
- the proliferation of counterfeited products after 1989 is a subject discussed with a lot of hypocrisy in Paris. Like in fashion, it was a side effect of the global production. When fragrances and cosmetics started to be produced outside France … it gave birth in those places (from Poland to Ukraine and Turkey) to this situation. Know how provided by western companies combined with an emerging economy gave birth to hybrid products.
- one of the greatest fragrance brands of today was producing a part of the fragrances in Czech Republic. If now, for the clothes you'll see "made in", there were many tricks used in the cosmetic/fashion business (I know also several practices used to apply "made in Italy" without being made there and without being outside the law before 2006:). Many perfumes/cosmetics produced under license that changed owner 3 times in the 90's were subject to a huge variation in terms of quality.

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

Belle Haleine Eau de Voilette

The ready made "perfume" of Marcel Duchamp, part of the collection Yves Saint Laurent - Pierre Bergé, was sold yesterday in Paris for 8,913,000 EUR. Amazing!

From Christie's:

MARCEL DUCHAMP (1887-1968) Belle haleine - Eau de voilette inscrit et daté 'Rrose Sélavy 1921' (sur l'étiquette de la boîte de parfum)boîte ovale en carton de couleur violette, bouteille de parfum en verreHauteur: 16.5 cm. (6½ in.)Largeur: 11.2 cm. (4 3/8 in.)Réalisé avec le concours de Man Ray à New York, 1921

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

Jasmonis by Givaudan

A beautiful jasmine from the past created through extensive research done by Givaudan.

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

Polak & Schwarz's Essencefabricken

Before the creation of IFF there was another small but important dutch company that was responsible for many new molecules and bases. The first image shows a perfumer in front of the organ and it was taken right before the creation of IFF.

The second image is from the late 20's from a catalogue of raw materials published by Polak & Schwarz. It is amazing to see how big it was the range of aromatics produced by them. Some of them became special materials used by IFF.

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

Royal Leerdam

In the late 50's Naarden (Holland) prepared a royal perfume for Queen Juliane. It was presented to Her Majesty during a visit to the factory and then presented to the international press and other ladies. N.V. Chemische Fabriek "Naarden" was created in 1905 and for more than 50 years has created several important molecules, bases and other products uses in fine fragrances. Holland has produced also some very expensive naturals like hyacinth absolute but I'm not sure about the classic perfumes that used it. In 1987 Naarden was acquired by Unilever and formed Quest and finally Quest was acquired by Givaudan in 2007.
Still, no trace of this royal perfume (opulent floral) that apparently never went on sale.

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

The bitter taste of almonds

Yesterday I discovered the blog of a very important person in the fragrance business.
Reading the posts I had the sad feeling that me and several other who believe in fragrance as an Art ... we are maybe from another Planet. It's like trying to explain the difference between Joyce & Proust to somebody who read only Femme Actuelle her entire life.
It was a bitter and very sad moment to realize that in the end ... it's just a matter of personal taste. Not Art, not Tradition, not even Marketing.
I will not name that person but I'm horrified by the choice made by one of the houses I loved the most. Maybe it's just a matter of taste... what you read, what you see, what you listen to, how you speak and write... and some people just lack taste and knowledge despite their good intentions.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)Roger Delivering Angelica, 1819, Louvre

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

Monday, February 23

Chic or not? (Chic by Celine Dion)

The latest Celine Dion fragrance is Chic. In terms of concept it took the name from Carolina Herrera (Chic is a CH perfume) and the style from Ralph Lauren Notorious. The first image suggests also Bond No9 - the bottle and its mirrored image - but without its harmonious shape.

More info + photos on this mass market perfume - Chic Celine Dion.

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

Art, critics and Jasmin

For those who understand French, there was a very passionate debate around the "Le Prix Jasmin". Elisabeth de Feydeau wrote an article - review about the recent event - awards for fragrance writting, photography, illustration(she was member of the jury). But this evolved into a very interesting debate on fragrance and criticism. Very inspiring!

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

Saturday, February 21

Art of fragrance in NYTimes

Chandler Burr wrote about the art of perfumes - the exhibition of extinct and impossible smells.

"The raw materials used by the luxury fragrance brands to concoct perfumes are harnessed here by artists to construct serious aesthetic work, work that conveys vision and emotion on an invisible canvas. The inventiveness poured into these creations reverberates not against our retinas or eardrums but our nasal epithelia. Which is the second most astonishing thing about scent art — the degree to which museums essentially ignore it. "

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

(Ma)Dame aux camelias

"Where are my marrons glacés?" asked Garbo...
"Don't look for them in the latest Gaultier" it is rose-litchi-tarte au citron-grenadine and a lot of musk to keep everything like gelatine in a dessert.
Tastes in the boudoir have changed today.
Ma Dame, tout sauf une Madame! (peut être un monsieur)
I love the website and the movie for this recent perfume of FK.
Maybe the next Gaultier will be Ma Mie. He used bread in his collections (fondation Cartier, if I'm not wrong) and the bread note is also in a recent perfume. Pourquoi pas?

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

The battle of the Noses

This is a contest from 1956. USA, of course. When I found this in the magazine I hoped that the scent was still preserved. But the blotter was faint and I could identify only incense and musk ambrette. No idea about the famous perfume submitted to the attention of the 1956 public. But I find this idea great for today. When the consumer has so many scents and ads with celebrities what is the better way to make him know the entire range of the brand? With a great prize it could be a good idea to promote the range of a brand and even forgotten perfumes. People usually do not smell all the perfumes from a known brand but this way they could go beyond bla-bla and maybe find a fragrance they like. It is also a way to promote exclusive perfumes or those products that are available in few boutiques. I like clever contests rather than simple tirage au sort.

Get the consumer inside the brand by the Nose and not by the Eye.

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

Black Story

Maybe I should express my thoughts in images and not words. I like fairy tales and "La petite botte noire" could make a good subject. I'm not sure about the style. Something à la Brothers Grimm or something à la E.A. Poe?

La petite botte noire

Il était une fois un parfumeur a Paris ...

The little black boot

Once upon a time a perfumer in Paris ...

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

The future is between Raspberry and Cherry

Vous êtes unique,

Vous êtes Magnifique

Vous sentez la Framboise

Paris was near a financial collapse but Willy Wonka saved the entire city. La Seine became a river filled with syrup. Red comme l'amour (cherry, raspberry, strawberry), comme la pomme d'amour. Glucose will reach amazing levels this year. The same for ionones, furanones, glycidates and an entire range of products to make you fill unique and in competition with the sweets area of a supermarket.

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

Friday, February 20

American price of luxury

I found in my archive several documents on the price of perfumes in the past. I think it is interesting to see what was luxury and what not. What was affordable and what desirable. Price is an important component but usually it is not mentioned in the history of perfumes. Here you have a short list (from a bigger one), as it was published in a sale document from 1957. I have no idea about the power of 1 USD in 1957 compared to 2009.
But this list shows us some interesting facts. Caron perfumes were the most expensive. Guerlain was less expensive than Chanel and other couturiers perfumes. Dana, that latter became a cheap drugstore brand, was quite expensive. Classic Tabu was a bijou.
There is one Rubinstein I've never smelled and that is very expensive.

(prices are for extrait)

Fleurs de Rocaille (Caron), ¼ Oz. $10
Quelque Fleurs (Houbigant), ¼ Oz. $3.5
Joy (Jean Patou), ¼ Oz. $13.50
Intoxication (D'Orsay), ¼ Oz. $5.5
Chanel No5, 0,275 Oz, $7.50
L'Aimant (Coty), ¼ Oz. $ 3.50
Miss Dior, ¼ Oz. $ 7.50
Mitsouko (Guerlain), ¼ Oz. $5
Shalimar (Guerlain), ¼ Oz. $6
Bellodgia (Caron), ¼ Oz. $9
Ambush (Dana), ¼ Oz. $5
Shocking (Schiaparelli), ¼ Oz. $5
Nuit de Noel (Caron), ¼ Oz. $12.50
L'Heure Bleue (Guerlain), ¼ Oz. $5
Tabu (Dana), ¼ Oz. $10
Moonlight Mist (Helena Rubinstein) ½ Oz. $10

The "decline" of a perfume is not just about trends and what people like. In many cases the fall of a great perfume is explained by the new price (new market and public) and decline of the quality.
A modern example is Lancôme. They used to be luxury (than affordable luxury) with great and good perfumes but since the mid 90's the brand is going down. Magie Noire, once a success and good perfume is simply a cheap version that people don't buy. The latest Magnifique is a bad project and it will not survive more than 2-3 years. With the current management of L'Oreal, Lancome will join Coty (nobody dreams about modern Coty perfumes these days). The same can be said about Cacharel. Another brand in decline. First packaging (see Liberté and Anais) and now quality. Anais used to be a hit. Now, the formula is different from 1978. No surprise that they lost many loyal clients.
Guerlain, less expensive than Dior, has today the image of an exclusive, luxury brand - with the same classic perfumes but destroyed in terms of quality. That's the irony of history!

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

Contrabande parfumée

Counterfeited perfumes were a big problem in the past. It can be again a danger if you intend to buy a vintage (rare) perfume and might have the surprise to find something from the past.

The first picture is about the many efforts done in the 50's in USA to stop the invasion of those products. Chanel No5 and Soir de Paris were among the most counterfeited perfumes.

Others had the idea to translate this fact into a perfume. Here you have Contraband by Tussy. Was it a floral aldehydic? No idea. Look at the design of the packaging. It was Jean Paul Gaultier Fragile avant la lettre :)

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

Art of duplication

This is an "ad" from a professional american magazine from late 50's. I liked the expression "duplication of most difficult fragrances". I wish to know what was hard to copy than. Like today, a great part of the market was dominated by copies. The difference is how perfumers achieved that. Without GC, it was only the nose and the experience to help building a copy with a give price. Today, from the entire range of perfumes launched in 2008, more than 70% (to my nose) are modified fragrances. Several years ago the expression "trends in perfumery" meant general ideas or new directions. Now it is an excuse to copy.

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

Alberto Morillas

A photo from the first years of Alberto Morillas at Firmenich and the very first successes, perfumes from the 80's that are discontinued (like those for the german market).

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

Marketing, Myths and History

I was on the website of Robert Piguet today and a presentation text of Baghari kept my attention.
"Robert Piguet chose Master Perfumer Francis Fabron to work on the creation of Baghari with him. Mr. Fabron was known for his aldehydics, like L’Interdit, which he created for Givenchy as Audrey Hepburn’s signature scent. His compositions are in the so-called French style, very polished and feminine, delicately powdered. He is best known for Nina Ricci’s L’Air du Temps and Balenciaga’s Le Dix. Robert Piguet with his unerring discernment, chose the perfect perfumer to work with him on Baghari, a quintessentially feminine and romantic soft floral fragrance, ideally suited to the woman who is young at heart."
It seems a beautiful historical introduction to Baghari but in fact it is 100 % wrong! Or wrong according to my perception of history and its use.
It is wrong because all the perfumes of Francis Fabron appeared after Baghari, the formula was created right after the war (1944-1945). It is also wrong because he became Master Perfumer after and what it is not said (and not analysed yet) is the influence of Baghari on other fragrances.
When Francis Fabron and Germaine Cellier created the Piguet perfumes they were young and unknown perfumers. No other major fine fragrance creation is recorded before those for Piguet.
Now, in 2009 it's not necessary a fault of Piguet (they sell perfumes, they do not write books) but I presume that many took the text as an historical information and translated it in several languages.
The history of Piguet is great, but they still do not know how to use it and put it into words.

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

Wednesday, February 18

LOreal and the crisis

L'Oreal has several problems right now. As reported on FashionMag, there will be new products at a lower price and less innovation.
"L'Oréal va donc "compléter chacune de ses gammes par des produits peut-être plus simples, qui ne vont pas rendre les mêmes services, mais qui vont nous permettre de recruter de nouvelles consommatrices" achetant "à des prix plus bas" et avec "moins d'exigences".
"Dans un moment de crise particulier, il serait idiot de ne pas compléter le modèle (basé sur l'innovation et la débanalisation des produits, ndlr) en étant très pragmatique, en offrant des produits différents et plus accessibles.
It concerns mainly the cosmetics but there are also quite a number of fragrances produced by LOreal. When I know how much money they really put in their juices (think Lancôme and Armani) I can only imagine the pressure in the future for the perfumers. But in their prices a lot is devoted to marketing & co. Cutting several percentages from the juice will make their fragrances close to room sprays (in terms of price for the concentrate).
Victor & Rolf will introduce a fragrance priced a third of their range and big quantity. It sounds like Marc Jacobs Splash or the knockoff of this idea sold by Zara.
The future is indeed full of surprises.

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

Tuesday, February 17

Guerlain, listen to the fashion world!

Fashion now is quite affected by the crisis. But there is an important message given by Anna Wintour in the opening of NY Fashion Week.
"Because to be honest there's been too much product, too much copy-catting, and, probably too much consumerism. I think a sense of clarity, a sense leveling off and a sense of reality is needed.
I don't think anyone is going to want to look overly flashy, overly glitzy, too Dubai, whatever you want to call it. I just don't think that's the moment. But I do feel an emphasis on quality and longevity and things that really last."
Interview on the WallStreetJournal.
I think this is a good message to be heard by Guerlain. Stop sending bad fragrances on the market, go back to quality and creation and put some order in your lines!
If you think of fashion (with La petite robe noire de Guerlain) think also fashion. Time is changing. Bling is out. :)

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

Istanbul put in a bottle?

Bottling the scent of a city became symbolic in the past 10 years. There is of course Bond No9 and New York and the classics like Paris (YSL), Roma (Biagiotti). Also Serge Lutens paid hommage to the universe of scents of Morocco and there are several italian brands that I still explore.
But now it seems that another old capital of fragrances will be bottled. Istanbul!
"Hun, 79, of Hungarian origin, has earned his living through his nose for half a century. He has worked with major companies all over the world and created thousands of fragrances, all of which contributed to his title as the "longest living perfumer. "
The entire article is on Hurryvet.

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

Luxury will change? But when...

A hundred of representatives from the entire cosmetics industry discussed on February 11 in Paris about “the needed revolution of perfume and cosmetics”.
Brands have failed to “listen the society, and the evolution of what does luxury mean,” - Nathalie Duran, Deputy General Manager of YSL Parfums.
Xavier Renard, General Manager Fine Fragrance & Beauty Care Europe at IFF: “the high rhythm of launches leading perfumers to develop new fragrances within delays that do not allow them to match with the level of innovation awaited by the market”.

The entire article that I quoted here is on PremiumBeauty.
I'm happy to see that many people are aware about the current state of the beauty industry. Critical voices started about 2-3 years ago, but now it's time for action.
Last year (or 2007, I'm not sure) during an important forum there were many complains about the number of launches ... The result was - they almost doubled in 2008 :) There is still a gap between theory and what happens next.

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

Monday, February 16

Celui - Jean Dessès

I wanted to review Celui - Jean Dessès, a classic vintage, but I found a text published in 1964 (P&EOR) that is more interesting. Writing a fragrance review is not that new.
"The royal impertinence of jasmine and the rose is harmonized by the wordly exquisiteness of the gardenia. The rustic sentimentalism of the hawthorn is improved by the simple tenderness of the iris, the violet and the heliotrope. To those ardent delights, the ambergris and the civet bestow their intimate, tempestuous and rare powers of penetration. From these natural foundations has been fused the enchantement of a perfume never before experienced, widening the scope of perceptive senses just as dramatically as an abstract painting refuses to copy nature."
The last passage was a metaphor for the aldehydic note of the fragrance. Classic and Parisian in the 60's.

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

Style in perfumery - Céline Ellena

" To make a formula is not like creating a culinary recipe by mixing several ingredients until one reaches the well-balanced amount for every material. I prefer to compare perfume formulation to a way of flexibly knitting materials together. This way, the ingredients can either attract or repel each other, building a pleasant form, which is neither fixed, nor solid, nor rigid. We have seen thus far that, in the olfactory language of a fragrance, synthetics are akin to a single word: distinct information, linear, and with a faithful personality. In the presented linguistic metaphor, natural materials are akin to a complex chat: diverse information, messy, and with a meddlesome personality."

In an article published in CHEMISTRY & BIODIVERSITY – Vol. 5 (2008), Céline Ellena speaks about the different approaches in explaining a formula: The Cooking Metaphor, The Musical Metaphor, The Linguistic Metaphor.

This approach can be seen in several very delicate perfumes done for The Different Company: Un parfum d'ailleurs et fleurs, Un parfum des sens et bois, Un parfum de charme et feuilles.

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

Nazi Chic at Dior?

I'm into fragrances and skincare and make up is not my thing. But yesterday a friend showed me a delicious lipstick from Dior with an intriguing name. It was thought as an hommage to Ava Gardner, client of Dior. But the name is AVA BROWN, which sounds like EVA BRAUN - the mistress and later wife of Adolf Hitler. It is rather strange to find such a connotation today in LVMH products but there is something even more interesting in the history. If the healthy natural german look was something of the official propaganda of Goebbels the reality was quite different in the high circles of the IIId Reich. Women loved cosmetics and french fashion and it was impossible to stop them. Both Magda Goebbels and Eva Braun were devoted clients of Eilzabeth Arden. What happened to Elizabeth Arden (the company) during the WWII in Germany is still an unsolved chapter of the cosmetic industry. Eva Braun was again less into 4711 fresh cologne, and more into french perfumes. By then blonde women with blue eyes were using a special type of perfumes, or at least what beauty magazines of the period said. Historians reported at least 2 perfumes Eva Braun used and one was l'Heure Bleue from Guerlain (LVMH).

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

Friday, February 13

SFP Conference - Osmotheque

Last night I was at the conference of SFP - Coups de coeur de l'Osmotheque. Several great perfumers were presented (Parquet, Vincent Roubert, Germaine Cellier, Almeras, Henri Robert) with their works and several anecdotes. I will review this later.

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

Givenchy Testers in Paris

In the past Givenchy used to be a symbol of prestige and quality in fashion and fragrances. Hubert has never been very innovative but his clothes retained the sense of quality and texture learned from Balenciaga. When LVMH bought this house everything changed. Now, 10 years after it is very clear that Givenchy has lost a precious value. The clothes designed by Ricardo Tisci might look great on stage but in the stores their quality is somewhere near Zara. The fragrance division is not far from that but in many ways did better. I was very enthusiastic in 2007 when I heard that the discontinued fragrances will be part of a new line. If they were quite close to the original creations there was something else that disturbed me then. The packaging design. The cheapest and the most uninspired choice. If one year ago this seemed to be rather a personal esthetic option, today I have the "proof" that Givenchy doesn't care at all about its tradition. If you look at the testers you'll notice how bad the label is attached. Because it was a beautiful day in Paris, I went in 10 perfumeries to see how they look. With no exception, several labels were detached in the corner like those products sold à la péripherie. Because they did not care very much about classic Givenchy perfumes, the management opted not for serigraphy but for labels attached with glue. Luxury is in details is something said like a mantra at LVMH seminars. Voilà details! There is no surprise that nobody buys those classics, even reformulated. Ugly bottle, bad packaging, hard to read label … all the DON’TS in design were applied there. Another example of price cut at Givenchy is their bottle for the limited vintage editions (used also for a powder). I liked that cute bottle but last week I found with great surprise that it's a standard bottle, already used by a mass market brand in the late 70's (I will put the picture later). I have no problem with that, but it says quite much about the difference between the real price of the product and the luxury image. They had beautiful bottles and boxes. Now, each season the Very Irresistible bottle is sprayed with a new color.
(we'll have some great launches at Givenchy this year, but no specific idea right now)

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

Style in Perfumery (Jean Claude Ellena)

"When explaining a perfume composition to a beginner, it must be emphasized that it is not just a sum of more or less sophisticated odoriferous substances. It will be necessary for the begginer to understand that there exits a special touch (style) in perfumery. The style of Lanvin's Arpege has nothing to do with that of Van Cleef Arpel's First, neither has Rubinstein's Men's Club with Dior's Eau Sauvage, nor Monsavon's with Procter & Gamble's Camay, although ingredients used (the words) are oten the very same. As with music, painting and literature, even though notes, colours and words be the same, we find the style treatement, form and the musical, pictorial or literary arrangement offer unlimited variety."
Jean Claude Ellena, 1983 & 1986 (PCA and PF)

By that time he headed a group of perfumers that have been known for a specific philosophy and creative approach to perfumery. The perfumery Team concept was developped in the mid 70's in a small group of perfumer's working at Lautier. Unfortunatelly, as they were not working on big projects (big launches), we cannot appreciate the results today.

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

The panel and the fragrance

"In the last two decades the practice of selecting fragrances by the use of panels, market tests, statistical analysis of consumer motivation, psychological analysis of consumer buying habits, etc. have become very prevalent in almost all companies. Essential oil houses formerly selected the fragrance to be sold to the finished goods house by simply asking the perfumer to create a new perfume for customer X and abiding by his decision on what to submit. Now even they have fortified themselves with miniature fragrance selection panels which claim to be able to select, because of their marketing intuitiveness and esthetic knowledge, fragrances which will be accepted by the public. […] It is generally recognized that the public will never select a truly novel or original perfume, preferring to select something familiar, mediocre, or both as shown by the use of the statistical method of averaging (compromising) the results of any given survey."
Perfumer & Flavorist, November 1977 (page 36)

30 years after this text has been published we see the results almost everywhere. Guerlain used to be a creator of good perfumes that inspired others. Now Guerlain is the perfect illustration that no creator lives in that "house". From Champs Elysées to La Petite Robe Noire and almost all the range of Aqua Allegoria this reflect the contradiction of our times - big money doesn't support creation if there is no vision (see the first years of Serge Lutens Palais Royal). The scale of a creative brand is usually measured by its adverse effect - how many perfumes you inspire. Chamade, a great perfume, is still sold by Hermès under a different name and with a small modification. It was made about 20 years after Guerlain.
Quoting the book "How luxury lost its lust" a similar book title on the rise and fall of Guerlain would be "How Guerlain lost its nose".

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

Wednesday, February 11

The secret of roses

The french magazine Pour la Science has a very detailed article about the roses, why the smell and why sometime their scent is too delicate.
"Les fragrances des roses recèlent bien des secrets : de quoi sont-elles composées ? Comment sont-elles fabriquées ? Pourquoi celles des roses des fleuristes sont-elles si discrètes ? Les biologistes proposent aujourd'hui plusieurs éléments de réponse."
The full article, available in print, gives details about the molecules, their origin and a nice story about the Tea Rose and the influence of Rosa Chinensis on the scent of modern roses.

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

Tuesday, February 10

New fragrances in 2009: Ego Facto - a critical view

With EgoFacto we see the end of Niche Era - at least what we understand now by niche. Until now niche perfumes had at least 2 attributes - unusual notes (different from mainstream) and a special distribution. Boutique, niche corner or anything else. Last week I discovered special fragrances in a large distribution channel, right in the middle of the store, with no reference to anything like "exclusive aura". Aprox 2 years ago, Etat Libre d'Orange came out with special fragrances (and names) and only one shop in Paris. But French people love democracy and they like "couture on street" and "the street in a couture salon". It sounds as if the creator of Ego Facto thought to democratize the niche and refresh the distribution with a new type of scents, leaving the snobbery only in the choice of the bird - pawn. It will change for sure the perception of other fragrances and the attitude of other great brands. That's easy to understand - Artisan (within their boutiques) were not competing directly with Dior or other known brands. With 7 fragrances in Marionnaud it has the same "weight" as other brands (think how many perfumes has Ricci on sale). It works like Frédéric Malle, but for a wider audience, said a friend to me yesterday when we exchanged impressions on the perfumes.
Except Me Myself and I, the entire range is built on accords / ideas that already exist in several major launches, but each time a note or an unusual ingredient is overdosed to suggest a niche, uncommon appeal. This is usually revealed after 48 hours on the dry downs. It's not something to blame, this is not Frédéric Malle nor Serge Lutens. This is not the "elite" - but good, unusual notes for a wider audience. Maybe that's why the perfumes are not "polychromatic" in terms of accords, but rather bipolar (2-3 ideas, contrasts, easy to recognize and remember, unlike l'Artisan where almost the entire spectrum of shades is used to express a single idea).

Me Myself and I (Jean and Aurélien Guichard)
The fragrance created by Guichard father and son is by far the best of the line and the best fragrance since a long period. It is both original and well crafted, a rare quality today. The perfume is not the simple addition of tuberose and vetiver. Au contraire, it's the perfect match of 2 contradictory ideas - the soft, creamy and opulent flower plus the dry, smoky, oily wood. It is like a massive block of liquid marble invading the space. It is a perfume with no start and no end. After 2 days it has not "decomposed" into fragments but retained the same character as if Jean Carles was there to dictate the precise order of ingredients. More, you do not smell or identify tuberose, neither vetiver. They are perfectly locked. When I smell tuberose absolute, vetiver Java essence and ylang-ylang extra essence, there is something in common - a sharp note, pungent and violent. Something almost metallic like in saffron. It is around this analogy that the perfume is built. The vetiver inside seems either a special distillation or an accord with unusual molecules and some creamy sandalwood notes. It smells perfect and requires further investigation from me. Very creative, daring and unexpected.

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

New fragrance in 2009: Serge Lutens - Nuit de Cellophane

The latest fragrance from Serge Lutens, now in store, is quite unusual for the line, and maybe a sign for a new direction. It is the less Lutens and the less creative. In fact it is no more than a flanker of J'adore Absolu (Dior) with small modifications - mandarine on top, more accent on champacca/osmanthus and more lily. Though I find it not very creative, except for the name, the fragrance smells absolutelly great, like its inspiration. J'adore Absolu is an exceptional perfume. Extremely well balanced from top to bottom (though I'm not happy with the jasmone note on the skin à la Chanel Cristalle) Nuit de cellophane suggest the green freshness of many white flowers. Inside the perfume they are built like the reflections on a dew drop - every note is delicate - yellow rose, tuberose, champaca, jasmine, frangipani, lily of the valley, lily, mandarine flower, lemon flower. The drydown is musky, sandalwood with a soft powdery note. Delicate and silky, it shares some aspects with Beige - Chanel. For an affordable "recession" version, try Lucia (Oriflame) launched around 5 years ago and on sale for 15 EUR.

(For those who wear and love SL like me, please understand that it was not easy for me to write this post).

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

Monday, February 9

New fragrance in 2009: La petite robe noire de Guerlain (2)

This post contained original information / historic elements / formula review / aesthetic judgments about the Guerlain perfumes: Cherry Blossom, Voilà Pourquoi j'aimais Rosine, Après l'ondée (1906), l'Heure Bleue (1912), Quand vient la Pluie (2007), La Petite Robe Noire (2009).
I erased the content on 25th of june 2009 because I do not approve the unethic policy of Guerlain, their reformulated products unfaithful to the original and the constant misinformation of the public and their relation with the new medias. Guerlain company today do not answer my ethic and aesthetic expectations.
I apologyze for any inconvenience and I apologize my readers that left a comment but I cannot accept that my work from the past would contribute to a false prestige of a brand neither to misguide my readers or possible fragrance customers. For any historic information for a private use you can write me an email.
(photo I took this weekend on Rue de la Paix - the new Guerlain confisserie, it is near Godiva, a divine place where you can find chocolate and fruits)

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

Saturday, February 7

God lives in Swizerland

Too precious for a mortal nose. Too beautiful for the ordinary. They are the forbidden scents of our world. It might seem the text of a brand but in fact that's the Truth. The most beautiful perfumes and accords are not outside the gate but they are known to a small number of people. Unfortunatelly this cannot be changed. From time to time forgotten secrets appear by miracle. Today I had this kind of revelation. In front of me is a very small bottle from Firmenich. A discontinued product called "Narcisse base Firmenich" and it is one of the most beautiful flowers I've ever smelled. Imagine a daffodill wrapped in a soft tuberose. Imagine the heart of natural Jonquille, the heart of Fracas, Carnal Flower and Diorling (the real extrait). It is the essence of all, without the characteristics. It is a base but it smells better than many modern perfumes with an evaporation curve designed by God. It is a very old product but deserves to be called a "piece of art". The perfumer is unknown to me and maybe to many others who remember this base.

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

Friday, February 6

New fragrances in 2009: Ego Facto - The great surprise

Ego Facto is now in the shops, so I could test all of them. Several are very unusual but all of them have something special, an unusual twist that you should follow. To my surprise, they are all light, compared to other unusual notes like Mugler Miroirs or Etat Libre d'Orange. Maybe because they are not sold as niche, the notes are more "acceptable". In several cases I wished that the fragrance had the depth and strength of Lutens or at least to be more concentrated. They cover you with a very thin veil of "avangarde". I noticed on streets that French people lost their power of "character scents" and when they do not wear light perfumes (low calory and low profile cologne) the only strong scent is the "new syrup confisserie".
I loved the most Me Myself and I (the best after many years) and Jamais le dimanche while Prends garde à toi deserves its name.
I will come back with a detailed review and info on what's inside (it's vague on the website), but for now, just a few impressions.
Me Myself and I (Jean and Aurélien Guichard) - a tuberose plus smoky vetiver.
Extremely original perfume with a yeast note on top over a creamy sensual flower over a milky drydown. It's not a typical tuberose but a very creative, daring and unexpected. Something you have never smelled before and that's 100% creation and new!
Jamais le dimanche (Alberto Morillas) - ozonic incense
Highly unusual it seems like a big bubblegum in a church but it's not like Encens Bubblegum (ELO). After a time, the fruity note opposed to the incense floating in that huge Niemeyer dome reveals another surprise. This is Floramye of year 3000, an astonishing interpretation of a classic accord in a high tech space. But sorry I do not smell marijuana inside.
Fool for Love (Laurent Bruyère) - overdose punch/coconut frangipani
Tuberose bubblegum with just a milligram of caramel. It smells like an exotic pudding with rum where the dry down of Tuberose Couture is prisoner in an air bubble. Not pastry gourmand but perfect for the expression "grisé d'amour".
Piège à Filles (Anne Flipo) - oriental spicy heliotrop cumin
This perfume has no sex. It can be either a successful mix between Cologne Mugler and Brut Fabergé or a very light breeze suggesting Hypnotic Poison. Like a very soft heliotropine cloud over a love affair between sandalwood and lily of the valley. Cologne à l'ancienne pour Monsieur but this time is for Madame.
Prends garde à toi (Jean and Aurélien Guichard)
At the limit of pleasant and disturbing, it shows a note of patchouli in a bitter artemisia context. It's absinth plus marijuana in a lethal dose.
Poopoo Pidoo (Dominique Ropion) - rise powder musky animalic
The scent of a milky skin after using Kenzoki products (there is one based on musk+ rice pirazine and another one, gorgeus overdosed with heliotropine).
Sacré Cœur (Laurent Bruyère) - woody mineral leather
A disturbing patchouli with green notes and spices as they were used in Heritage.

You can look also on the wesbite. I don't like very much the way the creator of the brand is presented but I was surprised to see my blog there. I like also the graphic details.

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

Thursday, February 5

New fragrances in 2009: Thoughts on perfumes & some short reviews

Une goutte de nuage (Issey Miyake) Extremely beautiful concept and design for the latest flanker of Eau d'Issey. Unfortunately it appeared too late on the market. It's a beautiful metaphor for the idea of clean and cotton but it smells like all the fragrances that copied Eau d'Issey for a decade. The peony inside and the musk with a delicate woody note is also a fragment from Pleasures while the green rose is an attenuated version of the latest success from Chloé. The perfume is zero creation but it smells very good, pleasant, is very well built, with a style that is very Olivia Giacobetti (YUNX).
C'est la Vie Patchouli (Christian Lacroix) Take Borneo (Serge Lutens) and mix it with Black Orchid (Tom Ford) minus the orchid. You'll have this little monster that starts well and ends in a perfect confusion of woody notes.
Evody
Evody is a very nice niche shop located on Rive Gauche and last year they released several fragrances. I found them at Galleries Lafayette during my weekly shopping session.
Fleur d'oranger - a generic orange flower fragrance with no particular twist except the obvious Schiff Bases inside. If you like this type of note try l'Artisan because it's better.
Pomme d'Or - this would be the golden apple but it smells more like "Eau d'Hadrien Hyper Intense" with an overdose of citral and a green note on top. Or like several generic "green citrus jasmine" bases from H&R in the late 70's.
Rêve d'Anthala - this is a nasty tiaré flower that died of caramel overdose. It was constructed with no notion of balance, with benzyl acetate overdosed on the top of a sun tan tiaré lotion formula that smells very basic.
Ambre Intense - very nice amber patchouli fragrance (close to Borneo), not sweet or syrupy, but dry and woody.
Bois rare - very nice woody-amber spicy masculine, in the spirit of Héritage. It's like the drydown of many masculines of the previous decade minus the metallic dihydromircenol.

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

Reformulating d'Orsay

There is much hypocrisy around this subject. Today there are many experts and theories in marketing to explain a success or a failure for a product (fragrance) or line. Everybody wants to go in top 20 and hope to stay forever there, releasing from time to time a new ad. A basic notion, the quality, is almost never discussed. Why quality? Because in many cases, 5 years after the launch the perfume is subject to a pressure - price. The decline of a bestseller starts with its loyal clients. I was shocked last week when I had a conversation with several friends that know nothing about fragrances. I asked them about the perfumes of their mother, their youth, what did they like then and now. I was surprised to hear how they stopped buying Anais, Magie Noire, Ysatis, Dioressence and Diorissimo and a dozen of known perfumes from the 80's because "they changed". I thought I was the only crazy who looked also at the packaging (texture, paper quality, etc) but in the end I realized that a consumer is not that blind to what happened in the past 20 years.
But going back to the hypocrisy, I found a relevant text in the last PCA (janvier 2009) about the relaunch of Orsay perfumes. You should read it in French to understand why we live in a Kafka space:
" Nous souhaitons valoriser notre image de maître parfumeur, tout en modernisant les jus. Chez nous, le développement d'un parfum est une réelle création artistique, qui peut durer de 6 mois à plus d'un an […] Notre but était de rester fidèle à l'ambition du parfumeur lors de sa création, mais en la retranscrivant dans un langage olfactif plus moderne." Les jus ont donc été revus au goût du jour tout en conservant cet esprit "intemporel" et cette qualité d'époque, sans dénaturer pour autant ls notes de fond. La base a également été retravaillée pour une meilleure tenue du parfum et la concentration en allergènes diminuée."
Dear Maison d'Orsay - if you think like this, I guarantee you at 100% the flop of your line. You've chosen the worst solution and the most unethical to the consumer - promoting the image of "maitre parfumeur", speaking about tradition with modern formulas "au goût du jour".

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

Wednesday, February 4

Molecules at Givaudan

The creation of a new fragrance can be influenced by the new molecules on the market. Some of them are captives and are used only by the company who created them. For Firmenich the proportion of those special ingredients is around 20%. Here you have some of the new molecules from Givaudan (new for me, because the patents are not very "fresh"). Pomarose is inside of a great commercial succes (and nice perfume).
Calypsone - watery, ozonic, melon, lily of the valley
Cosmone - musk, powdery (nitromusk like)
Florymoss - floral, mossy green
Opalal - woody, fruity, minth
Paradisamide - tropical fruit, grapefruit, currant, rhubarbe
Pepperwood - floral, peppery, spicy
Pomarose - baked apple, rose
Serenolide - musk and cotton
Tanaisone - herbal, fruity, artemisia
Zinarine - very green tomato leaf, petitgrain
You can read an article published one year ago in NYTimes.

Other musks with curious names are Applelide and Nebulone from IFF.

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

Honoré des Près (2)

In a recent interview published in CosmetiqueMag, Olivia Giacobetti confessed how difficult it was to create under Ecocert rulls the new range of perfumes I shortly reviewed last year.

"C'est comme faire un gâteau sans farine, sans oeuf et sans beurre! J'ai essayé de trouver une architecture propre à cet exercice afin de ne pas imiter la parfumerie traditionelle. Un parfumeur dispose habituellement d'une palette de 3000 à 4000 matières. Pour Honoré des Prés, j'ai dû travailler avec moins de 10% d'entre elles. Je me suis interdit de créer des parfums composés de matières naturelles mais à l'odeur finale chimique. Je n'ai pas voulu non plus réaliser des fragrances trop primaires. Certains bois, comme le santal, sentent très bon seuls, mais ce n'est pas de la composition olfactive".

"It's like doing a cake without flour, eggs and butter. I tried to find a specific architecture to this exercise and not to imitate the traditional perfumery. A perfumer has usually 3000-4000 raw materials. For Honoré des Prés, I had to work with less than 10%. I didn't want to create fragrances composed with natural ingredients but with a final chemical odor. Also I didn't want to create too basic fragrances. Several woods, like sandalwood, smell very well alone but this is not fragrance composition."
(my "translation")

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

Tuesday, February 3

What is clean today?

I've just found a nice article about the perception of clean notes today and the creation of fragrances that evoke this sensation today.
Is the Smell of Moroccan Bazaar Too Edgy for American Homes?

"For decades, lingering whiffs of ammonia and bleach in bathrooms and kitchens signaled a freshly scrubbed home. In the 1970s and 1980s, the scent of pine forests and lemon groves gained acceptance. Now the smell of clean has become a wildly varied bouquet: mandarin-lime detergent, disinfectant evoking "lavender vanilla and comfort," toilet-bowl cleaner in eucalyptus mint. Bleach can smell like a "fresh meadow." A new deodorizer, which hit store shelves last month, promises a "Moroccan bazaar." The consumer-products industry has built a complex olfactory infrastructure, stretching from the laboratory to the marketer's imagination. These days, companies from Procter & Gamble Co. to Clorox Co. are tickling the human nose as never before. Researchers shepherd consumers through a gantlet of odors to gauge their reaction. Scientists parse fragrance perception. Companies unveil scent after scent that evokes "clean."

The rest is on WallStreetJournal

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

New fragrance in 2009: La Petite Robe Noire (Guerlain)

This post contained original information / historic elements / formula review / aesthetic judgments about the Guerlain perfume La Petite Robe Noire launched in 2009 and Insolence, Instant Magique, Quand Vient la Pluie.
I erased the content on 25th of june 2009 because I do not approve the unethic policy of Guerlain, their reformulated products unfaithful to the original and the constant misinformation of the public and their relation with the new medias. Guerlain company today do not answer my ethic and aesthetic expectations.
I apologyze for any inconvenience and I apologize my readers that left a comment but I cannot accept that my work from the past would contribute to a false prestige of a brand neither to misguide my readers or possible fragrance customers. For any historic information for a private use you can write me an email.

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

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