1000fragrances: June 2009

Tuesday, June 30

Fragrance automat

This automat for fragrances was "working" in Germany in the mid 20's and now is exposed in one museum in Schleswig-Holstein. New sampling ideas were popular in that era. Another example is the Lanvin Phone Cabin I presented in the past.

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

New fragrance in 2009: Juliet has a Gun - Midnight Oud

I discovered last week at Colette almost by accident the latest opus from Juliet has a Gun, the brand that could be called also the Guns' Roses of modern perfumery with their collection of rose notes, urban, trendy and rich, quite far from classic interpretation of this almost mythical theme.
Midnight Oud is no exception but this time, there is something special about the perfume. With an inflation of oud perfumes, every time with a personal interpretation of oud (that became almost generic), from the very dark strange and animalic examples of Le Labo and Kilian Pure Oud to the very strong oud bomb from Montale, Juliet has a Gun gave us the prêt à porter version. There is nothing new inside this creation but there is a great achievement. That's a refined oud note that you can wear. Midnight out is the perfect balance between the rose-chypre-patchouli note of Midnight Poison (Dior) and the purest Oud perfume. There is nothing too much inside this "black" rose with glittery saffron gold and a soft incense note. It smells rich, velvety, with that opulence that can be found in some Amouage perfumes. It's a balance between the strength of Arabian perfumes and a certain idea of richness as seen in some modern creations (Tom Ford) with that particular tobacco syrup, liquor, rich amber and dried fruits note. It lacks the darkness and complexity of Lutens creations and is more a monolithic oud note, related more to oud oils and not the natural extract (that now is available for western perfumes, not just as a reconstitution with cipriol).
A perfect black scent if you want something more "oriental" than Noir de Noir inspired by the Tom Ford's love of the night (and maybe midnight) and with a "dirty" sensual top natural oud note.

Now, there is something about the name - I think that in Middle East the gun and the oud note would make a very interesting combination.

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

Ange ou Demon Le Secret (Givenchy)

I've just seen on Marie Claire the video for Ange ou Demon Le Secret, the new perfume for Givenchy featuring Uma Thurman. I like it very much but I cannot resist to say that the concept reminds me quite strong of Thierry Mugler - Miroir Miroir (a line that I like despite the clear inspiration of the packaging from vintage Lucien Lelong, as I showed it in 2008).

The mirror and the secret plus the perfume is not a new idea but one that is old and almost mythical. Of course, Mugler has not the "property" of this beautiful theme but I cannot stop thinking that this very creative line has won a FIFI award recently.

Even the white dress of Uma Thurman could be a Mugler dress, but I like the original from Miroir ads. It happens that I really love the Miroir des Secrets, an aldehydic note from Mugler. Take off the name in the end of the beautiful clip with Uma Thurman and it can be the new video for Mugler (just change the contrasts because everything in Mugler is sharper).

The secret is in the air this year, mixed with pink. It has recently featured in Les Secrets de Sophie but the print on the bottle as seen in the ad reminds also the packaging of My Insolence - pale pink and silver reflections.

The perfume described on Marie Claire website is floral with cranberry, peony, jasmine, patchouli.

Here you have a vintage image from the 20's that I published in 2007, with the original vintage Ange ou Démon, made for the obscure fashion house Mag-Helly.

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

Monday, June 29

Exotic Paris

It's hot and warm now in Paris and in my fantasy there is something almost tropical in the air. But this feeling is even more obvious because 3 white flowers are now in bloom in the city, outside or in green houses - magnolia grandiflora, michelia alba and sambac jasmine.
It's almost surreal to see the huge magnolia trees covered with huge flowers that look so artificial and big like a Philip Treacy hat. The flower of magnolia grandiflora is delicious this year and shows delicate nuances from the bud to the blooming flower and the almost fading flower wide open like a lotus. The scent is lemony, rosy (nerol like), with something like an oily sensation but also fresh spicy, green and terpenic on top. The vintage formula of a magnolia note I presented in the past is quite close but I would eliminate some ingredients and add other new to keep within a simple shape. Some flowers (from the same tree) show even the spicy green top note of Un Matin d'Orage.
Michelia alba is a small flower, like a bonsai magnolia but its scent and beauty is devastating. 4 small flowers had such a power that the entire greenhouse was full of perfume. To me this is to the big magnolia what damascone is to rose - an over concentrated essence of the scent, a metaphor. Michelia alba (also called White Champak) smells something between champacca, magnolia and then osmanthus and maybe jasmine-neroli. Inside the flower there is even a delicious apricot jam note and a sensual green note. On the market there is an extraction product of the flowers and it's very close to the real. It's the perfect scent for a sensual feminine skin in summer. A drop of oil with a rich cream or a flower garland and you do not need anything more to hypnotize the audience. There is even a sacred mountain magnolia in Yunnan (China) that is between the magnolia grandiflora and michelia alba in terms of scent. The odor of michelia alba is in fact a mix of many types of notes: lactones, spicy notes, ionones, rosy elements, indole.
Sambac jasmine was in bloom in the same green house and its small flowers were offering that special, exotic sweet jasmine note, so different from the European. Rich, indolic (but not animalic), fruity peach and apricot, very sweet, it shows common elements with another white flower in bloom now - the pittosporum (but this one is more orange flower). It has also that tea note - the jasmine tea note. I put a light amber perfume on me and than the flowers. The combination is exquisite and one can understand the work of Dominique Ropion in Alien, a daring and sensual creation. Sambac jasmine exists also in absolute and the note is very close to the flower.

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

Fashion & critics

I've re-discovered by accident the article written in 2008 for NYTimes by Cathy Horyn (I adore her articles!) and I think it's a good piece about the place of criticism in the world of fashion and what you get if your words are too tough, even with NYTimes behind you.

GIORGIO ARMANI does not want me at his fashion shows. In a letter to my editor earlier this month, he cites my “unnecessarily sarcastic comments” about his friends and family in a review of his last couture show and notes that I have “rarely found positive remarks” to make about his ready-to-wear collections, and then surmises that I have “an embedded preconception.” He concludes: “Going forward therefore, I see no real merit in inviting Cathy Horyn to my women’s shows.”
The subject of banning journalists from fashion shows seems as quaint as the practice itself, neither a commendation to the industry nor a badge of honor to the critic. Indeed, fashion is the only creative field that attempts to bar the news media.
The article

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

Friday, June 26

Cosmetic and Sensory

Today was the last day of the first worldwide congress dedicated to the sensory applied to cosmetics called Cosmetic and Sensory. You have the detailed information about the lectures here. I will enumerate some interesting papers:
Sense of smell, sens of the future /
Aesthetics of odors and perfumes
Neuronal coding of aromatic blends or of natural odors; and what if everything or almost everything, took place in the nose?
Shedding light on women's representation of perfume: linguistic and cognitive approaches.
Understanding the psychological dimensions in odor perception space: development of sensory perfume maps.
Sensory science as a source of competitive business advantage.

All were scientific and marketing papers presented by well known names, some working in Institutes or for Givaudan, l'Oréal and LVMH and it was the first time when two worlds that know nothing of each other met each other.

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

New Images but Official

I'm in the middle of Men fashion Week in Paris and I did not have so much time to think about what happened to me on Tuesday from that house that I shall not pronounce the name.
While I had that terrible emotional shock and you have supported me, other official images appeared.
I discovered today, thanks to Jeanne that posted a comment on my conclusion, new official images that were put on line Monday, one day before that abuse.
You will notice also on internet that the image I had is very well on many websites and forums while "by miracle" it was erased on others.
You expressed very well your worries on the first post and also perfumeshrine and graindemusc did a more detailed view but also many international forums.
Here you have the link and the description of the perfume in french plus other photos.
I do not want to comment anymore, and this post is just to inform you about new available official pictures. It becomes more evident that this was an abuse and not a desire to protect something secret for the launch in september.
It becomes obvious that What was said was the problem, the image was the tool while blogger was the opportunity (the vulnerable point). I hope that those who will buy the perfume will learn one day what their money are used for.

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

Thursday, June 25

Madame or Adam?

Once there was a perfume called Adam's rib because people still believed that the male was the first on this planet. Today it was terribly hot and almost tropical at the Paris Fashion Week spring 2010. I thought this is a good occasion to speak about something unusual between the über rare vintage or the latest niche.
Deodorants and more precisely AXE range! Everybody wears them but we do not think that even behind so inexpensive products there is a perfumer that unconsciously will shape what we smell in our daily routine.

Axe temptation - a light oriental woody perfume built with cocoa-chocolate notes, sensual but not very sweet on a rather smoky base that reminds me Black Bulgari. The cocoa is very particular because almost the same can be found in feminine shower gels that bear the word cocoa or exotic. The sweet drydown has elements from Givenchy Play Intense and Armani Code.
Axe Vice - an aromatic fougère with a strong contrast between the green-fruity-pineapple top and the dry mossy-metallic base note with a soft lavender and some aldehydes, marine + roses in between. It has that particular testosterone note based on evernyl and made popular with Hugo (Hugo Boss) and later found in some very elegant colognes. With time, the drydown becomes very sensual, woody and almost feminine and a similar note is in Burberry Beat Man.
Axe Click - a green fruity fougère based on a pear ester combined with aromatic elements (and a very green grass top), some rose-metallic violet, a dry jasmine (jasmonal) note and reminding me the very special perfume Higher Dior.
Axe Musk - this is a very classic (old) sweet fougère note, popular decades ago, with aromatic notes à la Azzaro pour homme, geranium, powdery musks and very sweet vanilla elements (like in Mousse de Saxe base). Its ancestor is Canoe.
Axe Hot Fever was in its early life a chypre fruity spicy feminine perfume (the MDCI type) with a soft peach and a velvety ambery note. The very hot spices unveil a delicate suede-rose note.
Axe Essence is a leather note like a beast, a fur note that 50 years ago might have been a sensual feminine creation. It's very dirty, with all those notes around civet, horses and musk but this effect is less obvious on blotter. On the skin is like a stallion that was scented with Narciso Rodriguez for men or Calvin Klein for Men.
Axe anti hangover is a burst of aldehydes in a citrus green grapefruit cocktail over a very soft woody and floral (lily of the valley, green jasmine) drydown plus a ginger note.

Smelling those deodorants on blotter and not on T-shirts is a very useful exercise to understand what is The Male today. In many cases it is a former female shape, without bra, and with aromatic herbs on top plus a lot of aldehydes.
I did not finish with the Axe range but from these I think that the best are: Axe Vice, Axe Essence, Axe Hot fever.

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

A small word on a french case

The incident that happened to me on Tuesday might have also other connotations that are unknown for those who live outside France. They were outside my thoughts until today when I started to read the press to keep up with the news.
The event came one day after the French president Nicolas Sarkozy was defending his law on Internet and intellectual property in front of the members of Parliament assembled in Congress in Versailles, and promised to go to the end in his fight against the illegal downloading on Internet after the partial censure of the law Hadopi by the Constitutional council.
For those who do not know anything about this strong debate in EU and France, the law says something like - there will be a national authority that will fight against the illegal downloading and if you are found "guilty" several times you will not have access to Internet for a period of time. Of course, it's about music, movies and other hard money that are lost by big players.
In my case, it has nothing to do apparently… but who knows if this law will not have other … side effects in the future.
One day, a brand can consider that your blog/site presents too many images with their products and not a flattering content. They are the owners of intellectual rights of those images / movies in an Internet that is still very visual. Because a defamation case or something against the freedom of speech is more complicated… the copyright and the use of the images (including advertising) might be a good weapon if not to win, at least for a strong intimidation.
What I say might sound really insane for many of you but I had the same reaction last year when I was explained the Hadopi law. I could not believe that a law to cut off your internet if you are a "bad boy" might be "invented".

Here you have the words of the French President said Monday 22th of June at Versailles, when we were sniffing precious raw materials with Mme Sylvaine Delacourte.
"En défendant le droit d'auteur, je ne défends pas seulement la création artistique, je défends aussi l'idée que je me fais d'une société de liberté. Où la liberté de chacun est fondée sur le respect du droit des autres. […] C'est aussi l'avenir de notre culture que je défends, c'est l'avenir de la création. Voilà pourquoi j'irai jusqu'au bout."
Here you have an article from LePoint.
Now there was even the subject of email control in France because a "video" can be sent also in your inbox: "Le projet de loi Hadopi 2 présenté par Michèle Alliot-Marie ne condamne pas seulement le piratage réalisé par un "service de communication au public en ligne", mais aussi par les moyens de "communications électroniques". Une extension qu'avaient rejeté les députés au motif qu'elle ouvrait la brèche vers une surveillance des e-mails."

Maybe that's the Zeitgeist in Paris while we smell perfumes and imagine that criticism could exist.

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

New fragrance in 2009: Attache Moi by ICONOfly

Firmenich had recently organized a conference at the SFP about several research decades on ambery notes - From Ambrox to Cetalox laevo.
When I first discovered, several weeks ago at Bon Marché the fragrance Attache Moi by ICONOfly I thought that maybe this perfume is the transcription of the odyssey of the amber molecules.
It is an oriental built around the gray amber note powdery but not sweet, soft woody and suggests a very soft leather suede type. Leather and beluga caviar to evoke the marine universe of sensual ambers, a classic idea.
It is almost a linear note, not very contrasted where 3 woody ambery molecules seem to dominate the formula. A note that you probably met before, from the delicious Eau de Merveilles (Hermès) to the dark Ambre Fétiche (Annick Goutal). But unlike these 2, Attache moi (Hold to me) lacks the fresh contrasted top note and from the very first moment suggests rather the trail of a fragrance worn with African wood bracelets.
The textured perfume was composed by Christine Nagel and Benoist Lapouza with balsams, resins and amber notes.
At Colette I found a small book called IconoFly 5 - The diary of an accessory. The Bracelet. Inside there is an interview with the perfumers about their memories, feelings and wishes related to bracelets.
For me it's rather a skin fragrance, a soft caressing ambery note, more pleasant than highly original and more a rough sketch (soft patchouli/ambroxan) than an elaborate ambery note.

The Website for the perfume and several interviews. Bracelet bottle created by Serge Mansau.

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

Piver cream in XIXth century

I was very surprised when I rediscovered among my files the image of this label created early XIXth century for a Piver (then Dissey et Piver) cosmetic cream - Graisse d'ours au Noyer - Bear grease with walnut.
The product is not something special, but rather common in that century - many houses had similar creations in their catalogue. What surprised me was the form of "advertising" and the very explicit depiction of the source of fat. This year the EU has totally forbidden the animal tests in the cosmetic industry. Almost 200 years ago a cream that today is supposed to bring youth and nourish the skin but also to be very glamorous was presented in that particular way...
In 1820 this Piver cream might have been a premium anti age cosmetic product and indeed, inside the formulation there is something good. The walnut contains several polyphenols, powerful antioxidants that today are used (and praised) in cosmetics. Bear fat has been used as cooking oil by early Americans and later the bear oil was an important trade (until 1850's).
An American ad had the following caption:
"Highly scented and pure, for the hair. Of all preparations for the hair or whiskers, nothing equals the oil prepared from Bear’s Grease. In most instances, it restores the hair to the bald and will effectually preserve it from falling off in any event."
(Cincinnati Daily Jan. 19, 1843)

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

New fragrance: Black Afgano (Nasomatto) the Baudelairian Dawamesk

After more than one month since it was presented in Italy at Esxence, Black Afgano arrived in Paris at Aepure and I could explore the very special scent and the very special idea behind this creation. Nasomatto is a very particular Italian brand, creative and strange - strong perfumes with crazy ideas, a lot of references to forbidden "pleasures" and no olfactory description of the perfume that is always very strong, opulent and almost brutal. They are in the same register with some Lutens but are opposite in terms of subtlety. They are raw like a prehistoric sculpture.
Black Afgano is no exception. There are some stories about several "herbs" that were put inside the perfume, on the box there is a clear mention about the best quality of hashish. Everything seems just a beautiful inspiration until you smell it and realize where you actually are.
Black Afgano is the Tabac Blond of the New Millennium and the true metaphor of Baudelairian Dawamesk. But in 2009 Baudelaire is on Twitter and the perfume, despite its ancient/mythical connotations is 100% modern.
Black Afgano smells like a deep, rich woody incense smoke that floats over something that burns slowly and gives you an intriguing note. It smells about what is supposed to be but the perfumer dosed very well that note that I particularly cannot stand in pure.
The hashish note is not new, outside or inside the bottle.
I remember 2 perfumes from 1983 called Hascish from Veejaga, one from Demeter and another obscure perfume where the note was rather a realistic reconstitution and less a creative approach.
With Black Afgano, that is close in many aspects to Duro, we enter in a forest where everything burns slowly giving a sweet, slightly pungent, bitter and almost suffocating note. It's an intoxicating perfume but unlike any great tuberose, its smell works like an implosion. It is not very diffusive (but very long lasting) and very good on the skin. Too much and others would suspect you about illegal actions.
It is also a metaphor of a chemical reaction called Maillard - the molecules that are created when you burn sugars or proteins - all have something smoky, caramel, burnt. When you burn things there is always a black residue, sticky and strange like the corpse of the beautiful molecules that went to heaven. I think that's the true story of the perfume.
The main note of the perfume seems to be immortelle absolute, wrapped in incense, cedar, caramel - coffee - chicory (ethyl maltol, furaneol, melilot, fenugrec, etc) and some aromatic unusual and almost pungent herbs. It is almost an oriental without being sweet, but lingering on the skin like an everlasting balm.
There is also something like an ancient ritual. I had the feeling that it smells like the plants, balms, seeds, spices burnt all together with honey in the honor of a God. Or the Balm for the ointment of the statue an oriental demon.

ps: I noticed that some people can't stand at all the perfumes from Nasomatto, I like 3 of them more on skin than on blotter.

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

Wednesday, June 24

A conclusion

First of all, thank you so much for your comments!!! They helped me to clear my mind after one day when I went off trying to understand something and leave behind the anger that followed the surprise.
First, to understand my shock (or ice shower) - Monday we were the entire afternoon until 6PM in Paris for a first meeting organized by Mme Sylvaine Delacourte and the meeting was perfect from all points of view showing that we are not virtual names hidden behind something, but civilized people. We might have strong opinions but we can also talk and behave. I was happy at home smelling my blotters (and without internet). Next morning after posting the first part of the description I was shocked by the blogger notification and email and after analyzing the elements I made my short post.
Now, there are still many things that I do not understand - I was notified that, under the specific request of Guerlain SA, and based on the American copyright law (!!!) a part of the content of one message was removed. Remember that I still live in Paris and this mixture of Guerlain Paris, blogger, EU, USA laws is something beyond my knowledge. But never mind this abuse.
It's only today that I realized that the image (that I took from NTS as I wrote from the beginning) was no more there.
If you read any type of press, you will notice that there is a genre that flourished in the recent past - investigation including the paparazzi and photos of stars.
This case is rather strange from all points of view, if you compare it to any practice in modern media.
What will happen if tomorrow I will publish, as many celebrity sites do, … the working files from this perfume or … the un-retouched photos of the actress ? Or worse, the production formula of a very beautiful vanilla oriental?
My conclusion is rather simple - since the beginning of the blog / internet era, brands saw in this only an advertising tool. Free! compared to the press where a brand would not send a beauty editor a 1,5 ml and a mail attachment in the happiest case. I live in Paris and I have the shops near me, so I do not need any courtesy from no one. I can informe myself and that's also a pleasure. But they cannot control the internet like they can control written press through advertising.
Here, I wish to recommend you a book that I was (re) reading recently. War Paint - the beauty war between Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden. Here you will see the real side of the cosmetic industry (50 years ago) and the business that goes beyond any morale. Because most of the names are dead you can read many untold stories about how the press was bought and controlled, how were money made during the war and all the "ugly" practices in the beauty industry.
There is still one thing I wish to remind to Guerlain SA - do not forget that because of one blogger you did not lose one of your names!!!! Let me explain you - early this year Helg from perfumeshrine was writing a review of a very rare vintage scent. 3 weeks after, in silence, the brand applied for the trademark. I discovered this when I published the trademark of I. All this can be verified on the French intellectual property website (everything is public). The perfume, made in the 30's was … trademark free in France!
I do not have paranoia (yet:), but there is something to learn from my "experience". Like in business, when you are small you are very … fragile and other could intimidate you. I know that now there is a problem in USA with the small producers (against the big ones). One day the same threat might appear online. Everybody wants everything controlled and EU is on the right way to establish an overcontrol on everything.
I do not know what I will do with my previous reviews of the brand that showed so little strategy. (Mechant Loup: je pense que tout est 100% personnel, on est des personnes qui ne se cachent pas, qui affichent un profil et des adresses de contact, en plus j'ai même une photo personelle même si je porte des lunettes :)
Anyway, these 2 days I discovered 2 very good perfumes that I will review tomorrow.
The show must go on, and it's a show about what is the best in perfumery!
I feel a desperate need to breathe beauty (already the story of reformulation made me feel almost ill and I do not like scandals)

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

Tuesday, June 23

Guerlain attacked me!

After the wonderful day spent monday with Sylvaine Delacourte came the bitter surprise this morning.
Without any personal message Guerlain legal service attacked me on blogger.com about what I haver posted on Guerlain Idylle - Coty and it seems that I have to remove all, otherwise my acount will be deleted.
Because this kind of intimidation without any previous contact or element for Guerlain doesn't please me at all I will anounce you that I will ban the Guerlain name from my blog and my books in work. I will make no more mention about Guerlain products neither their history, anytime and anywhere.
You are free to support me or to support the Guerlain policy against me.
If you loved anything I wrote online about Guerlain since 2005, including vintage reviews or images that were not published before or texts from XIXth century, you are free to save them on your computer. Tomorrow I might erase everything.

Mes chers lecteurs français,
Il me semble que les choses commencent à changer dans la blogosphère même si hier après midi j'ai passé une excellente journée avec certains d'entre vous, organisée par Mme Sylvaine Delacourte et que j'ai décrite ce matin. Suite à mon billet sur Idylle Coty je viens d'être attaqué par le service legal de Guerlain via blogger.com. Je n'ai reçu aucun message / mail de Guerlain même si mon adresse est bien affichée depuis longtemps sous ma photo. Je n'ai ni le temps, ni l'envie de jouer la carte d'aucune marque de luxe. Pour cette raison le nom de Guerlain sera "interdit" sur mon blog et effacé dans les livres sur lesquels je travaille, ainsi que dans mes articles en Roumanie ou je les présentées depuis des années.
Si vous avez aimé quelques articles que j'ai écrit depuis 2005, des photos jamais pubbliées ou des reviews des vintages vous êtes libres à les sauvagarder car à partir de demain il est possible que j'efface tout.
En même temps vous êtes libres à me soutenir ou à soutenir une marque de luxe qui est contre moi de manière officielle depuis ce matin. Je suis venu vivre en France car j'ai pensé que c'était un pays de la liberté et du respect. J'ai découvert un autre type de luxe.
UPDATE: the final review of Idylle Guerlain (to conclude this story)

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

Guerlain afternoon in Paris

This year the most beautiful present for my anniversary came the next day after my birthday. Guerlain organized yesterday a special meeting for perfumistas where Mme Sylvaine Delacourte presented us several unusual and new raw materials and several rare, vintage or precious extracts. But most important for me was the occasion to see and hear the other perfumer lovers and bloggers and listen to their stories, impressions and spontaneous reactions in front of the blotters. As much as I enjoy writing, I like listening to other people and their true passion.
I will detail and share with you some of the raw materials and the reconstitutions of several classic hard to find Guerlain perfumes.
Bergamote Guerlain - The special bergamot used by Guerlain, a very delicious fruity orange type with lemon/cedrat accents and less aromatic herbal elements, very Shalimar. It is the opposite of the Hermès bergamot from all points of view.
Green bergamot (before being treated) - cassis, tomato leaf green note, orange flower indol, less fruity orange limonene and more aromatic linalyl acetate, hay and clary sage effect plus an elemi note.
Pomme naturelle (natural apple extract) - the true note of the apple juice, almost cider like and vinegar, cinnamon-clove accent and damascone effect, a curios parsley/lovage and vegetable effect on the dry down.
Pêche naturelle (natural peach) - the odor of a fresh juicy sweet white peach near an acid nectarine (green cassis effect) with a lactonic peach-apricot dry down (I have doubts on its origin).Framboise naturelle (natural raspberry) - the odor of a fresh raspberry with its seed and green elements, very lively and a very long lasting almost frambinone-musky dry down.
Almond natural - the true note of almonds, green, cherry, benzaldehyde, p-tolyl acetaldehyde with a woody facet (the kernel).
Coffee CO2 - the scent of the dry coffee but after you drank it, dry, almost woody-castoreum without the freshness of roasted beans.
Epinards (spinach) absolute - a very unusual, green, violet leaf - cassie note, a sulphur accent, nonadienol.
Ginger oil - an animalic almost costus note with a very rosy citronellal (lemongrass-litsea cubeba) effect on top and some elements of violet leaf, very different from ginger C02 (and its cocoa, vetiver effect).
Absolue fleur pamplemousse (grapefruit flower abs) - less metallic ocymene & oxydes than neroli oil, with a distinctive aldehydic note (C8, C9), a marine / ozonic note that reminds me of adoxal / scentenal / fucus absolute and a Thai herb that I do not remember the name.
Ylang Comorres Extra - the classic note
Lys ylang - a special ylang fraction with a watery lily note, soft spicy powdery like acetyl isoeugenol and benzyl isoeugenol, with an airy green note, a carnation and a salycilate touch (it has both l'Air du Temps and Anais Anais in its DNA).
Jasmin Guerlain - the special quality of jasmine used by Guerlain, a very balanced flowery version of the 3 main absolutes (India, Africa, France), less animalic fruity and more jasmone like.
Jasmin sépale (jasmine sambac bud absolute) between Jasmine sambac and Egypt jasmine absolute, green, not very animalic spicy and more stephanotis effect.
Karo karounde absolute - an exotic flower note somewhere between the white flowers and the yellow flowers scents that reminds me of champacca absolute, narcissus poeticus (the flower not the absolute), honey, green magnolia flower, hay.
Patchouli Indonesia oil - the woody, moist, tobacco classic patchouli note (not chocolate).
Patchouli fraction - the almost peach Coco Mademoiselle effect.
Orris China - dry, rooty and dusty version of the orris note, very strong personality, a fruity "pomme de terre" note that reminds me Cetone V.
Orris jungle essence - a woody, dry, cocoa version, it is very bitter and less metallic than regular orris, smooth and reminds me the chipped orris roots and several nuts reduced in powder, vetyveril acetate and the dry down of black pepper oil.
Daman - the yellow stone - an animalic note between civet and castoreum (and Minkone from Synarome), with an olive note over an old precious fur, a honey vegetable and something almost mineral, not very warm, some hay accents and light flower cresol notes.
Helvetolide - an elegant musk with fruity notes (pear, black berry) with a milky ambretolide note
Romanolide - a soft and rich musk, muscone l type, with almost a coconut effect.
We also tried several vanilla products like vanilla (planifolia) absolute, vanilla tahitiensis absolute, and various vanilla tinctures (Guerlain, Comorres, Uganda).
I enjoyed the most: bergamot Guerlain, spinach absolute, grapefruit flower absolute, lys ylang, karo karounde absolute and golden stone (daman).
Mme Sylvaine Delacourte has brought us also several Guerlain extracts, some vintage formulas they re weighted and some discontinued Guerlain (like the delicious Ylang Vanille and Winter Delice).
Among the classic formulas we smelled Le Jardin de Mon Curé, Bouquet de Faunes, Coq d'Or, Cache Jaune extrait, Ode, the old Sous le Vent extrait. I will review them very soon.

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

Monday, June 22

The scent of a ... gun

After the bullet shaped bottle of Veni Vici from T.Jones, here you have another one, this time from WWII. In fact it's a design for a perfume bottle shaped like a canon, from 1943 patented under the name Karoff. I do not know if it was produced.

Another example is a a perfume from 47 or 48 called Atom Bomb. Atomic was a very fashionable word in that time and even painting went ... atomic for Salvador Dali. Atom Bomb was maybe the next level of ... the sexual bomb of the 30's glam era. In our words we would say that type of woman had the seduction in her DNA but DNA was not yet known so ... it was all about the atoms (and the flamboyant Rita).

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

Evening (Вечер) - Novaya Zarya

Among the vintage presents I received for my birthday was a sealed full bottle of the Russian perfume Evening (Вечер) produced at Novaya Zarya and created maybe in the 50's. The packaging is in impeccable condition, emerald green and gold with green velvet inside and a glass bottle inspired by scent bottles in the XIXth century (closed by baudruchage and so well sealed that I took me several hours to open it). To my surprise the fragrance is very well preserved and smells like new, as if time produced no damage. It is a very nice and classic floral perfume, very well balanced with taste and care for the delicate notes.
It is built around a sweet Persian lilac note that represents maybe more than half of the formula. The second note is a white light jasmine with an important amount of benzyl acetate and maybe jasmonal A with its fat-pomade accent. It is not the dark, animalic, opulent side of the jasmine (nor the jasmine absolute note) but the fresh flowery side. The third flower, less important is a delicate and soft lily of the valley.
On the skin the 3 flowers suggests also a very pleasant white soap and creamy note, without being soapy, built on a light woody base with sweet notes and an important musky drydown.
The theme is a constant play of lilac-jasmine that complements each other during the evaporation. The sweet drydown is floral and less vanilla, very close to the heliotrope.
The white flower theme becomes more evident with the evaporation (jasmine and even mock orange) while the lilac becomes greener and airy. The drydown is very tenacious and has a linden blossom sweet note.
Evening (Вечер) is built with several bases, the notes are too well balanced. For this reason it is also very easy (for me) to reconstruct its formula. I feel also that no common top notes are present.
A Lilas VII accord (with 7 ingredients), a light Jasmophore note (with 6 ingredients), a small Muguet 16, and after hidroxycitronellal, benzyl acetate, jasmonal A, musk ketone and ambrette, maybe a civet base and some other 3 ingredients. With 12-15 basic elements (not bases) you can "reproduce" the scent and some other notes will enrich it.
The author of Evening was a very sensitive and romantic person but the available ingredients in CCCP were not the same like in the western labs. With several special ingredients Evening might have been a great creation, inspired most probably by the evening odors in a summer garden, with mock orange and night blooming jasmine. A creation less sensual and more delicate, not for the curvaceous "grande dame" but for "l'ingénue débutante" in the 50-60's, dressed in white.

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

Friday, June 19

Hypnôse Senses (Lancôme), L'Oréal and piracy

When l'Oréal cut off the research budget of Lancôme, the "creative" team entered in something similar with a hypnose and lost their "common" sense while dreaming about other magnifique "senses" to rescue the brand. With no budget and only one week to release a new product they took the shortcut. A collage (but not DaDa). The new flanker for Hypnôse, called Hypnose senses will surprise you in many ways. First there is a visual impact: why did they chose for the packaging (not the juice) that colour so in between Guess by Marciano (next to them on Sephora shelves) and One million by Paco Rabanne?
(I wish to tell you the color in the pictures is not the color of the product on the market - photoshop tricks)
Second, why did they chose that imposible color scheme that doesn't fit at all with their current products? It's the most bizarre color combination (between Magnifique and Hypnôse) and this is so strange for Lancôme who has also a make up division ans is supposed to pay attention to the cromatic harmony. (compare them to Kenzo to see what I mean by visual reffinement for the entire range of products).
But if you do not care at all about these extra details, you will be surprised even more by the fragrance. Why did they almost rebottle a famous and pretty Chanel perfume but less acid-tangy on top? Of course you will be said by the SA that it is a fruity osmanthus note worked around the Trésor theme with a patchouli-chypre facet. Take a body lotion where you've put a drop of osmanthus absolute and spray yourself with Coco Mademoiselle EDP (a better idea)!
You might add that between Coco Mademoiselle and Hypnôse Senses there are several years. Yes, I agree 100%! The team sampled an Euphoria light flanker and a special perfume from Mugler - Miroir series and even Stella Mc Cartney was there (plus 2 Yves Rocher creations).
This "creation" is really fun when you know the previous actions of L'Oréal about "counterfeited perfumes" and their "war" in EU. Is Lancôme becoming the next "Ulric de Varens" of France?
When you will sample the perfume I suggest you the following exercise. Spray in the same time some blotters with Hypnôse Senses and other blotters with Coco Mademoiselle EDP. Mix them (without writing the name) and after the evaporation of top notes try to distinguish them. Of course you'll notice that Coco Mademoiselle is more acid-green pinneapple floral while Hypnôse Senses is more the drydown side, sensual-patchouli sweet-fruity in what is called neo chypre (and less contrasted).
It is a pitty that the crisis might have such devastating effects.

Today I read in the news:
"La justice européenne a donné raison jeudi 18 juin au groupe français de cosmétiques l'Oréal contre des sociétés qui commercialisaient des imitations de ses parfums, estimant que ces dernières tiraient indûment profit de ses marques. La Cour européenne de justice avait été saisie par la justice britannique, devant laquelle l'Oréal avait déposé une plainte contre les sociétés Malaika et Starion. Ces dernières fabriquaient des imitations bon marché des parfums de l'Oréal et de sa filiale Lancôme, tels Trésor, Anaïs-Anaïs ou Noa."

That's the justice in Europe where you cannot protect the scent of a fragrance and where groups like l'Oréal are the Babylon of hypocrisy (they take ideas from other and they complain about others).
I have no further comments and I invite you to try Hypnôse Senses now in stores in Paris - a luxury experience in the universe of free inspiration.
I regret that Christine Nagel, a great perfumer and author of Hypnôse Senses, is not able to express her talent because modern brands are outside any ethic notion.
There was once a brand called Lentheric. They had 2 great perfumes - Le Pirate and Miracle. Lancôme took Miracle but became also .... le pirate.
You can see the making of Lancôme Hypnôse Senses with model Daria Werbowy on youtube

and the final movie for Lancôme Hypnôse Senses

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

A beautiful bottle

The original Diorling bottle is one of the most beautiful creation after WWII and an example of the extreme refinement that used to be the fingerprint of the Dior House. It was a sophisticated combination of glass and metal reminiscent of Louis XVI style like the special edition of Diorissimo Baccarat bottle. The flasque encased in metal was inspired by a "fiole" discovered by Marie Christine de Wittgenstein in an antique shop. The neck was sealed with gold. The opening bud is the most beautiful metaphor for the precious fragrance contained in the crystal bottle and protected with metal elements. A more abstract shape with some similar elements to this one is the J'adore bottle.
Original Diorling extract can be seen as an olfactory metaphor of this design - rose and narcissus flowering over a very dry chypre leather base. The original box had a color that in French is called linden, a symbol maybe for the narcissus and yellow rose note.
Today this type of bottle and the additional box are too expensive to be produced by Dior (considering also the crisis).

The story of the perfume can be found in the book about Marc Bohan years at Dior (the exhibition at Granville museum).

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

Byredo in Bucarest

Byredo Fragrances were launched last night in Bucharest (Romania). Since 2007 when niche/luxury perfumes appeared in my country I see a lot of interest and passion for special and sometime unusual creations. There is an entire story about the reasons many people are chosing now niche and why some traditional brands have "troubles" (distribution, fragrance presentation and many specific details to my country that are part of the decline of the perception of classic luxury image).

Ben Gorham, the heart and soul of Byredo, and Madison welcomed over 200 guests, VIP’s and journalists. The party took the "shape" of a picnic with origami creations where white roses and little black dragons were perfumed with Rose Noir while the music was chosen to reflect the link between Gypsy Water and Romania (we have many gipsies and there is no shame despite the increasing racism against our nation in EU).

I put some pictures from the event with the bottles and decoration while the "celebrity side" is devoted to facebook.

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

Thursday, June 18

Idylle Guerlain (3)

This post contained original information / historic elements / formula review / aesthetic judgments about the Guerlain perfume named Idylle, perfumer Thierry Wasser, bottle design Ora Ito, egerie - Nora Arzeneder.
I erased the content on 24th 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, their price policy and their relation with the new medias. Guerlain company today do not answer my ethic and aesthetic expectations.
You can read the story of the abuse of Guerlain against me in other post.
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.
UPDATE: the final review of Idylle Guerlain.

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

Biopiraterie - the scandal

It seems that there is a big scandal now in the cosmetic industry about the appropriation of naturals and ethnic knowledge by the brands.
Here you have an article in french on Agence France Presse.

Les industries du "naturel" (laboratoires pharmaceutiques, cosmétiques, spécialistes du bio) puisent largement dans la riche biodiversité des pays du sud. Pour trouver l'ingrédient nouveau, les entreprises "pillent sans contrepartie" les connaissances ancestrales des peuples autochtones en brevetant les ressources biologiques ayant une valeur commerciale, souligne le Collectif Biopiraterie, organisateur du colloque.
"Ils disent qu'ils ne font que breveter un processus de laboratoire mais c'est un artifice monstrueux pour mettre la main sur le vivant"
"C'est un droit des peuples de ne pas se laisser piller par des organisations qui ont d'autres intérêts que le bien-être général", a renchéri Danielle Mitterrand, présidente de la fondation France libertés et épouse de l'ancien président socialiste.

I must admit that in the past 2 years I saw in Paris so many claims on bio (and new brands) and "commerce equitable" and so much about ecology that I'm not able to tell where is the truth and where is ... the greenwashing or the abuse of the Nature.

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

Wednesday, June 17

Give me a (scented) bullet

This perfume from 1912 was maybe a premonition of the war - WWI and the tragic end of La Belle Époque. It was also a symbol of the power of the fragrance - a lethal weapon of seduction and we might remember the story of Mata Hari. Poiret had also a perfume about death, love and "weapon" - Borgia. It was imagined as the supreme elixir, a poison of love that even reproduced the almond scent of a type of poison. It's about those based on cyanide, I remember their odor while working in the pharmacy lab - the scent is really nice but you have to be careful. The Veni Vici from T. Jones reminds me also of those poisonous gas developed by German chemists during WWI, some of them had the odor of wet hay and flowers.
Unfortunately I do not know the odor of Veni Vici, I saw only empty bottles - bullet shaped.

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

Supreme Replica

The subject of original creations and shameful copies might be an intellectual conversation in Paris but elsewhere it is a business and in the end it's only the specific laws of the countries that matter.
This article - ad is from a very respected British cosmetic magazine from late 80's and it shows us a small part of the important market in the 80, both in USA and UK of replicated fragrances. I found the name of the brand very amusing - Supreme Copycats.
The article goes on describing the prices (They sell about a quarter of the price), and the names plus the contact details of the company.
Poison - Success
Giorgio - Show Off
Paris - Talk of the Town
Anais Anais - Gulf Flowers
Chloe - Simply Tuberose
White Linen - White Magic
You might blame this side of the modern fragrance history, but there is something "genuine" in those products - they do not pretend to be more than copies sold cheaper.
You might be also surprised who supplied and did those copies in the past. Now, this market exists in East Europe and there are several companies from Ukraine, Poland, Turkey that bottle the perfumes. But again, during my "investigations" I was surprised to learn who actually supplied them from France. What I do not like in Paris is the hypocrisy about a practice that exists since the birth of Grasse industry and had quite an important value in the sales of finished compositions.

I liked the names for Poison and Giorgio, they were very characteristic for the scent. Poison was indeed everywhere in the late 80's and was the ultimate success while Giorgio and its very strong tuberose note and yellow packaging was all about the extravagance, the excess and the big plastic accesories of the 80's.

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

Tuesday, June 16

Après l'ondée - Guerlain

This post contained original information / historic elements / formula review / aesthetic judgments about the Guerlain perfume named Après l'ondée created by Jacques Guerlain.
I erased the content on 24th 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, their price policy 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

Fleur de pêche and Mitsouko

This post contained original information / historic elements / formula review / aesthetic judgments about the Guerlain perfume Mitsouko created in 1919 by Jacques Guerlain and several descriptions of the perfume from 1921 and 1922.
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

Monday, June 15

Guerlain Beauty in 1861

This post contained original information / historic elements / formula review / aesthetic judgments about the Guerlain products from 1829 and 1861 - benjoin amygdaloïde, mellite amygdalin, crème de limaçon (a big hit), baume de la Ferté, diapasme oriental.
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

Chanel and copies

You remember maybe that Coco Chanel said something like "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" and that she used to show her models before other couturiers and even invited "copists" to see her creations. Well, this is a part of the legend that was built after WWII when Coco needed attention and to be different.
Before WWII things were quite different. Like other couturiers (Vionnet) she protected her dresses and went after those who made copies.
Here you have an example from 1924, published in le Figaro.
UN JUGEMENT de la 3ème chambre du Tribunal civil de la Seine du 25 novembre 1924 a déclaré les "Magasins de la Samaritaine" contrefacteurs d'un modèle de robe en crêpe Georgette noir, jupe deux volants plissés, corsage trois intervalles plissés devant, grand col plissé dos, manche descendant jusqu'au coude déposé par Mademoiselle CHANEL, robes et couture, 31, rue Cambon, à Paris, le 4 avril 1923, et saisi, suivant procès- verbal, de saisie contrefaçon du 1er mai 1923. En outre, les Magasins de la Samaritaine ont été condamnés à payer à Mademoiselle CHANEL, 6.000 francs de dommages, intérêts et au coût de 4 insertions.

This is very funny to read with the comments she made in the 50's about the protection of dresses when she condamned all other couturiers. Like in politics, there is allways other aspects of life that are not often said.

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

Fragrance ingredient: Golden Stone from Yemen

This is an old but (also new because not used very much) natural animal note. It is collected in Yemen from the excrements and urine of an animal (daman - hyrax, it looks like a rabbit) that are deposed on rocks, fossilized over time. Now, this is produced by Charabot and offers a special combination of animal-vegetal-mineral note. It has something like the fresh canadian castoreum, the dried ink or the dark olives. It reminds me some aspects from the Pure Oud created by Kilian, but I cannot say if it was used or not. Charabot used this ingredient in a creation inspired by a wild ride in Mongolia, presented this spring during their workshop session called "Ici & Ailleurs" (a sensorial journey around the world).
Hyraceum, another animal ingredient is obtained in a similar way from a daman in South Africa. Unfortunatelly I cannot tell you what is precisely the olfactory difference between the 2 types, I'm not very familiar with this ingredient. Hyraceum is sold by Firmenich Naturals.
Charabot has also a new orris super palida from China (new extraction), an olibanum hyperessence HT (with a burnt and leather note) and a gurjum balsam that I love (I was not a great fan of this ingredient before).

Mane created also a new extraction method called Neo Jungle Essence - the exotic natural is extracted with a gas, the result can be used directly by the perfumer and it is very faithful to the original. Their new NJE captives are very original: Poivron, Aubergine, Pruneau, Potiron (pumpkin), Levure Boulanger (baking yeast), Maïs, Noisette, Artichaut (artichoke). They were presented inside a "cabinet de curiosités" where Mane perfumers imagined some original interpretations. I'll come back with details on this technique.

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

Friday, June 12

Contact dermatitis & the quality of life

This month issue (july august) of the Flavour and Fragrance Journal, Volume 24, Issue 4 has an article called
"Does contact dermatitis to fragrances influence the quality of life? A descriptive study measuring and comparing the quality of life and skin involvement in patients with contact dermatitis to fragrances"
Here you have a quote from the discussion and the conclusion part.

"The VQ-d scores were modest and illustrated that the majority of the patients (97%) were only slightly to moderately affected by their allergy to fragrances. Looking at the different items
separately, it appears that the scores were particularly high for questions exploring psychological aspects and physical discomfort. The scores for the 10 specific questions regarding fragrances were also higher. According to these results, our impression was that a global low score of a quality of life questionnaire may hide important aspects affecting a patient’s life,
which should not be ignored. Depression and physical discomfort are a major issue in contact allergy to fragrances. [...] They show that as the years go by individuals allergic to fragrances are less affected in their quality of life, probably because after the patch test results, patients become aware of their allergy, avoid contact with fragrances and cease to experience contact eczema."

Another subject, this time the relation between patch test and repeated open application test thresholds (ROAT) in the case of Lyral is published in British Journal of Dermatology may 2009:
"The knowledge of the relationship between the patch test (which is an easy test to perform) and the ROAT (which mimics some real-life exposure situations) is important for the understanding
of how patch-test data can be used as a tool in risk assessment and thereby in preventive strategies."
In other words, there is still much to learn about the mechanism before putting numbers in a standard.

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

New reading and New Tom Ford

Tom Ford is launching the White Musk Collection (read full story in WWD and see also another photo)

“The men’s stores are dark and luxurious. [When creating the White Musk Collection] I was in the mood for something lighter and a little fresher. In the world today, we’re all in the mood for something simple, fresh, light and a little less heavy. At least that’s what I’m in the mood for,” Ford said.

Jasmine Musk (made by Givaudan)- ylang-ylang, jasmine, patchouli, orris, vanilla, sandalwood, vetiver, cistus, amber, two musks (??? only 2).

Urban Musk (made by Givaudan)- ambrette seed absolute extra (delicious note), white pepper CO2, notes of cumin, white honey, jasmine sambac, black plum, Tonkin musk headspace (very special accord) and benzoin Laos orpur.

Musk Pure (made by Givaudan)- bergamot, pepper, ylang-ylang orpur (exceptional quality), jasmine, lily of the valley, orris butter, orris absolute, jasmine sambac, tonka, benzoin tears and Laotian beeswax.

White Suede (made by Firmenich)- Bulgarian rose, saffron ("trendy" note), thyme, mate tea, olibanum, lily of the valley, amber, suede and sandalwood.

Orpur is a special quality of naturals selected by Givaudan - something like "crème de la crème". Givaudan has also some interesting projects with naturals around the world and I will detail that in the future.

Another interesting article is about "the mystery of decoding discontinued and lost perfumes" in a world full with perfumes from all periods.

Photo: WWD

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

Tuesday, June 9

Nicolas de Barry

Nicolas de Barry is organizing several fragrance workshops and masterclasses this summer in his château. Here you have some ideas for a summer in France, at Château de Frileuse near Blois in the Loire Valley.

* Workshops:10-12th and 24-26th of july, 2-4th of august

- Atelier Initiation: how is a perfume composed?

- Visit and olfactive wine tasting in a winery

- Creation of bath salts, with essential oils

- Dinner with scented dishes in the Chateau de Frileuse

- Champagne Balloon flight (a tour at dawn for about an hour over the surrounding countryside)

- Creativity workshop: Eau de Cologne

* Master Class: Perfume creation 23-29th august

- an intensive training with Nicolas de Barry

You can find details and prices on Nicolas de Barry website.

Nicolas de Barry is also the author of several historical perfumes that can be found at Maître Parfumeur et Gantier: QUEEN MARGOT, LOUIS XV, MARQUISE DE POMPADOUR, GEORGE SAND.

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

Vintage Magnolia

Magnolias (grandiflora type) are not in bloom in Paris but until then, here you have the formula of a magnolia note as it was done in the 20's and 30's when this note was very popular. Magnolia notes were built around a very fresh rose (nerol), a delicate lily of the valley, ylang and lemony notes. Famous bases were Magnolys, Magnolia 1618 and Magnolia 2471/D. This note is very soft, creamy, with a delicate sweetness and vintage appeal plus a fresh tuberose note. Because it is versatile you can twist it very easy in a Chanel note (woody + aldehydes), in a Jean Patou note or in a fresh vintage gardenia note.

Bergamot ess. 40
Lemon ess. 30
Citral 5
Terpineol 20
Acetate benzyle 30
Ylang - Ylang extra 180
Nerol 260
Citronnellol 80
Alcool phénylethylique 50
Aldehyde syringa, 10% 10
Aldehyde phenylacetic 85, 10% 10
Dimethylanthranilate 10% 5
Hydroxycitronnellal 200
Alcool cinnamique 110
Heliotropine 120
Anisaldehyde 10
Jasmonal A 50
Tuberose abs. 10
Jasmin abs. 40
Isoeugenol 10
Vanilline 5
(pseudo)Aldehyde C16, 10% 5
(pseudo)Aldehyde C18, 10% 5
Aldehyde C12 MNA, 10% 20
Musc ketone 40
Musc ambrette 15

Total 1350

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

Monday, June 8

Shalimar gardens

Yesterday, at Albert Khan museum, there was also an exhibition about India with the incredible autochrome photos but also a conference about the indian art of gardens. Of course, there was Shalimar and its beautiful story plus several images taken in the 20's.

Here you have an illustration done in the Art Deco period by Abanindranath Tagore, nephew of the poet Rabindranath Tagore (there are several pictures with him taken in the Albert Khan gardens, and one with Anna de Noailles).

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

Idylle Guerlain - Coty (2)

This post contained original information / historic elements / formula review / aesthetic judgments about the Guerlain perfume named Idylle, perfumer Thierry Wasser, bottle design Ora Ito.
I erased the content on 24th 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, their price policy and their relation with the new medias. Guerlain company today do not answer my ethic and aesthetic expectations.
You can read the story of the abuse of Guerlain against me in other post.
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.
UPDATE: the final review of Idylle Guerlain.

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

A special tree

Yesterday I spent several hours inside the Albert Khan gardens in Paris (my photos on the other blog) and I made ... a special discovery. There is one tree, it seems a crataegus type, that smells very close to Après l'ondée!! There was a little wind and tout d'un coup, I smell a delicious breeze of the very old Guerlain perfume. The resemblance is amazing! Almost all facets are present. The gardens were built between 1895 and 1910 and it is possible that one day Jacques Guerlain was under the same tree, after a rain in spring.

In the photo, the tree is the first one on the left.

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

Friday, June 5

The Bath and the Mirror - exhibition

The Cluny museum in Paris has a new exhibition about beauty, cosmetics (and fragrances) from Antiquity to Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Here you have the text from the website:

The Bath and the Mirror
"An exhibition organised by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux and the Musée National de la Renaissance -Château d’Ecouen In parallel to the exhibition at the Musée de Cluny - Musée national du Moyen Age.
A hundred and thirty objects and art works have been assembled by the Musée National de la Renaissance with the aim of restoring the full aesthetic and social dimension of the Renaissance toilet routine. Beauty sets, ointment slabs and perfume bottles, powder boxes, mirrors, combs, ornaments for hair and clothing are contextualised and exhibited next to paintings and sculptures. The confrontation between the sometimes idealised beauty proper to the artists of the Renaissance and items of everyday material culture help us understand the practices of a civilisation in which the role of appearances and grooming was far from negligible."
More info - official website.

But the exhibition comes also with an extraordinary and heavy book (351 pages) with golden sides like the old manuscripts. The book is in French. Le bain et le miroir : Soins du corps et cosmétiques de l'Antiquité à la Renaissance.

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

Thursday, June 4

Fake :)

How to be unique! The stopper is almost perfect but the graphic designer is amateur.

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

Wednesday, June 3

Exquisite fragrance auction in Paris

If you are this weekend in Paris, there is a place where you must go. On Monday will take place an auction organised by Coutau-Begarie at Drouot Richelieu - Salle 6 - 9 - expert: Jean-Marie Martin Hattemberg. But on saturday, 6th of june, between 11h00 and 18h00, there will be an exhibition with the beautiful creations.

I saw great fragrances from Piver, Roger&Gallet, Houbigant, Worth, Isabey, Guerlain, Poiret, Nina Ricci, d'Orsay, Bienaimé, Lucien Lelong, Coty, Caron, several Lalique bottles.

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

Tuesday, June 2

New fragrance in 2009: WienerBlut Klubwasser

Built in a very XIXth century fragrance style (read: it's too ancient to remind you other perfumes) WienerBlut Klubwasser is a delicious and nostalgic scent with a mossy-hay note plus a flowery bouquet that evaporates in a surprising way. It suggest the perfumery art from a different time when tinctures (like oak moss infusion) were blended in a very harmonious way with no dominant note. It has very little from the french style, and it smells like an ancestor of chypre perfumes (I think of the original Chanel pour Monsieur). It evokes the ancient woods, the heather and the "sous bois" vegetation but also the old furniture in museums. The flower bouquet suggests a delicate and rounded blend of rose-neroli with a touch of spicy notes and you can feel the sweet notes of a popular early XXth century cologne in Germany. I do not feel that much the cumin note for me it's rather kümmel (carvi - Carum carvi). The black cumin is "Nigella sativa" nothing to do with the cumin of Roudnitska - Cuminum cyminum - and this black cumin is given as an ingredient of the perfume WienerBlut Klubwasser. I know the natural product but I'm not familiar with the essential oil. Both Carum carvi and Nigella sativa are very popular in Central Europe. I understand that this austrian creation is based on original XIXth century perfumes from Wien but more information is available on their website and in Paris the perfume is already at Colette.
I have many recipies from XIXth century, maybe in the future I will make a short presentation about styles and types of fragrances that were popular those days. Those formulas are very hard to be produced because the ingredients are no more available. If the naturals still exists, now we have different extraction methods.

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

Linden blossoms - Tilleul - Tillia cordata

Paris theese days is pure euphoria and Baudelaire' Dawamesk is nothing compared to warm breeze under the linden trees now in blossom. Yesterday I was reading in the gardens of Palais Royal and for several hours I experienced the joy of this special fragrance in the warm sun. The linden is not just another tree producing a pleasant scent but are a marvel of scent engineering. A huge scent factory produces a fragrance that is first, different in the air than close to the flowers and bracts (they are too scented) and second, a marvel of diffusion. Those are molecules mixed in such an intelligent proportion that they can travel in the air creating something like an aura (similar to white flowers in the evening). There are several types of linden trees in Europe. I know all of them, some are in bloom now, other in summer. If linden blossoms are representative for Paris, they were also for Berlin (there is a famous street and famous song).
- cucumber: one of the strangest effect in the smell of flowers in the air is the very strong green cucumber-violet note. If you keep your nose concentrated in the air for several minutes you can actually perceive nonadienal (the cucumber aldehyde) and maybe nonenal.
- aldehydes: over and around the green violet note floats a cloud of fresh low aldehydes, almost all are present but what I perceive is closer to C9 aldehyde
- mimosa - lilac: if you eliminate the strong and characteristic green flowery notes you can actually perceive a very soft and delicate anisic scent that reminds me the mimosa, the fresh lilac, anisaldehyde and even a very subtle hay note like coumarine. In the lilac shape you can feel the very fresh effect like the petals of phenylethyl alcohol (rose) with a very sharp green hyacinth note (phenyl ethyl aldehyde).
- orris - the scent is also very powdery like several ionones
- apple - if you pick the flowers and put to your nose, a very green and apple peel & juice note will appear. It smells exactly like a very strong apple product called hexenal trans 2. In the same fruity sequence, a very green pear and almost a quince seem to coexist.
- honey - a sweet and almost spicy peppery green note is in the background, it evokes several green benzoates and phenylacetates but also beeswax
- indole - I swear there is a trace of indole in this flower, the scent evokes the animal side of the orange flower (but it is not an orange flower scent!!!)
- aromatic - less important to the general scent, you can detect a thyme and tarragon note plus something that recalls a specific green vegetable.
- farnesol - this is the secret of the flowers, but I do not know wich isomer is responsible and if its different from the Givaudan product I use (farnesol is another endangered product in the IFRA "times of terror")
How strange it may sounds but in the green and very fresh flowers the metallic note reminds me the magnolia flower absolute.
Pure linden blossom fragrance does not exist, it was only aproximated (there is one Elizabeth Arden that I do not remember the name with a sweet linden note on top). There is also Tilleul d'Orsay (reformulated so many times since the 50's), Eau du Ciel (Annick Goutal), Guerlinade (1998, actually a very good fragrance more lilac). A metaphor of the scent but spicy, violet, mimosa and aldehydic powdery exists in Soir de Paris (Bourjois, the real one, done by Ernest Beaux, not the disaster from the 90's).

Like for lily of the valley, it's not enough to create the "note" (the recognizable scent) but you have to create its dynamics in space, the true 3D effect, the volume.
Since several years I associate linden blossom with Serge Lutens. Before entering the small shop at Palais Royal you are already hypnotized by their beauty and both share something violet - the scent of the flowers and the decoration of the boutique.
Linden blossom fragrance is a challenge to creative perfumers, a masterpiece to be (re)created like Edmond Roudnitska did for the lily of the valley in Diorissimo (before its mutilation caused by IFRA and ordered by Dior).

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

Was "Chanel No5" Art in 1921?

In The Journal Of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 65:3 Summer 2007 (p.273-286) I found an article about "The aesthetics of smelly art" with a rather curious, false and undocumented conclusion on the relation between Chanel No5 and art. Here you have the passage:
"Hence, the fifth scent was simply one of several possibilities until Coco Chanel chose it, but as Marcel Duchamp said of the celebrated urinal, Fountain, an artist need not make anything,
only choose something. In that sense, Coco Chanel could be said to be the artist who created Chanel No. 5, but did Coco Chanel choose scent number five as a work of art?Was she making a statement in the context of the artworld of her time?58 Here, the answer is likely no. She seems to have chosen it simply because she wanted to sell a perfume along with her fashion creations.59 In that sense, Coco Chanel could be said to be the artist who created Chanel No. 5, but did Coco Chanel choose scent number five as a work of art?Was she making a statement in the context of the artworld of her time?If Coco Chanel was not making an artistic statement with the introduction of ChanelNo. 5 in 1920, we can easily imagine an art museum in our time creating an exhibition honoring her design work and lining up five bottles of Chanel No. 5 on a table for visitors to sniff. Would these five bottles be "art"?
It is highly unlikely that Chanel knew anything of Duchamp’s readymades of the period 1914–1917, gestures that were barely known in the larger artworld and were not widely discussed until after 1950. Interestingly enough, just a year after Chanel No. 5 appeared, Duchamp created an assisted readymade through his Rrose S´elavy persona by pasting a fictitious label with his or her picture on a Rigaud perfume bottle, but Duchamp seems to have had little interest in what was inside the bottle. "

And here are my observations (I try to keep simple):
Modern art and avant-garde art were in the heart of fashion between 1910-1930 and what general public seemed to have discovered later it was well known in fashion - society circles in that period. Only looking in fashion and popular magazines like Femina, Vogue, Bazaar, La Vie Parisienne, l'Illustration it is easy to find examples that modern art was a "hot subject". You should see how people dressed for the "bals costumés" to understand how much "very modern" artists were popular among the "elite". The relation between fashion designers and the modern movement can be seen under 3 aspects: they bought modern art (see the auctions of Poiret and Doucet collections), they included modern art in their fashion collections (inspiration, interpretation or working with artists "en vogue", there are many books here, one was the exhibition Fashion and Cubism in NY), and interior decoration, they were mecena for modern artists (Chanel is the best example for her financial support and her friends).
There is no element of the modern art between 1910-1930 that did not enter the fashion scene and, unlike now, this was less for marketing purposes but because designers were reinventing the feminine wardrobe and fashion was then about everything new and daring and unseen.
What Chanel did from 1914 to 1921 was as modern and unseen as Duchamp. The relation between modernity (fashion and Duchamp) is well explained and documented in the book "The culture of fashion" and there are many examples about Duchamp & co and the way modern fashion was conceived and presented.
The phrase " It is highly unlikely that Chanel knew anything of Duchamp’s ready-mades of the period 1914–1917" seems very bizarre to me. It was exactly that time that she had a great success in USA (see her fashion in American magazine) and it's highly possible that the women that saw those ready-mades were dressed by Chanel, like those in Europe.
What she did in fashion and fragrances has a lot to do with Marcel Duchamp (and later with Picasso and suprematist school) but it's only our constant separation art / commerce that makes difficult to place today Chanel's gestures in the domain of art.
How can I interpret her work during the WWI - taking the most humble and cheap material (the jersey), cutting it into basic shapes and selling it very expensive - if not close to Duchamp's experiments (the non valuable ordinary objects become valuable by the intervention of the artist)?
There is even a closer and funny approach between Chanel and Duchamp's urinoir "Fountain" - the jersey was used mainly for undergarments and No5 was said to evoke the scent of the clean female skin. :)
Now, why do I think No5 in 1921 was an art piece and an art gesture?
- the perfume was in 1921 an "abstract creation" with a huge amount of aldehydes, new in its form and structure, but also a new type of smell far from easy to identify odors (the flowers and the sweet orientals). But art critics are not supposed to look into the formula of a perfume.
- the bottle was a made "ready made" - a pharmacy bottle later an innovative and avant guard bottle conceived by Chanel and Julien Viard (cf. Christie Mayer Lefkowith) - and the packaging was in the same spirit. A bottle that did not reflect apparently the artistic intervention (like in Lalique) and was as daring as the constructivists (that were popular in Paris and one worked for Chanel textiles).
- the marketing: there was no advertising, no regular sale, no story to tell, no image. It was given as a present, to several clients and it was as exclusive as Duchamp's work was.
- the name: it should be seen in the context of other "number bottles" that Chanel sold (but now are hard to find). What was unique was not only the gesture of Coco to chose several numbers (random, we would say today) but to offer the same gesture to the client. In fact, what the authors of the article did not know is the fact that in the early 20's there were many perfumes with numbers at Chanel. The client was in the same situation of random selection because no indication about the scent was given, unlike the previous time when the name evoked something about the inside of the bottle or even gave an information in the case of soliflore. The woman was like the artist who selected the perfume and that was very daring in 1922. No description of the scent, no given family, plain bottles.
To say that Chanel "seems to have chosen it simply because she wanted to sell a perfume along with her fashion creations" is the strangest statement made about fragrance creation in that period. How about Poiret then?
To say that Chanel No5 was not a work of art in 1921 means that you are completely out of the fragrance history. Within several years it changed completely the way perfumes were created and bottled with, again, no "public image" in the very first years. Isn't it the power of Art to make a statement and change the world from one day to another?
The problem is that authors interpret the past from the modern perspective and they do not dig enough and are not able to see the entire context of the No5 creation. Worse, it seems that popularity and profits work against the perception of a fragrance as a work of art. But is Andy Warhol less artistic today?
Art criticism still needs a good infusion of fragrance history and fragrance creation before being able to understand the "smelly art". Fragrance art is the last art that requires initiation to be appreciated.
Why a movie that can be sold in millions of copies around the world can be considered an art and a fragrance as an original statement sold in millions of bottles wouldn't be for art critics?
Another quote from the article:
"Chanel No. 5 is simply a commercial product, although meant to provide aesthetic pleasure to those who wear it and those who smell it. If it makes a statement at all, it is something like "wear me and become more attractive" or "show your good taste in perfume by wearing the best.""
I suggest you this article but I disagree with everything inside and worse, it gives me the feeling of being in the XIXth century not in 2009 (it was written in 2007).

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

New fragrance: Les Secrets de Sophie by Guerlain

This post contained original information / historic elements / formula review / aesthetic judgments about the Guerlain perfume Les Secrets de Sophie created by Jean Paul Guerlain and launched in 2009, cobranded with "Les Bijoux de Sophie" and sold under 3 forms (Secrets Noirs, Secrets Poudrés, Secrets Nacrés).
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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