Parfumerie Générale - Papyrus de Ciane - new fragrance

Pierre Guillaume has unveiled yesterday on his facebook page the new surprise for 2010. PAPYRUS DE CIANE is a woody green perfume and a modern interpretation of the classic and famous Mousse de Saxe base from de Laire (found in Nuit de Noel but also several great perfumes from Guerlain, Rochas, YSL and Chanel).
"Des Fontaines d'Aréthuse, aux eaux brunes des méandres de Ciane, sa noblesse se pare d'ombelles à l'éclat vert intense..."
In the conversation that followed the news on his page, the perfumer described with a lot of passion the inspiration behind his new creation leaving us without words and with the strong desire to test N. 24 - Parfumerie Générale:
"C'est un bois paradoxal, a la fois dense/ liquoreux et éthéré, dans le sens ou il donne un peu de "montant" au benjoin. […] Associée à un cocktail de muscs macrocycliques (dont Silvanone Supra), notre "Mousse de Saxe" devient moelleuse, crémeuse, elle se fait pénétrante et s'étire doucement et chaudement sur l'épiderme... la caresse d'une ombre. […] Papyrus est une note verte, lumineuse, la Mousse de Saxe y distille son cachet rétro en fond mais l'écriture de l'ensemble est je l'espère bien actuelle."
Pierre Guillaume explained the concept of Mousse de Saxe and his desire to dress this opulent note in green (" un joli fourreau végétal vert vif") for a creamy, soft and penetrating scent, warm and gentle like "the caress of a shadow".

The perfume is said to be released in february 2010

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Amaranthine - Penhaligon's (2009) new fragrance review

Sira des Indes was one of the most special modern creations of Jean Michel Duriez for Jean Patou with its accord of champaca-sandalwood-milk-banana set in a very oriental context. If this exceptional fragrance was set in an exotic Indian palace with opulent decoration, the new perfume from Penhaligon`s takes us to the jungle for an exotic experience of a rare scent. With a name that is close to a famous base used in the classic Jean Patou formulas, Amaranthine is the sensual and opulent cousin of Fleur de Liane. What was fresh, green, airy and somehow rooty by the use of patchouli, becomes now the 24 hours of a tropical imaginary flower. From the very green top, almost pungent, like the scent of vegetal buds (and curious banana flowers or several Thai vegetables) it goes through all stages, to the over-ripe fruit with its liquorish scent up to the very sensual stage, almost dirty-indolic-sweat-cumin that is hidden behind the apparent freshness.
The top note has that cumin-pungent metallic note find in many green flowers (even in lily of the valley or mock orange). The structure of the perfume is not easy - the scent evolves on several stages with multiple accords that could be summarized like this
- the exotic white flower with ylang-jasmine-vanilla
- the rain freshness with white rose, freesia and a very green lily of the valley
- the sensual feminine drydown with sweet sandalwood, musk, lactonic notes, spices
plus the accents that are very strong on all evaporation stages:
- the very green natural leaf top note
- the green fruity notes plus the over ripe fruits (pineapple-litchi-banana-fraise des bois)
- a soft and almost aldehydic fruity powdery note
The official description, "a corrupted floral oriental for those private moments when everything is anticipation", is very close to the scent - it smells indeed like some flowers or fruits when their perfume is a delicious mixture of pleasant and "corrupted" notes (fermented leaves, over ripe fruits, durian and passion fruit, indolic flowers) with that sparkling effect of champagne.
Special and unusual if you follow the evolution of the notes, Amaranthine is not about an easy prettiness.
There is something very risqué inside this flower and this effect can be noticed on all stages - it suggests the scent of a feminine skin delicately perfumed with Eau Première (Chanel), naked and posing in a cornucopia of exotic flowers with a lethal spicy nectar mixed with her salty sweat.

Official main ingredients for Amaranthine by Penhaligon's - green tea, white freesia, banana tree leaf, coriander, cardamom, rose, carnation, clove, orange blossom, ylang ylang, Egyptian jasmine absolute, musk, vanilla, sandalwood, condensed milk and tonka bean.

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Unusual Louis Vuitton fragrance

Seen on ebay this week - a perfume probably introduced cca 1985 as a gift. Eau de Voyage by Louis Vuitton. Plain bottle similar to Denim After shave and a very clean design like the one use today by Prada for their exclusive range. Last photo is from a 2007 auction. A must for Vuitton aficionados because the house is not selling any perfume today.

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La Prairie Life Threads - Silver, Gold, Platinum (2009) - new fragrance review

After a very sticky perfume called Silver Rain with its overdose of red fruits, caramel and sugar worn like a thick anti-age face mask, La Prairie has released a very curious set of 3 perfumes named after other cosmetic ingredients. Silver, Gold and Platinum are here not for their alchemical properties but because of their … supposed cosmetic action. Like caviar and pearls, they are used in expensive creams like those sold by la Prairie. Their scent is a perfect image of the hypothetical clients of the Swiss brands. They are not modern perfumes and not 100% original - all are a reflection of the past and of the perfumes that were popular 2 decades ago. The rich white flower - tuberose from the Giorgio / Jardins de Bagatelle era, the rose patchouli chypre amber from Diva's golden age and the more obscure (now) Cabochard an other soft leather floral chypre 3 decades ago. Is La Prairie playing Dr.Freud with their rich clients?

Silver offers an interpretation of the classic tuberose theme from Fracas in a very green spicy context. The tuberose becomes a classic gardenia with a strong green styralil acetate effect on top. It is less lactonic than Fracas and more peppery with a spiciness that reminds me Gardenia Absolute from Goutal on a very soft musk-sandalwood-vanilla-lactonic base. Between the 2 floral ideas there is a strong green lily of the valley-white rose-lily (salicylates). The white floral bouquet is reminiscent of a style very popular in the 80's and another more recent example with a lot of character is 3 Fleurs (Parfums d'Empire). Is Silver the result of a cross pollination between Ma Griffe and Fracas?.

Gold is another modern retro interpretation of an oriental type quite popular in the 80's and now found in one perfume from Amouage. The rose-sandalwood-cinnamon accord in a very sweet oriental context is classic like the floral bouquet rich in ylang and very rounded fruity notes (peach, plum). It reminds me a facet from La Nuit (Paco Rabanne) or Gem (Van Cleef & Arpels) with its chypre rose prune note, but Gold is more oriental with a good dose of synthetic sandalwood (80's overdose), powdery notes and incense. It is reminiscent of a period when fragrances were very baroque and perfumers tried to find the perfect balance between the chypre fruity and the amber family for an excess of sensual notes. Now, the rose-oud perfumes (Montale, Amouage) are doing the same. Another interpretation of the note but with a greater accent on the rose is Lumière noire pour femme.

Platinum rewrites the floral chypre leather note from Cabochard - Diorling with modern ingredients in a very retro interpretation. It is hard to evaluate if this is a new creation or an old formula adapted to modern needs. It is very mossy dry with patchouli-vetiver-cedar, quinoleine leather notes, a very soft delicate ambery drydown. The heart is dominated by the light jasmine and metallic green rose with the very refined methyl ionone surrounded by a delicate plum base. The dry note of the woods (almost smoke) is very well contrasted with the modern jasmine interpretation for an ash tray effect (It is not Jasmin et cigarette but has an effect). If you like it, try Diorling even the modern reformulation.

The perfumes are very well composed with great attention to details and notes but are not very original. For those who had never smelled the classics or some niche re-creations more recently they could be a surprise. For me … it is a very well known song.

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Cologne Ambre Nuit - Dior (2009) - new fragrance review

This year at the SFP, Firmenich presented a conference describing their 50 years of research on grey amber and the development of new molecules (the history of ambrox, cetalox, ambrinol, Fixateur 404, etc since the late 30's). The new perfume from Dior could be considered a beautiful metaphor of this scientific research and also a modern interpretation of the ambery family in a pure classic Dior style. It is one of the deepest ambery fragrances that evokes the scent of the natural grey amber with its tobacco, soft leather and dry woods shades. The precursors of this scent could be Eau de Merveilles, Ambre Narguillé, French Lover, but Cologne Ambre Nuit offers a contemporary interpretation of the nonsweet amber with a salty grapefruit top. There are no contrasts during the deep night and this idea was transposed to the composition - the notes are blended ad infinitum, no contrast, no noise, no excessive diffusion. It is a skin scent, not austere but rich and rounded like a plum, hiding a beautiful rose with deep and delicious fruity notes that evoke an oriental dessert. A small rose oud is wrapped in this ambery veil under patchouli leaves, balms, vanilla and very dry woods. The leather note is soft like a suede and has an embroidery with spicy notes (pepper, nutmeg?, cinnamom leaf or laurel?). The drydown is delicious like an exotic honey with almond/cherry notes from a flower that smells like Back to Black and tastes like Si Lolita. A soft lactonic touch with a tea note - osmanthus breeze modifies the warm effect of this salty amber, the opposite of Cologne Blanche.

With Cologne Ambre Nuit the amber molecules are again in overdose for a perfume that comes from another era.
I presented other modern perfumes in the same spirit in the Calamity J (Juliet has a gun) review.

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Calamity J., Juliet Has a Gun (2009) - new fragrance review

With Calamity J, Juliet has Gun writes a very curious page in the universe of modern creations. This is the opposite of their creations, most were more Juliet than the gun, composed around rich floral-rose notes (from the softest to the deep oud undertone). The new creation reveals the "gun", the masculine side of the seductress, the interpretation of the bullet, like the design of their new vapo. Calamity J. takes the codes of the masculine fragrances (the deep woods combined with dry ambery notes) and transforms them in a feminine cashmere wrap scented with dried patchouli leaves. The rose is no more the glorious bouquet but a skin tattoo. The central note of the perfume is a deep woody-ambery blend with a great amount of Ambroxan. It is ambery but not oriental, not warm, sensual or seductive. It is the dry side of gray amber, the tobacco note often found in combination with leather. Imagine an old leather jacket with dust and smoke (like those worn in Far West movies) hiding a divine body with the softest skin on earth, covered with just a small rose tattoo.
The inspiration is Calamity Jane, the first cowboy - woman (1853 - 1903) who drank and spoke like a man. Romano Ricci used the words « cataclysm, disaster, catastrophe, tragedy » something very unusual for the feminine creations. Aromatic herbs with a camphor sparkle, lavender, patchouli, cedar and dry woods mixed with orris (methyl ionone) evoke the fire and the mineral universe. The strong woody base reminds me the effect (and not the scent) of Dune and Samsara. But Calamity J. is a scent from a desert, an oriental in austerity with a very light sweet vanilla-tonka (coumarine)-cocoa note for a rum and whiskey effect. Between the aromatic effect of a classic fougère worn by a woman, the sensual sweet scent of her skin, the dry tobacco she smokes and the pure malt she drinks, the perfume recreates the image of a fighter. But unlike Bandit, another great example of reversed codes, Calamity J. is not so revolutionary and daring. This woman provokes but she wears the finest cashmere under the Prada jacket.
The fragrance has common facets with Attache Moi - IconoFly (another ambery scent), Boisé torride, Prada l'eau ambrée, Voile d'Ambre (Yves Rocher) and the ambery scent from Histoires de Parfum but also the soft tobacco-vanilla effect from the latest l'Artisan Parfumeur (but not gourmand at all). It is the opposite of the opulence found in Tom Ford perfumes.
A new interpretation of the Ambre 83 note, this time more abstract, dry and masculine like a real havana smoked with insolence and fronted by Lou Douillon. Musk-patchouli-ambroxan stolen from a masculine cologne.

The perfume is now available at Colette.

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Fragrances for fall in Paris

This morning I discovered a very beautiful article in French in l'Express about the scents of the season and the fragrances to evoke them.
"En ville, ça sent la pluie, le zinc et l'asphalte mouillé. Ça sent le préau d'école et l'écorce de marronnier. Le métro, aussi, et le p'tit noir au bar où l'on croise des femmes en trench au long sillage. A la campagne, c'est l'herbe ployée sous les gouttes d'eau, le colchique, le lichen, la verte âpreté de la sève encore vive. Dimanche après-midi, une éclaircie, on sort faire une balade en forêt, les enfants jouent au foot avec les marrons tombés dans la terre molle"
The article is here.

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Muscs Koublai Khan (Serge Lutens)

Muscs Koublai Khan is now in the export line and is sold at Sephora (cca 94 EUR). I indulged myself dreaming to wear one day the version with real musk inside.

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Further thoughts on art, fragrance and their intimate relation

Last week writing on the "relational" aspect of contemporary perfumery I was inevitably thinking about the N55 group and their artistic manifesto "ART AND REALITY" - 1996. There is something very close to the status quo of fragrances in this phrase:

"If one does not assign persons, their behavior, things and concrete situations significance, then there is no reason to be concerned with art. Art has significance for our daily existence, because persons, their behavior, things and concrete situations have significance for our daily existence."

Inspired by several points of N55 manifesto (no relation to perfumes) I transferred their interpretation to the world of fragrance art. Some elements are true but also, by their "negation" we could develop new forms of artistic perfumery in the future.

1. The art of fragrances is not for eternityUnlike architecture, funeral monuments and other forms of classic art, fragrances are not created / intended for eternity, neither they could hope for eternal life (and not just because of IFRA). This is the realm of ephemeral artistic experience. Art in a drop until the evaporation ends the experience of beauty and transforms it into an intellectual image. We have in our heart Diorama, Iris Silver Mist or Joy, long time after the experience and sometime years after the physical disappearance. This is not Proust but the power of creation that is able to transform a "sensation" into a strong mental image. Not eternal (yet) on the scale of history but sometime eternal for ourselves. The difficulties to produce or to preserve a fragrance over the years and the lack of access to the past (unlike in traditional art forms) makes the fragrance similar to performances in art. But this concept can be also explored further - LiveART (L'Art en direct). It is true that some great fragrances are the fruit of thought and a work of several years (the creative process of developing a new note and not actually the work on the perfume).

I'll tell you now one exercise we did at ISIPCA that we could imagine one day as an "artist battle" with great perfumers. We were in a group and were given a perfume base that could become any type of fragrance. 3 of us would do a modification of the base (a new direction) we choose the best and we continued with this new base. The contest was to obtain the most original yet harmonic changes with minimum ingredients added in a fragrance - a DJperfume contest. Every new change forced the group to rethink everything. Imagine now this small exercise done with the greatest minds of our time and the degree or originality of the final fragrant experience.

2. The art of fragrances is not only for contemplation and not just for use.For at least 5 hours the person who wears original Bandit (Robert Piguet) is not actually wearing a masterpiece but contemplating it. In the case of great perfumes the time spent with the aesthetic choices of a perfumer materialized in a drop is longer than in any other case of art contemplation. Some have spent years living with that masterpiece called Arpège (until IFRA & l'Oréal killed it ) and maybe maxim one hour with a Raphael painting, unless you owe one. But this is only a feature of the art of perfumes. They are also meant for the other like living and walking masterpieces (smell Femme on a real femme). Fragrance can be participational. First it's only about contemplating the scent of the other and maybe giving a short compliment. This idea of a wearable form of art has been explained recently by graindemusc.

Here we already have 3 levels - Art, Design, Ornament.ART - classic visual art theory made the distinction between major and minor arts, art and applied / decorative art but today this hierarchical distinction is considered rather obsolete. But some fragrances have all the qualities of any type of major art - this is not yet recognized and many people are not aware. Let's hope that for the future inside this universe there will be forms of artistic perfumery that will go beyond the modern understanding and there will be the recognition of the fragrance as the 8th art. But for this utopia we need more than pleasant fragrances, nice bottles, good PR and strong advertising. We need artists, thinkers, and above all the masterpieces to express a new ideal.

DESIGN - a fragrance is design when it's functional and engineered like any other everyday object but it's utility is more poetic than real (unless we speak about everything else than fine fragrances). The utility of a perfume is on the next level that follows what is understood by "practical" - thoughts, dreams, desires - everything that is between the land of touchable and the land of ideas. Almost all fine fragrances today are rather design: "products" and not "works". The development of a new fragrance by L'Oréal / Coty / P&G is design (good or bad) and in very rare cases something more.

ORNAMENT - a fragrance is an ornament by function or by use when it is something that "decorates" a product with scent or "adorns" a person with a soft and hard to define embellishment. It is not (yet) a loud aesthetic partipris.

3. The art of fragrances is a concrete answer in a concrete situation

Market, tastes, trends, cultural environment, zeitgeist. You cannot ignore them!

4. The art of fragrances is not made to make us silent. Art is not the field of the unspeakable.The masterpieces were always about a shock - an emotional aesthetic encounter. You notice classic perfumes and if the basic reaction was to turn your head after the scent - this is already a sign of broken silence. This almost non verbal status changed since the late 90's in the fragrance communities. What other proof of the powerful relational character of perfumes than the explosion of intense discussion around this non material artifact? Internet is as immaterial as the fragrance and both are here to express this intense relational character. The power of several fragrances to evoke images and not to make us silent can be experienced in the history of Serge Lutens. The power of fascination and the cornucopia of reviews and olfactory explorations are a sign that the perfume is not silent anymore.

5. The art of fragrances cannot be conceived without persons, behavior, interaction with other people in very concrete situationsThis was mainly the subject of my previous post. For the moment we do not have or know about fragrances that were conceived just for "art for art sake". I still dream about "unpublished" creations of great perfumers, fragrances that wait for us in drawers, masterpieces to dream about. There are still exceptions like in several creations brought to us by Frédéric Malle. But for the moment we do not have access to 90% of perfumer's work. Think Jean Carles or Ernest Beaux.

(to be continued)

Photo: Ernst Haeckel - Kunstformen der Natur (1904) - Lichenes

        

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Le Labo city-exclusive fragrances in Paris

Colette has brought together this month all the exclusive perfumes from Le Labo that were available in several cities around the world. For a very limited period you can smell and buy (340 EUR!!!) those rare and hard to find creations. There is something special about the delivery, if I understood well in Paris they do not have the juices (to be diluted) for the moment and you'll receive the order from Le Labo.
For those who are in Paris and do not know yet this special line, I recommend you to try them this week during the FIAC (Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain). Le Labo is also an artistic lab and some creations could stand in any art exhibition this week (like Oud and Patchouli).
I think I reviewed them in the past, so I just made a short description of the exclusive range now available in Paris. It was funny that now at Colette, the most succesfull tester was Musc (almost 15% empty already).

Poivre 23 - my favorite from the exclusive line - a dry woody note with ambery touches and a refined dark rose. This is not the pepper as you know it but a metaphor with an exquisite sillage. A classic mossy-chypre note in an almost Comme des Garçons interpretation. Dark, mysterious, sober, straight as a blade but soft as velvet.

Gaiac 10 - Milky wood, soft like a cream and the skin, very delicate woody and almost not the burnt guaiac. Is this the sensual scent of the white neck as painted by Utamaro? This elegant skin scent has the velvet touch of the very modern musks for a perfume that is almost a non-perfume. This is not the fragrance of a women but the tender kiss of Psyché transformed in a butterfly.

Musc 25 - a very refined type, soft, delicate and rather clean than dark and sensual, this interpretation is the angelic musk with a soft peach and baby powder note plus the echo of a special detergent (the cashmere woody effect like in Acqua Universalis).

Tubereuse 40 - unlike the known and heavy floral types (Fracas or Carnal Flower), this one is the delicate air that surrounds the flower, the souvenir of a tuberose in love with a fresh orange flower. The white flower type is airy but also reminiscent of the animalic note found in narcissus and some types of jasmine. A garland of flowers around the neck of a stallion with sour touches of green honeysuckle.

Aldehyde 44 - a violent archetype of the aldehydic blend this fragrance suggests the power of the first and very strong aldehydic perfumes from the 20's. The golden era of Chanel 22 and Chanel 5 but also of many other strong aldehydes minus the rich natural base that was also characteristic of that time. Aldehydes were the symbol of modernity and to some extent they represented also the modern art of the era - brutal, experimental, against conventions. There were the pleasant aldehydes (No5, l'Aimant) and the naughty aldehydes (Piver and Poiret) - the pretty scent and the "barbarian". Aldehyde 44 is the second type with its fresh, lily of the valley, incense, rose, salicylates, musk and transparent woods. The distorted past seen in the silver mirror of the future.

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Aroma Room and Tasting Theatre

This is not about fragrances but .... flavors and wine. The surprise comes this week from Australia. I know so little about australian wines (imagine that in Paris you usually don't ask for that) but reading a magazine this week I found the link to this WineOdyssey.
"Our Aroma Room and Tasting Theatre offers Australia’s premier wine appreciation experience. You’ll expand your wine vocabulary and taste six world-class Australian wines - including the World’s Greatest Shiraz - as you are guided on screen by the winemakers who made them."
In France, if your taste is not written in the DNA, you can still educate it through several books and now several "boxes" (similar to Osmoz range for perfumes) where the main facets found in wines are explained and sampled.

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La Fragrance Valley - utopie urbaine du parfum

Il y a Silicon Valley et plus récemment la Cosmetic Valley, pôle industriel qui regroupe les principaux acteurs de l'industrie cosmétique. Mais ce qui manque c'est un concept de synthèse, un "liant"entre économie et grand public. Une synthèse à la manière des utopies urbaines où art, industrie, nature et culture se mélangent dans une synesthésie totale (économique et artistique). Puisque je suis architecte de formation je vous propose une réflexion pour l'avenir des parfums dans la région parisienne.
J'ai été fortement inspiré par l'exposition consacrée au projet du Grand Paris à la Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine quand Nicolas Sarkozy annonçait le lancement d’une consultation internationale pour imaginer le grand Pari(s) de demain. Le défi de la ville future est de la rendre verte dans une immersion totale de la Nature.
C'est le cadre idéal pour imaginer "La Fragrance Valley" comme un parcours économique et culturel - une "cité" où le parfum devient raison d'être et symbole de la synthèse parfaite entre naturel, artificiel, art, culture, science, business.
Voilà quelques idées ou plutôt grandes axes de développement de la Fragrance Valley

- Le Grand Musée
Le Louvre du Parfum - bâtir le Musée de la parfumerie et des odeurs, le plus important au monde pour une expérience unique, essentiellement olfactive - poly sensorielle de l'art du parfum. C'est aussi le conservatoire du parfum censé établir un Fond de la Production Mondiale, à la manière des grandes bibliothèques. Préserver, restaurer, faire découvrir. C'est un Musée qui doit être Magnifique, attirer les touristes et devenir un passage obligatoire pour tous le consommateurs du parfum. C'est aussi l'instrument censé promouvoir à grande échelle l'art du parfum, plus fort que les publicités individuelles des marques.

- Les Grandes Serres
Déjà Paris a une grande tradition botanique avec des serres publiques qui abritent des plantes exotiques. Il m'a fallu énormément de temps à retrouver des plantes car elle ne sont pas organisées dans un parcours odeur. L'expérience unique des zones exotiques, mais difficile d'accès, doit être concentrée dans des jardins thématiques pour une expérience exubérante de la nature. On parle des headspace des plantes rares mais peu de personnes ont la chance de l'aventure et de l'expertise botanique. Ce type de serre permet aussi l'étude des odeurs, l'introduction de nouvelles plantes ornementales et l'enrichissement individuel au niveau sensoriel. On aime la nature car elle sent le vrai. Mais il faut la sentir.

- Les Grands Jardins
Il est inutile de dire ce que l'architecture paysagère doit à la France. Paris est entouré de formidables exemples (donc beaucoup méconnus au public) qui abritent déjà de nombreuses plantes aromatiques et parfumées. Il faut les mettre au service du parfum et construire dans le projet des jardins parisiens de l'avenir des jardins parfumés. Il faudrait aussi construire un circuit découverte des autres jardins dans la région à travers le parfum - un outil beaucoup plus efficace et simple que la botanique elle-même pour attirer le public. C'est aussi une manière d'éduquer le public vers une autre approche du jardinage - plus sensorielle, plus intime.

- Les Grandes Usines
Regrouper toutes les usines de parfums et attirer les autres (qui serait tentées d'aller ailleurs) par une fiscalité attirante. Des circuits publics pour une expérience de la production du parfum.

- Le Grand Laboratoire
Concentrer la recherche européenne en matière de parfums depuis la création des molécules et l'analyse des plantes jusqu'aux effets des parfums dans la médicine (voir la psychiatrie récemment). Mettre les bases d'une vraie science du parfum au-delà des recherches individuelles des fabricants. Etude systématique de l'odeur dans la nature.

- La Grande Orgue du Parfum
Un forum dédié aux conférences, ateliers, expositions, mais surtout aux artistes contemporains qui exploreront les odeurs. Des spectacles multimédias où tous les arts se conjuguent dans une nouvelle forme - cinéma, théâtre, opéra odorant et toutes les formes possibles d'application de l'odeur comme sujet principal. J'aime l'idée du show total où la mise en scène est plus vraie que le vrai. Il y a eu des exemples dans le monde entier mais quand les actions seront regroupées sous une coupole il y aura une vraie force de cet art émergeant.

- L'Eden des Marques
Retrouver tous les parfums du monde dans la même "vallée parfumée" pour une expérience unique du shopping et dee sensations / saveurs venues d'ailleurs. C'est aussi un endroit où chaque marque offre une expérience totale de son univers comme dans un temple. Rien à voir avec le shopping d'aujourd'hui.

- Le Maison du Paradis
Projet immobilier. Un quartier qui explore le pouvoir des odeurs et leur application dans l'architecture de la maison et du paysage. Transcrire la poly sensorialité dans un développement résidentiel pour retrouver le plaisir simple et exubérant du Jardin d'Eden ainsi qu'un regroupement des odeurs des différentes régions de la planète.

La Fragrance Valley c'est retrouver l'Eden dans le XXIeme siècle.

I hope I'll have time to put all this in english very soon.

photo: Hanging Gardens of Babylon - 16th century engraving by Martin Heemskerck

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Fragrance trends and Jean Claude Ellena

Jean Claude Ellena parle de sa vision sur la parfumerie et le concept des tendances à l'occasion de l'anniversaire du Musée de Grasse. Extrait d'un article paru dans le Nice Matin (also photo credit) à lire absolument.

I did not translate because I thought to leave the original meaning as it was.

"Une tendance n'arrive pas comme ça sur le marché. Elle est construite, réfléchie, élaborée longtemps avant d'apparaître dans le commerce. Par ce colloque, c'est ce travail sociologique que nous voulons exposer au public et aux industriels. Pour leur ouvrir l'esprit avant et après l'apparition de la tendance sur le marché. Cette tendance concerne le parfum, les vêtements ou l'alimentation...»
« Ce qui m'intéresse, c'est que Grasse redevienne un centre important de réflexion de la parfumerie, au-delà de la production. Ce musée doit être un outil de la pensée sur le parfum de demain... C'est un beau lieu pour parler du futur. »

Bon, je pense que le Musée de Grasse a une belle mission et un excellent parcours mais ce qui manque actuellement c'est un musée de la parfumerie au XXème siècle (le sujet a été abordé maintes fois à Paris par des experts de la profession). Il n'y a pas d'art sans histoire de l'art, la théorie et la critique. L'histoire et la fabrication du parfum sont une chose, mais la vraie parfumerie, en terme de création, idées et démarche esthétique c'est plutôt notre époque. Moi, j'espère que le centre de réflexion sera Paris (ou n'importe quelle autre grande capitale). On peut pas penser l'avenir dans un coin isolé et dans un beau paysage, mais au centre de la vie contemporaine ou les idées artistiques bougent dans l'air. Il faut vivre dans le XXIème siècle. En plus le pouvoir (politique, culturel, économique, etc) est concentré ailleurs. Grasse est une belle région mais ce n'est pas un point de départ excellent pour un rayonement mondial au moins qu'il n'y ait une démarche similaire au musée de Bilbao (avec son architecture emblème).

En tout cas je vous conseille de visiter l'excellent musée et lire le manifeste artistique de Jean Claude Ellena dans son livre (PUF) et à travers ses créations.

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Is Fragrance Art social?

Fragrance is a form of art that takes the human interaction as vital oxygen. The fact that many fragrances had a long existence on the market (some even for 100 years) is a unique example in the history of consumer goods. If in other cases it was the brand & the symbol that survived, in the case of the perfumes it was, until the recent cultural genocide patronized by IFRA, the substance itself. The longevity of a perfume and the commercial success is deeply linked with all types of human interactions
- between you and the creation over the years
- between you and the other people around you
- between different generations (see the revival of aldehydes)
The art of fragrances as it happens now might have features similar to what Nicolas Bourriaud calls Relational Art, which he characterizes in the following way: "a kind of art that takes as its theoretical horizon the sphere of human interactions and its social contexts, rather than the affirmation of a symbolic space that is autonomous and private", thus making "relational" and "private" opposites (Bourriaud, Esthétique relationelle).
Of course, there is a great difference between the examples of Bourriaud and the practices found in the industry / consumer's society but this description could make us understand more about the deep relations between us / the fragrances / the commercial success over the years. It can be also a new direction for a different kind of perfumery.
What else are perfumes today that a form of interaction, through the scent or through the message they carry? My blog and all the forms of social media can witness this power of social interaction beyond any type of commercial intention.
Also, through the art of fragrances are defined several important social references that have the value of olfactory symbols for generations. There is no absolute notion of clean, young, pretty, sexy, dirty but a relative interpretation in terms of scents that are determined by fragrances. The standards evolve everywhere. The choice made by perfumers and then accepted by consumers become references in a society. Any of those notions have their "formula", a set of molecules. Citrus, lavender, lily of the valley, ambroxan, galaxolide. A deliberate choice followed by the interaction with the members of society has the power to shape our perception. Now, the reference for gourmand is ethyl maltol and Angel, but they did not exist before the intentional action of the perfumer when this type of note was released.
Until recently, when fragrances became more intimate and the olfactophobia a concern in some parts of the world, the major intention behind many perfumes was "social". They were meant to be shared, enjoyed, represent a personal signature and in all cases to sustain the social interaction. You may call it sexual attraction as it was understood by many.
Social context - the study of trends, the reflections on tastes and an aesthetic reflection projected on future. Until the plethora of flankers, perfumes were meant and intended to stay at least 10 years on shelves. The notion of trends was totally different from the seasonal fashion concept. Creating a new fragrance was forecasting the mood of the future understanding the aesthetic values of tomorrow.
Nicolas Bourriaud says also that "the role of artworks is no longer to form imaginary and utopian realities, but to actually be ways of living and models of action within the existing real, whatever scale chosen by the artist." Shared activity means also shared scents.
Last night I was at a cosmetic conference and I deliberately choose to wear a pleasant perfume sketch with a strong diffusion woody-ambery-sandalwood. Even after 2 hours the scent invited to conversation and I started to share fragrant opinions and debates with people I've never met before. It worked like nectar for bees because it was diffusive and unusual to the scents of the day. In the description of Relational Art, the audience is seen as a community and relational art produces intersubjective encounters where the meaning is elaborated collectively and not in the individual space. My last night "social experiment" had no artistic intention but what I learned was a new meaning to the scent - I was not aware about several facets. The perception of the others revealed through short conversations brought something new.
We can say the same about several classic perfumes that were reviewed and presented by the community of fragrance lovers in the past 5 years. New meanings emerged, sometime never revealed before. Also, new meanings appear with new perfumes following the same pattern.
The art of fragrances produce human relations and we could imagine a new form of perfumery that takes human relations or social context as point of departure.
(To be continued)

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Six Scents: Series Two - N°2 Damir Doma: ‘End/Beginning’

With this fragrance Yann Vasnier writes a new page in the history of natural perfumery. It is hard to write a 100% natural fragrance that has all the aesthetic qualities of modern creations. It is also almost impossible to follow the legislation (IFRA is not a good friend with natural ingredients and in Europe the bio is insane). But Yann Vasnier put inside all the knowledge of Givaudan with their amazing OrPur and above all a great sensibility. This perfume has the depth of the classic chypre-ambery perfumes in a modern and purist interpretation. The first notes have the weird twist that recalls the labdanum & cedar extracts as seen in Oud Le Labo or Mystra Aesop. But there is nothing strange in this classic interpretation, deep and velvety like the texture of some flowers. When you put your nose inside some type of dark red roses with thick petals you get a special experience. There is no more the rose but a rich, almost ambery-myrrh scent with shades of honey and animalic notes that evoke the intimate scent of a skin covered with love. All the naturals listed in the official notes are blended with care, none of them is obvious. After several hours, the perfume becomes creamy oriental sensual but soft like a precious heritage fragrance. This is the scent of "End/Beginning" - inside a spiral of sensations from the cold spices to the milky sandalwood exploring all the facets of woody notes with an increased sensation of richness like in the precious but intimate labdanum-oud scents.

“The inspiration for this fragrance started with Damir’s unique vision for his fashion. His vision motivated my design: Sensitivity, Intelligence, Purity, Spirituality, Body & Soul, Naturality, and Respect. I was captivated by his specific sense of place and texture, and the natural world that he was looking to capture in scent. I constructed the fragrance like his fashion, using only natural ingredients and in layers of thin, sheer, transparent materials; all with contrasts, from light & bright, to deep & dark, from creamy & soft, to rich & mysterious.” – Yann Vasnier, perfumer

Main official ingredients for Six Scents: Series Two - N°2 Damir Doma - ‘End/Beginning’: Purple Ginger Extract, Vetiver Oil, Cedarwood, Guaiacwood, Cardamom, Coriander Seed, Birch Tar, Sandalwood, Beeswax Absolute, Patchouli, Myrrh

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Six Scents: Series Two - N°5 Richard Nicoll: ‘Nicoll 17’

The most original accords I have smelled in the past 3 years came from Givaudan and were scents that never went on sale (they were part of several creative projects). One of the notes I had in mind for many months was the blend between fennel, aromatic herbs, and cold oceanic notes to evoke the polar landscape. With Nicoll 17 I recognized the purity of the creation that lingered in my mind for many month. The perfume created by Rodrigo Flores – Roux is by far the most original of this experiment. A fennel note that breathes like the imaginary scent of a underwater plant. You feel the plant, the water, the green sap and the minerals that go from roots to the leaves. A cold lily of the valley - transparent jasmine with hints of cold melon / cucumber and an incredible diffusion (helional, melonal, hedione, cyclamal, azurone maybe?) is the fuel of this incredible engine with a pure silver design. This is the picture of weightlessness in a SF cosmic spa. The plants are floating in an infinite space - a small elderflower, a bio engineered lilac, a pepper that exudes incense vapors, rose petals that smell like magnolia, a patchouli seed. An excellent exercise of contemporary design where the breeze from Acqua di Gio for men becomes the scent of a plant in the new millennium with a very soft veil of sweet powdery notes.

“This fennel infused scent is a simple, minimalist fragrance from a perfumer who enjoys maximalism. It is a scientific pleasure and a dream project for a botanist. Every single aspect of Florentine fennel as a garden plant and as a slivered delicacy in a summer salad was taken into account: its crisp green character, its sweet anise and sambucca like aspects, the crunchy texture of the opalescent green stalks, the earthiness of the roots, the airiness within its feathery leaves and umbrella shaped flowers. Deceivingly simple, Nicoll 17 is natural, fresh and easygoing as it conceals its complexity behind a simple, wholesome theme. It’s filled with energy and palpitates with joy.” – Rodrigo Flores –Roux, perfumer
Main official ingredients for Six Scents: Series Two - N°5 Richard Nicoll - ‘Nicoll 17’: Florentine Fennel, Fennel Pollen, Exotic Black Basil, White Iris Petals, Caraway Seeds, Tarocco Sweet Orange, Angelica Roots, Southern Magnolia, early summer Ivy Buds

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Fragrance for winners?

After the Anti Age perfume advertised with such a hallucinating nonsense phrase in the latest Sniffapalooza magazine meant to educate the public (indeed?):
"The all-natural AGELESS anti-aging fragrance is a proprietary combination of aromatic essences […] Also containing oils of Lily of the Valley and peony, the formula is based on natural bio-chemistry."

Today we have another surprise in The Wall Street Journal - the scent of a winner. What Bond No 9 did with irony in the Andy Warhol perfume is now presented as a scientific creation with a patent pending. This is the new idea of Michelle Roark, the 2009 U.S. freestyle skiing champion for Confidence - the fragrance.
"Ms. Roark's research is designed to take this connection to a practical level by creating a concoction that will be as universal in its ability to improve performance as aspirin is in relieving headaches."
You will find there also the concept of the Golden Ratio that I presented on my blog recently (from an aesthetic perspective).

The only thing I expect from a perfume is Beauty. But this is hard to achieve and even harder to explain.

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Arcimboldo and the art of fragrances

This is Spring, as seen by Arcimboldo in 1563 - the artist known for his bizarre representations of ordinary natural objects (fruits, vegetables, flowers, roots) arranged in such a way that the whole collection forms a recognizable likeness of the subject. The italian artist created composite heads that were not just still-life representations but they carried a strong message under the power of illusion.

The natural elements represented with detail leave their individuality behind the power and cohesion of the general image. What you actually see are the portraits and the generic class of objects (fruits, vegetables, flowers). A more detailed look will reveal the main "ingredients".

On a much abstract level (but also with a different scope) we find Seurat and the pointillism technique.

The paintings of Arcimboldo can be also a metaphor for the art of perfumer - separate objects with strong individuality are brought together in a coherent message.The same principle of illusion can exist in perfumery. The illusion of a general olfactory shape that has nothing to do with the individual character of ingredients. A rose without rose, an oriental note without the classic ingredients. In Arcimboldo it is the way the artist arranged the elements (the composition) that is stronger than the rest - the principle of order that makes the visual illusion. We could speak here a lot about gestalt theory of design but I keep the subject for another time.

This way of approaching fragrance creation - inspired by the "illusions" of Arcimboldo - is not the "easy way" because it avoids the main note of an ingredient. It is the opposite of the fragrances that bloomed in the past 5 years - beautiful creations imagined around an ingredient, often natural. The soli notes explored the the facets and the subtleties of raw materials (vetiver, orris, vanilla, orange flower, rose) but this

Imagine now that you'll have to make a patchouli note without using patchouli. Or any other possible notes. This goal has already been achieved in several cases by perfumers at Givaudan / Firmenich / De Laire decades ago when they had to make reconstitutions without using the natural material or without knowing very much about its secrets.

Some old formulas are not far from this design idea. When you look inside you are amazed by the ingredients, their role and what you smell. In some cases the general scent seems unpredictable and many notes are "hidden" to the nose but important for the aesthetic purpose.

Arcimboldo style is an approach to fragrance creation that is the opposite to the GC, the powerful olfactory "microscope" that will reveal all the details of a scent.

        

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Les Liqueurs de Parfums -Thierry Mugler review

First there was La Part des Anges, a special edition of Angel blended like a rare cognac. Now we have something even more surprising. Angel Liqueur de Parfum, Angel Liqueur de Parfum, A*Men Pure Malt are special not just because the scent was "perfected" in wooden barrels made by Seguin Moreau (cherry wood for Angel, oak for Alien). "Haute Parfumerie meets Luxury Spirits to a unique olfactory creation" says Thierry Mugler on the website and indeed this new line is an exceptional "vintage" for an explosion of sensations and textures.
It's almost impossible to review them because they are amazing. Knowing very well the originals the new discovery at Sephora was pure emotion. The new versions of Alien and Angel have the depth, quality, richness of classic perfumes. Compared to the originals all asperities have been softened, all contrasts smoothed. What was "daring" became classic. This is not perfume but honey for a Goddess. While the "image" stays the same here we can perceive the difference between a photo and an original painting in a museum. A question of texture and subtle shades. It is not easy to evaluate what the patented maceration technology brings to the perfume. I wish I have smelled the version with and without the process. Now, I can just compare them with the EDP versions on the market. Also, I do not know if we have just a process or a new "improved" formula but what is sure is the high quality and smoothness of the pure perfume. In terms of scent, it is not a variation of the original (I do not detect any particular woody / liqueur / barrel effect) but an improvement in depth. But all these details are not important when the result is so precious.
Angel Liqueur de Parfum is by far the best of this line. The soft "rum" (not actually rum but an effect on the top note) suggests the refinement of classic perfumes with natural tinctures. It is not just gourmand but a pure modern oriental. Compared to the original, it seems more intense, stronger and much rounded (the green contrast is gone). 2 notes makes the great difference - cherry and honey-benzoin - and this new accord reminds me very much the idea found in Back To Black by Kilian. Who was the first on this type of note emphasized in an oriental ? - that's a question to reflect about. The original sweet and caramel notes of the first version of Angel are now the bones of a "new" oriental mixed with the deep texture of the Alien and its cashmeran drydown.
Alien Liqueur de Parfum is more intense and sweet, with the accent on the drydown. All the asperities between the cashmeran and sambac jasmine have been soothed and it seems like a flower with heavy velvety petals from another planet. The top notes (the green and airy side of the sambac jasmine) are gone to heaven leaving only a honeyed balsam that will become a golden amber.

A*Men Pure Malt is the strangest - I do not detect very well the malt note and there is a lot of freshness inside combined with excessive dryness. Unlike the original, the woody notes are emphasized and they turn around a note that reminds me the scent of oak or the wines rich in tannins. Guaiac and maybe some very dry cedar molecules are responsible for a note that is closer to the effect of some malt and less to the scent. Inside the sweet oriental pattern of the original perfume, there is an intense sensation of austerity - an wooden ancient idol surrounded by sweet garlands and ambrosial honey.
With this new collection the roasted notes & purified alcohols suggest a new direction where the smoke and the bitterness replace the sweet caramel.
Angel Liqueur de Parfum, Alien Liqueur de Parfum, A*Men Pure Malt show that high quality products can coexist with commercial distribution.

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Six Scents: Series Two - N°3 Henrik Vibskov: ‘Solar Donkey Power’

In this artistic experiment Louise Turner intended to express the "contrast between the warm depth of dry woods with the freshness of iced water" but what she did is actually the contrast between 2 historical periods like a bridge in time over 100 years of perfumery in the vapours of hot tea.
The first impression of the perfume takes us at the beginning of XXth century in a mossy chypre context with a harmony between rose and patchouli. It is the mood of a perfume where petals are hidden under woods and mosses like in the creation that Yann Vasnier did to illustrate the poem Le Flacon by Baudelaire. The strong rose (with a soft green cassis touch) evokes the classic perfumery note but we are not in the opulent interpretation. This is an austere version focused on woods and aromatic herbs with a drop of blackberry in the dry down. This perfume with such a strange name is a classic twist that can be placed between 2 families (fougère and chypre), between 2 composition styles and even between the gender interpretation of contemporary perfumery. The modern side of this creation will probably remind you the imaginary layering of 2 Frédéric Malle creations - French Lover and Géranium pour Monsieur without the mint. The contrasting style evolves into a very deep woody ambery note but fresh like the scent of some types of tea mixed with volutes of delicate incense. It becomes soft, powdery, transparent woody (cedar-pine) with a delicate ambery veil. If you like oakmoss, you'll love this perfume and the exquisite drydown.

“A fragrance evoking the relaxing sensation experienced in a sauna. A contrast between the warm depth of dry woods with the freshness of iced water. It’s a woody harmony mixing smoky tree and fresh aromatic floral facets, with some incense hints.” – Louise Turner, perfumer
Official main ingredients for Six Scents: Series Two - N°3 Henrik Vibskov: ‘Solar Donkey Power’: Bergamot, Aromatic Sage, Geranium, Patchouli, Moss, Incense, Pine

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Six Scents: Series Two - N°4 Henry Holland: ‘Smell’

With "Smell" we go back in time in a French boudoir in another century. This is not the purple sofa evoked by the perfumer but the metaphor of a famous bed. Smell c'est le lit de parade de Valtesse de la Bigne. A monumental bed made of varnished bronze with a conglomeration of naked Cupids, erotic bas-reliefs to serve the famous courtesan. Emil Zola wrote about the bed of this famous courtesan: "Un lit comme s'il n'en existait pas. Un trône, un autel où Paris viendrait admirer sa nudité souveraine..."
The scent evokes the faded odor of the lipstick and face powder, once in excess on the face of another era beauties. This is not the vivid rose-violet scent seen in Lipstick rose (Frédéric Malle) but a very powdery, soft, and almost vintage smell. An authentic sensorial experience from another time. This is a very pervert fragrance because the inspiration is not the fresh blooming young Lolita but the odor of fading beauties. Lilac, mimosa rose and orris will evoke you the special scent of empty lipstick, the thick powder on the face as it was used in the XVIII-th century. It is a decadent scent like the interpretation John Galliano gave in his fashion shows to the Proustian era. This could be also the scent lingering in the air surrounding Michelle Pfeiffer in Cheri. With "Smell" you enter a velvet room with dusty memories mesmerized by a scent that is both maternal and erotic - a beauty hidden under a veil. The powdered rose with soft honey sweet accents has some similarities with Back to Black but this creation is not an oriental. A very special perfume suspended in time like the fragrant memories kept in an old powder box sealed with a purple velvet ribbon.

“I was very inspired by Henry’s very specific visualization of the fragrance as an oversized, purple sofa where people would gather. This was such a vivid and extremely personal feeling that he conveyed to me, that I felt compelled to capture it. I started with the idea of the color purple, and what that smells like and added other elements that were touchstones for Henry. These included the idea of comfort and warmth and an overall relaxing quality that Henry expressed was important to him. Henry also shared his favorite natural ingredients including the smell of pine trees and beach memories of suntan lotion. Purple Flower Petals of Lilac & Jasmine form the center point for the fragrance with the soft, fluffy texture of Musk. It is an embracing hug of a fragrance that wraps you in its comfort.” – Stephen Nilsen, perfumer
Official main ingredients for Six Scents: Series Two - N°4 Henry Holland ‘Smell’ : Lilac, Mimosa, Pine Forest Accord, Green Grass, Sheer Jasmine, Musk
Photos: Manet - Valtesse de la Bigne and the famous bed now in the Louvre

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Ambiguity, illusion and enigma in fragrance creation (part 1)

Fragrance is not the mirror of nature. It is not the mirror of the perfumer's soul. Fragrance is the anamorphosis of universe through the soul of the artist. It is a deformation of nature through a mirror that was in many cases plane. But let's consider the anamorphosis principles as they were used in art - the distorted projection. Complex non sense images that under a certain angle, in a cylinder / conic / spherical mirror reveal their truth.

Anamorphosis is a projection of forms outside their visible limits. Viewed from a precise point a distorted image becomes recognizable, appearing to spring from the surface of the drawing. It was possible since the Renaissance because the artists have learnt how the eye works. We have little knowledge about the nose but the some principles can be applied in fragrances. There is a huge domain of exploration in terms of manipulated perception of scents or the creation of new olfactory structures within a fragrance.

A raw material has a main note, a secondary note, and a lot of minor facets. But we have "created" this hierarchy and families because we smell under specific "normal" conditions, because we have learnt some "signs" that we consider now a reference. The mission of the creative perfumer is to abolish those rules of perception and completely change the scale of notions. A context when a cedar is no more perceived as a cedar, heliotropine is not sweet almondy, methyl anthranilate is a different story. A context where the minor facets and the hidden notes of an ingredient are revealed like in a room with mirrors and distorted images. An ambery note would appear on top and a green one in the dry down in a reversed order of the usual perception of notes in a perfume.

Anamorphosis

Enigmatic perfumes and accords

Like Salvador Dali in his Endless Enigma, a perfumer can be the Magician of Multiple Meaning. A perfume that appears in another perfume offers the pleasure of discovering while the notes coexist in an illusion of harmony. This effect is rather easy to explain in the floral bouquets. Some basic flowers share many notes but it is often the overdose of a characteristic note (a keyword) that will orient our perception. Who would notice that behind a lily of the valley is a full blooming rose and 2 ingredients are enough to turn it into the lovely spring flower?

In a floral bouquet an illusion appears when the boundaries between the individual floral concepts are blurred and the proportion of characteristic notes is not enough to orient the perception. An olfactory tension between 2-3 main ideas to be explored.

Here you have some basic floral concepts that can be brought into an "enigma" fragrance. When the main ingredients of each concept is selected and dosed with care, the final accord has the ability to be twisted again and again morphing from one flower to the other one and back.

Lilac- lily of the valley - hyacinth

Rose- lily of the valley - lily

Carnation - lily - hyacinth

Hyacinth - ylang - lily

Rose - hyacinth - lilac

Tiaré - ylang - gardenia

Ylang - lily - tiaré

You need only 7 raw materials to represent those relations in the floral concepts area and to experiment endless illusion.

Like in a room with mirrors our perception can be manipulated by art - a scent hard to catch and that is not defined by strong boundaries. The essence can escape by a perpetual reflection and distortion when the "precise" and the "vague" coexist with the same intensity.

        

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The Seven - Son flower

Heptacodium jasminoides - a precious scent from a chinese garden discovered by the western world in the late XIXth century and brought to Europe and USA almost 100 years later. A legendary flower with a mysterious name - The Seven - Son flower like a tale from 1001 Nights in the Forbidden City (but in fact refers to the number of individual flowers).
Seven marvels giving birth to a unique spatial flower. Number 8 - an intoxicating conclusion.

The main flowering period begins in August and lasts until October / November. The scent is intoxicating for this shrub (up to 4 meters). Sweet jasmine, honeysuckle, apricot. Delicious.

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

Scented magic

Edgworthia crysantha - a very scented flower (shrub) in winter. Very sweet like daphne and fragrant, with touches of spice, raspberry and jasmine-gardenia-tea.

Main notes: benzyl acetate, phenyl-ethyl acetate, neryl acetate, methyl salicylate, methyl benzoate, benzaldehyde.

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

The explicit quotation in perfumery

Many say that fragrance is about emotion, about Proust effect, happy references from the past and memories - this notion is widely known and was spoken very much. But this type of reference is not essential to the Beauty of a fragrance, nor to its acceptance. When you smell a fragrance and recognize some elements from your childhood (vanilla candies, chocolate, mum's perfume) it is not necessary that you will like it, judge it beautiful or accept it. Familiarity is not quintessential to beauty and it is only the talent of the perfumer that will turn the direct reference into an aesthetic element. The secret of Angel is not ethyl maltol and the huge caramel childhood note. It is the way the perfumer used this inspiration and what he put around it.
More or less everything around us has a certain degree of familiarity with our past and yet we do not eat all the strawberry yogurts that are on the market. The direct signal of a previous olfactory experience (like the playdooh) is just a small element in an intricate net. More readable the sign is more difficult is for the perfumer to avoid the side effect of hyper quotation. The fragrance will end smelling like room sprays or shampoos or food flavors where the "easy" reference is more important (for the moment) that the subtle abstraction. Some signs might have a strong connotation in our western society given their overexposure (incense, coffee, orange, strawberry, etc) but the power of reference is not stable in time. One great example where the inspiration (the signs / references of a culture) gave birth to masterpieces is Serge Lutens. We do not like the perfumes just because of their inspiration. I had no North African cultural experience, nor any close relation to arabian culture, yet when I first met the perfumes in the 90's I was seduced immediately. It is the aesthetic vision behind the perfumes that seduced me and not the "emotional" reasons from a culture I'm little familiar with.
The easiness in the use of very "literal" influences in the perfumes of last decade had many side effects. Perfumes started to disappear from shelves (even when they had a small launch success) because they were just a "reference" and not so much else for the consumer. The chocolate licorice candy of your childhood might evoke pleasant moments but it's hard to believe that somebody would live for ever in this type of obvious sensations. The licorice in Lolita Lempicka is not just that candy note. There is much more around. But many Escada perfumes were just cocktails of flavors while some clean fragrances are just a detergent scent put in alcoholic solution.
Those multiple layers of perception / understanding make a perfume great and enduring over the years when a certain easiness in the "lecture" of fragrance is followed by complexity.
A perfume can be descriptive, evocative and even pictorial with the accuracy of a photo. It can also be a pure abstraction with little reference to anything.
I made a selection of some good fragrances to explain the differences between an obvious note and a subtle element (no positive/negative connotation). In the first case the note - reference is the main "content" of the perfume while in the second - the essence of this reference is deconstructed and then reconstructed by the perfumer. It is not just a secondary note but the result of a complex network of facets.

Easy to read of a reference sign
Fruitiness - Nina - Nina Ricci
Melon - Emotionelle (Del Rae)
Strawberry - Miss Dior Chérie
Tiaré - monoi - Bronze Godess (Estée Lauder)
Cedar - Cèdre (Serge Lutens)
Clean - Miracle (Lancôme)
Amber - Ambre Ylang (Estée Lauder)
Caramel - Aquolina Sugar
Soft leather - Cuir Amethyste (Armani Privé)

Complex reading of a reference sign
Fruitiness - Cartier X - l'Heure Folle
Melon - Le Parfum de Thérèse (Edmond Roudnitska)
Strawberry - Diorama
Tiaré - monoi - Manoumalia (LesNez - Sandrine Videault)
Cedar - Terre d'Hermès
Clean - Prada l'Eau Ambrée (the cashmere effect)
Amber - Eau de Merveilles (Hermès)
Caramel - Angel La Part des Anges
Soft leather - Cartier XIII - trezième heure

This constant opposition between an obvious element and its more subtle interpretation can appear also in the same perfume. Here we have several great examples
Vent Vert (Balmain) starts with an unmistakable green galbanum note, but it evolves into a very harmonious floral green note. Green becomes the essence of green, from pure figuration to a subtle representation
Féminité du Bois (Serge Lutens) the obvious cedar pencil note vs. the essence of woodiness decomposed in all the facets.
Declaration (Cartier) does the same with cumin and woody notes.

It is very easy to represent a sign because there are a lot of raw materials with strong characteristic note. But the way to pure abstraction is to represent the essence of that sign, the content and not the recognizable idea.
- the non descript floral note with no specific quotation (like Farouche and Capricci - Nina Ricci)
- the natural greenness and not the obvious green (Gardénia Petale Van Cleef & Arpels - the scent of nature and fresh flowers)
- the essence of coumarine / Iso E Super / Ambroxan and not their pictorial note

Demeter as a brand is a perfect example of creations that are mainly a pure reference - perfect pictures of a sign with great acuracy.

photo: Oedipus and the Sphynx, Gustave Moreau - 1864

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

Dolce & Gabbana Rose The One - new fragrance review

Sharp, tenacious and almost metallic, this new version from Dolce & Gabbana embodied by Scarlett Johansson smells like the ad. Useless. And like the "artistic direction" of Procter & Gamble. Brainless.
Following the path opened years ago by Baby Doll (YSL) and Miracle (Lancôme), Rose the One offers a pink-metallic variation of the clean floral note featuring a very acid citrus-cassis top note mixed with green raspberry elements on a very generic light floral base (let's call it peony of the valley). After several hours it reminds me a modern variation of the green rose from the Escape-Eternity like the one done for the last DKNY Be Delicious flanker. Its edgy sharpness is almost hurting the nose from the floral green fruity J'adore shampoo base. The damascones here are very cold and the juicy fruity notes (apple, nectarine, litchi) are increasing the "acid' note of the fragrance. Pure citric acid on your tongue. The overall idea of the perfume is not bad, but there is a lack of artistic direction - there are great noses at Givaudan but it's a pity when the brand lacks style, knowledge and above all taste. The scent of Dolce & Gabbana Rose The One is like the entire Anthology line - generic. This time generic light floral with a generic rose and a generic fruity cassis-grapefruit top. A perfume with character cassis-grapefruit light floral rose is Baby Doll (YSL). Dolce & Gabbana Rose The One is the mass market version of the idea from the "couture perfume" launched by a detergent maker and intended to be sold everywhere. The P&G team (that is incorrectly called the Prestige division) has the nose calibrated for shampoos and detergents. Why should we expect something different from a team that is more familiar with super markets than with perfumeries? All the elements of a global success are here (star, color, generic scent). Minus the refinement. Why everybody sells today Elsève shampoo in an alcoholic solution called fragrance? Maybe they do not know that there are other possible scents in this world. Not all florists sell plastic roses.
With one of the new perfumes from Cartier, the Procter & Gamble Prestige team will learn that even fruity floral notes could be done with great style and smell divine.

Official main ingredients for Dolce & Gabbana Rose The One: pink grapefruit, mandarin, cassis, Bulgarian rose, peony, lily, litchi, vanilla, musk, amber.

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

Parfums L'Expo Parisienne

This weekend I was very busy with the Fashion Week right now in Paris (the reason for my online absence) but I spent several hours every day at Parfums L'Expo Parisienne. Discovering several new scents, few because I knew almost all, and sharing fragrant opinions with friends and bloggers. I will come back with details on what I loved but for the moment I will share with you my small discoveries. Special creations for the next future.

Hypenoses - an exquisite line of room candles with very modern, edgy and addictive scents. My favorites were:
Violette opéra (a huge explosive violet like a primadona - this is not the shy flower, nor the metallic cheap ionones - though just a candle it is better than the classic Violette de Berdoues)
24 Caramels - that's caramel for 24 hours, with a sweet addictive note over a milky base. Hyper realistic and better than many caramel fine fragrances.
Chococaine - chocolate and cocoa powder to die for
Masque africaine - precious dry woody notes with an exquisite scent. That's how the african collection of Madame Rubinstein should have smelled in the 20's.
Banana Kiss - banana liquor and flower over an addictive sweet base, nothing to do with the raw isoamyl acetate - this is a savage dance à la Josephine Baker
Pyramide de Jasmin - not exactly jasmine but more a narcissus note for me, with a green leafy top and a narcotic very animalic base (not the jasmine type but the cresol narcissus) - a huge, unusual and strange perfume than could be one day transposed into an original fine fragrance
HypeNoses is about hyper sensations in a hype universe.

Parfums d'Orsay - I knew all the perfumes but the surprise came from the room fragrances, created by Olivia Giacobetti. Pure refinement! The line between the "human perfume" and the "ambient creation" is almost invisible and those simple, delicate and exquisite scents are better than many new launches. Poetry in a drop where cedar, soft heliotropine, translucent musks and linden blossoms clouds are the materials of a new form of spatial haiku.

Isabey Fleur Nocturne - after the lovely Gardenia, this forgotten brand with a glorious (short) past has a great surprise for us. This winter a new creation inspired by a very old creation of the brand. A symphony of flowers and soft powdery sweet notes with a nostalgic delicacy.
Poiray - there is something very special inside
Atelier Flou - a new brand with poetry and some very special perfumes in a pure classic shape, like many perfumes we miss (details and review soon)

Also, I discovered the latest creations from Cartier - Les Heures du Parfum (I will not review them for the moment). They come with something we have rarely found before - a new type of "fragrance writing", a special evolution in time and a creative force rarely seen today. Mathilde Laurent is not just a great perfumer but he opens the door to a new decade in perfumery. Those are perfumes to be carefully smelled and studied to reveal the labyrinth of the perfumer. Details of the notes on graindemusc.

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