Various mosses started to be used by the fragrance industry in the 1900's, the most known today, before the IFRA mutilation, being the oak moss and the tree moss. Several articles published in that era show the scientific interest of the industry for this special note found at the end of the evaporation table. Mosses were collected from many corners in Europe and maybe some of them entered in several long lost perfumes. Other mosses were Mousse de Crête, Mousse de Corse and Mousse de Saxe - later the name of several bases. Like today, perfumers and producers were experimenting with new extraction types and different botanic "versions". There was even a moss with a strong violet note in the Alps mountains that was extracted (maybe also analyzed) in 1900. Mosses were first used as an alcoholic infusion but much powerful extracts started to be produced by the solvent extraction. Bases became stronger and stronger.
It is hard to evaluate today if the original Mousse de Saxe was based or inspired by a natural material from Prussia. Less than 10 years after the creation of this base from de Laire, I found the same name in the catalogue of another important German company - Schimmel, who published every year a report on essential oils and their research. It is also true that in those years counterfeited or similar products were not rare on the market and Edgar de Laire went through several trials to defend his products. But "de Saxe" has also another metaphoric meaning for the company. Bleu de Saxe was the name of a dye first prepared in the XVIIIth century from indigo and sulfuric acid. 100 years later, aniline dyes were the first specialty of Georges de Laire, founder of the company in 1878.
Marie Thérèse de Laire, wife of Edgar de Laire (they were married in 1891) the new director of Fabriques de Laire in 1892 was most probably the perfumer behind the bases produced by the company in its early days, after 1895. De Laire was already a very important name in the fragrance industry producing after the original patents the ionones, the nitro musks (Musk Baur) and vanillin plus other new molecules recently discovered in an amazing mix of research and industrial production. New molecules were discovered constantly but perfumers were not ready to use them. For many it was an olfactory shock and we can imagine the excitement produced by the discovery of new molecules with strange odors. Because many were hard to be used near traditional extracts (infusions, lavages, pommades, etc) Marie Thérèse de Laire was trying to give life and shape to the strange molecules. Without knowing, she was drawing the directions of the fragrance art for many decades. Those molecules, now called captives, were not available in the first years to perfumers neither for experiment, nor the simple smell. That was a time when the structure of a molecule was secret (if not unknown even to the producer), there was no analysis like today to reveal the "secrets" of a delicious fragrance.
When I say shaping the fragrance art I mean the first use and description that comes to mind about a raw material. In a previous post I showed that IBQ (isobutyl quinoleine) was not described as we do it today (leathery) but mossy. Because of the evolution of the chemical process it is also hard to know if our IBQ smells like the IBQ in the early 1900's.
Smelling now Mousse de Saxe I try to imagine how Marie Thérèse de Laire was working more than 100 years ago.
Was she thinking in terms of accords exploring the facets of IBQ?
Was she thinking about the main theme of this material and then building around a base?
Was she trying to see the effect in a popular / known fragrance of that era?
Was she trying to use it in the reproduction of a natural scent?
Apparently we know how were the perfumes before 1912 but the truth is that we know so little and maybe less than 10% than what was available to the nose of Marie Thèrese.
Mousse de Saxe has a shocking beauty. Those were the years when Poiret was bringing shocking colors to life, like Georges de Laire did in the previous century inventing several strong dyes. Paris was seeing Les Ballets Russes and this aesthetic can be found in Mousse de Saxe and as well in Ernest Daltroff creations.
It is hard to date the exact birth of Mousse de Saxe without access to de Laire archives (if they would exist somewhere) but the perfume was already on the market in 1911, being present in the product catalogue. Already in 1914 it was famous and the new catalogue presented it as a "product adopted by many clients and appropriate to give the following note: oakmoss, chypre, gant de saxe". Like the use of color by Paul Poiret, the scent of Mousse de Saxe was described as "forte, fauve et originale". About 20 years later it will presented as the most original and the strongest mossy note of the house among other mosses and suitable to be used with aldehydic, sandalwood, chypre and ambery notes. It was described both as a mossy chypre note and a powdery sweet note.
Mousse de Saxe seems to be built on a fougère shape but the new molecules gives a new and original direction.
The formula works like the classic 19th fougère perfume: a citrus bergamot top, a geranium rosy heart, a strong dose of coumarine and sweet notes, and a woody base with sandalwood, vetiver, patchouli, methyl ionone, some spicy clove notes, a nitro musk note and a small jasmine-ylang facet - but no aromatic lavender note. The presence of an anise note combined with the general sweetness and the smoky IBQ might give a licorice effect.
Mousse de Saxe has an incredible freshness (with almost a green note) combined with a very deep and powdery drydown.
The characteristic note of Mousse de Saxe is the isobutyl quinoléine and de Laire were among the first to prepare and produce the quinoléines. The refined note of the IBQ produced by de Laire was in fact given by their special process that lead to a specific mixture of isomers. This IBQ had an animalic, mossy, leather, mushroom, forest note.
The IBQ in a high dose is suspended between the rosy green sharpness of the geranium and the deep woody but also smoky notes of the drydown, everything wrapped in a sweet and musky cocoon. The choice of a rosy note is not an accident because, as strange as it may seem, IBQ works very well with rosy notes. Maybe the best example is a popular creation of Sophia Grosjman. The formula of Mousse de Saxe reveals another interesting aspect. The Unity. If you cut it in several parts (the floral accord, the woody sweet or woody spicy, etc) you will not get the essence of the perfume. But if you study the main notes, by very simple modifications you can get to many great accords popular after WWI.
Mousse de Saxe was a great success and we can see this through several perfumes produced in the early 20's, each with a new amount of this base or worked around this idea. Nuit de Noel is maybe the most famous where the base is combined with rose absolute and sandalwood. Other perfumes built around this idea include several creations of Jacques Guerlain (one with a huge costus note), Habanita (Molinard) and Bois des Iles (Chanel). A Mousse de Saxe facet / effect is also present in Cabochard, Chanel 19, Opium. Thinking of Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male I've always had the feeling that Francis Kurkdjian was approaching a similar idea with modern ingredients (but not around IBQ). Thinking of several perfumes created by Annick Menardo and her use of anise / sweet / smoky notes (Lolita Lempicka and Hypnotic Poison for instance) I would not be surprised to learn she likes this strange and original base.
With one base, Marie Thérèse de Laire has imagined the future of perfumery for the next 50 years. If we take out the rosy-geranium elements and consider the IBQ a strong accent we have inside all the elements of the drydown found in the classic feminine chypre creations and what Jean Carles was explaining with his method in the early 60's. All you need is to add the floral notes, adjust the balance after the personal taste and maybe add some original accents.
Back in 1910 I would ask my self ... how was this incredible woman, Marie Thérèse de Laire, author of this shocking and incredible base? Women were wearing the new floral delicate beauty - Quelques Fleurs (Houbigant) in 1912 but Madame de Laire had already created an incredible scent (though only a base) that is the equivalent of the modern vamp with smoky eyes. By its power, Mousse de Saxe has something from the Expresionist Movement.
Mousse de Saxe (de Laire) is one of those masterpieces of a true artist, probably the first female perfumer, that now are hidden. Old bases are lost treasures, many unknown to modern perfumers, unavailable for research, aesthetic appreciation and understanding of an era. When a formula is secret, the perfume lost, the last drop evaporated and nobody remembers the fragrance there is a sensation of emptiness.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
. Some of his perfumes with their exquisite bottles are featured also in this auction catalogue 
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