When Paris was discovering the fantastic world of Art Nouveau in the most celebrated international exhibition, Philippe Chuit (1866-1939) was designing one of the most fabulous bases in the history of perfumery. The aesthetic of fragrances was dominated by the famous creation of Paul Parquet, le Parfum Idéal, a complex floral bouquet under a very simple appearance. The effortless beauty dominated by the organic forms and the natural evolution of the line were expressed by the desire to create long lasting fragrances with a subtle evolution in time.
Philippe Chuit was the chemist and the perfumer of the newly founded Swiss company - Chuit Naef (1895) now Firmenich. If new artistic concepts were flourishing in Paris and we attach to them the term Art 1900, it would be more correct to attach the work of Philippe Chuit to the notion of design as it appeared in the second half of the 19th century and opposed to the superfluous ornament. From the very beginning of the small company Chuit Naef their main goal was to offer new molecules with high olfactory qualities (their ionones were a great success) while their bases will be both science and art - original ideas with an impeccable evolution in time.
Dianthine appeared on the market in 1902 after the study of ylang ylang oil and it is a floral spicy carnation base with a particular cachet.
Schimmel, the number one research German company for the natural products, has studied the ylang ylang oil just before the release of Dianthine and has created the first artificial ylang-ylang oil, protected by the German patent No. 142859 - September 1901. By that time the Swiss law on patents was very different and only in 1907, under the threat of trade sanctions by Germany, did the Swiss decide to extend patent protection to chemical inventions. The chemical analysis of natural ingredients was not an easy task in 1900 and also for a small company with only 5 years on the market. We could guess that the findings of Schimmel were of a great use to Philippe Chuit. But with Dianthine he was not reproducing the ylang-ylang oil, he was creating something new, daring, original and with an exceptional balance.
Last year, a very original natural product was launched by Charabot. Lys-ylang is a fraction of ylang-ylang with a very spicy carnation facet and my first thought was Dianthine. In fact, Philippe Chuit designed his floral base from the heart of ylang-ylang and for many years Firmenich advertised this product saying that it brings similar effects to ylang.
Here you have the formula of the synthetic ylang - ylang oil as it was presented in the German patent No. 142859.
Linalool 250
Cadinen 50
Methyl p crésol 10
Benzyl alcohol 150
Benzyl benzoate 67
p-cresol 1
methyl eugenol 100
geraniol 130
eugenol 2
methyl benzoate 60
benzyl acetate 100
isoeugenol 20
methyl isoeugenol 40
methyl salycilate 20
methyl anthranilate 0,5
The main theme of Dianthine is a spicy note conceived around eugenol but the hot peppery and strong facets are rounded in a magnificent way.
In fact the note is a balanced composition around 3 main ideas - the heart of ylang ylang, the garden carnation (oeillet mignardise) and rose wardia. In those years the carnation absolute was also used by perfumers and it was quite expensive. Dianthine offered a stable long lasting odor with an intense spiciness and an easy use of the strong eugenols.
To understand the concept behind this base I made several drawings to give you an idea about the scent and the relation of Dianthine to other odors.
Dianthine represents the interpretation of the spicy carnation as seen in the heart of ylang-ylang oil magnified with an extreme power. I resumed the facets of Dianthine this way (there also several other):
- a spicy bouquet where the peppery note of eugenol is balanced with the hot / burning / dry facet of other eugenols and then with their powdery equivalents, all rounded with several natural oils (from the family of clove / bay / pimento)
- a floral rosy note, honeyed, soft that recalls the beautiful scent of rose de mai absolute
- a floral ylang - jasmine note
- a cinnamon / cinamic note on the drydown very well mixed with sweet balsamic elements
- a sweet vanilla drydown, soft balsamic and powdery
- a very small woody orris effect
Benzyl isoeugenol / acetyl isoeugenol and salycilates are in a very harmonious blend accentuated by several benzoates with their balsamic / honey effect.
The evolution of the scent is really surprising and after 2 days there are still harmonies to be discovered after the storm of eugenols. In fact, the drydown has almost a sensual gourmand facet (gingerbread cookies) mixed with velvety petals.
The spices represents in Dianthine a peppery veil surrounding a flower and its beauty comes from:
- the mathematical proportion of eugenols
- the balance between spicy / balsamic sweet / floral
- the smooth evolution in time (there are almost no top notes)
Dianthine became very soon a prototype for the carnation note showing the clever reconstitution of this odor type using the new synthetics rounded with naturals. The new carnations were almost variations on Dianthine with accents on the honey rose, isoeugenol vs. eugenol, new green hyacinth notes, amyl salycilate-ylang, and even tuberose. Jean Carles will take Dianthine to a new level but that's another story.
When Philippe Chuit designed Dianthine he created a long lasting archetype with multiple uses from spicy perfumes to temper the power of eugenols to more abstract creations and even in trace to bring powdery/sweet notes.
The most famous uses of Dianthine can be found in the creations of François Coty and Ernest Daltroff. Dianthine represents a key element in l'Origan where it is mixed with orange flower / orris-violet and heliotropine notes. Ernest Daltroff used Dianthine for his rosy and spicy perfumes but also in more complex floral notes built on carnation (Fleurs de rocaille). The drydown of Dianthine is one of the most important in the history of XXth century perfumery and this type of note can be found in many creations even where this base was not used. It is one of those archetypes of odour - several simple molecules make a unique accord with an unmistakable cachet.
Firmenich is the most occult perfume company in the world and many secrets of the perfume history are well hidden in their archives (internal files), unavailable and unpublished. Philippe Chuit the founder of the company as well as other creators of historical bases from Chuit Naef / Firmenich are unknown artists who contributed to the art of perfumery. Their creations (like Dianthine) are not available to the public and not even to many perfumers for contemplation and study. The information is almost inexistent in the literature of the past (the obsession for secrets) while in modern days the products and a century of research and art is forgotten.
In the future I hope to make other drawings to explain classic bases.
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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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Collectionneur et passionné d'histoire(s), l'auteur retrace les mystères qui flottent autour du parfum le plus connu au monde. Il revisite les nombreux écrits sur Coco Chanel ainsi que les divers (et rares) récits sur le parfum et son créateur, Ernest Beaux. Dans le livre on est plongé dans l'univers de Gabrielle Chanel, sa mode et sa vie, mais aussi l'univers du parfum car No5 a fait couler beaucoup d'encre. Liqueur, flacon et publicités (avec les fameuses égéries) y sont présentés avec le souci du détail et de la documentation minutieuse. On y rencontre aussi la fameuse histoire de Rallet et Mademoiselle No 1 ainsi que d'autres petits secrets (mondains) qui rendent la saga du No5 assez tumultueuse. Le parfum a fait histoire et l'auteur s'y attaque dans un style épuré sans trop de broderie littéraire (ou marketing). L'amour pour le parfum et la marque se dévoile avec chaque chapitre.
: The Case of L'Oréal, Nazis and the Arab Boycott.
and the product concept can be written in less than 24 hours. It is a recycled idea put in a "bottle", a branded product and nothing more. "Untitled" doesn't bring anything new - from the bottle, concept, distribution to the fragrance. Everything is predictable and this is sad when you respect a creator than now is just a label owned by Diesel.
there is a chapter about the creation of several YSL perfumes. We learn some hidden stories about Opium, the creation meant to seduce the "petrodollars" of the American market. Jean Claude Ellena, a young perfumer and author of the beautiful First (Van Cleef & Arpels), worked also on the Opium brief. He proposed a fragrance inspired by hashish and quite hyper realistic, as mentioned in the book where he was interviewed. But the team of Jean Louis Sieuzac (Roure) was the winner with the powerful creation of what is known today as Opium. This unusual hashish scent made very curious because, though not produced, it would be the first attempt to recreate it in the modern luxury market. The perfumes authored by Jean Claude Ellena after 1978 have not, to my knowledge, explored this note and it is improbable that the conservative brand Hermès would ever launch something similar to this concept.
