It took me several years to approach the understanding of one of the perfumes I love the most - Vol de Nuit. The masterpiece of Jacques Guerlain is rather mysterious because it doesn't reveal very much of its notes, the ingredients are not showing their known facets. It is like a stone, a frame, a "cube" with soft walls that protect something. For this reason, from its early days it was hard to classify or to describe. It was often put somewhere between the chypre and the ambery family. Maybe Jacques Guerlain did not believe in families, types and rigid notions (like Jicky, another creation from 2 "worlds"). It moved depending on what each generation understood by those 2 basic notions.
Inside Vol de Nuit stands one of the most beautiful chypre notes ever and if this note is "extracted" and weighted separately you obtain something special. It is made with 8 ingredients, the resemblance to the original Chypre - Coty is shocking and if you add animalic notes you are much closer. It is the quintessence of the note and you cannot do more beautiful (but also more concise). It is the heart of chypre. On a historic scale in terms of scent, this accord sits between the original Chypre and Chanel pour Monsieur. Jacques Guerlain gave his own interpretation, with the materials he cherished and the combination between the floral and the ambery facet is sublime inside this small "section" of Vol de Nuit. Compared to Coty's masterpiece, here the fresh citrus notes are accentuated. The accord extracted from the perfume shows also how another beautiful perfume was constructed - Sous le Vent opened immediately. An unusual lemony-rosy note present in trace here and in Chanel pour Monsieur makes me wonder about the true inspiration of Henri Robert.
Around this light chypre with strong bones, Jacques Guerlain arranged 3 major axes of the perfume, each with a strong personality:
- the floral facet with rich ingredients (and floral absolutes)
- the woody facet
- the ambery-resinic notes
The formula doesn't reveal very much about the scent and it is very hard to imagine what it will give. Weighting each facet (made with rich ingredients in simple accords) showed another surprise because none suggests immediately Vol de Nuit. But when the 3 blotters are put together the miracle is produced and Vol de Nuit appears. The perfume is the result of the interaction of several ideas, each with a strong individuality.
We can compare Vol de Nuit to the geometric shape of ideal cities or the shape of sacred temples. When you are at ground, you do not perceive the essence of beauty, you don't see what XIXth century architects considered the most important thing in a building. But when it is seen from a "plane", the geometry is revealed and the message appears in its whole beauty. Imagine that you are at Angkor Wat and admire the structure from above as if you were a "flying god". The same happens in this perfume. When you smell the ingredients, than the major facets of the perfume, it is hard to see their relation. But when all is brought together, Vol de Nuit appears in its majestic beauty and complexity.
If we speak about the relation ingredient - final fragrance, Vol de Nuit is the opposite of Hermessence.
- a major structure or shape of the perfume (chypre combined with ambery notes)
- the individual ingredients are put together in accords where they loose partially their individuality to express a new idea
- the individual accords are like a puzzle that reveal the final shape
Unlike the formulas of Ernest Beaux, the amount of ingredients (there is also a key number) shows a different relation intended by its creator. The numbers are much simpler, not modulated, not showing a golden ration concept.
The secret of Vol de Nuit is the most basic concept in art - composition - and it shows us that ingredients can act in the most unexpected way. It is hard to imagine if Jacques Guerlain was aware of the scent before assembling things together in this sacred geometry. One thing is sure - it's even harder to imagine the scent "reading" the simple formula or writing the formula when smelling the perfume. Vol de Nuit is mysterious not because it evokes darkness but because it doesn't reveal itself through its basic ingredients.
2 resins create an unusual key accord while the sweet cinamic alcohol and a special methyl ionone are structural "bones" of the perfume. Later, Jean Carles, inspired by the chypre sweet notes of the perfume, imagined a structure that was even more complicated, writing the flowers in a different configuration.
There is something primitive, archetypal in this perfume, something about the secret of life. The resins, used from ancient times, reveal their scent when heated - the fire, the sun, the warm body - and in Vol de Nuit the use of very animalic notes is metaphoric. They "heat" the essence. A resin (galbanum) is also like a "seed", protecting the scent until "germination" is possible. Its very green note would burst like a plant in the early days of spring, like hyacinth, tulip, narcisse (and other bulbs) when the power of life reveals the secret "hidden" in the bulb. One of this notes was used in Vol de Nuit revealing how a philosophical message can be hidden in a scent. The creation of Jacques Guerlain was not just a beautiful scent - there was something more and that's why it moved from the early years and inspired later another very popular perfume from Guerlain when the youth spirit bloomed once again in the 60's. When a perfume is able to say something fundamental and this message is put in the best "aesthetic shape" it will continue to "speak" to many generations.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
