Elie Saab Le Parfum- new fragrance review

Nothing more than a pleasant sweet orange flower perfume, the first creation of Elie Saab has little to do with the exuberant haute couture dresses of the lebanese designer. Actually, it belongs to those mass market creations like Guess which have recently entered the French perfume stores with their deceitful heavy bottles imitating crystal filled and with a peachy syrup They are the juices of a younger generation with sterile imagination and play list attitude in the post Bling-Bling era.

It seems that the current owner of the Elise Saab license, BPI (Beauté Prestige International) simply forgot what a perfume is. Last year, a conference given by the most important man of the group for La Société Française des Parfumeurs explained why. How can you expect quality from a group that clearly denies the artistic quality of the perfume and doesn't recognize the work of the perfumer as a form of art, not even as a metaphor.

In the case of Elie Saab Le Parfum, the blindness of BPI is obvious because the author of this new fragrance with such an exquisite sense of banality, is no other than the famous and highly talented Francis Kurkdjian.

When you brief a perfumer who recreated the fragrance of Marie Antoinette and an entire line of luxury perfumes overdosing the natural orange flower, and the result is this thing, there must be something terribly wrong.

It obviously starts with a total disrespect for the perfumer who made millions for BPI with Le Mâle (Jean Paul Gaultier) and other creations. BPI exists because they had several good formulae in the 90's (without paying royalties to the perfumers as it should be normal), not because they knew how to make a perfume.

Despite the huge experience the perfumer accumulated during all these years, they asked Francis Kurkdjian to create an irrelevant soup, trivial and without any trace of personality, which cannot stand near a 1% solution of orange flower absolute. It fades like a nylon scarf near a 100% silk haute couture dress. BPI has the same low standards as L'Oréal with a huge difference - they are less skilled and less professional when they bottle banality.

This year I met several producers of essential oils and absolutes from Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. You simply cannot imagine how exquisite are their floral extracts, in some cases with flowers that are less and less used in commercial perfumes.

If you love the orange flower, do not buy Elie Saab, but simply use a solution of orange flower absolute or neroli oil. A 5% solution in alcohol is more powerful, long-lasting and even less expensive than the bottle you buy at Sephora.

When exquisite qualities of neroli oil and orange flower absolute are produced in Morocco and Tunisia, cheating on emotions and on the true quality of materials will not bring the desired success to BPI. There are at least 2 classic perfumes from Avon, with a better formula, scent and price.

The first perfume of Elie Saab is simply a failure, compared to other perfumes from Sephora, compared to the glorious image of the designer, compared to the idea of the brief.

Francis Kurkdjian has recently demonstrated his huge talent through the perfumes he created for his own brand, like the special edition unveiled this spring. One of them left me speechless because of its beauty and magnificent use of natural floral absolutes. Smelling the perfumes he sells under his name, some of them with a huge amount of high quality natural extracts, and Elie Saab fragrance, the difference between class and mass is impressive.

Also, comparing Elie Saab with the two orange flower perfumes signed by Daniela Andrier in the past, the difference between high class and low standards, between beauty and prettiness is even more shocking.

The Elie Saab perfume is nothing more than a toilet perfume and I wouldn't say that if there was not something highly unusual in Paris. Several cleaning products, including those used by the public system, are highly dosed with a synthetic crystalline orange flower note. You can smell it on some streets in the morning.

Elie Saab Le Parfum is of course a rounder version, with a nice rose note, some sweet balsamic facets, a soft oriental touch suggesting Alien (Mugler).

Why didn't they abuse of orange flower absolute? That was the unique opportunity to frame it in an overdose for the first perfume of a famous Lebanese fashion designer. BPI failed to express a beautiful dream because they do not believe any more in the Perfume.

Official notes for Elie Saab Le Parfum: orange flower, jasmine, honey, patchouli, cedar.

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Extrait Patchouly - the origin of a famous ingredient and an historic Lubin perfume

"Patchouli" is said to be made of mummies, and it seems quite probable, from the fact that those venerable Egyptians were "put up" in spices. Little thinks that delicate young lady, little thinks that embroidered young man, as they finish their toilets with a drop of "Lubin", that they are suggesting to some of their scientific friends the Pyramids of Egypt!" wrote the New England Farmer in august 1860.

Early XIXth century, precious Indian shawls and fabrics were one of the most fashionable items of the day, perfectly adapted to the new styles which emphasized the antique high waist silhouette of the Directoire and Empire. These cashmere shawls were wrapping the sylphidian white mouslin silhouette of young women with pale complexion whitened by the (in)famous Lait Virginal, like ancient Egyptian mummies were wrapped with strips of white linen. The new fashionable shapes, soft and fluid, using a fabric already known by the ancient Greeks, were different from the heavy Venetian velvet of the Renaissance or the embroided French silk worn during the previous century. But they were also different for another reason - their unusual and fascinating scent. This was not really obvious until French and British manufactures started to mass produce in Europe the same type of textiles. They soon realized that a mysterious scent was the ultimate proof of the genuine origin of the fabrics. The same happened for the leather goods and the famous Cuir de Russie, as I explained in a previous article. Discovering the origin of the mysterious scent was quite an adventure and for the perfume industry it would be very soon a revolution.

But let's go back several centuries ago when Dutch, French and British ships were crossing the Ocean bringing precious goods from Asia. The ships were full with tea, coffee, pepper and many spices, fabrics, and musk among the most important goods. They were British and French, the later bringing sometime different goods as they managed the acclimatization of several precious ingredients in the 1770's in the Reunion Island to break the Dutch monopoly. But La Compagnie Française des Indes Orientales went bankrupt and was dissolved by La Convention in 1791. Among spices, pepper was the most important in volume and its powerful scent was also a "weapon" against insects. Musk was always a problem because of its very strong scent and the ability to impregnate the other goods with its fragrance. Because of this, sometime its presence was forbidden.

Traveling for many months on sea with such noble ingredients, the Indian fabrics slowly became impregnated with their scent. This property of some raw materials is called substantivity and today it is used to design the scents for detergents and fabric softeners. Several centuries ago, it was a special cachet of exotic and expensive fabrics. But with the amazing commercial development something changed - ships got bigger and bigger and goods were not always mixed as they were several centuries before. Fabrics were not always traveling with pepper in the same cabin and very soon there was a need to preserve them from insects. In fact, merchants were transporting their delicate fabrics with some leaves which were preserving them from intruders. These leaves were not really scented when they were fresh but with the high moisture on the ship they developed a fragrance which delicately impregnated the fabrics. Europeans were not aware of that until they started to produce similar textiles and could not sell them as genuine. The strange odor was considered characteristic and proof of oriental origin. It was only when the first shippement of dried patchouli leaves arrived in London, about 1844, that the long sought secret of the mysterious scent was revealed.

In 1826, dried patchouli leaves were brought to Paris from Bourbon Island and specialists started to study them for botanical classification and medical properties. The patchouli plant was first introduced in Paris in the Royal Garden (Jardin du Roi) in 1839 and they had to wait several years to see it blooming. It was described by Pelletier in 1845 and named Pogostemon patchouli. Soon, French manufactures learned to perfume their homespun shawls with patchouli leaves in close imitation of the Indian goods, because patchouli grows also in the Bourbon. They were now the latest fashion in Paris as the patchouli scent was known in the 1830's and was proposed by several perfumers like Lubin. This type of scent was totally new for the European noses as there was nothing quite similar, at least not used in perfumes. The scent of patchouli leaves, as it impregnated the fabrics for several weeks, was unique, but light compared to the essential oil, and perfectly fitted the new obsession for tobacco of the new generation.

The first olfactory reference for this ingredient in the 1830's was the scent of the shawls, delicate and mysterious. 140 years later, the reference for the hippies, grown up in the 1960's with synthetic fabrics, was the strong patchouli essential oil sold in small bottles in India.

Extrait de Patchouly was a type of perfume that literally drove crazy women and men in the Victorian times and some medical reports from the 1840's mention that some women could become instantly nervous or suffer from menstrual disorders. Up to 1890's these unusual effects on the female body and psyche were reported in many literary sources, as there was something sexual and forbidden inside this type of scent.

I understood immediately when I opened the 1893 Lubin bottle of "Double Extrait de Patchouly" that I've recently acquired. In less than 10 seconds my entire room was filled with the strongest natural musk scent, highly indecent and addictive, smelling like a true human presence.

The first patchouli perfumes were imagined to evoke the mysterious and unusual sensation of discovering those refined Indian shawls. It was not the discovery of a 10kg bottle of patchouli oil, accidentally broken in the lab.

Lubin, former apprentice of Fargeon, the perfumer of Marie Antoinette, founded his perfume house in 1798 and for the incredible scent that fascinated an entire generation he took inspiration from his early days. In fact, the new Lubin "Extrait de Patchouly" was built on the formula of a previous perfume, extremely famous in the 1790's, worn by Les Incroyables et Les Merveilleuses. It was the excessive musk perfume. If today, in the post-Angel era, a consumer says chocolate and cocoa and even "gourmand" when smelling a blotter with the new patchouli extraction, for Lubin, the patchouli leaves and the elegant shawls impregnated with their scent were smelling like the tobacco facet of the natural musk deer tincture. He literally imagined a perfume like the story of precious fabrics traveling centuries ago across the Ocean in the same "room" with musk, pepper and tea. Inside his perfume he put a floral accord very famous in the XVIIIth century with orange flower, tuberose and rose.

In fact, the light textiles impregnated during a long journey across the Ocean with scent are the representation of another process, more ancient. They were the strips of linen impregnated with the scent of the embalmed Egyptian body, but now the scent of patchouli preserved the delicate textiles exposed to moisture and insects.

What else is the patchouli scented shawl or the delicate muslin dress than the most authentic scentsorial representation of the gothic novels written between 1785 and 1830?

In the late XVIIIth century the Indian muslin became the most important element in the female dress allowing a dramatic change of the costume with the French Revolution. Before being mass produced in Europe, this was a luxury fabric as we can see it in the portraits of the era. Let them dress plain! Send the pannier dress to the Guillotine! Could you imagine a ghost in a large hoop petticoat and not smelling the fresh camphorous moisture of a grave? The female characters of the gothic novels, usually living in the Gothic revival castles, were all dressed in this new fluid and fashionable fabric, delicately scented with patchouli. The ghosts too, were wearing the patchouli muslin and this was also the scent of moisture, decay and caves creating a perfect and harmonious universe.

What is the contribution of this new odor, the patchouli note trapped inside the fine fibers of the muslin dress, in the development of the gothic imagination?

By the time they were written, nobody knew what patchouli is, it was not used by perfumers, it did not appear as a fashionable extract until the 1830's. It was simply a new odor that arrived from India through fashion, something that had no equivalent in Europe, something that was constantly around those who wore the new fashion items. The scent of patchouli was like a ghost, a presence you cannot define because you do not know what it is. It was a character as it is today when the entire spectrum of fragrances can be divided in two classes, with or without patchouli.

But there was the French muslin and the British muslin, there was the muslin for dresses and the Indian shawls. The economic changes brought by the French Revolution and later the supremacy of the British Empire in the Asian textile trade had an enormous scentsorial impact.

Before the Revolution, French perfumers started to produce an amazing product, first a powder and later a perfume, called Mousseline des Indes. Its formula shows another amazing story, it was a fabric traveling with ingredients from French colonies with a different olfactory profile from the British muslin.

Because the patchouli note is quite characteristic, unique, and so much related to a specific type of textile, the most important question is: "Did the Greeks, who bought the Indian muslin and gave its name, knew the scent of patchouli?

PS: To have an idea about the scent of Extrait Patchouly put a drop of Borneo on your hand and spray over it a very good dose of MKK (Serge Lutens). The original perfume is not sweet.

Photo: François Gérard - Portrait de Juliette Récamier assise (1802)

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J'adore AVON

Vintage cologne bottle from 1969 with a long golden neck.

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The quest for the ideal perfume

Can a perfume be perfected? Can a new generation of perfumers continue the work of predecessors, correct and even surpass them? Can we look inside a perfume from another era searching for its soul, purifying its essence and re-frame it in the best light?

There is a subtle difference between interpretation and recreation. Many modern perfumers are giving interpretations of a classic theme, twisting and bringing a personal touch, and from this exercise often a new fragrance emerges. But could a master perfumer bring all his knowledge to perfect the Work continuing what the previous generation was not able to achieve?

Today it is utopian. Brands would rather ask to cheapen their classic formulae (as does L'Oréal with Opium and many classics) than asking to perfect a perfume / idea from their collection. However, many formulae from the previous centuries belonging to family businesses were "improved" several times. I wish to see the day when "the beautiful scent" will be the ultimate goal of a brand. I do not use the name "perfume house" because a house is living, has a garden with plants, while these brands are only concepts conceived in scentless glass boxes and mass produced in factories.

Reading many professional writings published in the XXth century, I am often surprised by the constant quest for a cheaper formula. The notion of Beauty is rarely evoked, but there is a constant "desire" to replace good ingredients with less costly materials until the original shape is totally mutilated. 

Preserving the original quality of a perfume, as it was the year when it was born, was often a challenge and when a fragrance achieves a commercial success, there is the temptation to make changes in the formula (often for price reasons) and almost never the effort to improve it. The perfume should be conceived like cognac and all alcohols - something that improves with time. Many modern perfumes are extremely badly composed, they age extremely fast. They deteriorate physically and morally. I have many 100 years old perfumes and they are perfect.

Since the XIXth century, the champion was the Eau de Cologne note. I have a huge file with formulae from late XVIIIth century to 1960's but the most surprising are those before WWII. They were replacing bergamot, lemon, and constantly polluting the neroli note with dissonant molecules. However, from all the defects around the orange flower note emerged a masterpiece about a decade ago, rearranging harmoniously these elements.

An idea, the true essence of a perfume, can achieve perfection somewhere in time, which means the best choice of ingredients and their best proportions for the harmony. This idea can be "modified", showing the path to a new direction and possibly a new perfume shape, it can be "corrected", eliminating useless ingredients or changing the proportion, it can be "improved", adding those elements that were not available at the time of the original creation giving a new dimension and sparkle to the IDEA.

Modern Jean Marie Farina (Roger et Gallet) and 4711 (Muehlens) are not well orchestrated, they have several "defects" inside their evolution while Eau de Cologne Impériale (Guerlain) is in very good shape.

Analyzing my formulae from late XVIIIth century and early XIXth century, it is easy to notice the number of good things that were lost in 150 years of commercial success when this type of the scent was the ultimate "mass market" creation for the new countries, where new customers were not used with the sophisticate and expensive French extracts.

The original versions of the Eau de Cologne show the shape of a real perfume, with all the elements, shades and constituents, while the next generations retained only the citrus bouquet overdose. The first dramatic change occurred when distillation was replaced by essential oil mixing. In fact, the secret of an exquisite Eau de Cologne is the shade, all the secondary and tertiary accords, plus the ultimate quality of the citruses.

While working with citrus notes, one must completely forget they are citruses ready to be mixed inside a fresh salad and it is important to understand the role, the dimension brought by each of them. The perfumer is not a formulator, definitively not a blender.

For instance, there is a beautiful floral accord inside the Jean Marie Farina formula from 1800's and the question is: What is the missing ingredient(s) unavailable in that century and what is the true note hidden inside the perfume? Also, what is opposed, what contradicts the shape, what note is a stranger even in small doses?

For me, the floral heart of the original Eau de Cologne asks for a very specific fresh flower growing in Italy.

The original Eau de Cologne represents a particular moment in time that was captured several centuries ago and this image, an Italian Souvenir, is clearly represented by an olfactory universe found in Italy at a certain moment of the year. For this reason, the poetic understanding of the original idea is fundamental in reproducing the note or in perpetuating an old formula.

Reading the papers of Jean Carles, an innocent reader would think that the 8th Art is about combining elements in different proportion. That was the method to find new ideas and eventually balance them, not to create a perfume.

For instance, in an Eau de Cologne, is it correct to introduce any element at a right dosage to be in balance with the other notes? Not being overdosed, the mixture will be pleasant anyway, but is it good for the original IDEA? What is the opposed, what is the "antonym" of this Eau de Cologne idea?

The original Eau de Cologne was what I call "a total perfume", a composition where everything is in harmony with everything (up to the trace notes) and for this reason the accords can be inverted. There are at least 4 major XIXth creations which are precisely a new balance of the same formula, each being at the same time original and familiar. This technique of the ideal perfume was used by Paul Parquet in many Houbigant creations. In fact, this aesthetic idea is what perfume houses should look for - their "ideal" formula, a fragrance harmony allowing the immediate identification of the signature and a constant reinvention, modifying the original accord and slowly adding new materials enriching this harmony. When brands address to masses hoping to gain their hearts for several decades, they MUST be faithful to the original emotion of the perfume, done with the best ingredients.

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Sunday Cologne (Byredo) - new fragrance review

Fantastic Man goes to Church

While visiting le Bon Marché this week, I noticed the sudden appearance of a new perfume from Byredo, but very soon the mystery was solved. Near the boxes showing the new perfume called Sunday Cologne was the tester. The new label was glued over the old name - Fantastic Man - and this was quite obvious in the daylight. With its new name, the incense-woody ambery note used inside this sensual, but not very light fragrance, makes sense. This is how your cologne smells when you go Sunday in a Catholic church where a microscopic incense is burned, unlike the monumental CDG Incense Avignon.

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Beware of natural oils online!

Natural products have been adulterated and counterfeited since Antiquity, but with the arrival of Aromatherapy trend in the 90's, a new life began. Unlike big perfume labs with sophisticated analytic tools, the new customer has neither the nose, nor the chemistry to detect the fraud coming from all parts of the world. While regulation became extremely strict for european cosmetic groups, it is not the case for those who (re)sell everything from everywhere. Those who are ignorant to chemistry are blind to fraud. An entire generation has exposed herself since the 90's to all kind of natural and exotic extracts. Many are not what they are supposed to be. A seller might be honest in his desires, but this is not an excuse.

Here you have an Internet example from a certified seller which sells many essential oils and extracts for Aromatherapy. Until I found the natural oil of lily of the valley, obtained through distillation! The seller even presents the main ingredients

Lilies Perfume Oil is steam distilled from the flower part of lilies that are special flowers playing more role than just decoration in the gardens. Its lavishing fragrance, healthy nutrients and other attributes also make lily a special as well as precious flower in the modern times. As a symbol of pure and divine love, the magical fragrance of this oil can captivate anyone.

CONSTITUENTS

Benzyl Salicylate, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Linalool, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Citronellol, Hydroxycitronellal, Geraniol, Citral, Limonene

In fact, this could be called Lilial absolute, the beautiful molecule which has to be labeled as an allergen on the packaging of perfumes. The ignorant woman, reading too much the scary articles about the danger of perfumes would naturally try to find something "natural". Instead of using Diorissimo, today an IFRA mutilated version, she would buy this oil having at least 10 more hydroxicitronellal on her skin, but hoping to gain tranquility. How many people on this planet bought the wrong "natural oils" in the past 10 years is good question.

As you can notice on the website, the seller has the certificates from EcoCert and other organic growers. In the case of this lily of the valley, it's organic chemistry, not farming.

Here you have an old thread on Basenotes on the same subject (thanks Anya!)

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

Decibel (Azzaro) - new fragrance review

With the new masculine introduction from Azzaro, I had no doubt about the scent and the client. Powerful, diffusive, long lasting and with a strong personality, Decibel is the younger brother of One Million and smells like a perfect cocktail of all Axe deodorants you can find on shelves. That's the type of scents the younger alpha male generation abuses and Decibel perfectly illustrates that, with all their facets carefully combined in a perfume. The freshness of strong aldehydes and powerful citruses is combined with the high-on-testosterone woody ambery molecules, sweetened by the appropriate coumarine-tonka facets. In fact, it is a modern love affair between the already classic masculine Xéryus Rouge and the very feminine Lolita Lempicka. The classic floral-sweet-licorice accord of the beautiful feminine perfume is trapped inside a dark woody context with a "black tonka" note. It shares the masculine caramelic sweetness of the previous decade, now set in a very dramatic woody context and completely contrasted with a violent aldehydic grapefruit-mandarin freshness. Actually, this is the aesthetic vision found inside several perfumes from Etat Libre d'Orange, the characteristic of the Parisian Givaudan thinking school. Now it is used inside a perfume for a very young generation. Everything inside this perfume has been exaggerated for almost a violent impact as an answer to One Million, but built with a rather new idea in mind. In the first 30 minutes I thought being inside several classic perfumes from the 40's and 50's imagined at Roure, with a massive aldehydic bouquet opposed to coumarine + vetiver and contrasted with a discordant violet note. The licorice note inside is not the sweet edible candy, but it is the violent woody quinoleine aspect and has even a moka facet, as it was used inside the original Rochas Man. The grandma of this Decibel boy was once wearing Baghari (Piguet) with a violet bouquet at her strict tailleur, couleur noir réglisse. Unlike Black XS or One Million, the fruity note, sweet and juicy, is very attenuated inside this "black" perfume where the dryness of ionones meets the rootyness of vetiver. It is a bomb for the young generation, but not the caramel of the previous generation, nor the edible fruitiness of Nina, worn by their girlfriends. It has something from the "burnt" aspect of resins and fenugreek as portrayed by Levistamel.

Decibel (Azzaro) perfectly embodies the scent of a generation. This is how they smell in Paris and Azzaro managed to capture this atmosphere where violent fragrances have replaced the subtle freshness. Like One Million, this perfume is extremely coherent, there is no faux pas between bottle, concept, scent and target.

The perfume features Julian Casablancas, leader of the rock band The Strokes. He composed the music for the video - "I Like the Night".

Decibel (Azzaro) is an Oriental Spicy and the official notes are: green mandarin, aldehydes, licorice, violet, incense, vetiver, sandalwood, tonka, vanilla.

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

Secret Service & Perfumes

A century ago, when there was no Google bureau in Paris and having an information about a perfumer was extremely hard, there were other places where to ask for .... confidential information. I have several handwritten  files about perfume houses with all kind of details. This 1907 image is the first page of a small paper about the Pinaud perfume house, extremely famous at the turn of the century.

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L'Eau par Kenzo Wild Edition Pour Femme and Pour Homme - new fragrance review

My worst nightmare became reality. In the ocean of their uncountable new launches, Kenzo is the new Titanic of the former luxury fragrance houses. And it goes faster than ever because the shampoo bubbles of l'Oréal are highly contagious.

These 2 perfumes are a sad joke near any of the classic of Kenzo perfumes. They bear no relation to the original masculine and feminine Eau par Kenzo. The juice costs less than 0,5 EUR / bottle because the money went on the swirly decoration. What happens to Kenzo is a mystery for me, but it is extremely sad to see how a creative brand from the 1990 became the slave of marketing and sales. I cannot believe a brand could lose its soul with such a speed, but that's what I'm smelling in the past 1 years after Kenzo Power and Kenzo Flower Essentielle. The brand has completely lost its mind and, like Issey Miyake, it will end nowhere.

L'Eau par Kenzo Wild Edition Pour Femme, with no volume and structure, is a pale shampoo scent compared even to any Monoprix shower gels. Like Ö de l'Orangerie (Lancôme), it is the cheapest you can get from a luxury group (this time it is LVMH, not l'Oréal). I cannot even describe this faint freshness with a pale apricot and an undescriptible woody note. It is something without "formula" because it smells as if you washed the perfume from a bottle and you are left only with something that smells like the Marionnaud air (minus the pink fruits however). Even the one liter Eau de Cologne Mont Saint Michel is composed compared to this "thing" where a soft peach is sunken in an undescriptible rose-jasmine-lily of the valley ocean with a so called mandarine top note. I would live a second in the land where these plants would grow and I'd rather wear a 10% solution of Paradisamide than L'Eau par Kenzo Wild.

L'Eau par Kenzo Wild Edition Pour Homme is far better than the feminine version, but again, it bears no relation to the original perfume. In fact, it is a diluted pleasant bitter citrusy (grapefruit) fragrance located between Dior Homme Sport and Allure Home Sport without their qualities, without being original at all, but at least with a sparkle of character. It is simple, easy, nice, and well done. The sparkling tart lemony quality of cedrat is perfectly combined with ginger and a soft minty touch for a long lasting aldehydic freshness. With its beautiful freshness combined with a soft ambery woodiness in the drydown it will definitively please the clients of the Axe deodorants. When the bottle is emtpy, they will buy Bleu de Chanel.

When you smell the perfumes created at the beginning of Kenzo, all launched within a short period of time, and the recent flood of Kenzo launches, you understand the difference between brain and brainless. Once, there was a Kenzo soul. Today, there is not even a brain. This brand smells useless.

PS: The "wild" concept comes from Acqua di Gioia ad (Armani).

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Sharif - new fragrance review from Via del Profumo

An amazing perfume, rich, dense, vibrant, where the ancient wisdom surrounds you with the high intensity of exquisite oils. This is Sharif, the latest creation from Abdes Salaam Attar, a perfume which is literally an experience from another era, with dark woody "roots", silent "resins" preserving the history under their hard skin, extremely hot spices and a subtle animalic note.

This fragrance is preciously kept in a square glass bottle, but when you look from above you will notice something very special. The spherical golden stopper sits on the octagonal base of the spray, like the Dome of the Rock sits on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, above the Foundation Stone. The golden spirit preserved in the square bottle, with an admirable volatile quality, is an explosion of fire and its foundation stone is a combination of ancient accords brought to life.

Sharif, a noble sheik from ancient times, was bringing through desert the most exquisite aromatic materials. This is the story of the incense road and the silk road where the glorious spices and woods brought from Asia were traveling side by side with resins like incense and myrrh in the dry Arabian desert, with precious wools and animal skins, impregnating them with a delicious scent. This was a time when sealed containers did not exist and, inevitably, the Arabian traders were literally infused with a delicious perfume. The camels were smelling like the scented gloves introduced several centuries after in Europe. The caravans were detected by their scent in a space where few flowers bloom. What else is a camel, traveling several weeks with benzoin and spices, than a living scent strip smelling of Peau d'Espagne, while its skin was infused with the most precious ingredients in their raw state? The second leather note of the humanity after the Egyptian "invention" was the traveling camel. Because camels kept a delicious scent, when they died, their skin was used and sold. Much later, the whole process of tanning and scenting would become an industry.

But what exactly is Sharif, this delicious composition of spices and sweet resins?

This small jewel holds the essence of spices, aromatic gems of the Antiquity, a type of scent that literally transcends time and space. 2000 years ago it was the roman royal perfume, a special recipe with honey and wine, surviving in the Old Byzantium and 800 years ago it was a gift sent to European kings by Saladin. In his Egyptian garden he kept some unusual aromatic trees, highly scented which gave the precious balsamum.

The foundation stone of Sharif is the precious ambery-balsamic Balsamo Della Mecca, the previous fragrance from Abdes Salaam Attar, one of the best 100% natural perfumes that can be found today in Europe. But inside the highly dense labdanum-incense creation (the essence of the previous creation), the perfumer brought the spirit of fire, the consuming power of spices melting the stone quality of resins into a sweet balm with a deep honeyed quality.

A small saffron-like note is the golden sprinkle above the peppery spiciness transforming the majestic combination of the 4 ancient spices into the golden precious "honey", deep, highly aromatic with herbal undertones and melting on the skin. The almond-vanilla quality of the drydown, with subtle animalic notes suggesting the leather-skin facet of Musk Tonkin and the herbal-silex dimension of Hyraceum, transforms the darkness found in Balsamo Della Mecca into something serene and elegant. It evokes the ancient opopanax perfumes, different from modern opopanax resin. The sweetness is crystallized not in "sugar", as in a Tonka bean, but in camphor, like the combination between laurel leaf/cinnamon leaf/clove and a balsamic base.

The perfume evokes the rich quality of dry tobacco preserved in an ancient leather pouch, blended with unknown powerful herbs and pepper. Its evolution on the skin is surprising and with Balsamo Della Mecca, Sharif is one of the most elegant natural perfumes. It has nothing to do with the so called Arabian perfumes, rich in Sandalore, Sandela, Polysantol (synthetic sandalwood) and embalming the air with damascones (rose), the essence of modern Arabian perfumery, as it was conceived since the 1970's when petro-dollars met the powerful molecules.

The creations from Abdes Salaam Attar are based on the true essence of an antique craft. They are the most profound and refined expression of that lost world.
Website for Sharif (Via del Profumo)

Photo: 

Lion incense burner, XIIth century, Louvre Museum
Sharif perfume bottle, photo courtesy of Nathan Branch

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

#4 Toronto/GTA Fragrance meetup

Daniel from Basenotes sent me this announcement for the perfume lovers from Canada about a fragrant meeting to take place next Sunday. You can read the original thread on Basenotes with all the details.

Date: SUNDAY July 24th, 2011
Location: Noor Boutique, 176 Cumberland St (Yorkville), 416-928-0700 (http://noorboutique.com/). Nahla and Fred are the friendly owners.
Time: Around 12pm/Noon to about 3:30 or so, but drop by any time. We may move around the area to some other locations at some point. Let’s see how things go and decide at the time.

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

Osiris - the scent, the mysteries and the history of the violet notes (1)

The orris / violet scent, as it is portrayed by a highly specific family of molecules and typically represented by a very small number of plants, is the next element of crucial importance in the establishment of the 8th Art after the incense. The nature of this scent is fundamental in the understanding of the sacred role of perfumes in our history and how they shaped our cultural DNA. Curiously, orris and incense share a geographic area that has not been enough explored by archaeologists. The violet note is in our "genes" in the most unexpected way. Several attributes associated with this note have a fundamental biological value and the highly unusual and unrelated contexts where this note was found (from Himalaya Mountains to Egypt and monastic legends) are about to explain what exactly this family of molecules represent for us.

Early spring, the delicate violet flowers bloom and, for a very short period of time, they will perfume the cold air, as the plant loves more the shadow and the moist than the sun. Their fragrance is really unique as you cannot find a similar or identical profile until the following year. Plants with a high content of molecules related to orris/violet might be on the perfumer's shelves, but they belong to very different regions of the planet. Most Viola species are found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere; however, some are also found in widely divergent areas (Australasia and the Andes).

Upon a closer examination, you will notice that violets have an unusual sexuality. The flowers are very scented, but they are sterile. When they fade, other very small green flowers will appear. You will barely perceive them in the grass, the flower is closed and it relies on autofecondation, while the seed is oily and is transported by ants. On the other hand, the plant spreads with stolons (a horizontal shoot growing on top of the soil surface with the ability to produce new clones of the same plant).

The scent of the violet flowers is about anything than seduction, it is about resurrection, transformation and the metaphor of another world.

While the flower, with its unique and unusual perfume, will disappear with the arrival of sunny days, its amazing fragrance will "re-appear" in a very different context, underground, deeply buried and leaving no clue about its divine presence.

These are the orris roots! The ancient author Plutarch said Iris means the "eye of heaven" mentioning the Egyptian origin of the name. But what else is Iris than the most beautiful metaphor of the Osiris myth, the god of regeneration, re-birth and underworld?

In the "Myth of Osiris and Isis", told by Plutarch, Set, Osiris' brother, conspired to plot his assassination getting him into a box, sealed and thrown into the Nile. Osiris' wife, Isis, searched for his remains and she finally found him on the Phoenician coast. She used a spell to bring him back to life and conceive a son. Afterwards he died again and she hid his body in the desert and months later, she gave birth to Horus. One night Set tore the body of Osiris into 14 pieces and scattered them throughout the land. Isis gathered up all the parts of the body, less the phallus, eaten by a catfish, and bandaged them together for a proper burial. The gods resurrected Osiris as the god of the underworld.

With the orris root, hidden in the ground, the scent of the violet flower, beautiful but sterile, is resurrected. Some rhizomes, as it is the case of mandragore, look like human bodies, but in the case of the orris root, it is the metaphor of a bandaged body, desiccated and surrounded by a peel which preserves the precious essence.

But like Osiris, the Egyptian iris had no "phallus". Iris albicans (the white orris type identified as the plant represented at Thebes) is a sterile hybrid which spreads by rhizomal growth and division, as it cannot produce seeds. On a symbolic level, you need somebody to plant and reproduce this type of orris.

Iris albicans originates from Yemen and Saudi Arabia and it appears in a wall painting of the Botanical Garden of Tuthmosis III in the Temple of Amun at Karnak (cca 1450 BC). It is believed it was introduced around that period because no older references were yet discovered. The same type of orris can be seen in a famous Minoan fresco inside the Knossos Palace (cca 1550 BC), the plant was cultivated and even extracted as a perfume (orris "oil" has been recently identified by archeologist). Iris albicans is believed to have originated in the vicinity of Mount Saber in Yemen (see the article about the birth of incense for geographical details).

In a mythical time, the small violet flowers from the temperate Northern Hemisphere and the Mediterranean area became the orris plant, through a "genetic mutation" in the south. Of course, this is only on the symbolic level because the only link between them is the scent. In terms of symbolic scent, the "moisture" of the northern violet became the "dryness" of the orris root as the weather got warmer after the Ice Age. The scent of orris speaks of immortality and the symbolic cycle "orris root" - "violet flowers" is the most beautiful expression of resurrection and mystery in nature.

Besides the typical ionone/irone/methylionone family scent, the orris root smells of earth and human skin as it contains several fatty acids, much like the mysterious violet seeds taken by the ants in their underground world.

Greeks used to plant iris on the grave of women as Iris would guide the souls to the Elysian Fields. Looking inside the chemical composition of an orris root we find a huge amount of a fatty acid. Orris root is preserved flesh and the beautiful scent develops only a long time after they are desiccated through the action of several bacteria (Pseudomonas and Enterobacter). The "immortality" of a botanic body rich in fatty acids is acquired through scent, opposed to the decomposition of the animal body. It is precisely the same biochemical process that happened inside the body of saints and martyrs said to exhale a violet note, hundreds of years ago when people had no idea about micro organisms or the biosynthesis of irone. Orris is the scent of immortality in nature.
(irones are obtained from scentless triterpenoid precursors like iripallidal or iriflorental)

When you smell a crude "iris beurre" you smell linen, human skin but in its cold state. It is opposed to the warm skin as seen in the petals of white flowers. When you smell the salt of the ocean you inhale also very small amounts of beta ionone while the gray amber, found around Oman, retains in its composition a beautiful collection of ionone notes.

The seeds obtained from the second violet flower through autofecondation are transported by ants, but isn't this process of taking a violet seed into the darkness of the complex labyrinth of an ant nest a reflection of the magic belief about the underworld? From this symbolic seed, the scent of the delicate violet flower will be resurrected into the root, well buried underground.

On the other hand, if you smell a violet bouquet after smelling the orris root (with its dry facets) you will notice their powerful green facet (brought also by the leaves). The precious essence from one plant is resurrected next spring with an amazing power of life. Green and moisture over earthy dryness, that is hologram of the violet flower if you smell two of its basic ingredients, ionone beta and nonadienol / nonadienal.

In ancient Egypt, the iris flower adorned the scepters of pharaohs (iris and lotus have different meanings) and was associated with the falcon-headed god Horus. In one representation from Dendera, Horus shows a flower to the nose of Osiris depicted as a bandaged mummy. This scene is actually the literally meaning of the decorative association found on some scepters. The term "eye of heaven" refers both to Horus and Osiris and the scent is the true representation of another world. Neither the name, nor the use of violet / orris is accidental.

The scepter is actually the orris plant connecting the two worlds - the underground of Osiris (and the orris roots) and the sky of Horus, pointing to the "eye of heaven", something from the sky, far away and known today by astronomers.

Neither violet, nor iris flower were depicted as "official" and direct representation of the myth, but no other plant on earth could better scent the magic universe of Osiris.

We should ask ourselves today how men from early Antiquity found the amazing scented orris root from a plant with no strong smell and with a rhizome that produce the fragrance only after a long period of time? The fabulous scent and story of orris is as amazing as its discovery.

Reproducing the true perfume of a violet today is actually the most accurate representation of the ancient Egyptian myth of birth and resurrection in nature.

You will take the "dead" (the orris roots found underground, desiccated like a mummy, unwrapped from their protective skin and presenting even the faint oily note of the human skin) and will pour inside it the "living" element (the very green note of violet leaves and its molecules smelling like the water of a rainfall),   the flower will bloom by magic. The dry body and the essence of life.

But sometime violets are "sweet" and this sweetness is nothing else than the scent of "balms". When you preserve a violet in sugar, you are actually mummifying the flower. The petals are too fragile to be dried. You preserve their physical body because their soul rests underground in the orris root. We can ask ourselves if Egyptians had ever thought to preserve the violet flowers. Replace the modern sugar with a mixture of resins in a very fine powder and you have the answer.

Every time a perfumer is creating a violet perfume he founds himself inside the myth of Osiris. There is no other way to build a true violet, whether you use a natural material or the molecules, the principle is the same. The Isis Osiris myth shows precisely what to put inside a true reproduction of the violet scent and what to avoid.

What else is an "orris / violet" perfume in a cedar context surrounded by a very soft gray amber note than the most accurate representation of Osiris, floating in his coffin on the sea (the birth of the natural amber note with ionones inside) when Isis finally found him on the Mediterranean coast where the cedar grows, as well as many types of orris?

But when you smell a violet flower bouquet you will notice an important animalic note. Both plants (orris and violet) present this unusual note, related more to the skin and hair than to the "nasty" notes of musk deer and civet. The answer comes from a less known type called Iris pseudoacorus (Iris des marais) which grows best in very wet conditions, often common in wetlands, where it tolerates submersion. This type, with golden petals, is visually and olfactory similar to Acorus calamus. Both grow and were known in Egypt and I think they were confused a lot in many translations over the centuries. Unlike Iris albicans, this one is fertile and its seeds can resist up to 12 month floating on the water and keeping their germinative power. Isn't it the most beautiful natural representation of the Osiris myth, floating on the see sealed in a coffin and later resurrected by Isis (the magician, the perfumer) to conceive Horus ?

The wet, damp like, moisty, animalic scent of the violet is actually found in a costus root, an essential ingredient (now forbidden) for the representation of the true violet scent. It is a "hair" quality with a faint sebum note. In Aeneid (Virgil), Iris, now messenger of the Greek goods guiding the souls to the Elysian Fields, took a lock of Dido's hair to release her soul. This is the most precise poetic representation of the relation between the scents of violet and costus, both ingredients known since Antiquity. If you take the costus root oil and "cut" the typical hair note, you will get a chemical blend of ionone a, ionone b, dihydro a ionone and many isomers, in other words the soul of a violet.

        

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

Sensual aromatic notes - The Venus Anadyomene motif

Can aromatic notes be sensual once again as they were in the legend of rosemary, the dew of the sea (ros marinus) surrounding Venus rising from the sea? In fact, there is an entire universe to rediscover, far from the classic interpretation. Aromatic herbs have more to say than their herbe de Provence touch.

The first candidate is lavender, but many have forgotten what this note is, through its constant use in detergent formulations or in fougère perfumes. Lavender is not just "clean" and "herbal", there are many less known facets of the natural product, some of them were already represented in historic perfumes. Lavender is neither the vanilla interpretation of Caron, nor the Old English Lavender.

Can lavender be extremely sensual? That's the theme of one of the most beloved perfumes created by Henri Almeras for Jean Patou called Moment Suprême. The combination between lavender and orchid notes (based on jasmine) was extremely elegant before 1930 and there are several bottles with scents of an outstanding audacity where this aromatic note is wrapped in the most unexpected herbal accords. The new mown hay and the clover were turned into small sex bombs where lavender had the leading role. The best lavender perfumes are to be worn in summer with the heat, the time when the fields in France turn purple. 

There is a love affair between lavender, sun and skin and you will experience this outstanding sensation with a very special creation - Lavender Palm (Tom Ford) signed by the acclaimed perfumer Yann Vasnier. This creation is extremely rich in precious qualities of lavender (oil and absolute) and brings a very new interpretation. The floral heart is creamy and sensual like the richest Nivea cream and underneath it there is a very delicate musky salty accord that clearly evokes the salty taste of the skin when you bathe in the ocean. But Lavender Palm is neither marine, nor fougère as we usually understand by these descriptions. Its incredible softness, the milky quality of the woody note, the crystalline sea moss and the delicate fruity undertone (as if you rub the leaves from a lavender bush in the sun) are united in an extremely harmonious context. This perfume, with its carefully dosed sweetness, has a love affair with my skin and a very good tenacity / diffusion, but it works better in the sun. Containing natural extracts from plants rich in honey, this perfume literally attracts surrounding the body with contrasts: camphor and honeyed notes, sweet and salty, herbal and musky.

There are 2 way to wear Lavender Palm (Tom Ford) but the rule is to abuse and overdose it on the skin. In the first version, indulge your body with a rich Nivea cream, using the original classic formula containing lanolin. The second version is to put a drop of L'Heure Bleue (Guerlain) pure perfume at your wrists because the combination between them is magnificent.

The next candidate is rosemary. Following my story about Eau de la Reine de Hongrie, I thought to set the idea into a special context made of salty, skin scent, milky and a very surprising floral interpretation called "Chestnut flower". Here you have the sketch:

Romarin MD

Romarin abs

Thym blanc extra ess

Ayapana G Cœur (accord)

Fleurs de châtaigner (accord)

Magnolys Cœur

Miel de mélisse (accord)

Bois de figuier sycomore (sur koumalactone)

Helional

Geraldehyde 1%
Pamplemousse fleur ess 10%

Azurone 1%
Hivernal 1%

Cyprès ess 10%

Dimethyl cyclormol 0,1%

Ionone b 1%

Dihydrobetaionone 1%

Ambrinol A 0,1%

Cetalox L, 0,1%

Ambretolide

Cosmone

Romandolide

The chestnut flower has the suspicious scent of what everybody knows today. A famous description was given my Marquis de Sade in one of his short stories:

"On prétend, je ne l'assurerais pas, mais quelques savants nous persuadent que la fleur de châtaignier a positivement la même odeur que cette semence prolifique qu'il plut à la nature de placer dans les reins de l'homme pour la reproduction de ses semblables. Une jeune demoiselle d'environ quinze ans, qui n'était jamais sortie de la maison paternelle, se promenait un jour avec sa mère et un abbé coquet dans une allée de châtaigniers dont l'exhalaison de fleurs parfumait l'air dans le sens suspect que nous venons de prendre la liberté d'énoncer…"

Nature arranged that the semen of Uranus, the true essence of the sea, landed in the flowers of chestnut and this note is the key ingredient in the legend of rosemary and the birth of Venus (Venus Anadyomene or Venus rising from the sea). Some perfumes do contain this type of note inside and it can be represented either by accords or by specific molecules.

Ayapana G comes from a very old Guerlain perfume.

Lavender Palm shows us the path to a very different approach of aromatic notes and why not, for a new type of feminine perfumes where natural materials, often associated with masculine fragrances, are given a new life.

Photo: Venus Anadyomene from Pompeii

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

Eau de la Reine de Hongrie and the mysterious art of perfumes

With an outstanding success over several centuries and an enduring name, the first European alcoholic perfume was something quite different than the modern equivalent of a drop of rosemary essential oil in alcohol. Despite its simple description,"alcoolat de romarin", its fame is in contrast with what it appears to be. In fact, Eau de la Reine de Hongrie is about the technique - how to extract and (re)produce a scent. This is a part of the perfume art that died about 100 years ago when fragrances started to be produced exclusively by mixing essences smelt on paper blotters in front of a perfume organ. The idea behind " Eau de la Reine de Hongrie" was to extract the true essence of the rosemary, not the essential oil as we mean it today in our very rational understanding of Nature, but the "soul" of the plant. It was about the scent, the emotion and the facets you perceive if you explore the fragrance of rosemary during its various stages, but also its "invisible" properties and how it acts upon you as a remedy. It was a time when odor, pleasant scent and remedy were not opposed or unrelated notions.

Eau de la Reine de Hongrie was the ultimate "solinote" because it was meant to express everything that is inside the rosemary, using only rosemary. In modern terms we would call it a "complex extraction process" meant to transpose the effect of a rosemary bush into a bottle.

For several centuries perfumers were interested as much in composition (blending several different notes to produce a new original olfactory form) and in extraction. Extracting or capturing the odor of a plant was not exactly the equivalent of "extracting the essential oil", as we name today the process. This idea was half rational, half poetic and today can be compared by the extraction, selection and blending of several fractions from the same essential oil by a perfumer and not by a chemist.

The original " Eau de la Reine de Hongrie" was in fact a spagyrical extract and can be considered the most beautiful metaphor of the Middle Age science, philosophy and alchemy, all expressed in the complex extraction methods used by monks, apothecaries, alchemists and perfumers. Like many very old products, the secret of Eau de la Reine de Hongrie was not fully reveled to the public and for this reason what you can read in old books from 17th - 19th century is only a shadow of the past knowledge. For many very old products from monasteries we have rather the account of others than the true production formula. In some cases the recipes became available during the French Revolution, other were "counterfeited" because the monastic product became a very fashionable proto-marketing trend in the early XIXth century.

Our modern nose, used with many complex perfumes, might be deceived by the scent of a solution of rosemary essential oil. The perfumes of the past should not be treated with condescendence. The previous centuries were far richer in scent than we imagine and the times when Eau de la Reine de Hongrie knew its glory were also the days when people had a better knowledge of plants that we do. We must imagine the scent of Eau de la Reine de Hongrie with rosemary "oil" as a starting point (and not its conclusion) in the context of other scents / perfumes / techniques known in those days.

This extract was not alone on the "market". With the rich (and expensive) products from Venice, based on spices, or the strong scented pomanders, this rosemary perfume retained its popularity for several centuries. This can be explained only by the perfection of the extraction method which was not fully unveiled in the few books that appeared after the invention of the printing machine, much later (and many of them about "cosmetics" were actually written in Italy).

Scenting the wine with herbs was appreciated since Antiquity. It was not uncommon in the monasteries who produced wine and cultivated aromatic herbs. In the south of France, rosemary grows wild on the ancient route of pilgrims, once guarded by Templars. Mixing rosemary with wine was certainly not an outstanding invention in the XIVth century. The strong aromatic note of rosemary covers extremely well the scent of wine. For an untrained and unpretentious nose, rosemary infused in wine would pass easily for a diluted solution of rosemary essential oil in an alcohol which is not well rectified. It is precisely here where the invention of Eau de la Reine de Hongrie made the outstanding difference and refinement. The new extract was highly superior to an "infusion" that could be produced anywhere. Eau de la Reine de Hongrie was a perfume from a single plant and its superior scent, closer to the natural standard, made its fame.

To understand the complexity of this product we should smell the rosemary in its natural state and its products. An olfactory exploration of the rosemary scent will reveal several products and processes used to capture its scent and principles. We can still reproduce them today.

Rosemary flowers

Rosemary leaves

Rosemary honey

Rosemary wine

Esprit de vin de romarin fermenté avec du miel

Fermented rosemary & honey (hydromel)

Rosemary macerated with rosemary honey

Alcoholic tincture of rosemary made with "esprit de vin de romarin" (the alcohol distilled from rosemary wine)

The distillation product of each of the previous

Rectified distillation and selection of extracts

Rosemary extracted with water

The ashes of the plant

Mixtures of various previous extracts

Eau de la Reine de Hongrie, like many ancient perfumes, was not done in a single day. It was a long and complex process that ensured the best extract from the plant and in this extract the notion of scent was quintessential. All plant extracts or essential oil are also remedies, but only few of them can be perfumes. That was the difference brought by Eau de la Reine de Hongrie.

The original Eau de la Reine de Hongrie was based only on rosemary and not on a different herb. This single plant is actually the quintessence of the first alcoholic western perfume. The name of the plant comes from Latin (ros marinus) and translates into "the dew of the sea". It was associated with the goddess Aphrodite and it surrounded her when she rose from the sea and later it was associated with Virgin Mary who gave the color of the blossoms. When you smell rosemary you smell also camphor, thyme and the salty notes evoking the sea while the drydown of an aged essential oil has even a nasty animalic facet.

If we consider the legend surrounding this perfume (an aged queen seducing a younger king) we could understand the metaphor hiding the true nature of Eau de la Reine de Hongrie. It was a symbolic perfume, not just a remedy, but an elixir. For this reason, the plant linked to the goddess of beauty and love, a herb associated with wedding ceremonies in the Middle Ages, was the single element inside this perfume meant for seduction and fertility (the dew of the sea like Uranus's semen). It was prepared as an elixir, as this term was understood in the 13th and 14th century with Roger Bacon.

Another aspect to consider in the history of Eau de la Reine de Hongrie is the Narbonne Honey, a rosemary honey from South of France. What was before, the rosemary honey, its symbolism, properties and use in monastic products, or the rosemary plant and its scent? In fact, the symbolism of the bee is much clear in another medieval perfume - eau de melisse.

If this interpretation of "Eau de la Reine de Hongrie" represents an alchemical vision proper to the original medieval product, as the product became famous and copied (thus the use of the name véritable), it became something else. We can admit that the original scent and qualities were lost and the product became a simple rosemary extract. Maybe for this reason, l'alcoolat simple became alcoolat composé and other ingredients were added in a small composition, more refined and maybe closer to the original scent. When you lack the true original scent, you will try to reproduce its facets using other ingredients, as any perfumer would do it today. Centuries later the perfume became only a remedy.

According to the legend, the Queen Elizabeth of Hungary used this product in the 14th century, but we were not told the precise context, and even the identity of the queen is not very clear. In fact, the Hungarian capital is rich in mineral waters and maybe in this context we should read the first use of the perfume and its amazing effects: a mineral bath where an important amount of Eau de la Reine de Hongrie was added to revigorate the body and cure rheumatic affections. Reproducing today the context (warm bubbling mineral water and the scent of rosemary around) we are in fact reproducing on a prophane level the "birth of Venus". Rosemary had a sensual and erotic meaning as we wouldn't think of in the XXIth century. 

Even today, many bath preparations are herbal and they are based on rosemary. The scent of Eau de la Reine de Hongrie survives in a different context and certainly neither the public nor the brands are not aware about the symbolic meaning.

Image: King Charles V (1338-1380)

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

Durer (1971) - vintage perfume review

A forgotten perfume, an exceptional scent. Launched by an obscure brand in the 70's called Durer, this floral chypre creation is signed by Michel Hy, a perfumer of an outstanding talent and refinement from Roure (later Givaudan Roure). He is the author of some of the most amazing creations from 60's and 70's, and certainly the secret name behind a revolutionary masterpiece.

Like Givenchy III, the fragrance Durer achieves a perfect balance between delicate flowers, dominated by rose & hyacinth, a soft velvety chypre base with delicate fruity accents and a sharp green note. Between Calandre (Paco Rabanne), Rive Gauche (YSL) and Chanel 19, this small jewel from Roure explores another facet of the same accord that was famous in the 70's and represented by these 3 masterpieces. It is not a new original vision, but the interpretation of the same theme from a different angle. The same rose-geranium note, the same beautiful orris accord, the same green hyacinth, the same velvety woody background, are rearranged in a composition where the floral heart prevails. In the well known context, the perfume explores a very delicate jasmine note (with hedione and green airy elements) surrounded by an elegant lily facet. This jasmine idea will become later First and the lily will become Anais Anais.

The balance is amazing, especially the use of aldehydes over the rose accord, as we can see it in Capricci or Farouche (Nina Ricci). The green galbanum note, probably using the very new molecules developed at that time, is in perfect harmony with the green facet of the geranium surrounded by a very beautiful rose oil note. The combination between hyacinth and orris precedes Bas de Soie (Serge Lutens) and is even more spectacular because of the rose.

Everything inside the composition of Durer is perfect and 40 years after the production of my small bottle, the delicate perfume has the same uncompromised beauty without a single wrinkle. The aesthetic vision has an outstanding modernity and its body is in perfect shape.

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