POTION - DSquared2 – new fragrance review

Everytime I travel from Paris to explore other markets and other scented universes, I have two types of discoveries – the copycats of Parisian successes, sold under other respectable names, and the fabulous perfumes. I discover also amazing body products, this time I bought a 3EUR bodyspray highly sensual, inspired by a magnificent German perfume from the early 90’s, none of them available in Paris. But the biggest surprise is Potion from DSquared2, a sensational creation, highly, addictive and extremely comfortable. This potion, unlike its name, is not the type of perfume you might expect from this type of brand. If you know their fashion, it has an unexpected elegance, miles away from the noisy modern 1 Million &Co, and evokes something from the mysterious Canadian forests (I use some Canadian wood absolute specialties).

The perfume revisits one of the most fabulous masculine creations ever, the first Gucci pour homme, now discontinued in Paris. Its woody cedar incense note has been softened with a sweet oriental theme based on balsamic notes like benzoin and an amazing muskiness. This new theme, which did not exist in Gucci, evokes with elegance and modernity the amazing drydown accord of Obsession for Men (Calvin Klein). The sweet oriental note, with its slow burning effect, like an endless balm fumigating for ever on your skin burning with endless desire, has the sparkle of Bulgari Black. Because the idea of Black has been recently revisited by Midnight in Paris (Van Cleef & Arpels), Potion sets the classic theme in a new and modern context.

The perfume suggests the wooden decorations of old apothecaries before the invention of industrial medecines sold in plastic bottles. The porcelain jars were still holding the herbs. Many modern consumers, including the clients of DSquared2, have no idea of this smell because they were born when the traditional pharmacies disappeared in big cities. Because I did the Pharmacy School and I worked in this type of environment on the other side of the World where I prepared many things, I am very familiar. For me, Potion by DSquared2 is not only a very beautiful perfume, but a hyper reallistic representation of what a potion used to be. When you work with old recipies, dried plants and roots plus powerfull plant extracts, you cannot forget a certain smell (like the mixture between foeniculum, the balsams and some roots, not all used today in perfumery). Add to this the complex medieval recipies for drinks and you have an enchanted universe of scents. There is something very Italian inside this new perfume, suggesting those beloved potions like Sambucca or Liquore alla Genziana, with their divine properties, or those special herbal French remedies with angelica root. These are addictive potions for the wearer. Many years ago, Guerlain had an amazing gentian perfume, Potion by DSquared2, without being directly related, evokes this rooty note, caramelized in brown sugar and cinnamon sticks, surrounded by the aromatic woody complex. There is something which evokes the recent Kokorico (Jean Paul Gaultier), but this perfume is better and the patchouli note has a very beautiful proportion with its chocolate side of the new extraction, surrounded by a soft cashmere and ambery element. Like Obsession for Men, its scent lingers around the body for many hours and doesn’t project with violence (think Dirty English), it has the elegance of a recent Dolce & Gabbana, but it is far more original and with a good dose of character for its soft oriental theme. The muskiness is high tech – the best Firmenich musks which did not exist in the previous decade – for this reason there is an increased softness, the fragrance is almost siky in the drydown surrounding the notes with a veil of grace.
On the back of the bottle there is a potion recipe, actually the main notes of the perfume which can be used to prepare a drink - a love elixir.

Official notes for POTION - DSquared2: red mint leaves, angelica, thyme, rose petals, black peppercorns, gentian, cinnamon, cashmere wood, patchouli, amber, musk.

       

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Le Ministère est au parfum - Discours du Ministre sur l'Art du Parfum

Le Discours de Frédéric Mitterrand, ministre de la Culture et de la Communication, lors de la ceremonie du 26 janvier. (voir mon premier article)

Mesdames et Messieurs,

Chers amis,

Aujourd’hui les parfumeurs, ces nez qui forcent la curiosité, « péninsule[s] » que l’on peut admirer avec Edmond Rostand : « Pour un parfumeur, quelle enseigne ! », ces nez dont Gogol nous rappelle qu’en russe ils sont l’anagramme du mot « rêve » et dont ils se font, à dessein, les explorateurs olfactifs, investissent pour la première fois de son histoire le ministère de la Culture et de la Communication. Je suis très heureux de vous réunir ici dans la maison de la culture et des créateurs, vous, les enchanteurs secrets du quotidien, dont le savoir-faire et la tradition remonte à l’Egypte pharaonique, héritiers des traditions sacrées, rituelles, médicales voire magiques du parfum, qui, de la chair des dieux égyptiens au sang du Christ, se départit progressivement de son rôle de panacée pour, à partir de la cour de Louis XIV, devenir un objet  d’hédonisme et d’art.

L’histoire du parfum, c’est à la fois l’histoire de la séduction, celle des hommes ou des dieux, de la maladie et des précautions hygiénistes comme le montre Alain Corbin dans Le miasme et la jonquille, du plaisir de la toilette, c’est l’histoire de notre propre animalité. Se joue dans le parfum l’étroite ambivalence de l’homme assis entre la civilisation et l’animalité ; c’est l’histoire du raffinement des sécrétions de la nature. Le parfum, c’est également une langue, une terminologie d’une richesse inouïe, qui tisse avec les mots les plus savants comme les expressions les plus familières, des liens entre les odeurs et nos représentations. Condensé de croisements artistiques dont l’art du parfum est l’expression, avec sa parure de verre, de cristal, sa poire, ses flacons ornementés, sculptés, taillés comme des pierres qui ont tout lieu de siéger dans les cabinets de curiosités : l’objet parfum recueille et concentre une préciosité proprement mélancolique.

Et enfin il y a la science des parfums, mélange de botanique, de physique, de chimie, d’extractions d’essences, des corps de synthèse, de molécules, recensement des grandes familles olfactives - les boisés, les fougères, les chypres, les hespéridés, les floraux, les cuirs, les ambrés orientaux - qui font de la composition de parfum une idylle complexe entre l’art et la science.

Richard Bohringer explique à Helen Mirren, dans un film de Peter Greenaway, où il joue le rôle d’un cuisinier, que cuisiner des aliments de couleur noire à ses clients, c’est leur rappeler leur propre finitude et leur offrir ainsi, dans la dégustation, l’occasion de vaincre la mort. Il en est un peu de même avec les parfums. Un parfum, une odeur, parce qu’il est aussi bien évanescent que rémanent, aussi fugace qu’inscrit dans une chair, plonge l’être dans un autre temps, devient le véhicule de la mémoire autant qu’il stimule les nerfs de l’imagination. À l’opposé du superficiel, le parfum, c’est le souvenir éclatant d’une nature indiscrète, le règne des évocations.

Pour la plupart d’entre nous, ce n’est pas Le Château de ma Mère, mais bien le « Parfum de ma Mère », sur lequel nous bâtissons nos souvenirs d’enfance.

Le parfum a sa place au Ministère de la Culture. Aujourd’hui ce sont des parfumeurs-créateurs ainsi que la grande tradition de la parfumerie française que j’entends valoriser. Jusqu’à assez récemment, l’art de la parfumerie était essentiellement français ; actuellement plus de deux tiers des 700 compositeurs de parfums sont français. Pourtant ces artistes des odeurs, cachés derrière les marques, ne bénéficient pas, dans leur grande majorité, de la reconnaissance qu’ils méritent. Grâce à cette exposition consacrée aux créateurs de parfums et à leur savoir-faire dans les vitrines du Palais Royal, pour laquelle je remercie la commissaire Annick Le Guérer et le Président de la Société française des Parfumeurs, Patrick Saint-Yves, dont le concours fut précieux, le ministère de la Culture et de la Communication souhaite assurer la reconnaissance d’un secteur éminemment créatif et culturel.

J’appelle de mes vœux qu’à l’instar de l’intelligence de la main, soit reconnue l’intelligence du nez comme métier d’art. Car les parfumeurs sont des acteurs du patrimoine culturel français qu’il faut soutenir, pour que 2soient assurée et pérennisée la transmission de leur savoir-faire, ainsi que leur liberté de création. Qu’ils soient indépendants, rattachés à des maisons de composition ou encore à des marques de luxe, les parfumeurs ont une place à part entière dans le paysage culturel français.

Le parfum, à l’instar de la musique, est un art du temps, comme le concédait une de ses plus illustres représentants, figure de Commandeur et référence historique, Edmond Roudnitska. Il passe l’épreuve du temps, grâce au travail de l’Osmothèque dont l’objet est de conserver, rassembler les parfums existants, mais aussi reconstituer les chefs-d’œuvre du passé.

Bibliothèque des effluves, des évanescentes, laboratoire contre l’usure du temps, je tiens à saluer très chaleureusement l’Osmothèque de Versailles pour son rôle de sauvegarde et de détenteur du savoir artistique de l’une de nos plus belles traditions culturelles.

« Parfumeur, ton nom est personne » : voici une célèbre formule devenue aujourd’hui caduque. C’est dans cet esprit de valorisation et de reconnaissance que j’ai voulu rendre hommage à des créateursparfumeurs de grands talents, qui enrichissent, renouvellent et transmettent leurs savoir-faire, leur technicité, qui éveillent nos sensibilités.

Frédéric Mitterrand

ministre de la Culture et de la Communication

(voir mon premier article)

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Le Ministère de la Culture est au Parfum

Last afternoon in Paris, I received the invitation from Frédéric Mitterrand, the French Minister of Culture, to honor a special day and a special event. The place, highly symbolic - rue de Valois - the dynasty when the French perfume became what is known today. Everything you know about perfume in France starts under Valois (right after Philippe IV le Bel and that's a long story about the secret events at that time) and it flourishes with queen Catherine de Medicis who brought the Italian subtleties of perfume making but also the manuscripts, the first written treaties accessible in Paris.

On January 26, five great perfumers were named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and received the distinction from Frédéric Mitterrand. The five perfumers received the médaille of the Order, the emerald green eight-point star created in 1957 for "significant contribution to the enrichment of the French cultural inheritance". The great perfumers, knights of the eighth ART, are: Daniela Andrier, Francoise Caron, Olivier Cresp, Dominique Ropion, Maurice Roucel, each of them representing one of the major companies who served the Art of Perfumes for more than eighty years, even more than a century for Givaudan, Firmenich and Symrise. These companies, created from modest backgrounds in the XIXth century, took one of the oldest form of art on a new level starting with the 1880's, a turning point in history for many other reasons. The science of perfumes, the most poetic expression of chemistry, allowed the most important achievement in ART since the invention of perspective during the Italian Renaissance. Today, after so many decades of exponential growth and economic expansion, when the perfume industry bloomed with possibilities and numbers never imagined before, these perfumers gave once again the titre de noblesse to this art. 

Who doesn't remember the first Gucci, Very Valentino or the amazing Prada perfumes (Daniela Andrier), Ombre Rose, Choc de Cardin, the first GIO or Acqua di Parma (Francoise Caron), Angel, the astonishing Kenzo l'Eau and Black XS (Olivier Cresp) and Amarige, Aimez-moi, Jungle Elephant, Une fleur de cassie (Dominique Ropion) or Gucci Envy, the fabulous Krizia, L'Instant Guerlain, Musc Ravageur (Maurice Roucel)? These are only a fraction from the beautiful scents imagined by these five Chevaliers de l'Ordre du Parfum. Their more recent creations, launched in 2011 or prepared for 2012, are the element of a change, a new order of beauty, yesterday was also a special day with old forgotten legends - the first Bishop of Gevaudan (3rd cent. + many scented stories like the link between Roure & Givaudan you'll never guess), the first Europeans in Brazil (1500), the first Europeans in Australia (1788), every time a new scented universe bloomed.
For this special exhibition organized by Le ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, four historic perfumes have been recreated and presented: Eau de Cologne Napoléon (1820), Moment suprême (Patou, 1931), La Rose Jacqueminot (Coty, 1904), Un Air Embaumé (Rigaud, 1912). Two of them represent a discrete homage to the work of perfumers from Givaudan and Firmenich 100 years ago. Their elusive secret scent is based heavily on several specialties, completely forgotten today and I have a special coup de coeur for the amazing Chuit Naef products, molecular poems of symbolism, always original and impossible to copy.

How old is the perfume? The perfume starts with Humanity because the perfume is Humanity. It is the ability to imagine and to achieve the dream giving shape and meaning to the invisible. When you seize a scent, understand it and achieve the perfect illusion able to trigger an ocean of emotions to millions of unknown people, you enhance the Reality. The perfumer expands the horizon of the individual towards the beauty of Eden. It is the ultimate proof of freedom - the freedom to create Beauty, the freedom beyond the limitations of the species.
The Perfume is the most complex and sophisticated oeuvre d'esprit of mankind. It is the Ideal form of Art, it has no purpose, but it is vital as the air, it connects and reconnects everything transforming the zero into one. It is the ultimate exponential plus. Its development, as an art form, begins during the Italian Renaissance (I presented several years ago the factual elements), in France it is as old as the academies, though it never received an institutional recognition. Many can paint or sing, but very few were able to create perfumes and imagine them. The ability to create perfumes is the supreme test of the cultural level of a civilization and it needs a fertile cultural ground to bloom.

I would add also that the most sacred object in the french history was a very old bottle. It contained  a perfume, but was never referred as a perfume. Today, the container with the remains of the antique red liquid with a delicious balsamic scent is well hidden, France is a Republic.

Today, things are changing in Paris. It is a new golden age when the Perfume is the Essence of a Culture. 

« Le Ministère est au parfum »

Exposition consacrée aux créateurs de parfums et à leur savoir-faire

23 janvier- 18 mars 2012

Vitrines du ministère de la Culture et de la Communication

Péristyle et galerie de Valois, Paris 1er

Légende de la photo (de gauche à droite): Dominique Ropion, Françoise Caron, Olivier Cresp, Daniela Andrier, Maurice Roucel, créateurs de parfums, élevés au grade de Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres, et Frédéric Mitterrand, ministre de la Culture et de la Communication.
Crédit photo: Didier Plowy / MCC

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Emporio Armani Diamonds black carat for her - new fragrance review

If you buy diamonds from Armani and black carat is not written with capital letters, then you can be sure those are not diamonds, but plastic.

Black carat smells like a black fruit diluted in the original raspberry theme of Diamonds, already a very cheap composition when it was imagined. It is surrounded by several white flowers and a rose, but there is absolutely nothing special inside, the perfume smells like a copycat of the amazingly beautiful (raspberry) Haute Couture (Givenchy) from the 90's. But as Armani is no more a fashionable name and not a chic name in perfume, this new perfume smells utterly cheap, much like those supermarket scents you can buy in the countries where the celebrity scents are still popular. It has a surprising similarity with a perfume from Avon launched last year, sold in a black bottle, which, to my surprise, is far better than Emporio Armani Diamonds black carat for her.

It is well known today in the perfume industry that l'Oréal is the huge factory of low quality perfumes because they did nothing significant in the past decade. Does anyone inside l'Oréal working for Armani know what a "black diamond" stands for? They certainly have not the property of words. What can you expect from somebody with low culture and the lowest scent expectations?

Emporio Armani Diamonds black carat for her is a fruity floriental with vanilla, freesia, rose and benzoin, but any excessive Escada perfume (read over-fruitiness) is a masterpiece near this "parfum de pacotille".

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J'adore No1 FAKE luxury

Today, J'adore (Christian Dior) is the number one perfume, many years it was the lady in waiting of the iconic Chanel No5 in  the top sales. But with the world recognition and fame comes the dark side of the fragrance industry, the millions of fakes sold in extremely well organized structures all around the world. The objects you see are J'adore scented lipsticks, never produced by Christian DIOR, but sold everywhere in the EU country where I am this week on a small holiday to buy some very rare antique bottles. It is the paradise of fakes, sold in decent shops, the same shops where I smell and buy perfumes in Paris. Here, the only way to protect yourself from fakes is the eye, the nose and the constant update to the official novelties of your beloved brand. Every year, tones of fake perfumes are seized at the border where they are imported directly from China. How many tones are not seized, that's the mystery. Last month I wrote an article about a l'Oreal makeup brand seized by the authorities because the products contained significant amounts of several heavy metals. L'Oreal had nothing to do here, the impressive amount of makeup was actually fake, that's why they contained what is not allowed in EU.

In the case of J'adore lipsticks, I exposed the trend many years ago "you do not copy what is known, you invent new products under a known brand." These fake J'adore lipstick are sold for 5-10 EUR, they are produced for 0,1 EUR max + taxes because they are introduced in UE in a very legal way, the business of fake perfume is not 100% clandestine, we are no more in the Prohibition era.

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∞ Ten thousand years for the Emperor ∞

Happy New Chinese Year

吾皇萬歲，萬歲，萬萬歲 

Ten thousand years for the Emperor

in our case the Essence of Everything, the Perfume, as it was said in ancient China in the most precious garden. The Scent is the most important thing in the real world, it is the crown jewel of Reality and for this reason, the 8th ART is the most important of all arts. It is the conclusion of everything, the perfect illusion of the Illusion. It is the link between the visible and the invisible, between their endless reflections.

Today, to welcome the New Chinese Year, wear a garland of rubies, write your scented wished in red envelopes, seal them with cinnabar lips, protect yourself with cardinal red and place the eight coins with red ribbon in their special place. Indulge yourself with red flowers, roses and carnations, and a drop of true red sandalwood (the rarest) to welcome The DRAGON who presents the Forbidden gift to the Universe. This secret is the anagram of its own name, the flower with thousands of petals and thousands variations of its own scent, the image containing its own reflection. In the Forbidden Forest with enchanted flowers, protected by the Red Dragon, the Golden Phoenix is ready to be awaken from its sleep with the magic drop of the Endless Essence.

∞ Ten thousand years for the Emperor ∞    

Photo: the dragon and the rose, on the back cover of my book

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Eau de fleurs de camélia (Kenzo) - new fragrance review

Delicate and shy like the white petals of camelia and its very subtle scent, known mostly as a camelia oil, the new fragrance from Kenzo is a refined ode to the fragile aspect of white flowers. Eau de fleurs de camélia (Kenzo) evokes gardenia, champacca and magnolia in their dewy green presence, underlined by a soft lemony rose (with hints of Vietnamese grasses) and suggests the strong powdery veil of Cruel Gardenia (Guerlain) with its overdose of cotton muskiness. The delicate flower sits on a beautiful creamy sandalwood orris note surrounded by soft musks and is subtly contrasted with sharp citrus green notes. The combination and proportion is extremely well mastered, the citruses, reminiscent of Still Life (Olfactive Studio) are modern and have nothing to do with the common notion of hesperidean freshness (a disturbingly boring recurrent theme for uninspired perfumers). Eau de fleurs de camélia (Kenzo), though extremely delicate and confident, is pure grace with a subtle hint of exoticism brought by a tropical green fruit.

       

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Chanel No 5 birth certificate

Chanel No5, the most famous perfume in the world, was officially launched on 5 may 1921. It is not the Chanel special collection day, but the 100 years commemoration of Napoleon's death, the Emperor of France who passed away on the island of Saint Helena. The cause of his death is probably poisoning. In 1912, Ernest Beaux signed his first perfume in Moscow for Rallet, dedicated to Napoleon (the Patriotic War of 1812). I presented the perfumes created for this occasion during my conference in Paris (all the bottles are well preserved in France). The birth day of Chanel No5, or more precisely its baptism, the rite of admission into the Reality after the scent was presented during the Christmas 1920, is not a coincidence. The financial success of Coty, tightly linked to Rallet even before he bought the company, is another passionate story with numbers (and not accounts). The double C from Chanel comes from Catherine de Medicis monogram. If the bottle is plain like a pharmaceutical bottle, it's also because perfume is the antidote for loneliness. In fact, everything started in 1919 with a special manuscript containing an Italian beauty formula from the XVIth century. This manuscript changed the history of perfumes not by the content, but by the action upon those who saw it. The treasures of the perfume history are the manuscripts, those special papers preserved with great care because of their uniqueness, always a single copy of everything, usually preserved in leather books. For Chanel No5, it's about destiny and chance. A perfume, when well composed with all the secrets behind, has a unique power. Perfume is liquid biography, some are meant to conquer the world when the perfumer opens his eyes to the true nature of his art. A perfumer reveals the Sleeping Beauty and there are many lost fragrances around us waiting to enchant the world once again.

For a perfumer, the Present doesn't exist, it's a convention. There is only the Past (he rediscovers) and the Future (he invents). "Carpe Diem" was a Roman invention (Carmina, Horace, 23 BC) to enslave those unable for the Egyptian immortality, once the Egypt ceased to exist and became a Roman province (30BC).

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White Musk (Von Eusersdorff) - nouveau parfum

Une huile de musc est un produit indispensable, je dirai même vital pour la parure, car le musc sous n'importe quelle forme a un pouvoir exceptionnel à révéler les autres senteurs (y compris l'esprit de l'autre) sans être nécessairement un parfum.

L'ambre véritable et le vrai musc Tonkin n'existent pas aujourd'hui à Paris car les ingrédients sont quasiment interdits, mais, heureusement, la trafic existe toujours, jalousement gardé. Je ne peux pas me priver de mes fioles de véritable musc Tonkin.

White Musk de Von Eusersdorff est, comme Ambre de la même maison, une création venue de New York à Paris. Son odeur est fameuse car elle recompose la senteur musquée telle qu'on la connaît depuis plus de 40 ans, donc une odeur de fantaisie qui existe dans les produits de corps. White Musk est extrêmement proche de la première version homonyme vendue jadis par Body Shop, elle est aussi proche de l'odeur de la crème et de la lotion Kiehl's (qui sont différentes du parfum musqué de la même maison). Tendre, délicate, crémeuse, légèrement florale rose-freesia, avec une suave facette sucrée, ce petit parfum est un délice. Il y a aussi un parfum Krizia qui était dans le même esprit, une fraîcheur troublante et enivrante par sa sensualité à fleur de peau.

White Musk (Von Eusersdorff) est tout simplement la représentation de l'odeur très connue, sans la réinventer, mais extrêmement réussie par la sélection des muscs. Le vrai musc Tonkin est une beauté unique, mais clandestine et inaccessible. Les molécules de musc, retrouvées dans tous les parfums, forment une galaxie car il y en a beaucoup de versions.

Une goûte délicate et invisible de Musc de Von Eusersdorff suffit pour inciter son esprit et se parer tout en finesse dans la journée. Cette odeur chic dans sa petite fiole, est disponible au Salon Sens Unique, le nec plus ultra de la saison, rue Roi de Sicile.

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

Autoportrait (Olfactive Studio) - new fragrance review

Who doesn't love Olfactive Studio, the new brand which emerged on Facebook as an experiment and became so popular in a short time? After the rendition of Camera Obscura I've presented this fall (the gorgeous leather plum chypre), it is time to speak about Autoportait, a profound and mysterious creation in dark hues with such an amazing trail.

Autoportrait brings the fragrance of an enchanted wood in silver tones with precious mosses and delicate whispers of incense. It is a familiar but strange scent, the heart of a wood. It evokes the dark woody cabinets, used once to preserve the precious vials, photos and souvenirs. Cedar, incense, soft amber and delicate balms are composing this portrait in darkness. It is delicate at start, but like a shadow in the dark, its power increases with time.

Like an old Venetian mirror surrounded by a woody ornament and unclear because of the darkening silver, the same used once in motion pictures, Autoportrait is surrounded by the smokiness of other worlds. Autoportrait (Olfactive Studio) is like a mirror, forgotten somewhere between objects from another centuries with a patina, or like those pictures which become darker with time.

Here, the combination cedar wood and incense evokes the unusual combination used once in Cuir de Lancôme, but the scent is set in our times. For instance, it portrays the woody cabinets and the waxed floor of a room where the shadow of a man wearing Gucci pour homme (the first one) was mirrored in the glass window, framing the Metropolis night.

Built with special ingredients from Firmenich, Autoportrait (Olfactive Studio) is the heart of woody notes, an answer to the equation of the unknown - The Self - which gives the access to the hidden meanings of our universe. I look at myself in my magic mirror and I perceive the beauty of the world, its magic scents are like vapors and fumes. That's why an old Venetian mirror is always dark, the odors of the Universe are constantly passing through its (living) silver surface.

Profound, but not descriptive, rather abstract like a mood which can hardly be explained, Autoportrait (Olfactive Studio) lingers in our memory like the scented trail of time, a trail of incense, a forgotten temple inhabited by our scent soul, l'âme soeur.

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

Amber (Von Eusersdorff) - nouveau parfum

Quoi de plus chic qu'un petit flacon secret, perdu dans les poches ou dans les mystères insondables d'un sac féminin, avec un nom étrange et une odeur forte pour se parfumer les poignets dans la journée?

Amber de Von Eusersdorff, dans sa fiole de 15 ml, est une petite potion, très forte car extrêmement ambrée et orientale, venue à Paris depuis New York.

Dans sa composition, Amber (Von Eusersdorff) recompose le fameux accord rose-ambre sucré, note orientale par excellence, dont la structure est aussi ancienne que la parfumerie avec mille et une possibilités en fonction du changement de chaque élément. Ici, c'est un oriental très sucré ou un ambré à l'américaine, c'est-à-dire un oriental où la vanille est surdosé dans sa dimension presque gourmande et culinaire. C'est la vanille obsession telle qu'elle était à la mode dans les années 90, avec les multiples interprétations jusqu'à devenir caramel brûlé ou rhum vanille, et dont la seule relique restée en France est la petite vanille d'Yves Rocher, une très simple structure. Par contre, l'Ambre de Von Eusersdorff, dans son excès délicieux, qui n'a rien à voir avec les ambrés du Palais Royal puisque c'est tout simplement une autre balance des notes, est aussi une rose différente. Verte, pimpante et musquée poudrée, c'est une rose rouge à l'ancienne comme un jardin spécial, dont la structure remonte à l'époque d'Antoine Chiris. Cette rose est proche d'une autre rose, très prisée à New York, qui existe dans le parfum culte de la société Perfumer's Workshop. Amber se pare aussi d'une bonne dose musquée et poudrée qui contribue à la tonalité moelleuse, à la manière des huiles de musc d'autre fois. Toujours dans l'esprit des années 90 remis au goût du jour, le parfum partage un peu la dimension odorante désormais oubliée des créations de The Body Shop, les petite fioles avec une senteur très forte, jadis dans toutes les boutiques. Dans Amber, il y a aussi le jasmin dont la tonalité excessive et non animale rappelle les odeurs jasmin+ambre qu'embaument les hammams contemporain et certaines huiles de corps très puissantes, sans avoir le caractère "parfumerie arabe". On est plutôt dans l'esprit Obsession.

Précieux, mais très fort, une goûte d'Ambre de Von Eusersdorff suffit pour inciter les esprits et se parer d'un air très sensuel dans la journée. Ambre de Von Eusersdorff, cette odeur chic dans sa petite fiole, est disponible au Salon Sens Unique, le nec plus ultra de la saison, rue Roi de Sicile. 

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

Infanta en flor (Arquiste) - new fragrance review

Another place, Another time. In a spectacular setting infused with history, mysterious scents, precious ingredients and a veil of amazing grace, the 6 perfumes of the new Arquiste line are the most precious gift of this fall and the best introduction of 2011. Delicate embroideries on historic themes with a the golden thread of emotion, this line is an homage to magic encounters framed by the power of imagination.

Delicate like an immaculate veil, precious like a transparent embroidery of flowers in the morning, Infanta en Flor is the most tender, youthful and fragile perfume from the Arquiste line. Neroli, rose, orris, white musks, transparent woods and an ocean of floral freshness are the bones of the clean scent which suggests the freshness of linen and the dew of freesia. But what is the secret flower blooming inside the heart of an Infanta? Delicate like a mysterious lotus, this is an orange flower water, softly underlined by other golden flowers, like immortelle and the soft ambery glow of cistus. The scent is like an embroidery with the golden threads of the Sun in the freshness of the wind. Set in June 1660 Isle of Pheasants, French Spanish border, Infanta en flor is the companion of Fleur de Louis, and expresses the floral dew delicacy. Infanta Maria Teresa, the future wife of the Sun King, was dressed in a rich and ornate gown, a strong contrast with her innocence and delicacy, but also with the scent she was wearing. The orange flower water is extremely fresh, even if it is coupled with a good dose of musky notes, and certainly very different from the orange flower extract, either the pommade or the absolute today. This contrast is maintained by the perfume, the lightest of the line. It is a modern infusion, like the perfumes from Prada, sharing some aspects with them, but not the tonality or details - the combination between fresh, powdery, musky and softly balsamic notes. A delicate rose petal notes suggests the makeup of those times, the scent of "rouge" used on cheeks or the white powder. The perfume has also a very faint leather note, reminiscent of Peau d'Espagne (which did not smell like what we call today leather - cuir) but this is a very small detail because the original Peau d'Espagne was more balsamic.

A poem of delicacy and naturalness, Infanta en Flor (Arquiste) is a refined ode to the immaculate notes of childhood caressed by the Sun when the wind caresses the purest orange flower.

       

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

Original Scent 2.0 and "instant" reformulation

In 2012, the times when I first started to reveal the question of perfume reformulation, about six years ago, look like Stone Age. Welcome into the new era of reformulation, when the formula of a success perfume gradually changes with the market it changes since the moment zero of its introduction! It is the Scent 2.0, the perfume of the Matrix. With flankers, a prototype was "tested" through several variations as if the regular panel test did not stop before the launch of the product but it was continued several years. Some major perfumes had a lot of flankers. They were variations around a theme, a name, they served to reinforce the power of the brand, and to test some aspects of the market. They did a lot of things. But they served also another purpose, to generate a certain confusion which can be manipulated later. A perfume belongs to the year when it was created, it belongs to that subtle spirit of time and it ages with those who bought it.

Beauty in perfume is eternal, but it doesn't necessarily produce endless sales, the goal of a huge cosmetic company. Today, the notion of time is less precise than ever. You cannot remember if a perfume is very new or from the previous decade because there are too many of them around. Also, the market rearranges itself, constantly generating trends, like waves on the ocean. If the Original perfume can be considered Scent 1.0 with all the flankers around (S 1.1, S1.2, …) the new version is Scent 2.0 and represents the interaction of a successful perfume with its own market and the competition. It is the original formula, modified to adapt itself to the "consequences" generated after its own launch in the Ocean of Scents.

Sometimes, more interesting perfumes might appear around the same theme, with other occasions, the competition might launch something better around the same idea. Like a software, the new reformulated perfume mirrors its own evolution with a very clear purpose in mind - to dominate the "new" market. Scent 2.0 is both Cause and Consequence, a Conclusion which becomes a new Origin.

Unlike flankers, when there was a graphic distinction between the Original and the versions, the new Scent 2.0 takes the place of the original like reformulated modern perfumes took the place of the original old formulae. Do you remember the previous versions of your O.S. on your computer?

People tend to reject Objectivity and embrace their dear Subjectivity, usually in endless and useless polemics. This year, because everything is relative, everything WILL BE relative. In other words, several very big names in the industry are preparing to launch this spring and summer in Paris, their adapted modern successes. Perfumes I've already presented on this blog several years ago because they were new, are about to change for commercial reasons. It is the result of Interaction 2.0 with the market which is better known than ever. Because people are not skilled in recognizing the differences in scents like they do everyday for anything visual, they can be tricked easily. Because everybody believes he is Special, he can be fooled with elegance and grace. The perfume shops with so many scents in the air are the perfect medium for the illusion. With so many names, so many bottles, so many scents, who remembers after all what is original and how was the Original Scent they bought in the recent past?

We remember the difference (the old perfume like an alien) but it is less easy with the sameness (the perfumes we've recently acquired).

Somehow, we are back in the past, about 200 years ago, when the notion of standard (a stable scent) did not exist in the perfume industry at its beginnings. Today, this notion of relativity will be dictated by the market because a perfume has to generate the maximum amount of money. Notions like authorship or originality are as virtual as the "paper" of my daily articles on this blog.

We usually say X is an original perfume because we compare it to other perfumes and we appreciate its new approach or because it belongs to the real brand and is not a fake product. Today, the notion of originality is challenged in a very different way. The reformulation is intentional, it is not determined neither by exterior causes (an unavailable old ingredient or a new regulation). If a perfume sold under a certain name slowly changes to express the market, what is its DNA?

In this new paradigm, the much acclaimed subjectivity by those unable to put order in the scent complexity becomes reality. It is not perceived "subjectivity" as a notion but subjectivity as an industrial technique. Even Google has introduced recently a new searching tool, it is mainstream.

After all, the perfume is different on you because you believe you are the source of difference. In 2012 this becomes real and starts this spring with a perfume I actually liked very much several years ago.

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

Séance Osmotheque CHYPRE: voyage à travers la famille chypre

Séance Osmothèque

Samedi 14 Janvier:

10h00 à 12h30

Patricia de NICOLAI
Versailles
78000

∞ CHYPRE ∞

voyage à travers la famille chypre

En 1917, Monsieur François Coty lance sa dernière création "Le Chypre".

Son succès est tel que ce parfum va inspirer la créativité de beaucoup d'autres parfumeurs et ouvrir une nouvelle famille olfactive: "Les Chypres".

Cette famille n'a cessé de s'agrandir au cours du XXème siècle.

Patricia de Nicolaï vous présentera son évolution. Venez redécouvrir à l'Osmothèque des parfums emblématiques devenus de véritables chefs d’œuvre trop tôt disparus : Crêpe de chine-Millot, Shocking-Schiaparelli, Ma Griffe-Carven, Mystère-Rochas... et bien d'autres qui tiennent encore le haut de l'affiche

SUR RESERVATION UNIQUEMENT

Par téléphone au 01.39.55.46.99

ou par mail osmotheque@gmail.com

Public : à partir de 12 ans

Tarifs : Plein tarif : 15€ / Tarif réduit : 10€ *

*(enfants, étudiants, membre SAO et groupe à partir de 10 personnes)

Heure de rendez-vous : 9h50

Lieu : 36 rue du parc de Clagny - 78 000 VERSAILLES

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

The Book of Lost Fragrances & the Scent of Soulmates - Special Offer

Is there a very Secret Scent from the days of Osiris? 

Isis, for ever Secret Scent of Osiris 
∞ S ∞
000

If you carefully read what I've been telling on this blog on several occasions, you will find valuable clues to something more real than any mythical story, elements which haven't been unveiled anywhere else because I have other sources. There is a most unusual place in Rome, the place where Egyptology actually began before Champollion, where lies a copy of a manuscript .... let's say a scent code in a crypt, with special plants and their combinations. It is not hidden, rather forgotten and if something is lost, there is always a copy which survives somewhere. Coded manuscripts have a preference for Rome. They are rome antique. But until the garden of Isis will bloom once again and the lost seeds will germinate to produce the Essence, the forbidden One, I propose you today a new novel, soon to be released, and a Special Offer for the readers of 1OOO Fragrances blog in the labyrinth of Scents & their mysteries. This new opus to be launched in march is called "The BOOK of Lost Fragrances" .... the older one is the lost BOOK of fragrances, an OPUS with a special leather cover.

∞ Special Offer ∞

press release

∞

The stylized motif of water lilies that bordered the crypt and framed the paintings interested the perfumer. Egyptians called the flower the Blue Lotus and had been using its essence in perfumes for thousands of years. L’Etoile, who at thirty had already spent almost a decade studying the sophisticated and ancient Egyptian art of perfume making, knew this flower and its properties well. Its perfume was lovely, but what separated it from other flowers was its hallucinogenic properties. He’d experienced them firsthand and found them to be an excellent solution when his past rose up and pushed at his present. 


A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra--and lost for 2,000 years. M.J. Rose is the international bestselling author of eleven novels, including The Reincarnationist, The Memorist, and The Hypnotist.

Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, was fascinated by scent—some say obsessed. Marc Anthony built her a fragrance factory, and the famous queen was said to have kept a recipe book for her perfumes, entitled Cleopatra gynaeciarum libri. That book has been described in writings by historians Dioscorides, Homer and Pliny the Elder. No known copy of the book exists today. That missing book stirred international bestseller M.J. Rose’s imagination and became the seed for THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES. While writing, to remain in the world of the novel, she burned incense and her favorite candles; created by Frederick Bouchardy under the brand name JOYA.


Âmes Sœurs, the scent of soul mates, an exclusive, mystical fragrance, inspired by The Book of Lost Fragrances, a spellbinding novel coming in March by bestselling author M.J. Rose, which Publishers Weekly called a “deliciously sensual novel of paranormal suspense…”

∞ SYNOPSIS ∞

"From 18th-century Egypt and France to present-day Paris, New York, and China, Rose's deliciously sensual novel of paranormal suspense smoothly melds a perfume-scented quest to protect an ancient artifact with an ages-spanning romance. Rose imbues her characters with rich internal lives in a complex plot that races to a satisfying finish." — Publishers Weekly, Starred and Boxed Review

"A simmering brew that mingles the erotic sensuality of Patrick Suskind's Perfume with the dark and timeless obsessions of Rider Haggard's classic, She." — New York Times best selling author Katherine Neville

"Clever, with beguiling characters; a wonderful mixture of suspense and pace and good old fashioned storytelling." — New York Times Bestseller, Kate Mosse

∞ SOUL SCENT ∞

Last summer, Joya Studio’s Frederick Bouchardy read an advanced copy of The Book of Lost Fragrances, and was inspired to interpret the magical scent in the book. Joya’s Âmes Sœurs hints of Frankincense, Myrrh, Orange Blossom and Jasmine. It’s smoky uncommon finish suggests the past and the future, and lost souls reunited.

∞ SPECIAL OFFER ∞

For every reader of "1000 Fragrances" that pre-orders The Book of Lost Fragrances using the instructions below, we will send a sample of Âmes Sœurs. This is a mesmerizing read, a provocative fragrance, a unique collaboration and something special for you.

"Resonates with spirit, blending myth with reality, tragedy with triumph, pain with joy. You'll find yourself questioning everything you believe—and wanting more." — New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry.

∞ SECRET CODE ∞

1. Just click on the preferred website and pre-order THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES from the links below.

2. Email the receipt or a scan of it to LostFragrances@gmail.com along with your name and snail mail address for fragrance delivery.

Your sample of Âmes Sœurs will be shipped to you on or before March 13th.

The book will arrive separately, from the store of your choice, at the same time so you can enjoy both together.

Commercial Sites: Amazon (link The Book of Lost Fragrances: A Novel of Suspense), Barnes & Noble, Your favorite Independent Bookstore, Books A Million

∞ Offer ends March 1st, is limited numbers of supplies available and only to readers in the US and Canada.

      

"An amazing novel... utterly engrossing.Elegantly written, with unforgettable characters and flawlessly realized international settings, here is a novel that will keep you up all night—and leave you with powerful feelings of revelation, wonder, and the infinitude of human possibility." — New York Times bestselling author Douglas Preston

"Rose's deliciously sensual novel of paranormal suspense smoothly melds a perfume-scented quest to protect an ancient artifact with an ages-spanning romance. Rose imbues her characters with rich internal lives in a complex plot that races to a satisfying finish." — Publishers Weekly, Starred and Boxed Review

SITE:  The Book Of Lost Fragrances

∞

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

∞ Senteurs Saint Martin - Cours, Odeurs, Caraïbes ∞

Press Release

Orgue Caraibes

Senteurs

∞

Réputée pour sa flore extraordinaire et les arômes délicats que dégage sa luxuriante végétation, l’île de Saint-Martin est l’endroit rêvé pour fabriquer, comme un véritable créateur, la senteur de ses rêves. La parfumerie Tijon, dont les produits cosmétiques sont tous issus de cette nature riche, l’a bien compris et propose aux apprentis-nez de réaliser eux-mêmes leur parfum !

Ces odeurs envoûtantes et ces effluves irrésistibles qui font de Saint-Martin un lieu unique, Tijon les intègre dans ses produits de beauté, inspirés par les Caraïbes et sublimés par la magie de l’île : des parfums, d’abord, commercialisés sous la marque Tijon et véritables concentrés d’exotisme et d’élégance, mais aussi des produits pour la peau, avec Esperance, ainsi qu’une gamme solaire au nom évocateur : Caribe Baie. Conçus à partir de produits naturels, et véritables ambassadeurs de l’île, ces cosmétiques de luxe sont une invitation au voyage et au bien-être !

Vanille, rose, agrumes… ce sont plus de 300 huiles essentielles que Tijon met à disposition sur son orgue, et qui servent aux participants des ateliers pour la fabrication de leur parfum ! Ces sessions, qui peuvent se limiter à l’exercice créatif ou intégrer également une partie théorique, se déroulent sous la houlette de professionnels attentifs et pédagogues qui distillent leurs conseils pour obtenir une fragrance à la fois harmonieuse et subtile. A la fin du cours, chacun repart non seulement avec un certificat et un flacon de son parfum, mais aussi avec un sac de cadeaux : de quoi conclure cette séance aussi ludique qu’instructive… en beauté !

De parfaits souvenirs à ramener dans ses bagages, c’est ce que propose également Tijon dans sa boutique-parfumerie de Grand-Case. En plus des parfums de la marque et des cosmétiques naturels qu’elle propose, on y trouve aussi des bougies, des vêtements, des bijoux et de nombreux objets artisanaux. De quoi trouver des idées de cadeaux pour tous et prolonger encore un peu le plaisir de l’atelier de création de parfum. Mais aussi de profiter de l’atmosphère des lieux, à la fois chic, chaleureuse et délicieusement Saint-Martinoise !

Parfumerie & Boutique Tijon

1, l’Esperance Road- Grand Case – Saint Martin

Ateliers “Parfums”

Perfume Class: Cours, Création d’un parfum, Flacon personnel et sac-cadeaux 99 € (2-3h)

Mix & Match Class: Création d’un parfum, Flacon personnel et sac-cadeaux 69 € (1h-1h15)

Plus d’informations sur : www.tijon.com

OFFICE SAINT Martin Paris

10, rue Pergolèse

75116 Paris

www.iledesaintmartin.org

∞

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

J'adore (Dior) Edition Exception

Nouvelle édition exceptionelle pour le parfum J'adore (Dior)

"Le vrai luxe exige le vrai matériau et le vrai travail artisanal. Il n'a de sens que si ses racines s'enfoncent dans un tuf baigné de traditions." le fil rouge et le fil d'or du nouveau parfum. Le flacon, en forme d'amphore, fait référence au 8, chiffre fétiche du couturier, et rappelle les premiers flacons de Miss Dior dans les années 1950. Les flacons de ce J'adore d'exception ont été soufflés à la bouche, puis travaillés à la main. Les fils de la chaîne en or fin (édition Prestige) et or massif (édition Exception, huit exemplaires only) ont été assemblés un à un par des artisans joailliers. Dans le parfum, l'absolu rose de mai et l'absolu jasmin de Grasse, un flacon de 30 ml et d'une vingtaine de cm de hauteur. En esthète accompli, Christian Dior a toujours tenu à valoriser l’artisanat d’art. Le flacon en cristal de Baccarat, est soufflé à la bouche et entièrement travaillé à la main par des artisans, meilleurs ouvriers de France. Le col Massaï s’orne d’une parure bijou en or 18 carats facettée par les artisans de la Haute Joaillerie Dior.
Le FILM savoir faire DIOR pour les huit exemplaires de l'édition Baccarat J'adore Edition Exception.

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

Myrrhe et Délires (Guerlain) - new fragrance review

Myrrhe et Délires, the new introduction from Guerlain, is certainly delicate, shy, fresh but lacks the original force of Myrrhiad (Pierre Guillaume) one of the most exquisite recent introduction featuring the myrrh theme. It is maybe the less interesting from Art et Matière Line.

Myrrhe et Délires (Guerlain) starts with a strong freshness underlined by delicate accents of grapefruit, probably backed by a subtle dose of licorice, rhubarb and black tea, and unveils very soon a beautiful violet flower. Myrrhe et Délires (Guerlain) is not far in spirit from an Acqua Allegoria creation, as if you would use it to dilute the strong oriental vanilla of Myrrhiad (Pierre Guillaume), a perfume which is highly prized this season in Paris, I smell it in many places. The combination between sparkling bitter freshness and violet-orris undertones of Myrrhe et Délires (Guerlain) suggests a very fresh cherry surrounded by a subtle raspberry with an airy rose. The violet note is very reminiscent of the powdery note found in the Météorite line and the discontinued eponymous perfume, as well in the very beautiful room and linen orris fragrance.This violet alone is exquisite, after all, this is one of the key flowers in the early palette of Jacques Guerlain who made ionones and methylionones fashionable between 1890-1910. Let me remind you that a great house doesn't follow the market but dictates the trends. The myrrh note is almost absent in this context and reveals its subtle presence more on the skin. However, after the fresh depart, the perfume turns very quick into a soft orris leather suede note, similar to an accord already found in Art et la Matière Line, and certainly very close to the new Bottega Veneta and La Femme Bleue (Armani). Myrrhe et Délires (Guerlain) lacks the power of the first and the entire composition lacks personality. Myrrhe et Délires (Guerlain) is more a mixture of elements with no clear purpose in mind leaving on the skin a faint musky ambery note which can be anything.

The drydown of the perfume reveals also very delicate accents of patchouli and incense, but they are almost undetectable and not relevant to the main theme, being use with the same lack of inspiration as in one version of the recent Arsène Lupin creation. Far from other modern Guerlain, far from Myrrhiad, Myrrhe et Délires (Guerlain) has a great name, an interesting intention, but doesn't fulfill its mission because it is to shy. It is just soft and pleasant lacking that "je ne sais quoi" of the house.

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

Scent Complexity, Oedip & Some Chantilly

Completely absorbed by her work, the woman is working with her fingers a precious lace of an infinite beauty and delicacy, placing a pin in the pillow on which she is making her bobbin lace. Her small work can be appreciated only by the expert eye and from a small distance. The Lacemaker, the painting by Johannes Vermeer held in the Louvre (Paris), the smallest, his most abstract and unusual for the style of the era, is an allegory of art - Form and Meaning, the Artist and the Work, a return to the essence through craftsmanship. The blurring of the threads suggests a liquid form and contrasts with the precision of the lace. With 2 threads, than 4, than 8, the woman with humble origins generates beauty as she loops and twists the threads. The thoughts are her threads, her torments are the flowers transposed in a precise and regular order, with grace and delicacy.

Like the lacemaking presented by Vermeer in his very small painting, the perfume creation is a science of complexity capturing the ephemeral nature of existence. Like the lacemaker, the perfumer is thinking through his craft, the workmanship in front of his organ is crucial.

The rule of division which I have previously exposed in an article (I am One, that becomes Two, that becomes Four, that becomes Eight, ad infinitum, than I am One again) is fundamental in the Art of Perfumes and the basis to construct Complexity.

Following this rule, one can divide all the ingredients used in contemporary perfumes in two main categories - new and old. With 1000 formulae of perfumes created since 2000 (each on a time / success scale) a statistical analysis will reveal that some ingredients start to be used more and other less in a dynamic evolution, where the "novelty" factor (what has not beet available previously) plays also a major role. At their turn, these 2 classes can be further divided in two (What is New, What is in Use) + (What goes Out, What is Forgotten) and once more. It can be observed that the first category reveals the Avant-garde surprise and the last one represents the Relics of the Past. Each is treasured for a particular reason being an anchor of the present Illusion in the Sands of Time.

We'll consider only the first class for the moment, what is new and contemporary, and we'll make a basic selection of ingredients, no more than 16. These ingredients are selected following the principle of sameness and distinctiveness. For instance they are all floral notes (same family), but not the same flower (different subfamily). These fragrant ingredients are the threads of the lace. Before being able to work, as I showed in another article, their concentrations should be balanced. You cannot create a Chantilly lace when the threads are not similar in size, neither can you imagine accords with extremely different levels of intensity, unless you are highly skilled.

During the creation of an openwork fabric like the bobbin lace you will loop, twist or braid a thread to other threads and later in the needle lace type more complex techniques are used. Perfume is an openwork too and the same is done for the floral 16 ingredients. You will combine them until you exhaust the basic floral accords which can be built using the Major / Minor principle. In other words, it means generating "isolated flower" which will be later combined, twisted and linked to each other with Method.

There are rules, mechanisms and patterns inherent to every new structure, but these patterns cannot be known before. They MUST be experienced, tried, and only after, the rules can be established and the lace type improved.

Of course, this lacemaking can be done partially without actually preparing a great variety of trials, by smelling what others did in perfumes. The huge amount of perfumes today, which should be considered a blessing for the creative perfumer, allows to combine mental exercises with practical tests. The best however is to design yourself the trials. Like in any art, Olfactory Culture is essential in perfume, there is NO excuse for not smelling the present and the past when it is available. Before seeing the ART an Artist is blind, but only ART, major or minor, is not sufficient to cure the relative blindness of the ordinary eye.
Small trials can be perfected once the "sketches" have been done and smelled, they can even be improved by computer if you consider a simple blend as function. Each accord is also a small "equation": best proportion of X and Y for a specific result over a set of n-trials each being quantified by your own critique.

In a lace you don't really see the thread, you see a design, a pattern, an image of transparency. The threads are there, their "size" and "number" will determine the type of lace. You will not feel the "ingredient", the horrible minimalism which produces extremely poor perfumes turning around the same "threads" because of its laziness. Perfume is an art of complexity with a highly elegant and essential solution and it is important to start working with basic key ingredients.

Once the pattern of the lace has been devised, in other words the scent shape, endless new variations can be performed inside the initial structure playing now with the principle of sameness and distinctiveness. For instance, consider that each thread is actually made from 4 threads, carefully twisted around each other. Not a lily of the valley molecule but 4 molecules carefully selected and united into one to bring variety inside the unity of the original pattern, enriching the idea without destroying its pure meaning. More delicate and intricate the lace, more precise the threads (molecular beauty).

The molecules for this selection can be combined to generate floral accords up to 4 levels of complexity and consequently increasing levels of stability inside further combinations (accords which cannot be "broken"). 

In the new paradigm of Scent complexity the laboratory and the archive, the near future and the distant past, coexists. Now, after the first exercise, which consists in exploring the newness of contemporary ingredients,  you can consider the following major four cases within the specific floral family of the singular studied case and based on the 1000 formulae database:

The new accord based on very new ingredients, never used before;

The known accord or scent shape from the market, or the best scent shape which can be summarized from the available perfumes and extracted from the database;

The outdated accord to avoid, or the combination that has been used too much in that decade and anchors the perfume too much in the recent past;

The forgotten accord or a lost combination from the past which will reaper in the cycle of odors and you should choose the best example from a very distant past.

A Perfume must be projected to the future, naturally evolving from the present, extracted from the recent past and linked to the remote past, all in an Organic Evolution based on Unity and Variety where the Sameness & Distinctiveness of its Ingredients and Ideas are united through Form and Meaning by a Science of Complexity with the most elegant Solution of Order.

Completely absorbed by his work, the perfumer is working with his mind a precious invisible lace of an infinite beauty and delicacy. The Perfumer generates in his infinite network of odors an allegory of COSMOS, an eternal and ephemeral beauty kept in a broken crystal hourglass. This Beauty is Distilled Reality, his Reality.. Like the visible lace, the Invisible Perfume is the most intricate "oeuvre d'esprit". In his dialogue with the invisible, the perfumer achieves what other arts had rarely achieved - the closest intimacy with the human soul and its deep questions, those which are rarely expressed because they are forbidden, the Question before the "censorship" of the language or culture. The scent is the language of the unconscious, the Perfume, if well made, is often the Answer. This time, Oedip the perfumer Confronts the Sphinx with the essence of an hourglass in front of the temple mirrored gate: Can you tell me what it is without breaking the crystal of time? It is YOU before becoming the Sphinx, but DO YOU remember yourself being Oedip in front of the scented mirror? A Scent is a descent in the labyrinth of time.

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

Happy New Year 2012 with a Royal Bain de Champagne

Happy New Year Scented 2012 from Monaco with a huge bottle of Caron Royal Bain de Champagne for a scented bath of happiness.
This Caron ad created more than 80 years ago is from 1927 the same year when Arpège was launched.

Did you enjoy my article? Sign up for updates about new fragrances, reviews of artistic perfumes and exceptional vintage masterpieces. I would be very happy if you would consider joining 1000 Fragrances, throughRSS feed,GoogleFriend connect, Facebook (more personal), or any other way that appeals to you.

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