Searching for several old documents in my huge archive I came across a selection of documents I made in 2002 for the forgotten website droitdodeur, my conversations with the man behind and my proposals pour le PARFUMEUR. I have the "nasty" habit to write strategies in detail like an Architect's master-plan Those were the documents meant to speak and present the art of perfumes and the perfumers with the respect I always had for those who create.
Meanwhile, many things have changed, the website, like any virtual being had disappeared leaving only traces (a 2002 forum message in french about the story) while the honest desire of several people serving an ideal changed into a ... commercial approach made by a generation which came after, when the online perfume shops bloomed. Once a database exists it can be multiplied on many levels, what actually happens right now - ads provide the money, consumers provide the work.
However there is a warning I wish to transmit. Do not make things worse when you copy-paste information. I was surprised when I saw so many errors for perfumers and their attributed works since 2002. People which are not perfumers, but anything else, become perfumers just because somebody put them by error in a list which becomes another list and so on ad aeternam. I do not speak about the history of perfumes, which is complicated, but only and only about the period 2002-2012. This is the risk of a user-generated encyclopedia based on SEO and written by users with a nickname.
My 2002 project about The Perfumer with all the chapters organized as an Encyclopedia of Creation and Creators will become one day a book. The most important thing in life is money, everything comes after. Blogger is free, but the paper is not, neither the time to put things in order and correct the mistakes made by others with 1300 launches a year. Curiously, the only thing I did not write in 2002's plan, and probably my mistake, was money. Money serves to buy the perfume bottles and samples once they disappear from the market. I have the idea of a perfume in my mind, but once the perfume is no more available in the shop near me I cannot check. Now, I am in the curious situation with texts written by me about launches years ago and without the samples to check my ideas when I will put them back in History. The internet gives the illusion that everything is here. Verba volant, scripta manent.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
In Paris, several windows are already scented for a new experience. But not in London.
Design graduate Olivia Clemence has captured the scent of the Southbank and a historical London pub -- now she wants to improve your shopping experiences by bottling nostalgia
"Just imagine being able to smell a window." Olivia Clemence isn't strictly talking about sniffing a large shard of glass -- after all, we could do that now already if the mood so took us. She wants us to smell what's lurking behind that glass; to be able to pass by Selfridges' Christmas display each year and take in the scents of ashy roasting chestnuts, sweet clementines and peppermint sticks.
For Clemence -- who has already bottled the scent of Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre (Subway sandwiches, perfumes and human sweat), the Southbank Centre (oil and metal from the JCB lift, heavy carpet, stale air, ink, blotting paper) and a historical reimagining of a former East London Victorian pub (gin from the bar, soapy laundry from the hallways, heavy musk from the office and a citrus floral prostitutes' boudoir) -- her fascination with trapping scents did not start out as a commercial venture. It began as an experiment in memorialising the dead in a more emotive and intimate way.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
There is no true VIOLET or Vera Violetta creation on the market
since ages
VERUS = true in latin.
There is nothing more inappropriate today for the perfume than the word "realism", which has a clear and strong meaning in the history of arts. What is "real" when the perfume is the "illusion" by definition and every scent is a proof of something "real" to our mind?
"The more real you get, the more unreal everything else is" - John Lennon.
I prefer the term "verism" which defines a certain relation between inspiration, technique, intention and the TRUTH in scent. Verism is the artistic preference of contemporary everyday subject matter instead of the legendary in art and literature, a form of realism. Verism is the humble and clear representation of everyday and common experiences - the scent of your coffee, instead of a mythical representation - the legend of the coffee.Not symbolism, not the explicit quest of symbols, though any scents becomes a symbol after a certain period of time. But representing things as they are presented under your nose during the daily experience.
At one extreme you have the Scent Library from DEMETER at the other the perfumes from Palais Royal, both opposed in intention, method and representation. The perfumes of Palais Royal are real in their mythical dimension - some are conceived in a very different way than anything on the market.
Verism in perfumes is contemporary with the musical and literal verism which starts at the end of XIXth century. At that time perfumers start to explore the everyday scents - the well known flowers, the contemporary flowers recently brought to Europe in the new constructed green houses and botanic gardens. It is the time for humble flowers with no spectacular visual appearance, no powerful scents - they are flowers from "Le Jardin de Mon Curé", most of them unknown to the modern nose unless you are working in a garden. All the flowers of an English garden, the small, delicate scents combined with the scents of life. There is plain milk from a farm, sensual milk, the french "lait de beauté", the metaphoric preparation called "lait virginal" and the Milky Way... the milk in your cup, the milky secretion of a plant or the mythical milk.
The subject of VERISM are the odors which surrounds the contemporary man depicted with their truthfulness making them instantly recognizable and desirable. This way, the humble note of your dish cleaner is transformed in a glorious perfume whose source of inspiration is not the lemon falling in your hand from a Sicilian orchard, but the drop you use everyday in the kitchen. It is only and only the talent of the perfumer able to change an humble inspiration into something glorious and noble concealing the original source.
The perfumer must handle with the same precision the art of truth and the art of concealing it in front of the naive and circumspect consumer. Once you see a name or a word something happens.
Verism is specific (the odour of a typical brand of "soap") and not generic or ideal - the mythical dimension of cleanliness.
Giacomo Puccini composed La Boheme
VERISM is a form of voyeurism in Perfume - people adore to perceive the intimacy of things they know as they love to penetrate the secrets of things which are strange to them. Not only the flower but the inside of the flower and her defects, the way it fades. The scent of a woman and her wrinkles half hidden under the deep XVIIIth century delicately scented orris make-up. New molecules, not present in the natural headspace, are brought to underline and emphasize the "naturalness" with an artificial contrast. If you want to "explode" the expensive floral natural extract used in the formula, add a contrasting molecule for a "strident" look. On my table I have several less used floral crystalline molecules from Symrise and Givaudan which were used for this purpose - make the flower more "vero" though they are not found in it. This is the point where chemistry helped the perfumers since 1880's.
VERISM is the next dimension in perfumery after the über expensive and über adulated (also adulterated) flowers of the french luxury perfumes - the scents of the modern world (which change with the world every cycle) portrayed with the power given by any known experience.
La Bohème is contemporary with Vera Violetta (Roger & Gallet) and the violets composed by Jacques Guerlain. The perfumes based on ionone had a profound impact on many singers, as portrayed in the old perfume papers about music and scent I have in my collection. "The scent of a flower is so sweet but the flowers I make have no smells" sings Mimi. Ma il mio nome è Lucia
With his ART the perfumer brings the unknown to light and the delicate embroidery becomes a flower. The embroidery of Mimi is the network of thoughts. The sparkle is the scent. The visual image (Lucia) becomes divine once it is portrayed with all its truthfulness by the art of perfume.
"Une fleur se meurt".... a new opera is born. VERISM.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
Today is MOZART's day. Happy Birthday, Amadeus!
Mozart loved perfumes, he lived in a century rich with exquisite scents and he witnessed a dramatic change in ingredients all over Europe - new perfumes and techniques evolved in the 1780's in France and Italy. Several were highly sensual, given the reputation Mozart had in Vienna.
If you want to experiment the texture of those perfumes, I recommend you ARTY scented candles made by Elisabeth de Feydeau. They are sold at Jovoy in Paris.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
The latest edition of Fragrances of the World has just been released.
More than 800 new launches compared to 2002 and 33 times more niche perfumes. The numbers are here - 13 times more perfumes compared to Angel era. A celebration of CREATION. The industry has never been so prolific and creative, serving the PERFUME and transforming the market into a market of flowers - no winter, only eternal spring with flowers blooming at every moment. Two in the morning, two at the sunset all over the globe. Like Nature, the Perfumer knows no rest to enchant the world. An explosion of beauty and experiment - what fails this year will be improved the following season. No more "domination" of perfume best-sellers, no more number 5. Nature loves variety and diversity.
I do not have today the 1330 new samples and nobody has. Perfume is not preserved. It fades like the anonymous perfumers who produce them in high secrecy leaving behind no trace of their works, just the WORK. For many perfumes launched in the past decade the only proof of their existence is their mention in one of the indexes of the Fragrances of the World previous editions. I do not have many of those launches, too pretentious to be presented on my blog for the Parisian houses who made them, not even samples. The creations and the people behind disappear with an incredible speed as if their work was in vain.
There is a Latin phrase ... "Sic transit gloria mundi" and its version given by Guerlain.
Today, the CELEBRITY is the Perfume.
Discover Fragrances of the WORLD, a new classy edition with fragrance classification.
"1,330 new fragrances have been tracked in 2012, up from 1,220 in 2011. While Lady Gaga Fame from Coty was one of the most highly anticipated launches in 2012, the fact is that the number of celebrity launches, after a decade of progress, fell back sharply: 52 new celebrity fragrances appeared in 2012, compared to 74 in 2011. At the opposite end of the fragrance market, the niche movement continues to explode, 331 launches in 2012 compared to 276 in 2011. "
For a limited time only, ending February 14, discover a special discount of 15% by entering the promo code "perfumer" .
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
This is the portrait of an unknown man painted by an anonymous painter c 1775, a work of art preserved in Madrid, seized by French from an English cargo in 1779.
It is also the metaphor for the perfume. More than 90% of what you smell = anonymous works sold by merchants, portrait of unknown flowers or plants, while "what is known" - the other 9% - exists only in realm of the virtual websites. Perfumes are praised or not praised through the comments of anonymous users which can be anyone from a sincere writer to a fool, from the PR of the brand, the PR of the shop to the competition, also online to extract new ideas. Cut the Internet and you will understand what I mean with "Le parfum de l'Anonyme".
When an author is known, often because of an anonymous comment or paragraph in a book, it is not necessarily the real perfumer, the real author. No proof, no paper, no document. Authorship in perfumes doesn't exist as long as the written formula is secret, the "name behind" is as mythical as the merchandise. Few exceptions.
Perfume is an ART, it always was, but not all perfumers are artists. ART and ARTISTS. Only a very small fraction in the XXth century have this title because they left material proofs. A name is not enough when it is not attached to the work.
Who composed "Vent Vert" sold by Balmain? You have heard it was composed by Germaine Cellier. You have heard. Perfumers shared the same room of a lab, the same building today.
Unlike ART, which becomes more expensive with time, the perfume is made for the present. Every strategy is used to sell it and make it more interesting. It is meant to enchant you. When it is no more produced it fades leaving behind only the myth, what was said to the press. Le VIDE. What is "known" is like moving sands.
Everybody had the right to claim anything. Who would recognize that a new perfume launched on the market last year is not the perfume from Marie Antoinette's court? Probably the unknown man in this picture. Le parfum de l'Anonyme.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
Si la décadence littéraire n'est pas le dandysme ; le dandysme est consubstantiel à la décadence. Et ‘A rebours’, de Joris-Karl Huysmans, en est le manifeste esthétique ; des Esseintes, personnage essentiel du roman, l'archétype. Aussi, si la relation obsessionnelle, disséquée au dixième chapitre, qu'il entretient avec le parfum est la colonne vertébrale de cette conférence, le dandysme en est l'esprit.
Et au prétexte du parfum, et au hasard de digressions, si peu académiques, une réfexion sur la beauté s'incarnera, sans doute, dans un Dorian Gray, fascinant. Ce dandy, qui aimait à collectionner ‘A rebours’, relia ses exemplaires en des tons différents “pour les assortir aux caprices changeants de sa sensibilité„ ; et cette conférence, dans un esprit de curieux, collectionnera, elle, les aphorismes wildiens. De cette accumulation, désordre construit, nos observations de la beauté devraient s'affiner.
Un corps parfait et élégant, dépourvu d'esprit serait, à en croire de Balzac, “un meuble de boudoir, un mannequin ingénieux„ ; et Charles Baudelaire, au détour du ‘Peintre de la vie moderne’, entre un ‘Eloge du maquillage’ et un essai sur ‘Le beau, la mode et le bonheur’, esquisse la figure d'un esthète absolu, ‘Le dandy’.
Parfum d'Ambre propose parfums et bijoux de créateurs, mais aussi œuvres d'art et objets anciens. Boutique, mais pas seulement, le lieu se veut espace de rencontres, d'échanges, de découvertes. Les senteurs y sont présentées non pas comme de communs liquides, dont on s'asperge à la va vite, mais comme des œuvres olfactives, révélatrices d'émotions et d'idées, de sensations et de souvenirs.
Et comme les sens se répondent et se complètent, les arts aussi. Peintures, photographies, sculptures, littérature s'expriment de concert avec les
parfums.
Blaise-Alexandre Le Comte, le conférencier.
Exigeant, il cultive une écriture audacieuse. Si, depuis peu, il est revenu à ses ambitions premières, la littérature et la philosophie, il livre, au prétexte d'une odeur, d'une rencontre, des chroniques, parfois à la presse et, souvent, sur son blog, Chypre Rouge.
Réservation indispensable par courrier électronique,
info@parfumdambre.com, ou par téléphone, +322.852.50.37
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
Considering the number of consumers who watch perfume clips on Youtube compared to those who read reviews it is obvious that the masses ... prefer TV.
Very soon, the perfume review will be a form of teleshopping. Little to do with art and clever words, but more with acting, good looking girls or boys and the click button - buy me this sample. This will be the end of serious perfume writing in the online media unless it evolves into something new.
Should I consider to change the medium? This is another question and a different budget to show you the art behind the scenes for free because I love perfection in details.
Camera, studio, fashion, assistants, make-up, airplane tickets, a more complicated life and the effort to speak maximum 5 minutes. Perfume EVANGELISM.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
In the future you will be able to "print" a 3D scent because once the new technology is adapted to scents the overall effect produced by the intricate layering generates a fabulous spatial feeling.
VOLTAGE - show
VOLT is a lost perfume formula from PIVER based on a curious aldehyde - the "sparkle of stars".
Watch the amazing haute couture show - IRIS van Herpen 2013 in Paris.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
Discover a new book with perfumes for all perfume lovers.
The Perfume Collector: A Novel by Kathleen Tessaro
Review soon
Release date: May 2013
Harper Collins
496 pages
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
The most glorious perfume from Roure was brought to me this morning. The perfumer is unknown, the scent is DIVINE, the most exquisite floral ingredients. Very very very old, but no oxidation at all.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
Monsieur Dior adorait les fleurs, la sève verte et la corolle fleurie.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
Every legend starts with a story and every story starts with a fiction. And science. Based on true facts! Spoturno was a master, his own persona was a brand, an invention. The perfume story starts much earlier, in 1897, but only eight years after, following a selection of rather strange events, the business emerges as the legend known today. With a lot of money overnight. As a journalist, and well aware about what today is called PR, François brought something very different in Paris. Here is a sample of one of the versions of the original story of the crystal bottle, as presented in a long article provided by Coty bureau de presse from my archive. Mid 1920's. You will notice how things are different, even under their official form, from what the public knows today. In perfumes myth are to be preserved in front of the public, the original truth is revealed only to connoisseurs. The "truth" is the real story of creation, the author, the genealogy, the inspiration, the importance, the context. The only thing which matters for the public is the quality, the emotion provided by the scent and what is written on the label.
Many things puzzled in the stories of this house and because there was none to answer my perfume questions in the ultra secret perfume milieu, I made my own "detective" investigations in the past seven years which represent the elements of a perfume dossier.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
" International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (IFF) has named Carlos Benaim as master perfumer, marking the first designation of a master perfumer at the company.
IFF's master perfumer designation recognizes perfumers who have consistently challenged themselves and the company to take the art of perfumery to the next level; it calls them "paradigm shifters" who have developed trendsetting fragrances while demonstrating leadership within the company.
“Carlos’ creativity and mastery has been recognized in the industry for many years," said Nicolas Mirzayantz. "IFF's group president, fragrances. In addition to his extraordinary success in the marketplace and his strong relationships with customers at all levels, Carlos has also coached, mentored and inspired generations of IFF perfumers.”
Christophe de Villeplee, IFF's vice president global fine fragrance and beauty care, added, “Carlos has created new and breakthrough olfactive signature fragrances that became market leaders and classics. He is a true creative leader who inspires all who have the opportunity to work with him. Everyone at IFF is proud to have Carlos on our perfumery team.” "
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
Discover INVOCATION and Miwahïmoon / Aigle Bleu - the first shamanic perfume composed by Michel Roudnitska, 100% natural, based on precious plants and healing knowledge.
It contains a special oil from a sacred herb, known in French as "foin d'odeur", the plant used in this perfume comes from North America.
It was used more than 500 years ago in a special perfume in Moldavia whose royal symbol was the auroch. The plant was associated with the sacred auroch (bour), the last one was hunted in the XVIIIth century. Today, it is associated with bison. A famous Russian perfume from the imperial era was based on this note.
I discovered the recipe in a monastery. It was the first European fougère, several centuries before Fougère Royale. The plant contains coumarine, the distillation and a simple chemical operation generates the crystalline molecule. The modern descendant of the Moldavian perfume is a polish vodka with an amazing flavor.
The modern INVOCATION Miwahïmoon, a name which means both Moon and Mown (like in new mown hay) is an exquisite natural perfume composed with the talent of the great perfumer who imagined so many fabulous perfumes based on rare elements.
I will not describe the olfactory profile of this amazing 100% natural perfume, you will discover its magic and support the First Nations ancestral herbal knowledge.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
Cosmetic Design Europe disclosed a new paper on fragrance and allergy from the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety.
"Based on the review available and on multiple cases of allergy reported by dermatologists, the SCCS identified 82 substances (54 chemicals and 28 natural extracts) that can be categorised as 'established contact allergens' in humans, including the 26 that were already on the list." The document goes on to highlight that, based on the combined results from animal experiments and the analysis of their chemical structure, 26 other individual chemicals where categorised as “likely contact allergens”. The SCCS also reveals that in addition, 35 individual chemicals and 13 natural extracts were also categorised as “possible contact allergens” with three further specific substances recognized as being “potent allergens” and not considered safe in consumer products."
The previous European report in detail is here (june 2012).
Scientific facts on allergenic fragrances from the EU commission.
As I presented you at the end of last year, more perfumes will be reformulated and other will disappear from the market starting with this year.
The recent graphic concept from Etat Libre d'Orange
the highly creative conceptual perfume house
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
My sin is cardinal when a choco temptation is arround - the deep red Mozart from imperial Vienna and the green After Eight. The trend is green in 2013, high impact green, explosive and sensual. Mint is the main ingredient, but remember there are so many types of plants, crops and extractions. The best type is green, sweet and cool, the best combination of contrasts in taste and scent and several molecular details which are responsible for a high quality extract. Last year, thanks to a visit I paid in a small town, I discovered the source of mint used more than a century ago to supply the imperial court in Vienna The content in essential oil and the quality were the best in Europe at that time because of the special climate and soil - now, the place is not cultivated anymore.
The combination expressed by After Eight, celebrating 50 years of sweet history is one of the most beautiful inventions in perfumery. Easy, but not that easy because the quality of chocolate, the quality of mint and the way they are processed are responsible for the irresistible taste.
Mixing these two ingredients gives an obvious flavor, but the art of perfume is the art of details.
The After Eight accord is at the heart of Emeraude (Coty), a unique combination. However, I insist that only the original formula and the early perfumes had that unique cachet, the fragrance was reformulated since 1930's - I saw only few bottles in the past 20 years which had the original ingredients because they were from the right batch. What people call today Emeraude is the Emeraude reformulated after the success of Shalimar. Very good, but not the same.
With high quality mint, one of my favorite modern creations, MUST (Cartier) can be revisited with the new Firmenich molecules and their fabulous vanilla.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
This is the marketing chart for the creation and analysis of Santal de Mysore (Palais Royal) - from Quest documents, the company who produced the fabulous scents sold in Paris. Several hundred pages, many charts, many discontinued perfumes. They are from early 90's, my archive.
ART is also a marketing tool - never forget that a perfume is meant to sell. At ISIPCA we were taught how "Palais Royal" was "invented", by one of those who made the name, the stories and the myth of everything you read in the past 10 years with all the ingredients of a new business. The French perfume industry sells a dream - "le rêve" - this aspect was briefly explored inside "The Emperor of Scent". The dream is what you see here - "hypnotic" perfumes.
The circles for Santal de Mysore are part of a complex system used to describe and build scents for marketers and was invented by the man who made Angel possible.
Every product is a brief, whether it is Palais Royal or Calvin Klein because it has to be produced, to sell and make you dream even before it is put on the market.
Because we are on Internet the time between the news and the perfume sample allows a bigger time for this rêverie. This is how this market works today.
Never forget that a perfumer is an artist only when he "blends", like all major creators of the last century who mixed the perfume with their own hands and never posed as creators for the press. And all those who do not create are called clients - they have a strong financial support and a strong marketing team unlike many perfumers which possess the gift of creation but cannot open their own company. Organize events, send samples to a part of the beauty press, seduce and make-up them, play a role and a dangerous liaison.
What makes the difference is not only what you smell, but also what you "hear" or "read", how a similar olfactory note is delivered to you. The message of the perfumer or the way the perfume is seen inside the lab (Givaudan/Firmenich/Symrise, etc) might not be transmitted to the consumer. The perfumer might think with the same sophisticated system of myth and artistic elements, but the perfume can be sold to you without this aura giving you the impression that you buy something ordinary.
The Quest system has a very interesting approach of the pyramid which I updated for my own use with new elements (not shown here). It brings a useful approach inside the formula.
Every perfume is put on a chart, then on a map near the recent launches, the original launches and the emerging trends which come in another dossier, filling the gaps or drawing new territories. A success or a brand is constructed based on what the market knows. Today it is different because there are much more different notes around, there are new terms like niche which hasn't been coined yet when this files were made. But the process is the same.
If a perfumer is anonymous, put on a bottle or made a star in the press it is also a marketing tool - it doesn't matter at all - the perfumer is paid, his art is sold and worn by people everywhere. An artist has no salary, no retraite, he sells or not his paintings.
People assume what they read - the name on the bottle and the title and what is said to them. They read "Santal de Mysore" like they read the label of a bottle in a perfume lab. But the difference between a lab and a market is how people deal with "truth". Inside a lab a bottle contains what is written on it, the purity checked, the information verified, the person who made it is known. Outside, it is the realm of fantasy and fiction because you buy .... a dream. This dream which sells must be real in all its details, thus giving to the public all the details he expects. You do not sell art and mythology to people who cannot read. You sell something which can mirror their hidden expectations - the QUEST for the PERFECT PERFUME.
Every myth is constructed and then de-constructed by the next generation, hungry to understand and desiring to build its own myths based on the ashes of the past. In the case of Palais Royal, these were old bases and perfumes which were forgotten by many and certainly not known by the public. All started with Caron.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
The moment you can buy something because it's cheaper than the original version (perfume + bottle) the LUXURY fades. It is also the end for ANGEL whose formula is under attack because of the coumarine. Perfume fountains are everywhere on this planet where "fake" perfumes are sold. Go outside France and you will see them. What made Caron so different? Their crystal fountain of youth sold expensive perfumes. What was special in Angel (Mugler) was the bottle - a galaxy of "stars" brought inside the house of those who loved the perfume and the complicated design. Once you buy an empty bottle you will buy other empty bottles on internet to put your favorite scent and ... look for other angels in the galaxy of perfumes.
Once you buy an Angel in South America because it is less expensive you will be tempted to refill your original bottle in a fountain which sells a less expensive copy of Angel. A bottle which doesn't contain any trace of perfume and comes directly from the glass-maker is not the art of perfumes.
GUERLAIN takes the place of ANGEL in France, a market which falls with more than 3% !!!!
Today, CLARINS lacks a true luxury perfume house because none of those working inside the group know how to make luxury. They lack the expertise, the background, the nose, the ideas and many other things which are (still) preserved by Guerlain, plus the ability to invent and innovate. A luxury house means creation - as many original perfumes as possible, which is done today by Estée Lauder on a large scale and was done by RALLET a century ago. 26 years ago, in 87, the well known perfume of Clarins was launched ... Clarins sells in China because they are red, but their perfumes are not suited for obvious cultural reasons.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
Désormais vous pouvez sentir pourquoi la parfumerie française est l'ombre d'elle même. Pourqui Chanel et Guerlain sont des spectres. A l'Osmothèque vous pouvez sentir les notes animales. N'oubliez pas de demander à comparer les versions anciennes et modernes des grands parfums comme Vol de Nuit. Demandez à sentir Chanel No5 avec musc Tonkin ainsi que Shalimar avec civette naturelle. Dioressence avec ambre gris. Surtout, demandez à sentir la version ancienne avec la version 2013 pour voir ce qu'une note animale fait dans un parfum de luxe. Sentez aussi Sous le vent, la version ancienne de Guerlain.
Demandez CHANEL No5 sans les molécules de synthèse et CHANEL No5 avec le jasmin français et non le jasmin qui se trouve actuellement dans le parfum. C'est important de sentir par contraste et de demander les versions originales si elles peuvent être montrées.
LES NOTES ANIMALES
Séance thématique Osmothèque
le Samedi 19 Janvier:
10h00 à 12h30
par Bernard BOURGEOIS à Versailles
Les fixateurs animaux ont joué un rôle primordial dans les belles compositions de parfumerie dès la fin du 19 ème siècle et tout au long du 20eme siècle jusqu’à leur mise à l’index récent sous les pressions politiques et médiatiques.
De prestigieuses maisons ,Houbigant , Coty, Guerlain, Chanel, Piguet, Caron, Grès, Lauder et bien d’autres doivent beaucoup à ces produits animaux qui contribuent à une forte signature et un sillage identifiable.
L’exposé évoquera leur histoire, leurs mystères, leurs destinées et leurs singularités olfactives. Et les raisons de leur abandon.
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 : 20€ / Tarif réduit : 15€ *
*(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
Like all other arts, the perfume history and mainly the XIXth and XXth century knew the phenomena of imitation, pastiche, à la manière de, and an impressive corpus of "anonymous works". Besides that, there is an impressive number of perfumers and possible authors with very contradictory data. Some are as real as a character in a novel.
You are the author of a perfume if your name is written somewhere, if there is a contract, a formula, a paper, a photo, a testimony of somebody who worked with you. Something tangible, material. People love legends and to spread them. The internet is the best proof for error propagation. But what you want to hear about your beloved perfume, its mythical and fantastic stories, doesn't necessary match reality.
Was François Coty a perfumer? Who composed Miss Dior? Who is the author of Coco? There are many legends, many errors spread unintentionally, but perfumes history is based on evidence, facts, data, research. In the second volume I'm updating, one of the most difficult task I have to deal with is the question of authorship. Putting the name of a perfumer near the creations, removing other names from the history, correcting the "authors", showing which perfume is original, which perfume was inspired.
This question has already been raised in Art history. It is known as the Morellian method, developed by Giovanni Morelli (1816-1891), based on clues given by details rather than the identity of the composition easily seized by imitators. This method, similar to a detective work, analyzes unnoticed clues, the unconscious traces which reveal the details of the artist. The company which produced the perfume concentrate is revealed by the chemical analysis. To this I add the theory of signs (icons, indexes, symbols, traces, etc.) adapted to odors and other elements I perfected in the recent past.
The perfume art in the XXth century can be considered at 80% an anonymous work. There is absolute no certain proof for the authorship of many perfumes because the original documents were secret and nothing, not even pictures or handwritten papers of the perfumers were available to study. From a rational perspective, the "creator" is as fictional as the title of the perfume, a ghost perfumer rather than a true creator. There are very few exceptions, like Jacques Guerlain, Ernest Beaux or those perfumes which were attested by those who personally knew and worked with the authors.
Because no written proof exists for many masterpieces and because proofs, if they exist they were never showed, anybody can claim the title of "perfumer" or "author". Unlike marketing, which uses legends to sell, art history deals with evidence. 10 years after I published the first work, I realize that there is a need to remove some names from History, other need to be corrected, other perfumes from the past need a new attribution. This is not an easy task, but the Perfume creation needs a more serious approach, a question which starts with the myth of COTY, more than a century ago. It is in many cases a detective work. Until the fifteenth century, the artist as individual could be poet or philosopher, but, as professional, the artist lived in a sort of sanctuary belonging to a brotherhood with its own secrets and constituting a separate world. They received the traditions of their predecessors through initiation and the only judges they recognized were their teachers and peers. "X, a secretive perfumer told you secretly that perfume Y, worn by your grand-mother, was made by perfumer Z, a history he heard in another secret lab. He asks you not to publish on a website the secret he revealed." These are the "facts" and the main reason why perfume was never taken too seriously. What I saw in the recent 7 years in Paris is a total mess. Now, far from the city, I can meticulously rewrite the history of this art which is as occult as a sealed bottle which doesn't unveil the odor before it is opened.
In art history, attribution goes hand in hand with art dealers - you pay more for a painting correctly attributed to an old master. Perfumes, when they are bought in auctions, it is often for their design, not the essence.
The art of scent exhibition in New York deals with many theoretical aspects of the perfume art I have exposed on this site for the first time or in my conferences, but a new century starts always on a solid ground - this is the historical aspect.
One should make the distinction between the "secret history" of perfumes and the "public". Public means being exposed, presented to the public in a written form or as an item in an official institution. I show items from my collection and their scent to those I meet and "revelations" (unpublished research), but this doesn't make the fragrant history of Rimmel, Jean Carles, Ernest Beaux public. Secrecy is influenced by intention ("I do not want to reveal") or by money (printed works and exhibitions need impressive sums). However, the moral standards for art history or art criticism are the same. The ethic which makes the distinction between a scholar and a merchant. The historian cannot speak about Chanel No5 with the terms used by the marketing. There is version No1, No2, No3 and so on starting with 1921. An original creation traced back to a document or analysis and a modern perfume sold in 2013 with a very different composition. A formula which belongs to Ernest Beaux and a formula which has nothing to do with Ernest Beaux because it contains elements not available on his desk at that time, because the difference between the versions is bigger than the changes allowed by a fluctuating annual floral crop. You cannot put the name of a perfumer in a museum near an artwork which was not made by him. This is authorship in perfumes .
Absolutely any type of serious conversation about art and perfumes starts with the author. There is no such thing as the art of Chanel, Givenchy or the art of Dior because they are brands, either fantasy names (Lancôme) of names of designers who produce visual and not olfactory works.
Chanel doesn't create perfumes, Chanel is producing them, a huge and crucial distinction. And the modern Chanel, since 1970 is another subject because History has to make the distinction between what was said to the press and what actually happened inside the "secret" lab, between the perfumes made by Jacques Polge and those he never did or the role of François Demachy inside the Chanel lab. Who are the authors of Chanel perfumes since No.19 including that fabulous scent? Who is the author of Coco? Who signed Egoiste? Who is the real creator of the recent exclusive perfumes? How the Palais Royal ideas and Chanel formulae got mixed? The art of Chanel has a sense in fashion design, but the use in perfumes has only a commercial aspect - selling something using the attributes of ART in a commercial environment where the customer knows little about art in general and much less about the art of perfumes. You can experience this with Kilian whose blotters write - "perfume as an art". But Kilian is neither an artist, nor a perfumer. He is an entrepreneur with a refined taste like any other man in Renaissance who asked for a portrait from every artist exhibited in his private gallery. Speaking about art starts with the author, when he is not known, the work is either attributed or anonymous or simply "produced by". 90% of the perfumes produced before WWII are anonymous while almost the entire XIXth century perfume art is "fictional". When only few bottles are left and no original formula preserved speaking about the artists is like speaking about the ceramics of Atlantis. History is based not only on literary works (the modern expression is the "Press release") but also on scent, formula, analysis meant to establish the distinction between the "fiction" (what is presented to the public to sell the work) and the "reality" behind the work - who did it. What does the perfume industry know about Aimé Guerlain? only 1%, represented by the reformulated copy of Jicky.
An industry of dreams has to produce and perpetuate myths, but ART deals with other aspects, a retrospective view based on other rules. ART starts with a huge budget because history of perfumes is like digging in the sand around a pyramid to find treasures.
A perfume is never attached to a "style" (expressionist, modernist, etc), but the author, his vision. That's how things start. Perfume art is not attached like an appendix to the "visual art history you know from high school". It needs to be studied. And once the authors are known with their biographies and works, a more serious conversation about style and artistic movement can emerge. A perfume is "expressionist" not because you love this word, but because you analyzed a huge selection of perfumes and authors, detected their influence, defined the term "expressionism" and drew a conclusion.
Order, reason and method inside a universe ruled by fantasies and illusions, this is what an Architect does.
SCENT PYRAMID which reveals itself to those it may concern
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
This perfume sample made for me in India in the last century, a copy of Chanel No5 with a very decent price, is today, after two decades, the .... original perfume. It contains those molecules which were changed, eliminated because they became forbidden or restricted in the last decade in Paris. The original combination of musks, the real sandalwood, the "poor" sweet molecules made after the original chemical procedure. No intention to be ART - molecules were made that way in India, no IFRA drastic rules, no REACH, no bureaucracy. Even the jasmine is better, the Grasse field is more for the press and the unmistakable scent of the French jasmine is more a souvenir inside the No5 formula produced today.
From an olfactory point of view, this humble bottle is 100 times better than the perfume sold today by the modern Chanel company in Europe. Who is owner of a perfume formula? Certainly not the company which makes changes until the odor is unrecognizable betraying the intention of the authors - Ernest Beaux and Gabrielle Chanel. The Museum preserves the copy - "The Art of Scent exhibition" presents the modern No5, not the 1921 formula - while the "original" is "free" somewhere else on this planet.
What was possible only in the world of art and metaphors becomes a reality in 2013. The Original versus Copy dilemma. This theme, the high quality original and the mass produced copy, is frequent in the Oriental Art.
Today we can consider Chanel No5, a bestseller, the most accurate expression of the mass market production in the capitalist world. It uses the attributes of real luxury to justify the production and the lack of precious materials which were once its identity. Fake plastic fur becomes the real fur for millions of consumers through mass-produced fashion. In Chanel No5 it is the real natural ingredients of animal origin which were completely removed. No drop of real MUSK, the ingredient which gave the special cachet in 1921. The real work of art, once carved in ivory, is now carved in "plastic". Ironically, the perfume copy with a plastic cap sent from India to me a long time ago has more life.
All women who used No5 in the past make me the same complaint today - Chanel lacks quelque chose - the forbidden natural ingredients - the "flesh". The elements which are the equivalent of the golden chain of the Chanel tailleur were removed from all the modern perfumes of the house.
The copy becomes the original expression of a perfume which is now dramatically removed from history, victim of its own mega-success. We can understand now why Gabrielle Chanel disliked prêt-à-porter. Bigger you are, more compromises you make.
Next week, those in Paris will have the chance to smell the missing ingredients from Chanel perfumes, the elements which were banned from the lab of the house. The announcement is scheduled for next week.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
If there would be a perfume for the Wizard of Oz today, a scent to accompany the viewers on march 8, it would inevitably be Trance, the latest introduction from the exclusive perfume house from Berlin - I.J. Schwarzlose. Trance, the new introduction from I.J. Schwarzlose Berlin, is a scent revelation, a lost jewel of the Houdini era, the magician who was linked to the original Oz story.
Houdini (Erick Weisz), the Hungarian man who mesmerized the world with his magic illusions, had also a love for beauty and perfumes. It comes from his Hungarian education. His family was from Transylvania. One of the most mysterious and beloved illusions initiated by the former Houdin, the French magician, was related to perfume.
The new Trance is a modern version of the lost jewel, which, at this turn, was a glorious oriental in the decadent Berlin inspired by another magic perfume Emeraude from Coty. Few know today the original Coty because the perfume was reformulated so many times since the Great Depression and what buyers find on e-bay (the American or British versions) lack the "magic" ingredient - the special compound which made the perfume so unique in Paris - it comes from a plant found in an "emerald" forest. It has a very specific geographical location and botanical identity. But those small additions in the secret formula contributed to its success. The original formula of Emeraude has not been recreated yet, not even in Paris (only its closest copy). The German I.J. Schwarzlose perfume, made by a genius perfumer in the early 20's whose name I will not reveal for the moment, contained a natural extract which is in my opinion much more interesting, it was produced from a mythical German forest. The "magic" of those mythical perfumes was the quality of several aromatic ingredients which do not smell the same when they are cultivated across Europe - the chemistry of Nature or micro-climate. This aspect, which relates chemistry, scent and spirit was systematically studied in Germany before WWII and used for all that a perfume can do. All these aspects are totally ignored today by perfume houses.
Trance (I.J. Schwarzlose) is an oriental perfume, sparkling, sensual, intoxicating, yet very subtle and extremely classy with a pure touch of freshness. It contains patchouli, vanilla, spices and mystic OUD. HOUDINI tour de force, under the spell of the Queen of the Flowers disguised in an Ace of hearts card.
The heart of TRANCE is the Queen of Flowers
(a strong leit-motiv in the scented history of I.J.Schwarzlose)
Like the perfume, Houdini learned how to become "invisible" and escape during his famous shows across the world - "dematerializing" and "reappearing" like the essence of a plant escapes the botanical "prison" inside the alembic and is captured elsewhere in a bottle. Meanwhile, the audience is in TRANCE.
The original creation used several products with a "mesmerizing" effect. We are in the roaring 20's - the decadent Berlin when perfumes are narcotic, like the city itself. Some aspects of the perfume history cannot be said on this blog. What makes a perfume addictive? Try TRANCE and you will discover those scents which were once forbidden and were reserved only to several happy few. This idea of perfumes which are as mesmerizing like OPIUM, the first perfume, not the Yves Saint Laurent creation, is deeply rooted in the history of the house. Its perfumes were used by the last Chinese dynasty and the bottles are preserved in Beijing while the narcotic nature is precisely the climax of Berlin when Trance was created. Trance, magic tricks and perfumes are very related - several great perfumers from the past were more famous for other abilities than the "blending". From one of them I learnt a trick with cards I used with success in perfume creation, something I explained in the collection of articles on the right bar of the blog.
Trance - a Master perfume from Berlin with an Oriental quelque-chose from I.J. Schwarzlose. You will adore it if you love the divine flower with an oriental labdanum mystic touch.
A theme for creators:
OUD INVISIBLE = HOUDINI
or the transparent light oud note
(do not forget to pay ME the tribute if you take the idea)
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
Claude Givaudan (1938-1988), the swiss galerist from the illustrious family of perfumers (Xavier Givaudan) had proposed in 1970 at the "Galérie Givaudan" (Paris, bv. St-Germain) the fragrance called "Parfum Démocratie" série Hygiène de Vie de Martial Raysse. After the ready made signed by Marcel Duchamps 50 years earlier, whose bottle is empty today, this was the first contemporary work of art signed by an artist and containing a scent. It was inspired by the odor of sweat symbol of the working lower class like the lily of the valley in France, another proletarian note. Notice that Givaudan featured also the ready-made exhibitions of Duchamps in 1967. Once, the most exclusive Roman imperial perfumes were described by the poet Martial. Many centuries later, another Martial made them for the Sun King (the lost formulae of Versailles) and ironically in 1970 another Martial worked with Givaudan for the most proletarian art form. I presented the work from a Parisian Art-Gallery in the past. The latin phrase "Ad augusta per angusta" defines the hard work of the perfumer who achieves his art through difficulties to honors. Angusta means narrow ("contractus") like the tiny opening of the perfume bottle which allows the hard distilled glory to conquer the Universe.
The working class elevates its social condition through scent which covers and masks the un-noble origins, the sweat and the miasma. The difference between those who work (and stink) and those who rule the world hasn't change a millimeter since "Das Kapital". This is why a huge variety of scented products made the fortunes of several intelligent companies in the past century. Molecules change, the rules of the market are the same. A chess game.
The decade when "Parfum Démocratie" was released by Givaudan represents the final stage in the evolution of the perfume industry when those who produced molecules became the leading forces in perfume creation, the decade when the production increased dramatically because scent .... went finally democratic for all ages, genders, prices. The era with labels DEO-PARFUM and not DEODORANT. The first meant deification of the Perfume, the second is what you know, which is again a play on words in Latin. The success of everything which is "clean" in terms of odour is based on this "volatile law". Rich people buy perfumes to become Gods and posses their attributes or "powers" because they already live in scented universes removed from the miasma. Less fortunate people buy to cover their origin, the bad scents of their home if they lived in the small social European buildings. It was the case half a century ago in Western Europe or the case today in other parts of the world. Only a tiny fraction of consumers buy because it is art. It was also the case in the time of Martial.
This visionary idea of Givaudan, with a green logo in the past, bloomed once again in the recent present. The SIXSCENTS series I spoke in the past and many other events the space of this blog do not allow me to present them or many other perfumes which passed rather unnoticed in the flood of launches.
But now, as the first exhibition "The Art of Perfumes" ends, with perfumes any consumer can test at his local counter without calling them "art", it is time to speak about the real and unique event which took place simultaneously and which is the most important in the history of Art & Perfumes.
People have desired for centuries to capture and preserve the scent of a person, its real, yet very ephemeral presence - they succeeded several times through evocation.
Men and women are interested by their scent, the scent of the person they love, their own memories which have an undeniable olfactory fingerprint. This fact interests as much poets and the secret services.
Now, the living artist becomes the material or the ingredient of the perfumer. The muse is "consumed" inside the work like the flower gives her soul in the old Givaudan alembic - the decorative logo I explained in the past. The "outside" has never been put "inside" a perfume. You make a perfume from flowers, fruits, leaves, accords which suggest something, but you do not put them back on the source. You do not perfume the jasmine with the perfume you made, you do not spray the forest. You do not "take" the scent of a woman and put it inside the perfume. Now, the scent of a woman is extracted, recreated, put inside a perfume "scent of a woman" worn by again by a woman. A "fractal" of notions from inside to outside.
This ultimate frontier of art and science has been blurred by Yann Vasnier with "Martynka Wawrzyniak Smell Me". After creating Le Parfum by Baudelaire, he "extracted" the perfume of an artist, literally analyzing the complex mixture of scents of the human body, what is naturally refereed as the scented aura of a person. In Egypt, the draftsman captures the shadow a living person, the perfumer captures the soul. This event was of the greatest importance for several reasons:
- what seems so natural as the body odour of someone, doesn't survive when the person you know leaves the room, the town, your life. The scent, which is so obvious during a contact, doesn't bloom the next spring like a jasmine bush. It fades, like the body shown in the mirror;
- until the modern technique was here, this type of scent could not be analyzed properly, accurately without giving place to the subjectivity of the perfumer - the evocation of a scent as it was done in Le Parfum - le coffret;
- this idea, though not new for perfumers, was rather generic in the past - mixtures of molecules able to evoke the human scent; it was not specific and not "extracted" from an artist and not with the purpose to make art;
- the art extracts represent several parts of the body whose combination in a 3-D system were meant to generate the scented hologram of the artist's body.
In terms of artistic achievement this is the ultimate step which has been reached - the "invisible" scent, the perfume you do not detect as a perfume (a foreign odour of an ingredient), but as a real presence of a nude person. It is not a metaphor, but the material presence of the "immaterial" - which is the odour of a living person. In the history of perfumes this goal and product is not unique, but it is for the first time when it is presented to the world as such.
The Project made possible by Givaudan was first presented in the previous article about SMELL ME. How can I describe the odour of the crystal vials I have on my desk? When a scent is obvious, both universal and unique because it belongs to a human being, it is hard to speak about it other than saying it's a chemical "Vegan" composition with wet fresh sève radiant notes plus touches of coco organic milk.
"I had this epiphany that the olfactive essence could almost be likened to what people call the “spiritual essence.” There’s an aura of pheromones and smells around us that we emit to form a subconscious communication with other human beings. We carry it with us like a halo, and it sends signals to other people about who we are, what we are, if we’re ready to mate, if we’re attracted to each other.“ Martynka
The Vegan touch is both reality and metaphor inside the crystal vial - the artist special diet and the crystal effect of the scent which points to VEGA, the brightest star in the Lyra constellation. The scent is clear crystal, pure like the "undisturbed" odors of the body. The equivalent is the Holly Water, an odour which is known to all who enter a Catholic church (and has a molecular basis). For the first time, a perfume is "Organic" in its true sense - Organic is LIFE, organic chemistry is the chemistry of life which allows today the detailed analysis and re-composition. Organic because the scent comes from organs (in this case sweat and tears). Back to zero, the original scent and the original sense of the words. Organic, before being a cosmetic label, paid on subscription and put on the product to reassure the consumers, is a word in a dictionary.
Like the myrrh, which gives a tear to the perfumer, the word used by the ancients and the essence of the myth of Myrrha, Martynka collected her tears which were analyzed and reproduced. This act has a mythical dimension which relinks the perfume to its old symbols.
In the year 13 discover the essence 13 "Smell ME" extracted by perfumer Yann Vasnier - a metaphor which becomes reality in terms of perfume creation. Martynka is the name of the magic New York shop owned by Houdini who knew how to become invisible with the "magic ring" of the russian Martynka fairy-tale. But today, Martynka is the name of a 13-year old artist whose body scent has been captured several month ago at Givaudan. A unique project linking Art and Science but also a splash of magic - every woman wants to rediscover the fountain of Jouvence, the youth dew. It is the natural chemistry of the body before the mirror tells the Queen to search for a Hunter. "Smells like Teen Spirit" is the Nirvana of every woman and only perfumers know how to make the wrinkles disappear - the real wrinkles are inside.
This story of an ART project made by Yann Vasnier and Martynka is richer than it seems. The tiny vials I have on my desk will once cost millions like the empty bottle of Duchamps owned by Yves Saint Laurent. "Un air embaumé" with a new label which sold for more than 8 millions 4 years ago.
All the vials, which represent in the most accurate sense the odour of a woman which blooms are the quintessence of a famous concept mixed with several flowers - the enigma of a future bestseller.
The woman ages, the body changes until putrefaction losing all the attributes of youth and starts to produce what is known as "old lady smell" - a chemistry fact which describes how the female body ages (very different process compared to men). Only her spirit can be young or the odour she once had, preserved in a precious vial. This is the "elixir of youth", what the body of a woman cannot produce anymore. This work of art is the first portrait of the contemporary perfumery, the invisible image of a living artist.
The art of perfumes starts with an intention - the desire to make a work of art, the desire to present it as an art work. ART = scent + intention + author and several other things which make the difference between a scent in the public domain and a scent which is "owned".
I did not go to New York (the perfumes ad MAD are in every store), but what I consider the most relevant work to be stored in a Museum came to me.
Today, with the "Art of Scent" exhibition and the ARTIST essence extracted by Yann Vasnier, both recent events in New York, the Perfume enters a new golden dawn - baptized with a "new", yet so very ancient attribute, - The 8th ART.
In the year 13 discover the essence 13 "Smell ME" extracted by perfumer Yann Vasnier - a metaphor which becomes reality in terms of perfume creation.
Some legends become reality when old jars are discovered in the "sands of time" revealing to the modern nose what was considered a myth.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
Le Paradis sent Guerlain car la plus prestigieuse maison du siècle dernier avait choisi son siège à Paris sur Les Champs Elysées, l'Elysium des anciens.
La senteur du Paradis est de deux types: la première est dans notre monde, l'autre est sentie par les Prophètes, les Messagers et certains élus. Au Paradis, il y a une place vers laquelle ses habitants se rendront tous les vendredis. La brise souffle sur leur visage et sur leurs habits en les embellissant. Ils retourneront vers leurs femmes. Leur beauté s’amplifiera. Leurs femmes diront: par Dieu vous êtes encore plus beaux. Et les hommes diront: votre beauté s’est également amplifiée. Le vent qui soufflera au marché du Paradis apportera une beauté encore plus importante à ses habitants.
Lorsque les gens du Paradis sortiront pour aller à cette place ils seront imprégnés de musc. "il y aura des dunes de musc. Dès qu’ils sortiront, le vent soufflera pour les imprégner."
Cette brise du Prophète est "Sous Le Vent" dans sa splendeur d'origine. Le parfum de Jacques Guerlain était une création d'avant garde qui n'a pas pus être refaite à l'identique depuis les années 30. Son double caractère - fraîcheur végétale exotique et sublime musc animal la rendait unique. Il est désormais connu qu'aucun parfum produit en France ne contient une trace de musc naturel - le vrai Guerlain, c'est à dire la tradition, renaitra dans un autre pays où les vraies formules de Jacques Guerlain ont la chance d'une nouvelle vie pour faire connaitre l'odeur du Paradis à ceux qui la cherchent.
La dune de musc du Prophète n'est pas la Galaxolide ni la Globalide (musc de synthèse). C'est une odeur d'une autre "galaxie" culturelle, d'Istanbul à Damas en passant par tous les pays musulmans du Levant. L'avantage du nouveau siècle est la chimie qui a donné au musc naturel les ingrédients pour le faire vibrer. Le génie de Guerlain, à une époque encore premoderne, a été de transformer un ingrédient, utilisé souvent soit comme fixateur soit pour son animalité.
Le musc de "Sous le Vent" était le musc sève-verte de l'Islam qui embaumait selon la légende le mortier d'une mosquée. C'était un musc "spatial" exalté, un parfum d'avant garde qui ne pouvait pas vivre son vrai message dans les années 30. Spatial, car il donnait la sensation d'espace sous une coupole. La notion de musc chez les arabes, indiens et chinois est très différente. Par hasard, un accord imaginé dans les laboratoires Givaudan est le plus "ortho-doxe", c'est à dire le plus proche de ce que le vrai musc de l'Islam était. C'est un concept vieux de plus de 1000 ans à ne pas confondre avec une création qui se vend à Dubaï - une question de temporalité puisque le parfum travaille avec des archétypes.
Sous Le Vent était le parfum du Levant - l'essence même de l'Orient, l'endroit où le soleil se lève.
A son tour, "la dune de musc" et "la brise du vent" sont des concepts forts dans l'art du parfum - le lourd qui se dématérialise, la parfaite harmonie entre le corps lourd (les molécules du musc sont très grandes) et sa parfaite diffusion, entre la sensation d'odeur lourde, dense, animale et la sensation d'air ou de vent. Sous le Vent (Guerlain) est une présence, plus qu'une odeur.
Le vrai parfum Sous Le Vent quand il est mis en présence d'une autre création oubliée recompose l'odeur de la Grande Mosquée de Damas il y a beaucoup de siècles puisqu'un accord très ancien surgit comme par miracle. Cet accord se trouve dans un manuscrit arabe. Il est désormais possible de donner une nouvelle vie à la grande création disparue dont la formule et l'odeur ont tant de mystères.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
I wish you a happy scented new year, prosperity and a lot of money. There are many scented temptations to come, many beautiful scents and many new brands from all corners of the world.
I will take a long vacation from the virtual land because I want to update my first volume written a decade ago about the art of perfumes in the past and publish it very soon in my language. Limited edition, ultra expensive for those who desire to learn more than Internet gives for free. For this reason, I will write only very few reviews and only for those perfumes which will come, by miracle or chance, to me. With an owl, peut-être, like in Hogwarts - I am in a place with an impressive number of owls and crows (I see them every day, the reason why several articles had a "fairy tale" touch inspired by the upcoming OZ movie).
I am not in Paris, no luxury perfumeries around, no new reviews - only if they arrive by chance. History is more important than the new launches because "old souls" in a bottle do not have a brand to "promote" them with money and tell their stories.
There are however several new scents to present, those I received last year and the perfume draw.
A tip for buying a good perfume this year - chose everything green, "operatic" and "art", it is the major direction. "2013 c'est vert Calyx" and the next trend is VERDI, the bicentenary of the great composer. The perfume paradigm changes, the creation becomes symphonic (and symbolic), a celebration of the 8th art which brings everything together - plain bottles with minimalist design are out. My old articles about WAGNER (the other composer celebrated this year) and his vision about perfumes, music and the total work of art will guide you for a new vision. Another trend to consider is "Vert sève serpent", it is the year of water serpent - the temptation inside the garden of EDEN (green vert de liane+aqua+lush florals+milk womanity+aldehydes+ the accord of the original perfume from the 90's). There is also the perfume of ADAM I published the review in December, but I reverted it to draft the next morning until it will be available to consumers.
TRUST ME
Sillage sensual sparkle
I am the Perfume KA
The new paradigm of perfume creation has nothing to do with what you have been used in the last decades. This is because a new generation of consumers has been nourished with other types of books, stories, ideas, notions about life and beauty.
Because I will not write so often and only when there will be a beautiful reason, there are many other new sites I recommend you in order to discover all sorts of new perfumes and new launches - you will find them on my blog list. I will enjoy the luxury called work - the "archaeology" of perfume, back to Egypt. Back to "papyrus" from the virtual scene of perfumes.
One hundred years ago, December 1912, the famous bust of Nefertiti was brought back to light. In January 1913, it arrived in Berlin in great secrecy. A Queen, a perfume and many cosmetic secrets from an old unpublished papyrus.
rendez vous at 8 O'clock with a new perfume in Berlin - Treffpunkt 8 Uhr because this year there is a new scented Trance in town - we wear 1A-33 from J.F. Schwarzlose with magnolia. The new perfumes from J.F. Schwarzlose are the incarnation of the glory of the perfume house a century ago - Berlin the roaring 20's and two hundred years of modern perfumes after Napoleon's defeat. The old perfume Trance was an homage to magician Houdini who lived in Berlin while 33 was the plate of the new metropolis. The house Schwarzlose has also a very dark story which makes the scents more intriguing and appealing to the consumers. The perfumes were the quintessence of modernity in Berlin made by master perfumers which were not known in Paris - the history of German perfume art was somehow forbidden or erased for obvious reasons - like the egyptian cartouche of the Amarna period.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
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Texts written by me, interviews with me or articles about me were published in the entire Romanian fashion press (incl. Harper's Bazaar, GQ, Elle, Tabu, The One, Avantaje, FashionandBeauty, Dialog Textil, etc), in almost all national newspapers (incl. Jurnalul National, Evenimentul Zilei, Cotidianul, Romania Libera, Catavencu, etc), in professional business press (incl. Ziarul Financiar, Capital, Business Magazin, Money Express, Wallstreet Magazine etc), in the international press (New York Times, Liberation, Style.com, l'Officiel Paris, NZZFolio, etc) and in many fragrance and beauty webzines. In the past 5 years I published more than 300 de articles about fashion/beauty/fragrance in romanian and international press. My 3 books and my blog were quoted in several professional journals or recent books, starting with 2007. I am member of Société Française des Parfumeurs and member of Romanian Society of Cosmetic Chemists. I studied architecture, pharmacy and later perfumery at ISIPCA Versailles. Since 2008 I teach design (master degree) in a romanian School of Architecture.
1000 Fragrances rarely receives samples to review and more than 90% of reviews are based on my personal collection of perfumes, new or vintage. Receiving samples does not inspire any sense of obligation from me and my reviews are based on my personal perception of a fragrance, my extensive knowledge and my professional experience as a trained perfumer. I do not have any type of commercial activities with the brands I present or analyze.
Thank you for your valued readership.
