The time has finally come for me to go on my much needed and anticipated vacation to the northern woods of Minnesota! I plan to do a whole lot of nothing and occasional lake activities. There will be no internet access (bliss in some ways!), so I won’t be able to check in but please stay tuned for Donna’s review that will be posted later today. Have a lovely week, y’all!
5 comments Posted by Ina on August 13th, 2007
If this dress by Roberto Cavalli (Fall 2007 Ready-To-Wear collection) were a perfume, it’d undoubtedly be Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia by Estee Lauder. (I often turn to fashion when in search for visual equivalents, as you might have noticed, more so than art, simply because fashion has always been my preferred venue, albeit not chosen as career). You might wonder how this seemingly simple attire translates into a seemingly heady white floral with such prominent notes as tuberose and gardenia. The answer is in the overall effect: seamless, chic, and silky-smooth. Tuberose Gardenia flows like silk, clings like silk, and shimmers like silk. It is of pearly color with golden hues. This is as poetic as I can get, and if you asked me for a down-to-earth, judicious opinion, I’d say Tuberose Gardenia is the best new fragrance release in the past several months and is definitely a highlight of my fragrant summer.
The scent is said to be inspired by the 1973 release of Private Collection, an exclusive Estee Lauder perfume created for herself and closest friends. Tuberose Gardenia is an entirely new scent, a sort of modern response to the idea of exclusivity - it’s outstanding, well-developed, and available to the general public, although with limited distribution. It’s an intoxicating bouquet of white flowers - a perfume genre I highly respect, yet often shun (perhaps I’m yet to reach a floral stage, who knows). What I love most about it is its finesse: the notes are blended impeccably. It’s a seemingly straightforward tuberose-gardenia fragrance, with more emphasis on green, stemmy tuberose upon first application, and a lush, creamy gardenia drydown. Yet the bouquet also embraces such notes as neroli, lilac, rosewood, orange blossom, jasmine, white lily, carnation, and bourbon vanilla, and this is where the seamlessness of the composition is almost palpable. It is most decidedly a bouquet, where you can capture all the flowers individually as well as inhale its harmony. Its tenacity is never boring or cumbersome. I simply admire this gorgeous, timeless blend.
P.S. I should also add that I usually don’t click with most Estee Lauder floral scents as they often smell too artificial. White I cannot vouch for how many (if at all) natural ingredients were used in Tuberose Gardenia, I must give kudos to the perfumer for achieving such a credible effect, even if it is 100% synthetic.
Please visit Perfume-Smellin’ Things for Marina’s impressions.
Image source: style.com, neimanmarcus.com
17 comments Posted by Ina on August 12th, 2007
Roja Dove, a fragrance connoisseur and founder of the Haute Parfumerie at Harrod’s, calls a spade a spade in his interview to CNN on the subject of celebrity scents. Let me just tell you he’s a man after my own heart, and if I don’t visit the Haute Parfumerie some time in the next year or so, I’ll never feel complete.
Just this for today. Please stay tuned for my review of Tuberose Gardenia by Estee Lauder coming Monday (that I’m co-posting with Marina at Perfume-Smellin’ Things). Happy weekend!
12 comments Posted by Ina on August 9th, 2007
Typically, I judge perfume not only by its olfactory characteristics and lasting power. I also examine its performance: what it does on my skin, where it takes me, how much it opens up, etc. In my perfume pilgrimage, I’ve encountered quite a few exceptional scents that have had but one pesky yet substantial flaw - they failed the performance test. The most recent ones standing in shame with their heads down are the new Kelly Caleche by Hermes and Strip by Agent Provocateur. I don’t think it’d be unfair to say both project rather high expectations. Yet I find myself shaking my head in disapproval and going “tsk-tsk” every time I test them (and believe me, I’ve given them a few chances to redeem themselves).
Kelly Caleche. First of all, named after the Kelly bag and said to smell of leather. Secondly, a Caleche. Thirdly, Jean-Claude Ellena. The result: a beautiful scent, with a lush, almost fruity beginning, and smooth, creamy, floral heart (built around the notes of iris, lily of the valley, mimosa, tuberose, climbing rose). The drydown is rather disappointing: it smells simultaneously like Rose Ikebana from the Hermessence collection, with some hints of Jardin Sur Le Nil, and even Terre d’Hermes. All of these are nice scents, no doubt. But do I want to smell them again, in a brand new creation? I’d rather not. Thus, Kelly Caleche flunks the performance test on my skin - it doesn’t deliver what it promises. That also includes a complete lack of leather. At some point, in top notes, I get a faint hint of it but it’s more like a ghost hovering around in bewilderment, wondering why on earth did they kill him off.
With Strip, the situation is almost ironic. I mean, come on, the name is all about performance, right? Yet Agent Provocateur hasn’t played the game quite right this time. The scent is supposedly built around all the base notes of the popular Agent Provocateur perfume - ylang-ylang, iris, geranium, hot amber oils, vetiver, precious exotic woods, and musks “that react to your body temperature and exude from your skin to release the sexual attractant within” (agentprovocateur.com). Um, how do I say this nicely… let’s just say it did none of such things to me. When I first sprayed it on, I got soft, warm amber with a slightly dirty accord, and at that point it did get me euphoric. And then it just sort of stopped. As in, pretty much vanished from my skin. I kept waiting for some intensity (come on, Strip!), some boudoiresque action, some performance, after all. Alas, it was all but a tease without the strip part.
To sum it all up, I’m still in the state of olfactory ennui. I really hope this passes soon, and the fall season will greet us with truly exciting performance (and action!).
Image source: sybarites.org, agentprovocateur.com
25 comments Posted by Ina on August 7th, 2007
I don’t know if you have days like this but for the past week or so I’ve hated all my perfumes. As in, “get away from me I don’t want to see you right now”. I know it’ll pass, it always does. On top of everything the two fragrances I’ve been super curious to try (Kelly Caleche by Hermes and Strip by Agent Provocateur) slightly infuriated me for their lack of performance (more about that in my next post). So to perk things up a bit, Marina and I are doing another joint project of tagging each other: “If this was a perfume, what perfume would it be?”
1. Paintings
Mit Und Gegen by Wassily Kandinsky - Harissa by Comme des Garcons. Hot, fiery spices.
Boy on Mt. Fuji by Hokusai Katsushika - Bois Farine by L’Artisan Parfumeur. Warm, milky woods.
La Primavera by Sandro Botticelli - Femme by Rochas. Lush and deeply carnal.
2. Movies
Bridget Jones’s Diary (the first one) - Pink Sugar. Nuff said.
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark - hmm, I’ll go with Dzing! by L’Artisan Parfumeur.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - one of my absolute favorite movies. I’m thinking Muscs Koublai Khan by Serge Lutens - complex, twisted, and heart-warmingly down-to-earth.
3. Celebrities
Pamela Anderson - Rumba by Balenciaga. Obnoxious, with a dirty side, and a twisted appeal.
Clark Gable - Antaeus by Chanel. Classic and a tad rebellious.
Alanis Morissette - Noir Epices by Frederic Malle. Beauty with an edge.
4. Outfits
Valentino Fall 2007 Haute Couture - Clive Christian X For Women.
Jean Paul Gaultier Fall 2007 Haute Couture - Eau des Merveilles by Hermes.
Oscar de la Renta Fall 2007 Ready-To-Wear - Jaipur Saphir by Boucheron.
Please visit Perfume-Smellin’ Things to check Marina’s matches.
Image source: allposters.com, style.com
16 comments Posted by Ina on August 5th, 2007
In case you’ve noticed my partial absence lately, I’m here to tell you that I’m doing fine and smelling nice. I will, however, be rather absent now and then during this month. I want to pretend I’m in France and close shop for the entire month of August and go on some beach vacation but, alas, such is not my reality. There is a short vacation in my near future but it will be spent in the dark and mysterious woods of northern Minnesota (that also includes a beautiful lake!). So to give you the heads up, I’ll be in and out and hope to get back on my regular posting schedule come September (with all the exciting new releases this fall, it shouldn’t be a problem). Have a wonderful rest of summer!
P.S. To make it easier, there’s an option to subscribe to Aromascope to be notified of new posts by e-mail. To do so, please visit this page. Thank you!
Image source: allposters.com
2 comments Posted by Ina on August 2nd, 2007
By Tove Solander
Today’s theme is tar. I’ve compared three tar scents – in fact the only tar scents I know of: Comme des Garcons Synthetic Tar, Tauer Perfumes Lonestar Memories and Le Labo Paychouli 24. Only Lonestar Memories has tar listed as a note, although the Comme des Garcons scent has it in the very name. Patchouli 24 is composed of patchouli, styrax, birch and vanilla, along with twenty secret ingredients I assume. Lonestar Memories is known as a leathery scent, but the notes are geranium, carrot seed, clary sage, birchtar, cistus, jasmine, cedar wood, myrrh, tonka, vetiver and sandalwood. Tar, finally, takes a more urban approach with town gas, vapours of bitumen, bergamot, earth, opoponax, styrax, grilled cigarettes and pyrogenic notes.
What they all have in common, apart from smelling like tar, is that they’re on the sweet side. I guess tar has a rather sweet aroma naturally, but I could easily imagine a more butch take on it. In fact, there might be one – Comme des Garcons Synthetic Garage has hints of tar along with gasoline, chrome and faux leather car interior, without the sweetness. Tar, on the other hand, has hints of gasoline and asphalt so they’re really sister scents. Compared to Lonestar Memories and Patchouli 24 it comes off as very urban, very minimalist, very cool. The sweetness in it is almost the sweetness of anise or liquorice, as opposed to the more syrupy and vanillic sweetness of the other two. However, it’s mostly compared to them it comes off as so very urban and modern. Compared to the rest of the Synthetic series it feels rural, nostalgic, even cosy. Occasionally, I get a feeling of walking in a sunny pine forest rather than a metropolis.
Lonestar Memories is even more rural and nostalgic in feeling. It’s simultaneously sweet, thick and dry. I get a feeling of cracked, grey wood, so old it hardly has a wood scent anymore, and of dirt floors too dry and worn to smell other than dusty. It’s like being in an old boathouse or workshop – there’s the sweetish smell of hemp rope, perhaps some hardened leather gear oiled long ago, and dust speckles in the sunlight that shines in between the boards. The rich, musty sweetness makes it more of a summery childhood scent than a macho cowboy scent for me.
Patchouli 24 is, I think, my least favourite. It’s smokier than the other two, and I usually like smoky, but it’s also the sweetest of them all, and sugared smoke tends to get a bit nauseating. Rather than asphalt or boats, I’m thinking of barbecue. Barbecue with lots of crème brulée for dessert. Maybe even a steak drenched in custard, at its worst. It’s a viscous scent, like syrup so thick and dark it’s almost black. With less vanilla, it could have been the pleasant scent of a wood pile burning, but with the vanilla it’s just too much. I like it best when it’s a faded smoky-sweet trace on my skin.
Image source: luckyscent.com, barneys.com
9 comments Posted by Tove on August 1st, 2007
By Donna Hathaway
This is a story about one special place, which was made possible by some very special people. It is an unassuming little shop to the untrained eye, housed in a whimsical older building on a busy street, easy to pass on the way to bigger and brighter things. But if one takes the time to linger for a moment and peer inside, a world unto itself will be revealed, a magical kingdom evoking the Old World of charm and elegance, of beauty appreciated and great care taken. It is the world of The Perfume House and its owners, the delightful gentleman Chris Tsefalas and his lovely wife Christina. Others have told their story in many different ways, but this is my personal tribute to what this place has meant to me over the years.
When I say that Mr. Tsefalas is a Gentleman I mean that in the truest sense of the word. He is courtly, charming, warm, gregarious, and the most civilized human being I have ever met in my life. He spent a lifetime learning from the great perfumers of the world before deciding to open his own perfume shop so he could share his love for perfume with others. He was trained by the finest masters and is himself a Nose with a capital “N”, a title bestowed only upon those few who must pass a rigorous test to acquire it. (Can you recite all the major notes of any perfume, even one you have never smelled before, before the droplets sprayed in the air hit the floor? He can.)
The Perfume House in Portland, Oregon opened its doors in the early 1980s. I luckily discovered it very quickly due to the chance reading of a story in the newspaper. My sister and I were curious, so we went down there to see what all the excitement was about, as the story had made it sound quite intriguing, and we both liked fragrance anyway. Well, the upshot of it was that we spent about five hours there the first day, and received a head-spinning education in fine perfumery. I have returned there often over the years, and I never leave without learning something new about the art and history of perfume. (Chris is also a master storyteller, and he can weave a romantic perfume tale like no one else.) I learned of great houses and obscure essences, of near-mythical rare perfumes and great standards of the perfumer’s art. Knowing virtually nothing about perfume except that I adored it, I allowed myself to be guided toward that which would suit me best. I remember that one of my very first purchases was a lovely Fragonard. (Who knows much about this house in the U.S.? It is one of the great French houses of the highest quality, but they do not spend their capital on advertising.)
Sometimes it is best to simply place yourself in the hands of an expert who knows much more than you ever will, and in this case I was glad to do it. I discovered Quartz by Molyneux and Annick Goutal Gardenia Passion, and the Jean LaPorte line; I found that the Caron Muguet de Bonheur was exponentially better than any other Muguet fragrance I had ever smelled, and that the fragrances from the House of Caron and I got along very well indeed. (The Perfume House is the only West Coast source of the unsurpassed Caron face powders; famous Hollywood makeup artists order it from the shop when nothing else will do.) There is a Caron “shrine” in the store that includes several of the crystal urns like the ones in the Paris Caron boutique. Almost any Caron perfume in commerce today can be had here, either from stock or by special order. All things Caron are cherished here, as the house represents quality at the very highest level. On a recent visit there was a small tester vial of 2003’s Tubèreuse, which is one of the exclusive urn perfumes available only in the Caron boutiques. I thought I would faint with sheer pleasure when I smelled it. It is sublimely radiant yet quiet, the conceptual opposite of the better-known Fracas by Piguet, and lacking the stemmy greenness of Frederic Malle’s wonderful Carnal Flower with that one’s chilly opening notes. It is the tuberose equivalent my other favorite Caron soliflore, Muguet de Bonheur; refined, serene and opulent without being overly lush. If the store does not start carrying this one soon I will need a ticket to Paris.
Most of all I found the perfume house I loved the best: Jean Patou. When the store first opened, one of the big introductions was the release of the Jean Patou Ma Collection, a reissue of twelve Patou perfumes from the past as a celebration of the house. Not only was the twelve-bottle miniature coffret with a story booklet available, but all twelve were also sold in large single bottles. Of course everyone knows about Joy and 1000, the twin flagships of Patou and deservedly so; what they do not know is how many fine perfumes came out of the house and have been discontinued. I fell in love with most of them right away; the deep, woody Normandie, named after an ocean liner, the bright and effervescent Cocktail, the saucy Caline, the languorous Colony with its pineapple decadence, the heartbreakingly lovely Momênt Suprème, and the stunningly romantic floral Amour Amour. But for me, one stood apart from all the others, and does so to this day; Vacances from 1936, brought back to life once more in all its breathtaking green beauty. Just a short time ago Chris told me it is considered by many to be the finest Green Floral of all time, and I cannot agree more. This ethereal fantasy of hyacinth, lilac and mimosa with fresh grassy notes is the epitome of simplicity yet is sophisticated as well, and it is a memory perfume that can evoke a deep emotional response for many. Alas, this is gone now, as are the others that briefly reappeared in that perfume Brigadoon and soon went away again. I can only console myself with the knowledge that newer Patou masterpieces such as the wonderfully intense Sublime are also of the very best quality available today.
Over the years I have experienced some very special fragrances that I never bought, but I was glad for the experience. Some were out of the range of my budget, such as JAR Golconda in one of its very few appearances outside a JAR boutique. I will never forget its stunning clove-carnation power. Then there is the amazing floral Amouage Gold for women, the first release of the House of Amouage. My sister fell hopelessly in love with this one, a truly great fragrance imbued with rare and precious Silver Frankincense, and she wants no other. I have to agree that it is one of the best things I have ever smelled though my favorite of the line was the sadly discontinued chypre Ubar, which is no longer made due to the difficulty in procuring the best ingredients for it; the house’s standards are very high. Other perfumes were too rare and not for sale, such as vintage Rochas Femme, or wonderful but not really my style, such as Schiaparelli Shocking, but at least I got to smell them at the time. I cannot remember everything about the hundreds I have tried, except that I loved them all. Even those I would not wear myself I was taught to appreciate for their own qualities, as works of highest achievement by the perfumers who made them.
There is a secret treasure trove as well – the Private Reserve, a collection of alcohol-free pure perfumes made by the finest noses in France, and available only by appointment. Once you have bought one of them you may order any of the line directly from France as long as you do it within one year of the first purchase. I have tried only two of these and I cannot even begin to tell you how good they are. There are five soliflores (rose, jasmine, muguet, gardenia and tuberose) and the rest are masterful blends. I have experienced the rose and tuberose, and if I could go without food or rent to buy these I would gladly do so. (I am almost afraid to try the others!) Because there is no alcohol, they are very stable and do not change like more diluted formulations do. I recently brought home some cotton soaked with the Private Reserve tuberose essence and put it on my bedside table to scent my room. Two weeks later, it still smelled exactly the same as it did straight out of the bottle. I will leave it there until it fades, which should take a long time.
Of all the rarities, one of the most memorable was the release of several perfumes once exclusive to the Czars of Russia; manufactured in France, they were of the highest quality and could not be bought by ordinary Russians. The original formulas were not lost in the Russian Revolution, as they were in France, and they were briefly re-created in a limited edition some years ago. I do not recall the names of all of them, but two have stayed with me to this day. Anna Karenina was an indescribably romantic floral, unique in that it was composed of dried flowers instead of fresh. That sounds odd I know, but it was rich and powerful and made me think of a heavy silk brocade curtain at an opera house. The other one was a name I could not spell or pronounce but translated as something like “Russian Fantasy.” As soon as I smelled it, I was transported to a verdant forest surrounded by songbirds and murmuring waters. It was an out-of-body experience. This was the one I bought, but of course it is no longer available. If I close my eyes I can still remember how it made me feel. This was truly perfume as Art, and I owe it all to one man’s dream.
COMING SOON: Part Two: The Stories, to be published over at the Perfume-Smellin’ Things blog next week, so please visit!
Image source: adclassix.com, vintageads4u.com, ebay.com, amouage.com
19 comments Posted by Donna on July 31st, 2007
A little while back I did a post on one of my favorite perfumers, Francis Kurkdjian. Ever since then, I’ve been on pins and needles about doing an interview with him, and I can’t even tell you how excited I am to share it with you today. Thank you to Monsieur Kurkdjian for taking the time to share a bit of his brilliant mind (and nose) with us, perfume fanatics!
1. Was there a specific moment when you knew you wanted to be a perfumer, and what/when was it?
I wanted to follow the path of both my grandparents in fashion and couture but I don’t know how to draw. At the age of 16 I therefore decided to become a perfumer because, in its spirit, perfume is to me the closest métier to fashion.
2. What profession would you have gone into had you taken an alternate route in life?
Architect? Restorer? Archaeologist? Ballet dancer? Who knows! But no one knows what the future is made of.
3. Your fragrances seem to have a definite association with a particular color palette. Are you inspired by particular visual images or even specific palettes?
I am not sure I agree with what you said. When you look through my work from Le Male in 1995 until the new Ungaro fragrance for women or “For Him” by Narciso Rodriguez that will launch this fall, I am not sure one can say they are inspired or driven by one specific palette.
4. If you could have a dinner party with guests from any period in history, who would you invite?
If I was hosting a dinner party I would invite: singer Maria Callas, painter Pablo Picasso, dancer Anna Pavlova, scientist Isaac Newton, philosopher Blaise Pascal, and spy-courtisane Mata Hari!
5. Do you have a mentor? The works of which perfumers do you admire and why?
During my training (3 months) at Quest International (now Givaudan) I have taught perfumery with Olivier Cresp and during my first year I have worked under the guidance of Christopher Sheldrake (now at Chanel), Maurice Roucel (now at Symrise), Noel Guillot, and Gilles Romey. Then during my career at Quest I had the pleasures to work with Françoise Caron, Calice Becker, and Christine Nagel. I like the work of Annick Ménardo and Dominque Ropion today.
6. What are your favorite perfumes?
Must by Cartier, No 5 by Chanel, Eau d’Orange Verte by Hermès, and Eau de Rochas.
7. You have your own atelier of perfumes. What are the typical or unusual fragrance requests?
French artist Sophie Calle asked me to create the smell of money a few years ago. I have also created perfumes for baby shower parties, weddings, etc.
8. What other things are you passionate about in life, and how do they affect your perfume creations?
I play the piano. Enjoy ballet and music concerts. Art exhibitions. But what I enjoy the most is spending time with my friends.
9. You seem to have a way with rose (Indult Isvaraya, Parfums MDCI creations, Lady Vengeance, Rose Barbare). In my perception, your rose based scents are full-bodied, voluptuous, sort of femme fatale. Is that your favorite note to work with?
Rose is not my favourite note to work with. It happens I used it many times over the past two years because it was the right note to use to depict and create the emotions I wanted to reproduce from the projects I was given to work on.
10. What perfume notes in your opinion are not used enough these days and why?
Leather notes are not very commercial so they are not used very often. Bel Ami by Hermès is a one of my favourite perfumes as well.
11. You work on so many versatile projects like the Paris Opera perfume, Sillage de la Reine, Papier d’Armenie… what other interesting projects would you like to take on?
I have worked again for the Castle of Versailles and the show goes during all the month of August (to visit the online page, click here). I have many projects going on for next fall and I will keep you posted…
12. What would you recommend any perfume aficionado that they should do at least once in their lifetime?
Maybe going to Iran to see the rose harvest when the sun rises….
13 comments Posted by Ina on July 30th, 2007
Miss Aromascope is taking a break for a few days. Life has just gotten a bit too busy (and a bit too much at times), so a little recuperation is in order. I’ll be back next week!
5 comments Posted by Ina on July 25th, 2007