Archive for May, 2007
J’Ai Ose (“I Dared”) by Guy Laroche can hardly be called vintage as it was released relatively not so long ago, in 1977, when I was about to take my first steps. In my perception, however, J’Ai Ose is an old scent, probably because it was a big hit in the early 80s, and quite a few of my friends’ mothers cherished its every drop, along with Magie Noire, Fidji, Poison. Since my own mother preferred less sophisticated perfumes back then, my only hope of smelling these French beauties consisted of bribing my friends thereby instigating the Secret Smelling Sessions (which required some particular skill to avoid the wrath of the said mothers). The most vivid memory of J’Ai Ose takes me back to my high school years when a friend received a bottle as a gift from her boyfriend which I instantly applauded, selfishly interpreting the gesture as free access plus frequent application for my own persona.
When I open my imaginary Vintage Closet today, J’Ai Ose fills me with nothing but nostalgia for the scent and times long gone. J’Ai Ose can still be found today on various perfume discount sites (where I also obtained my mini of eau de parfum). Sadly, what I smell today does not ring true with my vision of it back then. What I smell today is a tailored, understated chypre tinged with jasmine, and I like it. But it’s somehow too rigid, too bitter, too reserved. I only hope it’s due to its age – quite often the base notes is the only thing you can smell with vintage scents. Reformulation is another possible reason which pains me to think about it. Sad as it might be, J’Ai Ose is miraculously alive in my memory. I can smell it so distinctly – daring, classy, and so grown up. It’s what I yearned to be back then… I close my closet with a quiet smile.
J’Ai Ose features the notes of jasmine, bergamot, vanilla, vetiver, musk, sandalwood.
Image source: parfumdepub.net
May 16th, 2007
By Tove Solander
Sometimes popular scents are imitated and the imitations sold cheaply under similar names. Sometimes great scents are imitated and the imitations sold expensively under completely different names. Today I’m writing about one case of the latter phenomenon. You may not agree the scents are practically dupes, and I don’t mean to accuse the niche houses in question of outright theft (I’m too postmodern to believe much in artistic originality anyway), but I know I’m not the only one to smell the similarities…
The first pair is the celebrated Parfum d’Empire Ambre Russe and Atelier d’Artiste from the infamous Nez à Nez. Here are the notes:
Ambre Russe: champagne, vodka, grey amber, incense, Russian tea, leather, cumin, cinnamon, coriander
Atelier d’Artiste: rum, cognac, black grape, cade, leaves of patchouli, roots of vetiver, raspberry, tobacco, coffee beans, vanilla, heliotrope, leather notes
Juxtaposing the notes like this I find to my surprise that they only have leather in common, but let’s roughly translate liquor with liquor, tea with coffee, and amber with the patchouli and vanilla combo. They’re both boozy, gourmandy orientals, full of adult treats.
The original: Well, you know this already, don’t you? Ambre Russe is such a great scent: deliciously gourmandy without being cloying, cozy without being boring, heavy on the amber without being a single note… It’s sweetly intoxicating, but saved from sugar hell by its powdery dryness. Dry ambers like this one remind me of desert sand and cookie crumbs, ever so slightly burnt. The leather is very subtle and refined, more like an added dryness which might honesty just as well be the tea note. Something in it is vaguely fruity to balance the dry notes; it reminds me of apple or tobacco or apple tobacco, but I’m guessing it might be the champagne.
The copy: In Atelier d’Artiste the balance is reversed. It has a similar ambery atmosphere, but the dryness is hidden underneath a hefty dose of anise/liquorice (the heliotrope?) and sugar, just like most of the line. Thankfully, I don’t get any berries. The leather is more pronounced and animalic like the manure note in Dzing! What else could you expect from an anything-but-subtle line like Nez à Nez? Dirty minded as I am I enjoy it. It’s what elevates this scent to something other than a poor Ambre Russe dupe. And better yet, the leather note evolves from downright dirty to cozy, old, worn leather. Pity there’s so much plasticky candy on top…
May 15th, 2007
Featured Perfumer is a new category on Aromascope inspired by an article in the June issue of the House and Garden magazine (page 52) about Olivia Giacobetti. Perfumery to me is art, the perfumer is the artist. Hence, I take deep interest and pleasure in learning more about my favorite perfumers and perfumers in general. I especially enjoy looking for distinctive, signature touches in their often diverse creations. Olivia Giacobetti is on my top 5 favorite perfumers list. What strikes me most about her fragrances is the emotional response they elicit. Be it the spicy chai latte drink of Tea For Two by L’Artisan Parfumeur, the succulent Indian dessert of Monsoon Season by Lisa Simon or the salty, wet wood of Preparation Parfumee by Andre Putman – the experience is unbelievably real and very personal. Her scents are never abstract – on the contrary, they’re often intensified interpretations of life. “But what does it take to distill the essence of a person through smell? Focus on detail. Imagination. A genius for interpreting nature.”
Olivia Giacobetti is the nose of the majority of scents in the L’Artisan Parfumeur collection (such as Navegar, Drole de Rose, Dzing!, Tea For Two, Premier Figuier, etc.) as well as Costes by Hotel Costes, Essence of John Galliano by Diptyque, En Passant by Frederic Malle, Hiris by Hermes, and others.
Image source: houseandgarden.com
May 14th, 2007
There’s a fascinating article about the creation of Angel in the Osmoz.com May newsletter. “While Angel may be one of the best-selling perfumes in the world today, its creators had to struggle every step of the way to make their dream come true.” It talks about the Angel’s Tour Truck (I had no idea it even existed!) that looks like a spaceship. In reference to my earlier post on the role of marketing in perfume, when it comes to Angel, I think the marketing approach is simply brilliant and is a huge contributor to the success of the fragrance. Angel is one of the few fragrances that I often feel tempted to get reunited with after simply seeing the bottle in a store or smelling its ingenuous aroma on others (as overpowering as it might be). I’ll leave you with just this for today as I go spritz on some Rose Angel.
Image source: parfumdepub.net
May 14th, 2007
Is it really Friday? My life has been super busy this week, and I apologize for my absence. The reason: our L’Artisan Parfumeur shop opened on Wednesday! If you’re in the area, please do drop by – we promise to make it worth your while. If you’re in distant lands, here’s a little glimpse:
The shop is located in the 900 Shops building, 900 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL, 60611 (level one).
I wish you all a happy, relaxing weekend! I hope to get used to my new schedule very soon and bring more reviews to Aromascope.
May 10th, 2007
In May’s issue of Perfumer & Flavorist there’s an excellent article called “Exposing The Perfumer” by Michelle Krell Kydd (pages 38 – 44). One particular quote that stood out to me is by Jean Guichard, the perfumer of Givaudan, who said, “Perfumery can be compared to painting. There are some masterpieces that we appreciate more when they have been explained to us, when we understand the context, the historical climate, the idea and the personal life of the painter. It is the same for some “complicated” perfumes, such as chypre ones. Some perfumes are simpler to understand, like citrus or floral ones, but we can’t impose olfactive education – the interest needs to come from a person. We can try to introduce a module in school as it is true that children are very perceptive and interested in odors … we can educate their “noses” and help them to be more expert choosing their products later”.
I don’t know about you but I’d send my child to a school that teaches perfumery in a heartbeat. Wouldn’t that be, like, totally cool?
May 9th, 2007
I’m experiencing a minor case of writer’s block, and instead of forcing myself too much, I want to share a quote I came across while reading my Perfume Legends book. Speaking of writing, there was a discussion yesterday on the fragrance discussion forum I frequent about whether perfume bloggers get paid by companies to write glowing reviews of their scents. This annoyed me a little but mostly cracked me up – I’d be seriously flattered to be approached by houses like Dior or Chanel to write for them. If that was the case, methinks they’d prefer a more profitable medium for such reviews as opposed to a perfume blog that has a fairly limited influence on the general public. However, such the case is not, and I hereby proclaim my complete autonomy – I write what I like and how I like it. In my almost one year existence, I’m yet to be approached by anybody with a monetary offer for a rave review. (It still cracks me up as I write it).
But back to that quote (and to not bore you any further), Suzanne Grayson, a beauty marketing analyst, said in “The Myth Of Fine Fragrance – American Cosmetics and Perfumery”, all the way back in 1972, “Fine fragrances are only something mystical for the perfumer himself, because he is on a quest for beauty, truth, love… The consumer, on the other hand, merely expects it to “smell good”. Marketing is what determines whether or not a perfume will join the ranks of the great products, or quietly vanish from the market. It’s up to marketing to put a very specific meaning into a fragrance”. What do you think – true or false?
May 7th, 2007
Pierre de Lune (Moonstone) was my fragrance of the day yesterday, a rediscovered beauty (sitting neglected in my drawer for months), and a big favorite that I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed yet. Pierre de Lune is part of the Armani Prive collection which now consists of five scents (Ambre Soie, Bois d’Encens, Eau de Jade, and Cuir Amethyste being the others), and, if memory doesn’t fail me, Armani was the first fashion house that introduced the modern exclusive collection concept which in turn produced quite a following. The marketing materials tell us the scents were devised with only Armani himself and his friends in mind, in other words, not for mass appeal. The price wasn’t an object, and the distribution limited to select stores. The more I delve into the world of perfume, the less susceptible I become to “a good marketing story” preferring to smell and judge for myself. Pierre de Lune appeals to me for its fragrance alone (and the bottle, especially the cap!), and that will not change even if I accidentally find out Signore Armani prefers it as his bathroom freshener. Prive or not, it’s one of my all time favorite violet scents.
The most appealing thing about Pierre de Lune is the smooth balance of powdery flowers and soft woods. I often wonder why so many people (in my experience, anyway) shun powder. I suppose it’s easy to associate it with old-fashioned face powders but even then, if blended well, why is it bad? Violet, iris, cassie flower (or mimosa), and rose often fall prey to such irrational disapproval. Violet, iris, and cassie flower are exactly what makes Pierre de Lune unbelievably appealing in a modern, understated way. When I spray Pierre de Lune, candied violet and dewy iris practically shimmer on my skin, with cassie flower appearing languidly adding certain bitterness to the powdery aroma. As the scent settles, the floral notes meld with sheer, translucent ambery woods (which is achieved by use of belambre, a synthetic molecule with soft ambery-woody aroma). Pierre de Lune has family ties with such scents as Apres l’Ondee by Guerlain, Mimosa Pour Moi by L’Artisan Parfumeur, Fleur de Cassie by Frederic Malle. I reach for it when I crave contemporary minimalism with a dose of old-fashioned elegance.
Pierre de Lune is available at select Nordstrom’s, Saks, and directly from Giorgio Armani Beauty online.
Image source: giorgioarmanibeauty.com
May 6th, 2007
It’s Neede In A Haystack time! Today Marina from Perfume-Smellin’ Things and myself are writing about samples we blindly picked from our sample boxes. I must say every time I’m about to put my hand into the sample box, I get excited like a little kid in an amusement park at one of those stands where you get to throw a ball in hopes of winning a prize (is there a word for it?). Thing is, most of the time I end up with a sample I’m not that thrilled about, much like I was never lucky at winning anything at those stands (what a rip-off for kids!) OK, perhaps I should clarify: I’m only not too thrilled about obscure samples, although I do welcome the challenge. By the way, the image to the left is, once again, Marina’s concoction. We’re getting more and more scantily clad, and I’m starting to worry. But back to the challenge at hand! Today’s pick is Madame Koko by Yosh.
When Madame Koko came out (about 2 years ago, I believe), it was only available at Luckyscent and SFJazz. It was created by one of my favorite perfumers, Yosh Han, specifically for a jazz festival. I believe the scent has been discontinued as I wasn’t able to find it on either sites. Madame Koko is a perfume oil, with excellent staying power and decent development on skin. It features the notes of gardenia, Casablanca lily, Turkish rose, pink pepper, coconut, coriander, green cognac, and chocolate. One of the reasons I love Yosh Han’s creations is their complexity which is not very common for perfume oils. Madame Koko, while extremely appealing, seems to be a bit more straightforward – it’s a blend of dewy gardenia and lily on my skin. I’d even say it’s a green, almost soapy floral – the dewiness is present all the way evoking images of not just flowers alone but also stems and leaves. For better or worse, my nose detects no coconut, coriander or chocolate, with perhaps some traces of mild spiciness in the very drydown (which also creates a dirty undertone). In my book, Madame Koko stands next to my other favorite Monyette Paris (which could be a distant cousin minus the Nag Champa) and another Yosh creation, Stargazer. While I quite like the scent, I don’t bemoan its disappearance too much for my sample will last me a long time.
Please be sure to check Marina’s catch of the day.
Image source: courtesy Mrs. Colombina, barneys.com
May 3rd, 2007
Images from cartoonbank.com, cartoonstock.com
May 2nd, 2007
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