Archive for June, 2007
Just as I thought I was all lemming-free, here comes the rain - the new Quand Vient La Pluie (When The Rain Comes) by Guerlain. According to Osmoz.com, it’s composed as a “prose poem”, “a fresh, powdery-ambry melody built around heliotrope and violet, with nuances of rosemary, praline and sambac jasmine”. Quite a versatile array of notes, and I’m a bit sceptical on that praline note. The perfumer is Thierry Wasser (Dior Addict, Lancome Hypnose as well as Iris Ganache, another new release by Guerlain), and the bottle is “the shape of a raindrop set upside-down on a base etched with the veins of a leaf” (the picture doesn’t really do it justice, it seems). Available at Maison Guerlain - whether it’ll arrive in the U.S., I’m not sure.
June 11th, 2007
There’re several perfumers whose works I adore (Olivia Giacobetti, Pierre Bourdon, Michel Roudnitska, to name a few) but there’s only one who resonates with me the most - Francis Kurkdjian. Not only is he exceptionally gifted but also quite renown for his young age - the author of such a big hit as Le Male by Jean Paul Gaultier at the mere age of 25 and the recipient of the Francois Coty Prize for Lifetime Achievement as a perfume designer. All the awards aside, Francis Kurkdjian to me is first and foremost an artist whose creations touch me on a personal level and reciprocate - I love them, and they love me back. To borrow the quote from his web site - “perfume as a work of art is a transmitted expression of intimacy”.
French of Armenian heritage, Francis Kurkdjian learned perfumery at the International Institute of Perfume, Cosmetics and Flavors and has worked at Quest International and Takasago (a leading Japanese fragrance company). In 2001, he created his own atelier of custom made perfumes. If I could ever afford to have a custom perfume made for me, he’d be my perfumer of choice (a girl can dream).
I have categorized Francis Kurkdjian’s creations into two main groups: The Glorious Rose and Something Completely Different.
The Glorious Rose: I absolutely adore what he does with the rose. In my pre-Kurkdjian years, my notion of a good rose perfume consisted of a true-to-life, straightforward, honeyed rose along the lines of the famous Bulgarian rose oil. Kurkdjian takes the rose for a total spin: Rose Barbare by Guerlain (a perfect modern day chypre!) is a rose with thorns and proud of it; Lady Vengeance by Juliette Has A Gun - a deeply sensual, intense rose; Rose de Siwa by Parfums MDCI - a radiant, glowing queen. I’m yet to try the new Ferre Rose by Gianfranco Ferre which promises to be a fruity-floral (yes, I know, but it’s Kurkdjian!) rose.
Something Completely Different: simply put, exploring new dimensions in perfume. The scents in this category are my ever so cherished Eau Noire and Cologne Blanche by Christian Dior, Isvaraya by Indult, and the burning papers Papier d’Armenie with the most soothing scent (incense, myrrh, vanilla). These fragrances have become part of my human existence (cheesy, I know, but there you have it), and I’ll never want to be without them.
Other Francis Kurkdjian’s creations include:
Iris Nobile by Acqua di Parma, 2004
Green Tea by Elizabeth Arden, 1999
Mania by Armani, 2002
Fragile by Jean Paul Gaultier, 1999
Fleur de Male by Jean Paul Gaultier, 2007
Miracle Homme by Lancome, 2001
Lily Chic by Escada, 2000
Rumeur by Lanvin, 2006
Kouros Cologne Sport by Yves Saint Laurent, 2004
Papier d’Armenie, 2006
Sillage de la Reine, 2006
Silver Shadow by Davidoff, 2005
Narciso Rodriguez For Her (co-signed with Christine Nagel), 2003
Narciso Rodriguez For Him, 2007
Image source: parfums-et-aromes.com
June 11th, 2007
The legendary Opium by Yves Saint Laurent is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The house has created an interactive web site for the Opium fans featuring the history of its creation, ingredients, and various fun activities like creating your own Opium bottle. Check it out!
Image source: osmoz.com
June 10th, 2007
I’ve been playing with various samples this week, mostly digging through my sample boxes for scents I wanted to revisit. I came across quite a few Montale samples (I’ve always liked Montale creations in general but the fascination has been off and on), and I couldn’t help but notice once again how most of them are pretty linear fragrances. Linear doesn’t always mean bad, as long as it’s got some character. I played with several Montales: Aoud Cuir d’Arabie, Ta’if, Aoud Damascus, Aoud Velvet, Black Aoud (am currently in major love with this one). While some are more complex than others, a few are positively straightforward, and by that I mean not only the linear quality but moreso what one thing/concept each particular scent represents. You get what you see, plain and simple. For instance, Ta’if is all roses and honey, from top to bottom, while Aoud Cuir d’Arabie is a leather purse. Neither really go anywhere on my skin, they just sit there unapologetically making a silent but solemn statement as if saying, “Well, that’s what we are. Take it or leave it”. And I take it because I do like well-done, intriguing straightforward perfumes. Today’s topic is my rambling on the subject as well as a sort of a query: what other perfumes are straightforward and good? What about straightforward and not so good? The first brand that instantly pops in my mind is Demeter. Needless to say, the names speak for themselves: Play-Doh, Laundramat, Dirt, Ginger Ale, Fuzzy Navel (?!), Waffle Cone, and the like. I view them as objects of entertainment for the sheer pleasure of olfactory images more than scents I’d put on my skin. Same goes with all the versions of Clean perfume. Comme des Garcons is another line that seems to favor straightforwardness: its Sweet Series is quite fascinating, with such evocative and wearable scents as Wood Coffee, Sticky Cake, Burnt Sugar (same goes for their Incense series).
What perfumes are straightforward to you - good and not so good?
June 7th, 2007
Exciting news from Ormonde Jayne: in November, the brand will launch its new website in the USA with next day delivery for all its American admirers. Also new in November, Orris Noir will be available in three different ways: Parfum d’Or Naturel, Essential Bathing Oil, and Large Scented Candle. Parfum d’Or Naturel is made of natural sugars mixed with perfume and gold, and is alcohol-free. Essential Bathing Oil has been reformulated and is now free of mineral oils, artificial colors, sulphates, petrochemicals, and parabens. It also contains orchid oil extract, vitamin E, and 15% pure essence. I’m super thrilled about this and am about to go put on some Orris Noir.
Image source: ormondejayne.com
June 6th, 2007
This year is proving to be quite prolific in terms of fragrance releases, and, while I’ve developed a rather sceptical attitude towards most new perfumes these days, there’re a few pleasant exceptions. Here’s a list of what I’m intrigued by and am anxious to smell:
Boudoir Sin Garden by Vivienne Westwood. From Osmoz.com: “an invitation to hide and seek in an English country garden” (*raised eyebrows*). I quite like the original Boudoir, so I’m hoping Sin Garden will appeal as well. I also quite like the notes, with the exception of the first two: freesia, pink pepper, aldehydes, violet, heliotrope, orris, amber, sandalwood, oakmoss, musk.
M Moi by Mauboussin. Saffron, ivy, currant, orange blossom, narcissus, ambrette, cashmere wood, white ambe, musk. I used to wear the original Mauboussin (which is highly underrated, by the way) - a very wearable, sophisticated patchouli scent. M Moi sounds like it has good potential. My prediction is it won’t be widely distributed in the U.S. (online discounters will come to rescue, no doubt).
Matthew Williamson Collection: Jasmin Sambac, Incense, Lotus, Warm Sand. Matthew Williamson has already sent us over the moon once with the original Incense, then smashed us on the ground with its discontinuation, then smashed us again with the arid Matthew Williamson perfume. What will it do now, with all four? I’m hoping at least Incense and Warm Sand will be noteworthy.
First Love by Van Cleef & Arpels. The classic First perfume was created by Jean-Claude Ellena, and the perfumer of First Love is Christophe Raynaud. Osmanthus, mandarin, peony, ylang-ylang, orchid, amber, vanilla, patchouli - it doesn’t really sound like me but I’m still intrigued, perhaps due to my appreciation of First. I hear it’s similar to (shudder) Flowerbomb. Please spare me.
Eau Sauvage Fraicheur Cuir by Christian Dior. I love, love, love the original Eau Sauvage! Anything good is better with “cuir” - OK, maybe not always but I can still hope. This version is said to be spicier, with more cedar, and “an ambery leather accord that is “masculine but not animalic” (Osmoz.com) Notes: lemon, hedione, herbs, cedar, chypre accord, amber, leather. Fraicheur Cuir will be a limited edition scent.
Vivara by Pucci: the relaunch of the classic 1966 chypre. I’m especially intrigued by the “more modern chypre” statement. Chypre, you say? It takes guts to make one these days, and I truly hope Vivara will stay true to its classic character. Needless to say, the bottle is beyond gorgeous. Notes: galbanum, bergamot, amaretto accord, jasmine, orange blossom, narcissus, iris, vetiver, patchouli.
What new releases tickle your fancy?
June 6th, 2007
By Donna Hathaway
My favorite time of day is late afternoon to early evening – more specifically, twilight, dusk, the “Blue Hour”, the gloaming, whatever you prefer to call it. It is the magic hour when everything feels suspended in time, though it passes far too quickly anyway. When I was a child I though it would be wonderful to live in the tropics, with warm breezes and palm trees. I thought the sunsets there would be even more wonderful than they are in New England in the summertime, where I grew up. Then I found out that he closer you are to the equator, the faster the sun goes down – night falls quickly like a curtain coming down, and it’s all over, and then it’s just dark. I was very disappointed, but also a bit sorry for people who lived there. “What are you saying – they don’t have dusk?” After that I felt better about being “stuck” in a temperate zone, even one that got far too cold in the winter.
One wonderful thing about dusk is that it is the witching hour for many fragrant plants. My first memory of this phenomenon was of a New England native plant that is commonly call Sweet Fern, though it in fact not a fern at all but a small, nondescript shrub named Comptonia peregrina with somewhat fern-like leaves that lives in poor, sandy soil, often near pine trees, and would attract no attention to itself at all but for one thing: its leaves are imbued with a fragrant volatile oil that is released on warm summer evenings. If you find a plant, the sweet odor can be obtained by crushing the leaves, but only on warm summer nights does it give the scent to the air. My family would be out for a drive to cool off after a hot, humid day, and as we passed certain areas near the woods there would the most wonderful aroma, hay-like and sweet, profoundly refreshing and even bracing, yet not minty at all, just extremely, intensely herbal. I would stick my head out of the car window like a little dog on these drives, drinking it all in. Of course, there were other summer scents in my childhood too, but the memory of this is very strong.
As an adult with my own garden, I became fascinated with night-blooming flowers. I was always working during the day, and when I was home in the evening I had my only chance to enjoy the garden. By then, the most colorful reds, purples and oranges disappear into the shadows, and the sun-loving roses begin to shut down their scent factories. I started out with night-scented stock (Matthiola bicornis), a tiny, fragile-looking relative of the fat, double florist’s variety. This little gem is in the cress family, a relative of cabbage and broccoli. Like its edible cousins, it has small flowers arranged on slender spikes. During the day, its pale, washy mauve blossoms droop and look listless in the bright light. Then a most marvelous transformation occurs when the sun starts to set. The plant seems to draw itself up, the little flowers straighten out and open wide, and an intoxicating fragrance fills the night. It is extremely sweet and candy-like, like a heliotrope on steroids. It lasts a good long time until full darkness, when the show is over. Plant it under a window on the shady side of the house that stays open at night and it will fill the house with its perfume.
After this discovery, I searched for fragrant plants that would grow in my zone, which is now the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. (It is at about the same latitude as New England, so the summer evenings are just as long.) Ornamental tobaccos caught my attention. The most photogenic one is Nicotiana sylvestris, the woodland tobacco, with its huge lyre-shaped leaves and long white tubular flowers giving off a cool scent in the evening. Much more powerfully fragrant, however, is Nicotiana alata, the aptly named Jasmine Tobacco, with bigger flowers and a more lax growth habit. It needs support, unlike the freestanding Nicotiana sylvestris, but its perfume is stupefyingly rich and sweet. It blooms from May to November here, and can even live over winter when protected from heavy freezes. Like the little stock flowers, these droop all day and come alive at night.
My favorite flowers of all are lilies, and though not all are fragrant, the ones that are become markedly more so at night. This is the time of year for the Madonna lilies to send their alabaster spikes up, and the sight of these in bright moonlight is unforgettable. A little later comes Lilium regale with its jasmine-and-spice aroma, then in July comes the heavy, honeyed perfume of the later trumpet lilies. In late July and August the Oriental lilies put on a similar show. Then there are other delights such as fragrant African gladiolus, four-o-clocks, night phlox (actually Zaluzianskya), tuberose, gardenia, and petunias. If you take the time to look for them, there are many very fragrant petunias. My favorite is Supertunia Priscilla, a violet and white veined double that exudes a strong fragrance even during the day; at night it’s simply superb. What we call night-blooming jasmine is not a true jasmine at all (Cestrum nocturnum), and the flowers carry a hint of poisonous danger in their intoxicating perfume, so heady that it is unbearable indoors. ( I adore it, of course.) Then there are the moonflower vines, unfurling milky white saucers before your eyes as darkness falls, and giving off a soft, sweet aroma as light as the air itself.
This brings me to why this is so, and the title of the article; many plants are pollinated by creatures that fly at night. No bees or butterflies for these nocturnal blooms, but moths and other little winged things visit them. Most night-scented blooms are white or pale in color in order to be seen more easily, but they must have other ways of being found. So they send forth the perfume that attracts the beasties that will spread their pollen around, offering them sweet nectar as even more enticement. In the case of moths, the females of some species give off a sweet odor to attract the males. Since they can’t be seen at night either, they are basically putting on sexy perfume! The plants are just mimicking that for their own needs, adapting and evolving over the millions of years since flowering plants first appeared; hence the insects, and us, are merely their servants, as we encourage them to grow in our gardens and they quietly but effectively ensure their survival by pleasing humans with something that furthers their own agendas. Our olfactory pleasure is just a sideshow to the main event.
Image source: Night Blooming Jasmine from almostedenplants.com
June 5th, 2007
Courtesan by Worth came out in 2005 following the relaunch of the the vintage gem Je Reviens by the house of Worth. It was created by Pierre Bourdon “to recreate the spirit and tradition of Parisian Courtesans of old.” March at Perfume Posse wrote an excellent review of Courtesan, and it’s thanks to her I’ve had the opportunity to smell this amazing fragrance. Interestingly enough, it is also my introduction to the house of Worth - I’m now determined to try as many of the other perfumes as possible, especially Je Reviens.
Courtesan strikes me as a full spectrum contemporary scent with distinct hints of the past. It’s ultimately a fruity floral but done so right it leaves no room for criticism. The list of notes alone promises a rich, complex blend, and such it is. Courtesan seems to undergo a reverse development on my skin: its beginning is sumptuously lavish and dense while the drydown is sheer and thin. The top notes create a liquor-like feel - fruit drenched in cinnamon in the style of Fendi Theorema. The heart is marked by a luscious bouquet of flowers underlined by soft, peachy sweetness. The drydown is less complex and sort of stripped away, leaving nothing but velvety, mouth-watering fruity (think raspberry souffle!) musk that reminds me of the outwardly brutal Muscs Koublai Khan’s more angelic, lovable nature. Courtesan possesses a quiet, unobtrusive sillage reminiscent of the wafting smell of lipstick. I’m truly mesmerized by it and would like to find a way to obtain a bottle.
Courtesan features the notes of cinnamon, cardamom, clove, pineapple, red berries, bergamot, orange blossom, magnolia, jasmine, rose, sandalwood, peach, caramel, raspberry, chocolate, cocoa beans, amber, vanilla, musk. As far as I know, it’s currently availabe only in select U.K. shops such as Harrod’s, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges. For more U.K. retailer info, please check this page.
Image source: worthparis.com
June 4th, 2007
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