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May 2006 Archive
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The house of Monin, world-famous for its high quality flavored syrups and extensive selection, of sometimes, unusual fragrances for the palate such as pistachio or roasted chestnut syrups, has developed a line of gourmet syrups composed of flower scents called Le Bouquet de Monin. Pushing the limits of our gustative habits and inviting us to taste what flowers smell like, Monin offers us a selection of four, apparently, delectable fragrances for us to pour in our drinks or use in our food; they are, violet syrup, jasmine syrup, rose syrup, and finally, lavender syrup. An elder flower syrup is also available in France but doesn't appear to be marketed in the US. Monin is responding to a popular contemporary trend in cuisine which makes use of edible flowers. Their site proposes recipes to make use of the flowery scents, such as violet milk shake or mozarella marinated in violet syrup, a shrimp and salmon quiche with Monin rose, a lavender Martini, or simply a hot jasmine tea. I, personally, would be tempted to use them in sorbet recipes.
Recipes for Le Bouquet de Monin The syrups can be purchased in the United States for $5.38 at Eurocafé Imports LLC Photos are from the Monin website
As a follow-up to yesterday's post, I'm proposing the recipe of a Violet Lavender Sorbet made with real flowers. The source is Edible Flowers -- Desserts and Drinks by Cathy Wilkinson Barash. Book is available here from Amazon.com. The recipe was tried at least by one person on recipezaar.com and she thinks highly of it; she also simplifies it. Here it is:
Continue reading "Fragrant Recipe: Violet Lavender Sorbet" »
 The other day, while trying to conjure up the memory of some of my best-loved hot-weather fragrances of the past, I suddenly remembered Eau de Patou by Patou. How could I have forgotten it, neglected it? It is one of the best hesperidic fragrances that I know of and also one of the best fragrances I've encountered, period. Why? Because it is a superbly fresh fragrance with a definite presence, character, allure, and sophistication. It was created by Jean Kerléo, the then official nose for the house of Patou, who introduced it in 1976. I believe it was reissued in 1991. Sadly, it is now discontinued and hard to find.
Jean Patou is well-known for having introduced the sportswear look for women, having even commercialized the very first tanning oil effective against sunburn in 1927, l'Huile de Chaldée, at a time when tan was becoming fashionable under the influence of Coco Chanel. He also created the knitted swimsuit look and designed the fundamentals of what we have come to consider are the typical tennis or yachting gears. Eau de Patou keeps in line with this philosophy; the blue line on its bottle is a reference to a marine, yachting theme. It is however also a very sexy feminine scent and could be worn both to compliment a casual look or a dressed-up one. May I add that it works very well in a hot, humid climate. I used to wear it in tropical Thailand and I can only remember that it stays faithfully with you, developping beautifully on your skin.
The immediate two dominant notes for me are the citron from Sicily spiced up with pepper, blended together with nasturtium, further refreshed by oranges from Guinea and rounded off by petitgrain. The sexiness comes from the ylang-ylang, the animalic notes, and the spice. There is also rose and sweet honeysuckle in it. It mellows down to a warm base of musk, amber, and moss. Some detect civet and labdanum in it too. It is a wonderful scent that has remained popular despite its disappearance from perfume counters.
On May 14, I will be able to give away a 1 oz bottle of it to the lucky winner of a drawing. I will be fundraising for the Orphan Foundation of America as part of the Benevolent Blogging charity event organized by Katie from Scentzilla and will donate $1 for each comment that you leave under a specific post that I will put up on Mother's day.
Advertisement image is from Images de Parfums
The First Jasmines Ah, these jasmines, these white jasmines!
I seem to remember the first day when I filled my hands
with these jasmines, these white jasmines. I have loved the sunlight, the sky and the green earth;
I have heard the liquid murmur of the river
through the darkness of midnight;
Autumn sunsets have come to me at the bend of the road
in the lonely waste, like a bride raising her veil
to accept her lover.
Yet my memory is still sweet with the first white jasmines
that I held in my hands when I was a child. Many a glad day has come in my life,
and I have laughed with merrymakers on festival nights. On grey mornings of rain
I have crooned many an idle song. I have worn round my neck the evening wreath of
BAKULAS woven by the hand of love. Yet my heart is sweet with the memory of the first fresh jasmines
that filled my hands when I was a child. The Crescent Moon Note: The reference here is to jasmine sambac which is prevalent in India.
Despite a dislocated ankle, Maria Sharapova is in Mexico today for the launch of her new fragrance called, Maria Sharapova, in all simplicity...
Continue reading "New Perfume: Maria Sharapova, The Fragrance" »
 •Although Serge Lutens Chypre Rouge Haute Concentration is officially slated to be released in September-October 2006, it will be available in a few specialized perfume stores in Paris by the end of July. A 15 ml purse atomizer will be offered with the purchase of your Chypre Rouge bottle since this is a Haute Concentration perfume. •A new fragrance is in the works at Givenchy; it is inspired by the daughter of French Prime Minister, Marie de Villepin. It has been tentatively called Bourgeois. •Perles de Lalique, a floral chypre, is slated to come out in May or June 2006 in both edp and extract concentrations. The design of the bottle is inspired by a creation by Rene Lalique, la boite a poudre Cactus. The bottle for the extract will be in crystal. Notes are: rose, black pepper, iris, patchouli, Cashmere wood...
•A new Agent Provocateur fragrance called Eau Emotionnelle will be introduced in June 2006 in Great Britain. It has notes of pink pepper, wine dregs, white tea, osmanthus, cedar wood, musk...
 I am inaugurating a new column and in it, I will offer information about travel intineraries, promenades, and places that are perfume-related.
The search for perfumes leads to travel in time and the discovery of new imaginary geographies that are enhanced by the spatial setting, the place in which we may find ourselves. Oftentimes we may think that the experience of a fragrance is limited to the liquid art form itself, then perhaps sometimes extending our perception to the bottle in which it is contained as the architectural form that gives shape to fluidity and transiency incarnate. But we cannot stop there, for if, we become conscious of the influence emanating from one's physical environment and which impresses itself on our thoughts and emotions, then we become aware that the perfume, as an object to be seen, apprehended, and not simply inhaled, is contained in a room, a space ot its own. At the same time, the scent will open up the confined limits of that particualr space and tear down the wall of that particular room, for we are transported elsewhere, while being irremediably present.
In the 17th century, special perfume drawing rooms were created to, not only attract a clientele of perfume connoisseurs, but also to have them stop their steps and engage in the sensory plenitude of a reserved space dedicated to the cultivation of the fifth sense as well as to the visual, tactile pleasure of holding bottles and aesthetic contemplation. Conversations in these "Salons de parfums" were lively too. Today, we can see a distant echo of that more complete, elegant, and insightful practice in the design of a Maître Gantier & Parfumeur store or of an Annick Goutal store.
But we do not need to rely solely on a pre-designed architecture, we can also mentally compose that geography of desire, following paths, taking the road, meandering through the streets, and stopping at last in scented havens of our own choosing. We may also stroll in gardens or near fields and in doing so associate promenades, spaces and scents more closely. We thus become connected to the world in ways richer and fuller, imagining and remembering and searching, always. My scented address of the day is a store address: Parfums de Capucine, 18, rue des Capucines, Paris 2ème. Tel: 01.42.96.02.46. This store specializes in niche perfumes and hard-to-find vintage fragrances.
"Retro perfumes put us back in touch with who we are at the deepest level, and for this reason they are of great value. (...) In the face of contemporary uniformity, they offer the imagination of a fragrance, their tenacity upon the skin, their capacity to surprise, their evolving notes...they place a bet on personality"
April 28, 2006
 Violetta di Parma by Borsari is a singularly understated masterpiece, yet a true gem. Its fragrance evokes a sentiment of perfection. It is and cannot be anything more beyond itself. It is a deeply satisfying scent in my opinion.
How many hours, years, attention, intuition, and sums of intelligence were devoted to reaching this accomplishment, this materpiece of psychological maturity applied to the art of perfumery? One would need to research the archives of the Convento dell'Annunciata in Parma and/or those of the ducal palace of Colorno to understand how the frati worked in collaboration with Maria Luigia of Austria, Duchess of Parma to obtain this subtle violet scent.
The perfume is the result of a woman's deep passion for a flower ranging from its scent to its color. We are told that prior to going to Italy to claim her duchy in 1815 she wrote from Austria to her lady-in-waiting in Paris to ask her to procure the flowers in advance, plant them, and make them bloom announcing her intention to engage in the study of botany. Like many of her contemporaries Maria Luigia or Marie-Louise in French (for she was the second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte) was wild about violets but it seems in this case to a degree unparalleled. Many years later, in 1870, Ludovico Borsari succeeded in prying from the hands of the frati dell'Annunciata the secret formula of her beloved perfume and his company has been producing it ever since then. Violetta di Parma starts from a medium-high point suspending its first fresh transparent accord in the air; it is evocative of fern soon revealing small violet flowers coming to the fore and distillating their sweetness in the middle of all the verdancy. It then evokes the fragrance emanating from a few fresh leaves being sensually crushed against each others in the hands of a walker pausing for a moment in the midst of a forest to absorb more profoundly the scents of the trees and of the humid earth. We imagine dewy leaves carpeting the soil of that forest, sometimes sticking themselves onto the walker's shoes at other times falling back onto the ground. We hear the rustling noise made by leaves brushing against the silken hem of a dress. It is cool and it is very early in the morning.
The perfume then becomes gradually deeper and softer, warmer, very slightly peppery, a tinge of it really. The perfume goes on to follow its course, becoming subter and subtler until almost achieving..........dematerialization, becoming non-existent. Disappointment may emerge at first. However soon enough you will discover that the scent did not leave your skin, it is still there albeit almost imperceptibly so. It is just taking a pause, gathering its forces after the initial burst of sensations.
Now, this is where Violetta di Parma reveals its true nature as a masterpiece in my opinion. I have never encountered a perfume that almost extinguishes itself in such a deliberate way and then comes back, like a tide, as an even deeper, warmer and more radiant fragrance. It is sphynx-like, a mythical human interpretation and understanding of the cycle of life and nature, of light and obscurity, of softly spoken words and silence succeeding to it, one in which one can only hear one's heart beat. If you do not smell it, you cannot see it. It is a moment of nakedness, blankness, and utter simplicity.
The first time I wore it I mistakingly thought that my skin, alas, was quenching its thirst by drinking in all the essence contained in the perfume. But then to my surprise I realized perhaps twenty minutes into wearing it that the most beautiful, elegant, and sensual fragrance was scenting the air again around me. Could it be so? Yes, it was unmistakingly developing and evolving further now revealing all of its beauty made more achingly beautiful by the modesty it had revealed and the longing it had provoked. It does unexpectedly so and for a long time as it is tenacious and persistent while maintaining an aura of discretion, softness and subtlety. A veritable tour de force. The creation of a hiatus in this fragrance for me is a mystery. Is it the natural effect of violet essence which is known to put olfactory nerves to sleep, so that one has to smell violets by approaching and then taking away a bouquet of violets further away from one's nose? Or is this natural effect artfully created so as to recreate the phenomenology of the smelling of violets? Is it illustrative of the violet flower's symbolic modesty? Or another possibility yet, is this fragrance imparted a meditative dimension of silence and quiet, unconsciously reflecting the spiritual convent atmosphere of dell'Annunciata? I would like to think so. The fact remains that no additional busy notes were added to cover that moment of retreat of the senses, perhaps another allusion to an experience of religiosity based upon a life of retreat from the world thereby provoking a retreat of the senses through the moral experience of abandonment and chastity.
Be it what it may this highly unusual trait emphasizes the depth of the perfume, its insistence on substance rather than appearance; vulgar, cheap, and showy it is not. You will find it at the other end of the spectrum. That sense of an olfactory pause mimicking muteness and silence is truly rare and precious, unique.
The drydown is again, what other word could we use, beautiful, tanto bellissimo, ever so slightly powdery and creamy, but mostly woody, yet, keeping the transparency, the freshness of a forest brook all along. With time only the fresh stream of transparent water remains. It is a supremely elegant perfume, one that conveys an aristocratic sense of simplicity. I warmly recommend it and think that it should be made part of every odalaphile's collection.
You can find a 3.4 oz spray bottle with atomizer for $35.01 at 99perfume and a 1.6 oz spray bottle without an atomizer for $34 at Luckyscent. As a curiosity, I will post separately a picture of a bouquet of violettes from ca. 1815 containing a secret.
Here's the image I mentioned in my review of Violetta di Parma below.
This is a picture of a bouquet of violettes which has a secret meaning. If you look at the picture attentively, you will soon see three profiles appearing in the midst of the bouquet; they represent Marie Louise (Maria Luigia), Napoleon, and Charles, the King of Rome at three years old. Violets were popular flowers, but in this case they came to symbolise the Bonapartist cause. Violets were brandished as political symbols of support for the return of Napoleon to the throne and later, for the return of a member of its family to government. Up until 1874, it was subjected to government regulations of its image for this very reason. This picture is based on an engraving by Canu from 1815 and was called "caporal violette" as it constituted a not so secret allusion to Bonaparte who had been a corporal and had sported violets after the capitulation of Paris to symbolise his planned comeback. He assured his supporters that he would be back by the time that the violets would bloom, that is, in the spring (in March usually). His supporters would be in the habit of toasting him, holding their glasses to caporal violette. It takes a little while to distinguish the three profiles; the hardest part for me was to find the King of Rome! Please click on the thumbnail. Photo and info are from www.funfou.com
"Perfume is nothing other than touch felt from a distance"
Pamplelune is part of the Aqua Allegoria line and was composed by nose Mathilde Laurent who is also the creator of Shalimar Light (the 2003 version) and of Attrape-Coeur. It was launched in 1998. Pamplelune offers an original variation on the grapefruit theme. It is a fresh and sophisticated fragrance with a marked presence, some may say, too marked a presence. It is not as light and fruity as some of the other Allegorias. This scent contains certain asperities and it does not compromise with pleasantness.  The perfume opens up with a burst of acidic, juicy grapefruit enhanced by other citrus notes like bergamot and petit grain. Some dryness is immediately apparent, I can smell light, dry touches of patchouli. I also detect some mint. Next, the perfume becomes rounder, sweeter, fruitier and a little flowery with the neroli and the blackcurrant notes becoming most apparent to my nose. Then, the sweetness starts receding and a more acrid, austere accord emerges with the fruity grapefruit still in the background but now softened down. It is at this stage that the sulphurous note that is natural to grapefruit and blackcurrant makes its presence felt. The perfumer has chosen to emphasize this aspect of the fruits rather than suppress it, unlike the choice made for Eau Fantasque by Fragonard which also contains both these notes. It is a very astringent and dry, even acrid note, that is not unpleasant, but certainly not "easy." Luca Turin proposed a small experiment where he suggested we should try smelling garlic and Pamplelune side by side to catch a whiff of the common sulphur note. Out of curiosity I decided to follow his suggestion and did perceive the kinship between the two but I must say that despite this, I would not say that Pamplelune reminds me of garlic or spring onion.
However, Pamplelune does evoke B.O. to me as the drydown progresses. It makes me think of natural musk but since this note is not mentioned, it looks like it is the result of an accord. This odor is very present and becomes more pronounced as the drydown evolves.
Pamplelune is a difficult fragrance to wear in the context of the "deodorized society" in which we live nowadays in the West where body odors are supposed to be masked, and an agreable, non-offensive, scented barrier put between you and the rest of society. This trend I would say is particularly strong in the US where the acronym B.O. perfectly illustrates the deep fear most people have of smelling a little too natural that is, bad. In 17th century France, for example, it was not so, people wore perfumes to enhance their natural body odor according to cultural historian Alain Corbin, hence a marked taste for animalic scents such as amber, musk, and civet. Personally, I like Pamplelune because I find it interesting. It goes against the grain of current societal preferences and affirms a personality of its own. Out of the many Guerlain fragrances I smelled one afternoon at their counter, this one stood out (together with Mouchoir de Monsieur and Angélique Noire). I had the opportunity to sniff Grosellina and Tutti Kiwi that same day and didn't like nor hated them. Earlier today I stopped by The Body Shop and tested their new Rose Cassis. Well, my conclusion is that between smelling controversial and smelling cute (and sickeningly banal in this case), I'll choose the controversial perfume anytime. Notes are: California Grapefruit, Italian Bergamot, Neroli, Petitgrain, Black Currant, Patchouli, Vanilla.
You can find a 4.2 oz bottle of Pamplelune for $33.73 at Amazon.com
There is a review of Pamplelune by Cait Shortell available here on Legerdenez
Philippe Di Méo is a French designer, the founder of the RESO Multidesign agency and R'Aliment. In 2005, Di Méo undertook an innovative project in association with Quest International which aimed at creating three different perfumes based on three different excretions of the body. This line was called "(My) Liquid" in reference to those particular bodily fluids we excrete such as, in this case, sweat, tears, and saliva. These very intimate liquids were selected as they were viewed as being the most emotional of our bodily fluids. Philippe Di Méo has said that he had grown progressively tired of the tabooization of body odors and liquids that he felt one was subjected to in contemporary society and that he wanted to counteract that mainstream orientation with his creations. He is therefore inviting us to think differently about these physiological regulative events that are the natural expressions of human emotions and that we usually try to tone down or hide in public. As stated by RESO, "(My) LIQUID, reveals an intense olfactory state, a biological juice related to an experienced emotion. Mixed with one's skin, it becomes a unique emulsion, a human and intimate perfume, of one's true nature." The three perfumes called Larmes, Salive, and Sueur were conceived as three different types of "water", each having a different emotional attribution. Tears represented "eye water" and constituted the perfume of Being Moved, saliva was "mouth water" and was the perfume of Lust, sweat was seen as the "body water" and constituted the perfume of Excitement. The perfumers for Salive are Christel Bergoin and Jean-Pascal Osmont; the perfume was evaluated by Caroline Dulon. For Larmes the team was composed of Frédérique Lecoeur and Alexandra Kosinski and Karine Dupas evaluated the scent. Sueur was created by perfumers HeeSoon Oh and Sébastien Lienhart and evaluated by Bibiana Lim. Notes for the Sweat perfume are, among others, cumin, spices, and smoke... Philippe Di Méo was also considering producing perfume patches of these scents. They are sold in spas in France.
"Atlas cedar smells of churned wet clay, but also of warm human skin, of bodies after lovemaking. I like putting something human into a perfume. Nowadays, a lot of them smell clean, as if they were at war with the smells around us." Terre d'Hermès: Top: Grapefruit and orange*. Heart: Gunflint, flint, peppers, pink peppercorn, geranium leaves and patchouli. Base: Atlas cedar, vetiver and gum benjamin. *Note: There's no "real" orange in the top note - Ellena had a note created which had no hint of something edible, it was just pure sparkle. Source: Cosmetics
This year, in April 2006, the Guerlain perfume house released an extremely limited edition of a new fragrance called "Muguet" (Lily of the Valley) created solely for the purpose of marking the celebration of the 1st of May 2006. It is a reinterpretation of the original "Muguet" by the same house which was introduced 100 years ago, in 1906. Only 190 bottles were released for just one day, on April 29, and were exclusively sold in the Guerlain stores in Paris. The price was 130 Euros for a 30 ml bottle. Muguet was composed by Jean-Paul Guerlain. The bottle was made in a Louis the XVI style.
Notes include lily of the valley, jasmin, Turkish rose, lemon, and sandalwood. You can still be part of its history; a bottle is available on eBay for $299-350. The new version of Muguet
The old version of Muguet
May 2006 Archive
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