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May 2006 Archive
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After Eau de Stilton, another interesting perfume concept is explored here. A new perfume created to embody the profession of firefighter, a profession composed of many volunteers, has been released in France. Catherine Hermet, a volunteer firefighter herself, came up with the idea. Realizing that smells that were normally associated with firefighters were conventionally thought to be unpleasant, such as smoke, sweat, and soot, she decided to develop a scent that would do justice to and reflect the beauty and moral qualities found in her profession. For each bottle sold, there will be 2 Euros donated to the firefighters' orphan foundation.
Dévouement (Dedication) is described as a fresh, hesperidic, woodsy, and marine scent. Top notes are: cardamom, grapefruit, bergamot, orange... Heart notes are: clove, ginger, water jasmin, tea... Base notes are: sandalwood, oakmoss, cedar, musk... The scent was created by a perfumer from the company Expressions Parfumées in Grasse. "This perfume was created for all those who with courage fight every day to protect your lives, forests, and material possessions." "Dévouement is the first fragrance from a line that is dedicated to all those for whom the profession of firefighter constitutes a passion." The perfume is sold both online and in fire stations in France. It can be shipped to European countries and to French overseas territories. Unfortunately, they do not ship to the US. Price depends on the destination and number of fragrances purchased. It costs 37 Euros in France for a 100 ml bottle. A car scent diffuser, also in the shape of a firefighter's helmet is set to be released. More information can be found on this website, Kreadis. Source: "Le sent-bon de pompier" by Gilles Wallon in Libération of 12 May 2006.
These are the perfume desires that were born this past week and didn't die by Friday. I will post a list of these hot objects of desire on Fridays. They are my perfume desires but, needless to say, they can become yours.
Help me squash my perfume desires or, alternatively, nurture them. Miss Sixty by Miss Sixty
 This one I read about in the British press and it sounds so light, springey, and carefree, I immediately wanted to get it and wear it with my toes sticking out of my sandals. it is available from British sellers on eBay.
"Go getting, trend setting, its the label worn by girls who stand out from the crowd.
Designed in Italy, desired by the world over, its right at the cutting edge of fashion. The Fragrance of Excess!
Top notes: Fresh and upbeat, tangy rhubarb and redcurrant set the senses tingling with excitement.
Heart notes: In delicious contrast, vibrant sweet pea blends with powdery heliotrope for provocative femininity.
Base notes: Intense and rich, amber and palissander wood create a sensual harmony that's pure addiction. This first signature fragrance captures the spirit of Miss Sixty in a bottle. Sometimes irreverent, often provocative, always exciting.
It's sexy, glamorous and anything but ordinary." Source: Boots Courtesan by Worth  This perfume was created in 2005 by parfumeur-créateur Pierre Bourdon for Worth. Again, I read a tantalizing description of it. I was completely lured in by the lightness and the je ne sais quoi that it promises to deliver. It was dubbed the "ideal spring fragrance" by a British journalist. The name I also love, Courtesan, sounds right up my alley (I mean, just because it reminds me of Balzac), just sulferous enough to make it sound like a dangerously seductive scent underneath that springey cover-up. It helps nurture my perfume desire that it is a very elusive scent. I think it's sold at Harrods in London, but I have not been able to gather much information about it. If you know anything about it, please let me know. I know that it is a floral oriental with a dominant note of peach. Top notes are, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, pineapple, and red berries. The heart notes are, orange blossom, magnolia, jasmine and rose.
Base notes are, peach, caramel, raspberry, chocolate, vanilla and cocoa bean.
Photo is from eBay Anné Pliska by Anné Pliska  Victoria from Victoria's Own wrote an utterly convincing review of Anné Pliska by Anné Pliska. Not only does she laud it, she has also been wearing it for the past 18 years! The proof is in the pudding, I MUST try it and adopt it, if it works out well with my chemistry (very few perfumes have let me down, I can think of only five the past year that have given me headaches). It already works out well with my imagination. The color of the jus is just gorgeous. Notes are: mandarin, bergamot, jasmin, geranium, vanilla, amber, patchouli, and musk. Photo is from Luscious Cargo
 The pilot launch of Eau de Stilton is generating quite a stir. People are adopting a wait-and-see attitude to see if this perfume concept will flounder or not. The dairy farmers who have come up with the idea are selling at this point about 200 sample-bottles (the price was not mentioned) hoping that the perfume will catch on. If it does, it will go into mass production. At any rate, even if the perfume does go down, the SCMA will have succeeded in drawing much attention to themselves. There is indeed a successful advertising campaign going on right now for the association of Stilton makers...
Continue reading "Scented Thoughts: More on Eau de Stilton & on Milk, Seduction, and Fragrances" »
Starting today just past midnight and until midnight I will donate $1 to the Orphan Foundation of America for each message that you leave on this blog today. This effort is part of the Benevolent Blogging effort organized by Katie from Scentzilla! I will also hold a drawing for a bottle of Eau de Patou from amongst all the people who leave a comment (please see my previous post for more details about the charity event). If you do not wish to be included in the drawing for privacy reasons, for example, please let me know. I will ask either my husband or my three-year-old to draw (preferably my boy if he is not in too mischievous a mood!) You can leave a simple Hi or if you want, you can tell us what perfumes or scents you associate most with your mother as a way of celebrating Mother's Day. You could also tell us what is the best perfume compliment you ever received or the one that pleased you most.
When I think of my mother, I think mostly of four perfumes that seem to have marked different periods of her life: Eau de Calandre, Chloe, Joy, and Femme. But to tell you the truth, she is not that into perfumes.
Orphans are children who one day lose a necessary presence in their lives and are made even more vulnerable than other children because of that. I hope we can help them a bit, but I also know that beyond this action we are undertaking today, what they most need is to find a good family. I have a friend who is an orphan who was abandoned at birth and she told me that, "Anything is better than the orphanage." She was saying that to explain to me how she had had the will to survive the mistreatment, even the torture, inflicted upon her by the companion of her adoptive father who would sometimes burn her legs with cigarette butts. There are many different reasons why children are given up for adoption. I saw a program on TV once where a woman decided after having had 3 children to give up the one she was pregnant with, mainly for financial reasons -- it was a matter of survival for her, for her family, and for the child. The program showed her giving birth and then not even wanting to take a closer look or have a close contact with the baby. It was heartbreaking to see the physical distance separating her from her baby and to think of the future life of that child.
Coco Chanel was abandoned by her father who left her in an orphanage after the death of her mother because he could not see himself taking care of her as a single parent. A friend told me that her father had been abandoned by his mother as a little boy in the midst of a crowd at the open market during winter. He remembered how she had let go of his hand at some point. That man, her father, buit a family afterwards but he was only able to speak about this event when in his fifties. She told me that her father had been so unspeakably scarred by this event that he had been able to talk about it and allude to the scene of his abandonment to his family only then. They never knew. I remember meeting her father and thinking how hard this man was, not mean. Just something in him felt as hard as stone.
I wish that orphans may find other people who will love them. I also wish all of you much love in your lives. Please visit other blogs participating in Mother's Day fundraising!
Beauty Addict for Orphan Foundation of America
Blogdorf Goodman for FINCA International
Brain Trapped in Girl's Body for FINCA International
A Girl's Gotta Spa for Orphan Foundation of America
MonkeyPosh for Humane Society of the United States and Muscular Dystrophy Association
Mother Hen’s Place for Aga Khan Foundation Canada
Legerdenez for Orphan Foundation of America
One Child Left Behind for Heifer International
Perfumery for FINCA International
The Scented Salamander for Orphan Foundation of America
Scenteur 7 for Orphan Foundation of America *Participating May 10th through the 15th
Scentzilla! for FINCA International
SmellyBlog for FINCA International
The Soap Blog for UNIQUE
That Obscure Object of Desire for FINCA International
Urban Chick for Womankind Worldwide *Participating May 12th 'til she returns from holidaying a few weeks*
Victoria's Own for FINCA International
Yankee Family goes South for Orphan Foundation of America
 A vignette on perfumer Mona di Orio in the Sunday Times of 14 May 2006:
Scent of a Woman
 A new women's perfume, Kenzo Amour, will be introduced worldwide in September. It will make its debut at Sephora and Nordstrom in the US. It was created by perfumers Daphne Bugey and Olivier Cresp from Firmenich. Patrick Guedj, the Creative Director of Parfums Kenzo, explained that "The basic idea was a voyage of love, of emotion, and a bird as a symbol of love" (...) "The scent is an olfactory voyage through Asia, meant to evoke frangipani flowers from Bali, Japanese cherry blossom and rice and vanilla from China." "...the fragrance features top notes of cherry blossom, rice and white tea; heart notes of frangipani and heliotrope, and base notes of thanaka wood, vanilla and musk." The 100 ml, 50 ml, and 30 ml will be priced at $85, $65, and $48 respectively. The bottles were designed by Karim Rashid and are reminiscent of works by Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi. Source: Women's Wear Daily
Couture! was released in 2004. Its top notes are bergamot, a hint of pepper, mandarin orange. Middle notes are yellow poppy, jasmine, pomegranate blossom, poppy seeds. Base notes are benzoin, vanilla, and cedar wood.
Couture! opens up with a very soft, sweet, even suave accord, enlivened by citrus as well as slightly peppery notes. It smells distinctive, a good point in the context of a market that privilieges copy-cat perfumes. It is, at the same time, reminiscent for me of the contrast found between citrusy tanginess and a sweet flowery richness in Roma by Laura Biagiotti. Both have prominent citrus in the opening and rich jasmine in the heart notes combined with a warm woodsy base. However, the slightly tart and sickly sweetness found in Roma is much more subdued here. I find that this perfume tends to numb one's nose, so that the closer one gets to the scent, the more this one seems to vanish, with only a ticklish sensation remaining and marking its continued presence. Later, only a waft of air brings back the scent to my consciousness. The perfume is warm without being heavy. It tends however to become harsher in the middle of its development and by that I mean that it smells a bit of Castille soap. "Soapy" is a term that is part of the vocabulary commonly used to describe what I am trying to get at. As far as I know, there seems to be two principal meanings ascribed to that term. Soapy can mean that a certain scent makes me feel as if I had just taken a shower and there is a residual, pleasant soapy/clean smell lingering on my skin. Soapy can also mean that the smell makes you downright think of soap itself, that there's a certain lurking pungency to it that is reminiscent of bathroom liquid soap in public spaces (not of the best kind) and perhaps of Castille soap turned a bit rancid. Yes, "rancid" is the word. It is as if the oils in the soap had degraded. For example, I smell that very characteristically in Tabu by Dana (no offense meant to Tabu fans). Unfortunately, in my view, Couture! has a bit of the rancid type of soapiness.
There are probably some aldehydes, although these are not mentioned. Reportedly, certain aldehydes can smell like tallow candles, hence the rancid note. That explains to me also the constant tingling sensation I get when inhaling the scent.
However, if I stop deconstructing my sensations I am able to better capture the ensemble. The fragrance is sweet and mellow and evokes fresh petals of flowers after a while. The perfume warms down to a deep and soft drydown which is very pleasant. It is quite vanillic due to the combined presence of vanilla and benzoin as well as very woodsy. The overall impression the perfume gives me is that of a sensual and dressed-up scent, projecting an aura of sophistication which may prove useful to add a little fancy touch to your outfit in the workplace. I see it more as a social perfume meant for others rather than for oneself, that is, a perfume able to send an image of chic and self-control, but which has also the effect of masking your real personality. I don't think I would want to wear it at home, it's too self-conscious of its effects on others and a little bit guarded. In sum, I see it as a more toned-down and updated version of the power-perfume of the 80's (compare with Roma by Biagiotti which was created in 1988). I would still prefer to wear Cinnabar by Estée Lauder for the same effect (Cinnabar's notes are also similar to those of Couture!) because I find it to be more generous, frank, and ample as a perfume, freer. Cinnabar has a richer and better drydown. I also am able to stand aldehydes in Lauder's perfumes much more than in other brands. A perfume for women who need to respect conventions, even for a day, and keep up appearances in public or at work, while sending a message of sophistication.
Photo is from www.fann.cz
The winner of the bottle of Eau de Patou is Sybil! My son's innocent hand drew her name out of the basket.
Sybil, please send me your address. And many thanks to all of you for your participation in Benevolent Blogging, it was great.
A list of the best scents for each season according to a perfumery buyer at Fenwick's Department Store and the manager of L'Artisan Parfumeur in London (be warned that there are annoying pop-up ads on the site). Check out the other articles on perfumes on the same site.
Seasonal Scents
Here is an article by Laura Barton in the Guardian of May 15, 2006 where she attempts to give some context for Eau de Stilton. The author also offers some sociological data on scent preferences depending on generations. The Sweet Smell of Stilton, Turpentine etc
Coeur d'Eté (heart of summer) by Miller Harris starts off as if a garden full of gentle blossoms had suddenly and magically materialized before your eyes and quivering nostrils. You cannot quite make out the colors and the shapes of the flowers but you sense their abundance, their freshness, their loveliness. It evokes for me Claude Monet's Garden being rendered with touches of impressionistic and not so vivid, pastel coloring. A description of the notes in this case does not help capture the personality of the perfume. Coeur d'Eté is seamless, a perfectly woven tapestry of notes that support each others and contribute to the final impression of the perfume. For example, there are chocolate bean and licorice notes in the top notes but they are by no means felt individually. These notes just make the scented music of the perfume soar gently and mysteriously in the air. Sometimes a lilac note or a pear note will emerge fleetingly and fall back into the transparent, calm, and creamy folds of the fragrance. It is to my nose a rarefied and precious juice. The word that best describes its nature in my opinion is "delicate" pronounced softly please.
Coeur d'Eté starts like a beautiful fresh spray of flowers and then becomes slightly warmer and fruitier suggesting the passage from a garden to an orchard. There is also a tinge of the animalic that reminds us of our sexual nature in the midst of all this contemplation. Then, at some point, your skin starts to smell as if you had just stepped out of the ocean. Then, oh unexpected further surprise, you seem to be holding a baby in your arms and smelling its sweet-smelling head. The perfume reveals an extraordinary drydown which only improves with time. It is a superlative skin scent.
Lyn Harris composed this perfume while she was pregnant with her first child. Pregnancy is a time in their lives when women develop a heightened sense of smell. The perfume captures very well this experience, in reverse. This is the recreated ideal scent environment of a woman expecting a child, a barrier against the disturbing smells one notices particularly well at that time of life. I would recommend it as an ideal gift for moms-to-be and new moms. Beyond that, this perfume will make a beautiful perfume gift for anyone.
Top notes are chocolate bean, licorice, lemon, grapefruit, tangerine Heart notes are banana, white pear, lilac, cassia, heliotrope Base notes are sandalwood, benzoin, vanilla, fruity musk. A 100 ml bottle retails for $120.
While I was reviewing Coeur d'Eté and wearing it for the second time, I realized that this time I was comparing it to other sister scents. Smelling it then, I was less lost into it; I had switched on to an annoying analytical mode, or so I thought. As I felt somewhat disturbed by this, I decided to jot down some notes. Here they are:
I think that it (Coeur d'Eté) smells, however briefly so, a little bit like Champs-Elysées by Guerlain, a little bit like Carolina Herrera, and a little bit like Le Dix by Balenciaga, but all these being fused and made more subtle and complex. This, I think the second time that I try the scent. I cannot help but feel that it is rather reductionist on my part to try to break down the perfume into tiny bits and to find external references for it. In the end, it is not interesting. It has a practical purpose which is to communicate better about a perfume with another person who has never smelled it, but might have come upon the other ones you mention. yet, I realize also that it is unfair to the perfumer. It is like trying, too soon, to decompose the colored pigments found on a picture instead of contemplating it. It is also unfair towards yourself as it distorts your perception of the perfume.
I am reminded of Edmond Roudnitska's advice. He once said that one should never attempt to compare a perfume to other scents because a perfume is by essence unique, meant to be appreciated on its own terms and that it was composed with that ontological orientation in mind. Doing otherwise would be like attempting to read two books at once or listening to two musics at once or deciphering a book instead of reading it. Confusion, cacophonia and analytical poverty will ensue.
I find that, perhaps, this strong idealistic streak we find in the perfume creative process, as envisionned by Roudnitska, is somehow irremediably linked to an idealization of womanhood and femininity. The perfume is unique like a woman is unique to a man who loves her; it is meaningless to situate that woman within a series of comparisons for that man. In other words, Roudnitska is begging us to view a perfume with the eyes of love in order to take in its full beauty and uniqueness. So, we should resist the temptation to say "Y is a little bit like X."
This idea is not lost on women; instinctively we look for the quality of uniqueness in a scent. That uniqueness will help underline our own uniqueness, make us true objects of love. An erotic dialogue is thus expressed through perfumes in our cultures. Roudnitska's ideals are embodied in Le Parfum de Thérèse which he created originally for his wife Thérèse. It is now available to the wider public of those other women through the Malle Editions de Parfums. We can thus touch that dream both aesthetic and erotic with the tip of our fingers and be reminded of a principle of unicity that was very important to him. Of course, this principle does not need be applied to serially produced perfumes who enthusiastically copy each others. But when we encounter a perfumer-composer with integrity and personal vision, we should, I think, forget about the other fragrances that fleetingly juxtapose themselves on the perfume you are smelling. It is perhaps like saying that an ensemble of seven notes are similar to that other musical passage in that other musical partition. It does not make much sense and it gives too much importance to the external reference. It makes your view of the perfume superficial. However, I must admit that if I feel bad doing this for a work by Roudnitska and a good one by Harris, I am much less embarrassed to do so for a perfume that is mass-produced and whose artistic aims are set lower. In this latter range of products, the defining mode of creation is extremely referential and fully aware of the externality of fashion trends in fragrances. One does not seek uniqueness in this case because it is simply too demanding and too risky. You seek variation rather or a twist on an idea. The irony is of course that people in fact crave uniqueness in perfumes. A perfume like Angel was mass-marketed, yet it was innovative and daring, and it has now taken over Chanel No5's place as the most popular perfume in France. And of course, Chanel No5 was daring too.
Coeur d'Eté, to me, cannot be approached in a comparative manner. It has an integrity of its own which is the result of the artistry that presided over it and this should be respected, I think. At any rate, something in this perfume made me feel guilty for looking sideways at others.
Photo is from Art et Parfum
Following its success as well as repeated requests from the public, a recreation of Marie Antoinette's fragrance by perfumer Francis Kurkdjian from Quest International called M.A. Sillage de la Reine (Marie-Antoinette The Queen's Silage) will be more widely available in June and July 2006. It was first created in January 2005 and offered to a select group of people at a party at Versailles on the occasion of the publication of a book on the original 18th century author of the perfume. It was also sold to some patrons in 2005 but at a very high price, around $2500. This perfume was originally composed by one of the perfumers of Marie Antoinette (Houbigant was one of them) called Jean-Louis Fargeon. It was originally named Trianon. Elisabeth de Feydeau, a French perfume historian, has written this book focusing on the details of the relationship developed between Marie-Antoinette and Jean-Louis Fargeon. Her book has recently been translated into English in Great-Britain under the title, A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie-Antoinette's Perfumer and is available here. It will also be available on Amazon, here in the US, starting June 22; you can place pre-orders now.
One day, Marie-Antoinette asked Fargeon to come meet her at Trianon and showing him around she requested from him a perfume that would capture the charm of her beloved retreat. Later, Fargeon was to see her just before she attempted to escape from France through Varenne. He tells us that on the day of his last visit to her and as a sort of premonitory sign of her impending demise, the queen seemed to smell more strongly and almost sickeningly so of the tuberose found in her perfume Trianon Elisabeth de Feydeau says that the perfume unleashes unknown emotions in people, something qualitatively different from what you experience with contemporary perfumes.
 Le Sillage de la Reine has been recreated using 18th century techniques and 100% natural essences. Its notes include orris, rose, jasmine, tuberose, orange blossom, cedar wood, sandalwood, Tonkin musc and ambergris. 10 prestige copies of it, bottled in Baccarat crystal bottles will be available in June; the price has not been divulged. In July, 1000 limited editions copies will be released in crystal bottles made at the crystal manufacturies of Portieux (founded by Marie-Antoinette's grand-father) and will be available for between 300-400 Euros for a bottle of 25 ml. You can reserve a bottle of M.A. Sillage de la Reine here. Proceeds will go towards the remodeling of parts of the palace that were historically linked with Marie-Antoinette.
Visitors to Versailles can currently smell the queen's perfume in Marie-Antoinette's bathroom through June 2006. Photos are from the Château de Versailles and Osmoz.
 • Innocent Summer Flash is described as a slightly acidic-fruity sorbet, a candy cane accented with tonic and fresh notes. It is a limited edition. Top notes: slightly acid note, red fruits heart notes: fresh notes, a sorbet accord Base notes: white musk, praline  • l'Eau by Kenzo Love L'Eau is described as a fresh aquatic and floral scent that is both soft and sensual. It is issued as a limited summer edition. Top notes: aquatic note, pink pepper Heart notes: white lotus, frosted-up mint Base notes: floral notes, musks  • Kingdom Summer Edition 2006 This is the third limited edition of Kingdom by fashion designer Alexander McQueen and is described as a fresh oriental. Top notes: bergamot, mandarin, neroli Heart Notes: ginger, pink pepper, jasmine Base notes: sandalwood, patchouli, myrrh, vanilla Source: Osmoz Photos: Osmoz
 The color of this perfume is mauve, with brown overtones. It is dark, yet airy. It is like a clear, airy room, maybe decorated with some white marble in which antique polished wooden furniture is to be found, faintly glowing of a warm ambery light, small vases of violets placed atop of them. A soft breeze is blowing through the windows and diffusing the violet scent, mixing it with the polished woods.
Mauve and brown are the colors that for me color Jicky by Guerlain as well. Here I sensed the mauve color before it evoked the smell of violet. It also made me think of lavender, either because it is there or because the mauve color is influencing my perception of the perfume.
I smell lavender, violet, and woods. The scent starts off with a sweet violet note combined with a medicinal accord that seems to comprise camphor wood, perhaps teak wood too. This is soon tempered by the violet becoming more pronounced, softer, and rounder. Then, the perfume becomes more powdery. Finally, the drydown is very woodsy, soft, and warm with new nuances playing out in which I seem to recognize birch wood. There are rich wood accents in this perfume. The final impression I have from this perfume is that of a soft, suggestively powdery veil of violet lingering on the skin.
The violet used in E.Duse is viola odorata Victoria cultivated in Grasse since 1875. It is a very woody violet with a powdery base reminiscent of orris. It was used by Eleonora Duse in a water she would order from Harrods. The perfume was created with the expert advice of historian Alessandra Marini and an Egyptian amber note was added to contribute to the ancient feel of the perfume.
It smells ancient but not in an outmoded way but rather as if you were transported back in time to a quieter world, a world where noisy machines were more easily shut out. It makes me think of the Belle Epoque, of women in a Renoir picture whom I could easily see wearing this perfume. For some reason I also think of Lake Como in Italy, of a room in a hotel by its side, of Eleonora Duse vacationing there in the 1920s. She is preparing to go out for the evening; she dabs on some of this scent before leaving the room and it suits her very well. I find this perfume to be very seductive. The staying power is not impressive, but I suspect that people around you might perceive it better than you.
Eleonora Duse or simply Duse (1858-1924) is considered to be the greatest Italian actress of the end of the 19th century. Her fame was only rivalled by that of Sarah Bernhardt whose roles she often played. She was also the first woman ever to grace the cover of Time Magazine on july 30 1923. She and Sarah Bernhardt were rivals for they represented two very different schools of acting. Her own style was very naturalistic and she privilieged being in-character. She is considered by many to be the first modern actor. Her writings also reveal a person with great humanity.
Her acting genius was so much admired by Constantin Stanislavsky that it inspired him to found the Moscow Art Theater in 1897 and to work on the codification of what would come to be known as method acting. He would present her as an ideal point of reference to his students. Through his method we can consider James Dean, Marlon Brando, Natalie Wood, and Robert de Niro for example, to be the heirs to her artistic legacy. You can find a biography of Eleonora Duse by Helen Sheehy here. E.Duse is a limited edition. You can find it at Luscious Cargo for $100 for a 100 ml flacon. Photos from Luscious Cargo and Laura Tonatto's website.
May 2006 Archive
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