Isabel Derroisné Secrets de Hammam (2008) {New Perfume}

Isabel Derroisné have introduced a new perfume in their collection Parfumeur Voyageur (Perfumer-Traveler) titled Secrets de Hammam (Secrets of the Hammam).

The brand is slowly building a reputation for hiring promising young talents in perfumery and giving them the opportunity to create noteworthy fragrances. After Céline Ellena did Rose Divine and Jérôme Epinette proposed Ilaya, we now have a chance to acquaint ourselves with perfumer Alexandra Kosinski, a former student of Calice Becker (see her interview on the ISIPCA site). She debuted as a lab assistant despite her brilliant studies at ISIPCA (she graduated at the number 1 spot of her class) and became a fine fragrance perfumer at Givaudan recently, two years ago. She has already composed an experimental perfume for Philippe di Méo called Tears (with Frédérique Lecoeur)...
Secrets de Hammam is inspired by the vision of "an ultra-feminine Orient". The perfume itself is billed as a woody floral and oriental composition offering a woody structure and centering on cedar wood experienced as "a veritable obsession" by the perfumer. This olfactory signature is in keeping with a new trendy interest for feminine woods, a movement anticipated by Shiseido-Serge Lutens Féminité du Bois (Femininity of Wood) in 1992 and which sounds like the title of a pamphlet in retrospect.

"Like the enveloping steam of the hammam" the perfume was "facetted with the intoxicating notes of ylang ylang" and the "addictive softness of an ambery and musky accord."

Top notes are bergamot, pink pepper; heart notes are: jasmine, ylang ylang, cedar Atlas from Morocco; base notes are: cedar, amber, musk.

The bottle was designed by Denis Boudard who chose red and black "so that they meet and marry like mystery and passion."

A line of ancillary beauty products is also available.

This is an eau de toilette concentration. A 60 ml spray is priced normally at 49 Euros but is currently benefiting from a promotional offer at 29 Euros.