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Parisian Café by Gaetano de Las Heras, 1903
A conversation is "overheard" during the Belle Epoque in 1903 between two persons wearing Bon Vieux Temps by Guerlain. Note how the perfume was worn in an unisex fashion and the coquettry surrounding perfume-wearing. "'What a delicious fragrance', my dear, said I, because she smelled of that delightful perfume Bon Vieux Temps that I recognized immediately, as I use it myself. 'Yes, yes, my own special mixture', she answered condescendingly......
Continue reading "Scented Quote of the Day About Guerlain Bon Vieux Temps..." »
Two interviews with two major defining personalities of 20th and 21st century perfumery. Both are French yet their styles and sensibilities differ, some would say diametrally so. On this blog, we might have encouraged people to see a structural contrast between their visions. Serge Lutens and Jean Claude Ellena answer questions on their art to Vogue, in French. We translate one meaningful quote from each Q & A as our Scented Quote(s) of the Day. Interview with Serge Lutens "Comment peut-on savoir si un parfum va durer dans le temps ?
C’est le public qui choisit. Ce qui lui résiste accède à la reconnaissance. Le parfum peut, s’il a des adeptes – je devrais dire des « timbrés » - accéder à quelque chose de plus ou moins légendaire." ~ "How can one know that a perfume will be enduringly popular? - It is the public that chooses. What continues to have its favor comes to be recognized. Perfume can, if it has fans - I should say "addicts" - become more or less of a legend.".....
Continue reading "Interview with Serge Lutens & Jean Claude Ellena by Vogue {Fragrant Reading} {Scented Quotes of the Day}" »
Here are some words of wisdom from actor Ashton Kutcher about perfume-wearing etiquette on his "woman", i.e., Demi Moore. Take it from a guy: "If I can smell the perfume and we are not making out, then she is wearing too much. With a lot of things in life, more is better. But perfume does not apply.".....
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On April 19, 2008, at 20: 30 pm a show entitled Il Profumo della Belle Epoque will take place in Rome, Italy. It is dedicated to recapturing the olfactory atmosphere of the Belle Epoque as experienced by spectators sitting in the atmosphere of a Parisian café in the 1890s, witnessing the boulevardiers getting émus, scenes of everyday life while listening to music and above all, smelling the perfumes of the Belle Epoque, "an era in which even words and gestures were scented"......
Continue reading "The Perfume of the Belle Epoque: A Spectacle Dedicated to Olfaction {Scented Paths & Fragrant Addresses} Scented Quote of the Day from Theodore Child:" »
In an interview in French with Cartier in-house perfumer Mathilde Laurent, the "nose" reveals how the process of customization of a perfume goes. The tab is pretty steep at 60 000 €. The perfumer talks about her transfer from Guerlain to Cartier, which she already evoked in previous interviews. She explains how a keen sense of smell is not a gift but the result of training and linked with qualities of intelligence and creativity. Someone can have a very sensitive sense of smell, yet lack creativity for example. And one does not just smell with the nose but with the brain. In brief, it is a refutation of the Grenouille myth whereby a superhuman sense of smell explains the success and inevitability of a perfumer's vocation however warped in that case.....
Continue reading "Mathilde Laurent: Perfume is a Weapon of Seduction {Fragrant Reading} {Scented Quote of the Day}" »
Here is a beautiful and interesting quote from Chanel in-house perfumer Jacques Polge about what it takes to be a nose (translation after the jump): "Je crois qu'il faut une certaine forme de sensibilité, une espèce d'attirance pour un certain type de langage qui n'use pas de mots et dit les choses différemment. Je crois que le parfum dit d'une manière bien particulière des choses qu'on ne pourrait pas dire autrement. Quand on fait des parfums, on n'est pas du côté des puissants, ceux qui contrôlent l'image et le son, on est du côté des silencieux. Il faut donc cette attirance." .....
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"Olfaction is a kind of taste experienced at a distance. Others are forced, willy-nilly, to participate in this pleasure. And this is why, being in contradiction with freedom, olfaction is less social than taste, where among many dishes or bottles a guest can choose one that he likes without others being forced to share the pleasure of it. " in Anthropology From a Pragmatic Point of View (1798)
Pacifica started their business in 1995 as a candle-making company and later branched out into beauty care. Their scented body butters are very good as we have had already the opportunity to point out, both from the vantage points of texture and perfume. Some for the latter part, are better than others. We discovered them through their creams, tried their soaps and eaux de toilette too, and lastly sniffed their candles. The scented candles, did not beckon us immediately as they seemed to be on the strong side and to lack some subtlety, at least when not burning. Nevertheless, we decided to try Persian Rose, which offers a rather enthralling true dewy fruity rose scent as captured in the cold soy wax.....
Continue reading "Pacifica Persian Rose Candle {Home Fragrance Review} Scented Quote of the Day, from Saadi...{Smell-The-Roses-Till-Valentine's Day Challenge - Day 4}" »
Chanel No. 5 by Andy Warhol, 1985 "La vérité en parfum n’existe pas, sauf à être la passagère coïncidence d’une senteur avec notre âme, ce qui fait bien des vérités pour tout autant d’âmes." ~ "Truth in perfume does not exist, unless one means by that the transient state of coincidence of a scent with our soul, which means that there are as many truths as there are souls." Note: quote from Dictionnaire du langage parfumé. Jean-François Blayn is a perfume expert and teaches at ISIPCA. This was written in 1990 when the perfume scene was relatively less uniform and therefore less obviously comparable within itself. The new level of homogeneity today pushes towards an objectification of perfume. The development of an active discourse on perfume that seeks other references than the simplistic sentimental "I" and what it likes and dislikes also contributes to disengaging perfume from mere triumphant and conclusive subjectivity.
A fire in the fireplace is an olfactory symphony [...] (follows a long beautiful poetic evocation of all the smells that emanate from the fragrant woods and plants in the fireplace and mingle about in the room). These smells are important but let us recall that they are linked with the warm atmosphere, the crackle of the blazing fire, to its colors, shapes, shifts. The nose needs all the other senses to savor fully. The smell of the fire in the fireplace would be nothing without this mise-en-scene which stages a fireplace, blaze, and crackle. It needs this jewel case...... Note: Maurice Maurin is the creator of Amazone by Hermès and Vanilia by L'Artisan Parfumeur, amongst others. He is also a perfume author.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau in an Armenian costume, Geneva "Les odeurs par elles-mêmes sont des sensations faibles ; elles ébranlent plus l’imagination que le sens, et n’affectent pas tant par ce qu’elles donnent que par ce qu’elles font attendre. Cela supposé, les goûts des uns, devenus, par leurs manières de vivre, si différents des goûts des autres, doivent leur faire porter des jugements bien opposés des saveurs, et par conséquent des odeurs qui les annoncent. Un Tartare doit flairer avec autant de plaisir un quartier puant de cheval mort, qu’un de nos chasseurs, une perdrix à moitié pourrie" (our translation after the jump).......
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THANKSGIVING
"Have you cut the wheat in the blowing fields, The barley, the oats, and the rye, The golden corn and the pearly rice? For the winter days are nigh."
"We have reaped them all from shore to shore, And the grain is safe on the threshing floor."
"Have you gathered the berries from the vine, And the fruit from the orchard trees? The dew and the scent from the roses and thyme, In the hive of the honeybees?"........
Continue reading "Thanksgiving by Amelia E. Barr {Scented Poem of the Day}" »
The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise, Giovanni di Paolo, 1445, The Met
If you thought one could not wax lyrical after knowing one was smelling a fabricated perfume molecule, think again. Perfumer Arcadi Boix Camps from Auram Art & Perfume is stunned by the beauty of Paradisone and tells us about his unconditional love and admiration for it, "Paradisone is one of the most unbelievable and radiant molecules I have ever smelled, even more so than the wonderful Helvetolide (Firmenich). It is pure vibration, a storm of delicacy and diffusion.[....] "One smelling strip of Paradisone in a 70-m2 room diffuses the space with the angelic aromas of one million flowers. Again, as a perfumer, I must publicly say thank you to the chemists, because Paradisone's synthesis was among chemistry's miracles along with racemic, laevo and dextro Ambrox.......
Continue reading "Scented Quote of the Day, from Arcadi Boix Camps: {Updated}" »
Mademoiselle de Camargo by Nicolas Lancret (1730) "Le parfum c'est le complément indispensable de la personnalité féminine, c'est le finishing touch d'une robe, c'est la rose dont Lancret signait ses toiles". ~ "Perfume is the indispensable complement to the feminine personality; it is the finishing touch of a dress; it is like the rose that Lancret used to sign his paintings."........
Continue reading "Scented Quote of the Day, from Christian Dior: - 60th Anniversary of Miss Dior {Fragrant Reading}" »
 Sophie Labbé is a senior perfumer at IFF, which she joined in 1992. Studied at: She studied at ISIPCA (graduated the first of her class) and then at the internal school of Givaudan. She was the recipient in 2005 of the prestigious François Coty prize and was the first woman to receive this distinction. It was also a first for IFF.
Creations include: Romeo Gigli G de Gigli (1994), Jardin de Soleil d'Escada, Organza de Givenchy (1996), Emporio Armani pour Homme, Boss Woman d’Hugo Boss, Premier jour de Nina Ricci (2005), Cacharel Promesse (With Carlos Benaïm of IFF) (2005).......
Continue reading "Perfumer Sophie Labbé {Directory of Perfumers, Artistic Directors, & Fragrance Designers} {Scented Quote of the Day}" »
 About the state of the perfume industry, “We are more and more guilty of throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing if it sticks [quoting her friend William Lauder]. Everyone talks about it, everyone writes about it, but every year there are … almost 400 new fragrances. And the next year the number goes up again. Where are those fragrances the next year?”......
Continue reading "Scented Quote of the Day, from Rachelle Bloom (& William Lauder):" »
You heard about Sean John's challenge to his female contenders in the arena of celebrity perfumes (also see video)? Here's the answer of the butterfly to the big bad wolf,.....
Continue reading "Ouch, Ouch, Ouch.... Scented Quote of the Day, from Mariah Carey:" »
"Un bon parfum, c'est celui que l'on a envie de sentir encore et encore" ~ "A good perfume is one that one wants to smell over and over again" (From Le guide du parfum by Rebecca Veuillet-Gallot) (Photo from frenzied seller )
Duke women 1946 Minton writes bout Gallicized perfume names in America as of 1946 (a method applied sometimes quite erratically if you read the rest of Minton's article, which is at times hilarious, especially when he gives long lists of perfume names with funny mistakes in them.) Some of my favorites are: Charme d'France, La Joye, Le Secrét Discret, Mon Spi, De Sir De Toi, Ne Moub Liez Pas, Puré Paris, Mon Ajour, Ro Mantique, La Plus Des Fleurs, Violette Verdue, Rafraichu....I am laughing so much it hurts!!):......
Continue reading "Scented Quote of the Day, from Arthur Minton:" »
Perfume bottle collectors and Shalimar aficionados can rejoice. As briefly reported previously, Guerlain is issuing for the holiday season a special limited edition of the great classic oriental perfume Shalimar called the "Shalimar édition limitée Noël". The striking transformation is a first and found at the diametrically opposite end of the color spectrum of a previous special edition in transparent Baccarat crystal. The scent, in both Eau de Parfum and Parfum concentrations, is dressed for the occasion in a sumptuous new black outfit that is like an echo of the Black Orloff diamond or again perhaps, the reflection of the moon on peacocks that strut about the gardens of Shalimar at night, according to the press release. Guerlain explain that they want to explore the mysterious side of Shalimar with this new color.......
Continue reading "More on Shalimar Black, the Christmas Limited Edition by Guerlain {Luxury Perfume} {Scented Quote of the Day}" »
Sean Combs tells us what's what: "I am going to challenge my female counterparts, from J.Lo, Mariah (Carey), Sarah Jessica Parker to Gwen Stefani that my fragrance is better than theirs. "I am a man, and I know how a woman should smell."(Please see here for context of the quote; photo from Zeeks; perfume in question is Unforgivable for Women)
There is a great interview of Hubert de Givenchy in L'Express. Incidentally, we were looking for a testimonial from a member of the signature-perfume school the other day when commenting on the article addressing the issue of the acceptability of a fragrance wardrobe; the famous French couturier is one of them, "Mes parfums ont été le prolongement de ma couture, de l'élégance que je voulais donner à mes vêtements. Le parfum est l'un des éléments d'un style. J'ai toujours dit à mes clientes «Vous avez un style, de la personnalité, accentuez-les. Et, si vous vivez avec un parfum, conservez-le, car il est une part de vous-même»" "My perfumes have been the extension of my couture, of the elegance that I wanted to impart to my clothes. Perfume is one of the elements of a style. I've always told my female customers "You have a style, personality, emphasize them. And if you happen to be living with a perfume, keep it, for it is a part of yourself."
Givenchy also lays to rest the myth surrounding the L'interdit perfume and explains its name.......
Continue reading "Interview of Hubert de Givenchy, Floral Scents are In, Q & A with Paco Rabanne, Men Like it Intense {The 5th sense in the News} {Scented Quote of the Day}" »
François Demachy was born in 1949 in Grasse. He is both a perfumer and a "super artistic director" for olfactory development at LVMH ( Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) since 2006, which oversees brands like Guerlain, Dior, Kenzo, Givenchy, Acqua di Parma, Loewe, Pucci, Fendi. Before that he worked for 29 years at Chanel where he created most of the Chanel fragrance successes with Jacques Polge, although he is less well known to the public than his colleague This perception or lack thereof has started to change since his appointment at LVMH.
Studied at: Ecole de Parfumerie de la Société Charabot Mentor: perfumer Henri Robert, author of Chanel no 19......
Continue reading "Perfumer & Artistic Director François Demachy {Scented Quote of the Day} {Directory of Perfumers, Artistic Directors, & Fragrance Designers}" »
 Perfumer Daniela Andrier works for Givaudan and is, incidentally, the wife of its CEO, Gilles Andrier. She is also known under the names Daniela Roche and Daniela Roche-Andrier.
Studied at: Ecole de Parfumerie Givaudan Creations include: La Perla Io by La Perla (1995), Kenzo Le Monde (1997), Gucci Eau de Parfum by Gucci (2002), Attraction by Lancôme (2003) (with Christian Biecher) (Fifi awards France & Europe).....
Continue reading "Perfumer Daniela (Roche) Andrier {Scented Quote of the Day} {Directory of Perfumers, Artistic Directors, & Fragrance Designers}" »
" The pure sensuality of jasmine, and its close relative bouvardia, the double odor of gardenia, the integrity of white tobacco depend on the one who wears them.....
Continue reading "Scented Quote of the Day, From Colette:" »
Perfumer Christopher Brosius of CB I Hate Perfume has a book coming out, which bears the title Scent: Mysteries of Perfume and The Smell of Happiness. The author is widely known for his work as a realistic and psychological perfumer. He was the founder of the Demeter line of perfumes, which offers a library of scents based on the search of simple yet unusual olfactory facets of our world once seen bottled, from Between The Sheets to Dirt to Wet Garden and Sushi.......
Continue reading "A New Book On Perfume By Christopher Brosius {Fragrant Reading} {Fragrant Shopping} {Scented Quote of the Day}" »
Yaffa Assouline asks: What is perfume to you? Serge Lutens: One doesn't make perfume uniquely from raw materials. A perfume is a composition of the mind, it's a personal experience, unexpected. It's not created in accord with society - it should be something that expresses a different view......
Continue reading "Scented Quote of the Day, From Serge Lutens & {Fragrant Readings} Interviews of Serge Lutens, Mathilde Laurent, & Dennis Papithis" »
 Queen Alexandra (1844-1925) was Queen Consort to Edward VII of the United Kingdom and was reputed for her beauty as well as her sense of style (see center of the photo). She reportedly had an influence on the fashion of wearing scents which had at one time fallen into disrepute. Here follows an excerpt from an article that gives us an insight into the taste of the day, that is that of 1904, and mentions a perfume worn by Alexandra of Denmark, to which I will add another name that I saw mentioned elsewhere. It is also interesting to note that the current higher level of intolerance for perfume-wearing in public spaces that exists in some areas finds an echo in that era......
Continue reading "Queen Alexandra Loved to Wear......{Celebrity Perfumes} {What Celebrities Love to Wear} {Scented Quote of the Day}" »
 "20 or 30 years ago perfumers were unknown and journalists would not come to interview them. Today in our industry people know what we create and our names are in magazines, we can be part of TV programs, etc. We are recognized in the same way that great chefs are. Having said that, one never does anything by oneself, it is a team that creates: the perfumer, evaluators, sellers, the client. Take the case of Schumacher who wins a grand prize; behind, there are engineers, a brand, sponsors. If today he were to race under an unknown brand, he would still be a great pilot but he would win much fewer races. Question from editor Marianne Lecoq: So we are not going to see the perfumer's name on a flacon any time soon and be able to follow him, olfactorily speaking?.....
Continue reading "Scented Quote of the Day, from Olivier Cresp:" »
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