Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Frequent Questions: How to Determine How Much Perfume is Left in my Opaque Bottle?
Consider some examples for a minute: Classics, like the architectural and oblong flacons in black glass for all the reissued Robert Piguet fragrances (Fracas, Bandit, Visa, Cravache, Baghari). The art-deco vintage bottle of Nuit de Noel by Caron with its beautiful 1920s "head band". The black boule of the original Arpège by Lanvin. The delicate, calligraphy-flowers-embossed original bottle of Shiseido's Zen. The cinnabar/orange-red of Opium parfum with its tassel.
Maybe modern or niche ones ones, such as Jasmin Noir by Bulgari. The square black of appropriately named Encre Noire by Lalique. The painted from inside glass bottles of Narciso Rodriguez Narciso For Her in the Eau de Toilette and the completely opaque black of Musk for Her. The elegant and hefty Natori Eau de parfum (all right, this one has a "window" in the centre which helps a bit till you're halfway through the juice) or the "opus noir" black ones By Kilian.
Several art-deco retro ones by parfums Ybry, Myon or Gabilla. The opaque gold Cardinal by Molinard with its nude bodies in relief.
Even things like Laroche's Drakkar Noir! And if you're extra lucky to own them, the black polygon of Nombre Noir by Shiseido and the flacon tabatière from 1927 for Liù by Guerlain.
Or it could be any perfume receptable which is intended for you to fill with the scent of your choice, such as ones made by Renaud, Lalique, and other reputable firms. The matter is always the same: how to see when is the time to replenish your perfume? Or just how much fragrance is there in your bottle you intend to sell as filled or to swap? No, tapping to see where the bottle is hollow pr not won't help much. Here are some easy tips to help you.
Method 1: Let the light shine bright!
By now, you probably know that light is the archenemy of perfume and you store yours away from it in a dark cupboard. Good, except for one occasion: When you want to see just how much juice is left in your beautiful bottle. Make an exception and bring out your flacon in the sun on a bright day.
1. Hold the bottle high against the rays of the sun. Even the most resistant bottles provide some clue as to the "line" where the full ends and the empty space begins.
2. If you're short of a handy window sill and the bright sun of the Med, repeat the experiment with a very bright lightbulb (60W or above). Hold the bottle carefully against it. Chances are you will be able to discern adequately.
Method 2: Sinking, sinking...
If the light method above fails, water might come to the rescue. How, you ask? Simple. According to basic physics, immersing any object in water will produce a substitution of the volume of water with the volume of the object (The principle by which throwing a whale in a swimming pool will more than sprinkle spectators three rows of seats away). How do we put this into practice with perfume bottles? First of all, don't try this with anything vintage with a paper label: it will be soaked by the water and the paper will crack when drying. But for modern bottles or bottles that can withstand this, it's unbeatable.
1. Take a receptable that can hold your bottle in question. Preferably use one that is big enough to hold it, but is also shaped in a way that the bottle cannot capsize (i.e. it follows the contours, usually that means an oblong vase or a jug or something along those lines.)
2. Fill it with water.
3. Now slowly immerse your bottle in it and slowly let it go. The power of hydraulics will have your bottle float to the line where it's still full.
4. Mark that line with a small adhesive label which you have at the ready or an indelible felt pen. 5. Get your bottle out of the water, let it stand and see where your marking points: 50% full, 2/3 full or less? You should have a pretty good idea.
These are more or less more accurate methods than just judging by weight, both because one can be fooled by the weight of the flacon itself (especially if it came into your hands in a non full state to begin with) or by the appreciation of liquid itself (the swooshing sound indicates there is liquid inside but it rarely gives a clue as to how much).
Related reading on Perfume Shrine: How to Open Stuck Perfume Bottles
pics via assorted perfume fora, flickr.com/photos/eivinds and 123rf.com
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Giant Ormonde Jayne bottle of Ta'if
“Having admired for years & years the huge bottles of perfume that Chanel & Dior have used in their adverts,
I felt the time was right for Ormonde Jayne to have one of our own & celebrate Ta’if.”
This is how Linda Pilkington explains the giant bottle of Ta'if which was designed and photographed at Harrods to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the scent. Feast your eyes on it!
Ta'if the fragrance is made with the pink ta’if roses that are grown on a dusty hilltop in the Arabian mountains & picked at dawn. This "sophisticated gourmand" Ormonde Jayne scent includes pink pepper, dates, saffron, freesia, broom & amber.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
45,600 Euros for a Guerlain Bottle! Say What?
According to Bernand Gangler, professional appraiser of perfume bottles, who proclaimed the auction "one of the most beautiful in the world", this particular Guerlain perfume bottle sale is a world record that will take a long time to be surpassed. The initial appraisal was estimated between 20,000 and 30,000 euros, but it skyrocketed in the end. The "Rue de la Paix" engraved bottle (featuring the original address of Guerlain, 15 rue de la Paix) was part of a massive auction of 250 lots produced between 1870 and 1900. Nota bene this was not the Rue de la Paix perfume, issued in 1908 but merely a bottle of unidentified as yet perfume signed with the old address.
Another world record was set by "Fontaines Parfumées" signé Depinoix et Julien Viard which settled at 32,400 euros while originally estimated around 10,000 euros.
It's clear that valuable perfume bottles collecting has legs! Be extra attentive to whom you're leaving your perfume collection in your will.
photo via bibliodyssey blog
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
L'Air du Temps Cristal d'Or: Limited Edition 2009
A special edition of the classic Nina Ricci scent L'Air du Temps code-named Cristal d'Or is issued, 15 ml of pure parfum (ie.extrait de parfum), in a limited edition 2009, numbered.
The press release mentions "the original juice. We know otherwise...
Retail price 400 euros, launches October 2009 in time for Christmas gifts planning.
Pic via auparfum.com who has a wise commentary on the news (in French)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Frequent Questions: What is dramming and dramming bottles?
Dramming is a term first introduced in the liquor business (hence Drambui, several hypothesize) specifically in whiskey distilleries as far back as the 15th century and dram might be derivative from drachma/δραχμή (Greek coin itself derived from δράττω, ie. grasp a handful) denoting amount of monetary value and thus specific volume. In some Scottish bars a 'dram' is taken to mean a large or double whisky and the fluid dram is one-eighth of a fluid ounce, hence "a small drink of liquor" (1713) [1] The term was also used as a an intransitive verb: 'To drink drams, to tipple' and as a transitive verb: 'to ply with drink'. Therefore dramming would be the practice of drinking drams of liquor. Free drams were passed around in distilleries to deter workers from pilfering.
On the other hand dram in the fragrance and cosmetics industryhas a different measure: a unit of apothecaries' weight, equal to 60 grains, or 1/8 ounce (3.89 grams) [2]. Dramming is meant for "refueling" as in "Thierry Mugler's star-shaped Angel bottle has a dramming unit with an airtight canister that contains 16.9 oz of fragrance" (incidentally that's about 510ml)—enough to refill the 2.6-oz bottle six times".
Dramming is defined as: "A technique for transferring a fragrance from a larger container to a smaller one. When stores have “dramming events” they are telling you that they have very large bottles of the fragrance, usually on display, that they will pour into a smaller one for you, usually in concert with special promotions". However please note the term "dram" in the decanting business (collectors who sell amounts of their own perfume collection) as well as the US medical field is a different still small amount: 1/16th of an ounce.
Guerlain specifically carried the brown apothecary style bottles in both Eau de Toilette and Parfum de Toilette concentration, as depicted here in both Shalimar (in PdT) and Jardins de Bagatelle (in EdT). Some of these bottles turn up online or in auctions and garage sales. Their original use would be to fill up samples for customers or refueling splash bottles at the stores. Due to sheer volume and unfrivolous presentation they represent great value for money for the collector interested in the perfume "juice". It is however worth keeping in mind that several alcoholic products by Guerlain such as mouth hygiene products for gargling, hair oils (stilboite) and muscle rub liquids came in seemingly unadorned bottles, so as always attention is needed when purchasing or collecting.
Other fragrance companies also use dramming units, such as for instance the Bond No. 9 New York Chinatown Dramming Unit valued at $3500.
Let it be said in passing that dramming bottles also circulate for popular cosmetics and skincare.
[1][2]Dictionary.comof Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008.
Thanks to perfumefanatic/POL for asking me the question in the first place.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Frequent Questions: How do I date my Diorissimo bottle?
The initial presentation of Diorissimo, created by Edmond Roudnitska in 1956, came in what is known as the amphora bottle. A flacon of Baccarat crystal designed in the shape of an ancient amphora with curved body and a bronze bouquet of flowers sprouting off its top. That presentation held the parfum and is extremely rare and expensive nowadays. Basically it's a museum piece, therefore it shouldn't concern you when buying online yourself; I am including it for the sheer plush of its coffret and its reclining beauty.
The amphora shape in rather simplified form became the design for Diorissimo later on. Some of these bottles rise their heads from time to time, at costly prices. The stopper has a bulbous shape. The same design was recently used for the Collection Particuliere Passagere.
In the interim, today's bottle design was first conceived and introduced in the 1960s. This 1965 ad with the design by René Gruau shows two designs for Diorissimo: a tall cylinder of leveled glass with a wide, round silver cap with the name in a band across its breadth; and a smaller flask-shaped flacon with a transparent round cap and the name on a thick-paper insert on the front of the bottle, crowned by the characteristic little bow of parfums Dior.
The classic houndstooth design established itself in the end of the 1960s, the 70s, all through the early 80s. The juice appears darker than it was in real time, because of oxidation due to the passage of time. The versions circulating included Eau de Toilette and Eau de Cologne, lighter concentrations than extrait de parfum, but bearing all the radiance and beauty of the original formula. These are the bottles I recall on my grandmother's vanity as a small child. They were splash bottles, a usual design for the era, but there was also the option of attaching a spray mechanism, as depicted in this photo.
The parfum version was encased in the previous design flacons with the cap in gold. And an Eau de Cologne was also circulating in this tall presentation. Much later the same version took on a plastic spray mechanism with box still in black and white houndstooth and a pink oval on the front.
When LVMH took over Christian Dior in the mid-90s, all the classic fragrances in the line took another uniform shape: the flask-like bottle, topped with a rounded diaphanous cap; essentially a throw-back to the past. This design was extended into all the special limited editions of the Dior line as well (Dior me, Dior me not, Chris 1947, Dior Lily etc.)
Up till fairly recently the Diorissimo bottles circulating were these: pink box, Diorissimo tag in white oval. The bottle was shaped as usual, the letters cursive and on the glass itself, no sticker. This is the version that Luca Turin granted 4 stars in his "Perfumes, the Guide", saying"today's Diorissimo is unquestionably different from the older version although still a thing of great beauty". The colour of the juice was straw-like and lighter than before, although not as clear as present juice.
The extrait de parfum however took on a curiously clear tint which indicated the lack of certain heavier molecules. The oval with the logo is actually greyer than the photo indicates.
Diorissimo has very recently (2009) changed it packaging yet again to denote the impending restrictions implemented to the levels of hydroxycitronnelal (a lily of the valley aroma-chemical and the main constituent of Diorissimo's muguet bouquet): the newer white packaging with pink “oval” bearing the name states hydroxycitronellal further behind other ingredients instead of the slightly older batch of pink packaging with white oval. The change is subtle and very cunning: while right now the packaging can be an indicator of batches, the introduction of a different colour schema is an optical blurring, ready for further –and final- chopping off! The consumer will never be able to realise without minutely examining the allergens list, which -let’s face it- is not what most people do.
Diorissimo bottle collecting is also tricky because the fragrance does not keel well over the years, being rich in highly volatile essences and swiftly deteriorating aromata resulting in diminished freshness. Therefore caution should be employed when eyeing auctions of older bottles.
Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Frequent Questions
Pics via basenotes, perfumemaking.blogspot,a367.yahoofs.com, productserve.com and perfumeshrine
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Thierry Mugler Alien Giant Golden Excess & Initiatory Stone: news & musings
The Clarins Group which holds the licence for parfums Thierry Mugler has just issued a very unusual and expensive edition that is aimed at true-blue collectors of fine fragrance with their new Alien Golden Giant Excess: The limited edition holds 1 liter (Whoah! talking about Godzilla size!) in a flacon decorated with real gold and Swarovski crystals! (click the pic, it's really impressive) The juice inside the bottle remains as usual, an "extraterrestrial" mix of jasmine sambac from India, blonde woods and white musks in Eau de Parfum concentration. Thierry Mugler launched Alien in 2005 in a formula devised dy Dominique Ropion and Laurent Bruyere and is considered successful in turnover terms. The price of the Alien Golden Giant Excess is 2000 euros. (Now please gather your jaw from the floor).
This comes on the heels of another limited edition for Alien, the Initiatory Stone which is available as a limited edition of 15ml Eau de Parfum from January 2009 in a bottle cut like an amethyst gem, a carrier of natural energy, topped by a gold cap, symbolising solar power. The scent is once again completely unchanged.
The two limited editions come as a follow up of the spring-summer'08 Alien Eau Luminescente, which was taking the solar theme into an interpretation in warm packaging hues.
Seems like the various editions keep a brand alive and kicking, creating buzz even in difficult times!
News and pic via Fragrantica and sfilate.it
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Optical Scentsibilities: bottle design
The most classic example is of course the couturier's dummy by Schiaparelli for her legendary Shocking.
The torso has a seamstress's tape on the neck and a head of flowers. Very 30s.
While Gaultier decided to give it a corset in his take on Jean Paul Gaultier Classique. Very 90s...
Weird shapes and precarious balances also inspire. Hermes did this tipsy bottle that sits on an angle first for Eau de Merveilles and then for Elixir de Merveilles (depicted).
Missoni liked the idea and borrowed the almost on the side, ready to fall but not quite balance on their eponymous scent and later on their Aqua by Missoni.
Youth Dew is a classic by Lauder: their first fragrance. Its shape above (coming from a later design on the original bottle) is echoed though in another perfume bottle.
Madeleine Vionnet, as a couturier, made sure she had a thimble-shaped cap on her fragrance. The rest is quite similar. The sketchy filigree design by Jane Birkin's hand proved successful for the ultra pared-down, functional bottle of Miller Harris L'air de Rien.
Lostmarch opted for a slightly more nostaligic design on theirs, lifting the sparse bottle a bit. Laan-Ael it is. L'artisan Parfumeur designed new caps for all their bottles recently (Why? Completely redundant, they were perfect anyway ~OK, perhaps they needed to inject a shot of masculinity to the image of their unisex fragrances, I am hypothesizing).
Yves Saint Laurent followed with their cap for L'Homme.
Perles de Lalique has one of the most arresting bottles in their extrait de parfum, as you can see.
Until one sees the vintage parfum bottle for Arpege by Lanvin that is.... Sisley came out with a moon-cap for their Soir de Lune. After all lune does mean moon in French.
But apparently Songes, which means dreams, is also tied to moon imagery, according to Annick Goutal. Good night, sleep tight...
Pics from osmoz, amazon, artcover, doctissimo.fr, scentedsalamander blog (for soir de lune), parfumflacons, flickr, official Miller Harris and Schiaparelli sites.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Chloé: New vs Old
Michael Edwards lists five Chloé fragrances in total in his compendium: Chloé Narcisse, Chloé Innocence, Chloé Classic (presumambly the original by Karl Lagerfeld: a white floral),Chloé (Collection 2005), and one just called Chloé listed among rosy fragrances (therefore the newest one, out February 2008). The first two are easy to distinguish, the rest not as much.
But let's take matters at the top.
Jacques Lenoir and Gaby Aghion were the designers responsible for the prêt-a-porter fashion house Chloé, founded in 1952. The fashions focused on a romantic vein inspired by the art which had been prompted by the bucolic idyll of antiquity by Longus, Daphnis and Chloe. The dreamy ballet Daphnis et Chloé by French imporessionist composer Maurice Ravel, often collected in romantic compilations helped consolidate an oneiric inpterpretation of what Chloé stands for: fluid, gauzy designs, chiffon and mousseline fabrics, pastel colours.
And so in 1975, when Karl Lagerfeld was designing for them before going on to Chanel, the house came out with its own perfume, simply named Chloé by Chloé : a white floral centered on tuberose, flower of spiritual ruin, carnal, feminine and feisty.
Taking its name from the Greek, which means "green shoot" it was composed by Betty Busse. The original Chloé married the subtle green tinge of leaves and aldehydic peach on top of an avalanche of jasmine, ylang-ylang, honeysuckle and narcissus, with just a whisper of exotic coconut. The drydown of warm skin and a little dry orris powder was indeed memorable. Thus it managed to mark an era, becoming a cult item, none the less because of its weird award-winning bottle designed by Joe Messina which was depicting the stem of a calla lily on the extrait de parfum stopper. It could also be interpreted as an aorta sprouting from a heart, if one is twisted enough...
Although the original Chloé has had many ardent fans through the years I always found that warm, radiant and feminine through it undoubtedly is, it possessed a tad sticky vulgarity that announced its wearer a bit earlier than would be the height of good manners: when within an arm's length, that is! Rumours have been circulating about a reformulation in the 1990s that left something to be desired for those who were devoted to the scent of their youth.
Compared to other tuberose vignettes,the original Chloé is an amateur 9mm to Carnal Flower's 3D-Techicolor and it lacks the rubber gloves of kink that Fracas is hiding beneath its femme façade. Nevertheless it executed its message with conviction and admirable flair.
The new version after 10 years of seeming inertia, alas, does not; and on top of that it marks the discontinuation of the old, classic tuberosey Chloé. The press release by Coty promised:
"The amber floral by Michel Almairac and Amandine Marie at Robertet is meant to embody the classic modern scent. It features a bouquet of powdered florals composed of peony, lychée and freesia. Notes of rose, magnolia and lily of the valley make up the heart over an amber and cedar wood base".
Personally I would not categorise the new Chloé in the ambery floral family. In fact it starts with an hydroponic* freesia accord that reminded me of the intense aqueous opening of L'eau d'Issey as well as its fantasy woody base. The pastel fruit-jelly accord (of which lychee is officially mentioned) has a passing resemblance to the fruity floral character of Cool Water Woman. Bearing in mind that those two are fragrances which I have smelled to death in the 90s, I could do without. There is also no prominent rosiness, at least no next of kin to the noble Bulgarian attars and the whole expires in little saccharine puffs of no great consequence. The attention which had been given to the exquisite, hefty bottle showing love for the detail (the grosgrain ribbon) was sadly lacking in the production of the jus.
No less than three egeries front the new Chloé campaign: American cult icon Chloë Sevigny, model Anja Rubik and French actress Clemence Poesy — "each chosen to represent a different facet of the Chloé woman: romantic; edgy, and sexy and sensual" — they all star in the black & white ad campaign, which you can watch here.
(uploaded by carriefan8890)
It is especially interesting to note that Chloë Sevigny, notorious for her outré performance in the Brown Bunny by Vincent Gallo is from now on and for as long as her contract is valid forbidden to star in comparable projects that might harm the reputation of the fragrance and consequently its sales. "It's very flattering," said Sevigny on being picked to represent Chloé Eau de Parfum, before adding, with a laugh, "I'm concerned that the customers might be confused, though; I have the umlaut in my name while they have the accent. I'm Chloë, not Chloé."
I was also surprised by her comment that Chloé has an edible quality about it in the above clip: I certainly didn't detect anything of the sort!
No wonder Chandler Burr slain the new fragrance in his article in The New York Times.
There is yet a third Chloé fragrance that might be confused with both, usually referred to on etailers as Chloé collection 2005, from the year it launched (it was a spring edition). The info from Parfumessence states that it features
"top notes of water lily, passionfruit, and pear, with a heart of tuberose & gardenia over a base of white woods and musk".I haven't tried it but it is worth bearing in mind, should one be before a counter on which the sales assistant is not completely in tune to the goings-on in the house of Chloé . And why would she?
{*Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions instead of soil}.
Pic of ad through Threadtrend.com, of original bottle through Amazon, of new bottle through Glam.com and of collection 2005 through Parfumessence.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Packaging and Advertising for Coty Chypre
Considering the success it had on the market and the avalanche of fragrances it inspired, this is not coincidental. The outer shell must represent the inner beauty thought the ancient Greeks, attributing divine powers to the visually pleasing and uniting exterior beauty to inner goodness and fortitude of mind in their καλος καγαθος concept.
In the case of Chypre by Coty, it was especially in the 1930s that the art deco imagery materialised in wonderful examples of artistic merit, such as the interwoven letters of the name Coty spelled on the cylindrical box that contained the perfume bottle. This is a clever product signature that is even today imitated in style in the crests of many brands and to me is mostly reminiscent of the curved lines of Annick Goutal (as reprised on the round glass holders of her candles).
Another example of extrait bottle uses the popular white bakelite material of the 1920s as a cap on a square little container.
In later years the cap became metal, the bottle lost its round shape to become rectangular, while the box took on the image of a little green tree with orangey fruit, echoing the pale green label of the perfume bottle and perhaps bergamot rind, as befits the composition of a proper chypre.
Yet another incarnation of indeterminate vintage puts the bottles in unusual deep iridiscent blue with the familiar logo of chypre in slanted typeface on a medaillon emblazoned on it. This comes from Damosels Domain on Ebay.
The art deco aesthetics can be witnessed to its advantage on the picture of the beautiful outer box from the 1930s, on which bent girls -as if harvesting grassy plants- are placed on relief, lighter than the background, on a sage-coloured carton. An ancenstor of Coty, who incidentally was a Corsican, had assisted Napoleon Bonaparte in the disastrous Russian campaign for which he was dubbed Baron by the Emperor and consequently awarded a crest to use as an emblem on his belongings. François Coty took this elegant and bold design of an eagle holding three balls in his talons, enscribed in an oval with latin inscription "omnia domat virtus" (=virtue conquers all things), resting under a crown; he used it on his legendary masterpiece, Chypre.
For a beautiful page on heraldry with images of carvings please click here.
Interestingly this advertisment from the 1930s had a Copintreau liqueur avdertisement on the reverse side!
The advertising copy for Chypre run thus:
Parfum
Chypre de Coty
Cette spécialité et ses accessories - creations COTY ont été soumis au contrôle d'usage, qui en garantit la qualité irréprochable. Les matiéres premiéres qui entrent dans la composition de cette spécialité ont été selectionnées avec le plus grand soin, ce qui explique la finesse et la grande réputation des products Coty. Toutes nos spécialités sont vendues sous le nom propre de "COTY," sans aucun prénom
Which I translated thus:
Perfume
Chypre by Coty
This product and its accessories -COTY creations, have underwent usage control that guarantees their irreproachable quality. The raw materials entering the composition of this product have been selected with the utmost care, which results in the finery and great reputation of Coty products. All our products are sold under the name "COTY" without any other front name.
In 1947 Coty announced the return of a world renowed perfume, his beloved Chypre of course, in an advertisement that makes us dream, featuring again the cylindrical box in a gorgeous green shade with curvaceous typeface in golden yellow. Have a peek clicking here.
An old-fashioned 1953 vintage British ad that evolved around hand kissing and being mentally trasported to Paris through the scent of Chypre can be found clicking here.
A Titan of perfumery was born and his liver remains still intact all those years later. Treaure hunting has never felt so good!
Pics come from ebay,damosels-domain, the lightyears company.
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