Best-Sellers Feminine Fragrances: France 2015 (first quarter)

Last time we posted a perfume best-seller list on Perfume Shrine, a most interesting discussion sprang in the comments section. That's probably because French women and their fragrance is always a popular topic, France has a wide selection of both low-end, high-end and niche fragrances (plus distinctive classic style) and French women are characteristically non snobbish about them and because, well, discussing what people buy allows for feeling like we can probe into what makes people "click". Sort of "the knack" but in perfume terms.

via viacomit.net

For today's list I'm consulting the French Sephora site, who publish the top-30 of feminine best-seller perfumes in France for the first quarter of 2015. Some unsurprising "modern classics", some upstarts and some mind-boggling choices make the cut. Let's see them in order of sales.

1. La Vie Est Belle (Lancome)
2. Black Opium (YSL)
3. J'Adore eau de parfum (Dior)
4. La Petite Robe Noire eau de parfum (Guerlain)
5. La Petite Robe Noire Eau Fraiche, aka 'Petals' (Guerlain)
6. La Nuit Tresor eau de parfum (Lancome)
7. Si eau de parfum (Armani)
8. Miss Dior eau de parfum (Dior)
9. Hypnotic Poison eau de toilette (Dior)
10.Shalimar (Guerlain)
11.Lady Million (Paco Rabanne)
12.Lolita Lempicka le premier parfum (Lolita Lempicka)
13.Miss Dior Blooming Bouquet (Dior)
14.Flower by Kenzo (Kenzo)
15.Chloe eau de parfum (Chloe)
16.Narciso for Her eau de toilette (Narciso Rodriguez)
17.Flowerbomb (Viktor & Rolf)
18.Angel (Thierry Mugler)
19.Si eau de toilette (Armani)
20.Narciso for Her eau de parfum (Narciso Rodriguez)
21.Eau de Merveilles eau de toilette (Hermes)
22.La Petite Robe Noire eau de toilette (Guerlain)
23.Patchouli (Reminiscence)
24.The One (Dolce & Gabbana)
25.Very Irresistible (Givenchy)
26.Eau dynamisante (Clarins)
27.Nina (Nina Ricci)
28.Rogue (Rihanna)
29.Sweet (Lolita Lempicka)
30.Alien (Thierry Mugler)

It's interesting to note that Guerlain has 4 fragrances on the top-30 list, of which 3 are part of the La Petite Robe Noire stable and its ponies, with only one classic, the perennial Shalimar.


Related reading on Perfume Shrine:

• • Best-selling Celebrity Scents USA 2013
  • Best-selling Feminine Fragrances France 2011
  • Best-selling Feminine Fragrances France 2014
  • Best-selling Feminine Fragrances UK 2014
  • Best-selling Feminine Fragrances USA & France 2009
  • Best-selling Feminine Fragrances USA (2013)
  • Best-selling Feminine Fragrances USA 2011
  • Best-selling Fragrances Brazil 2011-12
  • Best-selling Masculine Fragrances France 2010
  • Best-selling Masculine Fragrances USA 2011
  • Top 10 Most Appreciated Fragrances France 2012

Gardens for Lutens and for Roudnitska

Perfumers being inspired by gardens is not something new, but this very interesting article on Telegraph.co.uk highlights two of the most illustrious ones: the legendary one of Edmond Roudnitska in France and the exotic one of Serge Lutens in Marrakech.

'Many of these fragrances wouldn't have existed if he hadn't been so totally immersed in nature on a daily basis,' says Roudnitska's son, Michel. 'He even had several beds of lily of the valley planted, which he sniffed at different times of the day to catch its subtlety, as well as the surrounding atmosphere with its green and fresh tones, which can be found in Diorissimo.'

Among the cedar, cypress, sequoia, maple, magnolia and willow trees that Edmond Roudnitska planted in his seven-acre garden, there thrive jasmine, roses, violet, wisteria, lilac, irises and lush herbs. 'This land - dominant, wild, even a bit austere - resembled him,' says Michel Roudnitska. 'He was a man of challenge and ideal. His motto, "I will make flowers bloom on stones and birds sing", is engraved at the entrance of the property and summarises the thought that drove him during those 48 years of fierce labour.'

But Lutens with his 9 acres private garden rivals the 7 acres of Roudnitska's. In Morocco, where Serge has built his private haven, his magnificent seraglio that no one sees, he also takes refuge in his wild garden overgrown with many of the plants that inspire him for his scents.

'When I arrived in Marrakech there were women with big white sheets underneath orange trees shaking the trunks to make the flowers fall,' he recalls. 'The whole city was perfumed with the orange-blossom. I stayed for three months; it nearly brought my contract with Dior to an end. I was deeply in love. Without Morocco I'd never have done perfumery.'

Lutens's nine-acre private garden lies down a dusty road in the Palmeraie, the national palm grove, hidden away from the camels and tourists. After walking through a large dark wooden door set into a traditional Moroccan wall, you are greeted with a series of paths that cut through a gentle jungle in which chickens, turkeys, peacocks, frogs and a couple of cats happily cohabit. Inside grow many of the plants that inspire Serge Lutens scents - rose, jasmine, laurel, myrtle, pepper, fig, apricot, almond, orange - plus arid vegetation such as cacti, eucalyptus, Australian bottle-brush, lantana, prune trees and cyprus.

'This garden has a personality that doesn't want to expose itself,' he says in his thoughtful, poetic manner. 'Except for the palm trees, everything else grows in the shade. The garden and I are similar. I wouldn't like to be too public and this is not a public garden. Every time I walk around here I discover something I don't know, because the garden grows itself.'

I cannot imagine the costs of gardening! Then again, I know lots of us who are willing to keep his gardeners in business...


After Instanbul and the Arab world, next post will reprise travelling in exotic destinations. Stay tuned!

Link brought to my attention by Arsinoe on MUA. Thanks!
Pic of Lutens's private garden, courtesy of Telegraph.co.uk