Histoires de Parfums Petroleum (Edition Rare): fragrance review

All the colors of a bruise: black and blue, teal green edging out in purple, fading to rosy, ending in ochre yellow like ancient parchment.

The electrical buzz of arc-welding, fiery orange sparks filling out the skies, the rusty mine of the shipwreck. The air filled with a mineral, scorched feel. The plank-plank of cork wedges hitting the iron ore at the loading decks.

A leather cloth, all smeared with wax. The musty smell of the hold of an old ship. He had his hair loose and oily with sweat and ambery brilliantine. My hand aching from trying to hold tight onto the lower mast. I said "I'm hurt". He should have said, "honey, let me heal it", like Bruce. Only he never said it; not in so many words.

John Klingel

Petroleum by Histoires de Parfums is Gerald Ghislain's story on oudh, the prophylactic defensive rot on Aquillaria trees and its resinous, nutty, woody, complex scent. Infused with fizzy orange, musty patchouli and a prolonged furry, white musk aftertaste, lasting hours, purring after the roar, Petroleum is the gift of the earth in an unassuming bottle. This oudh étude surpasses many others, in a masterful cadenza of chromatic tonalities: from black and blue, teal green edging out in purple, fading to rosy, ending in ochre yellow like ancient parchment. The chromatics in a drop of "liquid gold", in an old bruise that still aches when pressed.

Make Perfume, Not War: Gerard Ghislain Presents a Humanitarian Fragrance

"Les enfants ont the solution, the solution sont les enfants "
~Gerald Ghislain
(i.e. The children have the solution, the solution is the children).

What would happen if wearing a perfume became a call to action? With this question Gerard Ghislain, perfumer and founder of Histoires de Parfums (as well as of lines The Scent of Departure and Alice & Peter) presents his new offering, called "Make Perfume, Not War". The proud father of 4 children, Ghislain always had an affinity for sponsoring a cause that would help children in need. He felt now was the right time to get into action.

Perfume for humanitarian purposes isn't new (let's remember Jabu by Mona di Orio or the Le Labo Tokyo wider release for the relief of earthquake-hit Japan), but every effort counts. For every bottle of Make Perfume Not War sold a portion (50$) of the proceeds will be donated to support and protect children in need around the world. The buyer actually gets to choose which cause will receive his contribution, the range including 5 subjects: sports, education, technology, art or women's microfinance.

Make Perfume Not War is a unisex fragrance that opens with citrusy notes of orange, lemon, grapefruit, mandarin and bergamot segueing into a floral fruity heart of mango, pineapple, peach, freesia, lilac, and cyclamen which finishes on an aromatic and woody accord.

To make it even more valuable Make Perfume Not War will only be produced in a limited 1,000 numbered bottles of 120ml retailing at 205$ from September 15th, 50 of which will be donated to the fund with the aim to achieve in a short time the benchmark of $ 50,000. The fragrance will be exclusively available for purchase at the dedicated website www.makeperfumenotwar.org.

The site does not currently state which Children's Associations they're working with or how the buyer will ascertain of his/her contribution getting to the proper hands (they only state" The fund is regulated by the French government and the accounts are reviewed yearly by public officials") but I trust that this small technical matter will soon be clarified, as the sign "soon" upon hitting the "Learn more" button promises to.

Histoires de Parfums news

Histoires des Parfums, the brand which we had reviewed lovingly here and included with great pleasure in our Leather Series part 12 (Modern Leathers)~and which Luca Turin apparently also appreciates~ is now being featured at L’Eclaireur in Paris (rue Boissy d'Anglas, 8eme arrondissement), a first for any perfumer brand. They're also been available in Le Printemps.
The brand was founded in 1999 by French gastronomer-turned-perfumer Gérald Ghislain after studying in ISIPCA and was soon succeeding into entering several concept stores (Quartier 206 in UK, 10 Corso Como in Italy, Gum in Russia, Série Noire de Lille at Cap-Ferret, Saint-Tropez and Toulon, France...). Twelve stories around authors of literature or emblematic dates come in bottles of 120ml of Eau de Parfum (15% concentration) for 130 euros each.
The new proposition of Histoires de Parfums is a kit-nomade of three 14ml bottles (about 0.5oz) of the scent one chooses for the all-inclusive price of 87$. Sounds like a nice idea. (They aldeady have one of the best value deals on sampling programmes around)




Also please check the blog of Histoires de Parfums with an interview exposing all you ever wanted to know about Gérald Ghislain and the brand.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Histoires de Parfums reviews


Cosmic Roger
by 1969histoiresdeparfums

Histoires de Parfums Colette 1873: fragrance review

"If I can't have too many truffles, I'll do without truffles", Colette used to say. Although earthy truffles do not feature in the confines of 1873 Colette by Histoires de Parfums, the fragrance inspired by her personality, her sense of abandon to the sensuous side of life is clearly manifested in its wake.
I can very well remember the days when I was a fledging young miss, still a schoolgirl learning French at L’Institut Français reading the semi-autobiographical Claudine novels which to my young eyes (and those of La Belle Epoque too) seemed naughty and mischievous. How innocent my childish eyes were! Re-reading them as an adult I find them rather tame yet utterly charming and revealing of the character of Colette, the woman.

Inside her family garden of Bourgogne, young Sidonie Gabrielle Colette experienced her first steps as a writer, surrounded by roses and field flowers. Although she is famous for saying that a happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts, she seems to have flourished on the latter, from her first marriage to "Willy" who got her into writing, penning the Claudine series under his name, to her affairs with women, another with her stepson from her second marriage, her third husband and finally her friendship with her famous neighbour Jean Cocteau in the Jardins du Palais-Royal.
Having chosen her surname as a pen name, she was to become an admired literary woman, famous for both her literary and sensual freedom.

Reflecting this fizzy woman, 1873 Colette is a gourmand yet refined hesperidic fragrance, in which unsettling white flowers blossom in a light bubble, sparkling with tangerine and lemon.
The opening of 1873 Colette unmistakeably reminds me of candied kumquat, which is by turn inextricably tied to my mind with Nymphes (numphs) on the Greek island of Corfu, whose shores lap the waves of the Ioanian sea and the Adriatic. The succulent delicacy possesses a contrast of flavours that surprises the taste buds with its journey from bitter and sweet to the sour of the core and the crystallised crust of white sugar around that cracks under the bite of teeth. The wonderful liquer made of kumquats has a honeyed touch reminiscent of ripe orange blossoms with their fresh yet indolic aroma when they are about to swoon dying on a white sheet before exuding their last breath of scent for the benefit of an amateur enfleurage.
This delicious aroma persists for most of the length of time 1873 Colette stays poised on the skin, later flanked by the delectable orange blossoms and the never too sweet caramelised aspects of lavender with a subtle vanillic touch, imparting a desire to stick your nose to your wrists with a glutton's eagerness in front of his favourite dishes.

The collection Histoires de Parfums created by Gérald Ghislain is governed by no rules other than inspiration. This loquacious individual with roots in the Mediterranean chose to bring his literary heroes to life in perfume, a sensitive and sensual medium: authors, books and materials become stories which unfold on skin, to be read by those sensitive enough to appreciate this flight of fancy.

Notes:
Top: all the citrus fruits from sunshine countries
Heart: orange blossom, lily of the valley, lavender
Base: vanilla, white musks, caramel

1873 Colette by Histoires de parfums comes in Eau de Parfum:
120 ml for 130 € / 4oz for $115.00 (yes, it is cheaper in the US!)
The US site features the older bottle, while the European sites feature the new edition bottle.

You can buy directly from Histoires de parfums, First in Fragrance and MioMia.
Fabulous price on the sampler pack: set of 12 vials for 5€ on the official site.

Pic of Colette by Irvin Penn (1951) via the photographer's archive.