Showing posts with label manoumalia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manoumalia. Show all posts

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Photos of Manoumalia by Les Nez Launch in Noumea, New Caledonia


The fascinating and individual exotic floral Manoumalia by Les Nez (Parfums d'Auteurs) has found its pride of place at Noumea in New Caledonia (Nouméa, Nlle Calédonie), the place of residence of its talented creator, Sandrine Videault. She must be very proud to have this among the very people who inspired it and I was honoured to receive the photos to post for your delectation!

The wonderful line on the poster reads: "Le parfum, c'est un ami invisible qui parle pour vous" (Perfume is an invisible friend who speaks for you). A line which we, perfume enthusiasts, identify with most decisively!


Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Interview with perfumer Sandrine Videault, Manoumalia review, Les Nez scents.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Manoumalia by Les Nez: fragrance review

Kia ora tātou!, which means "greetings" in New Caledonian, should be the line that introduces the first fragrance of 2009. As reported earlier, Manoumalia is the newest fragrance from small niche brand Les Nez (Parfums d'auteurs) from Klingnau, Switzerland, officially out in January, of which I was fortunate to get a pre-sniff.

Sandrine Videault, the perfumer of Manoumalia, herself a New Caledonian, was inspired by Wallis [1] in November 2007 in almost an ethnographical exploration to appreciate the essences that would comprise the theme based on the olfactory culture of this exotic locale. Following a documentary of RFO televized in New Caledonia, Malia, a native woman, offered to show Sandrine her savoir-faire of perfumes, in which Tuitui [2] , the par-excellence-Wallesian essence is the protagonist. Her name, Malia, became part of the fragrance's name.
Manou on the other hand is a tad more complicated: When visiting Ouvéa, an island of the Kanak tribe, it is expected to present a traditional gift on visiting a local family or when meeting the tribe leader: the "manou" (pronounced man-oo) and some tobacco. "Manou" is a piece of material used as a wrap around the hips, evoking other exotic uses of woven cloth in different cultures around the world: the colourful gold-threaded saris of India, the alluring sarongs of Java, or the pin-up immortalised pāreu (or pareos) of Tahiti.
What's intriguing me greatly however is a fleeting memory of the "Code of Manou" from my early university days while assisting a Sanskrit professor write up a treatise on etymological parallels to ancient Greek. Part of the earliest Vedic writing (12th century BC), the "Code of Manou" is according to Alexander del Mar ~a 19th century coin historian, all but forgotten by historians, if not by history itself~ who, intent on claiming that ancient Indian scriptures reference coinage in the Indus valley before anyplace else, etymologically tied Manou with lawgivers Mene of Egypt and Minos of Crete. Although the claim is weakened by lack of concrete archeological evidence, the mention of Dharana, a coinage, coming from the verb Dhri (=to hold) instigated inadverted fascination in me: The ancient Greek coin of δραχμή/drachma would therefore be coming from the Indian root Drax (=handful)!

Should we then approach Manoumalia as the gift to Malia or the gift by Malia? Or perhaps the wrap of Malia, in which the sum of her aromatic journeys has been contained? Or yet still a handful of Malia's spiritual substance in the form of a fragrance to be used on one's person? It is always enjoyable to ponder on the onomastics of a perfume, allowing me to effortlessly slip into reverie.

The tradition of the Wallisians is richly steeped into the preparation of fragrant potions. Bracelets and necklaces (such as leis) are made through weaving intoxicating blossoms; spices such as the dusty yellow of curcuma is used to paint the body; sandalwood dust is made into a thick paste for treating and colouring the hair. Tutui [2] is comparable to importance to what tiare is to Tahitians. To Wallisians being illeterate in the language of scent is akin to being unknowledgable in the wiles of attraction and almost close to being a social pariah! Intepreting this culture into a single fragrance seems impossible and in fact would not be wise. Therefore Manoumalia focused in bringing some aspects of it into a modernised, westernised fragrance that can be appreciated by perfume lovers of a certain niche.

The Manoumalia heart is sketched around Fragrea Berteriana [3], a bushy shrub growing to tree-like proportions with intoxicatingly scented flowers which are traditionally strung into leis. The Polynesians are long known to make a perfume by macerating the flowers into coconut oil. The Hawaiian name for fragrea, pua kenikeni, translates roughly to "ten cents flower" or "coin flower", thus named because of the cost per flower at one time. (You can even buy your own seeds and grow it from scratch!)


One of the last students of Edmond Roudnitska, Sandrine Videault is best known for her historical fragrances (such as her Kyphi recreation for the Cairo museum in 2002) and olfactive shows. Previous fragrances composed by her include Ambre Indien by Esteban and La Rose de Carole Bouquet for Truffault, Paris.

Mentioning Roudnitska in the same breath as a floral fragrance, one would expect an affinity for green touches allied to subtle chypré qualities. And yet I only have to smell the drydown of Manoumalia to draw different conclusions. The sparseness of formula seems to be there because byzantine plots have been eschewed in favour of a streamlined approach. But the radiance of its huge floral heart along with a butyric touch (that recalls chamomille to me) conspire to evoke some aspects of Fracas. The strange mixture of powder, burnt wood and rubber which seems to be at the core of the latter reverberates through this floral as well. I am hypothesizing that there might be inclusion of aldehyde C18 (technically gamma-nonalactone) for its unctuous, coconutty, milky, soft tropical quality too. The Fauvist approach of Cellier, who also favoured streamlined compositions, is not as jarringly evident in Sandrine's work here, nevertheless. The composition is softer, warmer, making it less monumental but more approachable by many.
Although tiare has been a darling among teen celebritoids in such permutations as Monyette, Paris and Coquette Tropique (by the same brand), Manoumalia rises above them to the level of Intense Tiare by Montale, a fragrance richly redolent of monoï (tiare petals macerating in coconut oil) ~although I am not suggesting they smell the same. The almost fruity jasmine-y intensity of ylang-ylang never fails to make my mind fly to warm tropical paradises in the midst of winter cold, but it is the earthy unrooted vetiver that provides a grounding touch like immersing my hands into a bag of uprooted bulbs. (Vetiver is much more apparent when the fragrance is sprayed on skin than on a mouillette, please note).
A subtle vanillic-woody underpinning undulates out of the richness of the floral-woody chord of Manoumalia remaining for a while on the skin as a discreet memento of a journey to the South Pacific.

Notes for Les Nez Manoumalia :
Fagrea[3], vetiver, tiare, sandalwood dust, ylang ylang, amber accord.

Manoumalia will be available in a 50ml bottle directly through the Les Nez site starting sometime in January, as well as at Luckyscent, Aus Liebe Zum Duft, and Cale.it

[1]Wallis and Futuna is a Polynesian French island territory (but not belonging to, or even contiguous with, French Polynesia) in the South Pacific between Fiji and Samoa.
[2]Tuitui is a plant of the family Euphorbiaceae, commonly known as Candlenut/Varnish Tree (Lichtnussbaum in German) with white flowers in a shape like a cross between orange blossom and jasmine which is used mainly for the nuts and the oil distilled from them.
[3]Fagraea is a plant endimic to the South Seas islands, belonging to the family Loganiaceae, one species of which is the famous fagraea berteriana (pua kenikeni/Perfume Flower Tree) abundant in Maui.

In the interests of disclosure, I got sent a free sample of Manoumalia through the Les Nez give-away of samples during the last forthnight of December.
Pics copyrighted by Les Nez, used by permission

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Manoumalia: new fragrance by Les Nez (Parfums d'Auteurs)

A new fragrance by niche brand Les Nez (the Noses) is scheduled for January, called Manoumalia. Les Nez is a small Suisse brand which has released such esoterically-named perfumes as Let me Play the Lion, L'Antimatiere and The Unicorn Spell, masterminded by Isabelle Doyen. Comparatively, the cryptic Manoumalia name is less out there or fairy-tale like, although its concept reads like a high-seas adventure from the times when captain Cook was crossing the South Seas in search of exotic, unknown territories. Such were the lengths to which Sandrine Videault, the perfumer of the latest fragrance, went in November 2007 to appreciate the essences that would comprise what would essentially be a theme on the olfactory culture of Wallis. Wallis and Futuna, officially the Territory of Wallis and Futuna Islands is a Polynesian French island territory (but not belonging to, or even contiguous with, French Polynesia) in the South Pacific between Fiji and Samoa. (Since 2003 Wallis and Futuna has been a French overseas collectivity (collectivité d'outre-mer/COM).

One of the last students of Edmond Roudnitska, Sandrine Videault became interested in perfumery ever since she read Que Sais-je: Le Parfum, the now out-of-print edition penned by Roudnitska. Best known for her historical fragrances (such as her Kyphi recreation for the Cairo museum in 2002) and olfactive shows. Previous fragrance composed by her include Ambre Indien by Esteban and La Rose de Carole Bouquet for Truffault, Paris. Her olfactive illustrations include « L’Ecume des Sens », after a text from Boris Vian (Cité de la Villette, Paris), « Afrikabrak dans tous les Sens », after the sculptures of Hervé Di Rosa (Musée en Herbe, Paris) while she orchestrated the olfactive shows « Le Cantique des Sens », Palais des Congrès, Paris « La Beauté de l’Egypte ancienne » (for SEPHORA Champs-Elysées, Paris) and « Les Bulles Métalliques », Foire Internationale des Arts Contemporains (F.I.A.C), Paris.[1]

She elaborated to us how the importance of olfaction to the Polynesians, quite strong socially as well as spiritually (the same way dance and song are as well) has been an inspiration since she was a young girl. The Wallisians, making their own fragrance the ancient way, thus effortlessly entered the universe of cultures focused around smells in Sandrine's mind (as she comes from the isles of the South Pacific she was always in close proximity), much like the Egyptians, the Tunisians and the residents of Morocco. The Taihitians already have the monoi as their emblem, so it was only a matter of time till the Wallisians got their own share of recognition! The idea was therefore there, but Sandrine needed the incentive, the fuse that would set fire to the passion of composing a fragrance inspired by Wallis: the place where without a sensory, and specifically olfactory, training a man -and even more, a woman!- is invisible.
Following a documentary of RFO televized in New Caledonia, Malia, a native woman, offered to show Sandrine her savoir-faire of perfumes and became the open door, the gift-bearer that crystalised this idea and introduced Sandrine to their secret world. Sandrine's aim and ambition became to pay homage to the culture she came to know without betraying its richness. This could not be done in a mere reconstitution or even interpretation of Tuitui[2], the par excellence Wallesian essence ~there needed to exist a dialogue of different elements: of sandalwood, used to colour the hair, of spices (like curcuma) used to colour the body, of scent via the medium of jewels (bracelets or necklaces), of vetiver, of flowers like Fagrea[3] (which to Wallisians is comparable to what tiare is to Tahitians), ylang ylang and indeed tiare. Thus a modern, occidentally-oriented perfume emerged, which was talking about a culture hailing from the South Seas: a woody floral amber, Manoumalia.

The announced notes of Manoumalia are: Fagrea, vetiver, tiare, sandal, ylang ylang, amber accord.
If you sign up for the newletter on the Les Nez website, you can get a free sample of the new Manoumalia fragrance. I am already expecting it and will report back with a full-on review in due time.

[1] List of olfactive installations via 1000fragrances.
[2]Tuitui is a plant of the family Euphorbiaceae, commonly known as Candlenut/Varnish Tree (Lichtnussbaum in German) with white flowers in a shape like a cross between orange blossom and jasmine which is used mainly for the nuts and the oil distilled from them.
[3]Fagraea is a plant endimic to the South Seas islands, belonging to the family Loganiaceae, one species of which is the famous fagraea berteroana (pua kenikeni) abundant in Maui.

Pics copyrighted by Les Nez, reproduced by permission

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