Divine Eau Divine: exclusive fragrance preview & review

Smelling the newest Divine creation on my wrists, the unisex Murano-like in its translucence Eau Divine, puts me in the mood for the upcoming vacations which can't come soon enough as far as I am concerned. The niche house of Divine was founded in the elegant Edwardian resort of Dinard, on the north coast of Brittany, France, by perfumer Yvon Mouchel: imagine a brand that issues whatever they want, whenever they want, without following a marketing plan nor frantically paced releases one after the other, all sold in a tiny shop off the beaten track! The essence of niche. Slowly but surely word of mouth made his first creation, Divine by Divine, a mini-cult that had discerning women worldwide searching for it and ordering directly from them. But what made parfums Divine so sought after, aside from the ~well...~divine name? It's hard to put into words: There is an old Hollywood glamour, entrancing and at the same time a little decadent, emanating from them ~ these are potent, old-school perfume-y fragrances with often a characteristic aldehydic thread spun through them which would have both Norma Desmond pleased and Daisy from The Great Gatsby feel at ease. This dichotomy is at the heart of Divine creations: dark yet piquant, airy or deep, sexy and contemporaneously refined, they fuse contrasting elements into a delicate pirouette that no matter how hard to perform, it appears seamless.

Eau Divine is the 9th instalment in this tale but it effortlessly breaks loose into more casual arpeggios, without betraying the tune. "Crystalline, the first notes emerge : from the top, Eau Divine combines the green coolness of Italian citrus with the sparkle of spices: star anise, rose hip, ginger and nutmeg. The heart of the pyramid is more tender. Orange flower and sweet violet prolong the pure energy of the first moments for a while but then delicately induce the subtle opening of deep notes. White amber, hot musk and labdanum only then reveal their lingering and generous sensuality".
I always felt that the word of Jean Claude Ellena, "generous" while describing the cologne style prevalent in the Mediterranean countries, is superbly fitting to evoke the giving, pleasurable nature of this genre: There is a feeling of sentir bien dans sa peau (feeling good in one's skin) which such compositions instantly bring out, making me envision holidays at some seaside resort at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, white terry robes and turban-style towel on hair, diva sunglasses on minus the "bling", while eating a hearty breakfast with freshly squeezed citrus juice and grated ginger served on lots of ice, lounging by the pool where fetching cabana boys are furtively assisting in their tight Speedos. Yet there is a cerebral element about it all too (a little incensy depth and the coolness of violet leaves plus an aldehydic overlay), like London-based detective-fiction writer Samantha Morton (played by the divine Charlotte Rampling in Ozon's Swimming Pool) overcoming her writer's block at her editor's retreat at Southern France; or people-watching gorgeous triad Alain Delon, Romy Schneider and Jane Birkin torn between love and crime in La Piscine (1969).
Surprisingly for this kind of fragrance the lasting power of Eau Divine is excellent: put on in the evening after my bath, there were still remnants on my skin by the next morning!

Prices start at 50 euros for 30ml up to 145 euros for 200ml in various styles: splash, spray or refillable spray. There is also a different presentation for men or women despite the unisex character of the juice itself.
The Divine line includes 4 fragrances for women: the original Divine by Divine (floral animalic with a peachy heart and vintage feel), L'être Aimé Femme (aldehydic floral with a core of immortelle), L'inspiratrice (dark rose with patchouli), L'infante (green sweet white floral), L'âme soeur (aldehydic floral, powdery); and 3 fragrances for men: L'Homme de Coeur (aromatic woody with iris), L'être Aimé Homme (an ode to immortelle, aromatic herbs and exotic woods) and L'Homme Sage (spicy woody with saffron). Eau Divine is their first offering intended for both men and women.

Apart from their Dinard original boutique (and another two in Saint Malo and Caen, France) there is also one in Paris: DIVINE 3 rue Scribe 75009 Paris+33 1 40 06 03 14. Parfums Divine are now sold in London, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Roma, Warsaw, New York, Los Angeles and Vancouver. You can see details at their official site or order directly (they ship worldwide)
For our readers I have 5 Eau Divine samples to give away to try it out. Leave a comment stating your interest.



In the interests of full disclosure, I was sent the samples by parfums Divine
Charlotte Rampling pic via us.movies1.yumg.com. Clip of La Pascine (1969)originally uploaded by 1985nicole on Youtube.

Market news, luxury and tendencies July '09

The intricasies of the luxury market as attested through the beauty sector are unraveled into high-shine offices at corporate buildings. Yet, here at Perfume Shrine from time to time, we comment on those developments as a brief finger on the pulse of market tendencies, cautioning our readers on what to expect later on.

The latest news has Interparfums, makers of parfumes for Burberry, Lanvin and Christian Lacroix among others, announcing a 5% decline (amounting to 121,3 millions euros for the first semester of 2009 instead of the 273 millions anticipated for the whole year). A drop that is cutting the rise they had experienced in recent years. The case for Lacroix and his closing the house is of course well documented by now, with Bernard Krief Consulting a strong contestant till now and the recent Italian Borletti expressing a wish to buy it out. Even French minister Frédéric Mitterrand had expressed a desire to find a solution for the house, which during the 1980s had been one of the most influential in French fashion.

With that climate it makes for little surprise that there is a diminished interest in Lacroix perfumes; they were circulating through the Avon canal for a while, in a smart move to continue to be offered. Recent news however implicate Avon in letting go no less than 1200 employees, which bears ill forecasts on the future of Lacroix perfumes as well. Burberry represents 64% of the share of Interparfums and was looking relatively healthy till now, despite the 4% drop during the first trimester of 2009. They're even opening their biggest boutique in South-East Asia, the ION Orchard in Singapore, covering 815 square meters full of the British fashions of the historic brand.

Whatever the case is Interparfums and their head of affairs, Phillipe Benacin, are looking ahead at acquiring contracts with "well-known brands" and specializing at luxury. For some odd reason (or not so odd) the luxury market is withstanding the crisis, with Hermès opening their first boutique in Brazil next September, a project eagerly anticipated by the more affluent among the country's buyers. Then again, Hermès International has announced a turnover of even better than anticipated for the first semester of 2009! Their new Eau de Cologne collection is rekindling interest and they have salvaged their luxury image unscathed.
The succession of Jane Lauder, 36, of her father Ronald, 65 into the head administartion consulting of Estée Lauder and their successful Private Collection trio, of which the latest instalment, the lovely nouveau chypre Jasmine White Moss, is a commercial and artistic success, shows that the old American brand is trying to monitor their drop of 10% in the last trimester.

As we had previously discussed in our Luxury Market amidst the Recession article, the only way for something to survive in the middle-market is to change market-point and look upwards into the higher echelons and the raised prices. Jean Claude Ellena had said it succinctly: "If you want luxury, you either increase the price or increase the size" and it seems like the perfume market has embraced the concept.

Still, in an unprecedented turn of events, Dolce & Gabbana decided recently to down-market (so to speak) their upcoming autumn and winter collections, especially the more mainstream and Jeans lines, by supressing costs that would be trickled down to the consumer's benefit, reflected into the price. What remains to be seen is what happens with their perfumes line. The latest Tarot-inspired anthology although eagerly anticipated and publisized as the new "niche" line within a brand seemed to take a page off Chanel looks-wise, but didn't really ripple the waters smell-wise.

Fast-fowarding to the future of marketing for beauty and perfumes, the experts at Carlin International predict a greater meshing of the olfactive orientation, fusing elements of masculine and feminine not only in the composition of the jus itself but also in the wording used in advertising and the packaging of perfumes, as well as cosmetics. Natural tones and an urban feel will be the new direction with futuristic shapes: The curvacous and the straight will be manipulated into hybrids of andogyny in the design and packaging of products, new shapes that play with our perception (Is it a shaving brush or a pinceau for applying blusher? Is it a razor or a device to apply foundation?) to help market perfumes and beauty paraphernalia to what has become a wide, unisex market. A brave new world, indeed!

Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles: fragrance review

Many summers ago I used to spend my days by the sea at my grandparents' villa, surrounded by majestic pines as old as the original tenants, numerous dusty fig-trees and one wild-pear tree which was later struck by lightning to ash. The wind was sighing in the boughs, a nightingale came to sit on my shoulder and the longings of those long summers promised adventures as yet uncharted, our psyche elevated through a taste of awe. The long pine needles were falling in heaps on the floor of this pine grove ~infuriating my grandfather who had to work doubly hard along with the gardener to keep the grass properly breathing~ counterpointing the mighty trunks, often bleeding tears of golden sticky resin used in both turpentine and retsina. This was different from the mastic and copal resins, which we grounded in fine dust, or the rosin, which I witnessed being used by the student of violin who routinely accompanied me at the piano at the Conservatoire. We were sent as children to gather fresh pine needles, run them through the cold water of the outdoors tap, gather them in bunches and hang them upside-down to dry: they would be stored to make herbal tea with honey to ward off colds, a tip of our German cleaning woman, when the summer villa would revert to its silent existence for half a year. Everything about those precious memories was conjured as soon as I heard of the newest Serge Lutens fragrance, Fille en Aiguilles and the reality of it didn't betray my visuals as some of you will find out for yourselves (yes, there's a draw for samples coming up, keep reading!)

The first announcement containing the notes had been the instigation, the second round of news with the cryptic messages by Serge had been the icing, as it left us with exactly nothing to go on upon ~the mystery was well preserved: this girl ~or boy, who could wear this equally well~ rolling on pincushions was not telling any tales just yet. The aiguilles part (“needles”) in the name has been linked to sewing needles (due to the French idiom "de fil en aiguille" meaning from needle to thread, from one thing to another, ie. snowballing), or stiletto heels ("talons aiguilles" in French) perhaps exactly because there was the "tick tick tick" repetitive sound in the press release. Still pine needles, those long thin lances that strew forest floors and exude their resinous, medicinal-sweet smell when the air is warm, are at the core of the composition rather than the ill-sitting, detergent-like tones of so much "pine"-baptized air pollution posing as home and car ambience.

In a nod to old empirics and apothecaries, who healed ills attributed by the superstitious ailing to supernatual forces or the wrath of God through folkore herb medicine and mysticism, uncle Serge acts as a shaman, letting out blood with his pine needle in his bag of seemingly endless tricks. In Alain Corbin's book "The Fragrant and the Foul" the theory of miasma is documented: the widespread belief that foul smells accounted for disease and therefore eradicating the bad smells would result in battling the disease (Incidentally there was also the widespread belief of bathing disrupting the protective mantle of the skin, but this is the focus of another of our articles). The practice has long ancentrastal ties to ritualistic cleansing via sulphur as depicted in antiquity, remnants of which are referenced here and there in Greek tragedy such as Euripides's Helen. Fire and brimstone led by a savant Theonoi goes far, far back...In the Middle-Ages during bouts of cholera, the plague and other miasmata, empirical healers used a large hollow beak stuffed with cleaning herbs so as to protect themselves, earning them the descriptor of "quack", which by association became synonymous with charlatan later on when the science of medicine prevailed. The word is of Dutch origin (kwakzalver, meaning boaster who applies a salve); boaster because quacks sold their folk medicine merchandise shouting in the streets.The belief in the magical properties of scented compounds runs through the fabric of fragrance history: let's cast our minds back to the alleged cure-all of Eau de Cologne by Johann Maria Farina and his imitators! But is perfume really snake-oil? Only to the extend which we allow it to be, yet there lies artfulness in the pharmacopoeia.

This particular catharctic blood-letting preceding the herbal ointment, forms a trickling kaleidoscope of the elements which Lutens has accustomed us to, via the sleight of hand of perfumer Christopher Sheldrake: There is the candied mandarin peel with its strange appeal of cleaner (La Myrrhe) and putrid aspects (Mandarine Mandarin), the fruits confits of his Bois et Fruits, the interplay of cool and hot of the masterful Tubéreuse Criminelle, the charred incense depths and fireworks of Serge Noire, the vetiver in Vétiver Oriental with a rough aspect peeking through and even some of the spice mix of El Attarine, appearing half poised between cumin and fenugreek. After the last, pretty and atypical for Lutens Nuit de Cellophane, Fille en Aiguilles is an amalgam of strange accords, a disaccord within itself, but with a compelling appeal that pleases me. Contrasting application techniques ~dabbing versus spraying~ I would venture that should you want the more camphoraceous elements to surface, spraying is recommended; while dabbing unleashes the more orientalised aspects. There is sweetness in the sense that there is sweetness in Chergui or Douce Amere, so don't let it scare you too much. The liquid in my bottle is wonderfully dark brown, somber yet incadecent in the light of the day and as dark as ink, much like Sarrasins, in the dusk of the evening (and be warned that it also stains fabric almost as much).

Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles has notes of vetiver, incense, fruits, pine needles and spices in a luminous woody oriental formula.
Available in the oblong export bottles of 50 ml/1.7oz of Eau de Parfum Haute Concentration for 95 € /140$ at Paris Sephora and of course Le Palais Royal and later on at Selfridges UK, Aedes US, the Bay in Toronto and online.

For our readers, enter a comment to win one of the five samples given of the new fragrance well ahead of its wider distribution!

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Serge Lutens news and reviews

Other reviews: Elisabeth de Feydeau, Grain de Musc, Perfume Posse.

Paintings by Colette Calascione, via deyarte.blogspot.com

The winners for the draw...

...for the Crazy Libellule & the Poppies Les Garconnes crazy sticks are Proximity, The Scent Muse, and Rebella. Please mail me using the e-mail in profile with your info so I can get these out in the mail to you soon!

Thank you all for your wonderful ideas (I hope the company is taking notes, you outdid yourselves) and your enthusiastic participation and be prepared for the next one very shortly!

Penhaligon's Amaranthine: new fragrance

Bertrand Duchaufour, head perfumer at L'Artisan, has composed a new Penhaligon's fragrance after his collaboration with the British brand in their Anthology series (a 3-year spanning project that will include 12 fragrances in total).

Amaranthine means "unwithering" (from the Greek αμάραντη) and although the name would point to a flower that never wilts, the reality is a 'corrupted floral oriental' according to the press release, but from the notes listed the new feminine Eau de Parfum sounds more like a gourmand with floral notes with the stress on the milky ambience that surrounds it.
Indeed Amaranthine has top notes of green tea, white freesia, cardamom absolute; heart notes of carnation, rose and Egyptian jasmine absolute; and base notes of vanilla, tonka bean absolute, musk and sandalwood.

There will be a special limited edition flacon of Extrait de Parfum in 30ml/1oz costing £350 (depicted), alongside the standard 50ml/1.7oz and 100ml/3.4oz bottles of Eau de Parfum in the Penhaligon's familiar style. Official launch is set for October.

Guerlain Habit Rouge Sport: fragrance review

~by Mike Perez

There was a time when I hated any scent that smelled like powder. Powder smelled ‘cheap’ to me, which may seem odd since I love mint in fragrances and many people associate that with store bought toothpaste. Guerlain changed everything.

The first time I tried Habit Rouge (the Eau de Cologne) a couple years ago, I found myself for the first time in love with a powdery fragrance. Also slightly dusty; antiquated and gentle, like those photographic effects where an image has a soft, hazy glow all around the subject in the picture. I liked the effect (maybe it was the ‘Guerlainade’) and instantly thereafter found it easy to love Shalimar, Vol de Nuit, and Jicky - other wonderful powdery scents which are an acquired taste. I’m aware that many men (of differing ages) don’t agree with me and dislike Habit Rouge. Nonetheless, wearing a popular fragrance has never been essential to me. Therefore, you might say, Habit Rouge is an important fragrance to me.

This year (March 2009) Guerlain released Habit Rouge Sport, the 2nd flanker to the 1965 fragrance (the first was 2005’s Habit Rouge Light/Légère) which joined the many formulations of the original: Eau de Cologne, Eau de Cologne Dry, Eau de Toilette, Eau de Parfum, After Shave and Extrait/Parfum. I instantly disliked the name: Habit Rouge Sport. Why not just call it Habit Rouge Arctic Rush? Still, I was excited to smell how Guerlain would interpret Habit Rouge, into a ‘sport’ fragrance.

Oddly, the way Habit Rouge Sport opens up on skin, in the top notes, has absolutely nothing in common with the original. A very sturdy and synthetic fresh note both sharp (aldehydes?) and bright, is the first thing you’ll smell – not citrus, which when it arrives later isn’t very lemon prominent at all. The smell is piercing and I strongly advise you carefully sniff your skin closely upon application. Based on first impressions, I was initially instantly dissatisfied. Subsequent wearings have perhaps made it less shocking, but no less disappointed with the cheap-room-freshener sharpness.

The jasmine floral accord in HRS arrives after the fragrance warms on skin. A very transparent jasmine, similar to those used in designer feminines (Blush by Marc Jacobs, 24 Faubourg Eau Délicate by Hermès). Simple florals that lie on top of the aforementioned fresh and synthetic top notes, giving the scent a varnished surface effect. The plastic floral effect (Nappe Rouge [Red Tablecloth] Sport?) is probably due to the leather notes (a nod to the original scent) but which in Habit Rouge Sport has no solid citrus / oriental structure to blend with.

Saddened, I hoped it might progress in a pleasing way – Guerlain fragrances are appreciated for their intricate and satisfying dry downs. But no. It evolves into a synthetic woody / vanilla musk (annoyingly safe and conservative and miles away from Guerlainade) that extends the sturdy fresh notes for 4-5 hours before it disappears.

I’ve smelled synthetic notes, used unskillfully here-and-there is a few select Guerlain scents (Heritage (the EdT); Aqua Allegoria Laurier-Reglisse) and I’ve smelled shampoo-underarm-deodorant-esque fresh accords also (Guerlain Homme) – but I’ve never smelled the combination of both effects in a Guerlain masculine.

I wore it several times before writing this review – each time I patiently awaited the scent to evolve differently on me. It never happened. I have the strong feeling this scent was not created for Habit Rouge fans like me, but rather for those who have never smelled or are unfamiliar with the original. If so, how sad? Kind of like a cocktail party I’ve attended: I am the unpopular bookworm kind-of- guy, over in the corner all by myself and no one paying attention to me - while on the other side of the room everyone is crowded around the new-in-town, handsome, popular jock in his tight red shirt.
Habit Rouge Sport is available at select Guerlain boutiques and Bergdorf Goodman. A 100 ml atomizer bottle (red glass, with a silver cap) is $92.

The notes for Guerlain Habit Rouge Sport are: citron vert, bitter orange, pink pepper, bamboo, jasmine, leather, vanilla and patchouli.

Images via M.Perez

Work your signature scent to become unforgettable

In a fun little article in College News about 5 ways to become unforgettable (I am assuming positively and to a certain someone which you want to romantically involve) there is this nifty bit of advice on how to manipulate fragrance into the equation. In fact it is on the very very top, being advice #1. We wouldn't have guessed for the world!
Here it is:

"Too much: Layering to the point of eye-watering pungency. Layer, yes, but don’t saturate yourself in the scent to a fault. At a certain point, it’s just going to burn their nostrils, which will result in you being the bad kind of “unforgettable.”
Just enough: Slather on some deliciously-scented lotion while you’re in the car, right as you’re about to go out and do dinner or a movie. The rush of fragrance in the small space will be enough to jolt his memory nicely. Plus, when you get back in the car, it will smell like you.
With that in mind, I recently read another great tip: spritz a little of your fave perfume on your bedroom light bulb, just a little, and the room will fill with your trademark scent. Finally, don’t be afraid to go outside the box for your perfume of choice. After all, the point is
to be memorable, not to smell like every other person on campus. Simple concoctions like cocoa butter or suntan lotion can be great scents. Likewise, sometimes a phenomenal-smelling shampoo is all you’ll need to make someone’s heart pound. "

Somehow ~and judging by being outside the target audience~ I find shampoo smells (as well as cocoa butter or suntan lotion) not nearly enough to make one's heart pound for very long, but what do I know? I wasn't around when a specific green shampoo was all the rage.
Tell us if you have any "simple" scents that have had someone special go amok about it!

Amy Winehouse stinks up a storm?

"Amy Winehouse is reportedly eyeing a deal with a perfume house to launch a range under her name. The singer was said to looking to bag a deal worth more than 750,000 dollars under the guidance of her father, Mitch" according to the Indian Express. “They want it to reflect her style with a classic smoky 1950s look and smell. Amy is keen to expand her brand and wants to latch on to the celeb perfumes bandwagon while she can". The news is also broadcasted on Starpulse Entertainment news. The initial reportage is owed to The Daily Star, but in a world when porn stars have issued their own celebrity scents, a (talented, if troubled) singer's juice doesn't seem as far fetched.

Will it be "Eau de Funk" like reported on Ear Sucker? "A namless {sic} industry insider seems to agree with me saying: “Frankly, she doesn’t look like she smells that nice, so doing some positive publicity to prove it doesn’t just smell of stale booze and fags would be vital.” according to Fashionindie.com

The "while she can" line sounds a little desperate...even if 50s fragrances are indeed often an affair of booze and cigarette smoke, let me remind the nameless industry insider.

At any rate, for her sake, I hope this move (if confirmed) is the nudge to tilt her out of the downward spiral of dependency...

What would you like to see featured in Amy's scent? Or which celebrity (who hasn't yet) would you like to see launching a fragrance?

Nina Ricci Coeur Joie: fragrance review & history

My maternal grandmother had a Louis XVI vanity with silk damask that had a interlay of glass vitrine within the wood panel back, behind which small precious flacons from Paris hid. They seemed to flirt with each other at nights and I imagined them having spirited conversations when I was little. The square-shouldered Balmain extrait was the masculine counterpoint leaning seductively close to the smoothly countoured L'Air du temps and close to them a bottle of Coeur Joie seemed to proclaim by its very name the romanticism which those perfumes aimed to provoke. Perfume was a reverie back then, a daydream and a longing, more than a mere accessory and my grandmother brought them all to life.
I was watching an Angela Lansbury film, in which she travelled to Paris and had a gown made at the famous Nina Ricci atelier and what stayed was the palpable feeling of her intoxication of becoming another person through this chrysallis transformation; or rather the person which she used to be as a young girl; optmistic and hopeful, before the vagaries of life had crushed her dreams. In retrospect I believe Coeur Joie would have been an excellent scent choice to accompany this elegant vision! Its understated luxury of its feminine bouquet of subdued, cooly whispering flowers transports us into an early evening reverie someplace where Chopin Nocturnes can be heard through ajar French windows and ball-gowned debutantes are casting their dreams on the flip of a wrist during a waltz.

Robert Ricci, the son of fashion designer Nina Ricci and head of development at parfums Ricci, took an unconventional approach when visualising how he wanted Coeur Joie to be, the first Nina Ricci perfume to diversify from clothing, in 1946. Despite it being a creation of Germaine Cellier, a perfumer with a daring and unapologetic streak of rebellion, then working at the famous Roure company, this Ricci perfume comes off as a comparatively soft fragrance; delicate and low-key floral, with an elegant polish rendering it suitable for a Grace Kelly type rather than the more daring amazones of Cellier's. Germaine Cellier was quite formidable herself, a great beauty of alleged lesbian tendencies, smoking a chimney, eating garlic with other famous couturiers, violently clashing with Roure's acclaimed perfumer Jean Carles, briefly acting as a functional scents composer for Colgate-Palmolive soaps (a stint which lasted but three months) and gingerly mixing perfumers' "bases" wondoursly resulting into stunning compositions such as the first "green" fragrance (the galbanum-souled Vent Vert), the knife-scathing outlaw of Bandit with its leathery bitterness of quinolines of 1944, the buttery radiance of tuberose in 1948's Fracas (both for Robert Piguet), the nostalgic violet chypre Jolie Madame for Balmain (1953) and the lesser known La Fuite des Heures for Balenciaga in 1949. There is also the enigmatic Eau d'Herbes (Herbal Water) conceived for Hermes at an unspecified date during the 1950s, which remains an enigma, and several compositions for Elizabeth Arden during the same time-frame. The solution to her Roure disputes presented by Louis Amic was to set Cellier up in her own laboratory in Paris (baptized Exarome), a place of her own where she could create her perfumes and meet her clients.

Nina Ricci on the other hand is best remembered for L'Air du Temps, the romantic lactonic floral with a carnation accent by Fabric Fabron in the emblematic flacon crowned with doves, but she has had a line-up of several less popular classic fragrances. Among them Coeur Joie (1946), Fille d'Eve (1952), Capricci (1961), the masculine Signoricci (1965), the orange-rich Bigarade (1971)and the spicy carnation aldehydic Farouche (1973) all the way to the original green Nina in the frosted bottle in 1987 (the name has been reprised for the gourmand in the apple-shaped bottle of 2006), the playful fruity chypre Deci-Dela and the trio of Les Belles de Ricci, all the way into the recent years when the company was bought by Puig.
Marie Adélaïde Nielli (nickenamed Nina when she was but a mere girl) was married to Louis Ricci, to whom she bore a son, Robert. Nina Ricci relocated to Monte Carlo first and ultimately in Paris in 1932 when Robert was 27 years old, working as a model maker. But her son's motivation instilled into her the desire to open a fashion house one year short of her 50th birthday and the rest is, as they say, history.

The polished feel of the fragrance is immediately apparent, from its fresh, greenish opening oscilating between neroli and cool iris tonalities to the discreet, slightly warm and reassuring drydown which shares elements with the original Nina by the same designer, while being as waxy woody as the legendary Dior Dior. Despite scents of that time being usually powdery, Coeur joie stops short of producing this effect and does not smell old-fashioned in the least, although modern noses might be disappointed at the lack of overt sweetness. As someone at Fragrantica put it: "Launched just two years prior to Nina Ricci's renowned L'Air du Temps, Coeur Joie is L'air du Temps with a whiskey chaser -- a lilting, cool, pretty-as-a-princess floral with a knowing, silken drydown befitting an empress. Wear this when you want to promise nothing but deliver everything". I'd substitute whiskey with champagne, but the rest rings quite true.

The bottle, designed by Marc Lalique with whom the Ricci family enjoyed a close relationship since childhood, reprised the romantic theme into a garlanded tube that was heart-shaped. Extremely costly due to its rarity nowadays, yet there are round canisters of Eau de Toilette, holding big quantities appearing now and then on Ebay auctions and on online discounters; these harken back to the 1960s. There is a rumour circulating that they were especially made for the Greek market where Ricci perfumes were especially popular at the time and well-to-do ladies used them for refreshment on warm spring days.

Notes for Nina Ricci Coeur Joie:
Top: neroli, bergamot, orange blossom
Middle: iris, violet, hyacinth, jasmine, gardenia, and rose
Base: woods

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Germaine Cellier scents



Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938) plays Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne nr. 12 in G, opus 37 no. 2, composed in 1839. Recorded in 1928. Originally uploaded by pianopera on Youtube

Fashion photo of Van Cleef & Arpels jewels by Bert Stern. Nina Ricci atelier via nytimes. bottle pics via parfumgott/flickr and ebay

Caron With Pleasure: fragrance review & Caron history

Certain fragrances grab you by the throat and demand to be asked "What are you talking about anyway?" Whether they do it via shock value or by undecipherable codes posing an enigma it is a matter of semiotics.

One such scent is With Pleasure, belying its very name, not because it is repulsive, but because it is on the edge of consciousness nagging you to tilt your head once more and mubble again "what is it about it, then?"

The Unknown Perfumer at Caron: Michel Morsetti

Caron's With Pleasure was issued in 1949, composed by perfumer Michel Morsetti, two years after the self-taught founder, Ernest Daltroff, had passed away. The bottle was customarily designed by Félicie Bergaud (née Félicie Vanpouille and the collaborator of Daltroff, with whom they shared an open, and controversial at the time, relationship out of wedlock). Contemporary to both Or et Noir (Gold and Black) and Rose it remained in their long shadow, a secret to be unveiled by those in the know. The same year also saw the introduction of the original version of Caron's Pour Une Femme, later discontinued and then re-issued in 2001 in an altered formula. It seems that the end of the war and the decade drawing to a close saw an orgiastic productivity at Caron! Yet although the former fragrances continue their unhindered path (with slight tweaks along the way), With Pleasure has been discontinued and become rare, a true collectible.
Michel Morsetti has been responsible for all these fragrances, along with others in the Caron stable of thouroughbreds in the late 1940s and 1950s, notably the cassie-rich almost gourmand Farnesiana (1947), the relatively unknown marvel Tabac Noir (1948) ~a counterpoint to the famous Tabac Blond of the roaring 20s~, the lily-of-the-valley ballet Muguet de bonheur (1952), and the fiery, peppercorn fury of Poivre and its lighter concentration Coup de Fouet (1954). Royal Bain de Champagne is also attributed to Morsetti, despite it being issued in 1941, at a time when Daltroff was still alive. Incidentally many of the classic Carons and a history of the house of Caron are covered in Parfum: Prestige et Haute Couture by Jean-Yves Gaborit (editions Fribourg, 1985).
The vereable French house started from meagre beginnings in 1901-1902 when Russian-Jewish brothers Ernest and Raoul Daltroff bought the small parfumeria "Emilia", located on rue Rossini in Paris, evident in their first fragrance baptized Royal Emilia in 1904. Aided by an obscure acquaintance named Kahann with deep pockets, Ernest Daltroff moved the address to 10 rue de la Paix and renamed it "Caron", with which name it became synonymous with French style and "fit for a duchess" chic, according to an infamous quote.

If there is a signature Caron-ade running through the fabric of the older vintage Carons, it is evident in With Pleasure, without doubt: a dark rose with musty, slightly earthy tonalities is peeking its face underneath a green-herbal façade. The rosiness is an upside-down image of the darker and rosier Or et Noir, with an almost anisic touch. The greeness of With pleasure is not chypré, nevertheless, but rather tilted into an aldehydic direction with a non tangy citrusy accent, folded into the rosiness along with snuffed-out candles notes. The more strident, angular chypres of the 50s were competing with more traditionally feminine aldehydics and their proper lady image; so very fitting, after the return of women to the home, the kitchen and the boudoir following the loaded responsibilities they had shouldered during the hard WWII days which helped emancipate them further.
There is nothing upbeat or girly about the scent, on the contrary there is a quiet mood, but one can sense that this is no mere capriciousness but a frank introspection, a look into a different angle of an at-heart secretive personality who lives her life day by day. I am not sure whether I like it or not, but it keeps asking me neverthless.

The English name alludes to an international venture, capitalizing on the rave reception that Narcisse Noir, Caron's leading fragrance of 1911, had received on the other side of the Atlantic thanks to its potency.
The bottle in Bacarrat crystal is old-fashioned, tactile and round and can be imagined on the vanity of a lady with ebony brushes bearing boar bristles for hair that is brushed a hundred times every night by an attentive chambermaid: A crystal flacon shaped like a honey jar with a T-shaped stopper resembling a glamorous pastry-roll on top (technically this design is called tonnelet) and the name "With Pleasure" emblazoned on the front. The Bacarrat signature in acid on the bottom seals its aunthenticity.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Fragrance History, Caron scents , Aldehydes

Photographs by Luca Cornel of Brenda Lee via fishup.ru, Ad pic via ebay, With Pleasure flacons via coutaubegarie.auction.fr

Narciso Rodriguez Musk Collection: new fragrances

Narciso Rodriguez, the man under whose name one of the most successful and prolific (in its influence to the market at large, the precursor of the nouveau chypre) new feminine fragrances was first issued, Narciso For Her (2004), is unstopable.
Not only he brought out the masculine counterpart Narciso For Him in 2007 and Essence last spring but he is now issuing a Musk Collection (There is a similar project of light musks collection masterminded by Tom Ford, launching soon).
The two versions of Her and Him will be limited editions in shiny bottles (a nod to Essence's terrific facade?). Narciso Rodriguez for Her limited edition Musk introduces musk in the central role, along with notes of ylang-ylang, jasmine and orange blossom. Narciso Rodriguez for Him limited edition Musk, will fuse musk with essences of iris and red berries.

The bottles come in 50ml/1.7oz and will cost 62 and 44 euros respectively. Launching September 1st.
They look good!


Related reading on Perfume Shrine: The differences between concentrations of Narciso For Her, NR Essence fragrance review, Upcoming Releases

Pics via punmiris

Lalique Encre Noire Pour Elle: new fragrance

It is no secret that Lalique's Encre Noire for men (created by Nathalie Lorson) has been one of the best fragrances in the usually crystal-shattering-sweet Lalique range. Its dark vetiver aura casts shadows on lots of other vetiver scents competing for excellence, from Vetiver Extraordinaire by F.Malle to which it is closest to scent-wise, to Bois d'Ombrie by Eau d'Italie and on to more variable vetivers (See our Vetiver Series for ideas).
Now comes a feminine counterpart of Black Ink to smooth out the divide between the sexes and propose a more polished version for the women who had been borrowing their boyfriends' dark bottle. The idea had been at the minds of Guerlain too when they took the femme approach to their already excellent and best-selling Vétiver and they created ther wonderful Vétiver pour Elle, first as a travel-exclusive and now part of their Les Parisiennes boutique line.

"Christine Nagel, the perfumer who created 2008's Lalique White and Narciso Rodriguez for Her in 2003*, is the nose behind the new fragrance and was inspired by the unusual opportunity to create a vetiver women's fragrance. As she exclaimed to Basenotes "why should rose be for females and vetiver for males? Who decided this?"

Notes for Lalique Encre Noire pour Elle include exotic materials such as Sicilian bergamot, freesia, Turkish rose, osmanthus, kephali**, Indonesian amber, Haitian vetiver, Texan cedar and musks.

**Aphrodite's Kephali (=Venus's head) is a toponym of an Early Minoan outpost site in Eastern Crete, Greece, where pithoi, ceramic vessels, were found containing lumps of incense. I am hypothesizing the kephali note could reprise this legendary aroma. [Of course kephali is a general term for other toponyms throughout Greece as well as kephali (κεφάλι) means head in Greek]. However kephali is also a component in ethyl fish oil, and scented fish oil also played an important role in ancient religious rites, a fact which might give a different spin to this. In any case, and most probably, it might all be a misprint, as Kephalis (with a capital K) is a woody ambery aroma-chemical, quite popular in recent releases.

The eau de parfum of Encre Noire pour Elle will be available in 50ml/1.7floz and 100ml/3.3floz while there will be an ancilary body cream in 200ml/6.6floz. The new Lalique launches in September 2009.
There will also be a rare chance for collectibles: The Parfum Extrait version will be issued as a one-off in only 99 numbered flacons, in a crystal cube toppped by a round crystal stopper with gold caligraphy as well (The design reminds me of the Gucci Eau de Parfum one, but could be entirely different in person) This special edition will cost £600 for 60ml/2 floz of concentrated perfume extract. Enough quantity to last you a lifetime!

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Upcoming releases, Vetiver series

*NB: Narciso For Her was co-authored by Francis Kurkdjan.

Pic & quote via Danielle Cooper at Basenotes