Perfumery is Art: Permanent Center of Olfactory Art at the Museum of Arts & Design NYC

It was about time! New York City will be the pioneer metropolis to host an official permanent installation featuring perfume as an art form. The Center of Olfactory Art will consolidate the idea that perfumery is an art form, much like other arts (fine arts, cinema, design etc) and the exhibition will be hopefully renewing itself for the foreseeable future. Who will curate this new wing of the museum? Someone who is well known among fumeheads, Chandler Burr (click here for a comprehensive interview with him).



"The nose rarely figures in the sensory experience of a museum visitor. That is about to change at one New York City museum. The Center of Olfactory Art dedicated to scent as an art form was launched at the Museum of Arts and Design on Thursday."What we're going to be able to do ... with the center is place scent directly in the mainstream of art history and demonstrate that it is the equal of paintings, sculpture, architecture and all other artistic media," said Chandler Burr, the former fragrance critic of The New York Times whom the museum said it hired as its -- the country's -- first curator of olfactory art. More a curatorial department within the museum than a separate entity, the museum created the new center because "scent is a really interesting part of the world of design," museum director Holly Hotchner told The Associated Press.It fits the institution's DNA as a "sensuous, sensory-orientated museum" where patrons can touch and feel many of the objects. And of course, smell is as much a part of the senses," she added.The center will present its first exhibition, "The Art of Scent, 1889-2011" next November, examining the reformulation and innovation of olfactory works by some of history's best-known perfumers through 10 seminal scents.An audio guide, narrated by Burr, will explain the context in which they were created. Each perfume will be identified only by artist and year to allow visitors to appreciate each as an independent work.And don't expect fancy fragrance bottles, brand perfumes, design graphics and packaging to be part of the exhibit. Visitors to "The Art of Scent" will experience each fragrance along a 6-foot-wide path that will follow the curvature of the gallery wall where buttons on a specially-design atomizing machine will release "the work of art."With the center's launch, the MAD is the only museum to study fragrance as art. A museum in Grasse, France, focuses on the history of perfume and another perfume museum in Madrid "is entirely about bottles," said Burr, who is also the scent editor at GQ magazine and the author of two books on scent.

Burr also clarified something on the above, where it's mentioned that "He will also conduct scent classes." He told us: "Not exactly. I'm not going to teach classes, which is what it sounds like, I'm going to organize talks with perfumers who will lead interactive lectures "in which participants will learn about various raw materials that constitute fragrances, such asUgandan vanilla, Peruvian pink peppercorn, Laotian benzoin, and Rwandan geranium (sic), and will curate a series of lectures and workshops that bring thework of distinguished scent artists to life in MAD's Open Studio andartist-in-residence programs."

Check out the Museum of Arts and Design at http://www.madmuseum.org/

The winner of the draw...

.....for the Tauer advent bottle is Maria (perfume decadent). Congratulations and you've got mail. Thank you everyone for the wonderful participation and the enlightening comments! Till the next one.

Hermes Hermessence Iris Ukiyoe (2010): An Off-Beat Fragrance Review from a Club Patron

~by guest writer AlbertCAN

Voici des fruits, des fleurs, des feuilles et des branches

Et puis voici mon coeur qui ne bat que pour vous.

Ne le déchirez pas avec vos deux mains blanches

Et qu'à vos yeux si beaux l'humble présent soit doux.

J'arrive tout couvert encore de rosée

Que le vent du matin vient glacer à mon front.

Souffrez que ma fatigue à vos pieds reposée

Rêve des chers instants qui la délasseront.

Sur votre jeune sein laissez rouler ma tête

Toute sonore encor de vos derniers baisers;

Laissez-la s'apaiser de la bonne tempête,

Et que je dorme un peu puisque vous reposez.

(Here - some fruit, some flowers, some leaves and branches,

And here - my heart which beats for you alone.

Do not rend it with your two pale hands,

But let it be a small gift, sweet to your beauteous eyes.

I arrive covered with dew,

Which the morning wind freezes upon my brow.

Suffer me in my fatigue to lie at your feet,

Dreaming of sweet moments that will revive me.

On your young bosom let my head rest,

Still filled with your last kisses;

Let my thoughts subside after such a wondrous storm

And let me sleep a little while you lie by my side.)*

--Green by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896), from Romances sans paroles (1874)

No, the world hasn’t bestowed me the gift of colour blindness, but synesthesia deftly filled my mind in delicate verdant extravagence with the Paul Verlaine poem above; more precisely, in true Symbolist fashion,the aquarelle images of the poem glow in succinct progression one after the other. It happened late afternoon today, as I was sampling Iris Ukiyoé, the ninth instalment of the Hermessence collection by in-house master perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, at the Hermès downtown Vancouver boutique.

At this point many avid readers of Perfume Shrine—and my humble blog Les Tuileries—might just know the idiosyncrasy of the paragraph I just composed. By courtesy I should have cited Ellena’s muse, Water Iris and Grasshopper by Hokusai, and based on all official press release to date I doubt my mental short-circuit would be even considered logical by merit—but strangely enough my private recitation of the poem in hindsight is nonetheless a gentle launch pad in order to dive into the diaphanous story. Still, I should probably backtrack myself a bit and talk about how I got there, for the anecdote is probably one of the most bizarre episodes I’ve ever encountered: one could say that I was stranded in Hermès!

My tale to be told actually started this May when I requested maintenance service to my vintage khaki green Ex Libris silk scarf, since the once plump hand-rolled edges got dutifully flattened by a callous dry cleaner. It was the fourth time I went through a repair process at the downtown Vancouver boutique, and by all accounts everything was going to be routine—my sales associate sat down with me, examined the conditions of the item and filled out a specific form. Six months flew by and I figured, like all previous three times, I would simply show up and collect my treasure—in and out, ten minutes top.

Except this day, December 6th, wasn’t just a typical Monday: the intimate store was packed with patrons. My lovely sales associate Irina was in fact running around because she was in the midst of an intricate watch consultation. Ten minutes flew by before she had a chance to chat with me, “I’m so sorry, Albert! Your scarf is all ready for you.” And she turned to her colleague (who shall remain nameless for reasons that would be soon obvious) and said, “The client is here to pick up his scarf from Paris. It’s in the back storage room.” Irina promptly left, I was asked if I have my repair form with me.

Upon being told that I did not have my maintenance form with me the sales associate started raising her voice, “Just so you know, you will NEVER be able to pick up your item unless you have your form with you! Did you get a call from us?” There I was, in the middle of the showroom, with everyone looking at me! I was horrified as I explained that nobody in the past asked me to bring the form back and it was, in fact, Irina who helped me with the maintenance process last time so my identity should not be in doubt. Without the slightest pause the sales associate replied, “Very well, it’s probably best that Irina help you. Have a seat.” After expressing my desire to explore the store further the lady didn’t budge. “Have a seat.” It was then that I felt like a disobedient puppy that got thoroughly disciplined, but fortunately that was when I noticed the new Hermessence so I had something to do while waiting for Irina to come back. Five minutes went by; ten more minutes went by; another fifteen minutes went by as I immersed myself in Iris Ukiyoé, and my personal discourse with Verlaine promptly started.

To be frank I was prepared to be surprised by the opening of Iris Ukiyoé, but nothing could prepare me for the neo-classical eau de cologne effect of the fragrance opening, complete with a tart green tangerine, petitgrain, neroli—except a mildly bitter vegetal/floral axis kept the whole story on track. And lo and behold the abstract floral effect started to take shape, aided no doubt by a slight aquatic, lily-like effect that Ellena visited in Vanille Galante (2008). Now I should note that the sillage, given its combination of lily and the refreshing bitter elements, reminds me of the original Issey Miyake L’Eau d’Issey (1990), but done so in a much more delicate, precise manner, meant as an evocation of morning dew instead of a mini zen waterfall.

I would be very hard-pressed to report that orris, the traditionally powdery extraction of Iris pallida, is actively present. And my experience with Hermessence has taught me not to take any launch after Osmanthe Yunnan (2005) at face value: and since Paprika Brasil (2006) was a manifestation of spice via orris, Vanille Galante a study of vanilla from lily I presumed that this iris would come out of cocoa, as Ellena previously stated. The hypothesis, of course, is null. What we have here is an abstract blossom of Iris germanica, modern hybrids to be exact.

What most perfume brands would not tell consumers, while enamoured with the aspirational prowess of the costly orris root (with the scent best described as violet covered in chalk—works wonders when the right amount of gravitas should be called for, as classically demonstrated in Chanel No. 19 parfum), the mauve blossoms of Iris pallida smells exactly like inexpensive grape candies: quite sweet, in fact. Now the flowers themselves, which display the classic fleur-de-lys shape, are at no fault, but its harsh grape-scented accent would prove to be too strong in a fragrance.

Blossoms from the modern hybrids of I. germanica, on the other hand, are the almost exact opposite: the French word inclassable comes to mind. Based on the ones I’ve sampled a norm doesn’t exist, but most have a citrus backbone with a dash of fresh rosy nuance—soft and somewhat non-descript to be honest. (It doesn’t help that most irisarians value the bloom visuals over scent, and that the scent changes once cut.) Thus in order to create this iris Ellena needs to conjure up ghosts—a dash of non-descript floracy here (IFF’s hedione supérieure, complete with its clean jasmine facet, would be my guess), an icy rose accord there—to bring the whole thing to shape. In fact I would attribute (applying my no-doubt elementary perfumery knowledge here) the orris effect, which murmurs pretty much at the end as a velvety touch, more to a tea-like methyl ionone rather than orris absolute.

So in this sense of hologramism that I consider Iris Ukiyoé true to the original transient nature of its Japense namesake artistic genre: so fragile that it never was, because it was precisely never there in the first place. Behind each ukiyo-e print block is a Buddhist caveat: it’s a painting of the floating world, and with the next turn of the world the picture would be all that remains. Iris Ukiyoé isn’t a realistic decoding of an iris blossom fragrance, nor has that been the point all along: it’s a composition of bubbles threaded together with precision, but done with so much care and quiet observance that one forgets the mosaic tiles, instead marvelling at the hologram.

In fact it’s that exact care coming from Ellena that, at least to me, differentiates Iris Ukiyoé from mass launches: not only there’s cohesion in fragrance development, it feels as if the olfactory structure has been thoroughly hollowed out and knocked down before the whole was put together. To me this is very much a continuation of Ellena’s Hermès survey to the aquatic world ever since Un jardin après la mousson (2008), with a detour at Vanille Galante. But the story is there if one looks for it. The challenge to Ellena, of course, was to create an aquatic without using the traditional aquatic elements—Calone, musks... The master perfumer is averse to both, so a hologram on top of an iris blossom hologram. Still, underneath all that aquatic/ citrus / floral verdency lie a gentle frankness, a tenderness that reminds me of the Verlaine poem above. It’s the syntax after all, perhaps.

At this point I should recap what happened to my scarf. After 35 minutes of waiting, a third sales associate came along. Wendy—whom has seen me at the boutique for four years running now—asked me if I’ve been helped. Technically no, and I wasn’t amused…but she overheard what happened, so she quickly asked my name, dashed to the storage room and found my scarf. All done, wonderfully repaired—and true to Hermès generosity I was asked a reasonable price to compensate for the craftsmen’s effort. That’s why I’m here, I signed as I took my scarf back.

But that’s not the end of the story: Irina wrapped up her consultation around this time and apologized again for her delay. (She’s truly one of the best I’ve known.) And without hesitation she gave me samples of Iris Ukiyoé, and since the classic scarf box was out of stock a new rectangular Hermès orange box, enclosed with an additional box in the motif of Mosaique au 24 was given instead. All this was done with more apologies for the delay and the gentle explanation from Wendy that security measures would have to be performed for maintenance items. (I was promptly asked for my ID and my autograph on the official maintenance form.) Without a doubt I replied that, having been working at a major international financial institution for almost a year, while I can appreciate the thoughts behind the idea (God forbid if someone else walks away with my Hermès leather boots—and I couldn’t begin to imagine the horror any sales associate would go through if a crocodile Birkin is returned to the wrong person!) I was never told to bring my maintenance form—and the fact that I was ID-ed from the start from Irina as the right client added a whole new level of mystery to me. But at the end of the day I got everything I wanted: well, almost—I was disappointed that I couldn’t get any new silk tie and cashmere scarf because I already have had at least one of everything (that I like) from this season already. Well, better off since my drawers are already bursting with orange bags & boxes.

Would I be back? Absolutely, but maybe that latest Haut à Courroies bag custom order can wait for now. In the meantime I shall be busy experimenting with Iris Ukiyoé.

For a list of notes please refer to this link here. Iris Ukiyoé is now available at Hermès boutiques.

* English translation by Gary Bachlund

Scarves & samples pic: copyright by AlbertCAN. Bottle from the Hermes website

Byredo Encens Chempur: new fragrance

Niche brand Byredo is introducing Encens Chempur, an incense fragrance inspired by Hindu temples. Byredo already had a now hard-to-procure room spray and candle in Encens, reminiscent of Eastern and Southern European Orthodox churches. Now, they're introducing an Eau de Parfum fragrance for personal use that travels even more eastwards.
"Originally a picnic spot outside of Mumbai, Chembur is the place where Ben Gorham's mother was born and raised. Ben visited Chembur many times as a child and returned after almost 15 years to find the area developed. Lingering still, however, was the evocative incense from a Hindu temple".
Notes for Byredo Encens Chempur:
Top: Bergamot, lemon, elemi
Heart: Ginger, temple incense, nutmeg
Base: Labdanum, amber, musk
Available in 50ml Eau de Parfum bottles for 95 euros and 100ml for 140 euros. The line is complimented by a soap set (2x100gr) retailing at 35 euros, a 300ml body lotion (45 euros) and 300ml body wash (35 euros).
Info & purchase on the official Byredo site.

Tauer Bottle Giveaway & Thoughts on Perfume Writing

Andy Tauer of Tauer Parfums is having his Advent Calendar again this year for the length of December, countring down till Christmas. For the occasion he has prepared an all-naturals, all botanical limited edition fragrance, Le Cologne du Maghreb {sic} and today Perfume Shrine is honoured to host the giveaway of one 50ml (1.7oz) bottle of it to anywhere in the world*!

It is a classical cologne, with a woody baseline chord, "a firework of natural citrus notes, exploding into expensive sparkles, on a background with ambreine and cedarwood from the Moroccan High Atlas".
Like all colognes it is not made to last but it is a fragrant joy, living in the moment, leaving you with the finest veil of woods on your skin.
Ingredients: Citrus essential oils and absolutes (such as lemon, bergamot, clementine, mandarine, grapefruit, orange blossom absolute, neroli oil), rose absolute and oil, cedarwood, ambrein, cistrose and much more.
What you need to do to be eligible? Simple: Answer the question which follows this post in the comments section.


So, on with today's post! Where I bemoan the proliferation of perfume venues lately, because I feel like a fool nowadays. (NB: I'm NOT only referring to blogs, but also and mainly fora, Facebook pages, corporate sites with a blog appearence, Livejournal journals etc).
Mind you, I'm not really complaining: First of all, mine goes from strength to strength judging by numbers; and numbers don't lie. Plus I distinctly recall when five years ago there were only a handful of venues and publications in English to really read about perfume, beyond advertorials (Those who read French nevertheless always had ample material to choose from; even though it often entailed cajoling the ears with pretty stories, it also involved delving into serious & acclaimed books on the subject). Contrast with today where one is spoilt for choice and can pick what they read and where they draw their info from at the flick of a finger on the keyboard. Which is good!!
Want a shopping & new releases site? You've got it. Want a webzine with lots of contributors offering their views? There's more than one around. You want all the press releases amassed & archived? There's a data bank at your call. You want history, chemistry, opinions on the industry? You're catered for. Is there sheer awe in you in front of a "difficult" perfume and secret joy at discovering one that draws compliments? Numerous fans are there to share their own experiences and to identify with. Are you a novice searching for answers to questions? Someone did the dirty work and compiled primers.

Yet -and this is the crux of the matter- sometimes it seems everyone and their hamster is keeping a perfume journal which they share with the world, no offense to hamsters. The initiative is understandable; a new hobby injects a certain enthusiasm. What is perhaps less apparent is that so very often the echo of information that has been perhaps erroneously transferred into pixels or 0 & 1 signs (whichever way you prefer to look at it) is getting transmitted all over the universe and beyond; if Nasa's data is anything to go by. Information flows and this flow sometimes gets in the way of fact. It's one thing to entertain a rumour -as long as it's clear it's such- and another to actually transmit it as the absolute truth. Legend becomes reality and you have well-intended people criticizing an artistic video commercial for No.5 negating the Süskind-inspired idea and missing the point entirely by saying straight-faced and with conviction that No.5 was chosen for a name because it was the 5th pick by Coco from a series of mods. Who knew, right? Not me, I wasn't there. Of course, one might argue that perfume always relied on mythos. In fact its very core is its escapist quality that allows us to dream. Still, how do you differentiate? Where do you draw the line? What do you pick? And who authorised one version of this myth and not another?

Another problem with having innumerable venues for discussing perfume is that inevitably the mind tires and the eye skims. I can only read so much on any given morning, first thing before I sip the kaymak off my Turkish coffee and get down to fine tuning the details for the day's lecture. If someone who is professionally accustomed to reading exceedingly fast can't read more than a handful of sites, how can the average perfume lover who might have a boss breathing down their neck or kids dragging them around? Additionally, how can anyone comment intelligently? Whereas in the beginning discussion was conducted through comments on perfume fora and the comment section of blogs making it easier to follow syllogism & reasoning, it now seems that the discussion is conducted via blogs & venues themselves: Instead of commenting on someone else's blog or someone else's thread on a forum, people begin their own venue (their own blog, Live Journal, Facebook page etc.) and converse via them. It's not the people or the usernames doing the back & forth; it's the web pages doing it. You need a detailed manual to wade through (not to mention people are reluctant to put links & quotes to make you understand what they're talking about) and I often feel plain silly not knowing the whole background of the discussion. This polyphony -and indeed contrapuntal style- is not necessarily a bad thing; on the contrary! But it risks getting bypassed due to a flummox of words each vying for individual attention.

What do you think? What do you seek when reading about perfume?

ETA: I only now (see what I mean?) just read a post by Brian on I Smell therefore I Am (snarky & witty at the same time) which I urge you to read on this link. Thought-provoking!!

*NB: The prize will be shipped by Tauer Perfumes in Switzerland directly to the winner. The company states: "We ship to the address given to us and do not contact the addressee afterwards, nor will we use the contact information for any other purpose than sending the prize, nor will we forward the address to anybody else".

DRAW is open till Sunday 5th Dec. midnight.

Ineke Gilded Lily: fragrance review

Ineke Rühland follows a nifty idea concerning her niche brand: an ABC of fragrance so to speak, each new scent named after the next-in-line initial letter. So after some of her earlier work (reviewed here) and last year's Field Notes from Paris (click here for review), the latest fragrance is called “Gilded Lily” after G.

According to the press info which we had announced a while back: "When Ineke read about the scent of the Goldband Lily of Japan (lilium auratum), she felt compelled to order a few for her garden to study their fragrance. This note became the heart of Gilded Lily.[...] Gilded Lily’s "fruity chypre" structure opens with sparkling top notes of pineapple and rhubarb followed by the goldband lily, and closes with patchouli, oakmoss and amber".

I admit that as far as I'm concerned, Gilded Lily doesn't conjure a fruity chypre in the manner of classic Femme, Diorama, or Mitsouko to my mind (or even a contemporary fruity chypre like Esteban's Modern Chypre, YSL Yvresse or Chypre Rouge by Lutens), but rather a rather unisex floral demi-fougère. The former are peachy-plummy symphonies of creamy millefeuilles and golden light getting deflected from a window pane at the 6th arrondissement on a bright autumn afternoon when chic tailleurs are thrown in haste on a heap on the parqueted floor and ties are used as impromptu blindfolds... Gilded Lily is a cool blonde walking the streets towards the museum of Modern Art in New York City, her arms getting goosebumbs from the cool air holding a white lily with frothings of retro greenish shaving cream on its heavy petals in a papier-mâché vase, a Magritte-worthy scene.

What I mean: Although advertised as a lily chypre fragrance, I get no big lily bouquet, the kind of thing that I was used to receiving while giving piano recitals in my university days. Those were engulfing, very floral-spicy affairs and ~if inhaled too much~ they tended to give a migraine, despite their uncontested beauty. Nor do I get the dark mossy autumnal forest floor that I associate most with chypres. Gilded Lily needs no gilding in fact, nor is it particularly embellished. It's neither sweet nor too floral, but rather after a short floral-fruity top note (which is NOT like most of the mainstream swill at stores right now, thank heavens!) goes straight for a woody liqueur-like clean patchouli drydown of modern proclivities which would have men notice it and claiming as their own, even though it's touted as a feminine.
After seven fragrances Ineke emerges as possessing a distinct style of her own, a sort of "signature", which one either loves or dislikes; there's no in-between. Gilded Lily is certainly very much within that style and shares elements with other creations of hers. Fans will be pleased and the rest would know what to expect.

Gilded Lily is available as Eau de Parfum and along with the rest of Ineke's line (After My Own Heart, Balmy Days & Sundays, Chemical Bonding, Derring-Do, Evening Edged in Gold and Field Notes from Paris) are sold worldwide at the stores listed on her website, http://www.ineke.com/

Painting Les Amants by René Magritte

Create Your Own Signature Perfume: NYC opportunity

Internationally renowned Italian Handbag, Shoe and Accessories Brand, FURLA, invites you to Create Your Own Signature Perfume with The Perfume Studio presented by Scenterprises Ltd.
Join them at their Madison Avenue Boutique for a 'scent-ertaining' evening. Take a 'Fragrance Journey' with Fragrance Expert, Sue Phillips, to learn about the mystery and magic of fragrance. The interactive, creative, fun workshop begins with a discovery of 18 exquisite blends from which you select 3 or 4 as your custom formula. You name your signature perfume and it will be decanted into a lovely designer-color spray of your choice packaged in a gift box along with a Certificate of Registration. Gift Certificates will also be available.
Sue Phillips, President of Scenterprises Ltd. and distributor of The Perfume Studio, is known for creating TIFFANY fragrance for their 150th Anniversary as well as fragrances for Burberrys, Trish McEvoy and many others.
When:
Thursday December 16, 2010 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM EST
Where:
The FURLA Boutique
598 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022
Map on this link.

The winners of the draw...

...for the Sartorial sample it is Isa while for the Anya's Garden bottles are Lavanya and Carrie Meredith. Congrats and please email me with a shipping address using the email contact in Profile or About page, stating the relevant perfume prize in the title of your email. I will personally send the Penhaligon's sample to the winner and will forward your data to the perfumer for the other perfumes.

Thanks everyone for the participation and prepare yourselves for a BIG giveaway of a full bottle of niche fragrance by a beloved brand tomorrow! (Stay tuned!)

Chanel No.19 Eau de Parfum Lands Stateside

The elusive concentration of the venerable Chanel No.19 perfume, the Eau de Parfum, had been widely available in Europe for years now, but for some unfathomable reason escaped regular Chanel perfume counters in the US. The Eau de Parfum is a different animal than the Eau de Toilette and parfum versions, displaying a distinct rosiness which pairs with the vetiver in a novel way and has a smoother leather note. Now our American friends can stock up, as the Eau de Parfum of No.19 and some body products in the range (bath gel and deodorant) arrive at the online venue of Chanel, their official site on this link. Alongside some masculine Antaeus ancillary products, a No.5 Eau Premiere coffret and some makeup products.

Careful though: the No.19 Eau de Parfum is marked as a limited edition! (Which probably means you won't get a second chance anytime soon)
Complimentary standard shipping through midnight December 16th EST applies on the official site.

Read our review of Chanel No.19 and of Chanel Antaeus on these links. And watch some retro commercials of Chanel No.19 below.

Korres White tea Bergamot Freesia, Vetiver root Green tea Cedarwood, & Vanilla Freesia Lychee: fragrance reviews

It was only a few days ago that I broke the news of the new line of fragrances by Korres on these pages, offering a cursory glance to the new scents as a whole and short reviews on three of them: Heliotrope Ylang Ylang Citron (the most impressive of them all and from the looks of it, the one Greek exclusive, as it doesn't appear on the International site at all), Iris Lily of the Valley Cotton (the most cooly subtle and refined skin-like) and Paeonia Vanilla Amber Pear (the weakest, as it seemed to me as if riding on the coat-tails of a well-known by now "trend", the fruitchouli).

I also announced one discontinuation from the original trio: that of Rose Blackcurrant Cyclamen. I stand behind that announcement and have since supplemented the post with a screenshot which showcases that indeed that's the one shot down (the other two appear featured on the International site normally alongside the new ones). Today I return with reviews on the remaining three fragrances in the newest line-up which is available in Greece as we speak and will be exported soon to the USA and everywhere where Korres is available: White tea Bergamot Freesia, Vetiver root Green tea Cedarwood, & Vanilla Freesia Lyche.

Contrary to the Korres fragrances I reviewed the other day, the remaining three are more or less faithful to their name, and -what's more- specifically to the first "note" announced in it. Thus they uncomplicate things for the weary consumer who doesn't want to have to spell everything out to the chemist behind the counter ("Please give me the Vanilla one") as well as the dazed chemist who is standing in his or her feet all day long catering to customers. The compositions are straightforward without appearing contrived and they possess excellent staying power. and projection Whereas that might have been a sort of given for Heliotrope Ylang Ylang Citron or Paeonia Vanilla Amber Pear by nature (the notes themselves veering into the lasting floriental genre), it is delightful to find it's also so for scents which are lighter and subtler in character, such as the remaining three we're reviewing today. They lasted well and were perceptibly audible on both skin and blotter: In fact I have a couple of blotters on my desk right now, wafting their effluvium as I type.

White Tea Bergamot Freesia is a crisp citrusy floral in the school that Jean Claude Ellena established as light "tea" notes (actually cool citrusy florals) and should lend itself to endless days of sunshine and sunny clothing to match. It's totally easy to wear and enjoy, undemanding like a sip from a pitcher of icy water on a hot day. The fragrance oscillates between a coolish white musk with floral notes and a fruity tonality with a bit of an apricoty lactonic scent. Very nice. The bottle is immediately recognisable as it's white to reflect the concept and name.

Vetiver root Green tea Cedarwood is redolent of earthy freshness and re-interprets a mainstay of masculine perfumery: the succulence of vetiver! Anyone who caught our Vetiver Series knows just how much I like this exotic grass in perfumes. So which take does the Korres fragrance take? The straight, the sweet or the strange? It seems it's a cross between the classic fresh (with its underscoring of an hesperidic, injected here through the "green tea" note which is a small crisp/floral segment, see above) and the sweet. If I'm not greatly mistaken the latter should be attributed to a little patchouli, lending a facet like licorice alongside the woodiness. The bottle is in dark green hues and the company recommends this scent for men, alongside the previous (and gorgeous) Saffron Amber Cardamom. I say it's eminently fit for both sexes and everything in-between.

Vanilla Lychee Freesia, true to its name, is a fruity vanilla with calorific tendencies. It's quite delectable, with great tenacity and a monochrome radiating all around, staying almost exactly the same from beginning to end: The vanilla scent is removed from the cookie-cutter board and takes on the caramelised nuance of a good flan. There is a kinship with some of the better Comptoir Sud Pacifique fragrances, perhaps Vanille Abricot; the fruity note leans towards a peachy-apricoty tone and plummy note which also reminds me a bit of Flowerbomb Extrême with its osmanthus and benzoin (i.e. vanillic) core. It's not very foody and it's not sickly sweet, which is a nice change of pace amidst most current gourmand fragrances on shelves.

The formulae do not contain phtalates, polycyclic musk compounds, nor nitro-musks of course. Korres is using Rosmarinus officinalis in the formula as a natural anti-oxidant. The new bottles come at 50ml/1.7oz and are presented at an advantageous price point (below 30 euros) that belies their quality.

Holiday Gift Guide 2010 part2

Continuing on the theme of fragrant gift giving, more ideas on things that will delight those who receive them.

• For the hostess:

Ormonde Jayne Navidad Candle: A limited edition candle for the holidays, fragranced with warm notes of clementine, cardamom, amber and tonka, the candle has an embossed gold lid and is housed in an antique gold box. Every Ormonde Jayne candle is hand poured in their London laboratory and follows the high standards of the niche brand.
Weight 290 grams Burning Time: over 60 hours. Retails for £60.00 and you can purchase on the official Ormonde Jayne site.
Now is your chance to buy as the company is offering complimentary worldwide shipping with every order £60 or over* Enter promotional code 'SANTA' at the checkout.
(*Offer open until 20th December 2010)

• For the gourmet-loving friend:

Perfume & Chocolate: Canadian chocolatiere Rachel Sawatzky of CocoaNymph, collaborated with artisanal Canadian niche perfumer Ayala Moriel to make fine Belgian dark chocolate bars beautifully designed to match three perfumes from the latter's collection: Espionage (64% cocoa with smoked salt, jasmine & juniper), Guilt (64% cocoa with orange blossom, blood orange & wild oranges) and Roses et Chocolat (72% cocoa with rose, saffron & chilli). You can find the marching scents on Ayala Moriel's official page. And for cuddly evenings around the fire I highly recommend her Sahleb, while for the mysterious, bewitching femme fatale you hide inside, Film Noir seems tailor-made!

• For yourself!

A Perfume Organic hosts free shipping through January 2011, making all your holiday last-minute gifts easy to cram into your schedule. Their Mejica is the latest fragrance, a blend of three vanilla types, spices and rare resins for a warm wintery experience! Available online for 65$for 12ml roll-on bottle.

I must say I'm intrigued by their wine-inspired scent, though: Sommelier Katherine Marlowe collaborated with the brand for The Perfumed Wine Trio, in which the first release - Rosé - combines fresh berry, crisp apple, dark oaks, and rich spices with hints of clove and nutmeg, warming into a peppery finish: like a good full-bodied wine sipped during a holidays feast!

• For those who want to be spoilt for choice

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz holidays coffret: For many years now, DSH has created a unique fragrance each year to capture the magic of the Holidays. This year a collection gift box of favorites from the series as well as a Sampler Set are available so that you can enjoy them all! Included in the Holiday Collection box are (6) EdP mini flacons ~which are super cute, let me add~ of Winter White, Twelfth Night, Hanukah Cannelle, Lumiere, Nourouz and this year's December. Plus, the Sampler Set contains an EdP vial of all (11) scents since DSH started in year 2000: Festive, Twelfth Night, Cathedral, Winter White, Marzipan, Ma Folie de Noel, Lumiere, Silver Fir, Nourouz, Hanukah Cannelle, Silver Fir and December. Available on the DSH site.


If you missed our Holiday Gift Guide part 1, you can access it by clicking on the link.

Anya's Garden Light and Amberess: fragrance review & bottle giveaway

In the season of thanks, I'm especially thankful for being part of a discourse on perfumery which takes diverse and interesting turns all the time. The Outlaw perfume project was one of those moments in time which I feel might kickstart something bigger soon. And I'm hopeful! For now, I'm thankful that I got sent samples of two outlaw perfumes created for it by its instigator, Anya McCoy, president of the the Natural Perfumers' Guild: Light and Amberess.

I will come back for Amberess soon because it's so very snuggly and unusual for an amber-based scent (an amber mix that's not too sweet and is more spicy-rosy than most, yeah!), but Light just needs to be brought into the light (ha!) now that the natural light is diminishing in the Northern hemisphere and we tend to hanker after it. It's no accident the feast of St.Lucia (which means..."light") is on the shortest day of the year...

Anya based the composition of Light on the flower absolute of a Chinese perfume tree with beautiful yellowish blossoms belonging in the family of mahogany, named Aglaia odorata (also known as Chinese Rice Tree). Originally she meant to call the perfume Aglaia after it; a Greek name which comes from the verb αγλαΐζω (ah-gla-EEzo); it means "to beautify", to "aesthetically enhance" and is literally the origin of the english word "glamour" (nifty, eh?) In Greek mythology, Aglaia is one of the Three Kharites (the Three Graces) symbolising splendour, glory, magnificence and adornment. I personally wish Anya would have kept it, for reasons of uniqueness and...well, fitting the spirit of the perfume! But hey, I know most people would have a hard time manipulating their tongue over those heavy Greek ls and the most difficult γ for which is there is no English sounding equivalent, really... The name change into Light came naturally: The fragrance is luminous and breezy!

It's built on a "cologne style" (lots of that neroli and citrusy-woody-musky impression you get when you use a really good traditional Eau de Cologne), floral and citrusy and admist it all, the aglaia flower is the soliflore which sings the beauty of "less is more". Aglaia smells between neroli and a light, green jasmine to my nose in this mix and it's an absolutely delightful impression. Frankincense lends beautiful citrusy aspects with a gentle bitterish smokiness which couples very well with the slightly tarry-cool note of broom (that's what the French call genet); the combination makes the whole quite sophisticated!

How is Light, so delicate, so innocent, an Outlaw? The notes that are either limited by, or untested by IFRA are shown in red:
Top notes: Sicilian cedrat, Israeli yellow grapefruit, French juniper berry.
Middle notes: Chinese aglaia flower, French genet flower, North Carolina
ambergris.
Base notes: Hojari frankincense oil, edible frankincense sacra resinoid.

In order to get the most lasting power from this Outlaw perfume it's advisable to use on hair, clothes (it doesn't stain as far as I was able to test on regular non-silk fabric) or in a perfume locket! (A romantic idea which is enthusiastically embraced by the Outlaw perfumers!)
Light and Amberess are included in the newest sample set at Anya's Garden online, ten samples of all-naturals perfumes for 65$ with the option of a 10% discount with voucher code OUTLAW used upon purchase.

Anya is doing a giveaway of both Light and Amberess in 3.5ml minis, pure perfume/extrait de parfum. She prefers to ship in the USA only at the moment. Enter your name in the comments if you are eligible and I will pick two random winners! Draw is now closed.

pic via http://home.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/