The public's favourite critic is back...

There was lots of speculation on the whereabouts of Chandler Burr (we had given you some idea, you should have followed us more closely) as he hadn't written a column for his New York Times column in a while. Actually make that a long while: His last review was of Givenchy's boring Play ~please don't play with it~ back in July 2009! But here he is now: In good form to give grades to some popular and non-popular fragrances alike and ready to provoke discussion on the topic given by all and sundry. Feels good to own the game, eh? Enjoy your reading clicking the link!

Grossmith relaunched, part 1: the history

There's no other piece of news which brings a greater frisson of excitement through a true perfume-lover's veins than the relaunch of an old, historical house. Grossmith, an English perfume house originally established in 1835 in the coterie of influential perfumeries such as Penhaligon's, Guerlain, Floris and Creed (who were following the footsteps of Houbigant and Lubin), has been relaunched by the great-grandson of the original founder working in collaboration with Roja Dove. If you have clicked on Les Senteurs or read one of our Christmas Gifts Ideas post very recently you have seen their wares and marvelled at their elegant bottles of Baccarat crystal and the exotic sounding names... In fact the maison Baccarat has given specific license for the relaunched Grossmith to use the original moulds from 1919 for the range and only minor details have been modernised. But let's get first things first, tracing the Grossmith history together in Part 1 of our exploration of the brand.



J.Gorssmith & son Ltd. was founded in the City (London's business centre) in 1835 by John Grossmith, but it was his son, John Lipscomb Grossmith who developed the firm into a brand with commercial cachet involved not only in parfumerie alcoholique, but also in soaps, powders, toilet preparations and a hundred other scented products (much like Guerlain). Their tour de force? The Grasse-imported essences and the beautiful Baccarat crystal flacons employed. John Liscomb was trained in Grasse and his prolific imagination is reputedly responsible for at least 300 formulae, 96 of which are for fragrances, zealously kept in the company's archives.

A prize medal for perfumery wasn't far behind: The 1851 Great Exhibition saw Grossmith the only British company to land one. Royal warrants followed suit: Queen Alexandra (consort of Kind Edward VII) as well as members of the Royal Courts of Greece and of Spain awarded Grossmith with this mark of recognition (The seal requires at least 5 years of supplying goods or services). The gesture of offering a custom-made fragrance for the wedding of Princess May of Teck and Printe George of Wales (they're best known as King George V and Queen Mary, grandparents of Elizabeth II) is aptly fit for romantic daydreaming. But they also made less expensive, more accessible scents like White Fire (Bouquet), a parfum in red with a pointed top, on of their trademarks from 1954 which lasted all the way through 1980.


But not everything was ~literally and metaphorically~ strewn with roses! Grossmith was family run for three generations (until 1924) but by 1970 it changed hands and trading came to a sudden halt in 1980. Like so many other old houses the modern needs and the ascent of the designer scent had hit hard the more traditional firms in the sector. The brand seemed completely doomed. But thanks to luck, the rising awareness of perfume history instigated by the Internet (and these very pages I should hope) and the business acument of the great great grandson of the founder, Simon Brooke, the idea to relaunch the house suddenly sounded great.

Now, I know several brands which had some "refreshing facework" and were ready for modern tastes and honestly they didn't even come close to resemble anything historical. And I admit I was sceptical myself before testing the scents. However mr.Brooke didn't cut any corners and seems to have invested money into a sound business model: true luxury with consulting by the best and prime materials from the experts in the field. Namely the Grasse-based house of Robertet, who is specializing in natural materials, took care of reproducing the formulae with high quality standards and Roja Dove, a well-known fragrance authority, has overseen the re-creation of the fragrances with attention to detail and featuring them in his Haute Parfumerie boutique at Harrods. Like Roja says:

"Grossmith played a significant part in the development of modern perfumery and occupied an important place as a fine English perfumery house at a time when English perfumery rivalled that of France. It has languished for many years and its revival is a welcome addition to the perfumery canon as their scents have a wonderful complexity and quality which I believe is totally in tune with the current trend for authenticity, legitimacy and indviduality".

The bottles and packaging, inspired by the original flacons, were designed by Holmes & Marchant, uniform for the three scents in elegant ribbed designs.


The limited edition Baccarat flacons, individually numbered and etched in pure gold, are available to order for serious collectors and they're truly as sight to behold: pure decadence!


And behold, three of the classic fragrances are relaunched: Hasu-No Hana (1888), Phul-Nana (1891) and Shem-el-Nessim (1906). Phul-Nana ~ “Hindi for ‘lovely flower’ is a fresh, sweet floral composition with aromatic fougère overtones on a soft, warm, woody base. Shem-el-Nessim ~ “Arabic for ’smelling the breeze’. from 1906, is a rich floriental take on Florentine iris. Hasu-no-Hana ~ “The scent of the Japanese Lotus Lily"~from 1888 is a bright, radiant floral composition with pronounced chypré and oriental facets on a woody, dry, very sensual base. I won't spoil it for you, as I will return shortly with seperate reviews on them, but it's enough to say they're completely gorgeous and choke-full of natural materials singing beautifully on the skin. So beautifully in fact that I fear for their IFRA-positioning later on! But let's not reveal too much right now, we will return with Part 2.

In the meantime, please watch the interesting videos on Grossmith on London Tonight. (clip makes pauses, it's not a glitch from what I can see)

Grossmith fragrances are now available through Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie, Fortnum & Mason (who also carried the classic line!) and at Les Senteurs(Belgravia, London), all in the UK. Plans for expanding abroad are carefully being considered for the future. Grossmith Phul-Nana, Shem-el-Nessim and Hasu-no-Hana are available in 50 or 100 ml Eau de Parfum (£95-185 respectively, with the option of a coffret of all three in 50 ml for £310), also in 10ml or 100 ml Parfum (£110-425 respectively, a coffret of all 3 scents in 10 ml is £365), or in the 85 ml Parfum in the limited edition Baccarat bottle etched in pure gold for £5750.

Click on the pics to enlarge them.

The winner of the draw...

...for the Thanksgiving Special Giveaway is WaftbyCarol! Congratulations, you're now the proud owner of a vintage gem! Please mail me using the profile contact with your particulars so I can have this shipped to you as quickle as possible before the last days' rush at the post office!

Thanks to everyone for their enthusiastic participation and more surprises will be in store for you later on.

Interviews with Francis Kurkdjian, Mark Buxton and Frederic Malle

The Financial Times supplement How to Spend It had an interesting spin on perfumers this past weekend.


Francis Kurkjian (of Quest and currently Takagaso) and Mark Buxton (of Symrise) are featured in Of One's Own Accord by Karen Wheeler, a long article focusing on respective perfumers' launches of their own eponymous perfumery houses. Buxton discusses the smell of ink, an aroma which takes nuances of blood, horse sweat, and beaver and his inspiration by louche New York scenes manifesting themselves into scents, like the one inspired by a black-decked blonde with long hair he saw in a night-club or another inspired by the girls at Moulin Rouge all latexed-up and smelling of cigarettes, sweat and food.

Interestingly Le Male, Gaultier's bestseller made by Kurkdjian, is termed the male equivalent of No.5 (such is its ubiquitness I presume). Francis goes on to talk about his desire to bypass elitism with his eponymous house line (which apart from standard colognes, scented bracelets and incense features a fabric softener, a laundry detergent and even fragrant bubbles!) He purposely avoids the word luxury as "it's become a very devalued word". In creating functional perfumes for products in his line he was apparently inspired by that famous scene in Breakfast in Tiffany's when Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard only have 10$ to spend in the store, yet they manage to find something chic to spend them on. Cute!

Frédéric Malle is featured on Part 1 and Part 2 (latter a web exclusive) in The Aesthete in non-specifically perfumery-related snippets of style "confessions": He reveals his taste for sushi, Pilates, analogue sound (by George Harrison and Cat Stevens), Leica cameras and travels to Moscow, Egypt & Los Angels and French webzines among other things. And he's currently reading A Rebours by Huysmans: a decade too late, to most perfumephiles, I should think, but let's not judge; he admits being a visual person after all.

Please click the links to read the whole (interesting) articles.

Pic via fashionrules.com, prwebs.com