Maquillage: the sweet scent of makeup

It’s always so gratifying to get samples from less known perfumers who put their heart into their perfume instead of marketing analysis and assorted research and development findings. Such is the case with Maquillage, the very likeable scent by amateur perfumer Armando Martinez. Over the few months I have been writing my blog, people have been asking me to review perfumes for their reading enjoyment, reviews that maybe they wouldn't see in any other perfume blog in some cases as the perfumes were not known and the sources were obscure and did not list notes. It has been my joy and pride to do so for them. This however is not such a case. In fact I was the one who asked tentatively if I could sample this perfume when I heard about it and Armando obligingly sent a sample along.

Armando has been dabbling with oils and essences and some synthetic aromatic materials as a hobby for a long time, being interested in the magical world of perfume for years. The scented memories of his life have been fodder for his experiments and his love for the vintage masterpieces of yesterday such as My Sin, Scandal, Tabac Blond or Shocking de Schiaparelli has not been eclipsed by his ardent love for all things nouveau niche such as Lutens’ Ambre Sultan, Chergui or Bond no.9 New Haarlem.

His fragrance for women was baptized Maquillage from the French word for makeup and is redolent of his love for perfume in general. In an early first effort that was a homage to Jean Paul Gaultier's Classique, sweet scent of femininty trapped in the torso bottle that has in turn been inspired in looks by Shocking, Armando has captured the essence of a lady’s makeup paraphernalia and more prominently the aroma of face powder and satin cream lipstick in old bullet-style packaging. Oh, so elegant and glamorous, the times of bygones brought back with a nonchalant flick of the puff.

As I picked up the little bottle with the clear and oily liquid sample of the perfume my mind strayed into the avenue of a reminiscence of my own. I thought about the glamour of my grandmother’s trousse de toilette, all gold gilded bottles, often brought back from Paris. This was one hell of a glamorous grandma who used to order her clothes to the best tailors in town and her evening gowns to French ateliers, lavishing Madame Rochas and Miss Dior parfum with elegant gusto on her unstoppable person.

Maquillage would fit such a person. It begins its soft glamorous and nostalgic journey on a very soft, citrusy, bright and lightly sweet rose and honey note that is soon aligned to the candied scent of violet. Such a combination has a very feminine and cuddly smell, redolent of the mood that L’artisan’s Drole de Rose recalls. Frederic Malle’s Lipstick Rose is another rose-violet combo that could be referenced, and yet, Maquillage is not as sweet neither is it as penetrating making it infinitely more wearable in my opinion (because I prefer more subtle florals); although its great flaw is the lack of staying power compared with the monstrous tenacity of Lipstick Rose. The fact that Maquillage has a slightly oily texture indicates that it is not a lack of the proper aromatic materials, as I generally perceive this as a good sign, but maybe a matter of dilution which needs to be lower.
The drydown phase after about 20 minutes on my skin is a very soft musky powdery affair of the amorous pairing of iris and musk of a synthetic nature that warms up the whole, making it soft and pretty, with the merest touch of vanillic nature, just enough to render it charming and winsome.

The official notes are: lemon, lime, linden, honey, peach, rose, jasmine, violet, musk, iris, vanilla.

For a first foray into perfume, Maquillage is a very nice composition that would certainly benefit from an eau de parfum concentration. I think there is the promise of a bright future ahead of Armando Martinez if he wants to pursue it!

You can ask info and order samples of Maquillage directly from Armando by emailing at mandocmartinez@yahoo.com or on the First in Fragrance/ Aus Liebe zum Duft site.


Photo by Spyros Panayiotopoulos (courtesy of eikastikon)

Tom Ford Black Orchid (new baroque?): Fragrance Review

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Film noir: a perfume to be wary of

What perfume does a film noir heroine wear? More importantly: what perfume does a film noir cinephile wear? If the twists of plot found in a good noir are you cup of tea (or, in this case, coffee), then Film Noir by Ayala Moriel perfumes might be your hot ticket to a ride of pleasure for the evening. And many more evenings to come, if you are lucky and smart. But let's concentrate on your smarts, pal.

Ayala Moriel is dedicated to the art of natural perfumery, a niche that is witnessing a renaissance lately. Perfume Designer Ayala Moriel creates handcrafted perfumes from 100% precious botanical essences. On her site, she describes Film Noir thus:

"This perfume is as dark as a Film Noir plot; as dark as a dim-lit alley in Chinatown and musty as the sewer in The Third Man where the
ambivalent heroes and heroines find their inevitable death, over and over again.
Film Noir is as dark as the soul of the genre's script writers, directors,
actors and viewers. In fact, it is so dark that it includes only the darkest
base notes: cruelly luscious dark cacao absolute, musty-sweet patchouli and the
mysterious bitterness of myrrh. "

Built around the noble essences of dark-roast coffee and the bitterest Valhrona chocolate they combine with patchouli to render a surprising gourmand that catches the darkest images. If you have sampled the wonder that is Serge Luten's Borneo 1834, then you are already familiar with the weird attraction that such scents produce in the limbic system of the person smelling them. Although the depth is somehow bitter and musty, as if glimpsing the jaws of hell, it manages to also recall memories of cosiness and comfort in woolly seperates on a very cold day. Film Noir might have been inspired by such an olfactory memory and created to pay homage to all those inwardly dark heroines (even if they are blondes) that fester the imagination of screenplayers from the dawn of cinema but only culminated in the 40s and early 50s . The breathy voice of Lauren Bacall in "To have and have not" and her gaze as she takes the matches from Bogart. The intricate plot of "The Maltese Flacon" and the wit of "The Third man". And the great "Chinatown", the noir that summarises all the great traits of the classics without copying any of them. And then the recent greats, even if they break some cardinal rules to accomplish it: "LA Confidential" and "Sin City".
Venomous and razor sharp, the heroines emit a female mystique that leaves you shivering from the iciness and hot and bothered by the promise of fiery sex. But you'd have to sleep with a revolver under your pillow, you never know...

The dark ambery liquid reveals its assets early on, as a drop on the skin is more than enough. It then unfolds the notes with the gusto of a cutthroat assasin draped in a killer tweed suit. They did it oh so glamourously back then! Patchouli lingers in the base making it very lasting. The veil of Faye Dunaway is not raised, not will it be raised ever, the dark glasses remain firmly in place, hiding her gaze. Is it happy, is it sad? is she shedding a tear? We will never know. The mysterious aroma will linger in your memory for ever, like the infamous lines in Roman Polanski's film Chinatown when the secret is revealed between heavy slaps: "She's my daughter. She's my sister".Film Noir is our dark sister. And the daughter we should be quite worried to have.

You can read about natural perfumery and her creations and get Film Noir by visiting Ayala Moriel perfumes clicking here

Top pic is from Black Dahlia, the movie based on James Ellroy book. Pic of Faye Dunaway by Helmut Newton courtesy of temple.edu

Perfume advertising 5: the hilarious side! (multimedia clips)

If serious advertising were not enough, sometimes marketing teams play up on our conceptions about perfume in parody-style, satirizing our wishes for perfume to make us powerful, mysterious, indomitable and just plain old attractive and irresistible to the object of our interest. If only things were that easy. And yet, how many times have the same questions have been asked: what to wear to get attention? What would make the opposite sex melt? What would make us look younger and thinner and 5 inches taller with a mane like a supermodel’s and legs that go for miles? Personally if a perfume were that powerful, I’d just as likely prefer it to vacuum my house and do a good hard rubbing at all those difficult corners, thank you very much. That would greatly put me in a sexy mood, all right.
But it’s fun to contemplate what people would put themselves in denial about and how advertising is playing with that, right?

The angle of sexual attractiveness regardless of exterior attributes (which is, let’s face it, a plain looking person’s wildest dream) is brilliantly exploited in the following AXE commercial. Just see what happens when one rides the elevator. Given AXE’s reputation for potency and its users’ abandon with the sprayer the commercial is down right dangerous, if only because it might encourage stinking up closed spaces with the evil fumes. But funny as hell, nevertheless Watch the clip clicking here

In general AXE has capitalized on witty commercials tongue-in-cheek-style to drive the point of “use more, get more” (yep, that kind of “get”, you've understood it right), aimed at an impressionable adolescent male audience. Even if they laugh, I suspect their Id is getting the message across that this magical juice will help them surpass Porfurio Rubirossa’s fame. Dream on, little ones. You might as well spritz some Egoiste (or if you’re hard for cash some Coty Wild Musk) and be done with it, so much simpler. There's also much to be said about the merits of soap, plain deodorant and oral hygiene. But you already knew that, I hope. After all, if you're a good guy someone somewhere will perceive it, right? No matter how divenly you smell if you're behaving like a jerk, no way will you be popular with the ladies. (say that out loud 5 times before you ask again what cologne is a women's magnet)
And it’s great to see that LYNX, the British equivalent of AXE, has aired a commercial that takes this to the next level with a touch of the absurd and the borderline macabre. The heavy british accent of the voice-over is completely engaging as well. Not to be missed! Watch the clip clicking here

But of course teenage boys aside, the greatest target of perfume as a sexual attractant, a magic amulet of irresistibility are women. Women from all walks of life, all physiques, all cultural levels. Perfume always sold fantasy and women are always a little more susceptible to daydreaming it seems. Whether that’s ingrained or a result of upbringing is debatable (and getting girls girly things certainly makes them impose on them powers beyong their capability). Hey, it doesn’t even have to be in the sexual arena (we have come a long way baby!), but it’s so much more thrilling if it works there as well. In my humble opinion, perfume as a manipulating social weapon is like copulating as a dieting means greatly overrated. It's no accident that human beings have gone from the olfactory to the visual emphasis, after all we don't walk with our noses down the ground and into other creatures' butts all day like dogs, now do we?
We won’t go into the subject of perfumes containing the infamous pheromones, because I have zero experience with them and studies show that the results vary greatly (and can be attributed to self-induced feelings of confidence), however it’s not unheard of people using them to accomplish just that. Which begs the question what would happen if the result wears off or if they run out. But I think they consider it a fait accomplit if the victim has been safely anesthesized by then...They will have found a way to keep it by then or have gotten the chance to show their great personality. This is just theoritising on my part, mind you; not that I reject the right of anyone to use whatever he/she considers best.

In the great spoof I discovered, aired on Mad TV, Antonia Perfume, an otherwise sane woman (and not really unattractive, if you deduct the purposesly silly styling and lisp) has gone bananas over the desire for her perfume to attract and entice men. And it makes the great point that in order for someone to actually be attracted they have to be really close to smell the fumes, wouldn’t they? Which they wouldn’t if there is no other reason for them to get close in the first place. Imagine a woman trying to bumb into the object of her affection in a crowded bar. Many hilarious misunderstandings later and alcoholic shots as well, it might garner some attention. Watch the clip clicking here Unless one is olfactory stalking strangers purposesly offering them their wrists for sniffing ("smell me!"), which would make for another great spoof I guess.

Hope you have enjoyed the perfume advertising section critique and the multimedia clips courtesy of Youtube.com.

You can watch many many more in the appendix I have compiled on my info site Perfume Shrine, direct link clicking here

Enjoy!

Pics come from ads in okadi.com

Perfume advertising 4: discrepancies? (multimedia clips)

Exploring the avenues of perfume advertising, especially in commercials to be viewed on TV, one shapes a particular assumption of how something would smell, coaxed by the imagery and setting of the commercial. Often there is some discrepancy witnessed between what is expected and the actual olfactory experience. Especially so when there are famous faces or egeries involved fronting the perfume.

On a nostalgic trip down memory line, Soir de Paris in a very old commercial, from 1958 to be exact, shows us the rapport between jus and image that existed initially. Soir de Paris by Bourjois is known as Evening in Paris in Anglophone cultures and the olfactory profile is a very refined aldehydic floral that has a touch of the Parisian melancholy and sense of glamour. In its vintage form it stood as a very elegant and lovely representation of everything that joyful Paris evoked in the imagination of countless American women, especially after having seen the classic film "An American in Paris".
Today, the Vermont Country Store is touting its stock of original Soir de Paris and everyone may have a slice of that glorious imagery of French women preparing for a Parisian outing in their strapless gowns and dainty high-heels. Watch the clip clicking here

Those days are over however. Very soon the visual aspect of a commercial went on to a completely different independent track, often creating images that do not correspond to the olfactory response of uncorking a perfume. Case in point is the following commercial for Poison from the mid 80s , when this perfume grenade initially launched to be the object of derision, huge sales and eventually legend. In the commercial a lady dressed in tailored clothes in the purple hues of the perfume’s bottle is sitting head tilted romantically, drapes being drawn as if to signify a new start, a revelation or a concealmentWatch the clip clicking here
Suffice to say that the bombastic juice that lurks inside that insidious purple bottle is radically different to what one might think watching those visuals. A potent, venomous elixir of sexual emancipation and witch-like power, it manages to make lovers and haters and nothing in between. Sadly this is hard to find today in a world in which the visual has become significantly more aggressive, while the olfactory has become astoundingly tamer. Contrast the above with the recent black panther commercial for Christian Dior Pure Poison and smell the respective jus and you will know what I mean.

Romantic images however do have a power on their own, corresponding or not to the perfume’s aroma. Such a romantic commercial is one of my personal favourites from the early 90s (around 1990-1992) for LouLou by Cacharel. I have already elaborated on what makes LouLou the perfume so evocative for me, but the advertising has played a major part in this as well, being inspired by Louise Brooks and her Lulu role in Pabst's film. The bluish tones of the film, paired with the insouciance of the young girl who talks to the camera is endearing and makes us view the perfume under the lens of an insouciant, unaffected girlish seduction. Which is not far off the mark of the perfume’s intent.
Watch the clip clicking here

The following commercial for Champs Elysees by Guerlain however is again in contrast to the jus inside. Shot in black and white on the eponymous Parisian street with gorgeous Sophie Marceau as the protagonist who exits a car stopping abruptly taking with her a bouquet of roses and a sac voyage to march off angrily and then self-awardingly on the famous street, it is too cinephile and hinting at a background story.
The effect is greatly augmented because it features one of the songs that would best illustrate an insinuating and dark perfume: Glory B0x by Portishead. The music is so suggestive that it would be great underscoring trully dark, biting frags such as Poivre by Caron or Ambre Sultan by Lutens. The tagline of “life is best when you write the script by yourself” is meant to evoke exactly a cinematic reference and independence. However the jus of Champs Elysees is oblivious to such scheming and trails off in candied blackcurrant buds and mimosas tumbling out of its sunny coloured bottle. Too tame by half...Watch the clip clicking here

To finish this exploration of the correspondence between visual image and perfume composition, two last examples. One is of a commercial capturing the essence of the perfume, that of Sicily by Giuseppe Tornatore featuring the beautiful, expressive as a weeping widow Monica Belluci, an uber-woman if there ever was one. A perfume that is indeed quiet, but not undistinctive; cosy, old fashioned in its way, soapy like the white linen of a neorealistic film’s heroine. It did not manage to be a best-seller, but the connection between what seems to be a very Mediterranean concept and its scent is masterfully accomplishedWatch the clip clicking here

And then there is the aggressive luxe of a baroque mansion in which strides stripping all the while the statuesque Charlize Theron for Dior’s J’adore. Although the presentation and imagery is one of opulence, J’adore is no more than a nicely put floral with violet, orchid and rose and scattered fruity touches on top. Certainly not the super exclusive thing alluded to. But a brand of a reputation for luxury and with a couture show to support had to go to extravagant lengths to cement the opulent touch in our minds. And Charlize’s commercial was indeed very successful in that regard. Because who wouldn’t want to emulate her? Watch the clip clicking here

Next post will be really funny, guaranteed!