Top 25 of current fragrances we can still enjoy!

So often we perfumephiles come together online and discuss how things were different back then and how older perfumes were somehow deeper, richer, better. I always thought this makes us an anachronism! Most of us have not even lived that far back! Of course there is solid argument that the way ingredients' restrictions, mercenary cheapening of the formula, old names pastered onto completely different things and all around derivative creations are cropping up, the future of perfumery isn't too bright. So many fragrances have been discontinued as well, not to mention the crazy fashion of limited editions which leave the loyal fan seriously crestfallen when they finish the bottle with no hope of easy replenishing.
But in this joint project ~inspired by Perfume Posse's call to readers and my friend Denyse~ which we undertook with the Non Blonde, the Smelly Blog and Savvy Thinker, we tried to focus on what is out there still available, still in good form, still gist for our mills. We tried to celebrate the little gems that are awaiting our litte paws to gingerly open and apply!

Compiling lists can be both exciting and frustrating, though. There are just so many things one wants to include, but obviously some form of elimination should take place. I had to eliminate beautiful creations which were limited editions, such as the sublime Fleur de Narcisse by L'artisan. Some older classics which are still around and I loved dearly have changed dramatically with questionable results: Cabochard and Ma Griffe, for starters. Then there are those which are on precarious soil: Alpona is perhaps destined to discontinuation due to the heavy restrictions on oakmoss? The jury is still out. And some like Pontevecchio W by Nobile 1942, although I loved them, just couldn't fit into the alloted limit no matter how hard I tried to cram them.

So without further ado, here is an aplhabetical list of 25 fragrances I really love! By no means comprehensive and not highlighting their historical importance in perfumery (you can take a peak at my take on what marked scented history here). Just what has me always sighing with pleasure, my psyche elated and my mind appreciating, every time I open the bottles. Some are mainstream, some are niche, some are feminine, some are masculine, some are shared.
{Those which are highlighted have been reviewed on Perfume Shrine, the rest will get their share soon!}


1. Angélique Encens, Creed (nose: Henry Creed)
2. Avignon, Comme des Garcons Incense Series (nose: Bernand Duchaufour)
3. Bandit, Robert Piguet, in edp (nose: Germaine Cellier)
4. Carnal Flower, Frédéric Malle (nose: Dominique Ropion)
5. Chant d’arômes, Guerlain (nose: Jean Paul Guerlain)
6. Cruel Gardénia, Guerlain (nose: Randa Hammami)
7. Cuir de Russie, Chanel in extrait (nose: Ernest Beaux)
8. Déclaration, Cartier (nose: Jean Claude Ellena)
9. Diorella, Christian Dior (nose: Edmond Roudnitska)
10.Diorling, Christian Dior (nose: Paul Vacher)
11.Fifi, Fifi Chachnil (nose: Jean Guichard)
12.Film Noir, Ayla Moriel (nose: Ayala Moriel)
13.Fleurs d’oranger, Serge Lutens (nose: Chris Sheldrake)
14.Grand Amour, Annick Goutal (nose: Isabelle Doyen)
15.Iris Poudre, Frédéric Malle (nose: Pierre Bourdon)
16.Jasmin de Nuit, The Different Company (nose: Céline Ellena)
17.L’air de Rien, Miller Harris (nose: Lynn Harris)
18.L’air du desert Marocain, Tauer Perfumes (nose: Andy Tauer)
19.La Myrrhe, Serge Lutens (nose: Chris Sheldrake)
20.Mitsouko, Guerlain in extrait and edt (nose: Jacques Guerlain)
21.Narciso Rodriguez For her, edt and extrait (nose: Francis Kurkdjian)
22.Onda, Vero Profumo (nose: Vero Kern)
23.Opium, Yves Saint Laurent, in edt (nose: Jean Louis Sieuzac)
24.Vetiver Tonka, Hermessences (nose: Jean Claude Ellena)
25.Vol de Nuit, Guerlain, in extrait (nose: Jacques Guerlain)

Which fragrances comprise your top 25 list?

Please don't forget to check out the lists on The Non Blonde, Smelly Blog and Savvy Thinker as well.

Pic courtesy of jilly1964/photobucket and manipulated by me

When it Comes to Scent: Are Men Animals?

In this recent discovery of Chanel commercials we spanned the spectrum from the surreal to the atmospherically descriptive and it's now time to come to the anthropologically evolutionary.

Without spoiling much of the fun of watching the Chanel Allure commercial unfold: Does the lost link still exert its powerful hold on hominids? This is a popular theory, if only because it makes for greater sales of fragrance. And subliminally we would all like to believe that subtle, invisible touches play a major part in human interaction. Wouldn't it be magnificently practical, unscrupulously cunning and efficiently manipulative to be able to rely on smells to produce the desired effect? Imagine the possibilities: attract those we desire, repel those we despise, batress our persona when talking to bosses and less-liked authority figures, invoke respect and then shed the cool facade before it becomes aloof, excite passions and then reliquinsh them when satiated or bored with the simple shoosh of an atomiser...Wouldn't it be something!
On the other hand is the sensitivity to smells and the desire to act upon them tied to neoevolutionary anthropology, attributing specific evolutionary features to specific cultures? Another issue that has its own little enigmas attached provoking heated debate along the nature or nurture dilemma.
And is this evolution strictly misandrous, since the evolution of women is sadly misrepresented, even in scientific circles?
Whichever of those issues applies, this is still a profoundly interesting commercial. Not to be missed!

*It appears to be a legitimate commercial. Interested to hear if anyone of you has seen it broadcast.

Clip originally uploaded by allaboutnemo on youtube

Is Poker a Game of Skill or Chance?

One of the joys of advertising apart from the stirring of the imagination is the recreation of other times with all the exquisite details of bringing an aura of a forgotten epoch into the here and now. For Chanel the mythical era has always been the 1920s & 1930s: the time when she revolutionized the fashion (and fragrance) industry. It comes as no surprise therefore that a little touch of that glamour resplendent with marcelled/bobbed hair and dark-shaded lids and lips should reappear from time to time modernised or not so much.
The following Chanel Chance parfum commercial subscribes to the latter tendency and comes from 2006, featuring male model Vincent Lacrocq and actress Amandine Maugy in a setting worth its art director's salt. From the sumptuous dresses to the intricate jewellery (oh, the briolettes chandelier earrings!) to the exquisite recreation of hair and makeup, the clip makes me want to jump right into La Règle du Jeu.



They're playing poker (oh so suggestive!), a game which has a reputation to proceed it. He has a straight flush hand, she has a royal flush!
Just how probable that is in a single table, you'd ask. Well, the probability of a straight flush is 0.0015% among 2,598,560 possibilities to be exact! Talking about imagination.

There is some doubt whether this is a genuine advertisement sanctioned by Parfums Chanel, in light of Amandine Maugy's site mentioning this is a "fausse pub", meaning a mock commercial. However it has definitely the air of a grand-scale production, which requires a skilled director and crew; not to mention the Chanel logo and the brandname Chance is not merely edited to appear at the end like in amateur productions, but it appears in the cards themselves: an inherent part of the plot! Therefore there seems to be some truth in it after all. I believe this has aired somewhere and if you do recall it, please say so! I'd love to find out.

Clip originally uploaded by Nepraustaburnis on youtube

I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire

Chanel makes some of the most stunning commercials for perfume.
Some of them are revered and well known to a greater or lesser degree, most of which we have already discussed here on the Shrine. Some are rather strange and compelling in their weirdness, some are unexpected modern little gems.
However I recently came across three truly exceptional and rare Chanel commercials and I want to share them with you on these pages, one by one. They are different, witty, visually and conceptually imaginative and they pose their own train of thought.

From 1982 with the infamous shadow of an airplane gliding up the Transamerica building in San Francisco comes the first one for Chanel No.5. That image must have made quite an impression in its day, long prior to days of terror, prompting Chandler Burr to reference it in his review of Rose Barbare: "sweeps over you like the silent, massive shadow of an Airbus A340, a tactile component that makes you narrow your eyes".
This Chanel No.5 commercial, taking its message one surreal step further than the 1979 Ridley Scott predecessor, is set to a cover of The Ink Spots hit "I don't want to set the world on fire" in a half minute that urges us to think out of the box.



Charles and Catherine share the fantasy of one of the greatest commercials ever made. From the merging master editing which takes the scheme of a French garden to fall on the black and white keys of a piano, them in turn giving way to the straight lines of train tracks and to urban skyscrapers' windows, it uses that wonderful perspective which makes the eye travel deeper and further into the background; prompting us to seek beneath the obvious, beneath the visual restrictions of reality into the unchartered vistas of the imagination and the power of olfaction that makes us dream.
And which question could be more personal than what is your perfume!
In my heart I have but one desire...

Clip originally uploaded by louisadeck on youtube

Note Down on Your Notebook: Must Test This!

In case you're the type of person who is tidy and organised and makes lists of things to sample, get your pen and notebook or your spreadsheet and mouse and jolt down this: the new Vetiver (still unnamed) by Andy Tauer. And if not, do make an effort regardless. I am telling you, this is not to be missed! Although this is not supposed to be a full review, I just couldn't resist the temptation to give you a first glimpse into how it smells. It's peppery, bracing and rich head-on, with a complementary, bitter hesperidic note that segues on to a green accord and an underlying discreet sweetness that doesn't divert from the main character: the deep vetiver. It lasts for hours on skin and is very sexy!

The sample was a pre-sniff of the upcoming Vetiver fragrance which I was lucky to receive in Andy's "3 years perfume blogging" sample giveaway (amazing how time flies, isn't it?). It is a fragrance built around vetiver from Java, with fresh grapefruit, lots of black pepper and green clary notes in the head. Lily of the valley contrasts the dark vetiver and crisp Cedar wood, leading over to a soft ambergris base with hints of Tonka beans and cistus.

Vetiver is in itself a wonderful material for perfumery and I hope to be able at some point to devote more time to it on these pages. And even though the niche market is rather crowded with things "vetiver this" and "vetiver that", this new fragrance has its own deserved place. It seems men perfumers often excel in producing what they themselves would wear and this is such a case (I can picture Tauer sporting this wonderfully), which echoes beautifully the legend of Jean Paul Guerlain creating his Vetiver for himself. Or so the story goes...
In any case although Vetiver by Guerlain has been going citruisier and citruisier and lighter in later years, Tauer's reverts us to the essence of the tangly root with a richness that was hinted at the vintage Guerlain but never fully explored. It will be interesting to further test Tauer's take alongside Vero Kern's amazing leathery Onda and Vetiver Extraordinaire by Malle, which both also take vetiver to extremis.
Andy will launch it October 2008 and I am already alotting a budget for it, for myself and my loved one.

He is also working on a Lily of the Valley scent and a Chypre Rose, of whose developments he often speaks on his blog, so we're in for surprises in the future.

Pic from early flyer on Tauer's blog, somewhat manipulated by me.