Aziyade by Parfum d'Empire: fragrance review

"The delicate exactitude with which he reproduced the impression given to his own alert nerves by unfamiliar forms, colours, sounds and perfumes" is how a contemporary critic describes the cadence literary style of Pierre Loti, French author of "Aziyadé". The exoticism and decadence of the Near and Far East at the core of the romanticism of the 19th century thus provides the backdrop for the newest fragrance by Parfum d'Empire, Aziyadé. A fragrance inspired by the indolent life of a harem at the twilight of the Ottoman Empire.
"Aziyadé" or "Constantinople" is a semi-autobiographical novel (1879), based on the diary by Pierre Loti (nom de plume of Louis Marie-Julien Viaud), kept during his 3-month stay as a Naval officer in Greece and Constantinople in the fall/winter of 1876. It recounts the then 27-year old Loti's illicit love affair with a 18 year old "Circassian" harem girl, Aziyadé. Although one in a string of conquests, a gold ring with her name on it worn for the remainder of his days suggests otherwise. Loti's "friendship" with a Spanish man servant named Solomon provides the intrigue of a love triangle in which some tone of homosexual affair is hinted. Loti, a pseudonym derived from an Indian flower which loves to blush unseen, excels at this literary species of confession, half-way between fact and fiction. But the protagonist remains the omnipresent fascination with the opulence of the East with its inherent sensuality (as reflected in his other works (L'Inde (sans les Anglais), Les Derniers Jours de Pékin, and Madame Chrysanthème), influencing such aesthetes as Marcel Proust and John Luther Long.
The English translation by Marjorie Laurie, no longer in copyright, however contains sanitized descriptions of harem life, prostitution and homosexuality, while the original French first edition is a highly prized collectors item (you can download it free here).

It is of course unfortunate and bitterly ironic that when the modern western observer thinks of harems eyes glaze with the promise of nubile forms sleathed with aromatic oils, emerging through the steamy vapours of an intoxicating mirage. These notions of a place where women dependent on a single man are ready at any moment to satisfy his every whim were honed by opulent odalisques painted in sweeping brustrokes by Ingres and the playful libretto of the Mozart opera. Historical evidence shutters that illusion however with its harsh reality of violent abductions, cruel enslavement and snarly political chess-games; fate was harsh not only to women but to men too ~the atrocious practices reserved for the sandali eunuchs curl the blood. Slave concubines for sexual reproduction emphasize the patriarchal nature of power ("hereditary" through only male heirs). Unlike wives they had no recognized lineage, while the latter were suspected to have vested interests in their own family's affairs, interfering with their loyalty to their husband. This system made concubines preferrable, if affordable. Therefore slave concubines as an equal method of reproduction without the risks of marriage (mainly that of the potential betrayal of a wife, thus questioning an heir's paternity) became a solid custom.

In Parfum d'Empire Aziyadé, the scent doesn't correspond to the Valide Sultan for whom Shalimar might fit glove-like, but to a young concubine destined to become kadin, his favoured wife. Those quintessential spices of Near East orientalia, cardamom and cumin, exhale their dangerous yet strangely comforting breath upon the proceedings like the steam rising from a Chai cup offered in supplication. The redolence of richly sweet dates, oranges and prunes predisposes to recast one's mind to that dried-fruit souk alcove that is Arabie by Serge Lutens, but also the 80s Cresp reformulation of Femme by Rochas with its stewed prunes dusted with cumin. Carob is another Near East reference: Ceratonia siliqua, the scientific name of the carob tree, derives from the Greek κεράτιων, “fruit of the carob” (from keras [κέρας] "horn" due to its shape). Its fruit is sweet, succulent with a chocolate-y warmth edged in bitterness. Balanced between sweet and acidulous facets, Aziyadé would be appealing to those who find the abundance of Arabie inviting and accordingly excessive to those who don't.



Parfum d'Empire is a French niche line established by Marc Antoine Corticchiato in 2003 painting olfactory portraits of the great Empires of the past from the Alexander the Great (Iskander) and the Romans (Equistrius), through the Mongul Empire (Fougère Bengale) and the Russian Tsars (Ambre Russe) to the Chinese Empire (Osmanthus Interdite), the Ottomans (Cuir Ottoman) and Napoléon (Eau de Gloire) with Joséphine (Eau Suave).

Notes for Aziyade:
pomegranate, crystallized date, almond, orange and prune, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, Egyptian cumin, carob, frankincense, vanilla, Madagascar vanilla absolute, patchouli, musk, cistus

Available at 50ml/1.7oz (95$) and 100ml/3.4oz (130$) at Luckyscent and soon online at the official site.

Painting Les Almées by Paul Louis Bouchard via chapitre.com. Clip of Arabian dance from Nutcracker Suite by P.I.Tchaikovsky from the Mariinsky Theatre ballets' performance in St.Petersburg, originally uploaded by radostsguy on Youtube.

Power by Kenzo: fragrance review

by guest writer Mike Perez

The new men’s fragrance, Power by Kenzo, is ‘on paper’ a fragrance that easily entices my curiosity: The perfumer is Olivier Polge (Dior Homme, The One for Men, Flowerbomb) It’s a floral fragrance marketed to men. The shiny, stainless steel ‘sake inspired’ bottle is modern, sleek and just gorgeous.

What struck me at first, when I carefully read the box was Kenzo released this scent as an Eau de Toilette Fraiche. Most men’s fragrances are usually released as an Eau de Toilette first, and then if the scent is popular they’ll roll out a flanker product (Light, Summer Version, etc.) With Power, they released the ‘lighter’ version first. Which got me wondering: Has anyone ever done this before, in a men’s release?

The top notes, immediately upon impact with my skin, smell fruity, powdery and creamy. If you know me, you’ll know that I find this mixture oddly uncomfortable. Perhaps the only way I could describe it is: powdered cherry soy milk. If there was such a thing. Once my skin warmed up, the fruit became more subdued and the creamy powdery aspect of the scent transitioned into a much more floral scent. Let’s talk about those ‘florals’. Like Flower by Kenzo (their woman’s scent) Power attempts to recreate an ‘imaginary’ flower smell. So, what does this imaginary flower (for a man) smell like? A few things: sweet, sugar sprinkled iris; a little violet, but extremely light violet notes; powdery floral notes – reminiscent of something slightly edible (remember those purple and yellow flowers made out of icing that you see on wedding cakes – that smell).

A man uncomfortable wearing iris (as I mentioned in my review of Infusion d’ Homme) or other flower prominent scents (Fleur de Male by Gaultier, Insense by Givenchy, and Saville Row by Richard James – to name a few) will probably not enjoy Power. Having said that, I think men and women who love subdued floral fragrances will adore this scent. I am amazed that Kenzo chose this as a masculine (rather than releasing it as a unisex) scent.

Once the fragrance has warmed on my skin, the florals pull a ‘Houdini act’ and poof (!), they’re gone. Replaced by a very hushed woody base with a touch of powder. There is a drop of something aquatic also in the base, but I can’t put my finger on it. I’m reminded of the watery woody He Wood by DSquared₂ - whitewashed woods floating on sweet, cool, lightly floral water.

Which leads me back to my first statement – yes, this scent has enticed my curiosity and my nose but I can’t imagine wanting to own a bottle. I’m reminded of a few scents that I’ve tried over the years, fragrances that the guys and gals over at Basenotes go bananas over. I hunt down a sample, try it, sample it a second time, put it away, re-try it a third time…you know the story.

I find it extremely admirable that a designer house is marching into the masculine fragrance world with an extremely flower prominent scent. Big thumbs up! But still…

Power is a scent I want to love. But I don’t.




Visit the Kenzo Power website here.

Clip originally uploaded by antonpan1201 on Youtube (song: Tom MacRae "You cut her hair"). Pic from film "Secretary" via sexkitten.com, pic of Jasos Statham chosen and uploaded by Mike

Dans Tes Bras by Frederic Malle: fragrance review

It would not be an overstatement to say that the “library” comprised of Frédéric Malle edited tomes of olfactory literature is one of the most stimulating lines in modern perfumery. Now perfumer Maurice Roucel gives us another volume to gnaw our teeth on, Dans Tes Bras (In Your Arms). Their previous collaboration on Musc Ravageur (2000), a best-selling vanillic oriental that despite the name has more of a pronounced spicy, sensual accord than the musky effluvium of a warm body à la Muscs Kublaï Khän, managed to entice even those afraid of the risqué intimacy of the latter.

Inspirations
Dans Tes Bras aims for a new interpretation of sexiness:

“The deep and lasting odor of warm skin, with all of its salty hints and rich overtones. A fragrance carved with hefty chunks of cashmeran, sandalwood, musk and patchouli, reinforced with salicylates and incense, softened with heliotrope, colored with a violet accord. An intimate but deep sensuality, an exalted skin scent, the real essence of the perfume”.

Dans Tes Bras communicates seduction and generosity in an amalgam of masculine-like nuances simultaneously clean and dirty, like a man confident of his prowess enough to show a tender side as well.

Scent Profile

The habitually damsel-like violet note is treated here as an unforeseen touch of freshly turned soil with the merest sprinkle of powderiness due to heliotropin, the unifying element with Roucel’s much sweeter and tartly fruity Insolence Eau de Toilette, its hairspray-opening and all. Green bittersweet patchouli and abstract woods create a bodily landscape of earthy delights which blooms with every passing minute. I do not significantly perceive frankincense smoke, even though it is there, while Six’s impression of fields of mushrooms is another image for the wet undergrowth that arrested my perception: favorably. The creamy, discreetly musky summation stays poised on skin for hours radiating warmth. In sum Dans Tes Bras makes me yearn to don a pair of breeches and trudge along bucolic sceneries of still humid, autumnal beds of decaying leaves accompanied by roborant company.

Maurice Roucel, an autodidact starting at Chanel’s Fragrances Laboratory in 1973, is a sensuous aesthete, with streamlined formulae as his signature evident in such marvels as 24 Faubourg, L de Lolita Lempicka and the missile-in-the-air Insolence. It is therefore of great interest to see how he proceeded with Dans Tes Bras.

Composing Dans Tes Bras

Violet, a symbol of ancient Athens where it was used in scenting wine and Napoleon Bonaparte’s favorite flower, is a complicated matter in perfumery for two reasons: First the natural extract of viola odorata (sweet violet/English violet), although it exists, is rarely used for reasons of cost and versatility. Secondly because there is a distinction between violet flower and violet leaf: the two have a world of difference in terms of odor profile, but that’s not always clear in fragrance descriptions. The flowers have a sweet, powdery ~and when fresh slightly spicy~ note, while the leaf is earthy, green with a cut-grass feel.

The symbolism of violets as emblematic of death at an early age is apparent in the John Everett Millais painting "The Death of Ophelia" and violets which stood for constancy or devotion were traditionally used in mourning. Most people however associate violet with Parma Violets, a violet-flavoured confectionary manufactured by the Derbyshire-based company Swizzels Matlow; or alternatively, depending on cultural memories, with Violettes de Toulouse, violets preserved by a coating of egg white and crystallised sugar still made commercially at Toulouse, France. These tender, playful associations might account for the popularity of several sweet florals in the market, such as Drôle de Rose, Lipstick Rose and indeed Insolence.In violets along with terpenes, a major component of the scent is a ketone compound called ionone, which temporarily desensitises the receptors in the nose; this prevents any further scent being detected from the flower. Ionones were first isolated from the Parma violet by Tiemann and Kruger in 1893. The discovery of ionones enabled cheap and extensive production of violet scents, cataclysming the market with inexpensive violet colognes which became au courant. The ionones palette ranges from the scent of fresh blossoms to mild woodsy sweet-floral tonalities, while methyl ionones possess a stronger woodsy nuance, similar to iris rhizomes, binding woody and floral notes perfectly such as in the masterful Lutens creations Féminité du Bois and Bois de Violette. And let’s not forget that Roucel was the composer of the mournful, cooly wistful Iris Silver Mist for Lutens focused on the nitrile Irival too!

Violet Leaf absolute on the other hand smells herbaceous with an oily earthy nuance and naturally includes salicylates, more on which below. Octin esters and methyl heptin carbonate are used to render the floral green violet leaf odour with watery accents of melon and cucumber, customary in many modern masculine fragrances and the family of fougères (an aromatic group based on the accord of lavender-coumarin-oakmoss). It also gave the older version of Farhenheit its distinctive feel. If you want to get a good impression of violet leaf in a contemporary composition, smell Eau de Cartier. Several of the greener violet fragrances in the market such as Verte Violette by L’artisan or La Violette by Annick Goutal explore those aspects.
In Dans Tes Bras the tone comes from Iraldeine, a base that helps recreate the freshness of violet flowers. The aromachemical α-n-methyl ionone became commercially available around 1935 in Haarmann & Reimer's Iraldeine Alpha rein and Givaudan's Raldeine A (the main constituent of Fath’s legendary Iris Gris) which Ernest Beaux ~good friends with Leon Givaudan~ is said to have included in 25% concentration in the long-lost Mademoiselle Chanel No.1 from 1942-1946 (as analysed and publicized in 2007 in Perfumer & Flavorist magazine).

Benzyl Salicylate (benzyl ortho hydroxy benzoate) is an almost colourless liquid that has a mild balsamic, sweetly floral note possessing excellent blending capabilities. Often used as the foundation for heavy florals such as ylang, gardenia, jasmine, lily etc., it is also used in functional products such as soap, shampoo and fabric softener. Along with Methyl Salicylate, salicylates “turn the most banal floral composition into a real perfume, with majestic weight and sweep” divulges Luca Turin. However some people are anosmic to it, including some perfumers. Guy Robert could not smell benzyl salicylate at all, but could instantly recognize its presence in perfume: “I recognize it as if it were a friend seen from behind in a crowd, by the cut of his shoulders”. Indeed in the words of nose Bernand Chant “it produces a diffusing, blooming effect very pleasing to the public”. Many orchid fragrances are built on salicylates, while the mysterious emerald glow of the vintage Je Reviens is also due to them. Coupled with eugenol and isoeugenol, the effect becomes almost carnation-like with its clove tint. The magic of benzyl salicylate can be best experienced in the archetypal floral bouquet of L’air du Temps featuring an overdose of the ingredient. Its progeny included Wind Song, Norell, Estée, Charlie, even Angel! However the recent restrictions on the use of benzyl salicylates have taken their toll on many floral fragrances, L’air du Temps included, which simply do not smell as they used to.

Methyl salicylate (salicylic acid methyl ester or oil of wintergreen ~because it is present in lots of evergreens such as birch and also rhododendrons~ and commonly featured in arthritis and muscle body rubs but also in Life Savers) has a green glow with camporeous aspects. Naturally occuring in tuberose, jasmine and hyacinth absolutes, as well as ylang ylang and neroli oil, it provides that characteristic eucalyptus-mint nuance of Tubéreuse Criminelle and to a lesser degree Carnal Flower. It is also a big ingredient in birch tar, used in Russia in treating leather and therefore associated with Cuir-de-Russie-themed fragrances, modernly interpreted in Dzing! and Bulgari Black. Also present in cassie absolute, so it seems to be the bridge between those and Une Fleur de Cassie; the connection being that acacia bark (the inspiration behind the latter) was also used in treating leather, in France.

Finally Cashmere Woods or Cashmeran, a favorite of both Roucel and Malle, is a IFF patented, complex aromachemical that provides a beautiful, velours note with diffuse nuances of earthy-wood and spicy notes (pine, patchouli), fruits and flowers (heliotrope, red fruits, apples and jasmine) and is softly musky-vanillic, entering Dans Tes Bras at the appropriate dosage. It's featured in Ysatis, Amarige, Michael, Lacroix Rouge, Perles de Lalique, Beautiful Love and many more.

Dans Tes Bras is thus an excellent example of a fragrance in which analysis makes for much better understanding and appreciation.

Official Notes:bergamot, cloves, salicylates, violet, jasmine, sandalwood, patchouli, frankincense, cashmeran, heliotrope, white musk

Dans Tes Bras has been available in Europe since September ’08 and will become available in the US this coming October, in Eau de Parfum bottles of 50ml/1.7oz and 100ml/3.4oz through the appointed select doors and the Editions des Parfums site.

Pic of actor Ken Watanabee originally uploaded on MUA, I believe it's by Anne Leibovich. Bottle pic via F.Malle

Hilde Soliani News: More Exclusive Stuff Available in NYC Now

You might remember that we had reported and reviewed the new exclusive niche line by Italian jewelry and fragrance designer Hilde Soliani. The magnificent Bell'Antonio, a fragrance focused on multi-nuanced aromatic tobacco and dark roasted coffee, and Vecchi Rosetti, a fragrance inspired by the Parma theatre with its waxed wooden floors and the backstage smelling of old-fashioned makeup, are now available in a few limited bottles only in New London Pharmacy in New York City. (The store also stocks the previous line by Hilde Soliani, La Mia Daisy, comprising 5 scents named after flowers and re-interpreting them in new interesting ways, which Perfume Shrine had reviewed a while ago).
I suggest you get your bottles while stocks last!

Shopping Guide:
New London Pharmacy, Inc. 246 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10011
212.243.4987 800.941.0490 Fax 212.243.7110
You can also reach New London Pharmacy with your queries on Bell'Antonio and Vecchi Rosetti using the contact form here.

Notorious by Ralph Lauren: new fragrance and commercial

“The roles have made me famous, but my life has made me Notorious,” says Laetitia Casta (does she realise the ambivalence of the term, I wonder!), iconic French model and budding actress who stars as the sultry face of Notorious , the new Ralph Lauren fragrance in a new advertising campaign by Michael Thompson that will debut in September 2008. Renowned director Wong Kar Wai (also responsible for the magnificently gothic commercial of Midnight Poison) exhibits his film-noir side in this black & white short film that takes its inspiration from Golden Hollywood heroines such as Lauren Bacall from "The Big Sleep" and even Faye Dunaway from "The Thomas Crown Affair". But the name "notorious" evokes most strongly the eponymous 1946 psychological thriller by Alfred Hitchcock starring Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant. Then again, the featuring of poison in that film should better have escaped them...the associations with a liquid product could become unfortunate.

Perfumer Olivier Gillotin created Notorious, a sparkling spiced oriental, "of timeless intrigue and boundless desire" as the ad copy claims, to be as provocative and commanding as the woman who wears it.

Notes:Top: Black Currant, Spicy Pink Peppercorn and Italian Bergamot
Middle: Chocolate Cosmos*, White Frost Peonies, Fiery Carnation
Base: Patchouli Musk, Vanilla, Orris

Laeticia, all page-boy hair mysteriously falling over one eye, is wearing -what else?- Ralph Lauren clothes at some of Paris most striking endroits: a cafe beneath the Palais de Tokyo, at the Théâtre des Variétés and on Pont Alexandre III bridge over the Seine. Music score is aptly chosen: Miles Davis' "Maids of Cadiz". We're proud to feature it first. Please enjoy!



And if this has whetted your appetite, here is the "making of" as well:



Notorious will be available in Eau de Parfum spray 75ml/2.5oz.($85), 50ml/1.7oz.($65) and 30ml/1oz ($45), Body Lotion(200ml/6.7oz. for $45), Shower Gel(200ml/6.7oz for $40) and Body Crème(150ml/5.3oz for $70) at ralphlauren.com and major department stores.

*{Chocolate Cosmos, a decadent, chocolate-scented burgundy flower, is said to be used for the first time ever in Notorious, suppossedly evoking floral decadence in the mid-notes}.

Clips originally uploaded by RLTVralphlauren on Youtube.
Pics and info on scent via press release