The Unicorn Spell by Les Nez: fragrance review

In a line full of engrossing and unusual fragrances, The Unicorn Spell , despite the predisposing to overlyricism name, is perhaps the most arrestingly riveting due to both its unusual treatment of the violet note as well as the juxtaposition of shiny, vegetal leafiness with finespun woodiness.

This unconventional path to violet has been recently reprised by Maurice Roucel for Dans Tes Bras for F.Malle, proving that in a market chokeful of violets lately, there is still some room for wiggling one's toes. The Unicorn Spell forms part of the Les Nez (parfums d'auteurs) line, a niche brand from Klingnau, Switzerland founded by perfume lover René Schifferle. The perfumer Isabelle Doyen, who worked on a similar iris-green (absinthe in that case) theme in Duel for Annick Goutal, envisioned a violet on a cold, frosty morning waiting for the sun to warm it up with its first rays: "If by dawn still linger on your skin mixed scents of leaves, frost and violet blooms, and that relentless yearning for stellar sights, you will know that, at night, you felt the milky breath of a unicorn".

The atypical opening of shelling raw harricots verts in The Unicorn Spell is so transportingly vegetal as to make one become confounded and furtively search for the basket of green beans and the knife of the woman who is peeling them away for an alfresco Friday lunch. (Friday because that's the customary day to prepare a non-meaty dish in Med cultures where this dish is very common). This idiosyncracy of knife cutting onto raw legume is bringing spring in the very heart of winter and invites me closer to inspect the slow unfolding of a delicate floral heart. Comprised of violet leaf (rather than the candied tone of Violets de Toulouse, it is closer related to Goutal's La Violette or Verte Violette by L'artisan) and hazy-toned iris as seen through a gauze, the more it stays on the more it gains in violet-ness and loses in iris-ness. The two merge into a piquant middle in which the borders of green and tart are merged into a fey collage. The images which you might superimpose over this unconventional composition by Les Nez are purely individualistic and left to your own imaginings. The spell distends on ethereal woods, subtle and hushed, so as not to risk scaring away the enchanted creatures that the cool night has invoked.

The Unicorn Spell is available as a 50ml/1.7oz Eau de Parfum, directly from the Les Nez website, through Aus Liebe zum Duft or Luckyscent.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Les Nez fragrances, Violet scents, Iris: how to build one.

In the interests of disclosure I got sent a carded sample of each fragrance from Les Nez as part of their sample giveaway upon launching Manoumalia.
Photo by Chris Borgman courtesy of his site.

L'antimatiere by Les Nez: fragrance review

In "The Fisherman and his Soul" by Oscar Wilde a fisherman falls in love with a mermaid and eschews everything, even his very soul to go and live with her under the sea. After proposals of wisdom and wealth in order to re-unite with his immortal part fail to entice him back to land, he returns to see the beautiful legs of a dancing girl.

If you have wondered how it would be even possible to make love to a mermaid, then L'antimatière might provide an olfactory accompaniment to the age-old enigma.

"Thou shall not cheat the customer with a misleading headnote", the motto behind the concept, should have been the cardinal rule of perfume making. Alas, to the chagrin of myriads it is not usually so. All too often there is some initial first impression when testing fragrances which sways our best intentions and make up deposit our hard-earned cash for something that will disappoint once we fully test it at home (but it's too late by then!) Les Nez decided to abandon top notes completely for their L'antimatière. This is the reason for the initial shock which might leave you with mouth open, as the fragrance goes from alcohol to seemingly nothing. Yet give it a couple of minutes and it starts to "bloom" in ways unexpected.

L'antimatière means "anti-matter" which "is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles"[...] the apparent asymmetry of matter and antimatter in the visible universe one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics".
In archaeology, we are accustomed to bagging every trace found in an effort to protect remains from cosmic radiation, much like the forensics experts do to protect evidence from physical tampering. I have never really detected any ill-effect caused by cosmic radiation although I have seen plenty due to mishandling, but this is another point for another day. Suffice to our discussion is that L'antimatière acts as anti-matter: It's a game of prestidigitation!

L'antimatière belongs to the Les Nez (parfums d'auteurs) line, a niche brand from Klingnau, Switzerland founded by perfume lover René Schifferle, and was composed in 2006 by Isabelle Doyen, along with the rest of the triptych, Let me Play the Lion and The Unicorn Spell. She presents it thus: "An invisible ink that leaves a trace, foreseen rather than felt, persistent yet whispered, of creased bed linen wandering along your curves".

From the slightly Band-Aid smelling opening to the mineral quality that reminds me of some highly-diluted vetiver varieties, L'antimatière is on the whole the closest thing I have ever smelled to natural ambergris tincture and it shares the sensuous undercurrent that belies the process of formation of that priceless, rare ingredient. Natural ambergris has a wonderful tinge of saltiness, almost brine-y, encompassing elements of skin-like musky tones, and even a subtly sweetish accent. Of all the natural animalic ingredients it is the one which could be worn neat and the only one which can be harvested in a completely ethical (non animal-cruel) way, as whales resurgitate the material in the sea where it floats for years before being deposited on the shores. L'antimatière, although not divulged as such, must surely contain copious amounts of this precious ingredient, as the comparison with the natural is so telling. The unexpected lack of top notes means that it swiftly goes for the memory of times past instead of the flirting stages.

Due to its very nature of subtly caressing, smoothing out, suave character, it might be very discreet to the point of practically undetectable to noses accustomed to stronger commercial perfumes or fans of concentrated "full bodied" fragrances in the old style; and spritzing instead of dabbing is highly recommended anyway. It also tends to have a different nuance according to the spot applied, which I am hypothesizing is its reactioon to the natural warmth of the skin. This element might discourage the majority from splurging on a full bottle, and indeed I am fairly certain that Les Nez issued it as a dare. However, for all that, for anyone who has smelled real ambergris and is appreciative or anyone who hasn't and is curious, this is emninetly sample-worthy!

L'antimatière is available as a 50ml/1.7oz Eau de Toilette, directly from the Les Nez website, through Aus Liebe zum Duft or Luckyscent.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Les Nez fragrances, Amber & Ambergris.

In the interests of disclosure I got sent a carded sample of each fragrance from Les Nez as part of their sample giveaway upon launching Manoumalia.

Photo: Bob Carlos Clarke exhibition via 20ltd..

Let me Play the Lion by Les Nez: fragrance review

"Scents of dusty trails, of lightly sweetened ochre, of sun-weathered wood. Of silence swept by mild breezes, of skies open like an endless azure cut oozing signs of the coming storm". Thus is how Isabelle Doyen, perfumer for Les Nez (parfums d'auteurs), a niche brand from Klingnau, Switzerland founded by perfume lover René Schifferle, presents Let me Play the Lion (introduced in 2006).

The playful name is inspired by a phrase appearing in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Let me play the lion too: I will roar, that I will do any man's heart good to hear me; I will roar, that I will make the duke say 'Let him roar again, let him roar again" (Act I, Scene 2). And playful indeed is the treatment that Isabelle Doyen, famous for her delicate, graceful watercolours for Annick Goutal, is saving for the composition in question.

Let me play the Lion starts on a spicy, peppery orange warmth, a subdued pomander note pettering out to scents of pure frankincense smoke curling lazily upwards towards a serene sky and of seared woods. If you are familiar with Poivre Piquant or Poivre Samarkande, the spiciness is on the same wavelength. Cedar is prominent among the woods, a touch which should appeal to lovers of Gucci Pour Homme, while the incense is its own recommendation for those belonging to the incense-loving sect. However by no means is this a gothic, dark incense; the note reminds me more of the French curiosity Papier d'Armenie ~little aroma-infused booklets redolent of benzoin which are burnt to make their scent waft~ than the mould-infested crypt. It's sunny and fuzzy. There is also a mossy, dry, almost dusty feeling upon finish, while the overall tone is warm and with an ever so delicate touch of sweetness that makes the composition fit for both sexes. Let me Play the Lion lasted exceedingly well on both my skin and on the blotter with the volume turned down: this lion's roar is vibrating on the lower frequencies!

Let me Play the Lion is available as a 50ml/1.7oz Eau de Toilette, directly from the Les Nez website, through Aus Liebe zum Duft or Luckyscent.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Les Nez fragrances, Incense series.

In the interests of disclosure I got sent a carded sample of each fragrance from Les Nez as part of their sample giveaway upon launching Manoumalia.

Art photography Nick Brandt Lion before Storm, via young gallery photo.
Cat photograph © by Helg

Musée du Parfum Fragonard in Paris

The Musée du Parfum Fragonard in Paris is presented in the following clip, which I came across on Youtube. The Fragonard Perfume Museum is taking two sections of a specially rearranged town house in the heart of Paris, the decoration following the Napoléon III style, accepting visitors from all over the world.
Agniezska Buziani guides us through the old alembics which were used in Grasse, perfume capital in France since the 17th century. Cyprien Fabre explains to us how the family has been collecting perfumery instruments and objects for generations.
And of course there are several flacons and boxes displayed, many of the objects which one can imagine appearing in novels by de Maupassant, Balzac, Flaubert and other authors.
Towards the end you can see a traditional perfumer's "organ", that is the organised desk with rows of essences, classified according to volatility (top, heart and bottom notes) for the perfumer to act as a musician when composing sonorous chords (scent accords).



Fragonard Perfume Museum: 9 rue Scribe 75009 PARIS, FRANCE Tel. +33 (0)1 47 42 04 56

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Travel Memoirs Paris Shopping

Later on we will be continuing with reviews of the three Les Nez fragrances!

Clip originally uploaded by cap24paris on Youtube

Turtle Vetiver Exercise 1 by Les Nez: fragrance review

the Navagio beach on Zakynthos/Zante island in Greece

"In Lebanon, at the border with Israel, there is a turtle sanctuary. It is the result of being a protected area during the civil war. The almost extinct Mediterranean sea turtle was allowed to flourish. This is something good that came out of the war. This is poetry. I have gone through my own corporeal civil war and TURTLE is my sanctuary and celebration".

~Michael H Shamberg

"Outlaw Perfume in Progress" sounds like contraband that is waiting to change hands in some faraway country full of sailors with dirty pea-coats. But in reality it is Turtle Vetiver by Les Nez, perfumer Isabelle Doyen's contribution to the creative network Turtle salon, "an anarchic salon", masterminded by Michael H.Shamberg. The quirky, poetic and catchy name brought me memories of the endangered caretta caretta turtles (the loggerhead turtles) ~one of the oldest species in the world, alive when dinosaurs roamed the planet~ I had seen protected in the sanctuary of Zakynthos (Zante) island in Greece. Something so durable through the fabric of time itself, yet so fragile: The hatchlings have to complete an arduous journey to the sea once they've come out of their sand-buried eggs. Heading towards the brightest light, hopefully what is the moon's reflection on the horizon over the sea, before the hot sun comes up and fries them alive and before sea birds have them for prey. Only few survive, but those few are resilient, proud, swimming tall. But the affairs of man, never too far off the affairs of nature, lie close by on the ShipWreck or Navagio beach, one of the most photographed beaches of Greece, its name coming from the ship which was wrecked in 1983 while carrying smuggled cigarettes.
Turtle Vetiver seems to be a parallel story of surviving hardship, small or bigger personal tragedies and smuggling hope; and on its cragged planes one can feel the emotion of having come up victorious.

Turtle Vetiver Exercise 1 is a hard-core vetiver for true-blue fans of the earthy deliciousness that responds to the name of that miraculously tenacious root and I feel like it became a symbol for the project same as turtles. The rough opening of "dirty and gritty vetiver roots before the soil and sand grains have been rinsed off" as Ayala described it is a prelude to a leitmotif of dark, edgy, earthy treatment of the note; remakably close to the pure essential oil, yet more palatable with a spicy edge and an almost salty undernote. It feathers out slowly, becoming clearer and clearer all the while like mud water shifted through a sieve.
In a way I am envisioning a cross between the nautical, iodine-rich Vetyver of Annick Goutal and the craggy, wet cobblestones of Vetiver Extraordinaire.
If you are wondering whether it might be too hard for you, you might reconsider because it certainly would. But if you want to be surprised by just how many interpretations are possible in this fascinating material, Turtle Vetiver is an intriguing addition.

Isabelle Doyen makes small erratic batches of Turtle Vetiver and plans on changing the formula constantly. Therefore Exercise 1 is simply the version currently in stock at Les Nez, it might change later on. Samples can be ordered from the LesNez website.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Vetiver Series, Les Nez fragrances.



Song Ερωτικο/"Erotic", sung by Haris Alexiou, lyrics by Alkis Alkaios, music by Thanos Mikroutsikos. Written in memory of Marxist philosopher Nikos Poulantzas who commited suicide in Paris.

Lyrics translation by helg:

In a pirogue you set off and wander
when the rain gets stronger
In the land of Visigoths you wander
and Hanging Gardens seduce you
but you're sawing your own wings slowly.

Saltiness covered your naked body,
I brought you fresh water from Delphi
You said that your life would be cut in two pieces
and before I had the chance to deny you three times
the key of heavens had got rusty.

The caravan is rushing through the dust
chasing your shadow along
How could a sheet calm the mind,
how could the Mediterranean be tied with rope,
my love, whose name was Antigone.

Which melody of the night has tempted you
and in which galaxy could I find you?
Here is Attica, a grey pit
and I am but a shooting ground
where foreign soldiers train cursing.

Pic of Navagio Beach (the Shipwreck) on Zakynthos/Zante island in Greece by jjbach/flickr. (Beach accesible only by boat, leaving daily from Porto Bromi.) Song originally uploaded by kostasdiefhon on Youtube