More Hermes and Jean Claude Ellena

For those who can read Italian there is an interview in Italian Marie Claire Belleza no.7 (May 2009 issue) of Jean Claude Ellena ~whom we also interviewed on this venue~ to journalist Cristina Torlaschi. The interview is focusing on the latest Hermès Colognes and is to be found on pages 38-39.

There is also an article on the National Post called "Jean Claude Ellena: Return to Scenter" by Nathalie Atkinson. The article is witty, elegantly written and highlighting the respect with which Ellena is treated for his vision. "In a world where our senses are under attack all the time," says Sadd, "Ellena creates this quiet little exercise that sneaks up on you, and hides the mechanics of it and makes you feel something, for a split second." And "When a man waiting for his latte at Starbucks walks across the room to smell you, it's probably Jean-Claude Ellena. [...]it was the dry, dusty Bois d'Iris from Ellena's own former perfume brand The Different Company that stopped the man at Starbucks in his tracks. "

Alerted on Italian article through Extrait.it

Mothers and Kids and the Scents that Bind Us Together

“And how should a baby smell in your opinion?”
“A baby should smell good!” the nurse {Jeanne Bussie} replied.
“What does good mean?” father Terrier’s voice sounded booming. “Lots of things smell good: A nosegay of lavender smells good. Chicken soup smells good. The gardens of Arabia smell good. How does a baby smell?” […]
“It’s not that easy…” the nurse began “because…they don’t smell everyplace the same, although they smell everyplace wonderful, father, you understand…on their feet for instance, they smell like a smooth, warm pebble ~no, make that clay…or like butter, like fresh butter. And on their torso they smell like …biscuit soaked in warm milk. But on the top of the their head, right there on the crown, right here where you don’t have anything anymore” and with that she touched the centre of the bald spot on father Terrier’s head, who, affronted with this stream of detailed nonsense had remained speechless and had submissively bowed his head, “here, they smell exquisite! Here, they smell like butterscotch, so sweet and wonderful, father, that you can’t really imagine! If you smell a baby there, you will love it, whether it is your own or someone else’s”. [*]

When I first read those memorable lines in Patrick Süskind’s classic novel Das Parfum, the story of a man with an extraordinary sense of smell but no personal odor of his own, I was but a mere teenager. The thought of having a baby of my own was not even a spermatic idea at the back of my mind; it was simply an indefinite non-entity! I was never one to coo in maternal mode upon seeing babies ~although I always had a fondness for small children and their intelligent way of interpreting the world~ and one who never heard her biological clock going ding dang dong “time to have a baby”. Love for a man took care of it. And I never had a sick day or perfume-free day all the while.
We often hear “you can’t judge unless you’re in someone’s shoes” and that goes doubly so for parenthood. But upon smelling my own, I remembered how those lines from the novel took their own life, their own truth, and the miracle was happening right under my own… nose! It’s indecipherable for anyone who isn’t a mother and it’s the special bond which forms between two beings at their most primal level. Like we choose a mate that their natural odor pleases us, so our offspring bear in their genetic makeup the scented fingerprint which ties them to us, making us able to differentiate our own among many. I often linger over my sleeping child inhaling deeply the yummy smell with eyes closed...And I can imagine that an adoptive mother grows to learn ~and eventually love~ their children’s smell, just like they learn to recognize their tastes and their idiosyncrasies. Because that personal scent is a constant reminder and a symbol for nurture and love.

But babies very quickly show off how they are able to smell their mother out as well! This is why I forwent the beloved Mitsouko and my emblematic Opium fumes for a while to give a chance for this special bond to form and for fenugreek tea to make me all maple-y smelling. It’s enough to breastfeed once to see how the baby turns its small nose and mouth to the sweet scent of milk like a hungry little puppy; that nectar of nature meant to help it grow, to help it become the man or the woman who will be in later life is naturally scented with a vanillic aroma which is perpetuated through baby food later on for a reason. Reminiscences of those tender moments are never far off, read like a language of smiles and smells.

The pleasant is never coming without the less enjoyable and changing nappies soon gets you intimate with the urinous muskiness of baby pee (which has an eerily animalic quality like that of real deer musk and the background of Guerlain's Shalimar) and the sulphurous odor of poop as soon as a mixed diet is introduced. Perhaps the baby’s own reluctance to get disgusted by the excrement however is the most interesting observation and one which you have to see with your own eyes to attest that although nature has guided us through smell into making the healthiest choices, our aversion to poop is not hard-wired genetically but is a product of cultural integration.

An olfactory inquisitive mind can have a field day while adventuring into the Land of Baby Smells: A whole industry is making changing a nappy its focus and every little thing has an odor of its own ~from the paper-mill cedar scent of nappies themselves which remind me of L'artisan's Dzing! to the heliotropin and linalool of scented toilettes/wet-wipes with their nod to Après L’Ondée ; and on to the rosy-almond scent of the nappy cream and the vanilla, geranium and citrus of Johnson's & Johnson's baby powder. The sweet smelling hesperidia and lavender colognes for kids like Tartine et Chocolat Ptitsebon by Givenchy or Petit Guerlain , put on clothes, are not an act of sexing the baby up or hiding their glorious olfactory fingerprint, but a gesture of bien-être dans sa peau, a very European traditional gesture of propriety. My mother did it to me, I do it to my kid!

Yet what I am most interested in is how the child gets to get guided through life from the olfactory point of view. The eyes light up at the smell of food cooking, giggles erupt when warm milk fills the kitchen with its comforting scent, inquisitiveness starts when presented with a new flavor such as sour pineapple, garlicked meat with okra or the earthy aroma of lentils’ soup. How nostrils quiver when out at play and a small flower gets under the nose. How animals, places and people are identified and often compared by smell: “This is the bakery where we’re greeted by the scent of fresh bread- circles with sesame”; “That’s Freddy the tabby who smells like cassie” and “Where is my sweet-smelling papa?” I intend to give that kind of education to my kid and let it form its own olfactory landscape where no smell is bad and no flavor is not to be tasted; and thus hopefully create a sensuous human being who will enrich others.

Happy Mother’s Day to all!

Please visit also Smelly Blog for Ayala Sender's piece, Illuminated Journal for Roxana Villa's piece and Scent Hive for Trish's piece, for more scented thoughts on motherhood!

*translation from the Greek edition by Perfume Shrine.
Art Photography by Spyros Panayotopoulos/eiakstiko.gr and istockphotography.com

Dolce & Gabbana a la niche!

The Italian duo of Dolce & Gabbana are going the niche way: at least optically! Their new collection of scents, called Anthology, is dressed in simple, identical bottles, bearing names inspired by the Tarot card deck (now this is something we haven't seen before) and intended not to differentiate on age or gender prompting us to pick and choose according to taste.
The campaign will focus on supermodels of the 90s (apparently a very big trend lately): Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Eva Herzigova, posing in the nude, shot by photographer Mario Testino, along with male models Fernando Fernandes, Noah Mills and Tyson Ballou.

The scents will be:

Le Bateleur 1 (fronted by Tyson Ballou) is an aromatic aquatic woody focusing on cedar and vetiver.
L'Imperatrice 3 (Naomi Campbell) is a fruity with notes of kiwi,watermelon, cyclamen, rose and musk.
L'Amoureux 6 (Noah Mills), is a spicy aromatic with bergamot, juniper, pink pepper, cardamom, birch, iris and musk.
La Roue de la Fortune (Eva Herzigova and Fernando Fernandes), is a floriental with tuberose, gardenia, jasmine, benzoin and patchouli.
La Lune 18 (Claudia Schiffer) is a leathery floral with lily, tuberose, santalwood, musk, iris and leather.

The Anthology collection of fragrances by Dolce & Gabbana will launch in September 2009.
I am waiting to see how these will play out in a market that is full of collection of scents. So who hasn't yet launched such a set of "niche" scents, at least preening out from the big names? Hmmm, Yves Saint Laurent...

Pic L'express.

I want to be loved by you

I am overdue for an article submission so no big post today, but for your delectation some old commercials for Chanel No.5 that haven't circulated much.
Soon I will come back with an expanded historical review on No.5.
There is also an article concerning Chanel NO.5 in The Telegraph by renowned journalist Kate Shapland, which has a wonderful illustration by Richard Gray. You can read it here.



The first American commercial with Carol Bouquet by Ridley Scott:



And the French version by Bettina Rheims:
(She's saying:
You hate me, right?
Say it! Say it that you hate me.
Its a disturbing fealing, really disturbing.
Because I want you! I want you so much that I think I'm going to die...



Ah...cultural differences.

The winner of the draw.....

.....for the Fifi awards nomination party draw decant, Jubilation 25, is Sue! Please mail me with your addres using the email on the Contact link above and I will have this in the mail soon.

Thank you all for your participation and prepare for the next one!