Sylvaine Delacourte on the Open

"I used to be a dedicated make up artist but knew I wanted to do something different. I decided to take up a job at Guerlain. After a while, I realised I knew nothing about fragrances and underwent training in fragrances. This changed my life. I trained for two years in the only school in Europe: Isipca. Soon I joined the marketing team of Guerlain. From make up, marketing and plenty of other profiles I have now become the nose of Guerlien.[sic]"

Sylvaine Delacourte, the artistic director of parfums Guerlain, is opening her cards on the table in an exclusive phone-interview on occasion of the introduction of the Guerlain brand to India (Why did it take them so long? Ah, but judging by Dior's Escale a Pondichéry, India seems a hot spot market-wise now!) Among interesting opinions such as flowers being a universally liked scent and her faithfulness to one signature fragrance (that one, not revealed in the article, is L'Heure Bleue), Sylvaine Delacourte also reveals that she made Cuir Beluga taking herself as the starting point and main aim. She credits Thierry Wasser as the new nose in the house and gives a few practical rules for perfume wearing.

Read the rest of the article on the Hindu Mail here.

Edit to add (15 June): Mme Delacourte had the graciousness to personally address Perfume Shrine (in English no less) and clarify the following points for our readers and I quote:

"for Jicky , it is a fougere , but in the base notes you can find the harmony of shalimar!for my title , in the past I was director of the creation , it means i was in charge of finding a new idea , and the perfumer who will be able to tranform the idea into a perfume,(it means also evaluation) each time I have mentionned the names of the creators, Maurice Roucel, Olivier Polge and many others...NOW, Thierry wasser is our internal nose, CREATOR, successor of Mr Jean Paul Guerlain, and I am helping him , in the development of some fragrances. I am also the ambassador of the brand!"

Our thanks for those most interesting comments and since the venue is officially read by Guerlain headquarters, I invite you, my readers to pose/mail me with your personal questions on matters pertaining to Guerlain so that we could perhaps establish a constructive dialogue!

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: the Guerlain series, Guerlain news

pic credit from previous article on mailonsunday.com

Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles and Fourreau Noir: new fragrances

Official information has finally become available concerning the upcoming releases by Serge Lutens, the artistic director who changed the face of niche with his epoch-making line of fragrances for Shiseido and his own label under Shiseido's wing, Parfums Serge Lutens.

The two new fragrances will join the illustrious line this autumn, per Osmoz very soon. The latest information wants Fille en Aiguilles to launch 1st of July and Fourreau Noir on 1st September 2009.
Fourreau Noir will be exclusive to Les Salons du Palais Royal in Paris (75 ml, 110 €) in the familiar bell-jars that stack up on the purple and black shelves. After the floral intermezzo of Nuit de Cellophane [click for review] Lutens returns to a decidedly Lutensian composition: somber yet sensuous, revealing notes of tonka bean and lavender, with musk, almond and lightly smoky accents. The composition of Fourreau Noir is dark, silky and deep and ties with the darker heroines which have so inspired Serge Lutens in the past. After Serge Noire [click for review] which was inspired by the black serge material which has been used for clothing for so long, now comes Fourreau Noir: It means "black seath", but also the petticoat garment that was used to make dresses with lower-body volume stay crisp, as staying even today in fashion parlance "en fourreau pleats". The allusion to timelessness is evident and one could liken it to perfume companies' desire to present a hint to the classicism of their compositions not destined to be ephemera (although Guerlain's La Petite Robe Noire was nothing but!)

Fille en Aiguilles (girl on needles/on pins, a wordplay also on theFrench idiom "de fil en aiguille", ie. one thing leading to another) will be available in the export oblong bottles with a black label, signifying haute concentration (like the rest of the black label line compared to the beige label which are regular Eau de Parfum concentration). It will be sold in the usual suspects who carry Serge Lutens export bottles. (50 ml, 95 €) The fragrance humourously plays upon connotations of aiguilles which means needles in French, denoting either the character &mood of said fille or the pine needles which seem to be hiding in the core of the composition. Fille en Aiguilles will blend notes of vetiver, incense, fruits, pine needles and spices in a luminous woody oriental formula. Despite the name Fille en Aiguilles is easily lent to masculine wearing, an idea which is very simpatico to Serge Lutens who pioneered the concept of shared fragrances in the niche sector.

Adding: A full review of Fille en Aiguilles has been uploaded now here. A full review of Fourreau Noir has been uploaded now on this link.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Serge Lutens news and reviews

Notes info and pic via Osmoz, Rita Haywroth in Gilda via paristreatyredux.blogspot.com.

Caprissimo by Carthusia: new fragrance

Carthusia, the Italian niche brand on Via Camerelle with the smallest perfume laboratory in the world, inspired by the Mediterranean and the island of Capri in particular, has been providing us with fragrances to cast our mind to summery thoughts for a while now: from the citrusy masculines Io Capri (George Clooney's choice) and Mediterraneo to the lyrical Aria di Capri and the carnation-fused Fiori di Capri, there's something for everyone.
Legend has it that in 1380, the prior of the monastery was surprised by the news of an impending visit of Queen Joan I of Naples. He therefore amassed large flower bouquets with the most beautiful blossoms. When, after three days, he wanted to dispose them, he noticed the wonderful smell of the water and he called the alchemist, who discovered the origin of the fragrance in the “Garofilium Silvestre Caprese”, later tweaked and adjusted becoming Capri’s first perfume. In 1948, the formula was rediscovered and it was given to a chemist who owned the world’s smallest laboratory called “Carthusia”. To this day, production methods follow those used by the Carthusian monks of yore.

Now comes the melodic sounding Caprissimo (the superlative of Capri, if you like!) which aims to capture the flowers, sun and la dolce vita of the famous exotic locale. Focused on the lemon tree, it interprets the hesperidic and fizzying notes of the south, adding piquant and subtle accents of greeness to open up its floral heart that is redolent of "blue" jasmine, frangipani and osmanthus. Caprissimo ends on intense notes of wood and myrrh.

This comes as a reissue of the discontinued Caprissimo which was a green chypre in the vein of a lighter Ma Griffe. (The Carthusia line used to include other scents that are now unavailable like Gelsomino di Capri, Carthusia Lady etc.) The official site Carthusia.it is experiencing technical problems right now, but hopefully they will be back on soon.

The winner of the draw...

...for a sample of Mitsouko Fleur de Lotus is none other than Occhineri! Congrats! Please send me your address using the email under Contact with a shipping address so I can have this in the mail to you very soon.

Thank you all for your enthusiastic participation and till next time!

Amouage Jubilation 25: fragrance review

My tumultuous love affair with chypres has always been like flipping through the pages of an old family album; grudgingly recognising familiar features reflected on my own visage and looking quizzically yet with admiration on fashions past. Jubilation 25 by Amouage comes as the crowning glory of an introspection in sepia, ascertaining its place as one of my core favourites ever since its launch. In my ever expanding collection it is competing for stage space with the beautiful bell jars of the Parisian exclusives of Serge Lutens, to which it feels like kin.

The comparison with the olfactory seraglio of Lutens comes naturally, Arabia the Felix being at the DNA-helix of both. But whereas Lutens’s elixirs speak beneath dark-kholed lids assuming nevertheless a Japonesque apocryphal coyness, Jubilation 25 flaunts its proud breast in the fabled manner of perpulchra Eleanor of Aquitane astride her horse on the Second Crusade while facing the gates of Damascus.

The Omani uber-luxe brand Amouage released Jubilation 25 in 2007 to celebrate its 25th anniversary with their customary brief: spare no expense! To that effect let’s remind ourselves of the free reign legendary perfumer Guy Robert (Hermès Equipage, the buttery soft Doblis and Calèche, Christian Dior Dioressence, Madame Rochas) received upon the commission of creating the introductory fragrance of the house of Amouage when it was established in 1983 by the Sultan of Oman. Now named Amouage Gold, along with Amouage Dia, for men and women, the scents help prove that opulence acts as a constant in the direction of the venerable and genuinely exotic house.

Composed by Lucas Sieuzac, (Fashion Group International's Rising Star award receiver in 2004), Jubilation 25’s resolutely noble lineage can be traced to the succulent and confidently sexy fruity chypres of yore, like Rochas Femme, hold the exuberance, and Guerlain Mitsouko, hold the wistfulness. Pointedly the antecedent accord in the heart of Jubilation 25 is that of Edmond Roudnitska’s enigmatic Diorella, minus the melon freshness and flanked by a generous side helping of amber and resins. Yet in many ways the Amouage fragrance is a seasoned grand dame whereas Diorella is a budding ingénue of aristocratic pedigree. The intense hedonic character of the fruity nectar is not far removed from the legendary Colony by Jean Patou.

Smelling Jubilation 25, soft billowing layers of rose reveal themselves one after the other as if testing a rich millefeuille, while the sumptuous sensation of liqueur-like essences such as davana compliment the fruitier facets of the floral accord. The beguiling austerity of liturgical essences (frankincense, myrrh) is contrapuntist to the nectarous tonalities and the unmistakably mossy-woody base foiling them ~which makes the chypre accord so complex and intensely memorable. In comparison to Rochas Femme (and especially the 80s reformulated version), Jubilation 25 comes off as more lemony and delicately ambery, less spicy but with a discreet leathery aftertaste. Surprisingly, it exhibits a more cultivated Gallic air than the French-born themselves! Its amazing lasting power is testament to its firm grip on your heartstrings, if you are even remotely attracted by the genre of fruity chypres, of which it is a stellar example.

Amouage Jubilation 25 notes:
Top: tarragon, rose, lemon, and ylang ylang
Heart: davana, labdanum, rose, and frankincense
Base: amber, musk, vetiver, myrrh, and patchouli.

Amouage Jubilation 25 Eau de Parfum comes in 50ml/1.7oz and 100ml/3.4oz bottles and sometimes it’s available in 25ml starter bottles which are excellent value for money considering the high quality of the juice.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Chypre scents, Chypre series.


Pic via wickedhalo.blogspot.com
Clip of The Lion in Winter originally uploaded by Moviemonologues on Youtube.