Aqua di Parma Magnolia Nobile: fragrance review

After Eau d'Italie and their watercolour rendering of the magnolia flower, Magnolia Romana, a formula that takes magnolias into a gouache approximation without their true oilier features visible, Magnolia Nobile by Aqua di Parma is another fresh take on the magnolia flower; like an unmade bed in black and white it fuses the contrapunto of cool and warm into sciaphobia, questioning our own gaze into seeing things that might not be there.

Magnolia as a note is proving to be very popular lately, if we consider recent launches: a new Helena Rubinsten fragrance fronted by Demi More, Wanted, the lovely Eau de Fleur de Magnolia by Kenzo (which we reviewed here), the "cologne florale" J'Adore L'Eau by Dior and Cristalle Eau Verte by Chanel.
In the last few years there seem to be big trends on certain perfume notes which take over and almost dominate the market: the year of iris flummoxed us with allusions to the Florentine rhizomes when the (respectable and often lovely) substitues concocted in a lab were playing hide-and-seek in the bottle; the from-top-to-bottom craziness for oud left many with the impression that the pathological secretion of the Aquillaria tree was indeed the source of the complex and medicinal smell in their fragrance (at those price points, not so!); the dominance of cleaned-up, de-moleculed patchouli has been harbouring a progeny of the hundreds into almost every new release to hit the market for some time now. It seemed magnolia couldn't escape for long...
Acqua di Parma was inspired by the ephemeral flower that can be smelled ‘in the gardens of elegant villas at Lake Como’ (in northern Italy).’ After the powdery-orange trail of Iris Nobile, Magnolia Nobile is woodsier, fresher and greener. A perfume of ‘elegant femininity intended for women who don’t need to attract attention.’

The natural magnolia blossom is a big waxy embrace of ginormous petals that seem to exude both a crystalline, lemony facet and more intimate, creamy jasmine-like effusions that can take a slightly tinfoil-like odour under some weather conditions to my nose. The treatment in Magnolia Nobile is following ~just like the bottle~ the one of iris in Iris Nobile of the same line, where the hesperidic top (especially in the lighter, more upbeat Eau de Toilette as opposed to the more chypre Eau de Parfum) is tieing the composition in style with the cologne genre that Aqua di Parma so effortlessly encapsulated in their classic Cologne. In Magnolia Nobile the lemony-green facets are pronounced at first, making it a zesty refreshing mix that cannot but provide an euphoric feeling, slightly sweet due to the floral essences, but there is also a familiar plummy-apricoty nuance which brings to mind popular mainstream releases which have been haunting the aisles of malls, restaurants and cinemas for a few years now. The woody musky base is also echoing in my ears like speakers in the car left on some news-relating channel in a sub-human frequency that can be felt more than heard.
In that regard the point of the construction of a "niche" fragrance along those lines (if a LVMH-owned company can be considered that) is eluding me. Magnolia Nobile is quite pleasant and does not become grandiloquent at any point which is a plus, but I cannot deny my disappointment with the familiarity with which it greets me when I expected a novel path that would bring me some Tarkovskian dream sequence. Maybe my expectations were too high. I am holding out for the next Nobile flower in the line before adding a companion to my Aqua di Parma Iris bottle.

Notes for Magnolia Nobile by Aqua di Parma:
Top: bergamot, lemon, citron, green notes
Heart: magnolia, jasmine, rose, tuberose
Base: sandalwood, vetiver, sandalwood, vanilla

Available as Eau de Parfum in 100ml/3.4oz and 150ml/5oz at Neiman Marcus and select doors internationally.

One large sample will be offered to a lucky reader. State your interest!

Photograph The Unmade Bed by Imogen Cunningham via personal.pblogs.gr. Ad pic via fashionindie.com

L'Artisan Parfumeur Al Oudh: new fragrance

Hot on the heels of moroccan impressions and no sooner had a review of the newest Havana Vanilla been posted on our pages (a scent in the Travel series from L'Artisan and inspired by the tobacco and vanilla of old Cuba) that we find out positive info on another new L'Artisan Parfumeur coming out: Al Oudh, simply meaning "the oud". Composed by in-house perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour and centered on the noble scent of the patholigical secretion of Aquillaria trees, oud or aloeswood, the new oriental fragrance is hypnotically beckoning us into a Middle-Eastern dervish dance, an hypnotic sight from which we can't draw our eyes off. The smoky, nutty complex smell of oud wood with its resemblanc to Band-Aids is definitely the dominating trend in niche releases in the last few seasons, having gained a momentum like there was no tomorrow (Montale was on to something when he burst into the scene with his ouds!). The oud bandwagon has everyone on it from Micalef's Aoud Homme to Tom Ford Oud Wood and more mainstream releases such as YSL M7, which begs the question what will happen if the guy and the gal next to you on the subway will start wearing tons of oud scents on the daily commute. But I digress.
Bertrand is taking the inspiration from the Arabian peninsula and the Spice Route (much like we had reported on Amouage and their new Epic, it's an always popular theme anyway) along with his familiar, honed skills on incense (myrrh, frankincense) to compose a spicy, woody and animalic composition with leathery notes which is reported to be "incredibly strong" as per the perfumer's own words.
The oudh/oud/aoud note is much harped on for being ultra-expensive (and indeed its production is so labour-intensive as to require exorbitant prices), yet new synthetics which mimic its medicinal and smoky scent have lately become available, starting with M7 by Yves Saint Laurent a few years ago (thus bringing the fad all the way downscale to Bath & Body Works recently). This justifies the claim of oud "notes" across the market at every price point. I trust that L'Artisan and Bertrand, with their usual finesse and care for marrying the best of both worlds, will instill a little of the real deal, extended with suave aromachemicals which will support it.

Notes* for L'Artisan Al Oudh:
Top: Cumin, cardamom, pink pepper
Heart: Neroli, rose, castoreum, civet, leather, musk
Base: Oud, sandalwood, Atlas cedar, patchouli, myrrh, incense, vanilla, tonka bean

*please note this is the sequence quotted, although it appears mid notes are comprised of heavier molecules

L'Artisan Al Oudh will be available as Eau de Parfum in 100ml/3.4oz bottles with Arabesque edges and a box that is scalloped with mosque-like decorations. It does look beautiful! (and Lutensian I might add in mischief) It will launch in winter 2009-2010.

info & pic via extrait.it

Maison Francis Kurkdjian: new line & shopping address in Paris

Francis Kurkdjan is no doubt one of the young protagonists of the perfume universe around us with huge best-sellers of mainstream perfumery (Gaultier Le Male, Narciso Rodriguez for Her), more exclusively-distributed fragrances (the boutique Guerlain Rose Barbare, the Dior exclusives Cologne trio, Indult) as well as commisioned scents and his own private label since 2001. Now it seems he has finally found the funds, encouragement and business consulting which allowed him to expand into a self-named brick & mortar boutique in Paris, bearing the name Maison Francis Kurkdjan.

Maison Francis Kurkdjian is located at 5 rue d’Alger (Paris 1er arrondisement) ~very close to Galerie Nast~ and is a building of glass, steel and wood designed by Yann le Coadic and Alessandro Scotto bearing the signature of its mastermind nevertheless. Francis imagined his own boutique as a project reflecting "the art of life, the way to share the things he feels". Inspired by the covered galleries of older Paris it fuses elements of the artisanal boutique of old.
The Kurkdjian perfumery house not only caters to the bespoke service which Francis has been involved in for some time now, through his own site, but also offers new products: in Cologne (Cologne du Jour, Cologne du Soir), eaux de toilette, parfum, parfums d’intérieur (home fragrance) and scented candles, accompanied by Papier Encens (incense paper), scented leather bracelets and a matching laundry detergent (Aqua Universalis, the piece de resistance!), deodorant and soaps in the exact same scent ~from top to toe you'll be "universally eau-ed". A "lifestyle" approach which comes as a surprise!


Navigate in Paris 1er via Google Maps on this link.


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On and Off...

A small scented trip in a promising locale is taking me away for the weekend. I promise to come back with tales of the kashba, tajines and Atlas cedar and any perfume treasures unearthed.

Back to the Future (of Fragrance this time)

Shaping the market of scent is not within our capacity, however mapping it is. And it seems like our antennae have been tuned to all the talk lately about a shift in consumers' tastes and a seismic change due to the increased information received by the Internet. This manifests itself with many signs, which we will tackle one by one.

First of all, the reign of "celebrity scents" is coming to a slow end. (Those are fragrances bearing the name of a famous person, produced by a couple of companies excelling in that brief, like Coty or Parlux). It's not simply that perfumistos, people with an acute interest in fragrance, are getting completely jaded and being vocal about it on online fora. It's also that there is simply too much celebrity juice out there.
In the article "Celebrity Scents Fall Out of Style: So Over It" by Carmen Nobel in Thestreet.com the author stipulates that "Tagging a perfume with the name of a celebrity goes back to the days of Coco Chanel. But the trend got a little out of control after the success of Jennifer Lopez's Glow, launched in 2002". After everyone and their grandma and their grandma's cook having a celebrity scent in the works, from athletes to actresses/musicians and authors all the way to reality-games-participants, it's getting a little tired and lots of people do not see the glamour or the relevance with certain celebrities.
The stats are a little shocking and show the proliferation of what seems like an oversaturated market: "In 2005, there were some 20 celebrity fragrances on high-end department store shelves, and by 2008, there were at least 47, according to Karen Grant, a beauty industry analyst at the NPD Group, a market research company in Port Washington, N.Y. And those were just the fragrances in the "prestige" and "premium" brackets, those that cost at least $50 and upwards of $75 per bottle, respectively."
The analyst also foreshadowed that the celebrity scents which would do well in the near future would be only the ones which are packaged in fancy presentations (Harajuku Lovers being an example)

But people are also avoiding perfume altogether sometimes: Too much juice sometimes produces a saturation across the boards. In an quizzical article on the Frisky fragrance shizophreniac (by her own playful admission) Erin Flaherty prompted by a no doubt exaggerated statistic (NB statistics can be manipulated the way one wants them to) intelligently discusses whether fragrance as a concept is knowing diminished popularity lately: Has perfume gone out of style? "When it comes to women and our relationship with fragrance, there’s something I’ve noticed lately, and it makes me wonder how many women out there wear any perfume at all? [...] the whole douse yourself in perfume before you leave the house thing hearkens back to another era. A lot of 20- and 30-somethings I know just don’t bother.[...] A recent NPD report showed that prestige fragrance sales in the U.S. are down 10 percent. This could just be due to the recession, but still. There’s also our generation’s obsession with individuality: Maybe we don’t all want to smell like the latest designer fragrance (or God help us, Britney Spears), and are more likely to create our own signature mixes using oils, a combination of perfumes, or are just content with our bodies’ own natural scents. Or maybe it’s just allergies".

On the other hand, there seems to be an indirect marketing strategy in which the familiar and old stanby, the fashion designer turned fragrance-churning big name, is used again in new and ingenious ways to provoke the response of a more aware consumer who is leafing through glossies like always, but is also interested in online information. Evidence: the latest column by Tina Gaudoin in the Wall Street Journal Magazine which tackles the Italian designer Giorgio Armani and his illustarted talk about scents and sensuality. (I admit I had no idea he had been in medical study at any point in his career! The things one learns...But I do adore capers!!!) Are the people reached that way more likely to sample his latest venture, Idole d'Armani?

On the same issue of the same medium there is another interesting piece about the most prized spice, saffron, a literal stamen by stamen worth of gold foil due to the labour-intensive harvesting. Saffron notes in fragrances have known a surge in niche releases and the reason is not hard to see, judging by the culinary effect the red spice possesses: "Comparing saffron to other culinary objets d’art is a nonstarter. Drugs are more appropriate. Too much and a dish overdoses on flavor. In excess, it can even become toxic. “Eating handfuls of raw saffron will shut down your liver,” Sharifi warns. But a tenth of an ounce, say, what Andrés might add to a saffron cake, can carry a dish on its shoulders, brightening the color to a golden orange and cutting the sweetness of a dessert with its grassy, metallic punches. (And just a dash will add at least a few dollars to the price of any dish.)" Would the popularity of exotic ingredients in cuisine result in an increased awareness of "scentsorial" experiences out of the perfume bottle? After all, smell and flavour are closely entwined and the discenring perfume wearer is often an equally investigative, adventurous foodie. Could these old, nay, ancient ingredients (crocus from which saffron is extracted was known by the prehistoric Aegean populations) become the new items to replace the pink pepper, the iris and the ~synthetic, by now~ oud which have taken the niche and mainstream market by storm these past two-three years? Cheers to a new route chosen, if so, and I raise my glass to this back to the future!

So the baton is on to you: What do you notice in your neck of woods about fragrance trends? Do people wear fragrance or avoid it, what is getting chosen most, are people inquisitive about new exotic or perhaps old-fashioned scents?

pic credits: bloogoscoped.com, aphrodisiology.com, girlinaglasshouse.blogspot.com