The winner of the draw....

....for the sample of the latest Serge Lutens scent is Prosetry. Congrats!
Thanks everyone for your enthusiastic participation and till the next one. Stay tuned!

Resolution #1: Find a Signature Scent

I wouldn't go that far, but the good people at Ormonde Jayne just informed me with a cute mail that the sampler set is back in stock. And the discovery set is indeed the perfect way to find your very own Ormonde Jayne fragrance.
11 x 2ml mini sprays with a small brochure explaining each scent, in a black and gold box. The shipping is complimentary worldwide and the price of the set is 35 UK pounds. (Pity the magnificent Tiare isn't included yet)
Link to online boutique is here.

Upcoming Releases & News: Rumours and Facts

What does the upcoming season hide for us? Several houses have some surprises for us and some facts and cross-checking was in order.

According to the Moodie Report, Guerlain has two new men’s fragrances for the upcoming season: Habit Rouge Gentleman Driver and Guerlain Homme L’Eau.

The former, only a seasonal limited edition, bases its inspiration on automobile racing, hence the Gentleman Driver moniker. The press material talks about the (ultra-fetchy) Steve McQueen in Le Mans (with some shades of Bullit no doubt), the Paul Ricard race track and the circuits of Monaco. Yeah, yeah, colour me non impressed. Actually they could have been historically correct and attribute the moniker to the one who really had it: Louis Chiron, the statue of whom stands on the picturesque port of Monaco. One of the great pre-war Formula One racing drivers and a serious contributor to the Bugatti legend (model 18/3 Chiron is named after him), he is the only Monegasque to win Monaco Grand Prix and one of the curves is named in his honour. It seems to me this is Frencher than quoting McQueen, but I think we know who they're targeting eh? "The juice is a reworked version of the original Habit Rouge Sport*, and features bamboo, pink pepper, bitter orange, jasmine, woods and musks. It is presented in a translucent red flacon, adorned with a metal plaque bearing the Habit Rouge Sport logo and engraved with the name of the edition: Gentleman Driver. The outer carton is a matching red and metallic mix".

*Come again?? Flanker of a flanker?

For women, Guerlain is proposing the latest Aqua Allegoria, Flora Nymphea, this coming spring, to celebrate the 10th year anniversary of the Aqua Allegoria line, and for the occasion a 3D animated film will be presented in which a nymph named Flora Nymphea will tell the story of flowers and scents led by a bee, symbol of the brand (the film lasts a minute and will be broadcast online this coming March). Guerlain called on French singer Olivia Ruiz to narrate the story. Created by Thierry Wasser, the scent features syringa (lilac), African orange blossom and honey notes, encased as always in the gilted-honeycomb glass bottles of the line.

On the other hand, things are more exciting elsewhere: The in house perfumer for L'Artisan Parfumeur, Bertrand Duchaufour, has been held on record saying "I am working on several projects for L'Artisan Parfumeur, including a Vetiver, a Tuberose and an Amber-Oriental" (The news had been first broken in an excellent interview on fragrantica by Michelyn Camen back in August 2009). It is confirmed that L'Artisan and Duchaufour are issuing their tuberose this upcoming spring. Let's not forget that Bertrand is no stranger to the carnal blossom, as the heart of Fleur de Liane is also a soft coupling of tuberose and magnolia (let's not sidetrack his man-eating floral Amaranthine for Penhaligon's either, speaking of carnality), while L'Artisan has an under-the-radar cult buttery but uncomplicated tuberose already in the line called Tubereuse. The new one will be a stand-alone permanent addition. Whether this will signal discontinuation of the older in favour of the newer, as we had announced concerning their Vanilia while reviewing their Havana Vanille last August remains to be seen. Personally I don't see the older Tubereuse moving much commercially and my strong suspicion is that newer is always preferable in this dance macabre of reformulations, so you know what you should do.

Hermès is issuing their newest unisex this coming April, a scent which will not be part of either Les Jardins, nor the Hermessences, nor the Cologne series (which they promised me they will implement with more instalments soon). Termed Voyage d'd'Hermès, the new fragrance breaks with the tradition of the house's bottle designs as well, taking the shape of one of the petite marocinnerie products into a glass shape that will hide the spray mechanism under a metal "pochette" designed by Phillipe Mouquet. According to a Vogue insider the release is NOT a mainstream launch, this is a special product for travelers, hence the clever packaging and will be exclusively sold at Hermes boutiques, which according to official info so far is a mainstream distribution product (boutiques and department stores). The scent will feature mainly musks with fresh and woody notes in the Jean Claude Ellena style.
ETA: Official info tells me the bottle is refillable offered in 35ml and 100ml and official launch is April 2010.

And let's not forget the re-issue of the previously limited edition Calèche Fleurs de Méditerranée centered on mimosa, which we had announced a while ago.
Interestingly, according to Sympatico.ca, "It was also announced in late December that the French label plans to launch a new brand in China, called Shang Xia. The goal is to play a bigger role in the Chinese market by creating items and styles using materials rooted in the Chinese culture". An interesting development to watch in relation and perspective to the markets catered by Hermes already and their future strategies.

To the delight of several Hermesophiliacs, the exclusive Hermessences are finally online, a rumour which we had entertained for a long while but is now reality. Interestingly, however, it is only the big bottles which are available for online purchase and not the discovery travel sets (those contained four mini-sprayers of 15ml/0.5oz in either four assorted fragrances, actually the original quartet introduced, or 4 of the same fragrance). You can visit the American site on this link. Although there are a few mentioned there, the international sites stock more of the line. Nevertheles Brin de Reglisse is lacking from all of them!! I hesitate to attribute it to a sudden omniplacent lack of stock, as it wouldn't make sense when the others are all at the ready. It would be perhaps be more indicative of the truth if I hypothesized that the ratio of natural lavender in Brin de Reglisse (an aromatic material extended to its natural extremetieis approaching licorice notes) required adjustment in view of the upcoming IFRA restrictions. Either that or...But let's not rain on anyone's parade with similar dishearteaning news as the Lutens discontinuations. I trust that Brin de Reglisse will be soon back online proving it's not chopped off the line.

Related reading on PerfumeShrine: Upcoming Releases, News from the Industry, Guerlain series

pics via moodiereport, miriamescofet.com and hermes

Serge Lutens multiple discontinuations: Oh My!

No sooner had the ink dried (or rather the optical signal been transmitted from your screen to your retinas) on the L'Eau Serge Lutens review that we're faced with some rather disconcerting news which haven't been broadcasted anywhere else yet. It doesn't sound too good, so brace yourselves: Not one, but FOUR Serge Lutens fragrances are getting discontinued...

The reasons might have to do with ingredient restrictions making it difficult to continue their production or -more likely- they could be really low sales combined with a rethinking of the whole line (after all, the new "anti-parfum" is as if a rethinking has been going on) that accounts for it. Whatever it is, the fans will be dismayed and a frantic hunt for them will ensue. In a way I will be glad to see the last specimens being taken off to loving homes rather than having them languish on a shelf. No good fragrance deserves less.

The four Serge Lutens fragrances (sounds like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and I feel that way too) that are getting axed are: Chypre Rouge, Miel de Bois, Clair de Musc and Douce Amère.
The rumour on the discontinuation of Miel de Bois had been discussed a year and a half ago (!) and had been thoroughly explained, but it had been fervently denied at the time from the Parisian staff; the rest...let's just say they weren't the most popular of the lot! (Clair de Musc is discontinued through no fault of its pleasant, well-liked scent; it's merely that clean ethereal musks are a dime a dozen in the market, no matter how poetically brilliant Serge's version is, I presume). Personally I will be really saddened to see the excellent and contemplatively melancholic Douce Amère, one of my personal favourites, perish. You'll have to snatch it off my cold, clammy hands, I guess...

Edit to Add: Miel de Bois is currently sold as a Paris exclusive in the bell jars, after its pulling from the export line. Although the Palais Royal representative denies discontinuation en masse, there is a private source that tells me the scents might revert to their alma mater and become Paris exclusives like MdB, which means discontinuation in the export bottles (and the US, as a consequence).,/span>

Edit to Add2: Click to read the latest update on this distressing issue.

Illustration Tempus Fugit by Anomunnus via deviantart.com

L'Eau par Serge Lutens: fragrance review & a draw

I was wondering when next there would be some blogosphere ruffle about a release which creates chasms of opinion, has Turania pan it mercilessly because it doesn't exactly follow the "grand manner"* and creates queues at online decanters to sample it to satisfy the most aimed-at attribute of them all: curiosity! Serge Lutens doesn't miss a beat: With L'Eau Serge Lutens he presents a completely atypical composition ~clean, iron-pressed, steaming like the hot towels infused with citrusy accents presented at luxury hotels for guests to freshen up before diving to the house-warming basket of delicacies.
And he will certainly have everyone wondering how and why he chose this path. Some will put it down to artistic decisions after exhausting the theme of balsams, cedar, cumin and dried fruits, which Serge has indeed culminated into an apotheosis. It could be; great artists are those who abandon la manière (and please note how Gris Clair, Clair de Musc, Iris Silver Mist and Encens et Lavande are essentially none of those things). Some others will venture this is a move to corner the emerging China market. However it is reported that the real turnover on luxury products in China accounts for the household name brands (Cartier, Chanel, Hermès etc). Nah...Others still will put it down to the industry being restricted right and left because of IFRA; if one is only allowed to play with a diminished palette they might as well be insolent and do a 180degree turn!

Whatever it is, Serge Lutens presents L'Eau Serge Lutens, "L'Anti-Parfum": "le savon le plus cher du monde" (i.e.the world's most expensive soap), that is to say a perfumer's idea of "clean", conceived alongside his long-time collaborator Chris Sheldrake. The new fragrance, which I got as a preview and have been testing this past weekend fascinated by its surprising yet familiar feel, is not an eau de cologne version, certainly not an aquatic, nor a light skin-like oriental in the manner of Clair de Musc. L'Eau Serge Lutens is almost mineral-like, in the manner that Eau de Gentiane Blanche is like white volcanic dust on a cool morning, and it would make me feel that the convergence of Mars and the dark side of the Moon ~two diametrically different artists~ has finally happened.
Yet the feel compared to the Hermès cologne is different: a little less bitter in the opening, a hint of bleach even, a little sweeter overall while still a quite bitter "clean". It's like a silvery white book on a shelf, all cool glossy pages, bookended on one side by citrus (the tinge of a little grapefruit, some of the nitrile in Sécrétions Magnifiques too; Quest's Marenil molecule it seems? but good God don't stop reading yet!) and on the other end by musks. There is kinship** with Essence by Narciso Rodriguez as well as Perfect Veil by Creative Scentualisation to give you an idea, but it manages to be neither's replica and to stand on its own feet, more aloof, more Chinese dry-cleaner's white shirt than either.
I bet it will infuriate those who expect opulent baroque from Lutens by default and it will be shunned by neo-bourgeois as well as those who insist on "smelling pretty". L'Eau Serge Lutens is handsome ~and perfectly unisex~ in its austere cleanliness, but pretty it is not. The lasting power is phenomenal, especially on fabric, where the facets of bitter and "nautical" are more evident.

But if papa Serge maintains cleanliness is the new ideal, is "cleanliness next to godliness" or is that only a Protestant concept?
The avant-garde painter Francis Picabia (1879-1953) had interestingly proclaimed between 1912-1920 that "la propreté est le luxe du pauvre: soyez sale!" (i.e. "cleanliness is the luxury of the poor: be dirty!") Certainly with the increasing commodities in plumbing and indoors water supply, the urban lower classes ~ for centuries destined to live among filth~ suddenly had access to the elements of hugiene, equating them in outer appearence at least to the upper classes. This elitist stance by Picabia was echoing in my ears as I read the new promo material by Lutens in which "cleanliness is the new luxury": Could it be that Serge is having a good laugh on us all? It wouldn't be the first time he employs a healthy dose of humour in his opus (see Fille en Aiguilles, Tubereuse Criminelle, Mandarine Mandarin...) Personally, it's that wry humour which I most appreciate in his work, regardless of whether I wear them all.

*Well, we saw what happens to new releases following the grand manner: they get discontinued!

**One of the ingredients is Tris (tetramethylhydroxypiperidinol) Citrate, a widely used Ph adjuster and "buffer" which extends the life and aroma of deodorants, after shaves and eaux de toilette. I suppose this is part of the familiarity too.

The new L'Eau Serge Lutens is embottled in a longer, even more architectural flacon which reminds me of the first cosmetic preparations by Shiseido and Eudermine, the beautifying lotion-cum-aromatic in the long red bottle. L'Eau Serge Lutens is part of the export line and will be available in Europe from February 1st at the boutiques selling Lutens scents and from February 15th also online. Release for American stores is scheduled for March.

For those of you who simply can't wait, I have a sample for a lucky reader. State your interest in the comments! Draw is now closed, winner announced shortly!

In the interests of full disclosure I got sent a small sample as part of the communication by Les Salons which I am offering for the draw.

Painting Girl in the Bathtub by Everett Shinn (1903). Lutens portrait via press material