Hang on to your seatbelts!

I have been so burdened with fragrance writing and projects my arms are stiff, but I will come back with a BIG surprise and contest you won't want to miss in a short while. Very soon, promise!

Aftelier Candide: new fragrance

From niche, indie brand Aftelier, headed by Mandy Aftel, comes a new fragrance, Candide.

Candide is a bright, uplifting floral, expressing its theme of optimism through sublime jasmine and age-old frankincense. Recent research in the Journal of Biological Chemistry finds that the scent of jasmine is better than Valium at calming and soothing. The sunny color comes from the orange shades of jasmine , pink grapefruit, and blood orange essences. The smell of jasmine is uplifting and cheerful in a sexy way – the perfect blend of high and low, sweet and dirty. The pink grapefruit is juicy and sweet; the blood orange smells of mouth-watering orange mixed with raspberries. The name is an homage to the great novel by Voltaire, with its theme of optimism.

Candide is available in one quarter ounce ($150) and 2 ml mini size ($45). Our one quarter ounce perfume comes with a complimentary mini kit. Contact info@aftelier.com

Lady Gaga and her celebrity scent

Can I just yawn my way out of all these celebo-scents? Theoretically, there is nothing wrong with a famous person having a fragrance out bearing their name and ugly (or pretty, as the case is) mug on the bottle, but so very often the juice inside is just swill... Not to mention it's often unlikely that there would be any class involved (see this) or innovation (see that) or at the very least a sense of continuity with the "brand? (see that, for Pete's sake).
At any rate, who else but Lady Gaga, the major pop culture phenomenon of the last -oh, how long was it, again?- years, to bring out a new celebrity fragrance. According to People, Gaga has signed a deal with Coty to launch her own fragrance, set to be in stores in spring 2012. The lady herself has been known to wear Chanel Gardenia. Go figure! Who knows how the new fragrance will smell like, but I guess we're to be greeted with news of "rock accords" and "jarring fashion sense chords" soon.
Wondering what will really set it apart? Perhaps much like the eponymous pop star's garments, it will require special staff to hold on and use for its designated purpose. Or something...

Photo of Lady Gaga in all her feathered glory via zimbio

Evening of British Perfumery at Harrods

Harrods Perfume Dairies exhibition is inviting you to an Evening of British Perfumery on Thursday 16th September 2010 6.30pm - 8.00pm
Explore the best of British perfumery, led by curator Roja Dove, with speakers from Ormonde Jayne, Floris, Grossmith, Penhaligon's and Clive Christian

A Very Special Guerlain Event: Fragrant Reportage at Harrods Perfume Diaries

~by guest writer Fiordiligi

The Perfume Diaries exhibition, currently attracting plenty of attention at Harrods department store in London, offered an enticing and perhaps once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Guerlainistas last Thursday, September 9, 2010. Harrods and the organisers of this exhibition managed to persuade the legendary but now somewhat frail Jean-Paul Guerlain to travel to London, accompanied by his successor as “nose” at the house of Guerlain, Thierry Wasser, in order to participate in an interview for a few fortunate perfume fans.

From left to right (click for reviews): Guerlain Pour Troubler, Chant d'Arômes, Fleur Qui Meurt, Après L'Ondée


In an intimate setting within the exhibition space, Jean Paul Guerlain and his protégé (who clearly enjoy a relationship of mutual respect and admiration), responded to questions from the Harrods Fashion and Beauty Director Marigay McKee. A measure of the importance of this event was the appearance of Harrods owner (but perhaps not for much longer if the Press reports are to be believed) Mohammed Al Fayed at the beginning of the session.

The opening question and its response summed up the entire Guerlain ethos: when asked by Ms McKee to explain Guerlain’s longevity as a perfume house, Jean Paul had an unhesitating one-word response: quality. Later, he also insisted that another reason for the success of the House was the fact that they only sell what they can produce; in other words, Guerlain is a perfumer, unlike the fashion houses which “buy in” a fragrance to which the designer’s name can be appended and which can be sold alongside handbags and dresses.

Jean-Paul Guerlain’s first creation for the family business was when he was 15 years old, and he is still making perfume (thank goodness!) some 58 years later. When asked for his most personally meaningful creations, he cited Vetiver and Samsara, and then added Nahema. It is well known that the Guerlain family has always nurtured a tradition of stories lying behind the creation of each fragrance, and Jean Paul talked about the creation of a fragrance being linked to love, being in love or wanting to woo someone. Later, the relationship between food and perfume was also discussed (Jean- Paul apparently being a wonderful cook).

Mention was made of the next scent by M.Guerlain (Arsene Lupin), already discussed here, and the travels he still undertakes in search of the raw materials for Guerlain fragrances, including to Liguria, Calabria (for bergamot) and India. He loves to travel, still, and has particularly fallen in love with Nepal and Tibet.

Naturally, the bulk of the short interview was spent in discussion with the Guerlain legend, but Thierry Wasser, an elegant figure in a dark suit, who clearly worships his mentor, spoke modestly and self-effacingly about how he came to Guerlain through his work at Givaudan and, interestingly, how he always makes up the original formula of the Guerlain “greats” as a reference before attempting to re-work it. The mention of the new IFRA restrictions led to the most marvellously eloquent Gallic shrug and hand gesture from M Guerlain – “pah” would describe it best! Clearly, he, like the rest of us, is not impressed.
Mr.Wasser would obviously not be drawn on any new projects although he did say that something was being planned to celebrate the centenary of Jacques Guerlains’ masterpiece L’Heure Bleue in 2012.

Just one or two questions came from the small audience before the interview ended, to prolonged applause, and it would not be an over-statement to say that Jean Paul Guerlain looked very touched by his reception.

Fiordiligi is going to a private view of the actual exhibition guided by Roja Dove on Tuesday, so hopefully she will grace is with a companion piece here soon!

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Guerlain news, Guerlain Series of reviews


Photo of Guerlain bottles via Grant at Basenotes, many thanks and please visit