The Jasmine at your Door

"The jasmine at your door, my jasmine,
oh and I came to prune it, my little bird.
And your mother thought, my Yasemin,
that I came to take you away.

The black eyes, which are sweet, my Yasemin.
Oh, the brows, which are long, my little bird.
Made me forsake ~my Yasemin~ oh, my mother's milk, my little bird."



Thus runs this Cypriot folk song which plays with the double entendre of the word jasmine: the wonderful trellis that grows upon doors and windows of course, but also the traditional Eastern Mediterranean women's name, Yasmin/Yasemin (which means of course Jasmine). So the poet is in turn speaking of the flower and of the woman, the two becoming one and the same...

Savina Yannatou and Primavera en Salonico perform the traditional Cypriot folk song The Jasmin from the album "Mediterranea: Songs Of The Mediterranean" (1998)
Translation author's own.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: the Jasmine Series

The winners of the draw...

...for the Paris exclusive Boxeuses samples are:

Lubasa
GatorGrad
Gina
Trebor
Qwendy

Congratulations to all and please mail me (with Boxeuses draw in the title) using the contact email in profile with your prefered shipping address, so I can have these out to you soon.
Thanks for the participation everyone and till the next one!

Frederic Malle Interview

"The result is a good fragrance, a sexy thing, that makes you look better. It’s the salt and pepper of sex, I suppose. It makes people more attractive. It’s a very beautiful but abstract thing. But then when you make the perfume, it’s like a Rubik’s Cube. It’s a chemistry, very tangible, concrete and matter of fact. "


Thus explains the difference between the product and the creation process Frédéric Malle, founder of Les Editions de Parfums, the famous niche line which put the perfumers on the forefront 10 years ago. Malle is not mincing words when he disparages marketing people starting with the brief rather than the smell, because -obviously- they don't know anything about the creation process or what perfumery entails (Is it any wonder there's so much dreck and sameness in the market today?)
He also reveals the best-sellers of his line per country/continent: Bigarade for most Asia, En Passant and Lys Méditéranée for China, Carnal Flower (reportedly ahead of Chanel No.5 please note!) in the US and Une Rose in the Middle East, where he plans to open a boutique. Interesting!

Read more, including who is the perfumer he considers most knowledgable, where he was inspired from for the look of the line and what he thinks about online and eponymous star-spangled criticism, in Nathalie Atkinson's article on the National Post.

Chanel Les Exclusifs: Size Small For Fit

Finally...It was a long-held rumour but it just became a fact. After the 'demand' of so many for some scaling down of the honkers (each scent in Les Exclusifs came in a 200ml -otherwise awesome- bottle), Chanel is now officially offering them in the travel-friendly size of 75ml/2.5oz which they affectionately call "petit flacons". The line-up doesn't include all the fragrances though: only Beige, Sycomore, Eau de Cologne and Coromandel benefit. Apparently they're the best-sellers.
Let's hope the less commercially viable ones follow.
STOP THE PRESS ADDITION: Indeed Chanel sales representatives have been informed that the smaller 75ml bottles will be available in ALL Les Exclusifs Eau de Toilette scents in February 2011.
How's that?

Shalimar Ode a la Vanille postponed

The launch of the newest "flanker" on Shalimar, Ode à la Vanille (Ode to Vanilla), has been now officially postoponed, pushed back to middle of October (it was supposed to be end of September and boutiques were taking pre-orders). As luck would have it, it's a lovely blend, so you will just have to sit patiently for a few days more.
In the meantime, read the details from back when we broke the news on the upcoming launch on this article last July.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Shalimar (original review & history), Shalimar Eau Legere/Light and Eau de Shalimar(comparison), Shalimar Charms Limited edition