Sleeping Beauty Never Smelled So Delicious!

Wearing perfume to bed is more prevalent than generally given credit for. Some carry the message into Marilyn Monroe territory ("What do you wear to bed?" "A few drops of Chanel No.5") and therefore aim to wear something sexy, intriguing, alluring to their partner; seducing them in true Pavlovian-style. Others prefer to tie scent with the ritual of sleep preparation; brushing teeth, dimming the lights, grabbing a good page-turner, putting on a serene fragrance. It's all part of winding down. There's an undeniable personal (and sometimes even selfish!) pleasure into slipping between fragrant sheets, or inhaling the aroma of a fine scented negligee as the comfort of the bed lulls your eyes into slumber.

One online acquaintance loves Bvlgari Blv Notte for this and keeps it on her bedside table; its calming effect almost a guarantee of sweet and pleasant dreams!
I have also adopted Blv Notte for nighttime both for my person and my sheets and I attest that its lightly cocoa-dusted iris that's never too earthy, never too gloomy, just right (read: peaceful and zen-like), is a wonderful addition to slipping into silky pajamas and cozying in my trusty, old cashmere liseuse. It's also well received by my partner.
Alternative fragrances for when I'm inquisitive and want a change include Voyage d'Hermès, Eau de Gentiane Blanche (again by Hermès), Gaiac 10 by Le Labo, Aromatics Elixir in eau de toilette, Passage d'Enfer and Voleur de Roses by L'Artisan Parfumeur, and Chanel No.5 in eau de parfum with its pronounced sandalwood and vanilla. (I guess I channel Marilyn a bit after all!). Usually musks, sandalwood, meditative incenses and patchoulis have a calming, feel-good effect on me; this isn't exclusive to nighttime use, but I might as well benefit from it to catch some zzzzz.

I also used to put on Dream Skin by Apivita on my face, because the soothing, herbal but also powdery lavender bouquet was so conductive to winding down. Unfortunately the packaging and name has changed, putting me out of a delightful habit. However Annick Goutal's Crème Splendide is still with us and it never fails to put me into a serene frame of mind; it's well worth the splurge. One of the German women who cleaned our house when I was little used to carry with her a tin of Nivea cream in the blue tin with its characteristic smell; she put it both on her face and on her hands before sleeping, she told ud, and early in the morning she was still deliciously smelling of that half floral-half herbal nostalgic smell. (Plus she had great skin).

Others still prefer to sprinkle only their sheets and bed pillows with bed linen water (such as Pre de Province Lavender Linen Water) or the decadent Guerlain Eau de Lit scent. There's even a linen spray with the Kai signature tropical white floral scent! I like to use a little psittt of Opopanax by Diptyque which is technically a room spray (but walks a mile in stilettos and back, working multiple ways) or L'Occitane Sentier de Maquis (Provencal Landascape) with its smoky air, a wintertime staple.
A similar effect could be achieved by diluting a bit of your chosen eau de toilette into a big sprayer filled with perfumer's alcohol (or even water; but you'd need to shake the vial well and after spraying turn on the radiator to take away any dampness before slipping in).
Some people who appreciate the warm glow of a candle flicker light up candles and snuff them before turning into bed. Baies by Diptyque is a classic "clean" but light and non obtrusive smell for that: blackcurrant and rose, like flowers by a brook.

But simply opening the window to a fragrant garden is perhaps the best of all. The memory of opening my window sills to a plush jasmine trellis fighting for space with an equally lush honeysuckle one at my grandparents' estate in the country is still with me.

The possibilities are endless!
So, what is your favourite bedtime fragrance or scented product and why? How does it make you feel? Tells us your preferences in the comments.

Photo is by Annie Leibovitz reprising Disney's Sleeping Beauty

Ambergris-laced Chocolate, Negus Cocktail & Cooking with Grey Amber

Have you ever tasted ambergris? If you stop to think that it was prized for centuries not only for its aromatic, but also aphrodisiac qualities, the question becomes less strange.  
The history of ambergris consumption is both varied and intriguing: At Falstaff's table (a character possibly based on Sir John Oldcastle) his favourite Sack wine was spiced with ambergris. Cardinal Richelieu ate ambregris-flavored chocolates and grey amber pastilles with gusto! On a sinister note, King Charles II of England famously and decadently breakfasted on eggs with (then as now very expensive) ambergris, and his mysterious death following a sudden stroke on February 16, 1685, gave rise to rumors of foul play; ambergris could have been the necessary concealer of poison, thanks to its rich, complex flavour. Indeed as I crumble a tiny lump to heat with my experimental eggs, I perceive that the pumice-like substance melts away easily with heat, imparting a delicious aroma. Even more decadently, during the Renaissance a dessert of iris flower jelly with ambergris posset (pictured below) was made for lords and queens; shooting two birds of expensive and fragrant materials with one stone!

But not all was for pleasure: During the Black Plague ambergris was considered to be prophylactic use. Historian Paul Freedman writes that "Ambergris was considered the sovereign preventative drug against the plague." and people carried a grain in their pocket to stave away the miasma in the air. Alas, it didn't work so well, but they must have smelled good while at it.

Later, the renowned gastronome Brillat-Savarin recommended a chocolate drink for warming up, boosting the immune system and at the same time savouring the best of refined foods: "Chocolat Ambré" (of which I present a recipe below) was made with shaved dark chocolate and hot water, laced with a substantial amount of grinded ambergris. La Marquise de Pompadour was fond of eating truffles and celery soups followed by cups of chocolat ambré "to raise the spirits and arouse the passions".

In the Middle East men consume ambergris to stimulate their sexual prowess while women believe the practice helps with infertility. Ibn Battuta, known as "the Traveler of Islam", narrates to have observed with astonishment in a city in Persia that people ate hashish and ambergris unabashedly, possibly believing ambergris to boost the narcotic effect of the drug. A lusciously erotic experience involves crushing a small dried lump of ambergris (percehd on the edge of the spoon) into organic coconut oil and allowing it to macerate for months before using. In Morocco it is traditional to use ambergris with tea; how a grain of ambergris sticked  inside the teapot's cover flavors the tea by mere contact with the vapor for years along is a miracle of nature's essences. As Karen of Globetrotter Diaries says, "Ambergris to liquids is much like 3D to movies; it gives new meaning to the otherwise familiar." I prefer to call it umami for the nose, the missing link in the realm of the senses.

"But is it safe to ingest?", you might be asking yourselves. Relax. Prior to the turn of the 20th century, ambergris was used by bartenders, liquor rectifiers, and makers of cordials & syrups as an additive in many products. But ambergris is never used alone: It is always rubbed with sugar, which acts by minutely separating the particles of the material,and then married to several other aromatics. The scents best suited to this purpose are acetic and nitric ether, oil of wintergreen, oil of lemon, oil of mace and creosote. As with truffles, ambergris has to be shaved very thinkly and added to warm drinks, so as to melt and not create a sediment.

Ambergris is a substance that the wild sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus Lin=P.catodon) regurgitates naturally; a sort of cetacean furball, clotted whale cholesterol to protect the animal's digestive track of remnants of indigested cuttlefish, squid beaks etc. [To learn all the info you need on what ambergris is and its differences with amber resin as well as its differences with Ambrox/Ambroxan refer to these herein linked articles.]

When it is fresh, ambergris has nearly no value, because its smell is extremely fecal and it has no great use for perfumery. But let it float on the ocean for some years and it gains a beautiful patina that famously chemist Gunther Ohloff described as “humid, earthy, fecal, marine, algoid, tobacco-like, sandalwood-like, sweet, animal, musky and radiant”.  It's difficult to improve on his words, but to me ambergris is that rare thing; an animalic essence that can be used even neat: its oily, marine, skin-friendly aura is intimate, but subtle, warming on the skin with an earthy, algae-reminiscent scent of bodies after a sea dip.
Whalefishers of the 18th and 19th century knew its worth. Watching "Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World", I was not surprised to come across an awe-eyed sailor dreaming of catching a whaler loot: "she'll be loaded with gold and ambergris and all the gems of Araby".

"Nor indeed can the whale possibly be otherwise than fragrant, when, as a general thing, he enjoys such high health; taking abundance of exercise; always out of doors; though, it is true, seldom in the open air. I say, that the motion of a Sperm Whale's flukes above water dispenses a perfume, as when a musk-scented lady rustles her dress in a warm parlor. What then shall I liken the Sperm Whale to for fragrance, considering his magnitude? Must it not be to that famous elephant, with jewelled tusks, and redolent with myrrh, which was led out of an Indian town to do honour to Alexander the Great?"

H.Melville's poetic associations in a whole chapter devoted to it in Moby Dick notwithstanding (with mentions of its use in Turkish cooking), the ocean and sun not only change the initially dark brown floating lumps into light greyish or even yellowish, but they also break down the basic building block, ambreine, into a quantity of products which account for the complex smell of ambergris. These lend themselves to complimenting a variety of ingredients in foods and beverages, as attested by the recipes aimed to help you cook with ambergris below.

You can buy some of the exceptional free-floating (i.e. ethically harvested) ambergris at profumo.it. (Currently I only see tincture available, but raw small lumps were available before, hopefully again)
Also available on Ambergris New Zealand. 


Recipe: Chocolat Ambré: chocolate drink laced with natural ambergris

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in Larousse Gastronomique: The Encyclopedia of Food, Wine and Cooking by Prosper Montagné with the collaboration of Dr. Gottschalk, 1961 English Ed.

"Chocolate is one of the most efficient restoratives.  All of those who have to work when they might be sleeping, men of wit who feel temporarily deprived of their intellectual powers, those who find the weather oppressive, time dragging, the atmosphere depressing; those who are tormented by some preoccupation which deprives them of the liberty of thought; let all such men imbibe a half-litre of chocolat ambré, using 60 to 72 grains of amber per half-kilo, and they will be amazed.  The grain, an old-fashioned measure, equals about the twentieth part of a gram, and we might add, ambre gris is meant, a greyish substance which exhales a smell analogous to musk, and not yellow amber, which is an entirely different thing.  Such chocolate no longer exists. In Méditation VI, Brillat-Savarin refers to chocolat ambré as 'the chocolate of the afflicted': 'I knew that Marshal Richelieu, of glorious memory, constantly chewed ambergris lozenges: as for myself, when I get one of those days when the weight of age makes itself felt - a painful thought - or when one feels oppressed by an unknown force, I add a knob of ambergris the size of a bean, pounded with sugar, to a strong cup of chocolate, and I always find my condition improving marvellously.  The burden of life becomes lighter, thought flows with ease and I do not suffer from insomnia, which would have been the invariable result of a cup of coffee taken for the same purpose'. Brillat-Savarin also praises the powers of ambergris in his Magistères Restaurants."
[source Ray Girvan, Technical Author,The Apothecary's Drawer.]

Recipe for Negus, a drink of Port or Sherry, sugar & spices, hot water and natural ambergris:

1 bottle of sherry (or port), 2-1/2 pints of water, juice of 1 lemon, a little of the peel rubbed off on sugar; grated nutmeg, and sugar to taste; add one drop essence of ambergris, or 10 drops of vanilla; all to be made and drunk warm.

source: Aerated Waters & How to Make Them; Together with Receipts for Non-Alcoholic Cordials & a Short Essay on Flavouringby Joseph Goold - J. Gilbert Smith, Publisher, London - 1880 - p.110

Recipe for Ambergris Wedding Punch

Take 1/2 pint of pineapple juice.
1 pint of lemon juice.
1 pint of lemon syrup.
1 pint of claret or port wine.
1/2 pound of sugar.
1/2 pint of boiling water.
6 grains of vanilla.
1 grain of ambergris.
1 pint of strong brandy.
Rub the vanilla and ambergris with the sugar in the brandy thoroughly; let it stand in a corked bottle for a few hours, shaking occasionally. Then add the lemon juice, pineapple juice and wine; filter through flannel, and lastly add the syrup.

source: The Mixicologist by C. F. Lawlor - Lawlor & Co., Publishers, Cincinnati - 1895 - p. 21

For the really adventurous or carnivores with access to good, old, rural meat, there is an English recipe for "ambergris puddings" (i.e. sausages with ambergris) from Lord Conway's Ambergris Puddings from The Queen's Closet Newly Opened (London: 1655) on this link.

And finally a scent formula, for Eau de Cologne à l'Ambergris (Ambergris Cologne Water)

21 ounces of oil of orange.
21 ounces of oil of bergamot.
2-5/8 ounces of oil of neroli.
6-9/16 ounces of oil of lavender.
3-15/16 ounces of oil of rosemary.
63 drops of oil of roses.
126 drops of oil of cloves.
200 drops of essence of ambergris.
Dissolve in 10 gallons of alcohol, 95 per cent.

Related reading on PerfumeShrine: Aromatic Cuisine: musings & recipes, Musk & Civet in Food: musk candy & civet coffee

Many thanks to Abdes Salaam of Profumo.it
Photo of Renaissance dessert with iris flower jelly and ambergris posset recreated by Bombass & Parr via Caroline's Miscellany. 
Painting of Madame de Pompadour by François-Hubert Drouais

Louis Vuitton to Launch Eponymous Fragrance

Contrary to expected (as mentioned in a fragrance industry-peeping book by Chandler Burr), the French fashion house, known by the initials LV to rock many a logo-studded handbag, has reportedly acquired the services of third-generation perfumer Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud with a view to entering the scent market, as per an article appearing on WWD.
The French brand's creative director Marc Jacobs (who has his own lucrative line of fragrances, including Daisy, Daisy Eau Fresh, Lola , the Splash collection and Bang) has long expressed a wish for the company to enter the fragrance market and in June he hinted the fashion house is "working on" a perfume. His statement was: "There's no Vuitton Beaute. At this moment, there is no fragrance although we're workingon that." [source] With talks on Marc Jacobs taking the helm at Christian Dior (another company in the LVMH Group) after John Galliano's expulsion and Phoebe Philo in talks to take over Louis Vuitton, it makes for a potentially explosive cocktail. Jacques Cavallier is expected to start working in January for LV, which has not made an official statement concerning the issue yet.

According to WWD, Louis Vuitton is thought to have been investigating "rare, almost-extinct flowers in France that could be used as elements of its scent". Apart from the standard "sourcing for precious flowers in Grasse" stint that seems to go hand and parcel with every prestigious fragrance launch (even if we know that's not necessarily the case as Grasse products come from all over the world and aromachemicals overpopulate the formulae of most commercial fragrances), it would seem that the brand might be peeping into Dior's own resources in the subject. Let's not forget that Cavallier has already worked for Dior's Addict, so he's familiar with the infrastructure.

My collaborator AlbertCAN has an interesting viewpoint on this:

"To be honest it's would be interesting how Jacques Cavallier will interpret the DNA of LV, and how he will work with Demachy. (Not clear yet on their relationships, although I bet Francois Demachy [ed.note: head perfumer at Dior] will do the check and balance.) Nor is it clear whether Cavallier's contract will be exclusive. On the other hand I don't think Cavallier will rock the boat too much with the first launch, given how much pressure he will be under. (Read: LV execs won't let him.) But given the new Bottega fragrance, might LV be tempted to up to ante?"

Albert might mean that Vuitton might also tackle a leather fragrance. It would stand to reason, wouldn't it. On the other hand issuing a fragrance somewhat creates a downgrading of a luxe brand, making a product that is more or less available to a mass of consumers as opposed to an elite. After all that was the reason they were so resistant to issuing a fragrance before. However, like Hermes so successfully proved, they might reserve distribution of this product for their own boutiques instead of department stores, thus up keeping the "exclusive" experience.

Louis Vuitton has long stood for the ambassador of the idea of luxe travelling, being famous for its historical trunks and suitcases, as reinforced by their recent exotic destinations/travellers advertisements (with Sean Connery, Bono and his wife, etc.). The funny thing is however that a specimen of Eau de Voyage by Louis Vuitton, Paris, a commemoratory fragrance version that circulated in the 1980s, has already circulated on Ebay! Could this be juice waiting to be fine-tuned by Cavallier and reintroduced in some form? Could the name, since copyrighted apparently, be reused?
American online stores, curiously, have "acquired" and as of July 2011, "sold out" a Louis Vuitton fragrance "in only 200 bottles" in signature logo-branded box, advertising it as "a very sensual, tea rose type of smell that has a floral scent combo. It's absolutely awesome. It's a very soft, intimate alluring smell that will last forever. Exotic definately!" [sic] Though, I'm kinda certain we're dealing with a Chinese fake, in this case!


Expect to read more in the coming weeks and months.

photo via 1000fragrances

Georgia the Biggest Consumer of Celebrity Fragrances?

According to an article on The Financial Channel, that might be the case, especially in Tbilisi. But what's most important is that celebrity fragrances (including ancillary products such as bath & shower gels, body lotions and body mists)

are popular with both affluent and lower-incomed customers! It's also noted that they're most popular among young people, though not exclusively.
Avril Lavigne, Naomi Campbell, Christina Aguilera and Antonio Banderas are named some of the most favourite celebrity brands for Georgians according to Khatia Shamugia, PR Manager of Ici Paris. These are often bought by mothers for their daughters (so mothers, beware what you introduce your impressionable offspring to!) or for their best friends.

“I am kind of a celebrity perfume lover,” said Nanu Abashidze, 19. “Of course I prefer to buy high class brands such as Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent but they are much more expensive. So I prefer to buy cheaper brands, and I am quite content with their smell. Avril Lavigne is one of my favourite celebrity cosmetic brands. I started using it recently and can’t give it up,” Abashidze said.
Taking this confession as a departure point into some personal speculation, it's worth wondering if the quality of high-end brands has gone down so downhill that there isn't really much to differentiate them from celebrity fragrances or lower-end products than their perceived prestige...

pic via klineblog

Perfume Courses by Alec Lawless

Alec Lawless of Essentially Me artisan perfumery will be teaching two perfumery courses: both Make Your Own Perfume Workshop and his Five-Day Artisan Perfumery Course on dates through 2012.  The courses are popular with enthusiasts from across the world:  Alec's reputation internationally is such that previous students have travelled from as far afield as Germany, Denmark and Japan to study at with him at Essentially Me's Perfumery Workshop near Stroud in the Cotswolds.   In the last two years he has also taught perfumery classes in Australia, New Zealand and New York.

Courses cater for all levels.   Make Your Own Perfume gives participants the chance spend the day at the perfumery, creating their own unique fragrance using a carefully blended selection of beautiful natural aromatics.  At just £125, it's an affordable treat or perfect gift for Christmas, Birthday or Valentine's Day.  The course runs on Saturdays, with dates for 2012 as follows: 28th January, 24th March, 19th May, 7th July, 29th September.  There are also a few places still left on the final course of 2011, to be held on 3rd December. Courses can be booked on line atwww.essentially-me.co.uk. Gift vouchers are also available.

Meanwhile, for the serious enthusiast, the Artisan Perfumery Course is a chance to spend 5 days learning to create a sophisticated perfume using some of the finest natural aromatics in the world. Students learn about the history of natural perfumery, how natural aromatics are produced and consultation techniques to create fragrances for other people; as well as hands-on blending sessions.  The course fee of £495 offers fantastic value - it includes expert tuition from Alec Lawless, use of materials, lunch and refreshments each day and the finished bottle of perfume at the end of the course.  There are three courses scheduled for 2012, as well as one remaining in 2011.   All run Wednesday - Sunday on: 9th-13th November 2011; then 7th-11th March; 20th-24th June and 21st - 25th November 2012.   Bookings may be made on line or by phone at 01453 882525.

For further information, please contact Sian James on 01453 882525 or pr@essentially-me.co.uk

info via press release