Top 10 Fragrance Notes Trends for 2012

Fragrance and flavour trends are more complex than you might have thought. Actually an inordinate amount of research goes into them to monitor and interpret consumers' demands. This data is then used to help develop scented products in the year to come. The process often unfolds threefold: archiving samples requested over a year-long period, marketing teams doing trend scouting worlwide and finally, using external databases (yes, that includes Net content too, such as your feedback here). In the interests of closing up the year in a foretelling of what's to come, here's the info for you.

"The theme for Bell Flavors & Fragrances for 2012 top 10 fragrances list is “The Wild Luxury Consumer.” Counter to worldwide financial woes, wild luxury consumers are seeking out more exquisite haute couture items than ever, and it will likely be no exception when it comes to fine fragrances.
Thus, Bell offers the following at the top 10 fragrance notes of 2012.

1. Ginger Orchid
2. Orange Flower
3. Tart Guava
4. Gold Amber
5. Green Pear
6. Spicy Bergamot
7. Root Beer
8. Pink Pepper
9. Leather
10. Tomato Leaf"

It's interesting to note that already some of those have made a very perceivable
appearance already (pink pepper anyone?) or are firmly on the all-time-classic pantheon (orange flower and gold amber are perennials). It's interesting to witness the return of leather (which was a big hit this winter too, for instance see Cuir Fetiche or Bottega Veneta eau de parfum) and the return of the peculiar and oddly green tomato leaf (so sparingly used in the industry; think of Sisley's Eau de Campagne, Liberte Acidulee in Les Belles de Ricci and Folavril by A.Goutal). Already so many of the fragrance launches smell similar that going on a mapped-out chart of notes to hit the sweet spot starts sounding like echo in outer space.

info gleaned from Perfumer & Flavorist magazine, pic via fashionsins.com

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Haydria Perfumery Tainted Love & Harem Girl: fragrance reviews

The Haydria Perfumery is one of those small artisanal brands you probably won't hear of unless you frequent perfume fora and read actual people's views; consequently the perfumers of those brands often twist their inspiration to fit both their own and their customers' base vision, a good thing. A good thing because this is a market segment with pretty sure footing into how perfume used to be before it was put into a compulsory Jenny Craig regime and often very much into what's affectionately termed "hippy stuff" from ma & pa shops (unfortunately more prominent in the USA than in Europe where I am residing). Haydria Perfumery seems to me to unite these two worlds: a vintage-focused pin-up inspired, retro perfumery with glittering, girly stuff reminiscent of the 1950s & 1960s, but also an independent, earthy, oils & musks approach (that's very 60s as well).

Fragrances of the Haydria Perfumery are composed by Hadria Douglas, based in West Hertford CT, USA, customarily presented in liquid perfume (in glass bottles with Swarovski embellishments), solid perfume & compacts and oil form. I tested the oils, which by their own nature present a smoother, softer ambience on skin and therefore sometimes present a lack of structure, but I know many people are mad for oils so it makes sense to offer this concentration. Both fragrances were nice and wearable, if not mind-blowing, just the right thing for that lady you know who appreciates all things soft and purring and sparkling with boudoir promises.

Tainted Love  is said to be "Reminiscent of innocent 50’s love…with a secret! A flirtatious and feminine bouquet of violets, berries and light amber drizzled with honey. The scent to take you back to simpler times".
I was quite taken with this retro, romantic pairing of violet and powder in this perfume oil, I have to admit. The violet is very there, but not your grandma's violet pastilles. There's a clean (white musk) and at the same time lightly salty aspect about the violet, making it subtly woody and not really sweet; just so. I can imagine this delicate and pretty scent on anyone who romanticizes the big balls of the 1950s and fancies themselves in a pink dress with a big corsage and their long hair in luscious curls on naked shoulders. Seamed stockings would be really good too.

Notes for Haydria Perfumery Tainted Love: violets, berries, honey and light amber.

Harem Girl is the most musky and traditionally "erotic" perfume in the Haydria line: "A forbidden, seductive and fiercely feminine fragrance with refined, powdery notes of iris, musk and opoponax veiled with incense. Truly for those with a taste for the exotic!"
Teasingly dabbing this scent on the wrist to entice sounds like what you'd expect from a seductive fragrance, but Harem Girl isn't neither heady nor too musky in that "get down & dirty" way we associate with, well, you know what... It might be because the oil formula opens up the soft aspects of the opoponax and the warm musk and turns it into a lightly sweet, lightly bitterish composite that would be pretty great in enhancing a lovers' play time. The musks used in Haydria's line are tempered, not especially "animalic" and therefore fit for actually wearing on a number of occasions, not just boudoir action, so you could get maximum mileage out of this one. Harem Girl hides a floral element in its oriental core to couple with a light incense veil, a tiny bit smoky, a tiny bit "dusty". Although iris is listed, I didn't especially smell that component; it's sort of powdery, but it's a resinous powdery from the opoponax (and some milky wood note replicating sandalwood?) that is dominant. It actually reminds me more of l'entre deux guerres and its love of Frenchified orientalia than of later pin-ups of the 1940s.

Notes for Haydria Perfumery Harem Girl: powdery iris, musk, opoponax, incense.

Haydria's Etsy Shop is on this link where you can buy the lot at very affordable prices.

The rest of the Haydria line includes:

• Bernie! : gardenia, jasmine and sandalwood accented with soft exotic notes 
• Burlesque Blue has notes of myrrh, sandalwood and plum cascaded over a cool undercurrent of exotic Eastern flowers
• My Geisha has notes of green tea, orange blossom, white flowers and musk
• Gypsy Queen with lush florals and rich spices smoldering with deep wood notes
• L'Eau Exotique features aquatic notes, Asian champa flowers and sandalwood
• Pure Sin has passion fruit, champagne, dark chocolate and white musk.

In the interests of disclosure, I was sent samples directly from the perfumer.

Chris Evans: The Actor who Loves Fragrance

"It's not too classy what I was dousing myself with, but I always made sure I used something," the Captain America actor and currently, alongside actress Evan Rachel-Wood, face of Gucci Guilty reveals to People magazine. Though Chris Evans would of course endorse his current advertising stint for Gucci, it's cute to hear him say: "I like it. Thank god - wouldn't that be horrible if it smelled terrible?"

The actor is sincere on actually liking fragrance in general: He initially sported his father's colognes when he was a teenager and then began to use Polo Sport and various Abercrombie scents in his twenties.
 He even seems to be knowledgable regarding discreet fragrance application: "I give the little mist, then do the walk-through." [source]
Way to go, Chris!


Dear readers, if you don't fancy Captain America, do yourself a favour and catch Puncture with Chris Evans; that's a great movie and he was pretty great in it too.

The "Mousse de Saxe" Base: Creation History, Notes, Influence on Perfumery

Writing about perfume history is an acre of land strewn with minefields. Little has survived into its original form and the industry has been ferociously shrouded in secrecy. Writing about those more elusive, less known aspects, such as perfumers' bases, is even harder because it involves talking about raw materials, and raw materials that are a manufactured composite rather than a single ingredient/molecule at that. Among the most famous bases is De Laire's "Mousse de Saxe".

Structure & History of Creation of "Mousse de Saxe"

The "Mousse de Saxe accord" is comprised of geranium, licorice (created with anise), isobutyl quinoline (leather notes), iodine and vanillin (synthesized vanilla). It was used since the turn of the 20th century and produced by the great aroma-producing firm of De Laire, a composite made by Marie Thérèse de Laire. Edgar de Laire's wife gave birth to the new branch of the factory dedicated to the production of aromatic compounds in 1895. Founded by chemist Georges de Laire (1836-1908), the de Laire firm quickly became a source of synthetic aroma chemicals and "perfumers' bases" (i.e. a ready-made accord of ingredients producing a specific effect, such as famously Prunol, Bouvardia, Ambré 83 and Mousse de Saxe), but also of finished fragrances such as de Laire's Cassis from 1889 or Miel Blanc.

Dark, earthy, mossy bases were in production even in the late years of the 19th century, long before oakmoss and tree moss would fall under the rationing of perfumery regulatory body IFRA, and besides Mousse de Saxe there was also Mousse de Crête (Creatan moss) and Mousse de Chypre (Cypriot moss). The geographical names might hint at some inspiration coming from a material found in Prussia (most of the perfumery mosses traditionally came from the Balkans), much like the dark blue hue in painting is called Bleu de Prusse (Prussian blue) from the military uniforms of the men of the -then independent- Prussia, a counry sharing lands amongst modern day Germany and Poland (The dye was produced in the eighteenth century via sulfuric acid/indigo).

Odour Profile

Mousse de Saxe is a complex creation: It has a dark, sweetish, mossy-woody powdery aspect (indeed chypré) with green, fresh, bracing accents and a musk and leather background of "animalic" character, which is very characteristic once you experience it. De Laire probably infused it with its own revolutionary ionone molecule (which entered in Violetta by Roger & Gallet). The bracing, "cutting" freshness is due to the quinolines (bitter green leathery with a hint of styrax), as De Laire was among the first to produce these novel ingredients.
This base must have been a novel approach in the years of its creation and one can only imagine how perfumers of the time had received it, since perfume formulae have remained a well-kept secret for so long. That reception must have been overwhelmingly positive nevertheless, because of its influence in perfumery in later years.

Fragrances in Which Mousse de Saxe is Perceived

The Mousse de Saxe base is most prominent in Caron's classic Nuit de Noel (1922) but it's used in many Carons; especially the older ones composed by founder Ernest Daltroff. This accord is what gives many of the older Carons their dark undercurrent.

A similar effect is reproduced in perfumes from other brands; notably acclaimed perfumer Guy Robert admits as much as using the backbone of it in his creation for Rochas, Madame Rochas and in Calèche for Hermès.
Other perfumes which present a similar background note are Habanita by Molinard (which also used the Mouse de Saxe base), or the directly influenced base notes of Bois des Iles, Chanel No.19, Grès Cabochard, Shocking by Schiaparelli and YSL classic Opium.

Recently the term "Mousse de Saxe" has lapsed into the public domain and now belongs to Parfumerie Générale and its perfumer Pierre Guillaume who used it in his Papyrus de Ciane press material to describe the base notes used for his modern green, mossy fragrance. Dawn Spencer Hurwitz is also doing an homage to Mousse de Saxe in her Pandora perfume.

Mousse de saxe is discussed in Michael Edward's book Perfume Legends: French Feminine Fragrances.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Vintage fragrances (history, info, reviews), Aroma Materials for perfumery
photo on top via Lightyears Collection