From our heart to yours...

I was touched to find these (decidedly American-accented) Greek folk New Year's Carols on Youtube featuring the TCWSH Bel Canto.

From the heart of Perfume Shrine to yours, we wish you a most merry New Year filled with creative outlets and loving occasions. Happy 2012!

Guerlain Shalimar Initial L'Eau & Guerlain Idylle Duet Jasmine-Lilas

As we discussed on our previous post with news on upcoming Guerlains, the French fragrance and cosmetics house is very busy issuing "flankers" for 2012. Two feminine ones will be issued in the following months, one a new unexpected spin on Shalimar Parfum Initial, the other a new duet of notes for Idylle.

Guerlain Shalimar Initial L'Eau

The commercially successful experiment of Shalimar Parfum Initial (2011), an introductory Shalimar for those consumers who knew the brand through their cosmetics and skincare or for the young clientele that always associated the classic Shalimar with older generations and longed for a version to claim their own (see also Shalimar Eau Legere/Shalimar Light and Eau de Shalimar for previous efforts into this arena). For 2012 Guerlain is planning on launching a flanker to the modernised Shalimar Parfum Initial version, this time called Shalimar Initial L'Eau.

Shalimar Initial L'Eau is both a lighter and drier new formula, not just a different concentration or new bottle edition (Shalimar in general knows more limited editions than it can possibly count). It takes as a point of departure a spring bouquet, comprised of bright, green-smelling blossoms of lily of the valley, freesia and hyacinth, to accompany the familiar warmth of the modernised Shalimar Initial. The new spin boosts the green freshness (like that in Miss Dior Chérie L'Eau) which was already an element in the Initial and adds neroli essence and grapefruit top notes.
The new version offers a refreshing take for warmer weather, without the pitfall of too much sweetness. The composition was arrived at by in-house perfumer Thierry Wasser and is set to launch in early 2012.

Guerlain Idylle Duet Jasmin-Lilas

After last year's Idylle flanker Idylle Duet Rose-Patchouli, centered on a classic combo of the velvety floral extended by the sweetly woody note of patchouli, which was in turn based on the Thierry Wasser original creation Idylle, Guerlain issues a special edition for 2012.
As evidenced by the name, Idylle Duet Jasmin Lilas focuses on spring blossoms of lilacs and the traditional white floral king of perfumery, jasmine. The result is vivid and fresh, deeply floral with the backdrop of lightly woody notes as in the original.
Guerlain Idylle Duet Jasmine-Lilas will launch on Valentine's Day, February 2012.

NB.Sources at Guerlain tell me that we're going to see an Idylle Duet version every year.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Upcoming releases, Guerlain news & reviews.

Guerlain L'Homme L'Eau Boisee & Aqua Allegoria Lys Soleia

Classic French fragrance and cosmetics house Guerlain is busy issuing "flankers" this year as we will see on this and the next post. "Flanker" is industry speak for coat-tailing to a successful perfume launch with a new one that utilizes a very similar design and slightly differentiated name for a completely novel fragrance formula. For 2012 they're issuing a masculine flanker (Guerlain L'Homme L'Eau Boisée), two flankers to existing flankers in the feminine range (more on which on upcoming post on these pages) and an addition to the Aqua Allegoria line, Lys Soleia, as is customary every year.

Guerlain L'Homme L'Eau Boisée

Guerlain L'Homme L'Eau Boisée is Thierry Wasser's new spin on his original Guerlain L'Homme. Contrary to what one might expect the new edition is taking the direction of a woody chypre, but the effect is illusory: the backbone of the fragrance is vetiver, the exotic grass from Southeastern Asia.
Vetiver is well known among perfume aficionados for its refreshing boost in many classy and classic masculine colognes (from Carven to Givenchy vetiver fragrances and the brand's own classic Guerlain Vetiver) all the way to modern niche interpretations such as Vetiver Extraordinaire (F.Malle), Vetiver Oriental (Serge Lutens), and Vetiver Tonka (Hermessence).
In Guerlain L'Homme L'Eau Boisée the vetiver is well-behaved rather than raw and earthy, creating the tonality of a noble chypre fragrance with an underscoring of subtle smokiness (a desire to mimic Chanel's beautiful Sycomore?).
The tempered effect will make this new addition to the Guerlain stable a launch to be considered by the ladies for personal wearing as well.

Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Lys Soleia

Guerlain continues to infuse precious flowers into producing a collection of introductory Guerlain fragrances for casual wearing and younger dispositions, the Aqua Allegoria line.

The newest installment in the series, Aqua Allegoria Lys Soleia is centered around a transparent floral composition, which reproduces the sensuous aroma of oriental yellow lilies and the regal white lily. The base is airy and elegantly light, with clean musk and solar notes of ylang ylang.

My reader & friend Enrique tried the scent and comments: "[Guerlain Lys Soleia is] in the vein of Cartier Baiser Volé, but less fresh and more sensual. It has that slightly indolic greeness of fresh flowers that doesn't sound dirty or fecal, mixed with a more fresh and slightly citrusy side. It's a little bit sweet too. A great spring fragrance."
 The Aqua Allegoria line has produced some small gems over the years, notably last season's Jasminora and the older releases Flora Nerolia and Ylange & Vanille, so we can be relatively optimistic.

Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Lys Soleia will launch in 2012.


Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Upcoming releases, Guerlain news & reviews.

Damage Control by Denise Hamilton: Novel with Perfume Interest (book review)

To come across a book referencing scents, and specific perfumes on top of that, is one of the rare and largely misunderstood pleasures of a distinct nerdo-subgroup called "fumeheads", who, like illicit drug addicts, turn to whatever can give them their daily fix of olfactory stimulation. Usually it's liquids in beautiful bottles that do it, but the more cerebral of the lot turn to written material as well. Beyond specialised perfume books, novels in which perfume stands as both a symbol and a clue can provide infinite hedone. The latest of those is Damage Control, a noir thriller by Denise Hamilton.

Actually, set in Los Angeles and the latest of a long tradition that dates back to James Ellroy, Hamilton's novel reads as a neon noir film would, were it originally written for the page rather than the screen. The bright light that sheds everything in the end, the ocean lapping on the desires and memories of the people who work in this city of glam & slum recall the best elements of the genre in an intoxicating and punitive cocktail of celebrity and sex.

Crime novelist and journalist Denise Hamilton is known for her crime novels and the Edgar Award winning anthologies Los Angeles Noir and Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics.
In Damage Control everything is recounted through the first-person narrative of PR executive Maggie Silver, a middle-class woman grown up in Los Angeles with a problematic chidlhood, a cancer-striken mother to support and a mortgage to pay off, engaged in a top damage control Los Angeles firm dealing with the elite. She's also a budding "perfumista", a hobby that will come in handy by the end of the book when fragrance provides a clue. Maggie's toughtest case to date involves senator Henry Paxton, a revered statesman suspected of being involved with his young assistant, when the latter is found dead in her flat. Paxton also happens to be he father of Anabelle, Maggie's estranged best friend from high school. Immersing herself into the case, Maggie gets flooded with memories of her friendship with Anabelle, severed via an unexpected tragedy which marked both. Now that she's back on track with the Paxtons, Maggie must contain the scandal before it explodes beyond control and test the boundaries of friendship once again.

Erotic nuances and flirting with potential killers, psychological insights, ambitions that boil underneath, power struggles and the dirt of top management PR companies are woven expertly into the plot. The time shifting serves as a cubbist's vision into how things got the way they did for Maggie and Anabelle and allows for some twists that have us guessing till the end on who's been nice and who's been seriously naughty.
The writing flows breezinly, shaded with the necessary darkness of the subject, but at the same time illuminated by the courageous, everyday heroism of Maggie who puts herself in harm's way more than she might be expected to given her smarts. Maybe it's the make believe which helps her come through. How else can you explain her poignant impromptu reinvention of her childhood, right at the Paxton's table, giving her alcoholic father the protective mantle of a Hollywood ghost writer?
In some regards we're supposed to identify to some degree with Maggie, who often asks the questions we are asking ourselves pacing through the pages. The language is even poetic in parts, evocative of her feelings and images that take shape and form before our very eyes, without veering into purple.

"Anabelle?

What if she’d crossed the highway to the ocean, swimming out until she drowned? I pictured her body carried on the swell of the waves, arms spread like wings, orange crabs crawling in and out of empty eye sockets, long blond ropes of hair floating like seaweed, a million microscopic sea animals clinging to her curves, illuminating her in a phosphorescent shroud."

Hamilton isn't reinventing the wheel by spluttering the book plot with several scent mentions. Fictional sleuths especially, from Sherlock Holmes and the heroes of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories to modern examples (such as Ruth Rendel's The Rottweiler, where characters wear Jo Malone Tuberose, Charriol’s Tourmaline and Bobbi Brown), have been known to use all five senses to solve a crime. In Agatha Christie’s novel Mrs. McGinty’s Dead,  the murderer sprays someone else’s signature perfume in the room to make the police incriminate someone else instead. But the references by Hamilton aren't just passing snippets; they reappear throughout the plot and resonate with the perfume collector reader. Probably because Denise is actually one of us, her perfume collection accordingly taking a decent portion of her residence. That's why recherché mentions sprinkle the pages, from Serge Lutens Chergui (offered for sniffage to Anabelle by Maggie), or Dior Dune, its trail picked up by Maggie's mother, right through to the heroine's office scent Eau de Guerlain ("just a subtle scent amulet to infuse me with secret grace and power").
Witness the following telling snippet:

Le Boutique was a thrift store. Like many women I knew, I struggled to make ends meet. [...] So, frugalista that I am, I waited for sales and then splurged on basic black and good bras. [...]
At the counter , I browsed the jumble of cheap jewelry and asked to see a box of perfume. It was Chaos by Donna Karan. and smelled smoky, sweet, and spicy. I said I'd think about the 29.95$ price tag (pretty steep for the thrift store).
"Too exotic" I told the clerk as I left ten minutes later, the clothes racks having proved a disappointment.

Back at the office, I found the fragrance had dried down subtle and intriguing -a warm essence of cinnamon and cardamom, musk and lavender. It conjured Southeast Asian bazaars, aromatic oils, harems, Arabian genes emerging from lamps to grant wishes.
 On impulse, I Googled it.
Chaos was discontinued and highly sought after, selling on eBay for hundreds of dollars. Sniffing my wrist again, I revised my initial opinion.  Now I could appreciate its complexity. Shallow and easily swayed, that's me. [from chapter 14]

Hamilton is forthcoming with the challenging characterisations as well, agree or disagree. PR man Bernie Saunders, drawn in darker colours, is wearing Kouros by YSL. "If Satan wore cologne in hell, it would be Kouros". Touché!

The greatest triumph of Denise Hamilton is her Damage Control simultaneously makes you want to slow down and savour it, while at the same time it keeps you on your toes into making it to the end to see what actually happened.
Damage Control [Scribner,  ISBN-10: 0743296745] is available on Amazon and in Amazon Kindle version.

In the interests of disclosure I was sent a copy by the publisher. Author's photo via Bluebird blog

Panettone: Classic Italian Flavour for Christmas

Michele Franzan, writer for Gola Gioconda, a Florentine food magazine, advises buying panettone from a first-rate baker. I am reminded of this wise advice preparing for wintertime Venice, where the scent of bakeries is filling the air with trails of scent which you have to follow through the small cobblestone alleys and the bridges over the canals. I will miss making it from scratch myself this year.

This succulent, but tricky to make, bread-pudding from Lombardy in Northern Italy is forever associated with Christmas preparations, ever since its humble origins at the Sforza times (Milanese rulers in the late 15th and early 16th century). An absentminded cook burnt the dessert for Christmas' Eve and in his mortification his assistant Toni suggested using the leftover dough with what was on hand at the moment: eggs, raisins, candied fruits, butter and sugar. The end result was lavishly compliment, but the cook recounted with humility that “L’è ’l pan del Toni” (It is Toni’s bread). This is most probably fiction, no less because Toni is such an Italian-American nickname, and theories abound on the origins of the word and the recipe (Among them “Pane di tono” from French the “pain de ton”, aka “rich people’s bread”, and the Milanese “panett”, from the “panett de butter” i.e. small pack of butter).

Whatever the reality is, there is no doubt that panettone is delicious in its pliable sponginess, its fresh flesh yielding under the teeth and its candied fruits and raisins tickling the palate into a panorama of flavour. It's a hard to resist delicacy, reminiscent of fragrance and in fact often standing in for one on the day one prepares it.The whole house fills then with the creamy scent of melted butter and the baking aroma of sugared fruits and eggs, the whole emitting its rich, inviting, comforting scent all around. This is one of the main reasons to bake your own, besides the industrial ready-made variety being not as fresh and possessing a slightly plasticky texture. In reality it's no harder than kneading and baking your own bread.

Panettone Recipe:

For the first rising:
5 ounces (140 g) fresh yeast cake(at the refrigerator section of good supermarkets and at the baker's)
3 1/3 cups (400 g) flour
3/8 cup (90 g) unsalted butter
5/8 cup (110 g) sugar
6 yolks
1/2 teaspoon salt
4/5 cup (200 ml) tepid water

For the second rising:
2 1/3 cups (280 g) flour
5/8 cup (110 g) unsalted butter
7/8 pound (400 g) sultana raisins
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 yolks
A little flour for dusting the work surface and mold

The how to:
The evening before, melt the butter over a very low flame or a double boiler. Dissolve the sugar in about 2/5 cup (100 ml) of warm water (not too hot or it will kill the yeast, test with your hand). Put the melted butter, salt, and yeast cake in a mixing bowl. Next add the yolks and sugar, and sift in the flour without stopping whisking (It might take a tad more water at this stage). You want a smooth dough with plenty of air bubbles (too much whisking will burst them and it won't rise properly). Put it in a lightly floured bowl, cover it with a kitchen towel, and keep it warm (85 F, 30 C) for the night.

The next morning wash the raisins, drain them well, and set them on a cloth to dry.
The dough should have trippled in volume by now. Put on a working surface and add the flour, vanilla, yolks and honey. Knead with youy hands for about 20 minutes in all directions, then work in all but 2 tablespoons of the butter, which you will have melted as before, and a little water with a pinch of salt.
The dough will become shiny and will unstick: it's time to add the fruit. Divide into little balls that will later go into a baking tray (A pannetoni baking tray is best, but one for cake or for cupcakes will do in a pinch).

Take the balls of dough and put them in a warm corner, letting them rise again for 30 minutes. Grease your hands after they rise and gently put them into a baking tray (A panettoni baking tray is best, but one for cake or for cupcakes will do in a pinch). Leave them like that in a warm, humid corner for another 6 hours.

Heat the oven to 380 F (190 C). Cut an x into the top of each panettone and put 2 tablespoons (30 g) unsalted butter over the cuts. Put them in the oven, and after 4 minutes, remove them and quickly push down on the corners produced by the cuts. Return them to the oven and bake them until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out dry.
When ready, cool the panettoni on a rack; they're ready to serve.You can decorate with sliced blanched almonds if you like, sticking them with a tiny bit of cake frosting, though I personally prefer not to.
Panettoni keep for a good two weeks in a large air-tight biscuit tin, though it's ever so better when fresh.

Bon appetit and Merry Christmas to you!

pic koritsiagiaspiti.blogspot.com