Open Poll: Fragrances to Get you Warm in the Cold

Today it's a holiday and I'm in a rush to exploit the time to finish a few magazine articles I need to submit shortly. As I stay inside hearing the wind howling outside my window panes, the trees making a sweeping sound, and the logs in the fire crackle, I warm my hands against the cup of steaming jasmine tea, thinking to myself  how fragrance has the potential to not only create a mental mood, but to actually produce a physical reaction beyond the wishful. I positively feel elated and caressed in a warm hug by my scent of the day choice of Serge Lutens Jeux de Peau, a delicious, milky-spicy-golden scent that radiates all around, like the purr of a fat kitty lazy in front of the fire.

So, in the interests of providing more scent options:
Which are your favourite warming fragrances when it's all cold outside?

Let us know in the comments! (and if you stumbled on this piece, read on what people vote for)

More on the Upcoming Louis Vuitton Fragrance

We had broken the news on the new, upcoming Louis Vuitton fragrance a while ago, mentioning that the brand had also issued a commemorative perfume for elite clients sometime in the 1980s (and we depicted the bottle too). What you may not know however, is that there were also three Louis Vuitton fragrances in the 20s and 30s, all of which were soon discontinued. Louis Vuitton (or rather LVMH) announced that Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud will be the perfumer behind the new fragrant creation. A Grassois, Jacques Cavallier composed Stella by Stella, Dior Addict and YSL Cinema among many many others.  According to WWD Cavallier started work for them this Tuesday, carefully adding he will journey the world on search of exotic and precious new juices. Mais oui!
So basically they're building up anticipation for a launch that will go down in history: the last bastion, the brand who resisted fragrance for long in our times, has succumbed. 

You can read our speculation on what the upcoming Vuitton perfume might entail on this link.

Caron Poivre & Coup de Fouet: fragrance reviews & comparison

Poivre by Caron plays out like J.S Bach's double concerto for 2 violins in D minor, 1st movement: Two complimenting themes, carnation and clove, in contrapuntal dialogue, one finishing off the phrase of another in a leitmotif which manages to punctuate time with its own special seal. Despite its name, which means pepper in French, and the vicious-looking studded with peppercorns bottle, Poivre features the hot "king of spice" in a supporting role. To bring the musical analogy full circle, let's just say pepper in Poivre is the basso continuo.

Poivre is the kind of fragrance that creates the feeling J.S Bach compositions stir in my soul and has been a longtime companion for as far back as I was aware of Caron; if not as far back as Bach. There is such contextualised coherence that everything in the world seems at its rightful place, everything in perfect, clashing harmony. If the composer once walked 200 miles to hear Dieterich Buxtehude play the organ, I'd walk on hot coals to get an ounce of Poivre parfum in its vintage state.

History of Creation
In 1953, Félicie Wanpouille -savvy of the emergence of a different aesthetic inaugarated with the New Look by Dior- asked perfumer Michel Morsetti for a fragrance that would be out of whack with its times. Morsetti had already created (at least 2) classics in the Caron stable: Farnesiana (1947), Rose (1949), and Muguet du Bonheur (1952).  The fifties were all about good-mannered lactonic florals and sheer floral chypres continuing from the late 1940s. Only Youth Dew was braving the wave, making it possible later for Cinnabar, Opium and all the rest of the Medina-spice caravan-brocard tapestry orientals that followed. Michel Morsetti obliged and in 1954 Poivre emerged; impulsive, rich, sinful, drop dead sexy! "Parfum de la femme moderne" as per the vintage advertisements: the perfume of the modern woman.
The bottle design with the peppercorn studs was no doubt a throwback to classic pomanders which relied on cloves for their antimicrobial prophylactic properties; perfume as medicine...

Scent Description 
The original 1950s advertisements featured a Chinese-style dragon, in tune with the firecracking pyrotechnics of the fragrance's fiery breath.  The daredevil spices open the scene, intense clove, flanked by pepper, and they come back again and again in an endless recycling and expansion of the leitmotif, a structure that is reminiscent of older ways of composing, but maxed out to orgiastic effect. The lush floral chord is built on carnation and ylang ylang, the peppery bite of one falling into the solar embrace of the other. As the scent progresses, there is a hint of vanilla, hazy opoponax and leather on the skin, a soft focus camera lens on a racy subject. The combination of carnation and leather brings to mind another Caron legend, En Avion, dedicated to women in aviation.

Coup de Fouet & comparison with Poivre
Poivre was conceived as the original extrait de parfum creation out of which Coup de Fouet (a most brilliant & fitting name, "crack of the whip") emerged as a diluted Eau de Cologne Poivrée. The theme is similar, the effect somewhat lighter in the weaker concentration, with a boosted effect of rose that is orientalised, spicy and raspy, still mighty impressive. Coup de Fouet is as warm as a fur coat and as commanding attention. It prompted writer Susan Irvine to  state it's "what Cruella de Vil would have worn"; so if you're the soft type crying over those poor 101 Dalmatians and can't manage a streak of bitchiness, don't even bother.
Coup de Fouet nowadays is offered at Caron boutiques as the Eau de Parfum analogue of Poivre extrait, the latter also available there from the fabulous crystal samovars affectionately referred to as "urns".
Both concentrations are totally passable (nay, downright alluring!) on men as well.

Reformulation of Poivre and Coup de Fouet
Contemporary batches of both fragrances seem to insist on a mustier, soapy rose and have less of a spicy oriental character, falling into the limbo state of floriental. Sadly Poivre (and Coup de Fouet as well, since they share those notes) faces IFRA restrictions on spicy materials which no doubt will leave future generations wondering what all the fuss was about anyway. Tragic, in view of Poivre (in the classic peppercorn flacon in Baccarat crystal) ranking as #3 of "top most expensive perfumes in the world" [$2,000 for 2 oz]....
When this happens the dragon loses its fire, the whole world gets out of whack and Bach isn't be there to save the day.

Notes for Caron Poivre: (add rose for Coup de Fouet)

Red pepper, black pepper, clou de girofle (clove), carnation, ylang ylang, jasmine, opoponax, cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, oakmoss, musk.



Painting "The Sense of Hearing" by Jan Brueghel the Elder. Ads via beckerstreet.com and vintageadbrowser.com

Guerlain Myrrh & Delires: new fragrance

Guerlain is issuing an exclusive boutique-circuit fragrance in 2012!

According to Fragrantica, Myrrh & Delires is "a soft oriental composition based on mysterious myrrh with additional floral notes (rose, jasmine), precious woods (with the leading role of patchouli), vanilla and musk". Myrrh & Delires will join the L'Art et la Matière line in the characteristic oblong bottles.

In the history of fragrances, myrrh is one the first sacred essences offered to gods with frankincense and gold. Symbolic and mysterious, tears of the myrrh tree are amber-like, coming for Somalia or Arabia. Solar, aromatic, mossy, myrrh is multifaceted but quite radical to work in a fragrance. In fragrances, myrrh was quite never used. Fortunately, its oriental texture and smell suits perfectly in this ninth creation that Thierry Wasser softly composed by few floral notes with fruity, spicy nuances.

You can find reviews of the previous Guerlain L'Art et la Matiere scents in our archives linked.

pic via lamodadubai.com

Perfume Off the Titanic

"Thousands of authentic artifacts from the exhibition, pulled from the remains of the sunken Titanic, are destined for the auction block. The New York Times reports that 5,500 items, including fine china and old bottles of perfume, will be actioned off at Guernsey's on April 1st. Estimated value of the pieces? $189 million.

Rather poignantly, the results of the auction will be announced on April 15, exactly a century after the famous ship came to its legendary end. The artifacts, although long at sea, are the result of various expeditions over the years, as AP notes, including underwater excursions as far back as 1987.
While we're not as enthused about buying a hunk of plywood or other pieces of the ship, the notion of owning a still-fragrant vial of perfume is strangely intriguing. AP writes that the fragrance belonged to a manufacturer who was planning to sell his perfume samples in New York.
Now his bottles have finally made it."[source]

Please also remember that there is Night Star, perfume of the Titanic by company Scents of Time, produced by David Pybus in collaboration with Chris Sheldrake. 

photo via G Michael Harris