Biehl Parfumkunstwerke GS03: fragrance review

GS03 for Biehl Parfumkunstwerke is the acronym for perfumer Geza Schoen's third composition he signs with his initials for the quirky and arty niche brand hailing from Hamburg, Germany by way of New York and more ways than one stands as the distilled signature of his mature work passed down in flying colors. Everything is there: the copious amounts of Iso-E Super (a synthetic material he is famous for using in his work), the airy modern feeling like ambient music, the legibility and at once the wearability of the composition by man, woman or animal (well, I made the last one up, but you know what I mean). The scent gains in warmth and sensuality as the body heats up, the hallmark of a good "skin scent". Like plexi-glass bricks letting sunlight traverse through them, it only looks artificial first time around; familiarity gets it ingrained fast.

photo of Geza Schoen provided for PerfumeShrine use

For Geza, a molecular wizard who questions the very nature of fine fragrance, scent works like an invisible mantle, at once enhancing the wearer's "super powers," the way Superman's cape allows him to reach his flying potential, and creating an enigma as to their definite source (May we recall here his infamous Molecule 01, "an agreeable ambient presence which plays peek-a-boo with my nose" as Katie Puckrik said). Schoen doesn't like the modern approach of mass fragrance anyway: "Fragrance these days is all about naked women on the beach, naked women on the sofa, naked women in the arms of naked men—it’s so boring", he states in no uncertain terms.

For GS03 the concept was a totally modernized, galvanized Cologne, not a rehash. The classic of old, the Eau de Cologne formula (citrusy effervescence with herbal-aromatic accents and a very faint musk in the base) stands for the contentment of cleanliness, since it is routinely splashed on after a bath, but also of exhilaration and total body & mind detoxing; a simple message printed in thick, header bold: spray it on and just feel good about yourself! With a history of more than 3 centuries on its back it also risks coming across as "granny-ish" or maudlin. To avoid that Schoen and art director Thorsten Biehl worked on incorporating contemporary elements and a modern structure. The result reads as unisex, because there are no traditionally very feminine, dainty, pretty-pretty notes, nor heavily burly chest-thumping and gravelly-voiced masculine ones.

pic of Geza Schoen & Thorsten Biehl at work, provided for PerfumeShrine use

The top note of Biehl Parfumkunstwerke GS03 fragrance is as clear as a church bell pealing on a mountain top in the Alps, but at the same time quite soft and soapy-smelling, comprised of a pink pepper note (allied to what can only come across as sweet lemon to my nose) which reveals a less sharp than citrus, slightly fruity-rosy scent carried far by the scent of the alcohol carrier. The rejuvenating scent of juniper gives an herbal accent that recalls the bracing feel of downing a good gin. The lemony touch just aids in bringing forth the herbal aspects of juniper berries. The trick of juniper is clever; it has provided that contented, in-the-know smile I recall from wearing Angeliques sous la Pluie (Jean Claude Ellena for Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle) and Juniper Sling (Olivier Cresp for Penhaligon's). The gin & tonic combination is as perennially pleasing as a button-down oxford shirt in white; it just works in any situation, on any wearer. It's also effortless, even if you're using Hendrick's. It seems to me that there is also a bitterish artemisia hint in GS03, a tickling of the sinuses which aids the pungent freshness (and some hedione); it would serve as both a contrast and a modifier, rendering the juniper fresher and the rest fruitier by contrast. The anchoring elements consist of the potent musky, cedar-like hum (Iso-E Super) which we have come to associate with Geza Schoen, with an added layer of castoreum, just enough to give interest.

pic of Geza Schoen & Thorsten Biehl provided for PerfumeShrine use

The projection of Biehl GS03 is mild: I catch whiffs now and then and if I lean over the spots I sprayed it's most definitely there, but it doesn't come across as "you're wearing perfume!" (Come to think of it, should anything?)

GS03 is available from the Biehl site, at Scent Bar and on Luckyscent.

In Love with Discontinued Perfumes: an Exercise in Masochism

"I don't know what possesses me, but I have a terrible tendency to fall in love with fragrances right before they get discontinued. I've just done it again. I need my head examined.

I've had a decant of Eau de Camille lying around forever, just finished it up this past spring. I've pondered a bottle off and on but never got around to it. Then I heard last week here on POL that Annick Goutal was discontinuing it, so I checked the site and sure enough, it's gone. This is where a sane person would sigh and shrug and decide it wasn't meant to be. I, on the other hand, said "Hey! Sounds like it's finally time to get that bottle!" Which I did (half price on Amazon, which didn't help).
And now it's here, and I can't believe how insanely great it is. Ivy! Privet! Grass! Stemmy green goodness with a hint of spring flowers! It's like a garden party in a bottle. Honeysuckle in the verge, croquet on the lawn. Playing amongst the hedges. It's much fresher than my decant, which makes me suspect it does deteriorate, and if course it's DISCONTINUED so I'll need to keep it in the refrigerator or something because I am a TOTAL IDIOT.

Anyway. It's a sweetheart of a fragrance, and hopefully I'll be sick to death of it before it runs out".

via latimesblogs.latimes.com

This is but one example (taken off my compatriot-in-fragrance Twitchly from the Perfume of Life forum) that shows as plain as daylight the sweet poignancy, the sheer masochism of loving fragrances that have been discontinued. The procastrinating until the very last possible moment. The panic, the excitement and mad folly when the opportunity comes, knowing full well, 100% consciously that this is doomed, that the pain is sure to follow. The savoring of the sensation when the prized moment comes. The sweet regret when distanced a bit from it. The realization that we're transient, just like perfume is...Oh yes, Bataille or von Sacher-Masoch would have a minefield with perfume lovers today. After all BDSM and perfumes aren't totally disjointed.

I'm in love with extreme mental torture.
I'm in love with the way you hold your head and just cry.
I'm in love with all these affairs of the heart.
There's no peace for the wicked.
Loud and clear. The angels tell me,
no peace for the wicked.

 ~No Peace for the Wicked, The Only Ones

I well recall my own days when I had first discovered Lanvin's seminal My Sin (Mon Peche), a long discontinued marvel allegedly composed by the "mysterious" and "exotic" Madame Zed (so much has this stirred the collective conscious that even entire chick-lit novels are built on this tidbit). The panic to secure every possible concentration (there's eau de toilette, extrait de parfum but also Eau My Sin, a slightly different proposition), the hawking over auctions, the frenzied correspondence with Swiss perfume collectors and finally the pain in using it in measured drops on my neck and behind my knees resembled Severin's unbridled desires for Wanda; or so it seemed at the time... That scent adventure was followed by many others over the years: limited editions of YSL Opium (such as the stupendous Fleur de Shanghai), the sweaty leathery La Nuit de Paco Rabanne, the innocuous but filled with memories Eau d'Eden, Guerlain's scarce Loin du Tout, the origami darkness of Shiseido Nombre Noir, Chanel No.46 and its troubled history, or the buttery softness that one would wish would come as luxe underwear for fetishists, Doblis by Hermès...Each and every one of them a doomed bond, a predestined to wither and die love affair; not because of anyone's fault...because that was the way it was meant to be.

And with the increasing axing of many of the classics, due to allergens, poor sales or impossible to serve financially formulae, the story only takes on additional chapters, like a mutant 19th century novel by Eugène Sue, serially published in sepia periodicals.

Let's be factual: Masochism is unique to man (woman); animals do not seek to get unaccomodated, only humans do (and with such fervor!) And since by its own definition masochism is pessimistic and realistic, as Gilles Deleuze showed in his brilliant reasoning, it's quite noble to fall for a lost cause. Thermopylae didn't get famous for being a victorious occasion after all.
In appreciating fragrance for its intellectual properties (its transient beauty, its capturing of the zeitgeist but also of a personal scent timeline) the direct object itself is desexualized, gaining heroic nuances that go beyond the carnal, into the spiritual, whereas the entire human history is sexualized, i.e. put under a new light because everything surrounding that experience gains an unforeseen intensity spanning the senses. Far from a libertine tittilation, indulging in a paradise lost is an exercise in banishing the role of authority, the paternal figure, in submerging oneself into a primal Oedipal status. Securing a discontinued perfume is defiance; revolt against the system; appreciation of what is (by now) forbidden to you. The quest becomes the hunt for treasure, the securing of the loot a prize in itself; the impossibility of refueling nevertheless means an acceptance of mortality. In a way, loving discontinued perfumes has helped me mature.

So go ahead and fall headlong with a discontinued fragrance, don't be scared! You will derive a poignant pleasure in enjoying what fragrance you have left in your bottle, each application all the more tinged with melancholy because it's running out. In a way, wearing a beloved discontinued scent is like finding a virtuous woman, prized above rubies. And the more gorgeous, the more artistically beautiful the fragrance is, the more elevated that experience is.

What about you? Do you feel that way? Do you love certain discontinued scents or do you just go on when something gets axed? Please share in the comments. 

Tocca Margaux: new fragrance

Feast your eyes on the gorgeous bottle of the newest feminine fragrance by Tocca cult brand, as it's so very beautiful as usual. Margaux eau de parfum, the upcoming feminine fragrance release, planned for October 2013, is a new proposition  in the line with a richer, more sophisticated scent than we've been used to previously (see Colette, Touch or Cleopatra by Tocca for instance).

via Perfume (Larie) pinterest.com

Fragrance notes for Tocca Margaux:
Top Notes: Blood Orange, Bergamot Blossom, Cassis, Green Gardenia
Middle Notes: Black Jasmine, Ambery Violet, Cashemere Woods
Bottom Notes: Warm Musk, Benzoin, Vanilla, Heliotrope

TOCCA Margaux Eau de Parfum (50 ml) retails at $68 at Sephora and Nordstrom stores nationwide and online at www.TOCCA.com, www.sephora.com, www.bluemercury.com and beauty.com beginning October 2013.

Fragrance Sector in the USA is Growing Ever So Slowly, Apparently

We have been discussing it in private for a while, but now it has become more widely known: The perfume sector in the USA despite the tumultous stream of fragrance releases isn't growing as one would have expected. Although much has been demonized due to the crisis that began in 2008, the reasons may run deeper as the US economy is expected to make a recovery from its recessionary state leading up to 2017.

According to the most recent report by Canadean, an in-depth market research company who do panel research across the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector: "Consumer demand for Fragrances remains relatively weak. With a volume Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 0.9%, the sector is forecast to be one of the slowest growing in the US Health & Beauty Industry to 2017. It will remain ahead of only the Haircare sector, but well behind other mature sectors such as Male Toiletries, Suncare and Oral Hygiene. Value growth is expected to be higher, at 1.6%. However, the value of Mass Fragrances across Female, Male and Unisex Fragrances categories will grow faster than Premium Fragrances, showing that value growth is being driven by trading-up within the Mass market.

Male Fragrances is the second largest category in the US Fragrances sector with a 30.9% share of the market in 2012 in both value and volume terms, but it is forecast to be the fastest growing to 2017. Both value and volume are projected to increase above the line at 1.7% and 0.9% respectively.

The share taken by Female Fragrances in 2012 was double that of Male products, at 66.4% of the market. Category growth is forecast to be slightly lower than that of Male Fragrances, although it will mirror the sector average for both value and volume CAGR. Unisex Fragrances took 2.6% of the market and has a projected value CAGR of 1.6% to 2017. Volume growth is expected to be slightly better than the sector average, at 1.0% for the same period.

Health & Beauty Stores record the best growth in 2012. Hypermarkets & Supermarkets, Department Stores and Drug stores & Pharmacies together accounted for almost three quarters of all Fragrances distribution in 2012. Whilst all three channels witnessed improved share, it was Health & Beauty Stores which saw the best growth, perhaps indicating a move towards more niche products at a premium price".

Perhaps this is why hip brands with their finger on the pulse, such as Marc Jacobs, are dedicating a unique site to the education and interactive fun of their customers while promoting their fragrances (such as the latest, Honey by Marc Jacobs). There is a need for engaging the consumer, obviously.

We have more interesting (and insider-rich!) commentary to do on the niche and premium perfume sector soon, so stay tuned at Perfume Shrine.

Small Note for the Winners of the Biehl Samples Draw Waiting for the Mail...

It has been brought to my attention that some of the winners of the Biehl Parfumkunstwerke draw here on these pages have not received their sample prizes yet. I admit that as I have not been sending these out in person (rather they're sent out by the distributors of the perfume range themselves, as I have mentioned in the draw originally) I have no means of tracking the packages or providing with more information on their whereabouts. I simply am in the dark as much as you are. :-/

 However I do wish to publicly and sincerely apologize here to each and everyone of you for keeping you waiting over the daily mail in the anticipation of their arrival. I know how it feels and I know it's disappointing. For that, I'm honestly sorry. Please know that I have already notified the people who need to be notified so that the situation should be fixed for you soon.

 Hoping that you will receive them soon and with sincere appreciation for your time in posting a comment to enter a draw on these pages,
 warm regards,
Elena