Jouany Marrakech and Saint Barthelemy: new fragrances

Christophe Jouany has been a fashion photographer for the last 28 years with a successful career shooting campaigns for L’Oreal, Revlon, and Maybelline, Sports Illustrated swimsuit editions, and numerous covers and fashion features for major magazines around the world, like Vogue, ELLE, Marie Claire, and Glamour. His life as a photographer and love of adventures took him to some of the most beautiful and exotic locations in the world, and inspired him to create an olfactory voyage through his new line of Jouany Perfumes. From a very early age, Christophe has been passionate about scents. Twelve years ago, faced with frustration at not being able to find a perfume he liked, he decided to create his own. Mixing essential oils at home, Christophe began experimenting to find the right composition, texture and strength to his fragrances, beginning with one that reminded him of his hometown of St. Barthélemy in the Caribbean. After wearing his own fragrance for a decade, and getting constant requests from many people to commercialize it, he finally decided to create his own line.

Saint Barthelemy:
The first stop on the JOUANY OLFACTORY voyage is St. Barthélemy. Inviting you to explore the magical luxurious beauty of the island of St. Barthélemy, this sensual, exotic perfume begins with head notes musk resolve with a spellbinding twist of crisp white grapefruit, followed by heat notes that mingle vanilla, coco Jasmine and cedar wood. Evoking the barefoot elegance of St. Barth, the perfume’s base notes of patchouli, sandalwood, vetiver, and white luxurious beauty of the island of St. Barthelemy.

Marrakech:
Like the great Moroccan city from which it takes its name, Marrakech transports you into the subtle but stirring pleasure of a Moroccan orange grove.The perfume begins with fresh, citrus head notes of orange blossoms, bergamot, and grapefruit. Next, heart notes emerge with delicate hints of jasmine and neroli. Finally, Marrakech concludes its intoxicating olfactory odyssey with woody base notes of patchouli and white musk.

Pricing: $125.00 / 1.7 Oz. Made in France.

Where to buy:
Henri Bendel New York, New London New York, Art of perfume Philadelphia, Sloan Hall Saint Antonio and Houston, CO Bigelow New York, Beautyhabit.com, Parfumerie Germain des pres Canada

info thanks to beautypress

Exhibition IP01 London: Perfumer Cecile Zarokian and Illustrator Matthieu Appriou

Come and greet perfumer Cécile Zarokian in London during IP01.
Cécile has developed an artistic project with an illustrator, Matthieu Appriou, leading previously to an exhibition in Paris, which was part of the event Rives de la Beauté,: the objective of [IP]01 was to correlate 6 visuals and 6 perfumes, in perfect harmony. One of the two universes gives birth to the other, then reverse: paint brush following olfactory narration, nose lead by sketch. Now in London, the adventure continues...

Exhibition 01

When
September 5th - October 4th 2013
Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm

Where
Illuminum Lounge, 41 Dover Street, Mayfair
LondonW1S 4NS

What it involves
Cécile secretly creates 3 fragrances (1,2 and 3). Matthieu seizes the fragrances and translates them into visual emotions.
Matthieu creates 3 images (4,5 and 6). Cécile draws her inspiration from them and depicts the images olfactively.

Sounds like a morning or afternoon well spent!

Le Labo Ylang 49: fragrance review

Ylang 49, newly launched by Le Labo this summer, is more treacherous to its assumed floral disposition and deceptively crepuscular: like murder-experienced, gold-digging, vacationing in Hawaii for one last trick Theresa Russell in 1987's "Black Widow", there's a bit of that Seattle rainy weather she just escaped from accompanying her sunny blonde exterior. The fruity sweetness of the ylang and the tropical tiare gardenia (the Tahitian Pua Noa Noa) are underscored by a green and resinous backdrop rich in mossy, earthy tones, that casts a long, long shadow.

Perfumer Frank Voelkl, who was also involved in the creation of Le Labo Santal 33 Iris 39, Musc 25 and Baie Rose 26, created with Ylang 49 a deceptive composition that zigs when you expect it to zag. Not exactly the "New Chypre it's touted to be (we're a long way from the perfume-y, lady-like, strict ambience of the classic chypres), it's all the same further removed from the scrubbed 18-year-old faces of the "floral woody musks" with their cleaned-up patchouli & vetiver under fluorescent florals that we affectionally call "nouveau or pink chypres" on these pages (you know, Narciso for Her, SJP Lovely, Idylle, L'Eau de Chloe, Chypre Fatal etc).

Not the typical ylang floral with jasmine-like sweetness (an inherent part of the ylang ylang absolute itself), much like Theresa Russell isn't your typical blonde American actress, I'm instead discovering a richly nuanced tapestry in Ylang 49 where every thread is shimmering with full conviction that they're contributing to the mysterious whole, just like the tiny clues federal agent Alex Barnes, obsessed and under the seductive spell of the murderess, collects to get to the heart of the Black Widow's fatal game.

Just great!

Notes for Le Labo Ylang 49:
Ylang ylang, Tahitian gardenia, patchouli, oakmoss, vetiver, sandalwood, benzoin

Stills from the 1987 Bob Raffelson film noir "Black Widow" (recommended) via thefancarpet.com

Disclosure: I was a sample directly by the company. 

Hiram Green Moon Bloom: fragrance review

Hiram Green is no newcomer to perfume, though his site would suggest otherwise, touting Moon Bloom as their "debut fragrance". Simply, this is a new outfit for someone involved in the field for long through Scent Systems, who has relocated and conducts a new brand stationed at The Netherlands using all natural ingredients. Now under his own name, he embarked on a new adventure which, by the sniffs of Moon Bloom, smells promising.

via landscapeandgarden.wordpress.com

Moon Bloom is a lush and elegant tuberose themed eau de parfum. Tuberose is a tropical night blooming flower. Often referred to as ‘the mistress of the night’, tuberose is an admired theme in perfumery because of its soft and creamy but also powerful and narcotic aroma. It's enough to know that in Victorian times maidens were prohibited from smelling the rather waxy, small white flowers lest they experience a spontaneous orgasm; such was the reputation of this heady flower! The name does bring to mind the Victorian Moon Gardens, gardens in which night-blossoming white flowers were planted so that the sun-wary ladies could protect their alabaster complexions from the ravages of the sun in the absence of SPF 50+. (Of course the term "ravages of the sun" is all relative, speaking of the latitudes and longitudes that constituted the Victorian territories, but you get my meaning. Besides is it me, or does the silvery sheen of the moon seem very conductive to secret affairs leading to orgasmic heights despite the precautions placed by the wiser elders?).

Moon Bloom includes generous amounts of tuberose absolute, jasmine absolute and ylang ylang, but it doesn't clobber you over the head with them all the same, like many hysterical florals do. There are also notes of creamy coconut, leafy greens and hints of tropical spices and resins (plus a hint of vanilla?) which smother the floral notes and produce something that is soft and strangely fresh, like the air of a greenhouse.

The natural perfumery genre isn't devoid of wearable and beautiful specimens; it just takes a superior critical judgment, a steady hand and the aesthetics to forget photo realism and instead try for something that is imaginative and beautiful in its own right. I'm willing to make an exception on that last requirement, because Moon Bloom smells at once life-like and at the same time like it was made with stylish panache and not just slavishly copying Mother Nature. The coconut-lacing of real tuberose and its subtle green-rubbery facets are captured in a polished melange which is both pretty and revealing of the course of the blossom through the fabric of time: from greener to lusher to ripe. Tube-phobes (and I know there are many of you out there, don't hide!) should drop their coyness and indulge. Moon Bloom is a purring kitten, if there ever was one.

Both the 50ml bottle (with classic pump atomiser) and the 5ml travel atomiser are refillable. 5ml retails for 25 euros and 50 mail will run you out of 135 euros on the Hiram Green site (Please note that non EU buyers are exempt from sales tax, so calculate 20% less or so.

Disclosure: I was a sample by the perfumer. 

The Scent of the Ballet: Iris Prima by Penhaligon's (video)

The upcoming Penhaligon's fragrance, to be launched next month, is called Iris Prima and is touted to be "a work of olfactory choreography", with Iris Absolute in the role of the prima ballerina. In a unique partnership with English National Ballet, Penhaligon’s has set about capturing the very essence of the ballet, turning to master perfumer Alberto Morillas as choreographer. Iris Prima will launch on the 9th of September 2013. Enjoy the first of two films dedicated to the launch.