Tag, you are it!

Roxana over at Illuminated Perfume Journal tagged me on October 5th. This is all new to me and I discovered being tagged is like playing the game "tag", so I'm "IT" now and the rules dictate I do the following:

1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Write six random things about yourself
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

My contribution to six random things about me:



1.I trained as a classical pianist in my youth. After getting my diploma I soon found out the error of my ways and realised classical music serves not as a balm for the mores but instead excites them into one of the most vilely back-stabbing and prima-donna-ish sectors this side of arts. I soon found out it's just about the same with every sector really...

2.There has been a nerdy phase in my life when I was maniacally playing board games that usually have other nerdy guys (mostly) retreat to the Hebrides and play with their friends for days. Yup, talk about a guilty secret!

3.I can cook a mean set of tasty dishes in under two hours and not spoil my manicure. Have cornered all the little tricks of making something appear more complex or gourmet than it really is (ie. chopping up some fresh herbs over a simple gratîn or drizzling some balsamic glaze, raisins and croutons over a green salad are two of them)

4.I am pathetically challenged in gardening: gifting me with a pot containing some plant matter in it, no matter its endurance is a sure sentence of death for the poor living thing. Spare them or present them to me guilty-free as in already decapitated beyond my control (not that I am very good with preserving the latter either)

5.I am younger than people who read me online think. This is an interesting phenomenon to watch though: how perception makes for age-related guesses.

6.While on a trip to Austria's historical places I had to live for a few weeks in an old-fashioned, grandiose hotel (rather mansion turned into hotel) that had a communal floor bathroom with a curtain instead of a door (!). I have never felt so constipated in my life since. Fortunately, I might add...

And who I am tagging next? A selection of some of the blogs I peruse; no desire to exclude anyone, just giving credit to unsung heroes this time.

Dain at Ars Aromatica: an all-inclusive lifestyle venue that has some of the best magazines panting in the competition. There is nothing that Dain doesn't do better, including short essays on literary heroes and foes who have entranced or annoyed her.

Qwendy at Notes on Shoe, Cake and Perfume: For some unfathomable reason I had missed this venue all along. I am discovering that was an oversight I should remedy. Lots of interesting stuff going on!

Maria at BitterGrace Notes: This is where I go to read insightful comments on matters pertaining to current events, read about what city-dweller me has been deprived of ~in short, criters, hikes and assorted nature-loving images; and watch a clip or two of divine musical choices.

Jenavira at Scent of Abricots: If blogging is about glimpsing a little of another person's life, Jen has been most generous with allowing us to do so with hers. I love that she uses wonderful paintings or illustrtations to accompany each post.

Pat at Olfactarama: Besides sharing a passion, nay obsession is more like it, about cinematic past and present, I love to read how Pat is discovering her path in perfume LaLaLand and how the surprises are often astounding or disappointing ~nothing like the candid shots of an honest appraiser with taste.

Lucy at LucyFishWife: This Londoner among books which talk about books asks in echo: "Why must you tell me all your secrets when it's hard enough to love you knowing nothing?". I am challenging her to reveal more than the cherry tomatoes her eagle eye has spotted on Minas Tirith. I know she can rise up to the challenge!

The clip "I have a secret" sung by Aliki Vougiouklaki with music by Manos Hadjidakis comes from the 1959 classic Greek film "To xylo vgike apo ton paradiso" (=Spanking comes out of Paradise; lol, it sounds naughtier than it is!) or "Maiden's Cheek" in its UK title inspired by a lyric in the "Ode to Love" in Sophocle's Antigone, taught in the classroom at a crucial scene in the movie ~the quote goes thus:

"O love, thou art victor in fight, thou makest all things afraid;
Thou couchest thee softly at night on the cheeks of a maid;
Thou passest the bounds of the sea, and the folds of the fields;
To thee immortal, to thee the ephemeral yields".

The secret is that the girl is in love with her handsome teacher...

New Ormonde Jayne boutique at Dubai: fragrance news

Ormonde Jayne Perfumery is getting ready to open the doors to its new dazzling store in early November 2008. The breathtaking metropolis of Dubai has been chosen for the first Ormonde Jayne Boutique outside of its flagship store in London ’s Old Bond Street. The new perfumery is part of Boutique 1 in Boulevard at the newly constructed Jumeirah Beach Residence. Ormonde Jayne’s retail space will have the same design as the flagship London store and customers will be served by dedicated staff expertly trained in the brand’s unique range and philosophy.
Founder and creator Linda Pilkington will oversee every aspect of the planning and construction so that it will be a true reflection of Ormonde Jayne’s demanding standards of perfection. Luxury retail interiors specialists Caulder Moore, who created Ormonde Jayne’s spectacular new store in October 2006, have again been appointed to design the Dubai perfumery. Their vibrant design for the boutique earned a 'highly commended' mention at The Benchmarks Awards 2007.
The new store will include the distinctive bronze smoked mirrors, black laquered
testing tables and mandarin leather topped stools that feature in the flagship store. Dubai’s meteoric rise has made it the retail hub in The Gulf and Ormonde Jayne’s founder Linda Pilkington feels that it’s the right place for Ormonde Jayne first international expansion.
Ormonde Jayne was recently awarded "Brands of Tomorrow 2008" by The Walpole, a trade body for luxury companies in Britain.

All is left is the launch of a US site!

What the Nose Knows by Avery Gilbert: book review & preview

If you have been even marginally interested in scent and that mysterious and unaccredited source of fascination, repulsion and pleasure, the nose, then you must be in the know about a pleiad of myths, quotes and cognoscible pop-culture references: Proust's madeleine bursting forth 3000 pages of spirally-tapped prose, Zola's candid olfactory descriptions, Freud casting the aspersion of the smell as a lesser sense in advanced civilizations theory, Hellen Keller being the blind and deaf genius of nasofanatics, the sex-attraction of pheromones, sniffing coffee beans between fragrant sampling and the sweet smell of death. I should know, I read this ramification almost every day as they appear by both budding and seasoned smell fanatics on the online fora where osphresiophilia is being discussed among similarly-wired minds.
Avery Gilbert's book "What the Nose Knows" manages to dispel those and countless others in pellucid style, providing solid experimental data and studies to back up every claim; even minutely tracing the published sources of popular myths to exactly nil! (like the ultra-popular "10000 odours is the number of different odors humans can distinguish"). Some of that debunking crescendo is bordering on incredible: it's not easy to accept that we're not that inferior to our dogs' capacity for odor perception (or rats' for that matter) or that said canine's ability to sniff bladder cancer ~and not just any form of cancer as erroneously surmissed~ is not that spontaneous as one might think, taking in mind the rigorous training the subjects required in order to yield those astounding results which made the round of the globe fairly recently.

Dr.Avery Gilbert is a biologist, smell scientist, sensory psychologist and fragrance-industry insider who has worked in the R&D division of several perfume companies (such as Givaudan-Roure) and is now president of Synesthetics, Inc., a provider of innovative sensory science for the development and marketing of consumer products. He has contributed chapters to various edited volumes and published scientific papers in prestigious publications such as Nature.(a selection can be downloaded here) "What the Nose Knows" is his first book. But what prompted him into fruictifying?

"A review of Chandler Burr's The Emperor of Scent set me on the path to my own book: I was the only reviewer to give
"Emperor" a big thumbs down. (I was also the only scientist to
review it; the Washington Post, for example, assigned it to their beauty editor.) My notice appeared in Nature Neuroscience shortly before the AChemS conference, a big annual meeting of smell and taste researchers in Sarasota, Florida. Book reviews rarely attract attention in the scientific world--you're lucky if your mom reads it. Yet colleague after colleague at AChemS came up to congratulate me and say how much
they liked the review. More than a few suggested I should write my own book".

He introduces himself with a sense of humorous acceptance: "I was among the first people to smell Eizabeth Taylor's White Diamonds, but also one of the first to sniff purified 3-methyl-2-hexenoic acid ~the aromatic essence of ripe, unwashed armpits." OK, we can stop being envious of his job at this point, I guess...

Full of interesting trivia and bypassing the cliché Napoleon's odorlagnia-laced billet doux to Joséphine (which every book on smell quotes anyway) Avery Gilbert goes instead for more treacherous waters, such as the flower idolatry of Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorn's little-publicized smell vignettes, the verse of Walt Whitman who idolised sweat and Richard Wagner's obsession with scent. Literature and the arts get their own section where the author goes into detail about shattering some of our preconceptions on literary odorphilia. Culinary enthusiasts will be excited over the crossover between food and wine aromas' comparisons and the attenuation of smell principles into a few dozen "flavor principles", as inspired by the work of Liz Rozin, will provide endless discussion. The forensically inclined will derive lots of info on how smell plays a paramount role in recognising stages of corpse decay, the astounding and gruesome realities of "New York deaths" and the not-urban-myths of corpses being hidden to rot under motels' beds; while the perversely intriguing issue of malodor gets its own fair treatment, from the scent of flatulence to the recreation of mamoth feces's aroma which is one of archaeology's dirty secrets (and boy, do I know).

A central point of the book, prompted by the Proustian rush of memories via the infamous soggy French delicacy, is the erosion of olfactory memory: “The purity and infallibility of smell memory ~an insight central to Proust’s literary conceit~ doesn’t hold up to scientific scrutiny.” This might give us pause for thought in our endless discussion about how fragrances change, even in placing faith into the recollections of experts who swear that batches of what they had smelled 40 years ago had a certain je ne sais quoi which is now absent or cannot be replicated. Could it be that it's all a projection of fears and desires like wet dreams and nightmares and our memory bushels the past into a more pleasing set of dimensions?

One of the most interesting chapters of the book is indeed devoted to "Spin Doctors": not con artists, but the scientists who have tried to come up with solid, measurable facts as to how the power of suggestion influences us into thinking something odoriferous is pleasant or unpleasant, potent or weak or even whether it is there at all! Like a perfume enthusiast said a propos of a similar point: "[it's like] the time when fluoride was about to be added to the water supply. Many people were horrified. This would surely kill them all! They displayed corroded pots and pans on the news, claiming that the fluoride had eaten away the metal. Indisputable proof, right? Except...Oops!....the fluoride hadn't been added to the water yet." Reading hard science data gathered via sensory experiments corroborating this somehow leaves you with the realisation that it suffices for some malignant acquaintance to fault your scent with smelling like something considered upleasant (enter any of the usual put-downs: urine, poo, bugspray, mustiness, creosote etc.) to make you believe you suddenly smell it yourself. It doesn't even matter whether the commentator really picks up the designated odour, it's enough that they proclaim it as such for your mind to conjure olfactory images of the offending attributes. This is stretched further to include M.C.S. (multiple chemical sensitivity), on which Gilbert hypothesizes that it might be a purely psychogenic illness despite his sympathy to the afflicted parties: the fear of an odor's power, as attributed by people into odors they consider fabricated, synthetic or otherwise malevolent, has the tangible potential to make them ill, manifesting actual physiological responses, as proven through university experiments and Van der Bergh's work at the University of Leuven, Belgium. And then again many might be attributed to bad associations: the case of former Playboy bunny Izabella St.James' aversion to baby oil or a WWII veteran's memory of crematories alerting him to a nearby funeral home scandal in Hesperia, northeast of Los Angeles, being two.

The reverse is also true, although on a less impressive manner, which accounts for the vividly purple prose we so often encounter through ad copy for fragrance products that promise olfactory utopia. Or even the subtle manipulation of audiences through scent, in cunningly consumerism overtones, such as the scenting of air in shops, as well as in fascinating and pioneering work such as that of Eric Berghammer, alias Odo7, a young Dutch artists touted as the world's first Aroma Jockey. Even the Hollywood use of Smell-o-Vision notoriety ~but not originality, as attested by previous paradigms dating back to the silent film era!~ through John Walters' film Polyester with Divine gets its fair share of analysis, leading to Andy Warhold "smell museum" and the hypothesis of science providing us with our own personal library of scents in the future through the human genome project, where the author is at his element.

Although the tone is light, it is not oversimplified to the point of condescending nor is it ever snarky, yet I would personally be thrilled if the author invited us into his experiences working on fragrant projects for commercial products: the whistleblower touch is always titillating to read. Additionally the attempt at humor sometimes sounds a little strained as if some sort of cathartic relief was needed after some truly gruesome facts presented: I'd like to think that we're able to handle it and if not, what were we doing reading a book on smell (as contrasted to perfume) anyway?

If nothing else, What the Nose Knows will make you never see Marcel Proust with the same eye again and if you have sat through Swann's Way into your literary pilgrimage with the inward impatient questioning "where are those promised odour landscapes?", it will provide welcome vindication. Even more encourangingly, the author proposes that there are no olfactory geniuses and the problem of correctly identifying odours (the "tip of the nose" syndrom) has to do with cognitive diffuculty more than sensory. He proposes that all one needs to be considered as such is an average sense of smell, empathy and a well-developped olfactory imagination. So there's hope for everyone it seems.

The book is published by Crown Publishers, NY and can be ordered through Amazon for $16.29 as part of a promotional offer.
Dr. Avery Gilbert maintains a site and a blog, First Nerve.

Sniffapalooza is featuring Avery Gilbert as one of their speakers at their annual Fall Ball on October 25, 2008, at New York City . He will discuss the psychology of odor perception and the enjoyment of perfume during a luncheon at the restaurant Opia, 130 E. 57th Street. The event begins at 12:30 p.m. Tickets and registration required.

Pic of book jacket through Avery Gilbert, madeleine pic through Les Ateliers du Parfum.

Travel Memoirs: Paris, part 2 ~L'Artisan, Serge Lutens, Frederic Malle

by guest writer Elysium

Since the first pioneering experiments by small artisanal brands like L’Artisan Parfumeur and Diptyque thirty years ago, the phenomenon called niche perfume has really blossomed. The small companies are now big names, their new releases once unnoticed are now highly anticipated. Being in Paris, I could not miss the chance to pay a visit to some of those who brought new ideas into a traditional craft and paved the way for the others.

There are several L’Artisan Parfumeur boutiques in Paris (in the 1er, 4eme, 7eme, 9eme and 16eme arrondissements). The one I visited is located at the banks of the Seine, a stone's throw from the Louvre Museum.
The boutique was minimalistically decorated yet stylish, using exactly the same concept as their perfume creations. Once inside, the first thing that meets the eye was the wall with their Harvest creations. Upon asking the friendly SA, I was told that the perfumers at the L’Artisan Parfumeur were at that time still working hard to find the suitable harvests to make the next one in the series. Moving a few steps towards the inner part of the shop there was a table with temporary decorations, highlighting scents that were especially suited for the season.

The diversity L’Artisan Parfumeur represents makes it easy for everyone to find something; if no perfume this time, then maybe a lovely amber ball for the home? And when you are tired of smelling perfumes, take a seat in the cozy couch and have some rest.

Only one place can match Guerlain’s ability to attract perfumistas to Paris ~the location Palais-Royal is indeed more than suitable for the royalty of niche perfume houses. Since its opening in 1991, Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido, or commonly called Serge Lutens, has not lost any of its mystery, largely due to the fact that only press is allowed to take photos inside the salon. Assisted by Google Maps I ended up at the backside of the boutique, but with some help of a written note on the glass window I managed to find the correctly entrance in the end. The first time one enters the Serge Lutens salon one is bound to make a theatrical pause: it is decorated solely in black and violet, with flourished decoration that yet whispers of pure elegance. Indeed, high-contrast is Ariadne’s thread through everything Mr. Lutens has ever touched: his photographs, his paintings, his makeup creations, his perfumes and his salon. Many of the previous limited-edition bell jars can be viewed, and a stair in the middle of the boutique leading to the unknown crowns the entire magical atmosphere. Presprayed test blotters are placed beside the perfume bottles and if you find any perfume particularly interesting you are very welcome to make skin tests. The exclusive range coming in the so called bell jars is of course the highlight of the visit, but be careful not overdosing your nose with these innocent beauties. Unfortunately Serge Lutens does not make any liquid samples of their exclusive range; however the staff readily gives you a set of wax samples to bring home. As for the export range liquid samples are available, but most often they can only be obtained with purchases. I myself took the advice of Luca Turin and “boldly demanded Bois de Violette” and ended up with another pretty bag in my hands.

Comparing to the slightly austere feeling at Serge Lutens, the Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle boutique on 37 Rue Grenelle was much more relaxed. It is minimalistically decorated with a touch of high tech. On the elegant wood paneled walls hang framed photographs of all the perfumers that have contributed to the Frédéric Malle brand. This is a company which puts the brains behind the fragrances into focus, giving the masters the credit they deserve. Therefore the Frédéric Malle line stands for creativity and diversity, ranging from the purest tuberose soliflore (Carnal Flower) to the most complex musk (Musc Ravageur); high quality is the only thing uniting them. You can either freely play with the perfumes by yourself, or you can also step into one of the special designed smelling boots to feel a scent surrounding you. Except for the testers all the perfumes are placed inside refrigerators, to keep them at constant temperature. At the time of my visit I knew a new Frédéric Malle perfume was coming out (Dans tes Bras). Naturally I had to ask the lady working in the boutique about it, only a small test bottle was available for the inquisitive one to sample. Since at the time Dans tes Bras was not officially released, the lady curiously asked me how I knew about it, at which prompt I happily took the chance to avdertise the perfume blogosphere.

Paris would not be Paris without the great variety of choices; the last part of this travel story will be devoted to a few hidden gems among the Parisian perfumeries. That’s all for now...

You can read Part 1 of Paris Memoirs clicking here

Shopping Guide:
L'Artisan Parfumeur: 2 Rue de l'Admiral de Coligny, Paris, Phone: +33 01-4488-2750.
32 Rue du Bourg Tibourg 75004 Paris, Phone : 01.48.04.55.66

Salons du Palais-Royal Shiseido, Serge Lutens: 142 Galerie de Valois-25 Rue de Valois, 1er arrondissement Louvre/Tuileries, Paris. Metro station: Palais-Royal. Car access: 25 Rue de Valois. Phone: +33 01-49-27-09-09 Fax: +33 01-49-27-92-12 (open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 7pm)Map here

Editions des Parfums Frederic Malle: 37 rue de Grenelle, 7e, St-Germain-des-Pres, Paris Phone: +33 01-42-22-76-40 Metro: Rue du Bac
{Other locations: 140 av. Victor Hugo, 16e, Trocadero/Tour Eiffel, Paris, +33 01-45-05-39-02, Metro: Victor Hugo. 21 rue du Mont Thabor, 1er, Louvre/Tuileries, Paris, +33 01-42-22-77-22, Metro: Tuileries}

See a Google map of perfumeries/perfume & beauty shopping in Paris on this link (printable)

Pics copyrighted by Elysium (with the sole exception of the Lutens interiors where photography taking isn't allowed), not to be reproduced without permission.

Cruel Intentions By Kilian: fragrance review & myth debunking on Oud

Cruel Intentions tagged "tempt me", along with Liaisons Dangereuses, is part of the Parisian orgies unisex duo, meant to denote a source of desires, transgressions and pleasures of the flesh. The fragrance was composed by Sidonie Lancesseur and inspired "by the warm, enfolding, balsamic notes of oud, a legendary wood whispered to be worth more than its weight in gold". Of course when it actually comes to revealing the actual components, the brand has the decency and -to be applauded- honesty to admit there is an agarwood accord. Accord is perfume-speak for the combination of more than one ingredients to produce a sum larger than its parts, a co-existance that sings together to produce the odour impression of oud/agarwood.
Not everyone who does "oud fragrances" dares to admit so!

But what is oud? Let's explain and dispell some myths. Agarwood is the resinous heartwood from Aquilaria trees (predominantly from Aquilaria malaccensis), evergreens native to southeast Asia. As they become infected with mold (Phaeoacremonium parasitica, a dematiaceous fungus) they compensate by producing an aromatic resin. Thus the growing of the infection results in a rich, dark resin within the heartwood. That resin is known as gaharu, jinko, aloeswood, agarwood, or oud/oude/oudh, valued in many cultures since antiquity for its distinctive aroma ~terribly complex with nutty, musty-earthy undertones redolent of undergrowth. However oud is prohibitevely expensive, even for niche and ultra-expensive brands and quite rare, which raises questions as to how so many fragrances can claim harnessing its complex bouquet! One of the reasons for the rarity and high cost (above $62,000 cash for one kilo) of agarwood is the depletion of the wild resource: Since 1995 Aquilaria malaccensis has been listed in Appendix II by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, while in 2004 all Aquilaria species were listed in Appendix II, even though some countries have reservations for the latter listing. Middle Eastern or French perfumers seeking oud at source must establish ginormous bank funds in the pertinent countries, because governments are aware of the trade capitalizing on it. Additonal obstacles arise from the sheer reality of harvesting: Dead infected wood cannot be distilled and heavily infected live wood is not worth it as the wood itself is so more pricey. Thus the only wood distilled is live. Distillable wood is only good for a few months on the other hand, as the essential oil cells dry out, making oud a stratospherically expensive business.
Besides there are also grades within the product: The highest quality comes from the tree's natural immune response (known as agarwood #1) while an inferior resin is rendered by deliberatily wounding aquilaria trees (agarwood #2, within which there aslo several grades of quality). Adulteration is not unheard of either, according to Tryvge Harris. The average oud available in the US will have changed hands at least 10 times (!), while rumours abound about Chinese factories who churn out beautiful but fake product ~made of the lowest possible grade agarwood soaked for a month in synthetic (European manufactured) oud. It's also worthy of note that Arabs are not that concerned with purity as might have been supposed, instead focusing on the pleasure principle the aroma brings.
Some years ago (well, ever since M7 by Yves Saint Laurent at least) there have been ways to approximate oud's odour profile by combining ingredients with ambergris, jasmine, earthy and woody facets. Therefore a tsunami of oud-centered fragrances flooded the market (yes, Montale, I am looking at you!). Precious few companies do use the natural distillate, Zeenat and Amouage among them. It's all worth keeping in mind when faced with claims about oud/agarwood included in your latest niche bottle!

At least, like noted above, by Killian is honest about it. On the other hand most of the other ingredients they include are top-notch: the castoreum, styrax resin, Centifolia rose (May rose) and vanilla are all natural absolutes imparting a rich vibrancy, while the bergamot oil comes from Calabria, a region that has been declining due to the the material being slowly substituted for cheaper locations' product.

Cruel Intentions is not terrifically oud-like, yet it has a bittersweet facet that can be interesting to see flesh out and indeed, contrary to the grand ball room of Dangerous Liaisons, it offers a panoramic vista of notes evolving out of the bottle in quick succession: Opening with discernible bergamot with its refreshing yet sensually complex attribute; the sweet combination of violet and rose very smoothly blended; an earthy-musty phase that might be due to the violet accord in combination with the woody-grassy elements of patchouli and vetiver ~or it might not; and a creamy leathery impression that persists for a while, wearing itself closely to the skin. After all, the vogue towards woodies has breached into the mainstream as attested by the dubious Magnifique and the innofensive Secret Obsession and I predict it will continue its course for a long, long time.
Alberta Ferretti, the Italian designer with her own portfolio of fragrances, admits to Luckyscent to be smitten:"I love it's {sic} homage to old-school glamour and that it comes in a beautiful black case with a lock and key". I can't say I am equally struck. For those prices I expect something which will rock my world and make me abandon everything I do to pay closer attention to the microcosmos playing tiny strings' sextets on my wrists as I go about my day. Still Cruel Intentions is not as confused or undecided as other authors have made it out to be, although not dangerous by any stretch of the imagination, and if you happen upon a sample or a decant it is an interesting fragrance to investigate on closer quarters.

And if you want to see what the hell is this "Cruel Intentions" stint, click here, here and here.

Notes for Cruel Intentions: Bergamot calabria oil, orange blossom oil, violet accord, centifolia rose absolute, agarwood, Indian papyrus oil, gaiacwood oil, Haiti vetiver oil, sandalwood, styrax absolute, castoreum absolute, vanilla absolute, musk.

By Killian Cruel Intentions comes in 1.7oz/50ml (225$) refillable bottles of Eau de Parfum and a candle version. Available from Printemps Haussman, Parfumerie Victor Hugo, Bon Marche in Paris and Monaco, La Mure Favorite in Lyon, Verso at Anvers, Oswald in Zurich, Skins in Amsterdam, Bergdorf Goodman and Aedes (also online) in NYC, Apothia and Luckyscent in Los Angeles, Saks in San Francisco, Las Vegas and Beverly Hills and Holt Renfrew in Canada (Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary). Also from their site.

Pics from the film Cruel Intentions through cswap.com and of box presentation courtesy of By Kilian