Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Aedes de Venustas Oeillet Bengale: fragrance review

If like me you have been searching for a Catherine Earnshaw kind of fragrance all your life, then the options haven't always been that populous. Sure, there are some wild perfumes out there but they either (deliciously) run butch or raunchy (Bandit or Tabu), extremely sophisticated (Tabac Blond, Poivre, Coup de Fouet) or possessing that kind of French veneer that makes the Versailles what they are and not a rough stone house on the moors (YSL Opium, Coco de Chanel). I'm extremely surprised and overjoyed to find out that Oeillet Bengale, the third fragrance by Aedes de Venustas (the famous niche perfume boutique in NYC) is a Catherine-Earnshaw-by-way-of-India and that's mighty fine by me; this feral thing is so beguiling, one can forgive it a wandering spirit, even beyond the grave.



Oeillet Bengale like its namesake (the Bengal tiger) conjures the vision of a wild, fiery, untamed thing, oozing feline sex appeal and the sort of charm which keeps you on your toes rather than winning you over with an easy smile and pleading puppy eyes. It also conjures the temples of India, garlanded by flowers and smoky with woody-smelling incense, a sort of Kipling novela written in the register of smells.

Oeillet Bengale by Aedes de Venustas boldly goes where modern niche carnation fragrances go, that is more Vitriol d'Oeillet (Lutens) than Bellodgia (Caron). The spicy component, fresh and dark, like an electric storm in a land of immense skylines that go on forever, lends it well into night wear, while the combination of resinous smells and floral notes gives it a Queen of Sheba via a modern sort of vibe. This is a wonderful fragrance for either men or women who exude sophistication (or aim at doing so!) because the smoky pepperiness—with its incense-y ambience—doesn't lend itself to cooing over the latest chick lit volume. If you are the type to go gaga over Hello Kitty items (and not just out of childhood nostalgia) Oeillet Bengale will leave you cold. If you're a fan of spacious, yet richly nuanced, woody fragrances with a prominent spicy component (sans the expected Indian curry food notes!) and the growl of smooth and carnal labdanum, then the feral Oeillet Bengale is your thing.

In fact, if I were to sum it up, I'd say that the chord of pepper-clove-labdanum-incense is the "soul" of Oeillet Bengale, a smoky carnation for fiery spirits.

Composed by Rodrigo Flores-Roux, Oeillet Bengale by Aedes de Venustas includes top notes of turmeric, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, cloves and saffron; middle notes of rose, white pepper, strawberry and floral notes; and base notes of vanilla, tolu balsam, benzoin and labdanum.

Related reading on Perfume Shrine:
Spicy Floral fragrances reviews,
Carnation in perfumes: the clove-scented buds of La Belle Epoque

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

The Confessional

Sometimes one stumbles upon something that is so perfectly judged, so condensed in its appraisal of a situation and so witty, all at the same time, that one has a belly laugh and salvages said snippet from oblivion by noting it down for posterity's sake.
This is what I'm doing right now.


"Tom Ford goes to Catholic Church for confession

Tom Ford: father, i have sinned
Father: you can speak your mind
Tom Ford: I introduced the oud trend
Father: Your sin is unforgivable."

As said by Fazalcheema on Fragrantica regarding the introduction of Lancôme's Oud Bouquet. (a rose-vanilla-saffron oud for 2014, updating the 2012 L'Autre Oud fragrance idea). He's referring of course to  M7 by Yves Saint Laurent, the first "mainstream" oud note fragrance which started it all, artistically directed by Tom Ford.

Monday, August 4, 2014

Guerlain French Kiss: new fragrance

Guerlain is busy recalibrating their fragrance line, chopping and adding things (see Mademoiselle Guerlain), while at the same time celebrating 20 years of successful presence on makeup counters with their "Kiss Kiss" lipsticks, the outer packaging of which is being updated upping the glam for autumn/winter 2014, as you can see in my collage below!

If you have followed the launch of Guerlain Terracotta Le Parfum (celebrating 30 years of the fabulous Terracotta range of makeup and sun products), you know what's coming: a brand new fragrance, commemorating this milestone of the French house of perfume and cosmetics.



The novel fragrance in question is called French Kiss and is part of the Carnal Elixir (Elixirs Charnels) boutique line [source Mr.Guerlain] that previously included Chypre Fatal, Oriental Brûlant, Gourmand Coquin, Boisé Torride and Floral Romantique

My take.
The theme of "lipstick scents" is a popular one, usually utilizing the allied forces of rose & violet which bring to mind the retro feel of glamorous silver screen sirens putting on lipstick in front of gilded vanity tables or ~maybe a bit more prosaically but all the more powerfully~ of our own mothers indulging in the exact same ritual. Guerlain, despite having an excellent scent criterion for their makeup line, (famously inspiring the Meteorites fragrance that copied the ethereal scent of their makeup powder beads by the same name) choose to step into a rather more fruity-berry path. Carnal Elixir French Kiss is comprised by the time-honored chord of rose & violet, but with a dominant inclusion of litchi and raspberry (yes, the perfume is pink in color). The raspberry note is further enhanced by the fruity nuances of the chosen white musk, while vanilla, orris and heliotrope, all three characteristic Guerlain perfume trademarks, contribute a comforting feel.
The name, apart from being so very English, despite it being a "French" kiss, is reminiscent of the witty rom com by the same name (French Kiss) starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline, parodying the penchant of Anglosaxons for French romance. Tongue-in-cheek? Cute move, Guerlain!

French Kiss by Guerlain, a "sprakling floral fragrance" in the Elixirs Charnels line, is to be launched in autumn 2014 (October)

Friday, August 1, 2014

The winners of the draw…

…for the Aedes Iris Nazarena samples are:

FlaubertFan
kurokuro3
urius83ur
Katarina
Felix Arabia
Sofia Papasotiriou
Hakan Nellmar
LA
MarinaR
CallaLilly101

Please send me your shipping data using Contact so I can have these out to you soon!

Thanks everyone for the enthusiastic participation and till the next one!

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

From Sweaty Stink to Sweet Goodness: The Magic of Browning

It never ceases to strike me as nothing short of magical how turning chopped onions in a pan over a hot stove fills the kitchen with the aroma of sweet caramel, succulent and penetrating to the very core of things. Usually the pleasantly invasive aroma, sneaking like Santa Claus down the chimney to offer gifts, complements the rich savory scent of meat or the naturally sweet and sour aroma of fresh tomatoes. It was for a vegetable & meat dish involving roasted eggplants and pork for which I stood over the stove the other day, browning onions slowly and thinking about the complexity of scent which man has added to the already rich palette of the natural world. By simply introducing the element of fire (simmering, browning, roasting over an open flame or over charcoals) man multiplied the pleasure of the olfactory sense exponentially. The reason is less romantic than my introduction, but fascinating to follow nonetheless.

via pinterest

Onions specifically offer a great glimpse into the mechanism of this aroma giving process. Their sulfurous "bouquet" has been likened to the scent of female sweat (as has grapefruit, another sulfurous material), but no matter what your view on that is (Flaubert and Baudelaire notwithstanding), most people classify volatile sulfurous components as unpleasant, more on which later. The organosulfur compounds called thiols present in onions (allyl mercaptan is the compound released upon slicing an onion) form a group,  also called mercaptans in the older days; a portmanteau deriving from the Latin mercurium captans  thanks to their superior bonding ability to mercury compounds. Thiols/Mercaptans are compounds with the -SH group bonded to a carbon atom.

Now you might be forgiven to think that mercaptans remind you of decay and stench; they're produced by animal and plant decay, are found in beer that has been exposed to ultraviolet light or in faulty wines (sulfur and yeast reacting in wild patterns) and are infamously contained in skunk secretions and in flatus. One form of mercaptan, T-butyl mercaptan, is routinely added to otherwise odorless natural gas to render a leak more likely to be detected. But they're not a damning thing per se: specific forms of thiols are responsible for the characteristic and coveted scent profile of grapefruit or ~interestingly!~ released upon roasting coffee beans, surely my idea of heaven this side of heaven.

The good part involving cooks and onions is that thiols can be easily oxidized to disulfides and higher oxidation products such as sulfonic acids, free from the associations had with their predecessor. Furthermore onions are comprised of 75%  water and they contain complex sugars. By browning a sliced onion in the pan the increased temperature makes water evaporate and break the bonds that hold chemical compounds contained and we see the plant matter shrink in front of our eyes and become soft and miserable. Yet those complex sugars are thus broken into monosacharides, i.e. glycose and fructose, resulting in caramelization and a more intense, sweet flavor than previously.

The so called Maillard reactions, a non-enzymatic type of chemical reaction that happens a lot in the kitchen, even at room temperature, also accounts for the breakdown of a reducing sugar with an amino acid, rendering things brown (This is the chemical process responsible for the nicely brow appearance of baked goods). The larger the sugar, the slower it'd react with the amino acids. Last but not least, the cysteine in the stewed pork (another sulfur containing ingredient) reacts with the sugars in the onions in another Maillard reaction to render the umami of meat that fills the mouth with rich satisfaction and the kitchen with the sweet caramel goodness of a deceptively wholesome dish. How far the mind can wander while making dinner…

This Month's Popular Posts on Perfume Shrine