Perfume Shrine

Thursday, July 9, 2015

I Believe

«Πιστεύω στην υγρασία της νύχτας, στα αγάλματα που ταξιδεύουν μέρα νύχτα μες σε δαπανηρές συσκευασίες και στα κλειστά παράθυρα εργοστασίων που απεργούν. Πιστεύω στη λιτανεία των αυτοκινήτων, στα νευρικά σφυρίγματα ενός εγκαταλειμμένου αστυφύλακα και στην οσμή από σελίδες άκοπες των σχολικών βιβλίων. Πιστεύω στις ποιητικές ανθολογίες, στις διαφημίσεις ταυρομαχιών του '35 και στα σημάδια του κορμιού σου που φανερώνουν έρωτα. Τέλος, πιστεύω στο θάνατο της μνήμης και στην ανάσταση των επιθυμιών εν μέσω ρόδων, γιασεμιών και υακίνθων. Και τούτο εγένετο, Αμήν».

Μάνος Χατζηδάκης

Gioconda's Smile (1965), part 1 by M.Hadjidakis, performed in Athens Megaron Mousikis (1995)

"I believe in the humidity of the night, the statues traveling day and night amid costly packaging and the closed windows of factories on strike. I believe in the procession of cars, the nervous whistling of a lonesome constable and the smell of uncut pages in textbooks. I believe in poetry anthologies, bullfight ads of '35 and the signs on your body revealing love. Finally, I believe in memory's death and the resurrection of desire amid roses, jasmine and hyacinths. And this was done, Amen. "

Manos Hadjidakis

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

The winner of the draw...

...for the Acqua di Parma rose fragrance Acqua Nobile Rosa is MargOn1980.
Congratulations! Please email me using Contact with your shipping info, with ADP draw in the title of the mail, so I can this in the mail for you soon.

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

Monday, July 6, 2015

Animal Ingredients in Perfumes: More Than a Growl

Among perfumery materials few are so loaded with meaning and associations than animal-derived ones. The glamor of yore feels immersed in the cheetah print of those tailored coats that Hollywood stars wore to get the trash out and one can almost smell the Bal a Versailles parfum off their YSL Le Smoking lapels. Ah...the times when false lashes came out for a night on the town and fire-engine red lipstick was a necessary accessory rather than a summer brights trend...

Animal rights activism has (justifiably) put a lid on that. Additionally, the historical changes brought about by analytical chemistry and the since illegal poaching of some of the critters responsible for some of these elusive, magical essences have created new realities. Fragrances (and cosmetics too) use sophisticated synthetics which replicate the warm, intimate touch of something that used to come from furry behinds.

This has necessitated some detailed information on all the various aspect unto which the critical matter of animal-derived and animal-smelling raw materials touches.

For starters and for a short answer I have written an essay on Fragrance.About.com answering the simple question "Do perfumes contain animal ingredients?"
I also wrote a Musk specific article there called "Musk: Erotic Smell of Warmth & Cleanliness". You can read those hitting the highlighted links.

In the archives of Perfume Shrine over the years I have often belabored the subject as well.
You can reference for instance the following articles:

Animalic & "Skanky" Perfumes
Ambergris (natural) and its comparison with the amber "chord"
Ambroxan: synthetics amber-wood
Musk: natural Tonquin musk and synthetics
The historic Animalis base
Of Bees: Honeyed Scents of Myth (referencing both honey and beeswax, an animal product)
Parfums Fourrure (so called "fur perfumes")

Enjoy the posts!

Friday, July 3, 2015

Acqua di Parma Acqua Nobile Rosa: fragrance review & giveaway

It's pink!

This exclamation can be taken two distinct ways. It either beckons lovers of all stuff girly

or it scares hardcore perfumephiles with their anticipated suspicion hardened through years of insipid fruity florals that would be better used as shampoo. Thankfully Acqua Nobile Rosa isn't either too fluff, nor a fruity floral. It's a pure, crystalline, airy wisp of a scent, as ethereal as wind chimes heard through an early morning breeze.

With Acqua di Parma issuing a newer interpretation of their previous Rosa Nobile in their Acqua Nobile line of scents one might expect a rehashing of the same formula, only turned lighter. But in fact Acqua Nobile Rosa is a new composition, certainly more ethereal, yet managing to differentiate itself enough to warrant testing both.

Rosa Nobile is a cool and straight-up rose petals fragrance, a ballet slipper of a smell rather than an exuberant Nahema (Guerlain) red Jimmy Choo pump or a moiré slingback in the fruity green style of Sa Majeste la Rose (Serge Lutens). It's not retro, but it's not bastardized either, the way some of my favorite rose fragrances are, i.e. sprinkled with loukhoum rosewater (Mohur extrait), dense with spice and patchouli (Aromatics Elixir, Voleur de Roses) or plain resinous goddess-like (Caron's Parfum Sacre). It's never easy making a true rose scent, so Rosa Nobile is not unworthy of mentioning as a relative success, especially given how jammy the pure absolute of rose can smell.

Acqua Nobile Rosa on the other hand is more like the air floating above a rose bush, with a perceptible citrus and blackcurrant tinge, tart and a little bit tangy. Blackcurrant buds have an illustrious and infamous history in perfumery, what with them being used to great aplomb in First by Van Cleef & Arpels (where they open the scene to the animalic smelling background beneath the posh French style perfume) and their ammoniac feel reminiscent of a kitty cat.

But do not fear. It's pink. How wrong could it go?

The airy, electrical buzzing (i.e. freesia) but prolonged -thanks to large musk molecules- drydown is very soft, lightly powdery (a hint of makeup aroma), lightly sweet and the rose is retained throughout; it's as if one is catching the whiff of a rose garden next door rather than hiding one's nose amidst the bushes. I'm OK with that.

Capturing the serene beauty of a stroll in an Italian rose garden, Acqua Nobile Rosa Eau de Toilette is a radiant fragrance for women. This sparkling Eau de Toilette focuses on the lighter, brighter aspects of the rose garden with notes of mandarin, blackcurrant, rose and ambergris. A veritable symphony of enchanting accords capturing both the vibrant and ethereal facets of the Italian Centifolia Rose, famed for its incomparable beauty.

Fragrance notes for Acqua Nobile Rosa by Acqua di Parma:

Top: Bergamot, Mandarin, Blackcurrant

Heart: Damask rose, Centifolia rose, Cyclamen, Freesia

Base: Ambergris, Musk

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Perceptions of Sweetness: Is it Only in Your Sugar-Bowl?

It seems like sweetness is indeed de riguer in modern perfumery, the sine qua non of commercial success as endless sales of La vie Est Belle, Flowerbomb and Prada Candy, say. I dare you to find something as bitter as—say—Piguet's Bandit eau de parfum or Chanel No.19 eau de toilette in the production of the last 15 years.

via

Even forms of perfume which do not lend themselves to the culinary, such as the powdery softness of contemporary "lipstick smelling perfumes" built on "makeup-like" accords (enter Lipstick Rose, Chloe Love, Flower by Kenzo with their abundance of ionones) or the soapy aldehydic glow of the lathered soapy fragrances, such as Narciso Rodriguez Essence, exhibit a sweet tooth. Which serves as the springboard of another thought.

What if sweet notes were always popular, merely set in a different context?

This is the core of my article on Fragrantica, Perceptions of Sweetness: Facets & Surprises, where I investigate the many nuances of "sweet" in fragrances, both vintages such as Chanel No.5 or No.22 and modern ones such as the ones named above. I also pose a question as to what you perceive as sweet and whether it has anything to do with flavor preferences or hard-wiring in the brain.

You're welcome to comment either there or here.