The Elusive Search for an Exceptional Fragrance

With almost 6000 new fragrances each year, nowadays, it is impossible to proclaim something as best of X year. There is absolutely no way of testing everything, even if we tried. Pure mathematics prove this: 6000 divided with 365 gives us 16,43 fragrances tested PER DAY, every day. Who can do that and how would one's poor nose react to that sort of tension and over-reaching? 

I bet there would also be days of a nose cold or lack of adequate weather conditions in order to do proper tests. A day of heatwave tends to side-track and alter olfactory perception, simply due to the physics of volatility and diffusion of scented molecules. Therefore the process of elimination starts at the testing chop block. 

Personally I tend to seek out brands which either rejecting the norms of mass produced fragrance, seeking a return to luxury and creativity, therefore brands on a carefully controlled scale in order to empower the fragrance creators while offering the customer an exceptional experience. Collaborations with talented perfumers also pique my interest to sample fragrances, or a very creative and unusual concept catches my attention. But the judging does rely on the result. Does the fragrance deliver in terms of adhering to its communicated concept? Does it have consistency with the general style of the brand? Does it bear an individual touch which separates from the rest in its genre? Or alternatively does it exalt its genre into something elevated and pushing boundaries? Originality is somewhat twisted. 

British author Tibor Fisher wrote that all ideas were covered by the Greeks long ago and we're merely rehashing the collectively forgotten. This is the conundrum of the artist: "I won't look at what has come before, I won't go to galleries or museums, I won't read or talk to artists, and thus I can't help but be original." Is this even possible? Is it even desirable? So in a world that is rehashing tropes in a way, sometimes knowingly, sometimes unconsciously, I tend to seek either the iconoclast who dares step further on: say, a modern neo-chypre that project as novel, or an atypical use of Iso E Super in order to give peppery tones for example. Either some craftsman who absolutely excels at what they're doing: a polished amber that does not feel obese or cloying, a shimmering aldehyde floral which manages to stand shoulder to shoulder with great specimens of the glorious past...That sort of thing cuts the thread for me.

Dior Homme: thoughts & fragrance review on a milestone

 It doesn't matter that Dior Homme is everywhere, either in one of its -many- versions, or in some copy of it from another brand. It remains one of the most interesting men's releases of the last twenty years, because the formula brings a more unusual note of iris root, halfway between dry retro face powder or old lipstick along with dusty dried flowers, to an otherwise standard formula for a mainstream men's fragrance, making it revolutionary. It doesn't surprise me that many women love it and love wearing it themselves. It is the most affordable of the lot of Dior men's fragrances. 

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 Attention: the original, "authentic" Dior Homme is the one from 2005, by Olivier Polge, which was removed only to be removed by Demachy later in the completely unrecognizable 2020 version of the same name, when the Polge son was now permanent at Chanel . Yes, yes, I know, typing Dior Homme gives you 883045 versions on Google, how the hell do you know which is which, you go to the first one in the drop down menu. Well, let's pay attention to it a little since you are involved in the aficion.

 

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The 2011 version is still very good, despite the credit to Demachy, as it does not alter Polge's original recipe and retains its special characteristics. The iris in Dior Homme alternately takes aspects of soft aftershave powder like that used in trendy hipster haircuts, cocoa powder and amber starch. It's a smooth, glossy, no edge scent, feminine, but retains a hint of freshness, which I find a very alluring and essential ingredient in fragrance in general. You don't want to be completely smothered in a cotton cocoon after all, when you're on a social or romantic date, you want to be able to breathe and appreciate the (hopefully beautiful) view. :)

 

NB. The 2020 version is a completely different fragrance making for a LOT of confusion since it bears the same name, Dior Homme.  The prior to 2020 editions from a few years ago bear the bee emblem, the older formulations have no bee but the box has minor differences and the original 2005 formula has a silver tube sprayer in the jus instead of black, as after the Demachy transition.

Luxury and the Hermessences: Fragrant Musings

Hermès has always seemed to me the height of luxury: not just a status symbol to carry around, but a brand organically grown out of that most aristocratic accoutrement, horse riding and its paraphernalia. As saddlers, Hermès have distinguished themselves in the axiom of "beauty serving functionality", a sort of van der Rohe "less is more" philosophy where every touch is truly meaningful, truly essential. Their fragrances are a reflection of this effortless luxury, diverting from bourgeois spick-and-span, and speaks of old money, not new. 

 

The fact that Réna Dumas (née Gregoriadès), architect and mother of Pierre Alexis Dumas, was of Greek extraction, alongside her pushing a Hellenic aesthetic to the brand through collaborations with artists and illustrators, has solidified this classical approach in my mind. She detested pomposity, she embraced serenity and douceur de vivre.

 

This fusion of functionality and douceur (softness) is what is also reflected in Jean Claude Ellena's work for Hermès, especially in the Hermessences, their boutique-only line of fragrances which are simple like haikus, harmonious like the Parthenon, but never simplistic, nor unnecessarily imposing. They retain a human closeness, a sort of philosophical proximity with the culture of light, a message read on the pure blue skies of a life bathed in inherent goodness.

 

The Hermessences line, essences by Hermès literally, is comprised of laconic names, often with a double entendre, focusing on unexpected facets of a given material, rather than trying to highlight its stereotypical olfactory profile. They do not rely on in-your-face exclusivity or luxury, like other designer lines, but rather a desire to explore new pathways to pleasure.

After all these years, I'm still taken with their subtlety, their grace, their effortless nod to luxury, a suspension of time.