My Favourites of 2011

Another year, and dozen bottles

Well, another year is almost past and my perfume cabinet is getting pretty full. One of my New Year's resolutions will be to go through it and take out bottles I never wear. They can be boxed up and moved to a dresser drawer or perhaps traded. Dan, who organizes the wonderful meet-up events at Noor, tells me he's planning a bottle/decant swap event for 2012. Perfect timing, because if I can't make more room in my closet, how will I buy the new perfumes on my wish list?

I sniffed a lot of perfume in 2011, most of it OK, some of it astoundingly beautiful.  In December, as I contemplated my Christmas list, I began to feel that there was nothing left for me to buy or ask for. I have so many great perfumes. As you can see from the photo above, I could wear what I have for the rest of my life and probably never run out.

So, here are my top 10 favourite perfumes of 2011.

1. Parfumerie Generale Papyrus de Ciane

Number 1 on my list and my biggest surprise of 2011 is Papyrus de Ciane. Dry, dark, mossy and green, this tribute to the famous Mousse de Saxe base is perfect. I was passionately obsessed with PdC for most of the fall; it was all I wanted to wear. It seriously interfered with me testing anything else, which was a surprise to me because I had originally tested the sample in 2010 and found it too bitter. How much difference a year can make! In 2011, I had to have a full bottle. My nose is definitely still changing.

2. Jean Patou Vacances

The early part of 2011 was all about vintage perfume for me. The wonderful Mr. Fritch at Fritch's Pharmacy in Kitchener introduced me to many old beauties and I was flattered to be interviewed for an article about vintage perfume in Maclean's magazine. My best purchase from Fritch's was Jean Patou Vacances. Not only is the bottle with it's green glass stopper beautiful, the perfume is a gorgeous green lilac that lifts my mood every time I wear it. It's a heart breaker too, because it's been discontinued and is notoriously hard to find. This is the only bottle I will probably ever have, so I treasure it.

3. Serge Lutens Five O'Clock au Gingembre

Fresh ginger and early grey tea. Spicy, warm, dry and yummy - Five O'clock au Gingembre was the perfume I wore while baking Christmas cookies this year with a good friend. I expect to continue to wear it often this winter.

4. L'Artisan Parfumeur Fleur de Narcisse (Exceptional Harvests Collection 2006)

At a perfume meetup at Noor this year, I met Bryna, who may be my perfume evil twin. What I mean is, she doesn't love what I love and lucky for me, she likes to trade! For a few samples from my collection she gave me a generous decant of Fleur de Narcisse. I had been coveting this limited release for a while. The daffodil smells like the volcanic soil it was grown in, as well as hay and leather. It's a day in the country in a bottle.

5. Chanel Bois des Iles

Chanel finally released its Exclusifs line in smaller bottles! I snapped up Bois des Iles which I had been dreaming of since 2008 but just couldn't justify the huge 200ml bottle. The new, smaller 75ml size is perfect. Now I can wrap myself in its creamy sandalwood and gingerbread cashmere scent anytime I need some comfort.

6. Lorenzo Villoresi Sandalo

My Dear Husband took me to Rome in the spring of 2011, and it inspired me to buy him a bottle of Lorenzo Villoresi Sandalo. I don't think this niche Italian perfumer gets enough love in the perfume blogs; he is very talented. Sandalo is a smooth and spicy sandalwood of high quality which is getting harder to find these days. I can hardly keep my hands off my DH when he wears it.

7. Frederic Malle En Passant

2011 was the year I met the charming Frederic Malle! He gave a fascinating lecture on perfume and the industry at Holt Renfrew. His niche line of perfumes really started the trend of celebrating perfumers, the artists who create the scents, instead of hiding their names like most mass market perfumes do. I purchased a bottle of En Passant by one of my favourite perfumers Olivia Giacobetti. En passant is a story told with transparent drops of water on lilacs and a soft dusting of flour.

8. L'Artisan Parfumeur Ananas Fizz

My first successful eBay purchase was a box of samples of Ananas Fizz. I think this perfume was discontinued because it's a love it or hate it scent. I didn't expect to love it, but the first sniff of fizzy pineapple from a sample received in a trade made me grin. It was one of my favourite hot weather perfumes in the summer of 2011. I had to have more, but when I went to buy it I realized it had long been discontinued. Luckily, I found the box of samples on eBay and with the help on a funnel and an empty decant bottle, I now have one of the few remaining bottles of Ananas Fizz in existence.

9. Parfums de Nicolai Vie de Château Intense

If you haven't tried any of Patricia Nicolai's perfumes yet, make it a New Year's resolution. She is a genius. Vie de Chateau is la dolce vita in a bottle. Sugared grapefruit, fresh-mown hay and soft suede gloves.

10. Jean Patou Joy

Let's end the list with Joy. Joy was a lucky find at Winners, where you can sometimes stumble on excellent older names in perfume that may have fallen out of fashion but are still of great quality and beauty. Besides Joy, I've bought Rochas Femme, Bvlgari Black and Estee Lauder Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia at my favourite Winners. Joy is a classic and beautiful sparkling jasmine bouquet with a smoldering sexy base.

Coming in 2012

Just as I thought I was out, they pull me back in. Samples showed up in the mail and in my stocking that surprised me with their beauty and I am once again covetous. Huzzah sayeth the retailers. Right now I am wearing the heck out of these samples and will be reviewing them soon:

• Mary Greenwell Plum - Maybe the most beautiful thing I have ever smelled.
• Hermes Eau des Merveilles - Sexy perfect unisex skin scent
• By Kilian Liaisons Dangereuses - Green plum, cassis, rose, cinnamon and musk. Yum.
• Parfums d'Empire Azemour  les Orangers - If you love old-fashioned oakmoss heavy chypres, run, buy this now.

Happy New Year!

Chanel No. 19 - EdT and EdP

Shining Iris

The iris just finished blooming around Toronto as I write this. Beautiful and regal flowers, in shades of purple fill the gardens. But the iris in perfume doesn't come from the flower; it's a precious natural material extracted from the roots of the iris plant. The irises used to create No. 19 are gown in Chanel's own fields in Grasse. They take three years to reach maturity and the roots must be dried for two years before they can be processed. It takes 10 tonnes of dried iris roots to produce one pound of iris butter, from which the the absolute is extracted for the perfume, making iris one of the most costly natural materials in perfume.

The resulting absolute doesn't smell purple. To me it smells cool and silvery grey shading to earthy, depending on the perfume.  It's a sophisticated, haunting and very unisex smell. Indeed, Chanel No. 19 is beautiful on a woman but would also make an excellent masculine.

According to an interview with Christopher Sheldrake in The Australian, "The original No.19 was created in the 70s. This was an era of the emancipation of women and for me this is the epitome of the spirit of Gabrielle Chanel. She was the ultimate rebel who refused to be categorised as the girly, pink flower type of girl. Chanel No.19 is a little bit like wearing trousers for a woman. It enhances the femininity."

No. 19 combines iris with a top note of bitter green galbanum,  and earthy vetiver with smooth leather in the base. Together they are smooth as a grey silk blouse under a tailored jacket. In shades of green grey and brown No. 19 reminds me of a walk on a cool, cloudy spring day. It's both urban and outdoorsy, masculine and feminine.

The EdT version of No. 19 is a sheer, silvery veil of iris and cool green galbanum on my skin.

The EdP version of No. 19 wasn't released until the 1980's and it has a slightly different take on the same notes. To me, it smells more brown or ochre in colour and is warmer. The EdP lasts longer and the dry down is a stronger woody/earthy smell.

I haven't tried the perfume "extrait" version yet, but I would like to before the new No. 19: Poudre flanker is released later this year. According to what I've read, the original 1970's version of No. 19 was created using a very high quality galbanum, from a source in Iran. After the Iran  hostage crisis, that source was no longer available and Chanel had to reformulate. What I wouldn't give to try the 1970's vintage!


House: Chanel
Nose:
Notes: galbanum, neroli, bergamot, hyancinth, jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, iris, vetiver, sandalwood, leather and musk.

Perfume in the News: Interview with Christopher Sheldrake of Chanel

A nose ahead of the rest

An interview in the Sydney Morning Herald today with Christopher Sheldrake had a lot of interesting information about Mr. Sheldrake and Chanel's latest flanker, Chanel No. 19 Poudre. But it also got me thinking about perfume trends, flankers and reformulations.

Chanel has updated several of its classic perfumes recently. In 2007, Chanel released No. 5 Eau Premiere, an update to the iconic No. 5. In 2009 it released Cristalle Eau Verte, an update to Cristalle.  This year Chanel is releasing No. 19 Poudre, an update to No. 19.

Why do new versions of classic perfumes? Mr. Sheldrake mentions in the article that Chanel No. 5 was created 90 years ago, when our every day lives were generally more smelly and smoky.  He says that perfumes that were appropriate back then may seem too "animal or dry or opaque, heavy" to consumers today.

New technology has given perfumers the ability to pull apart a complicated smelling natural ingredient and take from it just the aspects they desire, leaving behind the rest. It think this technology is pretty popular among perfumers these days. In the seminar I attended, Frederic Malle mentioned that a new technology allowed him and Dominique Ropion to extract just the "heart" of the patchouli note they wished to use for Portrait of a Lady.  In No. 19 Poudre, it sounds like Sheldrake has used this technology to give better definition to the iris note.

Giving cleaner, clearer notes was only one of the things changed in the new No. 19 Poudre. Sheldrake has also given it some more "synthetic" musks. (I find it odd that he has to mention synthetic, but I suppose that there are still some people out there who don't know that almost all musk in today's perfumes is synthetic.) The musks are to create a comforting feeling that he thinks will be popular in these insecure times. I wonder if it will be anything like the musks in Balenciaga Paris, which I found very fluffy and soft to wear, like a grey angora sweater.

In general, Chanel seems to be saying that today's perfume buyers want cleaner, more defined notes, and comforting scents. There may be other reasons for creating the flankers, such as to entice a new, younger consumer, one who wants a quality perfume, but who doesn't want to smell exactly like her mother. Or to increase sales in the infamous "asian" market, where common wisdom says that they don't like heavy scents.

I however, love dense, animalic and dry perfumes. I'm happy that Chanel is creating flankers instead of just reformulating their classic perfumes.

Coming soon, I think I'll do some comparing of flankers to their beloved progenitors and see if I still prefer the originals. Chanel No. 5 vs Eau Premiere,  Cristalle vs Cristalle Eau Verte and Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess vs Bronze Goddess Soleil.  When No. 19 Poudre shows up in my local shop I'll give that a whirl too.

Chanel - Cuir de Russie

This is what luxury smells like

Cuir de Russie is the queen of leather fragrances. This gorgeous perfume is the embodiment of luxury today, just as it was when it was created.

First, a little history that will already be familiar to the perfumistas. Cuir de Russie was created by Ernest Beaux in 1927. It was reformulated in 1983 by Jacques Polge and is now part of the Chanel Les Exclusifs line.

Early 20th century Paris culture was very influenced by Russian émigrés and refugees from the revolution in Russia. Chanel's fashions featured Russian embroidered blouses and fur-lined coats. Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel herself is rumoured to have had affairs with Igor Stravinsky and Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich. It was Pavlovich who introduced her to perfumer Ernst Beaux.

Beaux created Cuir de Russie as a perfume for the modern woman; a woman who wore masculine clothes (Coco herself favoured trousers) and who smoked in public. He used the same floral/aldehyde accord from his earlier Chanel No.5, but paired it with a smooth leather note that I assume is the "Albanian birchwood" mentione in the notes. Birch tar was traditionally used in tanneries in Russia. 

The history lesson is over, so what does it smell like? Cuir de Russie smells like smooth grey suede and iris. It's like the inside of a fine leather clutch, one that's held a woman's makeup and her cigarettes. After a little while I smell the aldehydes and the rose/jasmine/ylang ylang combo from No. 5. It seems to open up the suede, but never supersedes it. The drydown is a touch darker and more animalic, but it remains smooth and sophisticated, never raunchy.

Cuir de Russie remains, for me, the ultimate leather perfume. If you want to smell like pure luxury, this is the one to try.

House: Chanel
Nose: Ernest Beaux
Notes: Albanian Birchwood, Jasmine, Oriental Rose, Ylang-Ylang, Tunisian Orange Blossom, Calabrian Bergamot and Sicilian Mandarin.

Photo: National Types Of Beauty - Russia #33, "Sarony Cigarettes - Series of 36 (1928)"

Perfume in the News: The Pre-Christmas Fragrance Wars

There are two interesting articles today.

The first discusses the ramp-up of perfume advertising that starts in September and leads up to the big Christmas sales for perfume and two new video campaigns.

Big name directors are involve in this advertising; and a lot of money has been spent. Guy Ritchie directs an ad starring Jude Law for Dior Homme, and Martin Scorcese directs one for Bleu de Chanel. 

Check them out.

Also, tomorrow the latest from Paco Rabane, Lady Million will launch in the UK, in a bottle shapped like a giant diamond. "Hedonism and opulance" seem to be a contrary reaction to the current climate of financial uncertainty. The article lists some other perfumes that might make you feel powerful this season. ( I can vouch for Tauer's Orange Star, it's lovely.)

Read it here.

Photo: Stuck in Customs