Diptyque Jardin Clos

My Secret Garden

As the days get warmer and the sun returns to Toronto, we all smile a little more. Green shoots that will soon reveal brightly-coloured blooms are just starting to push their way out of the dark soil but it will still be a month before the our branches are covered in blossoms. I want to wear Spring flowers now, like narcissus, lilacs and tulips, but especially hyacinths. These flowers are sweet but not too sweet. They're "thick" smelling to me, like their waxy petals, but they also have dry, green, spicy, and metallic edges to them.

Diptyque Jardin Clos is inspired by the smell of a walled garden in the Spring. After a lightly-sweet and dewy opening, the rich diva smell of lilacs and and the sharper green-spicy smell of hyacinth are laid over a bed of leaves, moss and a touch of the woody, earthy smell of cedar.

Jardin Clos doesn't seem to get a lot of love in the blogs. This first time I smelled it I wasn't impressed either. I think the smell of hyacinth is a difficult one to love. But this year I put it on and it was exactly the right thing.

Jardin Clos smells like the springs of my childhood, full of rubber boots, pussy willows and puddles and hours spent exploring the wilds of woodlots and back gardens.

House: Diptyque
Nose: Yves Coueslant and Christiane Gautror
Notes: watermelon, white lilac, blue hyacinth, leaves, moss, cedar, musk

Tommi Sooni Tarantella

New Vintage from Down Under

Tommi Sooni is a fairly new Australian perfume house working in the style of  traditional French perfumery. All its perfume bottles are hand finished and packaged. It currently has four perfumes; Tarantella was the first.

Tarantella is an floral leather chypre with a vintage feel. It immediately made me think of the classic perfume by Germaine Cellier, Jolie Madame. It has that same elegant feel.

Tarantella starts with aldehydes and green galbanum. The heart is a classic bouquet of rose, orris, jasmine, where you can't really smell any of the flowers distinctly, but it smells divine and like money. The florals are kept from being sweet by the dry-spicy smell of marigold and bay.

The chypre base is my favourite part of Tarantella. It's detectable right from the beginning, a smooth leather with wood and heaps of moss. When I wear it I can't stop sniffing my wrists, I love that dry moss and soft leather so much. Another perfume by Germaine Cellier it brings to mind is Bandit, but the leather in Tarantella is smoother, more the "inside of a handbag" kind.

Tarantella is a must-try for all chypre lovers, or vintage lovers. It would suit a strong woman or an elegant man.

House: Tommi Sooni
Nose: ?
Notes: Aldehydes, galbanum, orange blossom, French marigold, Sicilian mandarin, Frangipani, muguet, jasmine, orris, Anatolian rose, bay laurel, clove, Patchouli, amber, leather, moss, sandalwood, intense musk

Parfum d'Empire Azemour les Orangers

The New Vintage

As 2011 drew to a close, I was in a perfume funk. I had started to believe that there was nothing new in perfume that would interest me. Stunt perfumes, such as those supposed to smell like blood or semen or industrial factories, bore me. It takes more skill to make a perfume that is novel and smells great. Also on my pet peeve list are high concept perfumes like those that limit themselves to a small number of accords. Nothing is more annoying to me than art that comes with a manifesto.

I've also become disenchanted with vintage perfumes. While I love the boldness of some older perfumes, the oakmoss heavy chypres and dry green chypres, the leather and tobacco, most of the old beauties are gone forever. There were a couple of gems I found last year, like my bottles of Bandit and Vacances, but most vintage I tried isn't the same. I've come to know well the smell of perfume "gone off."

But when I smelled Azemour les Orangers, I realized there is a new category of perfume for me to love: the New Vintage. Azemour is a perfume that is perfectly modern; it has distinct, recognizable notes and sheer layers that feel as if light is shining through them. But it combines the modern style with the vintage feel of a really mossy base. It's the best of both worlds.

Azemour was created to recall the Morroco of the perfumer's childhood: the spices, the orange groves, the dry desert winds and grasses. It smells of bright young oranges and ancient places.

There is a lot going on in Azemour. Every time I sniff my wrist I smell a new facet of the perfume. Azemour has a juicy citrus burst, with spices in the opening. The bright orange and hay notes are like my favourite Bigarade Concentree. After that, the smell of green leaves is created with galbanum and blackcurrant, reminding me fleetingly of L'Ombre dand l'Eau. The heart notes are mostly neroli and orange blossom. But it's the base notes that make Azamour special. A huge amount of moss is present right from the beginning. It's almost musty, and I think that might put some people off, but if you love mossy chypres, you'll probably like Azemour.  The moss is grounded with cypress and a very detectable caraway note that I think makes this a more unisex perfume.

If you have ever grieved the loss of oakmoss-heavy vintage perfumes, give Azemour a try. There are still some perfumers out there making really mossy perfumes.

House: Parfum d'Empire
Nose: Marc-Antoine Corticchiato
Notes: orange, clementine, tangerine, grapefruit, coriander, cumin, black pepper, pink pepper, blackcurrant, galbanum, neroli, geranium, orange blossom, rose, hay, moss, henna and cypress

Parfumerie Generale - Papyrus de Ciane

Falling Hard

I first tried Papyrus de Ciane in 2010 and was unimpressed. Oh what a difference a year makes. Papyrus de Ciane is my new obsession. It is everything. It is all I am wearing and all I want to smell. It is perfect on men and women; the anti-pink perfume.

The Ciane

The Ciane is a river in southern Sicily where the only wild papyrus flourishes. The area is the largest wild growth of papyrus in EuropeNo one knows who brought the plants there. Were they presents from Ptolemy II to King Hiero of Syracuse or were they brought later by Greeks, Romans or Arabs?

Mythology has it that it was on this spot that Pluto opened a passage to Hades and kidnapped poor Persephone down into the underworld. Her bereft playmate, the nymph Cyane, mourned her so much that she literally cried herself a river. In the 19th century, it was as de rigueur for young Europeans to take a boat to the source of the Ciane on their Grand Tour as it was to visit Il Duomo or any Roman ruin.  They would float in wooden rowboats among the reeds that rose six feet tall, just like on the Nile, and contemplate romantic stories of the Greek gods.


Pierre Guillaume has created an intense green perfume to celebrate these intense green plumes. He also create it to be a modern interpretation of the legendary perfume base "Mousse de Saxe."

Mousse de Saxe

Mousse de Saxe is a dark, sweet mossy-woody accord with green freshness and a deep powdery drydown. According to Octavian Coifan, the original was created by Marie Thérèse de Laire in the early 20th century. It was meant to provide a moss or chypre base note to perfumes. On Bois de Jasmine I learn that Ernest Daltroff of Caron used a dark mossy base accord of geranium, licorice, leather, iodine, and vanillin that was called Mousse de Saxe. Whatever it's origin, Mousse de Saxe was used in or referenced by such great perfumes as Nuit de Noel, Habanita, Bois des Iles and Chanel No. 19. And now the name Mousse de Saxe belongs to Pierre Guillaume, because it lapsed into the public domain and was bought by Parfumerie Generale.

So What's It Smell Like?

In Papyrus de Ciane, Pierre Guillame has taken out the sweetness and turned up the green. It opens with a bright, bitter green note. Gods, it is so bitter; I adore it. If you love the biting galbanum of vintage Bandit or Chanel No. 19, wait till you get a load of this.

With the green, sinking down to dark depths like the pool surrounding the reeds, are grassy vetiver-like notes, sheer woody notes and smoky incense-like notes. A soft mossy base cushions your landing.

Like the vintage perfumes, Papyrus de Ciane has personality and real depth but it contemplates the historic base but from a thoroughly modern perspective. They layers are sheer, the colours distinct. It's close to the skin and very wearable.

According to a Grain de musc interview, Pierre Guillaume composes his perfumes to be loved. Baby, it's working.

House: Parfumerie Generale
Nose: Pierre Guillaume
Notes: Galbanum, Broom, Mild Plant Note, Creamy Wood, Mousse de Saxe

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

Falling hard for a sunny beauty

Fleur de Narcisse, 2006 was created by L'Artisan Parfumeur as one of their "Exception Harvests" perfumes. These special-edition perfumes were created in limited quantity from a particular natural harvest and are meant to showcase the material and also the region, the way that certain vintages of wine reflect in their aroma and flavour the soil they came from. Fleur de Narcisse features a heady absolute made from narcissus, hand picked on June 6th and 7th, 2005, from the volcanic soil of Lozère, France. Only 3,000 bottles were made.

Luckily, my local perfume shop has a bottle of this gem. I first took a sniff of Fleur de Narcisse about two years ago but I was unimpressed. I don't know what I was thinking, because I tried a few sprays on my arm again this weekend and I am gone, baby gone. Fleur de Narcisse is marvelous.

It starts with the tart green smell of black currants and leaves, then blooms into big, sunny daffodils. Narcissus is one of my favourite notes in perfume. It has a honey-sweet side but also a waxy, thick smell and an earthiness. The narcissus in Fleur de Narcisse does seem to have an ashy quality, like the volcanic soil they grew in, thanks to the use of a gorgeous smoky leather note.

But as soon as I have recognized leather and smoke a gorgeous sweet, herbaceous hay note takes over. For an few minutes it's as if I am standing in a shaft of sunlight in a warm barn. I can smell hay all around me and a leather saddle nearby. Then, the honeyed daffodils come back and leave me smiling. It's a cheerful perfume.

The next day the scent left on my sweater is almost gourmand. Maybe it's the honey-sweet narcissus and the spicy hyacinth lingering? But, although they aren't listed, it smells to me like the cinnamon sweetness of tolu or the sweet nuttiness of tonka.

In any case, Fleur de Narcisse is big hit with both me and my husband. It might have taken me a couple of years to appreciate it, but now I'm hooked and saving for a full bottle.

House: L'Artisan Parfumeur
Nose: Anne Flipo
Notes: narcissus, hay, hyacinth, violet leaf, blond tobacco, iris, blackcurrant bud, moss and leather

Painting: J.W. Waterhouse, Echo and Narcissus, 1903

Atelier Cologne - Trèfle Pur

The luck of the Irish all day long

To celebrate March, the green month, and the upcoming hootenanny that is St. Patrick's day, I am wearing Atelier Cologne's Trèfle Pur today. I feel the need for green to get me through what is usually a not-so green month in Ontario. And a little four-leaf clover luck wouldn't hurt either.

A burst of freshness perked me up right away when I dabbed on Trèfle Pur. A "cologne absolute," Trèfle Pur contains 18% essential oils, which makes is much longer lasting than traditional colognes and it has better sillage. It was love at first sniff. Trèfle Pur is amazing and I only wish that I hadn't waited almost a year to try my sample.

Atelier Cologne only just started in 2010. Trèfle Pur is one of 6 perfumes they offer. To me, Trèfle Pur is an example of the best of modern perfumery. High quality, an interesting composition, and a sheer touch that lets all the notes shine individually yet also combine into a harmonious whole, are some of the hallmarks of the great modern perfume. I love being able to pick out the individual smells of bitter orange, violet leaf, and  neroli, even as they work together like voices in a choir.

Trèfle Pur starts like a sunrise over green fields and winds up in the soft grey dusk, The opening notes combine a bright bitter orange with a green grassy note. The gorgeous green of the cologne comes from clover absolute, and the spicy greeness of violet leaves and basil. As it warms on the skin, wafts of aromatic cardamom and and a lovely floral neroli lift the green off my skin and swirl around me, like an afternoon in a garden. In the dry down, a cuddly musk and a grey mossy feeling comfort me.

Trèfle Pur is almost a combination of two of my favourite Frederic Malle perfumes, Bigarade Concentrée and Angéliques sous le pluie. It has the beautiful bitter orange opening of Bigarade and the spicy, musky, greeness of Angéliques. It is perfect for men and women who are looking for something fresh and green.

I also appreciate the way Trèfle Pur seems to tell a story and set a mood. It creates an olfactory image, a character, that each person can make their own. The marketing images created for each cologne in the collection reflect this story-telling aspect of the perfume. You can see the example for Trèfle Pur, above. I love them; I think they are some of the best perfume ads I've ever seen.

House: Atelier Cologne
Nose: Jerome Epinette
Notes: Top notes: Bitter orange, cardamon, basil
Heart notes: Clover absolute, violet leaves, Tunisian neroli
Base notes: Patchouli, moss, musk

Parfums Nicolaï - Le Temps d'une Fête

Daffodils bloom in a sunny glade, surrounded by the dappled shade of mossy green woods

Parfums Nicolaï was created by Patricia de Nicolaï and her husband Jean-Louis Michau. Patricia comes from a distinguished family of perfumers, the Guerlain's. Her great-grandfather was Director of Guerlain and she was trained as a perfumer by her uncle, Jean-Paul Guerlain.

Patricia started her company to create "haute-couture" perfume - perfume that is not controlled by the marketers and their briefs, but instead allows the perfumer complete freedom to express herself, to use high quality ingredients and to manage the creation from idea right through to production.

Le Temps d'une Fête must be Patricia's idea of a walk in springtime. You can see in the notes, taken from her web site, how she envisions the perfume's development, from green leaves, to white flowers to animal/woody base. It's my favourite perfume structure, the chypre, and it's been done beautifully, so classic and yet so pretty and approachable.

LTdF starts with a sweet, bright fruit, like lemons and apricots. After a few minutes, the galbanum comes out. I'm really starting to love galbanum, it has a slightly bitter, spicy greeness; it's all leaves and stems. Another thing I love about this scent is that I don't have to wait until the drydown for the moss; it's right up top, nice green mossiness, like you've plunked yourself down under a mossy tree to enjoy the sunshine.

In the heart is the thick, yellow-pollen smell of daffodil and the waxy, lightly spicy hyacinth. It's like Easter.  Everything is held in perfect balance, the florals shine, a little fruit is still there but it never gets too sweet. Everyting is dappled by green leaves and the shadow cast by mossy branches. The base has lovely oakmoss and wood. My favourite part is sniffing my wrist in the far-drydown and smelling that deep mossy wood. As far as I am concerned, it's not a chypre without oakmoss and I hope that LTdF is never reformulated to conform to annoying IFRA rules.

Even with the high quality and creativity of her scents, Parfums Nicolaï manages to offer perfumes at a reasonable price. I especially appreciate the option to buy in smaller bottles of 30 ml, which makes collecting them so much more affordable!

House: Parfums de Nicolaï
Nose: Patricia de Nicolai
Notes:
Top notes : Green notes : galbanum, opoponax (sweet myrrh), mousse d’arbre (tree moss)
Heart : white flowers : jacinthe (hyacinth) and narcisse (narcissus)
Bottom notes : Animal and woody : bois de santal (sandalwood), patchouli, mousse de chêne (oakmoss)

Photo: bortescristian

Ormonde Jayne - Tiare

A lush tropical flower blooms in a classic chypre structure

Tiare, by Ormonde Jayne, is my "desert island" perfume. By that, I mean that if I had to take only one bottle of perfume with me to a deserted island, I would choose my bottle of Tiare.

I spent my honeymoon in Bora Bora in French Polynesia - a beautiful volcanic island with a hallucinogenically perfect lagoon. The tiare flower is the national flower of French Polynesia and related to the gardenia. Visitors to Bora Bora are greeted with chains of tiare flowers and each evening the bed in our bungalow was perfumed with scattered tiare flowers. Tiare is the perfume I often choose to sleep in - the one which gives me good dreams.

Funny thing, even though Tiare, the perfume, features the native Polynesian tiare flower, the fragrance actually smells nothing like what one would imagine a "South Pacific" perfume would smell like. There's no coconut, no vanilla, no sparkling ocean, nothing in the perfume to evoke the place the flower came from. Instead, creator Linda Pilkington chose to take the precious tiare oil she sourced for the perfume and put it into a composition that highlights the lush flower itself and pays tribute to the classic chypre stucture of perfumery.

A chypre is a perfume that begins with citrus notes, ends with a mossy/woody/musky base and usually has some kind of florals in the middle. This family of perfumes is named for the original Coty, Chypre from 1917. The moss in the base is particularly important, lending it a certain bitterness that is divine. Recent  and controversial restrictions on the use of oak moss and other tree mosses by the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) have caused some classic chypre perfumes to be reformulated, much to the distress of perfume fanatics. Somehow, Linda Pilkington has managed to retain that true bitter, wonderful mossiness in Tiare and, as I mentioned in my Woman review, she says she will never reformulate. Thank goodness.

Tiare begins with fresh citrus notes that really lift the perfume. I often get compliments on it in this top phase. Tiare is not a "linear" perfume, it has a progression through different phases of its structure, but all the main elements are there from the beginning. The rich, waxy-petaled tiare, smelling like gardenia and the moss are there behind the citrus at the top but they also take turns at centre stage later, each in their own time. After the citrus fades the tiare/gardenia shines, white and narcotic against a deep green smell, just like the real flower does against its own foliage. The drydown is my favourite part, the moss and wood last forever on my skin and keep me coming back to snuffle my wrist again and again.

I have one, teensy confession though. It pains me to admit this about a perfume I love, but I think I may be anosmic to one of the musks used in Tiare. There is one point in middle of the perfume's progression that I get the feeling I am smelling a hole, a gap, an absence through the middle of the perfume, around which the gardenia seems to peep. It's a strange sensation that goes away later but, nevertheless, Tiare is still my "if I could only have one" perfume.

House: Ormonde Jayne
Nose: Linda Pilkington
Notes:
Top: Mandarin, orange flower and sicilian lime
Heart: Tiare, freesia, water lilies, jasmine, orris and ylang
Base: Cedar, vetiver, sandalwood, patchouli, moss and musk


Photo: troymckaskle