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

Violet Week: Balmain - Jolie Madame

Why Grandma, what big violets you have!

"Jolie Madame is a homage to woman in all the splendour of her charm, her experience, her appetite for life. I created Jolie Madame for a woman whose sense of adventure allowed her to follow her desires to their ultimate conclusion; to accede, in all her sensuality, to freedom of choice and a sense of being in control of every situation. For women whose uncompromising nature and taste for discovery and risk-taking gives them a love of adventure. Jolie Madame is the fragrance of adventure."  - Pierre Balmain

Jolie Madame was created in 1953 by the famous perfumer Germaine Cellier, who also created my beloved Bandit. Like Bandit, Jolie madame is a bold leather chypre, but where Bandit is green galbanum, leather and naughtiness, Jolie Madame is green violets, leather and smooth sophistication.

Jolie Madame is one of those classic perfumes that perfumistas rave about in vintage formula and grieve the recent re-formulations. Well, I've never smelled the vintage, but however wonderful it may have been, I think the current formulation is terrific. Violet perfumes aren't as popular now as they once were, and leather chypres are rare as well.  I bought my bottle of EdT this year at a discount, which I fervently hope is not a sign that Balmain is planning to discontinue it or change it too much.

On first spray, I smell a combination of aldehydes, violets and a sachet of dried rose petals, that has me thinking "Hello, Grandma." The opening of Jolie Madame has that old-fashioned perfumey smell that no doubt will make many think "old lady perfume." But hang on, because Grandma has a few surprises up her perfectly tailored sleeve.

The heart of Jolie Madame is the smoothest, buttery suede like the inside of a leather pocketbook that held makeup and violet pastilles. The leather creeps in like a shadow over the violets. Around the edges of the leather I can still smell the grassy, green violets, but I also smell a bouquet of rose, jasmine, iris and tuberose. The leather is slightly smoky, maybe Grandma had some cigarettes in that pocketbook as well.

The far dry down is just as lovely, the cedar, moss, vetiver and violet leaf leave a woody, earthy, mossy, slightly grassy smell like the best fairytale forest, dotted with violets. To me, Jolie Madame is anything but "old lady." It makes me feel sophisticated, powerful and slightly wicked, as leather perfumes do. Jolie Madame isn't actually Grandma at all, she's the Big Bad Wolf.

House: Balmain
Nose: Germaine Cellier
Notes:
Head notes: Petitgrain, Cloves, Neroli
Heart notes: Jasmine absolute, Orange blossom, Violet leaves, Tuberose absolute, Lilac
Base notes: Oakmoss, Patchouli essence, Tobacco, Cedarwood

It's Violet Week! Check out the violet reviews at Muse In Wooden Shoes and Redolent of Spices.

Opus Oils - Dirty, Sexy, Wilde

I can resist everything except temptation.

Opus Oils created Dirty, Sexy, Wilde to mark the one year anniversary of the opening of their Jitterbug Perfume Parlour. According to them, it was inspired by turn of the century perfume formulas for handkerchiefs.

To go with that turn of the century inspiration, they chose the image and name of the famous wit, the Irish writer, Oscar Wilde.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Dirty, Sexy, Wilde is, in fact, dirty and sexy. The green galbanum has an almost pine-like smell in the beginning. It's tarted-up with a little mandarin, then eases into a heart of dirty jasmine. It's also very animalic, right from the start; if you don't like civet be forewarned. It dries down to a lovely warm, floral, musky leather and salty skin. Dirty, Sexy, Wilde is like a warm and very rumpled bed, or the skin on your lover's neck the next morning. It's wonderfully indecent and charming at the same time. Pure sex.

House: Opus Oils
Nose: Kendra Hart
Notes: Galbanum, Red Mandarin, Violet, Rose, Night Jasmine, Blond Tobacco, Oakmoss, Coumarin, Musk, Civet and Ambergris

Opus Oils - Jitterbug

The day I realized I was a jasmine slut

Opus Oils opened their flagship store, the "Jitterbug Perfume Parlour," in glamorous Hollywood, California, in 2008. Joshua Hart, Co-Creator of Opus Oils’ Jitterbug Perfume Parlour describes the baroque looking store as

“... a cross between the movie “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” and the book “Jitterbug Perfume.” Mix that with the TV show “Hart to Hart,” sprinkle it with “Moulin Rouge” and then add a dash of Flapper Speakeasy Culture.”

Sounds like fun, huh? I'd love to visit. The grand opening also marked the debut of their perfume, Jitterbug.

If you've never read the book Jitterbug Perfume, by Tom Robbins, and you like perfume, you must pick it up, it's a weird and wonderful romp. The story follows one ancient god, two immortal lovers, three perfumers and a crazy Irish man obsessed with immortality. The key to everlasting life may just be a holy grail perfume built around a note of incredible jasmine (and a secret ingredient in the base).

Jitterbug contains four different jasmine absolutes and opens with a strong note of "poopy" jasmine. The scent of jasmine, as well as that of gardenia, orange blossom and some other flowers, contains molecules called "indoles" that have a fecal smell. When a perfume review says "indolic" they mean that the dirty edge of the flower is discernible in the perfume. I assume this is attractive to insects, but weirdly, it is also part of what makes these flowers sexy to human noses. It turns out we like a little nasty in our sublime.

It was when I discovered that I was still enjoying Jitterbug, poopiness and all, that I realized how far gone I am. I am a jasmine slut. I adore jasmine and all of it's beauty and baseness and I can't get enough. I love it when it's green and virginal like in Love and Tears, Surrender; I love it when it makes me dizzy with gasoline fumes like in Jasmine Full and I love its funkiness in Jitterbug.

There's a hint of lemon the cut the thickness, but the funk lasts a good half hour before it resolves into just beautiful jasmine blossoms. Under the jasmine is lovely creamy sandalwood and warm, sweet, salty ambergris that smells like skin.  The ambergris is "beach found" which means it is real, natural whale vomit and thus extremely rare. Yet another something that sounds gross but is actually divine.

Opus Oils perfumes are all handmade with an emphasis on "natural" ingredients. They all have a base of coconut oil. I've never worn an oil-based perfume before, but it absorbs nicely, leave my skin soft, and seems to last a long time. There isn't much sillage from my little dabbings but even the next morning, my wrists still have a pleasant musky sweetness left from the ambergris with a hint of flowers. If there was a flower that could point one in the direction of immortality, I think it would be jasmine and wearing a little Jitterbug perfume behind the ears can't hurt.

House: Opus Oils
Nose: Kedra Hart
Notes: Four different kinds of Jasmine absolute, Honeysuckle, Lemon Essence, Orange Blossom, "Beach Found" Ambergris, Blond Tobacco & Sandalwood

Ayala Moriel - Espionage and Rainforest

A spy walks in the forest

I'm not that familiar with natural perfumes. Ayala Moriel creates ready to wear and bespoke natural perfumes from pure botanical essences. Her perfumes start very strong, but mellow quickly and I was surprised at the complexity of the fragrances.

Espionage starts with a strong note of peat fire. A swirl of smoke and peat reminds me of whiskey, and maybe the person with the dram also has a lit cigar. After a few minutes the fire and smoke give way to a sweet vanilla and tobacco that lasts a long time. Very nice.

Rainforest starts with a strong mossy green with undertones of leaves and mulch. It is amazingly like walking in a forest, with the leaves and dirt under your feet and the trees dripping with water around you. After a few minutes an uplifting bergamot shines through like a beam of sunlight.

I smell green galbanum throughout the day, my favourite, and some rose in the heart. In the far drydown you can really smell the beautiful hay absolute. Gorgeous.

House: Ayala Moriel
Nose: Ayala Moriel

Notes:
Espionage: Ambrette (Musk) Seed , Bergamot , Guiacwood Jasmine Grandiflorum , Leather Notes, Orris Root Rose Otto (Turkey), Tabac Blond, Vanilla Absolute Virginia Cedarwood

Rainforest: Bergamot , Virginia Cedarwood, Orris Root, Pine , Rose Otto (Bulgaria), Rosewood, Spikenard, Spruce Black, Violet Leaf, Galbanum, Ginger, Hay Absolute, Juniper Berry, Oakmoss


Photos: ozjimbob and vladeb

P Frapin & Cie - Caravelle Epicée

Take a voyage on a spice ship

The Frapin family has been creating wines and cognac in France since 1270, through 20 generations. It may seem odd at first, that the company started a line of perfumes, but there are many similarities between Cognac and perfume. Both share a long, proud history in France; both rely on the skill and creativity of great craftsmen; and both represent the ideal of luxury and physical pleasure. Also, the quality of both depends on the quality of their ingredients. In the far history of perfume, those ingredients were often imported from far away by explorers and traders.

Caravelle  Epicée recalls the voyages of the spice trader ships of the 15th and 16th centuries. The caravel was a vessel of great importance at this time, developed in Iberia it was used by Portuguese and Spanish explorers along the west coast of Africa and in numerous voyages around South Africa in attempts to reach India. It was also used to cross the Atlantic - the Nina and the Pinta of Christopher Columbus's famous voyage to the new world were most probably caravels.

The perfume opens with a big blast of spices, like walking in the hold of a ship filled with barrels of precious ingredients from exotic lands. The spices are dry and hot, with a lot of cumin, nutmeg and pepper. I also smell smoky wood, which makes me imaging the barrels themselves and the planks of the ship. After the initial desert wind of spices, a boozy vanilla note can be detected - maybe a barrel of finely distilled spirits is on this voyage as well.

If Caravelle  Epicée stayed with those notes I would be ordering a bottle today, but alas, it does some other strange things on my skin. I want it to be a cozy cashmere blanket, and it insists on being a bracing day on a rough sea. There is a slightly sour, dill pickle note that pops up on me when I'm least expecting it. And it has a very salty quality in the drydown that, while perfectly appropriate for a sea-going vessel, is not so much what I'm looking for in a perfume.

I'd like to smell Caravelle  Epicée on a man, I think it might be amazing in a pirate sort of way. 

House: P Frapin & Cie
Nose: Jeanne-Marie Faugier
Notes: Coriander, nutmeg, hot pepper, pepper, thyme, Gaiac wood, patchouli, amber, tobacco, sandalwood

Serge Lutens - Fumerie Turque

Istanbul smoke

Here's another tobacco perfume from my collection. I love a good tobacco scent in the fall. It's a comfort scent; it makes me feel like flannel shirts and kicking through piles of golden leaves on a sunny day.

Fumerie Turque recreates the smell of a Turkish smoking salon. I've been to Turkey but unfortunately never went to any of the cafes in Instanbul where patrons smoke nargile, a water pipe. A popular fixture of Turkish culture and a place to relax and chat with friends and strangers, these shops have recently suffered from a 2009 ban on indoor smoking. As far as I can tell from reading, it seems they now mostly have patrons partake outdoors on patios.

The nargile tobacco at these shops is frequently favoured with fruit. Fumerie Turque uses Serge Lutens famous stewed fruit accord well here, combining it with a light blond tobacco note that seems to float above like smoke. The perfume is this perfectly balanced between the sweet and the bitter, the dark and the light, the heavy and the weightless. The tobacco seems both dryly herbal and sticky fresh. It reminds me of pipe tobacco and the smell of my uncle's pipe.

In the drydown, the fruit becomes honey and the patchouli in the base is an earthy chocolate with only the tinge of bitterness from the tobacco to keep it from being gourmand. I highly recommend Fumerie Turque for anyone who loves the smell of tobacco. And you can use it indoors.


House: Serge Lutens
Nose: Christopher Sheldrake
Notes: honey, juniper berries, tonka bean, chamomile, patchouli, vanilla, jasmine leaf, turkish rose, red currant, tobacco, styrax and suede

Photo: robokow

Molinard - Habanita

Happiness is a good cigar

"Divine in hookas, glorious in a pipe
When tipp'd with amber, mellow, rich, and ripe;
Like other charmers, wooing the caress
More dazzlingly when daring in full dress;
Yet thy true lovers more admire by far
Thy naked beauties–give me a cigar!"
–Lord Byron, "The Island"

Molinard was founded in 1849 in Grasse, France, and boasts of being the oldest, entirely family-run, business in France, right through to the present day.

In 1921 Molinard created Habanita "the perfume for cigarettes." Chic Parisiennes applied the perfume to their cigarettes. Enough women must have been dabbing it on themselves as well, because in 1924 it was re-released as a perfume and became "the world's most long lasting perfume." It still comes in a beautiful art nouveau style bottle, a replica of the original Lalique design.

Habanita is quite strong at first, and has significant sillage, so watch out if you work in environment where you need to be careful about these things. It opens with a sharp, bitter tobacco, an earthy vetiver, and a very powdery vanilla with just a hint of rose. After a few minutes, the tobacco smooths out, gets rounder, and takes on a sweet leather aspect. My my favourite part is later in the dry down, when Habanita becomes the perfect scent of a fine, unlit cigar.

Imagine dusting yourself all over with vanilla-scented baby powder, curling up in a wood-panelled library on an old leather chair, then opening a wooden cigar box with fresh cigars and inhaling. That's Habanita. And it does last forever – it's still a great tobacco scent on my skin far into the evening.

I hope Molinard and Habanita remain the same for many years to come.

House: Molinard
Nose:
Notes: Top notes are orange blossom, raspberry, peach and bergamot; middle notes are lilac, orris root, jasmine, heliotrope, ylang-ylang and rose; base notes are leather, amber, musk, benzoin, vanilla, oakmoss and cedar.


Photo: sgirolimetto

Caron - Tabac Blond

I wish I knew her when

Caron's Tabac Blond was created in 1919, a "deliberately provocative¹" perfume for the chic, liberated women of that era, women who smoked in public. It borrowed leather notes from masculine perfumes and combined them with tobacco and vanilla. Tabac Blond informed the great leather perfumes that came after, like Cuir de Russie, Bandit and Cabochard.

According to Luca Turin in Perfumes, The Guide, Tabac Blond was a stunner in her time. Now she barely registers. I spilled half of my sample vial on my arm, and I could still barely smell it. Very soft tobacco and smoky leather notes open the perfume, and hint at what it should be, but they fade to a powdery amber with no presence at all.

What once was for a woman who wished to be provocative, Tabac Blond is now the perfect fragrance for one who's afraid to be.


House: Caron
Nose: Ernest Daltroff (original), Richard Fraysse (reformualtion)
Notes: leather, iris, cedar


¹ From the Caron website.
 

Parfums Grès - Cabochard

A once beautiful woman

Cabochard, the first perfume from the fashion house of Grès, was released in 1959 and had it's 50th anniversary in 2009. I've never smelled the original juice, just the modern bottle I bought this year in a discount store. It's too bad. Luca Turin, in Perfumes, The Guide, says "Cabochard was once the greatest leather chypre of all."

One of the things I find most interesting in the history of Cabochard is that Madame Grès originally wanted to release a lighter, floral perfume, but was convinced to go with the leathery, green-chypre because the more popular perfumes then on the market were stronger, like Bandit. What a change from the way things are today! How I wish that things were now as they were then and more perfumes like Cabochard were being released.

Cabochard uses the same chemical, isobutyl quinoline, to create its leather note that Bandit and Cuir de Russie both use.  In Cabochard, the leather is much softer and  it has less (almost no discernable) oakmoss. I like the soft tobacco and leather notes that I catch in my sillage, but these two notes seem to hover over a green base that, when I sniff closely, is thin and a little synthetic smelling.

My husband says he smells dandelions, which I think means he is smelling the tobacco and green notes, combined to make him think of sweet green weeds.

I don't think it's bad. I'd rather wear it than any of the water lily, peony, melon perfumes on the market, and most of the patchroses as well. But Cabochard is not as wickedly beautiful as it must once have been.

House: Parfums Grès
Nose: Bernard Chant
Notes: Galbanum, ylang ylang, rose, jasmine, oak moss, vetiver, musk, patchouli.

Photo: Madame Alix Grès, for Harper's Bazaar, February 1964