DSH Perfumes: Secrets of Egypt, Part 2 of 3: Cardamom and Kyphi and Antiu

Smell like an Egyptian

Perfumer and aromatherapist Dawn Spencer Hurwitz collaborated with the Denver Art Museum on a set of special perfumes to accompany their 2010-2011 King Tut exhibit, The Secrets of Egypt. The perfumes are only available from the DAM and the DHS web site.

This is the second part of my 3 part review on the Secrets of Egypt collection. See part 1 here.

Cardamom and Khyphi
" probably the most famous of all early Egyptian perfumes handed down to us from antiquity"


The famous Egyptian perfume Kyphi was primarily used as an incense in temples and also as a remedy for ailments like nightmares and snake bites. The Greek physician Dioscorides wrote down one of the earliest surviving recipes for Kyphi. Piny and Plutarch also mentioned it and its various ingredients, which included: wine, honey, raisins, cinnamon and cassia bark, cedar, juniper berry, and resins such as frankincense, myrrh, benzoin, and labdanum.

Cardamom, although not native to Egypt was imported from India in ancient times. It works beautifully with the cinnamon. CaK is mostly cardamom and cinnamon to my nose, with a dry woody base. It's delicious. If you like those spices, I would definitely give it a sniff.

Notes:
Top notes: Cardamom co2 Absolute, Cardamom Seed
Middle notes: Khyphi
Base notes: Khyphi

Antiu (aka Metopian)

Antiu is the name we chose for our modern adaptation of “Metopion”, a famous Egyptian perfume that had been known some 300 years before Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides mentioned it. ... it was widely considered to be “the most exquisite fragrance imaginable, hence the ideal scent”.

Antiu starts with a strong lemongrass note but dries down to something faintly grassy, sweet and balsamic. It's very herbal and the most "natural" smelling of the group.

Notes:
Top notes: Bitter Almond, Cardamom co2 Absolute, Fragrant Wine (accord), Galbanum, Lemongrass
Middle notes: Australian Sandalwood, Gallica Rose Otto, Honey Beeswax
Base notes: Copaiba Balsam, Mastic, Myrrh Gum, Peru Balsam, Pine Resin, Sweet Flag

House: DSH Perfumes, Parfums des Beaux Arts CollectionNose: Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

DSH Perfumes: The Secrets of Egypt Collection, Part 1 of 3: Arome d'Egypte and Keni

Walk like an Egyptian

Perfumer and aromatherapist Dawn Spencer Hurwitz collaborated with the Denver Art Museum on a set of special perfumes to accompany their 2010-2011 King Tut exhibit, The Secrets of Egypt. The perfumes are only available from the DAM and the DHS web site.

This is part one of my 3 part review of the Secrets of Egypt Collection. 

From a limited palette of notes, those that would have been used in ancient Egyptian perfumes, DSH has created a amazing collection of beautiful and wearable fragrances. By using many of the same notes in each, the collection stands together, but each perfumes focuses on a different accord and has its own personality.

Arome d'Egypte (Special Edition)

Inspired by the perfumes of the Pharaohs. 

Arome d'Egypte focuses on the scent of spikenard. Oil from the root of spikenard was prized in the ancient world as a perfume fit for kings. Kept in alabaster vessels, spikenard was a luxury that had to be imported from far away Nepal. Spikenard is mentioned 3 times in the bible's Song of Songs and the New Testament tell us that Mary of Bethany used a whole pound of costly spikenard ointment to annoint Jesus's feet, causing some grumbling about the waste of money amongst the disciples. I've never smelled it, but reportedly spikenard has a sweet/spicy/musky scent and that's what I smell at the heart of Arome d'Egypt.

Arome d'Egypte also uses many other aromatic ingredients from ancient perfumerie, and these notes are equally present. At first I smell frankincense and balsam then later cedar and cinnamon surrounding the herbal spikenard note. It's a very soothing herbal and resin fragrance with a hint of spiciness. Arome d'Egypte is one of two in the collection that I would consider buying myself.

Notes:
Top notes: Cassia
Middle notes: Centifolia Rose Absolute, Egyptian Jasmine Absolute, Spikenard
Base notes: Ambrette Seed, Atlas Cedarwood, Australian Sandalwood, Benzoin, Labdanum No. 3, Myrrh Gum, Olibanum (Frankincense), Peru Balsam

Keni (aka the Medesian / the Egyptian)

Keni (which means embrace) is the name we chose for our modern adaptation of “the Medesian”. ...Especially popular during Ptolomeic period, it is said that Cleopatra scented her feet with the Mendesian

Keni has a strong cinnamon note that is the star of the show, supported by cardamom. It dries down to base of myrrh with a hint of cinnamon. I think it would be nice to have my feet smell like Keni, but it's not a perfume I would wear often.

Notes:
Top notes: Bitter Almond, Cardamom co2 Absolute, Cassia, Cinnamon Bark
Middle notes: Australian Sandalwood, Benzoin, Fragrant Wine (accord)
Base notes: Atlas Cedarwood, Myrrh Gum, Pine Resin

House: DSH Perfumes, Parfums des Beaux Arts Collection
Nose: Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

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.
 

Rochas - Femme Rochas

Too much of a good thing... can be wonderful

According to the Rochas web site, Marcel Rochas was inspired in his bottle selection for Femme Rochas by the hips of Mae West. The perfume itself resembles the famous hollywood actress – over-the-top, sensual, sassy, spicy and very womanly.

Femme Rochas was created in 1944 by the young perfumer Edmond Roudnitska, one of the 20th century's most famous perfumers, who went on to create the best lily of the valley perfume ever, Diorissimo.  Rochas wanted a perfume that exuded sensuality and was unforgettable. Rounditska proposed a new direction from the popular leather-tobacco, green chypres of the day – a fruity-chypre with spices.

My sample of Femme Rochas EDP opens with a sharp sour fruit note, while still wet, that passes quickly. It could be the bergamot, which I'm having a problem with lately. But after that, the peach and plum fruits take over. They're wonderful and covered in spices. I smell the cumin and a tiny bit of cinnamon and I thought maybe cardamon as well, but that might be me associating cumin with Indian spices. The reformulation in 1989, by Oliver Cresp, apparently added the cumin note. Cumin in perfume can be divisive, but I guess I'm on the "love it" side. In Femme Rochas, it adds a sensual, personal skin note that's very sexy. It makes the luscious fruit warm, but never sticky sweet.

Under the stone fruit and spices is a chypre base. It's earthy and dry and woody with a touch of smooth sweetness. Fragrantica lists leather in the base notes,  but I don't smell it. Maybe leather was part of the original formula, which would make sense if Roudnitska was playing with the leather chypre ideas of perfumes like Tabac Blond or Bandit, released the same year.

Some may find Femme Rochas to be too much; it certainly isn't as light as many of today's releases, but I think it's divine. Femme Rochas is all woman and maybe you'd like to come up and see her sometime.

House: Rochas
Nose: Edmond Roudnitska (original) Oliver Cresp (reformulation)
Notes: Top: Bergamot oil, Peach notes, Plum notes Heart: Jasmine absolute, Bulgarian rose oil, cumin oil Base: Oakmoss absolute, Patchouli oil, Vanilla extract

Photo: Mae West

Caron - Royal Bain de Caron

Wine gums and vanilla powder

My leather posts have led me down the path of some older perfumes, the Grand Old Dames I like to call them.  So I thought I would just go with the flow. All the Grand Old Dames I review are modern versions, not vintage, unless I otherwise say otherwise.

Royal Bain de Caron was created in 1941, according to the Caron website:

"To satify the whims of a California billionaire seeking a fragrance to replace the champagne with which he scented his extravagant bath..."

Caron's web site also says it is now selling Royal Bain de Caron as a bath scent again. That's telling.

The opening of RBdC is sweet and fizzy and smells like wine gums. There is a vanilla powder with this that may be from benzoin. After an hour or so I get the faintest hint of an indolic jasmine maybe that unfortunately doesn't last. The dry down is a whisper of cedar.

I think this might be very nice in a bath product, but it's not for me as a perfume.

House: Caron
Nose: Ernest Daltroff
Notes: lilac, cedar, sandalwood

Photo: ecstaticist