White Peonies

Today I discovered that white peonies not only smell different than the pink or red ones; they are also well worth bending over and perhaps even injuring your back on the way to inhale their delicate perfume.
Trying to describe it, all I can say is that white peonies smell like lily of the valley with a hint of carnation and an even tinier hint of rose. Beautiful is an understatement. The scent was so heavenly I had to keep my nose buried in the cellophane-wrapped bouquet all the way home, ignoring the staring faces of passersby who probably wondered why there's an astronaut walking up Robson Strasse.

Amber & Ginger, Part Two

rizaulait+gingembre, originally uploaded by auntie_jo.

A month ago, I shared with you my craving for ginger and amber, together. Now experiencing the sequel of the same flu (been traveling around the city I hear, with two phases, thankfully the second is less aggressive than the first) - my ginger & amber craving has come a full circle.
In the last three or four days, I have been wearing my second mod for this amber and ginger perfume concept. This ons is so simple it’s almost ridiculous to even consider it a perfume yet. But it works as a skeletal stage for something bigger and better. I hope.
All it has is my amber base no.3, with organic ginger CO2 and an extra boost of styrax added. Since there is already styrax in the amber formula, don’t even consider it an additional element or note... The amber base includes plenty of styrax, plus benzoin, vanilla, tonka bean and two different labdanums. It’s a sheer sweet amber, simple and easy going.

It wears nicely on the skin, even if a little too soft. I would like to see more of a dichotomy between a zingy bite in the opening, and a deep, rich, caramel-like at the base.

When I was searching for images to illustrate this little entry I came across this rice pudding garnished with candied ginger. It instantly reminded me of the ginger gelato I had in Squamish two weekends ago. It was dotted with caramelized ginger galore. And if you found a teaspoonful that did not have ginger in it, it tasted mostly like mastic, the magical resin used to thicken and flavour ice cream in the Mediterranean region. It is the contrast between the cool ice cream and the hot, spicy ginger that I find most intriguing, and perhaps this is what I’m searching for in my amber & ginger perfume. The sharpness of ginger on the backdrop of buttery-smooth amber is what I envision for it.

Something to think about: adding notes of mastic resin tincture. And amplify the ginger so much so, that it would have an unmistakable initial bite, no matter on how much amber it’s lying.

Nuit de Noël

Of all perfumes, that one that reminds me most of a Northern Christmas isn’t actually Nuit de Noël, but Parfum Sacre. The olfactory connection of Nuit de Noël to Christmas did not reveal itself to me until few days ago. It suddenly dawned on me: Plum pudding and ink!

Nuit de Noël bears the mark of many of the Caron perfumes created by Ernest Daltroff: density, complexity and a vast mystery which is reflected in the seamless connection between the notes. It is not easy to dissect the notes from one another, not to mention categorizing the perfumes.

The dryness of cedar wood is evident at the start, and roses unfold from beneath a dark dress. There is a certain dustiness to it all, as if the perfume was collecting dust for a year before being noticed again. But now that it did, time and age has only improved it. Powderiness is not absent, and in some regards, this perfume is akin to N’Aimez Que Moi in darkness, density and the thread of rose and powder. But what gives Nuit de Noël its distinct character and its important place in the Caron family is Mousse de Saxe.

Apparently, Mousse de saxe accord is what gives many of the Caron scents their dark undercurrent. It is said to include geranium, licorice, leather, iodine and vanillin. In Nuit de Noël, this accord is used in higher proportion to the rest of the composition, making it quite memorable even among the many rose perfumes of its era (not to mention only those from the house of Caron).


Sharing similarities with other powerhouse perfumes, Nuit de Noël is at once rosy, leathery, powdery and sweet. It reminds me of a less sweet, less in-your-face Habanita, a more leathery sister to N’Aimez Que Moi, and an inspiration to daring, feminine yet unsweet rare appearances of present day, such as Agent Provocateur, and even the dry down of Opium Fleur de Shanghai.

The flacon of Nuit de Noël is made of black crystal glass, and looks like a cross between an ink bottle and a hip-flask, adorned with a Charleston-style gold headband. It was said that Nuit de Noël was made for Daltroff’s lover, who loved Christmas. Somehow, I can only envision a very lonely winter night, with Charleston-music playing in a gramophone, and many glasses of red wine and whisky being used up until that lover finally shows up, hours after the family Christmas dinner is over.

While the connection of plum pudding to Christmas is quite obvious, that of ink isn’t. In any case, use Nuit de Noël as an ink for expressing your innermost feelings only when the time is ripe. Otherwise you may need to be dancing more than just one round of Charleston.

Notes: Cedarwood, Rose, Orris, Mousse de Saxe accord (Oakmoss, Licorice, Myrrh, Cedar moss), Vetiver, Sandalwood, Castoreum

*Nuit de Noel poster courtesy of Fashion Era
Other reviews of Nuit de Noël:
LegerdenezBois de JasminMore about the history of Caron

Coutorture Must Reads 22/10/2007

My review of Narciso Rodriguez for Him has garnered the interest of Coutorture editors and appears on today's Must Read. Yey!

Concrete

me ~ sitting on some concrete, originally uploaded by striatic.

In contrary to the low expectations I had from Narciso Rodriguez for Her, which lead (after several twists and turns of the plot) to a surprising delight from what seemed to be just another non-descript trendy floral – the launch of Narciso Rodriguez for Him had at least a seed of expectations on my part. One would expect that it would do to Fougere what For Her did to Chypre – meaning: disregard it completely and instead, invent a new modern floral category (abstract musky floral). In the case of fougere (also a composition reliant on oakmoss, this time contrasted with lavender), one would anticipate we’ll see the birth of a musky lavender, something not all that far from Sarah Jessica Parker’s Lovely – but perhaps a bit masculinized.

However, I am sorry to report that none of that happened. I stepped into Holt Renfrew the other night accompanied by my brother Noam - a budding perfumista with a collection that could not embarrass a gentlemen twice his age (of course I will only take partial responsibility over his interest in fragrance). His immediate reaction was disgust (and we are talking about a young man who consents to the title fragrance whore –seriously, there is hardly anything he doesn’t like!).

From the moment For Him was sprayed on the paper stripe, I could not help but think of concrete. The opening notes are bizarre and somewhat disturbing. There is a hint of honey, reminiscent of the honey flower note in For Her. But one can tell right away that there is nothing groundbreaking about this fougere at all. Like most modern fougeres, the lavender is very refined, the oakmoss very subdued. Synthetic notes take over, usually with a metallic coolness that reflects more of the methods the scent was created (by machines) than the human inspiration (if there was any involved).

To me, the scent just confirmed a strong connection to the bizarre choice of colour for the bottle – a concrete gray of the most depressing hue I’ve seen in a long time. If this was fabric, perhaps I would be able to find some comfort in it. But being made of a thick cold shiny glass makes one feel just that – cold and “correctic”. Nothing more. It seems Narciso Rodriguez has simultaneously run out of ideas for his bottle’s colors and the scent of their contents. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And I think the posted ad for this fragrance says it all: it’s the cliché of a fragrance ad for men – chest exposed medium shot of a young man - nothing surprising, except, perhaps, the extremely dark thick hair and the supposedly-mysterious lack of eye contact.

If it was indeed inspired by the “great fougeres of the 80’s" than we must look back and try to remember these. Cool Water by Davidoff comes to mind, with its antiseptic Jacuzzi cleaner sillage and metal bladed breath. Anything inspires by that (or the 80’s, for that matter) is likely to make me shudder… Considering that real, sophisticated, original fougeres are originated in the 80’s of the previous century, it does make one wonder.

For Him opens with a disturbing bouquet of both dry cement and wet concrete, unrecognizable spices and a honey note. The intrigue dissipates quickly when the scent becomes a familiar, I’ve-smelled-this-before modern fougere accord – a hint of fake herabceous water, some non-descript fruity sweetness that is fortunately not quite nausearing, but just almost (it reminds me quite a bi t of the sweetness of Jean-Payl Gaultier for men, only with the sillage toned down 10 fold); a glimpse of violet leaf coolness and a certain smokiness that my brother describes as ‘ashtray smell” but at the same time he also detects some good smelling fresh herb notes. The dry down settles within about an hour – a close to the skin, rather soft, undecisive mélange of amber and musk (it is also said to contain patchouli, but I can’t say I am recognizing any). Nothing offensive in the drydown, and the sillage is soft and non overpowering – the contrary of what I’ve expected after the magical sillage and staying power of For Her (it has a tendency to stay everywhere after it was applied, and even withstand a laundry – yet it does it with a nice touch of mischevious elegance – almost like Josephine’s deliberate musk contamination before leaving Napoleon’s palaces). The only thing that truly stands out (if you take a very close look) is an animalic ambergris note, somewhat fecal, but with such low-key vibrations it can never offend and unelss you’ve smelled it before it would be very hard to put your finger on it. It reminds me of l’Antimateirer; unfortunately, in this instance one needs to wait a long time for it to emerge. And this might just be its chance for success.

Holt Renfrew Re-Opens with "Holtscents"

Good news for all Vancouverites: Holt Renfrew re-opened today at its new location on 737 Dunsmuir St. (Pacific Mall) with several new lines of niche perfumes which were never available in either Vancouver or Canada before.

This afternoon, I went to check out the new selection at the “Holtscents” corner, devoted to these new lines. It took me a while to find the place, as I am notorious for losing directions in the mall. You’ll find Holt Renfrew where the “bridge” between the south side and the north side of Pacifi Mall was (as pictured above), or you can get to the scents via street level on the north side of Dunsmuir street (pictured below).
After getting lost for a few minutes in the mall, and inside Holt Renfrew (I went all the way down to the lower level, where only “men’s scents” can be found alongside other manly luxuries, I finally got to the right place, which happens to be simply at street level, and located on the left side just a few steps away from the entrance (if I had the smarts to approach it from the outside word rather than the maze of the mall…).

Drazana, the lovely Sales Associate, greeted me with her pleasant and friendly presence. She guided me through the new lines – some of which I was already familiar with (such as Miller Harris), and some are in Canada and/or Vancouver for the first time. These include:

Ineke
Etat Libre d’Orange
Carthusia
Miller et Bertaux
Juliet Has A Gun
Frederic Malle Edition de Parfums

I received samples for most of the lines, for the scents that interested me, anyways, so I am going to keep my comments about the scents I’ve smelled today brief and informative:

I started with Etat Libre d’Orange, because I am least familiar with this line (I have never smelled it at all actually). While some of the scents are interesting, such as Jasmin et Cigarettes (think stale cigarette butts and deflowered jasmine blossoms) and Encens Bubblegum (it’s what you’ve just heard: incense and bubble gum) and Putain de Palaces (sweet leathery floral), the line left me with a very bad taste for the entire day as I kept getting phantom whiffs of blood gushing out of flesh cut by rusty metal. You know which scent I’m talking about. I smelled to much of it trying to overcome my initial olfactory shock, and the scent just stayed with me for the rest of the day. Clearly the perfumer tried to create shock, and succeeded. To me it smells like injury trauma.

Once I got some samples of these to fool around with if I have th guts to mess up with them again, I moved on to more aesthetically coherent lines such as Carthusia, which has a few very nice, clean yet interesting scents which I am going to love trying as the summer heat is becoming unbearable already (for me anyways, but I prefer to have room temperature anywhere I go…). Numero Uno and Io Capri captured my attention immediately and I will be wearing a lot of them soon…

Miller et Bertaux has the most lovely packaging I have seen in a while, think French meets Zen with their legged carton boxes and the branch tied to the top… Of their three fragrance, I think I like the first perfume the best, Parfum Trouve the best.

Juliet Has A Gun offers two fragrances, and they are both rose-themed. One comes in a black bottle (and is more spicy, I think I smelled saffron in there), and the one in the white bottle is lovely, with Turkish rose I believe, it’s sweet but not overly so and does not smell as artificial as many roses I’ve smelled lately.

I re-visited the Ineke line, paying a bit more attention to the two scents I am less familiar with. I think Chemical Bonding is a vibrant citrus and I like it quite a bit even though I am not known for being a huge citrus wearer. It’s sweet and with a powdery dry down, which makes it a bit different.

I also revisited Tangerine Vert and smelled Coeur d’Ete for the first time (I really liked it by the way, it has a banana note and is sweet and powdery in a very comfortable way).

And finally, I paid a visit to the Editions de Parfums boutique, where the large red “inhaling cells” are erected and being utilized about 30 times in the 10 minutes I spent in that area. You spray the perfume in the cell, wait for 10 seconds, and than you can smell how the scent will smell 20 minutes into the dry down. It’s an interesting concept, but I still think that nothing beats a skin test. As I was already familiar with the entire line (almost) I concentrated on smelling Un Rose, which I was not familiar with at all, and it almost won me over. If the day was not so hot I would have tried some on. Instead, I smelled it in the “red cell” and I took the card with me, which still smells magnificent, 8 hours in. I was hoping to get a whiff of French Lover, but apparently, it will not be launched here until September, and by than it will have a different name, as to not offend the North American men, who must feel terribly inferior to French lovers and wouldn’t buy a perfume bearing such name. Shame!