Poetry in Potion

Where words and fragrances meet.

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Fuming Fumeheads

By now most of you know: Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez’s new perfume guide is out. “Perfumes The Guide” (2018) came out this month both on Kindle and, a few days later, in paperback, and everyone seems to be talking – and, often, fuming – about it. Some interesting links discussing the book in detail are posted at the very end of this post: here I will try to address, very briefly, some of my concerns or, at least, dilemmas.

The book could have been called “How To Ruffle Fragheads’ Feathers”. Numerous people seem to have taken personal offense at their favorite perfumes being rated low. They are insulted by the author’s language and his comparisons, and – most of all – by his open bias against some brands. Or so it seems.

I myself find Luca Turin’s writings quite entertaining, and do not always agree (actually, rarely do I agree) with his opinions. And yet, I bought the Kindle version, and now use it as a reference point, just as I have used his original book. So, to keep things short, here are my major issues with The Guide, or, should I say, here are some bits I find quite puzzling. 

In lists.

SOME QUESTIONS

Why does LT slam so hard Roja Dove, Orto Parisi, Rania J, Affinessence? All of these houses I find quite interesting, and some I outright love (Affinessence, for example).

On the other hand, why does he love Beaufort so much, for example? I find their perfumes simply unwearable. Even unbearable at times. Perhaps he is appreciating their uniqueness, their innovative approach, but still.

Why review Gorilla/Lush perfumes or Laboratorio Olfattivo, and NOT REVIEW Xerjoff, for example? It simply makes no sense to me. Is this yet another bias or a personal grudge?

Why review 5 versions/flankers of Guerlain Aqua Allegoria or Estee Lauder Modern Muse, or 7 versions of Marc Jacobs Daisy, why review CK One or Two flankers? Why review Creed Aventus, after all this time?

MY FAVORITES SLAMMED

Orto Parisi Brutus * This is such a compliment getter. A true masculine. Synthetic? Sure. I don’t mind.

Serge Lutens L’Orpheline * My favorite Serge. A poor choice of name for such a nice masculine scent, sure, but what an amazing fragrance.

By Kilian Pearl Oud * A beautiful, seductive oriental. 

Roja Dove Danger Pour Homme ** A classic, regardless of its originality (I can think of no scent Roja copied here, but hey).

Lamborghini L1 ** An amazing scent, few people know (about) it.

Atelier des Ors Larmes du Desert ** Everyone’s darling, including mine.

Maison Francis Kurkdjian Lumiere Noire ** Pour Homme? Did he review men’s version here? If so, to LT this is not a rose? It’s one of my favorite masculine roses.

Affinessence Patchouli Oud ** To LT this is pepper vetiver? Really? I find it true to its name; a wonderful combo of patchouli and oud.

Byredo 1996 *** A masterpiece. Iris, patchouli, all that.

Roja Dove Fetish Pour Homme *** One of my top 10 scents. Along with Puredistance M, and Hermes Bel Ami, of course. Both M and Fetish PH are, shall we say, inspired by the magnificent Bel Ami.

By Kilian Intoxicated *** Gorgeous.

Puredistance M *** A masterpiece. 

Guerlain Songe d’un Bois d’Ete *** My top 5 perfume. Come on, Luca. This one is pure magic.

MY FAVORITE NOT SLAMMED

Slumberhouse Norne **** Indeed, this is a masterpiece. 

I GET IT

Parfum d’Empire Le Cri ***** Beautiful.

Mendittorosa Le Mat ***** Also amazing.

NOT NECESSARILY MY FAVORITES, BUT COME ON

Roja Dove Diaghilev *** Come on. Whatever this is, a Guerlain copy or not, its beauty is hard to ignore.

Penhaligon’s Halfeti * I find it amazing, especially on other people. 

Viktorya Minya Hedonist * One of my favorite feminine perfumes. Ever.

Roja Dove Nuwa ** Beautiful, both versions.

Areej le Dore Russian Musk ** Haven’t tried it yet, but, reading all the reviews, I find it hard to believe that it deserves just 2 stars.

Pantheon Dolce Passione ** Not chocolate? This is the most chocolatey scent I ever tried. Ever. And I’ve tried a few.

SOME I NOW WANT TO TRY (OR RE-TRY)

Heeley Eau Sacree **** Incense? I remember their Cardinal, but Eau Sacree?

Green Water by Jacques Fath ****

GS02 & GS03 by Biehl ****

Korrigan by Lubin *****

Narciso by Narciso Rodriguez *****

Yohji Homme ****

And here are some quick additional links for your consideration. Kafka, of course, and some others: 

http://www.kafkaesqueblog.com/2018/07/22/luca-turin-tania-sanchezs-new-perfumes-the-guide-2018/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQTKpYDED2c

https://www.fragrantica.com/news/Perfumes-The-Guide-2018-by-Luca-Turin-and-Tanya-Sanchez-11058.html

Photos from HERE and of Luca Turin HERE.

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The Smell of Danger

Did you know that the gas we use on daily basis for cooking and heating purposes, the LPG gas, is actually – odorless? Nooo, but I know its smell, you might argue, it is so immediately recognizable, in fact, everyone knows it. You might enter someone’s apartment and say, in a second: I smell a gas leak.

Well, yes and no. Both LPG (which is propane and butane) and natural gas (methane) are in their natural state simply – odorless. What you smell, what you do detect so clearly, is the smell of a DELIBERATELY added agent called ethyl mercaptan or ethanethiol. This substance is a clear and TOXIC liquid with a distinct and infamous odor, which humans can detect in minute concentrations, less than one part per million. Its smell resembles that of “leeks, onions, durian”, says Wikipedia, but to most people it simply smells as either smelly socks, rotten eggs or rotten cabbage. How lovely.

So how did this whole nasty-smell business start? According to one source, during the early 1800s and the initial stages of the gas industry in Europe, something called “town gas” was used for lighting and heating. It contained mostly hydrogen and carbon monoxide and was therefore poisonous. Fortunately, however, it also contained sulfur compounds, which gave it a “gassy odor” – if there ever was a leak it was quite smellable. But the first deliberate gas odorization occurred much later, in Germany during the 1880s: the aforementioned ethyl mercaptan was added to water gas to intentionally reproduce the gassy odor previously associated with town gas, making it easily detectable.

Wikipedia claims that it all happened much later. In 1938 the employees of the Union Oil Company of California were the first to spot turkey vultures gathering at the site of any gas leak. After finding that this was caused by traces of ethanethiol in the gas, it was decided to boost its amount in the gas, to make detections of leaks easier. This was a simple and clever way to alert people of the very serious safety hazard they might find themselves in.

Be that as it may: nowadays ethyl mercaptan is simply added to the gas when it leaves the main storage terminals, before it’s delivered to customers. How much of it: according to some sources, it is customary to inject some 1.0-1.5 lbs (less than a kilogram) of ethyl mercaptan per 10,000 gallons of liquid LPG gas. At these concentrations, ethanethiol is not harmful.

I don’t know about you, but I actually do not find the “smell of gas”, i.e. of ethyl mercaptan, that disgusting, especially in small doses and fragrant hints. “Unbearable” would be a better adjective, but, then again, that’s the whole point. You are meant to run before you get to smell it well.

More on this topic HERE (by Luca Turin) and HERE. 

Images are from HERE, HERE and HERE. 

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Blood and Honey

Fragrances make us do many things, one of which is to create connections between the otherwise unrelated, or hardly related, concepts. This year one such digressive scent was the mysterious and already popular (first batch sold out!?) Talismans Osang from the house of Mendittorosa, a scent inspired by and dedicated to the great city of Naples and its patron saint, San Gennaro. 

“Naples is urs sanguinium, City of Blood”, says the official blurb. Three times a year San Gennaro’s “dried blood is presented to the people, hungry for love and miracles. If this holy treasure liquefies all will be well with Naples. If not, the earth will shake, skies blacken…misfortune might descend. This supernatural and holy liquefaction is a talisman of metamorphosis and protection.” (Read more about the phenomenon here.)

But what hits you first when trying Osang is not blood at all. No, it’s – honey. A lot of it, actually; molten, rich, sweet. Even animalic, if such a thing exists, urinesque. With a bit of iris underneath, but not much. And some pepper and incense. Then it settles into a veil of discreet sweetness, and lasts forever. Now, I don’t like honey in my fragrances, but here I am willing to make an exception – because it simply works. It is done unlike anywhere else before, I think. And I am certainly not the first to say so. (Some other reviews to be found here and here.)

Inhaling this honeyed cloud, and staring at the beautiful Osang bottle with its “bloody” splatter, its constellation of red wax drops, expectedly, two words kept dancing before my eyes: blood and honey. Blood and honey.

And so I digress. As promised.

First of all, a couple of years ago, another (Catholic) statue, that of the Virgin Mary in Malaysia reportedly started to release honey from its/her eyes, instead of (the usual) blood, or oil, as it had done before. Even if this was indeed a miracle, it leaves many questions unanswered, as is the case with most matters of faith. Why honey? (Why blood? Or oil? What kind of oil? Etc.)

Second, for me this fragrance “hits home”, so to speak. You see, many people like to believe that the Balkan Peninsula – whare I am originally from – got its name from the very poetic, albeit ominous, combination of the two Turkish words: bal = honey, and kan = blood. Honey and blood, blood and honey. Bal-kan. How appropriate for this unstable, war-torn region. How…dead on, unfortunately. Life and death, peace and war(s).

(And in an instant, my mind rushes from Naples to another “City of Blood”, the beloved, wounded, and never fully recovered Sarajevo, whose sidewalks in the early 1990s have been peppered with roses, but Sarajevo Roses, sad and tragic mementos of innocent lives lost: the concrete floral-looking scars caused by lethal mortar shells’ explosions, later filled with blood-red resin.) Fortunately, we now have an olfactory talisman in our hands. To protect us from the feared future. Hopefully. 

But not to wax poetic. The connection between blood and honey is certainly there, and Osang made it so obvious. I am sure Stefania (Squeglia, the Mendittorosa’s founder) did not have Sarajevo in mind when she worked on this creation – or the Balkans, for that matter – and yet, and yet, it all makes sense somehow, it all comes to place, if we can only forget for a moment the very origin of it all, San Gennaro and Stefania’s Naples.

Like in many other things out there, some will find heaven in this combination of elements, some hell (see Amanda Lear’s song, Blood and Honey, from 1976: “She loves blood and honey / Devil is her love and it's the kiss of death to love her”.) Most of us will simply get to enjoy a surprising honey-based scent that you all ought to try ASAP and see if it works for you as well… I think you might be in for a treat.

PS

The bottle (not yet pictured here) was sent to me by the ever generous and passionate Stefania Squeglia. It’s so great to witness yet another success for her great house – after the triumphant Le Mat – the best rose scent in a while, according to many. (Luca Turin wrote on Le Mat, giving it 5 stars: “This particular Angel is now back among us. Smell it before it returns to its celestial sphere.”) Regardless of the friendly gesture, I tried to be as objective as possible in my review.

A nice little Osang-inspired video here.

Photos from here (Blake Little’s honeyed portrait), here, here and the bottle from here.

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Man Trap (& Panty Droppers)

Fragheads tend to get sensitive about various fragrance-related issues. For example, most fragrances – if not all – are considered unisex by the community. Men wear “women’s” classics on a daily basis, women wear “men’s colognes”. And, as long as you enjoy it, as long as you can pull it off, why not.

But outside this “enlightened” crowd lies the rest of the world, wherein half the men end up buying - and don’t mind wearing - one and the same perfume (yes, I am looking at you, 1 Million). Women and men alike fall into the trap of wanting to smell like someone, or better yet, like everyone else, just to get closer to that illusion the advertising industry had prepared for them. A projection; always a handsome/pretty, happy, successful, rich someone, travelling the world, seducing the innocent and not so innocent. It’s all about being loved, envied, wanted, adored. Sex sells.

Venturing outside the PC territory a bit, it comes as no surprise then that many of us, fragheads and “civilians” alike, like to rate fragrances according to their power to seduce, enchant, conquer. So you have your “compliment getters”, you have your “panty droppers” and you have – the Man Trap.  

There have been at least three movies with the same or almost the same name (Victor Fleming’s Mantrap from 1926, Edmond O’Brien’s Man-Trap from 1961, and Stuart Canterbury’s Mantrap from 1986, rated X). More importantly, the very first episode of the Star Trek, aired on Sep 8, 1966, was also entitled The Man Trap. The term has been around for a while.

No wonder then that there are – or have been – several obscure fragrances with the same name and the same promise. I never tried any of them – unless they were tried on me, that is. Pheromone based or not, they all have a tall order to fill. For sure, anyone who comes up with a perfectly irresistible, rejection-proof fragrance will make a killing. If only that were possible. In the meantime, both women and men will keep on searching for the…next best thing.

PS. I have yet to find a perfume named Panty Dropper (unless we count, say, Nasomatto Duro or the unexplainable – to me at least – Creed Aventus as one).

PS2. Photos from HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

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Too True To Be Good

There are not too many of us in the fragrance world who have not read the Süskind’s amazing book, seen the movie. My favorite thing about it is the fact that it talks about two major obsessions of every perfumer, and every fraghead, for that matter:

a) to find (or come up with) the “perfect” scent, the Holy Grail, and, hence

b) to seduce everyone, to have the world fall in love with him/her.

As it turns out, perfume is not about art – it is all about power. Or so it seems. The power to seduce, to become adored by every single soul unequivocally, helplessly, passionately. And although we (kinda) know that such scent, such fragrant spell does not, cannot exist, we cannot help ourselves: we keep on searching, keep on looking, keep on turning every single eBay stone.

Such desire drove not only Grenouille, the main character in the book, but also Christophe Laudamiel, the perfumer behind the Thierry Mugler’s Le Parfum coffret, a set of 15 scents based on the movie’s various scenes. Just like Grenouille, Laudamiel has created little vials of magic, trying to sum up the book, sum up the emotions and scents behind it.

And just like Orhan Pamuk, who in 2012 opened his "Museum of Innocence", an actual, real world museum based on a fictional one described in the book of the same name (published in 2008), Laudamiel did something similar, only a few years before that. Fact followed fiction; the Mugler’s Le Parfum coffret set was based on Grenouille’s experiments and his ambitions, and was issued as a limited edition set to promote the movie in 2006.  

To be honest, I never tried any of the 15 scents in this set. Not one. But I admire this perverse twist, this creative reversal, or reversed creativity. I don’t expect these scents to be mind blowing; I am sure that in my years of fragrant wandering I have found at least 15 scents that would easily top all of these. Sure, I am curious. But no, I am not desperate to try them: they are simply too true, too real to be as good as the book promises. Keep them locked away safely, in your imagination.

Read more about this set and the whole project HERE, HERE and HERE.

Photos are from HERE, HERE and HERE.

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The Curse of the Billy Goat

Sometimes one should sit back, and let the review do all the talking.

“I don’t know what kind of sex you frag heads have been engaging in but [THIS SCENT] is not the kind of coitus I’m accustomed to! The closest I can come to is that time I removed my bra for someone special and out floated a piece of hay, utterly ruining the mood. You see, when I’m not sniffing perfume I raise goats. And the thing about the intact billy goat is that you can smell him from behind a wall. His musk is blinding. Not a powdery soft musk, but a musk like gasoline – it steals the air around you.

Another delight in getting to know a goat is their breath. Their cud-breath is pleasantly herbal and oily with the wet tang of warm, fermented hay. Okay, now imagine all this grassy hay breath and blinding musk fully ravaging the medicine cabinet of yesteryear. The Barbasol, the leather strop, the rose-scented powder, the camphor cold cream, even the sterile bandages. Then you would have [THIS SCENT]. Hardly [THIS SCENT], though. This is more of a Clint Eastwood freshly shaved (but barely bathed) and mounted on his sweating horse.

I wear this in private quite often because it’s so intriguing with all of its transforming layers. The drydown after the hay dissipates is my favorite part. That’s when it becomes all warm and masculine. It’s like nuzzling your chin in the chest hair of a large man.”

Too bad this review has been subsequently removed from Fragrantica (hence the “curse” in the title); I am not sure why. Too bad I already wrote about THIS SCENT, and too bad I still haven’t tried it. In any case, the review quoted here was written by wild_radish, and I am sure glad I saved it for ya before it disappeared.

The photo of Clint Eastwood as the Preacher in the western Pale Rider (1985) is from HERE. The photo of the goat riding a bike from HERE. 

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Chandler Brrr

What could be more fun for a perfume critic but to write a brutal review of a really bad fragrance? Not many people can do it as naturally as Chandler Burr. You can think whatever you want about Mr Burr (as fumeheads often do), but this review of his from 2008 is simply – so much fun:

“Danielle by Danielle Steel was like the pile of trash that Danielle Steel stepped over on her way to the creative meeting. For the first four seconds it smelled sort of vaguely like a kind of flower that you get in a gallon of floral-scented laundry detergent, and then for five seconds it reminded you of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” Then it evaporated, like the prose in a novel by Danielle Steel evaporated from your memory the moment you read it. It was a perfume that, instead of being made by human beings, was made by a faceless, soulless committee like Elizabeth Arden Internal Creative Team. And at that point there was nothing more to say about it.”

No need to list the notes, I guess. Simply go and read the rest of the review.

The grumpy cat photo is from HERE.

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At A Loss For Words

I know this is a blog about words (and scents) but sometimes a fragrance simply leaves you - speechless. Not merely because of its beauty, but because you cannot break it apart, think it through, understand it. You simply have no frame of reference, can find no words to talk about it, no words to praise it. For the majority of scents out there you can simply say; this is a fougère, a chypre, an oriental leather. It smells a bit like this scent, or a bit like that one. Hey, look what the perfumer did with patchouli here, or labdanum there.

And then you stumble upon something so totally abstract and out of this world. Or at least it can feel that way. Pleasant, sure, named this or that, OK, but – what is it? In my book, there are quite a few fragrances like that; Rochas Macassar comes to mind, for example, or XPEC Original. But the one that I am wearing today is the amazing Tola Masha (2013).

First of all; about Tola. Tola is an exclusive niche perfume brand created in 2010 in the United Arab Emirates by Dhaher Bin Dhaher. Currently it features 8 or so perfumes, all strong in character. All seem to be Mr Bin Dhaher’s own work, attracting more admirers and followers each day. 

Contrary to its name, Tola Masha is a wholly unisex scent that gets transformed quite a bit when worn by a woman or by a man. You can try to talk about something “sour” in it, something “dry”, but before you know it, the scent changes and shifts and you are struck by something altogether new. It is simply a scent unlike any other: a bit oudy, a bit floral, a bit leathery, but never too loud or too cloying. Persistent, yes, expensive smelling, sure. But interesting and mysterious before all else. 

To sum it up; the whole Tola line is worth trying (especially Tola Anbar), but Tola Masha remains my very favorite. For no explainable reason. I simply love it. Beyond words. Beyond reason.

Top notes: peach, pineapple, plum, strawberry, raspberry, apple, grapefruit, orange, lemon, bergamot, lime, pink pepper, black pepper and birch.

Middle notes: artemisia, coffee, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, lily-of-the-valley, rose, orris, jasmine and magnolia.

Base notes are leather, agarwood (oud), vetiver, sandalwood, patchouli, cedar, olibanum, labdanum, civet, castoreum, tonka bean and vanilla.

Photos from HERE, HERE and HERE.

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The Art of Sinning

Sometimes an image will do. An image will draw you in. Say, of a “sinner” named – Veruschka? You will look her up, then search for any info on the fragrance itself. To cut a long story short: I have yet to try the Lanvin’s classic, My Sin (1925), but everything about it sounds so…right. Or, better yet, wrong. Deliciously so.

Lanvin Mon Péché, as it was originally named, was launched in 1925, and created a year earlier by the mysterious “Madame Zed”. According to some new sources and new clues, Madame Zed was actually a Russian woman named Maria Zède, who had created some 15 or so fragrances for Jeanne Lanvin between 1923 and 1925 (some together with Jeanne’s brother Gabriel), only to disappear into history after making My Sin.

In any case, all this happened shortly before Arpège (1927) took the spotlight. My Sin managed to live well outside its shadow, and hopefully Madame Zed had lived a good life as well. Those were some dangerous times and dangerous parts of the world to live in.

Anyhow… All that’s left to be done now is to track down the vintage version and try it for myself. Whether it turns out be an aldehydic civet bomb or a powdery floral is, well, beside the point. “This is Marlene Dietrich in perfume form”, said mabelcruet of Fragrantica. It’s also Veruschka, and Jennifer O’Neill, and every fun-and-danger-loving cat out there. So promise the ads, anyway.

Top notes: aldehydes, bergamot, lemon, clary sage and neroli.

Middle notes: ylang-ylang, jasmine, rose, clove, orris, lily-of-the-valley, narcissus and lilac.

Base notes: woody with vetiver, vanilla, musk, woody notes, tolu balm, styrax and civet.

Some good sources on the story are HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE, and a great review can be read HERE.

Photos from HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

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The Three Magi

Sometimes a fragrance will remind us of another fragrance; at other times we will swear some other two are exactly the same. But there are also rare “scent triplet” epiphanies that a fraghead can stumble upon, so today I’d like to write about one of these. Especially since, unfortunately, most people will not have the opportunity to compare all three scents I want to discuss.

The fragrances are Clive Christian X For Men (2001), Roja Reckless Pour Homme (2014) and Lamborghini L1 (2014). All three are amazing, in my book, and all three share the same “masculine eros” vibe, classy and seductive. “Mature” and “luxurious” have also been words used to describe them.

As the dates show, it all started back in 2001 (the year now looks like a niche Ice Age) with the now famous Geza Schoen. For all we know, maybe it all happened because of him: neither Roja Dove nor Lamborghini like to reveal the exact noses behind their creations, so who knows? Geza might as well be behind all three.

The similarity between X For Men and Reckles Pour Homme has already been noted, both on Fragrantica and Basenotes, but we can safely add L1 to the mix. L1 does not get mentioned as much because of its exclusivity and limited availability. (Only 999 bottles have been made, supposedly; I was lucky to try L1 in Milan in 2014, and get my hands on some afterwards.) Although the note breakdown differs – especially for L1 – they do indeed belong to the same family. They are triplets, after all.

Strangely enough, all three get mentioned as leather scents, as many men’s fragrances do. However, the way they start is somewhat “zesty”, sharp, citrusy almost, only to dive into the woods and spices later on. Cinnamon, cardamom, orris seem to be very important for their respective characters and depth. X For Men is the richest and has the most prominent “cat pee” note that no one seems to mention or have issues with, but L1 is in my book the most wearable one. It is “cleaner”, a bit less musky, less dirty, less complicated. Almost more...contemporary. Roja’s Reckless Pour Homme lies somewhere in between, in all its glory.

Perhaps NSFW, all three scents are fit for kings; hence the Magi, or Three Kings or Three Wise Men connection. Epiphany. (Not to mention that the two of the Magi carried very fragrant gifts: frankincense and myrrh. How appropriate.) So to all you wise men out there: these are some amazing, albeit expensive, fragrances. If you can, try them all. If you can afford it, buy them.

Lists of notes, from various sources...

Clive Christian X For Men (2001): bergamot, spices, cardamom, ginger, juniper berry, sambac oil, jasmine hedione, pimento oil, orris, amber, vetiver oil, cedarwood, moss, cinnamon, vanilla

Roja Reckless Pour Homme (2014): bay leaf, bergamot, lavender, lemon, artemisia, jasmine, rose, black pepper, cardamom, cedar, cinnamon, labdanum, cloves, cypress, ginger, incense, musk, oakmoss, orris root, sandalwood, styrax, tonka bean, vetiver.

Lamborghini L1 (2014) combined list of notes includes: tobacco, white musk, ginger, lime, leather, pepper, tobacco, vetiver. But there has to be more.

Photos from HERE, HERE and HERE + HERE + HERE. 

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‘Tis The Hygge Season

Hygge has arrived. Thanks to the British, the phenomenon, first documented in 18th­ century Denmark, is now a global hit. So much so that some have called it a “second Viking invasion”, while others are noticing a hygge fatigue. Already.

Hygge is “the absence of anything annoying or emotionally overwhelming; taking pleasure from the presence of gentle, soothing things.” Candlelight is hygge, bakeries are hygge, dinner with friends is hygge, hot tea is hygge, hot chocolate as well. Holidays are hygge, Christmas is totally hygge. You get the point.

So, what fragrance is the most hygge? In my book it’s - Chanel Coromandel. Hands down. Created by Jacques Polge in 2007 for the Chanel’s Les Exclusifs lineup, it is the coziest, most comforting scent I can think of.  

Fragrantica’s ivlia agrees: “Perfect for autumn, perfect for my big woolen scarf and a braid sweater. Today I wore it during a walk in the park, with colorful leaves under my feet; the smell of the foliage mixed with my perfume and created an overall feeling of a sweet melancholy. Sweet because it was sunny and peaceful; sweet because dulcified with white chocolate, vanilla and benzoin.” Another member, no-fi, described it nicely as a “blend of creamy benzoin, white chocolate and an almost edible, powdery patchouli note”.

Mezameyo added: “The name Coromandel itself simply sounds beautifully mellifluous, a perfect match for the fragrance.” And beaufort: “This has to be on a list of the 5 most beautiful perfumes ever created. A masterpiece.”

If all these impressions don’t make you get up and look for it right away, nothing will.

Top notes: citruses, bitter orange, neroli

Heart notes: jasmine, rose, patchouli, orris

Base notes: incense, olibanum (also known as frankincense), benzoin, woodsy notes, musk, Tahitian vanilla

Photos from HERE and HERE.

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The Redolent Dawn

“Twas midnight – through the lattice, wreath’d

With woodbine, many a perfume breath’d

From plants that wake when others sleep,

From timid jasmine buds, that keep

Their odour to themselves all day,

But, when the sun-light dies away,

Let the delicious secret out

To every breeze that roams about…”

Thus wrote Thomas Moore (1779-1852) in Lalla Rookh, his “oriental romance” from 1817. The title is taken from “the name of the heroine of the frame tale, the daughter of the 17th-century Mughal emperor Aurangzeb”, says Wikipedia, but also that Lalla Rookh or Lala-Rukh also “means ‘tulip cheeked’ and is an endearment frequently used in Persian poetry.”

How lovely. Flowers galore.

After the Night Scented Stock I wrote about earlier, here’s yet another queen of the night: jasmine. And the best jasmine scent that comes to my mind is Parfumerie Generale’s Drama Nuui (2008). Now, I am pretty sure Pierre Guillaume had no Mughal idée fixe when he composed this beauty (he named it after the heroine of a Polynesian legend, after all) but I have every right to make my own fragrant associations. That’s what the word redolent is all about: it meens both fragrant or sweet-smelling AND strongly reminiscent of, evocative.

“Drama Nuui is Parfumerie Generale’s allegory of dawn, an ode to fragile petals during the time when the freshness of the day hasn’t quite chased away the sultry darkness of the night. A provocatively tender time when the flowers smell so poignantly sweet and the earth has a musky, sensual aroma. The fresh, green beginning of Drama Nuui, with its notes of petit grain and absinthe, is a cooling breeze that comes at dawn.” So says Luckyscent’s description.

The notes: petit grain, absinthe, jasmine (or jasmine tea?), spices, guaiac wood, sandalwood, musk.

Detail from a painting by Payag (ca.1595-1655) of the Mughal Emperor Humayun seated in a landscape from HERE. The bottle photo from HERE. 

[poetry-in-potion]

Insatiable

Just a month ago, about the time 2016 Pitti Fragranze was to open its doors, I posted my anticipation list, a list of recent/new perfumes I was looking forward to trying. More than enough for the Fall, one would think, but no. Being a fraghead, perfumista - hooked on both scents and the words that announce and describe scents - means being addicted and alert, on a neverending quest to find a newer, better fragrance. The next masterpiece, the Holy Grail, even a signature scent, if there is such a thing for the scent-promiscuous.

Anyway, here’s a new list. Of things to try. Now. (Why are so many of these leathers? Who knows.)

1. Xerjoff, Wabar (Dubai? Exclusive), because someone somewhere wrote it’s the sexiest ever

2. Memo, Russian Leather, because “Russian winter” and the amazing African Leather

3. Byredo, Rodeo (NYC exclusive), because it’s leather and an exclusive

4. Byredo, Cuir Obscur (Harrods exclusive), because it’s leather and an exclusive

5. Andy Tauer, Au Coeur du Desert, because it’s a LADDM EDP

6. Tiziana Terenzi, Dubhe Assoluto, because Ursa was such a masterpiece

7. Armani Privé, Cuir Majesté

8. Rania J., Cuir Andalou

9. Ulrich Lang, APSU

10. Arquiste, El

OK, while you at it, add these in, please: Making of Cannes Magie du Desert, Mizensir Bois de Mysore, Clive Christian Noble VII Rock Rose, Etat Libre d'Orange Attaquer le Soleil, Bond No.9 Sutton Place, Bond No.9 Dubai Black Sapphire, Lab on Fire Messy Sexy Just Rolled Out Of Bed. There.

Photo from HERE.

[poetry-in-potion]

Luca Has Left The Building

In April I wrote an excited blog post about Luca Turin starting his own blog, Perfumes I Love. For a change, the idea was for Mr. Turin to write only about perfumes he’d find interesting or exciting. And so he did. But after just six months the party is over. Sadly for all of us who enjoyed reading his thoughts and insights, Luca is off to do some better, perhaps more lucrative or more important things. In any case, it was fun while it lasted. Good luck and see you soon, hopefully.

Photo from HERE.

[poetry-in-potion]

The Emperor’s New Clothes

“I was about to buy a new belt as my trousers kept riding down. However, instead of that, I bought this scent. It made my wallet so light that my trousers can stay up around my waist belt-free.” So said bdoughty82640, Fragrantica’s member, about Xerjoff Begum. 

Created by Chris Maurice and launched in 2015, this fruity and/or chypre floral was named after a “female royal/aristocratic title from Central and South Asia”. It comes in both the “regular” bottle and a luxurious, limited edition handmade bottle made of amethyst and 18-karat gold with diamonds.

Top notes: lemon, bergamot, red berries and freesia

Middle notes: damask rose, jasmine sambac, lily-of-the-valley, lilac, bulgarian rose, iris and ylang-ylang 

Base notes: palisander rosewood, sandalwood, patchouli, vetiver, vanilla, amber and musk.

Photos from HERE and HERE.

[poetry-in-potion]

The Gift of Anticipation

It’s that time of the year again. No, I don’t mean Christmas. Summer is almost over and Pitti Fragranze is opening its doors tomorrow. Meaning everyone has been all busy and secretive lately, preparing their Next Big Thing, or the Next Big Promise, something exciting enough to drive us crazy and trigger-happy. Reading through all the recent announcements and press releases, I haven’t noticed some radically new themes or trends: oud is not dead (which is fine with me), weird is not dead, nods to vintage classics are still here... Same old, same new.

In any case, just to be prepared for what’s coming, here is my Top Five list of fragrances to try ASAP. Some of them came out recently, some of them are not released yet. Some will not be featured in Florence, some will. But I know I would love to try all of these, and will try to do so. That’s the plan, anyway. So, here they are:

1. Slumberhouse New Sibet

2. SHL777 Taklamakan

3. Aedes de Venustas Grenadille d’Afrique

4. Neela Vermeire Rahele

5. Nasomatto Baraonda

Almost as curious:

6. Dusita Sillage Blanc

7. Penhaligon’s Much Ado About The Duke

8. Penhaligon’s The Tragedy of Lord George

9. BeauFort Fathom V

10. Auphorie Zen

Kinda curious: Amouage Bracken Man, Orto Parisi Seminalis, The Different Company Adjatay, Tiziana Terenzi 4 Ouds for Harrods.

Photos from HERE and HERE.

[poetry-in-potion]

Return to India

Let’s stick with India for a bit longer. Here is another fragrant excerpt from Eliot Weinberger’s wonderful book, Karmic Traces.

“Indian erotic poetry is redolent with fragrance. On every page of the great Sanskrit anthology, Vidyakara’s Treasury, compiled a thousand years ago, lovers inhabit an atmosphere of saffron, sandalwood, human sweat, lotus, mango blossoms, and the flowers for which there are no translations: garlands of bakula, pink bandhuka blossoms, ketaka petals bent by bees. The lovers’ mouths are as perfumed as their hair. In Tamil, a language of South India, the same word means ‘to be united, to wed to embrace’ and ‘to emit fragrance’. Conversely, in the Sanskrit poems, the passion of a lover alone is compared to a flame burning without any smoke, any smell at all.”

For me, it is almost impossible to think of India – in the context of fragrances – and not to think of - Neela Vermeire. What's more, it is impossible to think of Neela without thinking of Trayee. Granted, all of Neela's fragrances are quite amazing, with strong character, but for many of us, for reasons unknown, Trayee simply stole the limelight. Could it be the rare oppulence of its Mysore sandalwood, Trayee’s invisible oud, incense, the whole story around it? Who knows. Trayee simply has had „masterpiece“ written all over it from day one.

Neela Vermeire is a self-taught nose, Indian-born, educated as lawyer in the UK, living in Paris… Or, to be less factual and more precise, she is one smiling and generous lady, full of contagious positive energy. Not an unimportant thing to keep in mind when approaching her scents. She founded her perfume house in 2011, creating the first three perfumes - with Bertrand Duchaufour - celebrating India and its real and imagined history. 

I've never been to India, and I doubt that the Subcontinent smells anything like Trayee, or vice versa. But that's OK. That's what scents are good at anyway; creating a narrative, a story we can relate to, a place even, a lie we'd like to believe in. And Neela surely created an amazing and evocative illusion. The product page says: 

“Trayee is a complex fragrance that represents the boundless spiritual landscape of the great Vedic period, which started many centuries ago. Its intricate rituals and temple ceremonies, ayurveda, the universe of yoga and the holistic quest for knowledge. The perfume itself has a high percentage of natural ingredients used in many of the Vedic ceremonies.” So, spray some Trayee on and step out of the present. Into the eternal.

Top notes: blue ginger from Madagascar, elemi oil, cinnamon bark, ganja effects, blackcurrant absolute, basil

Heart notes: sambac jasmine absolute, Egyptian jasmine absolute, cardamom absolute, clove, saffron, sandalwood

Base notes: Javanese vetiver, Haitian vetiver, incense, Mysore sandalwood oil, patchouli, myrrh, vanilla, cedar, amber notes, oudh palao from Laos, oak moss

The Ganesh immersion photo from here. The bottle photo from here.