lundi 31 décembre 2012

Mon Top Ten des parfums 2012: Du printemps toute l'année


Inutile de dire que Séville à l’aube a été le parfum de l’année pour moi. Et puisqu’il figure au palmarès 2012 de nombreux blogs, je suppose que ce parfum né d’une double aventure – celle qui l’a inspirée et celle de sa création avec Bertrand Duchaufour – a su parler à d’autres. Ce développement est le fil narratif de mon livre The Perfume Lover, qui paraîtra en français aux Presses de la Cité fin mai ou début juin 2013 (le titre français n’est pas encore trouvé : si vous avez des suggestions, je suis preneuse !).

La plupart des lancements 2012 qui m’ont émue partagent avec Séville à l’aube un enivrement printanier. Serait-ce parce que les parfumeurs, décideurs et consommateurs ont eu envie à l’unisson d’un vent de renouveau ? Plusieurs floraux tendres se sont épanouis ; une interprétation différente de la fraîcheur, ni citrus, ni aquatique, s’exprime à travers de notes de chair de fleur moite et de sève (Inflorescence de Byredo, Narciso Rodriguez for Her L’Eau et See By Chloé poursuivront la tendance en 2013).

Jour d’Hermès, disponible en boutique Hermès et lancé mondialement en février, est l’expression la plus achevée de cette approche. Conçu pour évoquer la fleur-en-soi plutôt qu’une fleur en particulier, le pendant féminin au Terre d’Hermès de Jean-Claude Ellena est à la fois serein et enivrant. Côté mainstream, c’est de loin mon lancement préféré.

Baiser Volé eau de toilette de Mathilde Laurent pour Cartier est, tout comme la version extrait, plus fidèle à l’inspiration d’origine – une peau frottée de lys – puisque les notes cosmétiques de l’eau de parfum y sont moins présentes, avec une ouverture aldéhydée qui booste les notes vertes.

L’Eau de Chloé de Michel Almairac (Robertet) est la plus intéressante de la série signature de Chloé. Coup de génie et prouesse technique : enrober la structure chyprée verte-citrus d’eau de rose, substituée à l’eau qu’on ajoute au concentré et à l’alcool. C’est cette eau de rose qui, seule, crée une note rosée très naturelle qui joue de la tête au fond.

Mito de Vero Profumo, par l’irremplaceable Vero Kern, est une interprétation ultra-niche et sans compromis du floral printanier, citronnelle mordant à pleine dents un cœur de fleurs dominé par le magnolia. Un volume époustouflant qui suscite les compliments spontanés.

Boutonnière N°7 de Rodrigo Flores Roux (Givaudan) pour Arquiste m’est parvenu trop tard pour que je rédige un billet cet année. Mais ce gardénia tout en fraîcheur verte greffé sur une cologne masculine – l’antithèse de la fleur blette de Tom Ford ou de celle, baumée confiturée, de Serge Lutens – le confirme : Arquiste est une maison qui compte.

Perle de Mousse de Bertrand Duchaufour pour Ann Gérard, autre jeune maison sur laquelle je compte revenir dare-dare, est l’interprétation la plus originale du genre chypre vert cette année. Son overdose de lentisque, qui joue dans la structure le rôle d’une mousse de chêne presque certainement destinée à l’interdiction sous peu, teinte son cœur muguet de nuances de violette et d’iode.

 Lumière Blanche de Sidonie Lancesseur (Robertet) pour Olfactive Studio – encore une jeune maison qui se distingue par sa cohérence et sa qualité – tire le thème verdoyant qui court dans tous mes lancements 2012 préférés vers une autre zone de la carte olfactive. Un jeu sur l’incandescence qui éclaire d’un chaud-froid d’épice la blancheur d’un accord lait d’amande-iris-santal.

Blanc de Courrèges de Julie Massé (Mane) est, comme son nom l’indique, un hommage à la couleur emblématique de cette maison mythique. À en juger par le nombre de visites au billet que je lui ai consacré, cette délicieuse dragée iris-patchouli a su créer le buzz. Un lancement joliment encadré des classiques Empreinte et Eau de Courrèges, restaurés par Vincent Schaller (Firmenich).

Infusion d’Iris Absolue de Prada tire la blancheur aveuglante de l’original vers un registre plus sensuel. Tout se passe comme si Daniela Andrier avait plongé Candy dans son Infusion d’Iris pour l’imprégner de douceur baumée. En complément : le gommage Candy, beaucoup plus dosé en iris et en musc qu’en caramel, et fortement rémanent.

 Musc Tonkin de Parfum d’Empire vient bousculer ce florilège. Extrait en édition limitée, l’hommage de Marc-Antoine Corticchiato à la note animale la plus mythique de la palette dompte n’est pas tout à fait assez fauve pour qu’on le boucle dans une cage… mais de justesse.
Mentions plus qu’honorables – j’aurais tout aussi bien pu faire un Top 15 – à Santal Majuscule de Serge Lutens, Aedes de Venustas, Speakeasy de Frapin sur lequel je reviendrai, Corps et Ames Eau de Parfum de Parfumerie Générale et Fils de Dieu, du riz et des agrumes d’ État Libre d’Orange.
Et puis un clin d’œil à la campagne de Noël de La Petite Robe Noire de Guerlain, parce qu’elle me fait danser…


Depuis un Montréal polaire -  moins 20°C, 45 cm de neige -- je vous souhaite à tous et à toutes un réveillon enivrant !
Illustrations: The Roses on Park Avenue de Will Ryman.


vendredi 28 décembre 2012

My Top Ten fragrances of 2012...You must believe in spring

 

Needless to say, Séville à l’Aube has been the fragrance of 2012 for me. And it seems as though most of the launches I've loved in this past year share some of its springtime exhilaration. Maybe perfumers, consumers and marketing pundits alike have been yearning for a sense of renewal; tender blossoms poking their pistils through the sticky vats of fruitchouli. This seems to be translating into a new kind of freshness, neither citrusy nor aquatic, but rather expressed through moist dewy floral notes (Byredo Inflorescence, Narciso Rodriguez for Her L’Eau and See by Chloé will be carrying this trend over into 2013).


Jour d’Hermès, now available in Hermès shops and to be launched worldwide in February, is the most achieved expression of this floral idea. Designed to convey the idea of flower-as-such without representing any blossom in particular, Jean-Claude Ellena’s feminine answer to Terre d’Hermès is both serene and exhilarating, and my favorite mainstream launch.

Baiser Volé eau de toilette by Mathilde Laurent for Cartier is, with the much harder to source extrait version, much truer to the perfumer’s original “rubbing yourself all over with a lily” idea, since the cosmetic notes of the eau de parfum are toned down. Aldehydes give it that extra sparkle and boost the green galbanum overture.

L’Eau de Chloé by Michel Almairac (Robertet) is by far the best of the brand’s signature series. The perfume conceived it as a green chypre structure, and in a genius brainwave, replaced the water usually added to the blend along with alcohol with rose water for a strikingly natural effect that acts from top to base notes.

Vero Profumo Mito by the irreplaceable Vero Kern is the ultra-niche, take-no-prisoners interpretation of the springtime floral, with citronella chomping down on magnolia flower-flesh. Huge volume, great compliment-catcher, and the best go-to feel-good scent this year.

Arquiste Boutonnière by Rodrigo Flores Roux (Givaudan) made it in the nick of time to be included in this yearly round-up (the first sample got hijacked in the mail) but instantly shot up to the top rung. Arquiste is to my mind one of the best recent niche brands, with a consistency that makes it feel necessary. I’ll be getting back to the fragrance for a full review. For the time being, I’ll just say it combines a photorealistic freshly plucked gardenia with a quote from fresh masculine colognes, but can be totally rocked by ladies.

Ann Gérard Perle de Mousse, another scent I’ll need to be getting back to ASAP, strikes me as the most interesting interpretation of the green chypre genre this year. Bertrand Duchaufour conceived it as part of a trio for the Parisian jeweler Ann Gérard, overdosed it with lentiscus.  Tinged with iodic and violet notes, this green material fills the role of the soon-to-be-banned oak moss.

Olfactive Studio Lumière Blanche by Sidonie Lancesseur (Robertet) tugs the green theme that runs through my favorite 2012 launches towards a completely different area of the scent-map. A play on incandescence, it contrasts the coolness of cardamom and anise with the hotness of cinnamon, over the milkiness of an almond-iris-sandalwood accord.

Blanc de Courrèges by Julie Massé (Mane) is, as it name indicates, another take on white, the emblem of the iconic fashion house. Going by the number of hits I’ve been getting for this review, this graceful iris-patchouli with almond overtones is indeed getting a lot of well-deserved love. Kudos to the new Courrèges owners for restoring the mythical rose chypre Empreinte, along with Eau de Courrèges. The rebirth of Courrèges has been one of the nicest fashion/perfume news of the year.

Prada Infusion d’Iris Absolue tilts the blindingly white (to my synaesthetic brain) original version towards a slightly more sensuous register… As though Daniela Andrier had sifted Infusion d’Iris through Candy, keeping the latter’s delicate benzoin heart. The Candy exfoliating scrub, which is a lot stronger on the iris and musk than on the caramel, and leaves the skin very fragrant, works pretty well with this.

Parfum d’Empire Musc Tonkin couldn’t be a stronger contrast with the elegant lovelies of this list. Marc-Antoine Corticchiato’s limited-edition, extrait concentration tribute to the most mythical of animal notes stops just short of being feral enough to live in a cage. Definitely in the “a-little-dab’ll-do-ya” territory.

And, since 2012 has been, overall, a prettty good year for niche, let's make this a Top 15 with: 

 Serge Lutens Santal Majuscule, Aedes de Venustas, Frapin Speakeasy which I’ve yet to review, Parfumerie Générale Corps et Ames Eau de Parfum and État Libre d’Orange Fils de Dieu

And I can't resist giving a nod to Guerlain's campaign for La Petite Robe Noire: the scent isn't necessarily my sort of thing, but the ads just put a silly happy grin on my face. Here's the Christmas edition: 




For more 2012 round-ups, please click to:

And a very happy, healthy, gloriously fragrant 2013 to you!

vendredi 21 décembre 2012

Fifty Shades of Grey, the perfume, at IFF's Speed-Smelling Lunch!

If you were a perfumer reading Fifty Shades of Grey, of course you’d start wondering what the apparently aphrodisiac combination of “Christian and shower gel” smells like. From then on, of course you’d set about jotting down a formula.

That’s exactly what Sophie Labbé did. The author of Bulgari Jasmin Noir, Guerlain Cologne du 68, Givenchy Organza and Very Irrésistible couldn’t resist distilling the essence of Christian Grey as part of the annual, free-style exercise IFF affords its perfumers.

IFF’s Speed-Smelling presentation and lunch is one of the few events beauty editors actually arrive ahead of time to attend.  We’ve got one hour to flit from one table to another. At each stop, perfumers present a fragrance they’ve drawn from their personal inspiration, with no limitations on style or budget.  A great opportunity for them to play with IFF’s luxury ingredients (mostly naturals produced by Laboratoires Monique Rémy), and to have a chat with specialized journalists they normally meet at launches, where they might not be able to discuss their work as openly.

And then there’s the food… the session is followed by lunch at Alain Ducasse’s Plaza Athénée restaurant. It’s so memorable you find yourself reminiscing about the previous year’s menu. And what better companions than perfumers to indulge in the quintessentially French ritual of discussing food and wine while you’re enjoying them? And since I was sitting at the same table as Sophie Labbé, we had quite a few laughs discussing a book I'd translated into French, and she'd translated into a scent... So I’ll start my account with her presentation…

Sophie Labbé: The Scent of Christian Grey

Sophie Labbé conceives the smell of Christian Grey as an ultra-niche shower gel. Aldehydes for the bubbles, musks for the white linen shirt, jasmine, cumin and nutmeg for a subtle human touch. Karanal, which spans from “clean laundry” (it is used in detergents) to animalic (it is an ambergris note), gives the scent the slight abrasiveness of crisp linen. Oddly enough, this scent really is somewhat in shades of gray: though it has quite a powerful sillage, it doesn’t quite register as perfume but rather as a stealthy aura.
I carried the vial with me the next evening at the party of the French publishers of Fifty Shades, where of course it was greeted with squeals of glee. I’ve even had to promise a best-selling author – one of the stars of the French Elle – I’d get some made up for her. She was ready to buy it immediately! I’d wager even people who’d turn their noses up at the book could embrace this scent.

Dominique Ropion: Pineapple, champagne and oud

Ropion is renowned for studying the analyses carried out by IFF’s scientists so he can tease out and highlight molecules present in natural materials. He tells us, surprisingly, that oud shares some components with pineapple and white wines. And since his idea is to work on oud as though it were a normal ingredient in the perfumer’s palette rather than a cornerstone of French-Oriental compositions, he’s boosted those notes into an improbable oud-champagne accord topped with an extravagantly realistic, tchika-boom-ay-ay-ay pineapple. It’s got a boozy edge, as though it were starting to ferment (I’ve once had a pineapple literally explode in my kitchen because of fermentation, and that’s pretty much the effect here). Its tartness runs gives way to a powdery, subtly animalic floral heart (cassie, mimosa and iris) resting on a leather-oud base, which contains 2% oud and 1% castoreum (my unerring “spiky-woods” detector reads an ambery-woody synthetic).
With its exploding pineapple, “Champagne oud” is as wacky  in its way as Géranium pour Monsieur, and the proof that alongside his high-precision approach, Dominique Ropion also has an off-beat sense of humor.

Aliénor Massenet: Rehabilitating lilac

A flower… white, but not what perfumery labels as a “white flower”. Familiar. Yes, you’ve always known it… Aliénor Massenet nods. White lilac, she says. She composed the scent for a group of outpatients of the Garches hospital, TBI sufferers she meets every month, equipped with a set of scents, as a volunteer of a program initiated by Cosmetic Executive Women France in thirteen French hospitals. Lilac is what is called a “mute” flower since its essence can’t be extracted; it is also a flower condemned to the limbo of functional fragrance. Somehow, it seems like poetic justice that Aliénor’s lush, tender reconstitution of its scent would nudge patients with impaired memories into recovering whiffs of their personal history… Her lilac is also, in and of itself, a lovely perfume that could well rehabilitate this well-loved flower.

Nicolas Beaulieu: Chocolate iris

Few fragrances actually focus on the scent of the iris flower (I can only think of Iris Ukiyoé), though some varieties are fragrant. Inspired both by the blossom’s fragrance and Georgia O’Keefe’s Jack in the Pulpit n°IV, Nicolas Beaulieu (no relation) based his rendition of a purple iris,on a particular type of iris resinoid that gives off a distinct dark chocolate facet. Since the flower he studied also gives off a tender orange blossom scent along with a touch of aqueous green, he wrapped his accord with orange blossom and violet leaf. His purple iris is as velvety-moist as a purple iris petal, strikingly vegetal and subtle.

Domitille Bertier: Nuts for nuts

“I’ve worked on addiction”, Domitille states with a sly smile before adding that actually, what she’s hooked on are nuts. Hazelnuts, walnuts, chestnuts, almonds… The result is a grown-up, resolutely non-sweet gourmand drizzled with sesame absolute, maté and patchouli. Smoky, roasted, warm, this scent feels addictive of its own accord, rather than because it conjures a bowl of mixed nuts.

Véronique Nyberg: Swedish Christmas

Coffee. Cocoa. Cinnamon and vanilla. The bracing aromatic flavor of aquavit conjured through sage, lavandin and anise… Véronique, who spends her winter holidays in the south of Sweden, wanted to render the warm aromas of a wooden house tucked under a blanket of snow, with the foods and drinks served around Christmas. The myrrh, anise and roasted notes provide a licorice effect that strengthens the woody base notes. With its aromatic accents and resinous undertones, this would make a great masculine.

To be continued with Jean-Christophe Hérault’s Princess and the Pea, Olivier Polge’s sandalwood, Anne Flipo’s fruity tuberose, Loc Dong’s ink and Juliette Karagueuzoglou’s orange blossom… and a thrilling surprise!

If you missed the posts on last’s year edition of IFF’s Speed-Smelling lunch, please click here, and again here.