Histoires de Parfums: The Tuberose Trilogy
by Mark David Boberick
I’ll be frank - whenever a House releases more than one fragrance at a time, I get incredibly nervous. Why? Because in my more than occasional naivety, I like to think that one good (or great) fragrance at a time is better than mediocrity in multiples. But I’m even hesitant to chalk it up entirely to my possible naivety – because there actually have been multiple releases at a time from several high-profile Houses (which shall remain nameless) that really were not as good as they should have been. Or sometimes there is one great scent in the bunch, another one that is good, and the other half dozen are dull and lifeless. Thank God that Histoires de Parfumshas me humbled with their latest release – The Tuberose Trilogy. They are a
3-person cast of leading ladies.
Tuberose 2 – Virginal is the brightest and most effervescent of the lot. It opens with a big, dewy Tuberose; bold and fresh à la Ropion’s Carnal Flower for Frederic Malle. The most well done cherry note I’ve come across (they’re usually nauseating) enters soon after and stays right through till the end. Supporting the sumptuous opening is a tropical heart of jasmine, tiare, and frangipani – neither of which are distinct enough to really overpower the other, instead, they meld into what seems like a brand new tropical flower altogether. The base relies on a touch of patchouli and vanilla. Overall, Virginal is a tropical cherry fragrance that is not as heavy as Guerlain’s Mayotte or any of the Chantecaille white flower fragrances. It is very approachable and definitely worth seeking out.
Tuberose 3 – Animal is the sexy siren of the Trilogy, both spicy and sweet and incredibly seductive. It opens with a blast of Tuberose and neroli with a pulpy kumquat note. This is all of the legendary Tuberose fragrances updated to be as current as possible. As all of the restaurants in the US ban smoking, so does Animal – this is Marlene Dietrich without her Cartier cigarette case. It is Giorgio Beverly Hills without the shoulder pads. The heart of Animal is a spicy herbal combination sweetened by plum and the scent finishes with the first Imortelle note that I have ever liked in a fragrance – which softens the journey right through to the final steps. And throughout, we feel the Tuberose embraced and celebrated.
The Tuberose is the mother of all white flowers – heady, sensual, bewitching, and not to mention a fragrance that is detectable within a 5-block radius with a half-life not unlike that of Uranium. And you know what? That’s precisely why it has always been one of my absolute favorite notes. Some of you are reading this with “But I don’t like tuberose” at the forefront of your thoughts. To those of you, I want to thank you for reading this far, but I want to tell you to disregard that thought altogether because these scents are not Tuberose soliflores, and at least one of them reads as nearly entirely iris. Still with me? Good.
Tuberose 1 – Capricious is the most mysterious of the group. Right from the start, we get a salty iris note supported by saffron. The Tuberose comes in a few minutes later and the dry-down finishes the scent off with a fantastic suede, cocoa and iris finale. If you really want to, you could search for the tuberose, and you’ll find it – but the high-quality Iris in this is so good and so strong that I don’t even bother because I am in love with this from the minute it goes on my skin. An iris scent like this does not yet exist in perfumery, but I would say Giacobetti’s Hiris for Hermes is its closest relative. This is a bit sunnier than Hiris, which relies on a more rooty approach with a carrot note. Capricious is a hard act to follow when you’re trying the Trilogy in order like
I did, and while this remains my favorite of the group, the scents to follow are just as well crafted and interesting.
The Tuberose Trilogy is a most welcome addition and a great start to the first quarter of the 2010 fragrance release calendar. So good in fact, that I hope this House can keep topping itself with every release. And what’s next? Can I place my vote for a Narcissus Trilogy? There are not enough narcissus fragrances to keep me satisfied, I would love 3 more winners. The Tuberose Trilogy shies away, momentarily, from the Anthology of years and historic figure fragrances that this House has done so well. Like 1876 Mata Hari – an incredible spicy rose. Or 1969 – a legendary patchouli and a legendary year so famous that it doesn’t need any additional support in its title. Instead, they have celebrated not a person or a place, but a mythical flower - a symbol of love, desire, and danger.
Available at Takashiymaya NY during Sniffapalooza Spring Fling
Retail for $185/each at www.histoiresdeparfums.com, as well as at select retail locations nationwide. (Takashimaya NY)
Scents My Sister Loved
Essays By Mark David Boberick
“Just buy it, you’ve earned it!” were the final words out of my mouth before my sister swiped her credit card. It was the summer of 2003 and my sister Dawn and I were passing the time in New York City between a matinee and an evening show on Broadway. We were on Madison Avenue in the old Creed Boutique near Barneys. Just a month earlier, we had both celebrated graduations: I, from high school, and Dawn, from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy where she had received her Doctorate of Pharmacy.
Earlier that day, while we were shopping before the matinee, Dawn and I happened
into Sak's Fifth Avenue where she was greeted by the Creed sales associate who sprayed her down with Silver Mountain Water. We were already late for the show and so we made haste, ran across town and quickly took our seats. All through the first act,
I could see her wrist to her nose, transfixed.
"A Slight Intake of Breath" by KC Wilkerson
We had a winner. By intermission, she professed that she was haplessly in love
with “that scent in the white bottle.” By curtain call, she was determined to own it.
Off we walked (very briskly, might I add) to the Creed boutique.
My sister was not an over-indulgent person. Where I made a list of the Gucci sandals
I needed to own by the end of the summer, Dawn was more than happy buying her
shoes from the Bass outlet. So, she naturally hesitated at the price for a bottle of Creed.
“You can afford it now,” I said. The days of student living were over. I knew I had just witnessed
the moment where a regular person takes a giant step towards becoming hopelessly devoted
to the perfume bottle, like her brother. I also knew that if she didn’t buy that bottle, I’d hear
about it for the entire 3-hour car ride home to Pennsylvania. For the sake of us both, she
needed to swipe that credit card. And swipe she did.
Dawn wore Silver Mountain Water till the day she died. She got stopped everywhere we went by people who simply had to know what scent she was wearing. I, on the other hand, who had already amassed enough perfume to last several lifetimes, never got stopped. (And I still don’t.) I’ll admit it – I was jealous. She left an exquisite trail of scent whenever she walked into a room. The things she brought out in that perfume are secrets now known only to the heavens.
“Smell this,” I said giving my sister absolutely no chance of protest as I shoved the strip in front of her nose.
“What does this smell like to you?”
She sniffed. For a while.
“It smells like those white flowers that used to grow behind the shed,” she answered.
I stood stunned. Dawn and I had never once discussed those flowers and never once did we even play in that area of our backyard together. By the time I was old enough to splash around in puddles; Dawn was already in High School.
It never occurred to me that my sister might once have paraded through the rainwater in that very same area in her youth, but I guess she did. And I guess those white flowers, which I now know as Narcissus, were just as intoxicating and breathtaking to her as they were years later to me.
We bought the Amazone and went to lunch.
As I go through this life attuned to scent, I am continually awed by the power of our sense of smell, our most evocative of all the senses. We can be instantly transported to an exact time and place that we haven’t thought of for 20 years. Walk past a woman wearing Shalimar or Miss Dior and a wave of emotional memories come flooding back. It never fails.
Every Spring, when I go back home for a weekend, I take a walk over to the area where I spent many a day soaking wet with rubber boots filled with water and I wonder if this year, those flowers will come back but I know they never will. The area is grown over now, the boulder long removed and the rain seems to be diverted elsewhere these days as it runs down off the mountain. But I imagine my sister playing there as a child. I imagine her doing exactly the same things I did.
I remember the scent of Narcissus.
I wear Amazone.
And I smile.
We called it “The Vacation from Hell” and we knew we were being overly polite. “The Magic Kingdom loses its magic when you’re sick in the tram line,” Dawn said. And she was right. It was the fall of 2005 and my entire family was on vacation in Walt Disney World Florida. And while a cool spell was moving through Central Florida, a 24-hour virus was moving through the Boberick family. Each one of us, on a different day - just our luck. Dawn was the first to notice a stirring in the stomach, and I was next followed by the rest of the family in tow. But, by the end of the trip, we had all of our faculties about us and were able to enjoy the remaining days. On our very last day, we went to EPCOT because we simply adored it. Straight to the French Pavilion I went – to Guerlain. Dawn followed. While I was in Guerlain, Dawn was busy browsing the Perfume store right next door. By the time I arrived to join her, I could see she had that look that I knew all too well. She was transfixed again. She found another one.
Of all the scents in that store, my sister had honed in on a bottle of Cabaret by Parfums Gres, newly released but with very little fanfare. It was on the end of the very top shelf, next to the wall in the corner. Dawn had bypassed the Diors, the Chanels and the Givenchy’s – each, with their own displays that you could hardly ignore. She bought Cabaret without hesitation and wore it in rotation with Silver Mountain Water, even discovering that layered together, they were even more intoxicating to her than when worn separately. Worn singularly, Cabaret was an unusual, persistent rose, classic, refined, and elegant. When worn by Dawn, it was all of those things, but with a touch of her easy-going spirit thrown into the mix. It was a perfect match for her.
Dawn wore other scents. She fell in love with Estee Lauder Beautiful back in high school and like Sharon Stone before her, reached for my bottle of Creed’s Green Irish Tweed quite often. She once asked me if I had any sandalwood fragrances because she wanted to start wearing them. “I think I’m ready to go through my Sandalwood Period, now,” she said, dramatically, as if she were Norma Desmond.
Dawn was dryly humorous like that – a trait she got from her younger brother, I think. Out of my room I trudged with bottles of Creed Santal Imperial, Keiko Mecheri’s Bois de Santal, and ETRO Sandalo, all of which she enjoyed, but the Sandalwood Period didn’t last as long as she thought it would - but God love her, she tried.
As I write this, nearly 2 years after her death, I am wearing her favorite combination of Silver Mountain Water and Cabaret.
I wear them often, from her bottles. Sometimes alone, sometimes layered.
I wear them when I want to feel close to her or when I wish she were by my side. I wear them when I get mad at her or when
I want her strength. I wear them when I need to feel lucky, hoping they’ll be my extra insurance policy.
I reach for them when I’m scared. I wear them on her Birthday.
And sometimes I go months without reaching for them at all - the healing process of grief, I suppose.
For those of us who have a special fondness for the sense of smell, connecting to those we love through their favorite perfumes is one of the best ways to find comfort. Smell is our most evocative sense, and if you’re reading this, probably your most treasured, as well. Among all of the memories I have of my sister, the ones involving the scents my sister wore are some of my favorite. They are a way of associating someone I love to something I love, something that is very much a part of me.
At my family home in the Pocono region of Northeastern Pennsylvania, our backyard has a shed in the far corner of it. Along the side of this shed, and also running behind it was this little stream created by water as it came down off the mountain during the rainy season in the spring. This water would pool up before seeping down into the ground and along the edge of this pool grew beautiful wildflowers and berries. A landscaping boulder turned into an island several times a year.
As a kid, I would put on my rubber boots and jump through the calf-deep water. I made ships out of leaves with little twig masts and launched them from the island, entire fleets of them. For one week out of the year, these intoxicating, fragrant white flowers erupted from the earth and blossomed in all of their glory. I could not get enough of them. I’d smell them for hours before finally sacrificing them – ripping them out of the ground and going in and handing them to my mother with a giant smile on my face. I was 5 or 6. The next year – the flowers never came back.
Getting Dawn into Hermès was not an easy task, but I insisted she come in with me because I wanted to smell more perfume. It was a request she was used to by now. At first, she was more of an observer than a participant but soon she rolled up her sleeves and started grabbing bottle after bottle.
I owned most of the scents by this time, but there were a few that I never really paid much attention to. On this particular day, one of those fragrances was the sparkling Amazone. I lifted the blotter card to my nose after spraying it liberally and when I did, I had an instant scent memory.
Suddenly, I remembered splashing through puddles in the rain and sitting on my own private rock of Gibraltar in the middle of my rainwater-made Mediterranean Sea. And I remembered the flowers.
Angel image "A Slight Intake of Breath" by KC Wilkerson. Bottle image courtesy of House of Creed and Adam Brecht from International Cosmetics & Perfumes, Inc. Narcissus White Lion Stock Photography by Janet Davis. Other miscellaneous images supplied by Editor. Published in Sniffapalooza Magazine.com: October 1, 2009
Also re-published in Sniffapalooza Magazine, October 15 – November issue, 2009
MARK DAVID BOBERICK - "MD" is an Interior Designer and self-proclaimed Perfume Enthusiast who has been in love with scent for as long as he can remember and has been collecting fragrances since the age of 12. Mark has written extensively on perfume, especially for Sniffapalooza Magazine and has been published in Men's Health Australia. In 2009, MD conducted the first of what has become an in-demand workshop entitled "The Poetry of Perfume" in which he familiarizes his guests with perfume history and composition, and introduces them to many different perfumes from the classics to the niche and obscure. A lover of art and music, MD frequents museums, theatre, and the opera. He is also an accomplished theatrical set designer having already amassed a large portfolio of work for only being 25 years old. MD is an avid supporter of Nationwide Greyhound Rescue programs and adopted his 8-year old retired racer in 2009. MD currently resides in Cape May County, NJ.
Mark David Boberick is also the Editor of a new fragrance website "The State Of Perfumery" and recently conducted an exclusive interview with Michael Edwards; Author and Global Expert of Perfumes Of The World.
All rights reserved 2006-2010. All content belongs to Sniffapalooza Magazine. All articles by individual writers and contributors, understand and agree that each article that is accepted by the Editor for publication; becomes the property of Sniffapalooza Magazine for the sole purpose of publication for Sniffapalooza Magazine. Articles may be archived for permanent use on the web site for Sniffapalooza Magazine and for future issues. All articles remain the property of Sniffapalooza Magazine for display purposes only. Sniffapalooza Magazine is independently owned and operated by Raphaella Barkley.
London Calling
Czech and Speake
No. 88 & Frankincense and Myrrh
Fragrance Reviews For The Men
By Mark David Boberick
In just a few short months, Sniffapalooza will be traveling across the pond to the beautiful city of London for a week-long journey through British perfumery. In my many years of sniffing, I have yet to come across a fragrance line that so perfectly reflects its country of origin the way that Czech and Speake does. I have written of my love for their glorious Neroli cologne last summer but I feel I must offer my exuberant praise for two more of their outstanding fragrances.
I want to say how happy it makes me that these scents must still be sought out and even in New York City, remain elusive finds. For a fragrance aficionado, the last thing we want is a collection filled with scents that can be bought on every corner. Czech and Speake maintains its reputation as a purveyor of unparalleled perfection.
Czech and Speake fragrances can be purchased online at Luckyscent.com in the USA or direct from czechandspeake.com in the United Kingdom.
A cult hit in the United States for as far back as I can remember, Czech and Speake No. 88, created in 1981, is as close to British refinement as one could possibly hope for. From the moment it goes on the skin, the geranium note hoists its sails and holds on for dear life. Geranium lovers unite; this is as good as it gets. But what of the rest of the scent? Well yes, of course there is more. This is a dark fragrance, one that at first, seems as though it was created during a particularly damp British autumn. (One asks – could it get any damper than England in the Autumn? And to you I say – work with me, here.) Truly complex concoctions won’t disappoint no matter the time of year, however - and No. 88 is no exception. Many would place this scent solely in the rose category, but not I. Rose is there, alright – and plenty of it! But each application is a different journey and I am pleasantly rewarded by enjoying every single one of them. A friend got it right when she said “No. 88 smells like money.” (Figuratively, of course.) When wearing No. 88, one feels important without feeling pretentious. No. 88
is truly the masterpiece it has been hailed as.
1984's Frankincense and Myrrh is the other Czech and Speake knockout that has had me speechless for months. I’ve noticed that every time I apply the scent, I find it even more interesting and intriguing than I did previously. And let’s face it – that can be said of very few fragrances being created today. It has a slightly resinous nature to it, but where the scent really excels is in its amazing drydown of non-smoking incense. (that is, Incense that is now dependent on Nicorette) There are numerous incense fragrances on the market and many of them smell exactly the way you’d expect them to. The reason I enjoy this fragrance so much is because it smells nothing like I expect it to. Am I drawn towards the unexpected? You bet I am. I thought I would have stopped wearing this scent now that winter is but a memory and there is a branch of cherry blossoms resting in a vase beside me, but in fact, I’ve been wearing this scent in heavy rotation, lately. It has the ability to be just as heavy or light a scent as you desire it to be.
PAMPLEMOUSSE
Olivier Creed’s first fragrance is a vision of summer, an abstract portrait of a day spent outdoors enjoying all of the jewels nature has to offer. The groves, the flowering bushes, and the smell of sunlight. It is Vivaldi’s Summer, only bottled. The tart grapefruit opening is instantly refreshing but where this fragrance really succeeds is in the interaction between citrus and white floral, especially the gorgeously creamy mimosa. A staple in many a wardrobe, this is a fantastic, more refined classic fragrance. The ambergris in the base ensures this to most certainly be part of the rich, CREED family.
CREED gave this special fragrance as a gift to U.S. troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. when they came home from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Creed Reviews
by Mark David Boberick
AMBRE CANNELLE
What does it feel like to walk into the warm embrace of Eva Peron? Spray your significant other with a glorious dose of Ambre Cannelle and you can find out. The signature scent of the former First Lady of Argentina, Ambre Cannelle is a divine mix of elegance and casual panache. This is an Amber and Cinnamon scent that does not compete with other amber fragrances on the market because it is in a class of its own – it is not your typical amber scent. Exquisitely crafted using Patagonian amber, it surrounds you with a veil of luxurious warmth. From the moment I spray it, it is reminiscent of a fabulous drydown. If you find yourself fighting the urge to wear white gloves when you wear Ambre Cannelle, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Never cloying, this scent would be perfect in hot summer heat or cold winter winds.
Like so many CREED fragrances, I can understand the urge to adopt this as a signature scent like Eva Peron did – it is hard to look further once you’ve found something so perfect. One of the lesser-known CREEDs, this fragrance has ahead of it many more years of captivating hearts the same way it captured hers over 60 years ago.
SANTAL IMPERIAL
Every once in a while in the life of a perfume addict, there comes a fragrance that is not just love at first sniff, but a feeling of utter completion. It’s the gold-mine fragrance. I’ve long been a devoted sandalwood lover, but of all the sandalwood scents I had tried, something was always missing – it never clicked.
Then one day, Santal Imperial entered my life and if you were within a 50-mile radius – you would have heard the click. Santal Imperial is my go-to formal scent. All of the most important events in my life recently have been experienced by me in a haze of luscious sandalwood, ambergris, and tonka bean – but Santal Imperial satisfies my informal moods as well. For being over 150 years old, this scent still manages to hold my attention and capture my heart.
Is this my absolute favorite CREED? Absolutely! It goes even further than that – this is one of my top 5 favorite fragrances period. It is not a bold sandalwood – it is more refined, more regal.
To go to bed and smell Santal Imperial on my pillow from the night before is quite possibly one of the most amazing experiences I could have in a bed. There, I said it.
CHEVREFEUILLE ORIGINAL
French Lesson. Ready? Go. Shev – Ruh – Foy.
Say it with me. Good.
Spring is officially here, but you could have fooled me. Just when I figured it was safe to remove the gloves from the front seat of my car, winter hits me upside the head one last time. In this glorious world of perfume, we can access any season from anywhere in the world – at any time. So go ahead – try it. Pick a season and pick a location and I will try and guess what you picked.
Did you pick Spring in Normandy, France? (work with me here.) In 1982, Olivier Creed was inspired by the honeysuckle vines that grew around the family’s summer home in Normandy. The result was a honeysuckle scent that is both lavish and evocative. Chevrefeuille is not a soliflore - paired with the flower is a swirl of stems, herbs, vines, and just a dollop of Spring weather thrown in for good measure. As the longing for a change in season grows more intense, it is a comfort to be able to get there a little quicker through our noses – and then finally allowing our imagination to take the reins from there.
Creed Summer House
CZECH AND SPEAKE NEROLI
By Mark David Boberick
In 17th Century Italy, Anne Marie Orsini, duchess of Bracciano and princess of Nerola made the steam distillation of the blossoms of the bitter orange tree both fashionable and famous when she began to scent her gloves and her baths with the essence. In 20th Century England, Czech and Speake, a luxury brand of bathroom fittings and accessories began to sell aromatic products, and among the first of these products was their Neroli cologne.
It is rare to discover a cologne that is classic and still stands apart from the masses. Neroli is one of the latter, most especially but not exclusively due to its incredible lasting power. A generous spritzing will last from early morning well into the late afternoon, instead of 10 or 15 minutes like other incredibly famous colognes which shall remain name-less.
The exquisite floral character of this scent (orange and ylang ylang blossom) is accented by the ripe addition of the zest of the fruit, a refreshing burst of energy on a hot summer day or a generous reminder of summer on a cold winter’s morning.
This is not a terribly complex fragrance. Nor is it a study of simplicity. What Czech and Speake Neroli is, is the very pinnacle of a basic, traditional idea, that becomes a marvel of precision blending and a luxurious example of top-quality ingredients used to perfection.
Should this be a staple in your perfume wardrobe? In a word - absolutely.
A Rose is a Rose is a…oh forget it.
Rose Poivrée - The Different Company
Perfumer Jean Claude Ellena
By Mark David Boberick
About a month ago, Raphaella told me she needed a review of a rose scent
that was acceptable for a man. I said – well, any rose scent is acceptable
for a man, but I just so happen to be doused in Rose Poivrée by The
Different Company at the moment, so that’s what you’re getting.
I told her that it was one of my favorite roses. Her reply? “I thought your
favorite was Rose Barbare?” My reply? “Well, its kind of pointless to have a
favorite rose scent, isn’t it?” So I withdrew the previous comment.
For the budding perfumista who may not know better – roses on a man is not
really a new and groundbreaking idea. It is, however – very American. Roses are
beloved and worn around the world. Every year, at the rose harvest in Morocco, men and women alike gather to dance under a shower of spicy rose petals. And wasn’t it Nero who filled a lake with rose petals just so he could swim in it? A bit extravagant, yes – but that’s Nero for you. And it was for the glorification of the Roman Empire, so I’m sure he got a tax deduction for it. At least, I like to think he did. Those were the days, weren’t they? Try to write-off filling Lake Placid with rose petals today and see where that gets you.
Back on topic - Rose Poivrée, created by Jean-Claude Ellena in 2001 as one of the four premiere scents for his line, The Different Company is one of the most interesting studies I have ever encountered on the topic of what I often feel is the white elephant in the room in perfume reviews: Skin Chemistry.
If I were to listen to all of the stories and reviews I have read on this fragrance, I would probably never have picked it up and tried it. I'm told, by countless people, that this fragrance is supposed to be dark and dirty – very dirty, in fact. On my skin, which usually amps up civet (one of the main ingredients in Rose Poivrée) without fail – I'm surprised to find that I can barely detect it at all. Instead, what I get is a dusty sweet study of perfume’s most celebrated flower. And the pepper? I don’t get much of that, either. So much for “Poivrée”.
Now, as I understand it, the formula has changed over the years and what we smell today from a new bottle, is not what one would have smelled when the fragrance was just released. Rose Poivrée is supposedly not as dirty as it once was. Yet, even judging the current formula, people still seem to detect a significant amount of civet. But I do not.
When I smell Rose Poivrée - I don’t get dark, I don’t get dirty, I don’t get Transylvania. And I don’t think this would be at home in a Mary Shelley novel. So for me, in the end, reading reviews of Rose Poivrée basically equals wasted time that I will never get back.
So the moral of the story here is: Don’t listen to a word I say or anyone else for that matter. Just try it for yourself. Maybe you’ll end up smelling like you just rolled around with an African feline. And if that’s your thing – then you should be very happy with the result. But maybe, like me, your skin will transform the scent into a cleaner, austere beauty. And you know what? That’s ok too - because perfume is not about finding the right or wrong answer for the scent itself. No. What it’s really about is finding the right or wrong answer for YOU.
So if you like a particular fragrance - What I or anyone else writes about it is, well...irrelevant.
Rose Poivrée and the full range of The Different Company products are available at Takashimaya in New York City.
ANDY WARHOL SILVER FACTORY
by Bond No. 9
By Mark David Boberick
NOTES:
Top: Bergamot, Grapefruit, Lavender Heart: Violet, Incense, Jasmine, Iris
Base: Amber, Wood Resin, Cedarwood
Andy Warhol is alive and well...
and living in a fabulous perfume bottle.
The first collaboration between the Andy Warhol Foundation and Bond No. 9, the edgy, extremely successful downtown perfumery is sure to impress. Incense lovers: pay attention!
What may seem like an odd marriage actually makes a lot more sense than you might think. Andy Warhol loved perfume. He once said, “Another way to take up more space is with
perfume. I really love wearing perfume.” This year marks the 20th anniversary of his death and what better way to continue to celebrate one of the most influential artists of the 20th century
than with a series of Warhol inspired fragrances. Behold Silver Factory.
Bond conceived Silver Factory as “a smooth, smoky, spicy blend of interlacing incense – a key scent of the ‘60s.” Created by Aurelien Guichard, Silver Factory opens with a lot of bergamot. Bond describes the bergamot as being “soft and gentle – as if it had a hangover,” and I couldn’t agree more. It mingles beautifully with the already present incense, right away setting the mood for this fragrance as being calm, cool, and collected. The lavender and the grapefruit in the opening are minimal to my nose, making their appearance only for several brief seconds at a time. In a few minutes the overture has finished and the curtain is now up. Andy Warhol’s favorite scent, violet starts to emerge. It is not a strong violet, and like all of the florals in this fragrance, it is supported by the incense. From the very start of this fragrance, there is a definite metallic quality – and there would have to be, right? The silvery Iris and the sultry jasmine are never strong, but they are there. It is around this time that things start to warm up. The Incense is full, sultry, and smoky and it supports the dissonant florals which are now like “warmed-up, molten silver.” The rather extraordinary part of this fragrance emerges around this time, about an hour after application – when things are both warm and cool – we have the metallic coolness paired with the warmth and smokiness of the incense with the florals vying for sides – not sure where they belong. It is absolutely breathtaking. The drydown is a simple, soothing aroma of resiny amber with a touch of cedarwood. Nothing strong, nothing different either, but very nice.
The Factory was Andy Warhol’s original studio on 47th Street in New York City from 1964-1968. It was called the Silver Factory because it was decorated in silver paint and tin-foil by Warhol’s friend Billy Name, whose own apartment was seen by Warhol who then requested Name repeat the décor to his Studio. Name also used shattered mirrors and Warhol would often bring in silver balloons to float around the ceiling. At the Factory, Warhol threw groundbreaking parties for the hip, artsy types. It was also here that Warhol created and mass-produced his art. The Factory, and especially its silver-skin represented the decadence of the 1960s.
Decadent? Yes, Bond’s new creation is indeed decadent – but it favors the more luxurious aspect of the word. It is luxuriously priced at $230 for a 100 ml bottle making it the most expensive Bond creation to date. The reason? Bond has never been shy about their perfumes – they are very quick to tell you the percentage of perfume oil in their eau de parfums – much higher than other fragrance companies. With Silver Factory, however, Bond has gone above and beyond their standard, already high percentage of 22 percent to make Silver Factory a 28 percent concentration. They are calling it just that, in fact – a Perfume Concentrate, much in the manner of a can of soup. Remember, we are also talking about Warhol here and one of the most recognizable images of Modern Art is the Campbell’s soup can which Warhol painted excessively. This “Condensed” perfume comes in a textured silver signature star-shaped bottle that has a myriad of Warhol references. Silver Factory’s label takes its inspiration from the soup can, but in true Warhol style, the colors have been psychedelically flipped into a world of turquoise and purple. The Bond subway token, substitutes for the Campbell’s emblem, bridging the 2 color fields together. This bottle is kitschy – exactly what it should be. It never once compromises the artistic integrity of the perfumery or the artist but is a very happy solution to the marriage.
The fragrance is divine, the best new release from Bond No. 9 since Chinatown. It has excellent sillage and superb longevity. It is quite avant-garde and thank god for that. In a market dominated by fruity florals, it is refreshing to smell a smoky, heavy scent. This is time-warp in a bottle. Most importantly for me, this scent truly represents everything Andy Warhol stands for. It’s not just about creating an evocative atmosphere – which Silver Factory certainly does. It’s about taking something that we as perfume lovers all know – a smoky incense scent – and re-interpreting it, because this is exactly what Andy Warhol did. He took a photo of Marilyn Monroe and gave it back to us in 7 polychromatic different forms.
He took what we all know and spun it on its axis. This is precisely what Silver Factory has achieved; your typical Incense with a fascinating new twist.
Thank you Laurice Rahme and thank you Andy Warhol.
Andy Warhol Silver Factory will be released on December 1st and will be a limited
distribution scent available only at Saks Fifth Avenue and the four Bond No. 9
New York boutiques. It will also be available for purchase online at the Bond
and Saks websites. It is only available in one size, $230 for a 3.4 ounce bottle.
http://bondno9fragrances.blogharbor.com/blog
Ulrich Lang Nightscape
Fragrance Review By Mark David BoberickThe year 2009 saw many new releases, but as I look back through the bottles that I acquired last year, there is
only one that has a noticeable amount missing from it. The exquisite Nightscape, created in collaboration with Frank
Voelkl of Firmenich, marks the third fragrance by former L’Oreal executive Ulrich Lang and is a beautiful departure
from his Anvers series. Like Anvers 1 and 2, Ulrich Lang continues the marriage of photography and fragrance by having
the scent visually interpreted by an artist. For Nightscape, Lang partnered with American photographer Matt Licari
who wandered about New York looking to capture the perfect image. The chosen photograph is of a less Metropolitan
side of New York – with landmarks so far away that they blend in with the 6-story apartment buildings in the foreground.
But the city only plays a third of the role in the photograph – the night sky which grades in shades of grey
eventually captures your eye and manages to keep it there.
Nightscape is a sheer and cosmopolitan Patchouli fragrance from start to finish, and one of the best I have ever
come across. The Patchouli offered in Nightscape is one of the more beautiful ones that we find in perfumery –
it is not incredibly herbal and definitely not medicinal. It is clean, but not fresh and points to the future rather than
embracing its “flower power” history. This is modern and elegant Patchouli at its finest. In the opening, there is
a strong bergamot note that suggests an Earl Grey direction, but that mellows and the patchouli takes the focus.
Supporting it is a slightly creamy base of leather and tonka bean that stay right through to the end. Is it a bit
more complex than that? Of course it is but the success of this fragrance is not in examining the minute particulars;
but rather its confident overall character.
The projection of this fragrance is moderate, it doesn’t have immense sillage. Like the austere picture of New York
at night, devoid of soaring skyscrapers, Nightscape keeps its presence reserved until the moment
when you pull someone close.
In my 2008 review of Lang’s previous release, Anvers 2, I praised his concept of merging perfume
and photography: “ There are many perfumes out there that have design concepts that are much larger
than the perfumes themselves. This is not one of them. Ulrich Lang’s forward thinking idea of photography as
inspiration is a most welcome addition to the world of perfume marketing. The moral of the story is not forced
upon the wearer, for it is up to the wearer to draw his own conclusions.” 2 years later, I am still entirely
smitten with Lang’s furthering of the “Fragrance as Art” concept and I look forward to the next installment.
Ulrich Lang tops himself every time he releases another fragrance, something so rarely achieved now in the
world of perfume. The exceptional Nightscape is poised to achieve status as a Modern Classic.
Nightscape is available at Takashimaya and Aedes de Venustas in New York City, and nationwide
at Barneys New York. 3.4oz Eau de Toilette $110.00
"In extracting the oils, the angels take their share."
-Michael Edwards
Sniffapalooza Magazine
Exclusive rare interview with Michael Edwards
Fragrance Expert and Author of "Fragrances Of The World"
By Mark David Boberick
In 1984, Michael Edwards changed the Perfume Industry when he launched Fragrances of the World, a guide that classified perfumes. Updated yearly, it would grow to be a vital resource for perfume retailers the world over. Today, Edwards’ body of work includes the “Fragrance Bible” which is in its 26th edition and lists over 7000 fragrances as well as the Fragrance Database which lists just about every detail one could want to know about a fragrance. Edwards is the author of both Fragrances of the World and Perfume Legends: French Feminine Fragrances, the cult book and collectors item that opened up the secret world of perfume.
According to the Fragrance Foundation, Michael Edwards has become the "perfume experts' expert." He was recognized by two FiFi awards for his contributions to the fragrance industry and his annual Fragrances of the World guidebook and his Fragrances of the World.Info database are considered the world's most comprehensive references for professionals, retailers and fragrance lovers alike.
It was a great honor to spend the day with Michael Edwards, to interview him and finally, to present to you; through Sniffapalooza Magazine, this rare interview.
You can also view his Fragrance Wheel inside. Raphaella Barkley; Editor of Sniffapalooza Magazine (see Editors Note inside) and I sat down with Michael in New York City several months ago for the following interview...full interview inside.
-Mark David Boberick"My first recollection of meeting Fragrance Author/Expert, Michael Edwards will forever be etched in my memory like a beautiful Lanvin stopper. The year was 1998 and we went to a luncheon in some lovely cafe in Cannes, France during the World Tax Free Show. I recall a tall tanned and elegant Gentleman in an off-white linen suit striding towards me. As we began our journey on scents, his lilting and gentle English accent effortlessly glided across scent names and history like an Olympic skater, his pirouettes: precious nuggets of fascinating information that only a select few would know. It was magic and anyone who is fortunate to hear him will also be enraptured.
Michael Edwards' Award-winning contributions and knowledge of perfumes are limitless. As an author, his language and phenomenal attention to detail is breathtaking. His classifications, spellbinding to those who seek out the truth with facts and integrity. His passion and authoritative joie de vivre, utterly infectious.
A living legend, Michael Edwards is without question, the most recognizable and highly accredited Fragrance Expert to date. His story is remarkable and his knowledge? Well, see for yourself in the following interview..."
- Marian Bendeth; Global Fragrance Expert, Sixth Scents
Featuring Mark David Boberick's
Articles, Fragrance Reviews & Interviews
Interview with Chandler Burr
Perfume Critic and author of The Emperor Of Scent
Interview by Mark David Boberick
SCENT DINNERS at Rosewood Hotels & Resorts
Interview with Chandler Burr
by Mark David Boberick
This fall, something exciting is coming to a resort near you! Renowned Perfume critic Chandler Burr continues his very unique
and exciting series of Scent Dinners at a select number of Rosewood Hotels and Resorts around the country.
These innovative and interactive dinners combine the artistry of perfume and gourmet cooking and promise to be an unforgettable experience you won‘t want to miss! I recently sat down with Chandler to get an in-depth view from the head of the table…
Mark David: How did the idea for the scent dinners first come about? Had you been thinking about it for a while or was it more of an idea that you acted on impulsively?
Chandler Burr: Actually I'd been thinking about the idea for years. I've always been instinctively drawn to the food perfumes, and I found it fascinating that what in France is a very well-known category, culinary perfumes-les parfums gourmands-is virtually unknown in the United States. Americans don't talk about them, don't even realize that for professional perfumers they're a standard class along with florals, orientals, woods, etc. I'm an instinctive teacher. I was literally a teacher in Japan, where I taught English in my early 20s, but all journalists are simply story tellers and teachers. Combine that with the fact that I'm also an inveterate performer, plus the fact that I write on food, and it was, I think, merely a few weeks after discovering my first culinary perfumes that I thought up the idea for the dinners- a lecture on perfume that I would do in the context of a dinner that illustrated those perfumes via other senses, the senses of sight, hearing, touch, and of course taste.
Mark David: What made you choose the Rosewood chain of hotels? Did you approach them or did they approach you?
Chandler Burr: Neither and both. It was pure coincidence. I had drinks at the Bryant Park Hotel with some of Rosewood's communications people to discuss their properties as traditional travel destinations. Then at the end of the meeting they asked, naturally enough, "OK, so what perfumes should we buy? For boyfriends, mothers, ourselves, what's good?" and I was talking about what I admired, and one of them said, "You know, you really like food perfumes." I hadn't realized it, but I'd been recommending scents like Safran Troublant from l'Artisan Parfumeur and talking about the vanilla in the classic Guerlains. One woman said, "You know, you sound like our chefs" and she pointed out that each Rosewood has its own restaurant, and their chefs are constantly seeking to innovate, find new approaches, do dinners that delighted and surprised. I said, "Funny you should mention that, there's a category called gourmand perfumes, and I have this idea.." They loved it. We started working on it immediately. It took eight months to put together.
Mark David: To plan for this event, where did you start - obviously with the fragrances themselves, yes?
Chandler Burr: Yes. Which is not necessarily the way I'm going to be doing it every time. It looks like I'll be doing a charity fundraising dinner at the James Beard House on West 12th Street on December 7. I've had one meeting with the chef with whom I'm going to be collaborating, Paul Liebrandt, had him smell some perfumes, but we're getting together again in a few weeks for our next creative session, and I may actually take quite a few cues from him. He's know for his inventiveness and creative daring, and if, for example, Paul has specific spices or fruits or vegetables he's interested in creating with, I'll write our script around those. At the Carlyle, Jimmy Sakatos, the Carlyle's Executive Chef, and I departed from the perfumes I proposed to him. So you can approach it either way.
Mark David: What was the process of choosing the particular fragrances that corresponded to the courses like? Once the fragrance was chosen, did you work with chef Jimmy Sakatos closely to conceive the course or did you let him have complete control over the food part of the event?
Chandler Burr: With Jimmy it was extremely specific: At our first meeting I brought in about 40 perfumes that were either in the gourmand category or contained gourmand raw materials, like Estée Lauder's Pleasures, which has a spectacular Firmenich natural pink peppercorn. We went through them, and for the first hour Jimmy just thought I was completely crazy. He's a good Jersey boy, and these guys, as Jimmy said, don't really have much contact with
perfume. I was getting a little worried, and suddenly he tentatively smelled Bois Farine by l'Artisan Parfumeur. The name means "Wood / Baking Flour" and the concept is the smell of baking flour on a wooden plank. It's an astonishing scent. Jimmy stopped dead, and all five of us in the meeting were staring at him. I thought, "Oh, Christ.."
He smells it, he smells it, and he starts smiling and thinking about it hard and he says, "Now this.I could make a terrific bread that smells just like this." And that, the bread course, the very first course of our meal, was the first course we put together. I enhanced the olfactory bread course with some other materials-I actually serve a virtual bread course, I won't tell you how, come to the dinner and see-and Jimmy filled out his culinary bread course in a very interesting way, an idea that at first I thought was strange but that winds up working great, and we were off. Jimmy started re-smelling every single scent and raw material and saying, "I can do a fish with that one! I wanna do a tomato glaze with that.!"
Mark David: What kind of work did you have to do to prepare for the dinner - research, etc.?
Chandler Burr: Basically smelling lots of gourmand perfumes and then spending lots of time figuring out which raw materials we wanted to use. Because of ethical considerations due to my position at The Times, I very consciously chose perfumes from a variety of houses-Lauder, Mugler, Missoni, Dolce & Gabbana,, Tom Ford, etc.-and I use raw materials from all the major scent makers so that I can tell diners about them: Firmenich, Givaudan, IFF, Symrise, and even some from Charabot for one particular perfume I love. Remember that this is a lecture. Its purpose is as much didactic as it is entertainment, guests come to learn-they're simply not learning in a dry lecture hall with a podium but instead in the entirely sensual context of a gourmet dinner whose moving parts and process are the 3D illustration machine. Rather than some Power Point. And central to that is that I systematically deconstruct perfumes, break them down into their crucial components and show the exquisite pieces inside them, like taking apart a Swiss watch and showing watch enthusiasts how the cogs fit together. The point is to allow people to love perfume by understanding it better and by reconceptualizing it. It's self-evident that the more people know about perfume, the more they'll appreciate the immense, difficult work and creativity that goes into this art, the more interest they'll have in it, and the better, more discerning consumers of perfume they'll become.
Mark David: What did you find was the hardest thing about the entire process?
Chandler Burr: Actually the hardest thing in my view was simply our rehearsals. Making the timing work. The thing has to run like an atomic clock. We have pre-dinner champagne for arrivals at 6:45, then curtain promptly at 7 for Act I, an intermission about an hour later, Act II opens after that, and curtain falls, depending on the audience, at around 10 or 10:30. Late arrivals are seated at the discretion of the management so as not to disturb the show. It took us several rehearsals to get it right, get it organized. Logistically it's extremely complex. But as a diner, you don't see the half of that, of course. Any good lecturer-on painting, sculpture, wine, or literature-will try to be as polished as possible. We simply have more moving parts.
Mark David: Did you only use gourmand fragrances? Would you ever choose a Chypre or a White Floral?
Chandler Burr: In Jimmy's and my dinner, it is basically gourmands, but we stretch the boundaries. There is a perfume-again I don't want to say which-that I use for one of our two dessert courses that most wouldn't consider a gourmand. I bet the designer doesn't even consider it a gourmand. But it has a fascinating Givaudan gourmand natural raw material in it. So that's the "traditionalist"- if you will- scent dinner I'll be doing at The Carlyle hotel in New York on Sunday, October 21. But actually I very well may be using chypres and florals and so on in future dinners. Each Rosewood chef will be recreating the dinner from scratch, and thus each property will be unique. My next dinner will be at the Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe on Thursday, October 25, and I already know that Executive Chef Martin Rios has some raw materials particular to the South West that he wants to use, peppers and smokes. On Friday, November 9 I'll be collaborating with Executive Chef Fabrice Guisset at Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos, Mexico, and then on Wednesday, November 14 with Executive Chef John Tesar at The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, and Guisset and Tesar will also take the raw materials and perfumes in my script and create their own culinary illustrations. When we go to Tokyo and the Caribbean in 2008, we'll recreate the experience in those places.
Mark David: What was the most surprising thing that has happened during one of your scent dinners?
Chandler Burr: Um.no one was able to guess one of what I consider the simplest of scents. It was weird. It's like everyone froze for a moment. And when I told them what it was, everyone exploded, "Oh, God, of course!..."
Mark David: As a guest of your scent dinner, what should I know before attending?
Chandler Burr: Don't wear any perfume, and try to avoid using any heavily scented soaps or shampoos before you come. If you're a woman, try to wear a sleeveless top so you can try the perfumes on. Other than that, just fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride.
Mark David: How interactive is the dinner for a guest? What kinds of things are asked of someone in attendance? Need they be well-versed in fragrance before they attend?
Chandler Burr: The dinners are, in fact, extraordinarily participatory and interactive. You are smelling, guessing, judging, thinking, tasting, drinking, listening and talking the whole evening. You smell naturals, synthetics, and finished perfumes constantly. But you don't need to know a single thing about perfume, and there is no "expertise" necessary. I ask you to try to identify scents, and everyone has a pad of paper and pen to take notes. Sometimes we play perfume games, it all depends. But the experience is for everyone, from lovers of Serge Lutens and Andy Tauer to those who don't know Charlie from Chanel No. 5. It's about experiencing and interacting.
Mark David: What are your future plans for the Rosewood Scent Dinners? Can we expect a regular series of them?
Chandler Burr: Actually we're working on it. We have some plans...
I would like to thank Chandler Burr for taking the time to speak with us on this most exciting of ventures. If you would like more information, or to reserve your place at the dinner table, all of the details can be found at www.rosewoodhotels.com or www.chandlerburr.com. Bon Appetit!
HILDE SOLIANI
By Mark David Boberick
A resident of Parma, Italy, a small, elegant town her entire life,
Hilde Soliani understands how important culture is to ensuring a high
quality of life. Surrounded by good food, good wine, good music
(Giuseppe Verdi is one of her favorites), and good fragrances,
Soliani has imparted these truly Parmesan values into her art for
over a decade. Ever since leaving a successful Marketing Managerial
Career several years ago, she has poured her creativity into her
paintings, her jewelry, and most especially – her fragrances.
“When I was a child, my grandmother taught me how to create
perfume – mainly how to create organic essential oils, how
to recognize if they are good and bad and how they change
when they are mixed.
I respect the recipes of my grandmother, but I am always trying
to be innovative. I very much enjoy traveling around the world
looking for new emotions and raw materials.”
Hilde Soliani did not always want to make fragrances, even though
she greatly admired them. In fact, the idea wasn’t even in her head
until a journalist put it there. “During a press conference for my first
line of jewelry, I showed a line of candles for Valentine’s Day that
each included a gold and diamond daisy necklace inside. To wear it you would have to
burn half of the candle. The journalist asked me if the candle was perfumed and of course
it wasn’t.” The question stayed with Soliani until one terribly rainy day when she decided
to look for the old recipes of her grandmother. “She did La Mia Daisy. We loved the same
flower,” Soliani says. The decision to create a fragrance line was soon born and Hilde set
about searching for its concept.
“Inspiration can come to me at any time from anywhere. Sometimes it can be a flower, a
particular flavor at a restaurant, sometimes noise inside of the theatre or on the street.” In this
case, it was the flower - Actually, 5 of them.
The line, called Ti Amo (I Love You, in Italian) has a fragrance for every letter - Tulipo, Iris, Anemone (Wildflower), Margherita (Daisy), and Ortensia
(Hortensia).
They are not designed to be reproductions of natural scents, but rather abstract portraits of the
flowers – the emotions felt by Soliani in their presence. “I hate to emulate nature because I believe it is perfect. I want to create something different that is the reproduction of what I feel in that moment - something that I appreciated and want others to feel the same”
With Tulipo, perhaps the most abstract of the bunch since the actual flower has no smell; Soliani was taken by the small Sicilian island of Vulcano. The fragrance is the olfactory image of the bright sun, the black sand beaches, the crystal cold water, the hot air, and the small red flowers near the volcanic rocks by the sea.
For the Men: 2 by Creed
2 by Ormonde Jayne
By Mark David Boberick
Two households, both alike in dignity – here in fair Sniffapalooza Magazine, where we lay our scene.
Recently, Raphaella sent me a fabulous little trove of olfactory goodness full of wonderful scents for men probably with the hopes that I’d take a break from waxing poetic on my white florals for a moment and talk a minute or two on fragrances for our male audience. I think I can do that. So I singled out 2 houses and 4 fragrances from the bunch: The prestigious, older than Christ house of CREED and the very nouveau-niche Ormonde Jayne from London. 4 mini (so to speak) reviews were born. Lets get to it:
ROYAL DELIGHT by CREED
TOP: Mandarin Peel, Bergamot
HEART: Jasmine, Turkish Rose, Violet
BASE: Ambergris, Leather, Vanilla, Sandalwood
When I first smell Royal Delight, I’m surprised that it was released in the 19 century, Not dated, however –
it is still a very relevant smell for someone who is, or wants to feel like Aristocracy. We get a light dosage of
citrus and dry bergamot in the opening but it doesn’t last for long. Upon spraying, immediately I can tell there
is ambergris in this scent and I wouldn’t even need a list of ingredients to tell me as much because there is a metallic quality here, but a warm metal – not a cool one as commonly found with Iris scents. No iris here, folks – this is a warm oriental leather chypre. The leather is soft, buttery lambskin. The florals in this blend never really radiate on my skin – if anything, I probably get a hint of jasmine from this, but this is by no means a floral scent. The vanilla keeps this from being overly “classic chypre” in feel and paired with the sandalwood creates a smooth, creamy drydown – delicious! Something quite interesting happens in the drydown and it immediately draws to mind ashes. It may sound revolting but it is actually quite intriguing. Ash emerges, yet this fragrance never once feels smoky to me. Those of you who are familiar with CREED will understand when I say this has a definite CREED feel to it, and probably is one of the better offerings from the house for men. CREED lists this as being unisex and it definitely is and I strongly urge the men reading this to seek this out as it is truly a stunner. This is a very interesting fragrance to be considered unisex – when I hear the word unisex associated with perfume, I immediately get visions of CK1 and other “fresh, light, clean” scents. This is not fresh and it is not light. This is a rich, creamy elegant scent. It’s rather like a cashmere sweater – you can dress it up or you can dress it down but either way – you still feel at home and comfortable in it.
ISFARKAND by ORMONDE JAYNE (2005)
TOP: Lime, Mandarin, Bergamot
HEART: Pink Pepper
BASE: Cedar, Vetiver, Moss
Winner of the 2006 Wallpaper Magazine Award for best Men’s fragrance – this incredibly well blended concoction opens with a juicy blast of lime, mandarin and cedar. It immediately conjures up visions of No. 2 pencils and margaritas. The Pink Pepper in this lasts for quite sometime and keeps the fragrance perfectly temperate. Once the pepper dies off, this scent becomes warmer. The vetiver and the moss keep this feeling earthy, rich and quite long lasting. The drydown seems like a much younger, distant cousin to Bois du Portugal. The sillage on this fragrance is out of this world. I rarely get compliments on my fragrances (I know - I don’t understand, either) but this scent garnered wonderful compliments from all the way across the room. The feeling of this fragrance is much different than most other men’s scents – it does not smell at all synthetic, though I admit I know absolutely nothing about the materials used in this scent nor about the company’s preference for naturals, but it has a definite sense of high quality and refinement to it despite the fact that there is nothing particularly exotic about the ingredients. There are not many fragrances I can say this about – but with Isfarkand, I feel like if one were to buy this blindly, 9 out of 10 times they would not be disappointed. I honestly cannot understand how anything with a pulse could possibly resist this fragrance – even those who dislike cedar could probably still come to love Isfarkand because it’s just so damn chic.
ORMONDE MAN by ORMONDE JAYNE (2004)
TOP: Juniper Berry, Bergamot, Pink Pepper, Cardamom, and Coriander Seeds
HEART: Oudh and Black Hemlock
BASE: Vetiver, Cedar, Sandalwood, Musk
Well, after 3 testings of this fragrance and declaring it mediocre, I sat down to write this review and sprayed it one last time to refresh my memory and something marvelous happened: I was transported. I was taken back in time to a place from my childhood. A place I had forgotten about for at least 15 years – and certainly a smell which I have not been privy to for equally as long. But immediately, upon smelling Ormonde Jayne’s signature men’s fragrance about a minute and a half into its opening – there I was – 7 years old again, standing in the foyer of Darlene Curwood, our neighbor down the road. What is it exactly that’s doing this? When I think about Mrs. Curwoods home, I immediately think of their woodstove in the family room but there really isn’t anything very smoky about Ormonde Man. Possibly the oudh is just making it seem very rich and I’m getting confused. This does not remind me of Darlene herself – she wore Shalimar. At 5 years old – I knew she wore Shalimar. No, this scent just reminds me of her foyer. This scent, like no other I have ever encountered, reminds me of my home – where I grew up, just north of the Pocono Mountains in Northeastern Pennsylvania. In my mind, this fragrance has a distinct season to it – very late fall, all the leaves have fallen but it has not snowed yet. AHA! I’ve got it. I knew if I just kept writing it would come to me – this is live folks – a scent memory being typed out as it unfolds – I’m 7 years old and it’s Halloween Night. It’s freezing outside and I’m a clown. A clown whose mother keeps telling him it’s to cold not to wear a coat but a clown with an attitude and a quick retort none-the-less. “If I wear a coat…..NO ONE WILL KNOW WHAT I’M SUPPOSED TO BE, MOM!” She wins and 15 minutes later I’m standing in the foyer down the road where Darlene asks, “What are you supposed to be?” “A clown,” I reply. “My mother made me wear a coat.” In my mother’s defense – it was 30 degrees outside. If I remember correctly, Darlene fetched her orange pumpkin and pulled out an entire Kit-Kat bar. I knew I liked Darlene for a reason – not just because she wore Shalimar but because she gave full-sized candy bars instead of those ridiculous minis the size of a matchbox.
Ok, Ok – back to Ormonde Man. It’s absolutely glorious and I have no idea why, exactly. I love Juniper but it didn’t stick around too long. Black Hemlock is listed but I don’t know what that smells like to be able to detect it. Upon spraying it, it has a slightly medicinal opening which is probably a result of the juniper berries over the oudh. 3o seconds later the glorious pink pepper steps in a cheers us all up for a bit. Slightly spicy but not in the traditional sense - this is a cool, mysterious woody fragrance. It’s distinct and very debonair. Another scent I can’t really imagine anyone not loving. Just buy a bottle, ok?
Well, we opened this little article on a Shakespearian note and I regret to inform you that we will not be coming around full circle, probably because all I want to do is run off and find my Shalimar Parfum.
CREED Royal Delight and Bois du Portugal can be purchased at Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue NYC, Aedes de Venustas and Creed website ORMONDE JAYNE Man and Isfarkand can be purchased at www.ormondejayne.com
Photos source: Aedes, Ormonde Jayne
BOIS DU PORTUGAL by CREED
TOP: Lavender, Bergamot
HEART: Incense, Leather
BASE: Vetiver, Cedar, Sandalwood, Amber
Ah yes, Bois du Portugal. I must admit, I was very familiar with
this scent before I received Raphaella’s package. A favorite
perfume of the Basenotes people – one they seem to
recommend (along with YSL Body Kouros) regardless of
what you’re asking for, this fragrance is truly the height of
luxury and elegance in men’s perfumery. Like Royal Delight,
this is a fragrance that would be suitable for a weekend of
hunting in Cornwall or a State Dinner at the White House.
It’s flexible. This smoky, spicy, exotic elixir is masculine in
all of the traditional ways – but it goes about it with a lot of
panache. This is old-school refinement, Clark Gable,
Bentley Continentals. One of the few scents that I can
tolerate that uses Lavender – and it is definitely there –
a lot of it, in fact. It appears from the very start and stays
around for quite a while.
Some Incense and leather are thrown in but it is the Cedar and Vetiver drydown that's the real stunner of this fragrance and it has amazing lasting power and very decent sillage. If this fragrance could speak –it would have a British accent (not Portuguese) and would probably tell you that it voted for Margaret Thatcher.
But don’t let that influence you either way.
MY TOP 10 SCENTS OF SUMMER - UNABRIDGED
Or Why I compare my white-floral devotion to Shirley MacLaine.
By Mark David Boberick
Summer is upon us, offering a ridiculously dreadful dose of heat and humidity here in the Northeast. Quite frankly, I despise summer with every ounce of my being. I hate heat. I think I was an Inuit in a former life. And I think in my next life, I’ll come back as a polar bear. Its perfect, really. You never have to put up with heat, you can luxuriate in fur all year round without getting red paint splattered on you by PETA and best of all, its perfectly acceptable to wear white after Labor Day.
It is incredibly difficult for me to walk from my frigid, air conditioned apartment every morning into the unbearable summer sunshine. Its even more difficult to choose a scent in the summer - especially when I’d much rather be in a ski lodge wearing Bois d’Armenie. While I hate the heat, I have to make the best of it and something I’ve come to realize lately is that if there is one thing that the summer is good for where scent is concerned - it is a chance to bring out the big guns: the white florals. If there is a support group for white floral addicts, then I suppose I should probably be attending the meetings. After all, I was the man who once proclaimed that if push came to shove, I would single-handedly make white florals the new black. Perhaps you didn’t hear me when I said that. I can promise you that I did in fact make that proclamation. I may have been alone at the time - perhaps driving through a tunnel, maybe. But maybe also, you just weren’t paying attention to me. Could be. I have been told that at times, I speak softly but carry a big sample vial. What were we talking about before I went off on my white floral awareness tangent not unlike that of Shirley Maclaine when she was called by God and led by angels through the deserts of France. Or something like that. I read that a long time ago and filed it away because I knew it would come in handy one of these days. Perhaps I’ll take further inspiration from Madame MacLaine and write a book about how the Great Spirit told me one day to spread the word: Tuberose.
Alright lets get back on track here. Before I got distracted by Religious Pilgrimages, I believe I was talking about how perfect big brash, in-your-face florals are in the summer heat. And so when I was asked to compile a Top 10 Summer Fragrance list, it shouldn’t be a surprise to you that the list is dominated by fantastic florals. And because I like balance - there are a few fabulous other fragrances that rescue me when I don't want to smell like Easter at the Vatican. Lets get down to it, shall we?
In no particular order (yeah, right…):
1. Carnal Flower by Frederic Malle - If you’ve been paying attention to the perfume blogs, you’ll notice this has also made many other Top 10 lists as well and it should be no wonder why. I dare say this is my current definition of the mother of all white florals. Drop for drop, this is some very expensive juice but where other costly concoctions are concerned, the sillage and lasting power on Carnal Flower is unparalleled making this worth every penny. Gorgeous tuberose surrounded by a veil of refreshing greenness and surprise, surprise - Coconut, a note that would normally send me running for fear of smelling like a Mary-Kate-and-Ashley-loving tween but here in Carnal Flower, it is rendered with breathtaking beauty and subtlety. Word of warning - if this gets on your clothes, they will smell like Tuberose for the rest of their lives. In the winter, this fragrance is a Chopin Nocturne, but in the summer she dons a horned helmet and waxes Wagnerian.
2. Fleur de Narcisse by L’Artisan Parfumeur - Alright, I may as well just tell you that this scent gets me like no other. The Narcissus currently holds the top rank in Mark’s favorite floral note list and where Carnal Flower is the mother of all white floral scents, Fleur de Narcisse is the be all and end all of Narcissus scents, period. On me, this fragrance does a very happy dance - going from velvety smooth and lush floral goodness right on over to leather? Oh yes. Francois Duquesne’s wife told me several months ago that she was going to wear this on her wedding day and I can see why. This can be a very fickle fragrance but when it works on you - it will captivate you and bring you endless joy. Perfect in the summer. Maybe this will make my top 10 of winter list, too - but I haven’t had a chance to experience this in the winter yet. I can’t wait.
3. Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia by Estee Lauder - I just happened upon this fragrance and am happy to report that my floral loving skin purrs with excitement when it comes in contact with this fragrance. Perfect sillage, great longevity, and it garners a hell of a lot of compliments. On me, this is about 65% Tuberose and 35% Gardenia and I think if it were any other way, I would loathe it. Probably the best new release from Estee Lauder in many years. This fragrance treats me with pleasant surprises hours after I thought it disappeared from my skin - I would get a whiff and do that happy dance we all do in private.
4. Folavril by Annick Goutal - I don’t have much to say about this except it is like putting on a fresh linen shirt after it has been drying in the sun for a few hours near your flower garden. it’s a soapy-green floral fragrance that is so very uplifting and refreshing. This is not Die Walkure, this is more like La Nozze di Figaro performed al fresco.
5. Eau d’Orange Verte Cologne and Concentree by Hermes - I have every incarnation of this scent in every form available from the refreshing wake-up gel right down to the liquid hand soap. This scent is fresh and invigorating, yes - but what it also achieves is an immediate air of sophistication and just plain class. It is refined, yet youthful - bold, yet light. To me, this is immediately French, yet completely different from all of the other typically “French” scents out there. I love the original cologne the best but of course, it has absolutely wretched lasting power - even when layered with all 900 different products from the line now available. So that said - I wear the concentree in public more often because it lasts a bit longer. In private, however - I’m more than happy to carry my large 13.5 ounce bottle around to constantly refresh my person. I would compare this to an opera, but I doubt one has been written that could possibly come close to illustrating just how important, nay, imperative Eau d’Orange Verte is to my continued existence.
6. Un Jardin sur le Nil by Hermes - Continuing on the Hermes trail, another stunner that I simply must include is Jean-Claude Ellena’s extraordinary Un Jardin sur le Nil. When you first smell this fragrance, you think its just going to be another light Ellena scent that is extraordinarily perfect but doesn’t last. But I have found it to have amazing sillage and lasting power and that’s why it made the list.
7. Chanel No. 19 - Sheer brilliance. Gorgeous greens and an earthy Iris surrounded by a cloud of aldehydes and no rough edges. This is what it means to be a French perfume and still be light and refreshing. Absolutely radiant in the summer. This is Divinity in a bottle.
Now lets get deep and dark, shall we?…
8. Parfum Sacre by Caron - Does this surprise you? Truth be told, it surprises me. I wish I could tell you why this works so well under blaring heat but alas, I cannot. I will tell you that I’ve found this fragrance much more secular in the summer and a lot more sacred in the winter. I think that if Serge Lutens and Caron procreated - Parfum Sacre in the summertime would be their result.
9. Alexander McQueen Kingdom - This is another one that either works for you or it doesn’t. If it does work for you, I think you’ll find that it can be divine in all weather - its absolutely perfect for a warm summer evening dinner date. It is sensual, it is sexual - it tends to purr in the winter but it roars in the summer. Wear it with a lot of glee and attitude. I do.
10. Arabie by Serge Lutens - Its heavy, its spicy, and it is PERFECT in the heat. This is a non-floral that behaves like a big bold white flower in that its fine anytime of year - but it is really in its element basking in the heat. This scent is mysterious without being intangible. Exquisite woods rest below a layer of candied and dried fruits - that grow all the more aromatic in the sun. I’ve found this to be sweeter in the winter than in the summer. I’m aware one of the big complaints with Arabie is that some find it unbearably sweet. Perhaps this is you. But have you tried it in the summer? Accept my challenge.
Honorable Mentions:
Vicolo Fiori by ETRO - another fickle floral that most perfume enthusiasts seem to dislike, yet ETRO sells this by the ton.
Selection Verte by Creed - another stunning refreshing fragrance that works on me much like Eau d’Orange with the addition of mint. Divine, but would be nice if it lasted a bit longer.
New York by Parfums de Nicolai - a truly marvelous Chypre, perfect in the heat. And best of all - its AFFORDABLE!
Timbuktu by L’Artisan Parfumeur - I like the word fickle as you‘ve probably noticed. Timbuktu is fickle. But when it works, it works. What can I say?
Les Nuits d’Hadrien by Annick Goutal - Gourmandy-Citrusy-Goodness. Would it break your heart if I told you it reminds me of Shalimar?
Mandarine Mandarin by Serge Lutens - another Lutens that blossoms in the heat, also with candied orange peel.
Please also see miscellaneous interviews by Mark David Boberick in the Fall Ball Issue and the Spring Fling Issue '08 issue of Sniffapalooza Magazine
Ulrich Lang Anvers 2
Review
By Mark David Boberick
Ulrich Lang, a former L’Oreal executive and New York art publisher recently launched Anvers 2, his second fragrance for men this past Spring. The inspiration for the scent came from a photograph of Belgian art dealer Roger Szmulewicz by Katy Grannan. Roger has become
“the face of Anvers” and is featured on the packaging. The idea of using art as inspiration is nothing groundbreaking in the world of perfumery. Ulrich Lang, however, brings this idea into deliciously modern territory by using photography instead of more traditional art forms such as literature or painting.
The scent opens with a burst of Lemon and Lime and quickly evolves to feature rhubarb, a most welcome top note, especially in what seems like the year of violet leaves. The Rhubarb is a delicious touch to the zesty, invigorating opening. The cypress and the black pepper keep the opening in a neutral territory – neither warm nor cool – but it also
keeps the scent from smelling “squeaky clean.”
VISA
Robert Piguet
Fragrance Review
by Mark David Boberick
This past year, Robert Piguet Parfums re-released 2 more of their classic fragrances from days gone by. One of them is VISA. Originally created in 1945 by famed perfumer Germaine Cellier, It has been re-interpreted, re-imagined, and yes, re-formulated by Givaudan’s own Aurelien Guichard. The scent is considered to be an Oriental Gourmand, and if the word Gourmand scares you, sit tight, we’ll get to that in a minute…
There are mixed feelings in the Perfume World (at least in the virtual one) regarding the re-issuing of classic, vintage fragrances. Re-Issuing inevitably means re-formulating because French Laws being what they are, many original ingredients are no longer available or even legal. I have never smelled the original VISA, so I have absolutely no point of reference with this fragrance, and that’s just as well.
I’ve been doing my research. I’ve been reading a lot of opinions on many different scents that have been re-released over the past few years. Often, people are terribly unhappy with the results. (Balmain Vent Vert stands out in my memory as getting a lot of negative comments from people so very familiar with the original) The surprising general consensus among this community seems to be that they would rather the perfume houses didn’t even bother to re-issue the fragrances at all because they hardly ever smell like they “should.”
Well, I proudly disagree.
When I smell VISA, I am not immediately transported to Post-War Paris. There is nothing about it that smells vintage to me. And why should there be? This isn’t Paris in 1945. And since 1945, I think its safe to say – the market has changed, a bit.
Perfumer Aurélien Guichard at a Sniffapalooza
Fall Ball event in New York City
We eventually get to the heart of the fragrance where sensual cedar and smoky sandalwood
emerge paired with delicate Bulgarian rose. There is an interplay of other florals here, none of
which are overpowering or even highly discernable. It is a well blended mix of jasmine, lily,
and mimosa - flowers which can send some running, but here they are rendered in an extremely
androgynous fashion giving this scent a definite unisex feel. While it is considered a men’s fragrance, the many women who have smelled this on me have pried the sample vial from my hand and applied it to themselves. The drydown does not come quickly, which is just as well because the warm heart is where this fragrance truly shines. Contemplative and confident – the base reveals itself as a gorgeous blend of musk and vanilla.
Anvers 2 is a fantastic, extremely unisex scent with very decent lasting power. There are many perfumes out there that have design concepts that are much larger than the perfumes themselves. This is not one of them. Ulrich Lang’s forward thinking idea of photography as inspiration is a most welcome addition to the world of perfume marketing. The moral of the story is not forced upon the wearer, for it is up to the wearer to draw his own conclusions. Looking at the stunning photo of Roger, his dark attire, the autumn environment, the expression, the body language, the floor of fallen leaves – what does the wearer take away from all of this? The possibilites are endless.
Anvers 2 is available at Takashimaya and Aedes de Venustas in New York City.
In 2007, over 800 fragrances were released. Did you smell them all? Well, did you? Of course you didn’t. Of the ones you did smell however, I think it is probably safe to say that none of them smelled “old.” Alright – there may have been one or two, but for the most part? Times have changed and tastes have shifted. It’s a big market to drop a new fragrance into and if you’re going to do it – it needs to be forward-thinking and current.
VISA is current but it is, I’m happy to say - not redundant. On my skin, VISA opened with radiantly ripe fruits and a luscious dose of violet. The fruits die down quickly to reveal a floral heart with a surprise of immortelle. Maybe I’m wrong, but I personally never consider fruit notes to be gourmand. Crazy, I know. So it’s not until the appearance of the immortelle that this fragrance hints at gourmand territory for me. The seductive base is loaded with satisfaction. Vetiver, sandalwood, vanilla, and benzoin keep it grounded. The highlight of this scent for me, is when the doughy immortelle starts to warm the leathery accord in the base.
VISA is the kind of scent you don’t mind smelling on your cashmere scarf or your leather gloves. Actually, you sort of hope the scent never leaves those items – it is always a welcomed accompaniment to any accessory.
The scent lasts quite well and has exquisite sillage – always there but no threat of asphyxiation. Robert Piguet’s trademarks of a “strict adherence to good taste, true luxury, a horror of the commonplace and an innate sense of seduction” have not been sacrificed. This scent is relevant and still manages to be unique. It is as exotic as it is comforting. VISA is at home on a body cloaked in sweats or sable.
Aurelien Guichard had a very difficult task ahead of him when he set out to transform a vintage classic into a modern classic. The good news is of course that, and this shouldn’t come as a big surprise to anyone, he is entirely capable. He has already given us the exquisite Chinatown and Andy Warhol's Silver Factory for Bond No. 9 as well as the Piguet re-issue of Baghari. He is a young perfumer with a modern vision that manages to honor the classic history of perfume as well as the future of it.
There is something luxurious in just knowing that you can reach for a bottle of fragrance that was once long lost and is now, once again available to us all. I shudder to think of how many incredible classics we have lost. So, even if re-issues manage to be ghosts of their former selves, (and I’m not implying that VISA is – remember, I’ve never smelled it) I still am fortunate that we can say we have them back with us.
Welcome back, VISA.
