Tebereuse Criminelle by Serge Lutens

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Image: AromaX

This perfume is not to be put on just a few moments before you leave. No – this one needs time to be tamed. You have to put it on just after the shower and go on with grooming and getting dressed. First you feel surrounded with a wintergreen mist as if you put on an antirheumatic ointment. Yes – the opening is really heavy and too medicinal. The prominent note is wintergreen, that comes probably from methyl salicilate. I have never smelled it in a real tuberose and I was very surprised when I found methyl salicilate as a component in several formulae of a tuberose floral base.

It’s difficult to smell through the harshness of the wintergreen note, but if you do it within first ten minutes after applying the fragrance you’ll find more surprises like chemical notes of rubber or asphalt. But soon the tuberose begins to break through. Desperately suppressed by the chemical notes at first it getting stronger and stronger. The nice combination of tender white petals and sultry opiating heavy smell of flesh of night tropical flower. Wintergreen remains contrasting against the tuberose for a while, but finally finds a point of balance and becomes a part of a tuberose accord. If you are lucky it happens before you have to go outside. Ready to spend at least 30 minutes on grooming after the shower and applying of Tubéreuse Criminelle? Otherwise you’ll get strange faces looking at you with compassions and thinking what harm did you try to relief with a rheumatic ointment.

But later you’ll be rewarded with an exotic heavy aura of a tuberose. It doesn’t have coconut note at the background or penetrating greenness like Carnal Flower. It’s less buttery than Tubereuse by L’Artisan, but just slightly creamy. The wintergreen at the background helps to keep a resemblance with a fresh flower. The tuberose is strong and long lasting and finally fades into vanilla dry down.

Fougère II - the legend

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Image: the picture of Fougère Royale for this collage is granted by palomka

Coumarin, the main ingredient of the Tonka beans with the slightly bitter sweet odour was synthesised by Perkin in 1869 and put on market as one of the first aromachemicals in 1877 by Tiemann and Hersfeld in Germany.

Paul Parquet (joint owner of Houbigant) has used the new aromachemical to create his new perfume with imaginary smell of fern that he named Fougère Royale (the Royal Fern). This perfume had such a great success, that it was not only widely copied, but also gave a name for the whole olfactory group – the fougères. The original perfume has not survived unfortunately. It has been re-issued (and obviously reformulated) in 1959, but can’t be found now days.

What did it smell like? The Hoffmann’s book Die Moderne Parfumerie (1912) contains the formula of fougère. It’s not clear if it was original Fougère Royale or its olfactory copy. According to this formula fougère consists of infusions of rose, jasmine and orange flowers together with neroli and lavender oil, tincture of oakmoss with vetiver oil, benzoin and musk infusions and two aromachemicals – coumarine and… geranyl formate. It’s funny to notice that it consists mostly from the natural ingredients. I don’t know much about geranyl formate, but according to description it’s a chemical with a dry and fruity green-rosy odour and for a natural perfumer could be probably substituted by a combination of geranium oil with bergamot, rose and neroli (a very small quantity or ginger oil could give it a finishing touch).

It’s funny to mentione, that Fougère Royale was neither a unique accord nor a unique name. In 1873 Yardley released English lavender – a perfume based on the similar notes (Tonka bean instead of coumarin together with lavernder, oakmoss, herbs etc.) In 1877 Geo F Trumper created Wild Fern based on the oakmoss accord. What was it that made Fougère Royale the ancestor of the fougère family?

It looks like the previous fern scents were made to perfume the soap and bath products mostly – a lot of fougéres have the clean soapy note. Houbigant was the first who made an individual perfume based on a fern scent. May be that is why he called it “royal” – to emphasize it worth to be a perfume.

It also looks that all the legends around the fern promising magic powers were the engine for the perfumer trying to reconstruct the fern scent. As if they could catch the magical essence into a perfume bottle. Who knows. Fern has enough magic power to inspire the whole perfumery industry with the scent he even doesn’t posses…

Herbal magic: Spirit of Jasmine

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Image: AromaX

Stars shining in the darkness and the Moon are not the only companions of the night. Star-formed white blossoms of Jasmine begin to spread their sweet charming and stupefying fragrance when the dusk comes. It’s not surprising why these mysterious plant is considered to be connected with Moon – the planet of subconscious, fears, illusions, feelings, drifts, fantasies and dreams. It’s also related to Water element – the domain of feelings and emotions.

Jasmine works on our mood, feelings and emotions. It neither suppresses them nor makes them clear, but brings us in state of euphoria and increases sensuality. Not for nothing its smell can be referred as “narcotic”. It’s a perfect remedy by emotional pains, losses and depressions. It’s also a wide used herb in love spells – just don’t forget – the power of jasmine is not in attracting love. Instead it increases sensuality and warms you and your beloved one up.

Some practical tips to use the magic power of jasmine:

- use it for sensual perfume (a floriental would be a nice choice);
- use it in a nightcream for dry, easy irritated skin that gets red easily (jasmine perfectly calms such “neurotic” skin);
- smell some jasmine absolute, fresh blossoms or natural jasmine perfume to soften the emotional pain or when feel depressed, pessimistic, scared;
- use a jasmine scented massage oil as part of the foreplay;
- smelled before going to bed it would bring you sweet dreams and even may be a prophetic dream if you ask for it;
- smelled before and during the meditation it increases the intuition.

Red Vetyver by Montale

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Red Vetyver is the newest fragrance launched this year by Montale. A spicy woody fragrance combining the notes of vetiver from Haiti, Moroccan cedarwood, patchouli, grapefruit, elemi, black pepper from Madagascar.

Red Vetyver opens with “wet” Vetiver notes reminding me of a fresh cut root or asparagus. Balsamic freshness of black pepper and bitter sweetness (Grapefruit-like) are joining shortly. The heart notes are spicy, wet and warm. I definitely smell a kind of anise note reminding me of “pickles” or star anise bringing some wetness to this perfume contrasting with the warmth of spices. The base consists of woody notes forming a precious wood accord and non-vanilla sweetness probably coming from resins.

The whole impression of this perfume is an image of sunset somewhere far in the jungle wood after the rain where the air is warm and humid and saturated with strange spicy smells. The orange light of the sunset falls on the red brown hairy tree trunks making them look like they glow from inside. It’s a Fire element born from the Earth and won from Water. Not a devastating recklessness of a conflagration. But a wise power of a ritual fire.

Red Vetyver bears resemblance with Terre d’Hermes, but has more character and power. According to other reviews this fragrance has similar notes with Red Aoud. I do like the spicy and fiery character of Red Vetyver as much as its base of the precious wood and non-vanilla sweetness. But the wet “anise” note is difficult to become used to. Personally I would not classify this fragrance as Vetiver, because its Vetiver note is less obvious than in Vetiver by Guerlain, Encre Noire and even Sycomore. It makes an accord with other woods and species and is not a leading note.

Red Vetyver by Montale

Russian version - click here

Red Vetyver is the newest fragrance launched this year by Montale. A spicy woody fragrance combining the notes of vetiver from Haiti, Moroccan cedarwood, patchouli, grapefruit, elemi, black pepper from Madagascar.

Red Vetyver opens with “wet” Vetiver notes reminding me of a fresh cut root or asparagus. Balsamic freshness of black pepper and bitter sweetness (Grapefruit-like) are joining shortly. The heart notes are spicy, wet and warm. I definitely smell a kind of anise note reminding me of “pickles” or star anise bringing some wetness to this perfume contrasting with the warmth of spices. The base consists of woody notes forming a precious wood accord and non-vanilla sweetness probably coming from resins.

The whole impression of this perfume is an image of sunset somewhere far in the jungle wood after the rain where the air is warm and humid and saturated with strange spicy smells. The orange light of the sunset falls on the red brown hairy tree trunks making them look like they glow from inside. It’s a Fire element born from the Earth and won from Water. Not a devastating recklessness of a conflagration. But a wise power of a ritual fire.

Red Vetyver bears resemblance with Terre d’Hermes, but has more character and power. According to other reviews this fragrance has similar notes with Red Aoud. I do like the spicy and fiery character of Red Vetyver as much as its base of the precious wood and non-vanilla sweetness. But the wet “anise” note is difficult to become used to. Personally I would not classify this fragrance as Vetiver, because its Vetiver note is less obvious than in Vetiver by Guerlain, Encre Noire and even Sycomore. It makes an accord with other woods and species and is not a leading note.

Mitsouko - very rare

For someone who doesn't like serious reading and prefers pictures ;-)

Here is a picture of a very rare and unique Mitsouko. It looks like the only one copy of it is made. Please, let me know if you know the bottle designer and a year of issue ;-).

And - don't forget - have fun, because life isn't that serious...

Mitsouko - the masterpiece, the story, the legend

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Image: AromaX

Mitsouko is a perfume created in 1919 by Jacque Guerlain. Just after the World War I – the time when people tired of cruelties and were longed for softness and joy to smelt the ice in their hardened hearts. The light, warm and tender fragrance fulfilled this need. Mitsouko was a masterpiece that is still popular and loved. One of the few fragrances which has survived all the reformulations without loosing its charm and beauty.

The name Mitsouko comes from a novel of Claude Ferré “La Bataille” (The Battle) written in the same year. The main character is a young Japanese woman Mitsouko, the wife of a Japanese admiral who felt in love with a young British naval attaché – a thrilling affair of passion between two young loving hearts with elements of intrigue and deceit. The admiral did knew about the affair of his wife, but sacrificed his pride for his country.

The rumours says that Guerlain was inspired by his own love affair with a Japanese lady, but the truth remains behind the veil of mystery, because the “Mitsouko” means “mystery” in Japanese.

What does the mystery smell like?

When I put it on my skin it reminds me on cookies – yes, Mitsouko smells cookies on my skin – a sweet slightly milky fragrance I know from my childhood. It fills me with peacefulness and joy and I just want to keep smell this fragrance as one whole note without analysing the ingredients… no oakmoss, no bergamot, no peach – just cookies. My personal experience says that it’s not easy to “smell through” a note of an accord that give you a strong emotional impact – when you either like it a lot or hate. It’s also difficult to analyse a good balanced accord. The good accord is a point when you actually don’t smell the ingredients, but a new note that smells differently than just a mix of the components. The better the accord, the more difficult to analyse. Mitsouko is difficult for me because of both – it’s a perfect accord and it hits my emotions.

Sometimes it helps when you know learn the ingredients first. In perfume terms Mitsouko is a fruity chypre – a perfume based on the contrast between dark, dry, earthy and mossy smell of Oakmoss and light, fresh and citrusy bergamot mixed with a fruity note of peach. It´s remarkable that the spirit of intrigues and deceit is found not only in the name of Mitsouko, but also in the fragrance itself. Mitsouko smells peaches, but there are no peaches in Mitsouko – it’s the first (or one of the first) perfume where the synthetic material is used that is unknown in nature to simulate the peach fragrance.

The peach is made of synthetic material – C-14 (so called peach) aldehyde. In fact the C-14 aldehyde is not an aldehyde, but a lactone, but they didn’t know it in times of Mitsouko, so it’s still called C-14 peach aldehyde (still smell the intrigue and deceit? Even within a single ingredient of the perfume?) The smell of C-14 peach aldehyde (lactone) has a sweet fruitiness of peach and a creamy note of milk. The dark earthy oakmoss is a bit too heavy material to make a light and joyful perfume. The fresh brightness of bergamot alone is not enough to make a good chypre. Mostly you can soften the oakmoss with huge dosage of jasmine (the way how Coty has softened the oakmoss in Chypre). Guerlain found that C-14 peach aldehyde can also tame the beast (as the rumours says by accident, but who knows). Oakmoss, bergamot and peach made from C-14 aldehyde (lactone) – this is the essence of Mitsouko – a perfectly balanced accord.

Other notes reported in Mitsouko are:

Lemon, Mandarin, Neroli, Rose, Jasmine, Clove, Ylang-Ylang , Benzoin, Woody notes, Cinnamon.

It’s remarkable to notice that Mitsouko shares the bottle with another Guerlain perfume of a very different character – L’Heure Bleu. To explain that they often say that it was the time when perfumers didn’t have an idea that each perfume needed its own bottle – people buy what’s inside. But the rumours (yes, the rumours again) say that there was another reason. After the war, in the time of poverty it was not easy to find a bottle for the new perfume and the bottles from the stock were used.

This is a legend. My personal olfactory experiences with Mitsouko may follow sooner or later.

New still unnamed Vetiver fragrance from Tauer's perfumes

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Image: AromaX

Today I’ve got a still unnamed new Vetiver fragrance from Andy Tauer. It was a gift to all his blog readers because of his third year blogging anniversary. I’ve smelled it before this year during my visit to Andy. But a short sniff was not enough to explore the beauty of this fragrance. I was very glad with the opportunity to do it again.

The perfume opens with a bitter sweet citrus freshness of grapefruit supported by a spiciness of clary sage. And than from the depth of the fragrance comes vetiver. It spills like a pot of black ink filling everything with dark, slightly smokey, earthy and herbaceous aroma. The bitter sweetness of coumarin from Tonka beans supports and emphasizes the aromatic medicinal part of vetiver from one side and from another side it re-echoes with a bitter sweetness of a grapefruit note. White floral and slightly spicy accord of clary sage and lily of the valley jingles above dark vetiver-coumarine ravine. Although the vetiver note is very prominent and present at the background I am not sure if it’s a vetiver fragrance – a very beautiful clary sage accord of this perfume takes a lead on my skin at some moments making the vetiver just to follow and support at the background. At another moments it surrenders to vetiver becoming just a soft part of it. The play between the Clary sage-Lily of the Valley accord and Vetiver is like a dance.

This fragrance is a primeval song combining low booming vibrations of Vetiver and alto female duet of clary sage and lily of the valley. The colours are black (vetiver), all tints of green (from dark green of vetiver till bluish and greyish green of clary sage) and white (Lily of the valley). Grapefruit and coumarin give some bruin accents. Those are the colours of the Mother Earth. It reminds me of a quiet primeval forest after the rain when the air is saturated with water damps and the earth is fertile. The fragrance is heavy and slow – it’s like a mist that crawls on the ground inevitably feeling all open spaces and embracing everything.

At the end when everything is said and done, the dry down is coming revealing the signature of Andy – the warm woody ambery base reminding me of L’air du desert marocain.

The perfume will be available in October this year. To be ordered at Tauer Perfumes

The notes (as announced on the fyer):
Grapefruit, black pepper, green clary sage leaves, brilliant lily of the valley, dark vetiver of Java, crisp cedar wood and soft ambergris with a hint of cistus and Tonka beans.

UPDATE I: What I found to be a spicy note of clary sage was the pepper - a lot of it, nicely integrated with clary sage and lily of the valley (so I did miss it completely). At my second sniff I was amazed how strong the pepper note was there - it opens with a pepper explosion with grapefruit and clary sage behind... (July 9, 08 9:20 AM)

UPDATE II: The Vetiver seems not to be Unnamed anymore. After long discussions and thinking Andy has come back to his first suggestion last nice - Vetiver Dance. (July 9, 08 9:20 AM)

Tropical white flower, Gardenia as a gift and visualisation

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I do like a smell of tropical white flowers – Tuberose, Gardenia, Jasmine, Cananga (Ylang). It’s always heady, sweet, creamy, sultry and intoxicating. They also have a slightly “dirty” carnal component mostly avoided, but sometimes even supported (Carnal Flower, Tubereuse Criminelle) in perfumery. So, I decided to collect those flowers and give them a try in a cool rainy Dutch climate.

The Jasmine I bought in the gardener’s shop has almost died, but saved and I hope it’s not damaged that far that it decide not to give flowers anymore. The Tuberose bolls I bought at the Flower Market on the last days of the season is showing its first leaves above the ground. The Gardenia you see on the picture is a special gift from a friend of my (the one who wears Knowing I like to smeel from her, remember?). It was a Saturday a couple of weeks ago when we had our final exam on visualisation. We all got through with success and got a delphinium flower from our docent. Later we went to the gardener’s shop and I was just charmed by the nice Gardenia flower and its smell. It wasn’t unnoticed and I’ve got it as a gift for my success at the exam. Thank you, Marian.

The visualisation is a therapeutic technique that helps to understand the messages from subconscious level which are blocked by our mind. Once understood and accepted those “messages” has a healing power. Visualisation is a nice technique to use when you like to understand and find an essence of a symptom, a pattern, a conflict, emotion, to gain an insight. Practically it’s similar to a daydreaming or fantasy in a state of trance. Remarkable to notice that the Gardenia brought me in a state of trance (charmed ;-) and the same Gardenia I’ve got as a gift for my visualisation exam where the trance is a key…

Fougere - the perfumer’s fairy tale

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The name fougère comes from French “fougère” that means “fern”. It’s obviously that there are no doubts about the content of the main compound any fougère – it’s the mythic and rare fern flower responsible for the unique scent of the fougère perfume. Unfortunately it’s not so easy to obtain that flower that is known to blossom just once a year on John the Baptist day on June 24. The flower is opening just for several minutes at the midnight to make seeds. Understanding that it’s very clear that nature took the greatiest care to protect the flower from all threats including the perfumers hunting for it.

First of all the flower is very poisons. Its slightly sweet and silky herbal scent besots anyone who comes an arm length close to the fern. It’s not very seldom that someone has found a dead person lying with his face down in the fern. If you dare to look into the face you’d see bliss in his eyes. The only safe fern is grown under the oaks among the oak moss as the power of the noble oak can neutralise the dead stupefying charm of the fern flower.

The fern flower is also magically protected. The one who can resist the intoxicating power of fern is exposed to the strong temptation of the light coming from the fern flower. The light is so powerful that it makes all the treasure to glow – doesn’t matter how far or how deep it’s hidden in the ground. There are many perfumers who have chosen to become wealthy and abandoned their dream to make a fougère perfume forever. The light of the fern flower kindles the greediness in someone’s heart. Only the most devoted to the perfumer’s art have gained their goal. They new that a pinch of lavender blossoms thrown to the fern tames the light of its flower.

The one who could come to the flower closely has to deal with another threat. The culled flower shorn of its possibility to make seeds begins to bleed with fury that can burn any material. And save the one who wants to cull the flower with his bare hands. Only Tonka beans can deceive the fern flower as they has the similar entities. Fern accepts the Tonka bean as its own seed and let the flower to be taken.

Think three times everyone who dares to get the fern flower. First find the fern under the oak surrounded with the oak moss. Don’t forget to take some lavender and Tonka beans. Because in case you can’t get the fern flower you still can make a fougère from those three ingredients.