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May Muguet Marathon: Premier Muguet
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May Muguet Marathon: Premier Muguet

Premier Muguet by Bourjois is a bit of a mystery. The nose behind it is listed in many places as Ernest Beaux, creator of the legendary Chanel No. 5 and Chanel No. 22, among other Chanel fragrances. Bois de Jasmin has a wonderful post about him, which is mostly in his own words, a magazine article he wrote about perfumery, translated from French. M. Beaux created a few perfumes for Bourjois (a cosmetics house whose early, but not first, owners were the Wertheimer family and which was sold just last year to Coty), including an early favorite and perhaps their most famous fragrance, Soir de Paris,  or Evening in Paris. He is supposed to have created Premier Muguet for Bourjois in 1955, during the same decade when others were creating muguet fragrances like the legendary Diorissimo and Caron’s Muguet du Bonheur.

UPDATE: the master and perfume legend Luca Turin, now blogging on WordPress at perfumesIlove, sent me this information which he kindly solicited from perfume historian Will Inrig: that Premier Muguet was in fact created in 1955 by Henri Robert, the nose behind Coty’s Muguet des Bois, who had recently joined the house of Bourjois-Chanel (they were jointly owned at that point). I have a small bottle of what I believe is the eau de cologne of Premier Muguet, full and in its original box and bottle.

Continue reading →

May Muguet Marathon: Always in Bloom
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May Muguet Marathon: Always in Bloom

In 2010, the famous Longwood Gardens of Pennsylvania hosted an exhibit called  “Making Scents: The Art and Passion of Fragrance”, noted by Now Smell This. It sounds as if it was wonderful and I would have loved to experience it, based on this description and this video:

An intersection of flora, fashion and science, the exhibition will transform the Gardens’ gemlike conservatory into a museum for the senses. Visitors to the exhibition will experience the actual plants and flowers behind iconic perfumes, explore the mysterious power of the sense of smell, discover the unique combination of creative artistry and intricate science behind perfume composition, and have the opportunity to compose a basic fragrance.

Fortunately, we can still experience one small part of the exhibition: Always in Bloom, a fragrance designed by Olivier Polge before he joined Chanel as its lead perfumer, following his renowned father Jacques Polge. Continue reading →

May Muguet Marathon: VCA’s Muguet Blanc
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May Muguet Marathon: VCA’s Muguet Blanc

Some years ago, Van Cleef & Arpels, a French company best known for its high-luxe jewels, released a collection of six fragrances called the Collection Extraordinaire. One of them was the lovely Muguet Blanc. I believe it has been discontinued, sadly, because it is beautiful. The nose behind it is Antoine Maisondieu. The notes are lily of the valley, peony, neroli, green notes and white cedar. The reviews of it at its launch which I have read are fascinating: mostly positive, some absolute raves — like this by Patty at Perfume Posse. Now Smell This had a mixed response, recognizing Muguet Blanc’s beauty and quality, finding it gorgeous but too clean. And yes, it is reminiscent of the cool diamonds and emeralds in the lovely pin shown above.

Van-Cleef-and-Arpels-Muguet-clip-platinum-diamonds-and-emeralds

I love it. Continue reading →

May Muguet Marathon: Mother’s Day
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May Muguet Marathon: Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate it! Just as May is the month for May Day and muguet, it is also the month when we recognize and appreciate mothers. So today, instead of commenting on a specific fragrance, I’d like to share a bit of Lily-of-the-Valley folklore. Apparently, one of its other names is “Our Lady’s Tears”, or “Mary’s Tears”. According to one website: “It was said that when Mary wept at the foot of the Cross, her tears fell to the ground and turned into the tiny fragrant blossoms of this early spring plant. In England it had the name “Our Lady’s Tears” because when viewed from a distance the white flowerets gave the appearance of teardrops falling.” Continue reading →

May Muguet Marathon: Lily, by Lili Bermuda
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May Muguet Marathon: Lily, by Lili Bermuda

One of many beautiful, interesting places to visit on the island of Bermuda is The Bermuda Perfumery, home of the brand Lili Bermuda. The perfumery was founded in the 1920s. Today, its staff creates particularly beautiful floral perfumes as well as other scents, and you can tour part of its operation in historic St. George’s, which is where I discovered Lili Bermuda several years ago.

The Bermuda Perfumery in St. George's, Bermuda, with pastel houses

The Bermuda Perfumery. Photo: http://www.foreverbermuda.com

I came home with two fragrances: Lily and Coral, both of which I love. Lily is a pretty white floral with several fruity notes that work surprisingly well with its strong note of muguet. According to Fragrantica, Lily’s top notes are clementine, tamarind and fresh mint. Heart notes are: lily of the valley, calla lily, guava and pear (I’m confused by the “calla lily” reference, as I don’t think calla lilies have a scent). Base note is a simple white musk. What I enjoy about Lily is the unexpected juxtaposition of the fruits with lily of the valley, especially the citrusy opening. The clementine appears very clearly, with its sweet, light tones of orange balanced in a  nice contrast with the slightly astringent tone of the tamarind and the fresh green hint of mint. The lily of the valley note makes its presence known right after that and never really fades away. The fruit notes are succeeded by guava and pear — again, light and sweet fruit scents that have no sourness at all. The white musk base grounds Lily but never dominates. Although it is a light, white floral, I find that Lily lasts for several hours on my skin, wafting up with scented reminders of its beautiful island home.

Lili Bermuda’s owner, Isabelle Ramsay-Brackstone, seems to be a remarkably creative lady. Continue reading →

May Muguet Marathon: Perfume/Bouquet Pairings
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May Muguet Marathon: Perfume/Bouquet Pairings

Surprise! None of the pictured fragrances are muguet fragrances. They were featured in an article in Brides magazine on pairing a wedding day fragrance with one’s bridal bouquet: A Perfect Pair: The Best Fragrances for Lily of the Valley Wedding Bouquets. The article points out that a wedding day perfume can clash with or complement a strongly fragrant bouquet — for instance, one full of lilies of the valley, like the bouquet I carried. (NB: I don’t recall exactly what fragrance I wore on my own wedding day but I strongly suspect it was Diorissimo, as I had a bottle of it then and wore it often. And yes, it was pre-reformulation! Sigh).

Interestingly, the writer suggests complementary, non-muguet scents to go with the lilies of the valley in the bouquet. Continue reading →

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Happy May Day!

Can’t resist sharing this marvelous photo of a little Parisienne clutching her May Day muguets! Thank you to the Scented Salamander for the original post:

via Jaywalking Lily of the Valley ≈ Le Muguet traverse au rouge {Paris Street Photo} — The Scented Salamander: Perfume & Beauty Blog & Webzine

Little girl with lilies of the valley (muguet) in Paris on May Day.

Jaywalking in Paris with muguets on May 1, from The Scented Salamander.

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Fragrance Friday: Art & Olfaction Awards Finalists

Today at 1pm, Central European time, members of the Art and Olfaction Awards judging panel joined founder Saskia Wilson-Brown to announce the finalists of the third annual awards. Luca Turin gave a small talk about the meaning of awards, in general Mark Behnke introduced the judging methods, and the judges Antonio Gardoni introduced the artisan […]

via Announcing the finalists — The Art and Olfaction Awards

Fragrance Friday: Natalie Wood
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Fragrance Friday: Natalie Wood

The New York Times recently published an intriguing article about the actress Natalie Wood’s daughter, Natasha Gregson Warner, her memories of her mother who died in a tragic accident when she was eleven, and the perfume she has designed: A Mother’s Death, A Daughter’s Life.

Scent matters to Ms. Gregson Wagner, 45. It’s an emotional trigger and conjurer of memory. In every home that she has lived in as an adult, she says she has planted a gardenia bush, because the smell of gardenias reminds her of her mother. “The smell is what I remember, the comfort of the smell,” she said as she sat on a banquette in her kitchen, wearing jeans and a flowered, billowy blouse. “I knew when she was home because I would smell her perfume. She would waft through the house.”

Ms. Gregson Warner will release a gardenia-based fragrance in honor of her mother, called Natalie. It is a modern take on the original Jungle Gardenia, which was Natalie Wood’s favorite perfume and was worn by a number of Hollywood stars (not the Coty version under the same name, which apparently was a completely different scent).

In one moving part of the article, Ms. Gregson Warner describes her emotions after she and her little sister were told that their mother had died:

As any daughter would be, she was devastated and scared. “Her bed and her sheets smelled like her,” said Ms. Gregson Wagner, who is petite at 5-foot-2 and with almond-shaped brown eyes, bears more than a passing resemblance to her mother. “I slept there for a lot of nights. Especially with one of her pillows, it just smelled like her in the days after.”

The power of fragrance. I wish this lovely lady the best of luck with her new perfume.

Natasha Gregson Warner, Natalie Wood's daughter

Natasha Gregson Warner. Photo: Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York Times

Fragrance Friday: A Life in Scent
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Fragrance Friday: A Life in Scent

Fashion news outlets have been trumpeting the foray of a longtime fashionista and industry insider, former Vogue Creative Director Grace Coddington, into the world of self-named perfumes. Comme des Garcons will launch Grace by Grace Coddington this April. Okay, so far, so good, ho hum. Here’s what I found more interesting: this article by Vogue, in which Ms. Coddington traces her favorite scents throughout her long career in fashion, starting in the late 1950s when she was a young model in London.

Grace Coddington Vogue 1962

Grace Coddington. Vogue UK, September 1962

Ms. Coddington has always had a striking, different look: more Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood than Twiggy in my view.

Grace Coddington telegraph

Grace Coddington; photo from fashion.telegraph.co.uk

Her new perfume sounds lovely but pretty conventional: “peach blossom, white musk, and amber crystal–spiked Moroccan rose absolute”, according to Vogue. It will be interesting to see if the actual fragrance is more individual and quirky than that description, as Grace Coddington’s own style, personal and editorial, has long been both of those.

Featured photo: Steven Klein, for Vogue January 2013; editor Grace Coddington.