My family and I will be traveling to Devon, Cornwall, Belfast and Dublin this summer! I am excited at the possibility of visiting at least one perfume-related site during our trip, and I’ve identified a beautiful perfumery in Dublin: Parfumarija, which is close to where we will be staying. Doesn’t this look lovely?
Parfumarija in Dublin; image from http://www.parfumarija.com
Any other suggestions for fragrance places to visit? They don’t all have to be retail stores!
The weather has hit the high nineties in my part of the world, complete with dense humidity and hot skies. It is steamy and hot, and we just spent a weekend with friends at their lake house. The house has a huge, high-ceilinged screened porch with two swinging daybeds suspended from its beams and ceiling fans rotating lazily above. I spent most of Saturday lounging on one of those porch swings, reading and looking out over the lakeshore where my teenagers alternately baked themselves in the sun and dipped into the water. And boy, was I in the mood for Un Jardin Sur le Nil! I spritzed myself with it liberally throughout the day and just basked in its green mango and lotus flowers. This fragrance truly blossoms in summer heat and humidity.
Un Jardin Sur le Nil; photo from hermes.com
Citrus-based fragrances are not usually high on my list but perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena is a magician with grapefruit. The opening of Un Jardin Sur le Nil is my favorite part of the fragrance — a gust of grapefruit and green mango that I find very refreshing and alluring. The entire impression is very green, which likely comes from notes like bulrushes, tomato leaf and carrot, with that wonderful fruity-but-not-sweet opening. It is a different green than most “green florals”, though light floral notes emerge as the citrus dries down.
The story of Un Jardin Sur le Nil and its creation has been masterfully told by Chandler Burr, first in this story in The New Yorker and then in longer book form, in The Perfect Scent.
The Perfect Scent
After experiencing Un Jardin Sur le Nil on such a steamy, hot, humid day, I am appreciating its charms anew. In such an environment, it wafts off the skin in gentle waves of fresh coolness, as if one is about to sip the most delicious, refreshing drink in a green oasis. After the green mangoes and watercolor floral notes, the sycamore and incense notes at the base lightly suggest exactly the kind of setting in which I found myself this weekend: a wooden porch looking over a body of water, a humid breeze, a daybed heaped with pillows, ceiling fans turning gently above. In other words, there is a suggestion — just a soupcon, really — of this kind of room at the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan, Egypt, where the Hermes team stayed during part of their exploratory journey:
The Old Cataract Hotel, Aswan, Egypt. Photo: sofitel.com
Others have described and reviewed Un Jardin Sur le Nil in much more expert terms than I, and I encourage you to read The Perfect Scent, as it opens a window into the arcane world of perfumery in both Paris and New York. If you want to try the fragrance itself, I suggest that you try it on a hot summer day, when it truly comes into its own.
Un Jardin Sur le Nil, hermes.com
Thank goodness. I have been eagerly anticipating the release of the new (and last) Hermessence by Jean-Claude Ellena, Muguet Porcelaine. I love his Jardin series very much; the transparency of his fragrances appeals to me although some other perfume lovers do not like it. And I truly love lily of the valley scents, so I was keeping my fingers crossed that Muguet Porcelaine would not disappoint. And it doesn’t.
Before I got my own sample, I read some comments that used words like “cucumber”, “melon”, “watermelon” and even “bubble gum”! No, no, no, I thought, surely Ellena would not play such a cruel joke on perfume lovers who look forward to his new works, or on the lovely lily of the valley flower that has so inspired great perfumers like Edmond Roudnitska, whom Ellena holds in high regard.
He did not. Continue reading
My oh my, muguet! Oriza L. Legrand’s Muguet Fleuri opens with a decisive, spicy greenness that comes from top notes of green leaves, grass and lily-of-the-valley, per Fragrantica. The middle notes are galbanum, angelica, violet leaf and lily-of-the-valley; base notes are lily-of-the-valley, oakmoss and lily. Kafkaesque attributes the spiciness of the opening to the violet leaves, but I wonder if it doesn’t also come from the angelica. The firmness of the green top notes reminds me of the leaves of lily of the valley, which are very beautiful in their own right and offer just the right contrast to the delicate silver-white bells of the flowers on their long, slender stalks. The leaves are sculptural in their form, larger than the flowers and sometimes even hiding them. They are smooth and firm like the leaves of hostas, and reach to the sky in pairs like hands lifted in prayer.
Lily of the Valley leaves; photo from Verdure
I love the opening of this fragrance. It just happens that I am staying this week at my sister’s house, where she has an old, well-established patch of lilies of the valley, so I am able to compare the perfume and the flower directly while I type this. Continue reading
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
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. 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
What went well this week?
Have a great week and count your blessings!
We have been visiting Charleston and the Isle of Palms recently, soaking up some sea and sunshine before the final stretch of the school year. Part of our mission was to share this beautiful part of the world with old friends of ours who have recently moved back to the United States after almost three decades of living in Paris. I have long regarded Charleston as the most beautiful, most European city in America, which, combined with its uniquely American history, makes it a favorite destination.
One aspect of introducing our friends to Charleston’s charms was taking them to visit Middleton Place, a former rice plantation on the banks of the Ashley River that dates back to the 17th century. Only one wing of the former mansion remains, but the outbuildings, gardens and rivermarsh views are still fascinating. We walked through hundreds of camellias in bloom, watched birds, admired centuries-old live oaks draped in Spanish moss. AND I found a locally made perfume in the gift shop whose proceeds support Middleton Place: Charleston Girl. Continue reading
This week’s three blessings:
My lovely husband has returned from another business trip to Barcelona; and I am now the happy recipient of several samples of fragrance from the niche perfumery Carner Barcelona, as well as the “travel set” of its fragrances Tardes and Rima XI. I haven’t had a chance to try them yet, so this week’s “Fragrance Friday” will be about the perfume house instead.
Carner Barcelona was founded by Sara Carner in 2009. According to the company website, Continue reading
Serenity Now Scents and Sensibilities 