Bois de Jasmin

Perfume Chat Room, September 13
by

Perfume Chat Room, September 13

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, September 13, and I wish you all the best of good luck today! I’ve never really understood why Friday the 13th is supposed to be unlucky, but here we are. I’m happy to share the recent announcement below of an online (Zoom) Bois de Jasmin class with Victoria and Luca Turin. I’m sure this will be most interesting, and it’s for a good cause. I will not be taking part, because I’ll be on my way to London! I have a full week planned of cultural outings, which will include seeing the cinema release of the National Theatre production of “Prima Facie” with Jody Comer, which I’ve been dying to see and which hasn’t been announced for any showings near me in the US. And yes, there will be at least one perfume-related outing — a trip to Les Senteurs with my friend who lives in London, at her request. And since we’ll be so close by, a stop at Jo Loves too! Stay tuned for any more additions to the list …

Jo Loves fragrance boutique at 42 Elizabeth Street, London.
Jo Loves boutique

Since I’m currently in Ukraine, I see the dire need in my local community for the most basic things. While there are plenty of charities and government-level programs, the only way to ensure that money goes to the people in need is to locate those communities and help them directly. I’ve been doing this ever since my arrival to Ukraine two weeks ago.

  • Raising money for local school to supply their bomb shelters with water.
  • Purchasing art supplies for the free-of-charge art studios that rehabilitate children suffering from post-traumatic shock.
  • Supporting animal shelters run by the individuals I know.
  • Working with local outreach programs to respond to the lonely elderly and their needs.
  • Supporting local cultural preservation projects and traditional crafts.  I will share more information about these and other projects as I continue my work.

Full disclosure: 50% of the funds raised will be donated to these charitable initiatives. The rest will cover our time and my Belgian tax obligations.

The session will take place online via Zoom and will last for 1 hour. If you have questions for me and Luca, you can email them beforehand. You’ll receive full instructions before the start of the class. No recordings will be made available for these sessions. Thank you for your understanding.

Location: Zoom
Class duration: 1 hour
September 14, Saturday, 18:00-19:00 CET (12:00-13:00 EST)
50€ Book Now

For more information on Bois de Jasmin classes and other course offers, please visit the Perfume Classes page.

Do you have any special plans for this weekend, fragrant or otherwise?

Perfume Chat Room, September 6
by

Perfume Chat Room, September 6

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, September 6, and my birthday month has begun! I love the month of September. Because I grew up in New England, where school usually starts after Labor Day, and because I was born in September, I always associate the month with new beginnings. It is also the month when the heat usually (finally!) breaks and we get some respite from the heat and humidity of August, even here in the Southeast. It’s still hot enough that when I wear fragrance (which I do less in the extreme heat), I’m still choosing “summery” fragrances. Today it is Les Parfums de Rosine’s Bulle de Rose, which I bought in a travel spray when we visited Paris this past February. It’s very light and pretty, but tenacious, which in this case I view as a virtue.

Last week, the New York Times published this nice article about perfumer Christine Nagel, in connection with the launch of her latest fragrance for Hermès, Barénia. Apparently it is the first chypre fragrance Hermès has launched in several decades, and I do love a good chypre, so it’s on my list to sample during our upcoming trip to London.

I’m guessing that synesthesia may be a useful trait for a perfumer, though one would still have to have a highly sensitive and trained sense of smell.

Speaking of highly sensitive “perfume people”, I’m sure many of you read “Bois de Jasmin”, the longstanding fragrance blog by Victoria Belim. She’s a wonderful writer and has recently had a book published, a memoir of her roots and family in Ukraine (“The Rooster House”). Victoria has recently returned to Ukraine, where she is trying to help meet the needs of the people who have stayed in spite of the ongoing war. I’ve been following her updates on her Facebook page. She is in Poltava, which recently suffered a major missile attack that killed dozens. Victoria is safe, though shaken. As I look forward to my own hedonistic travel, I’m thinking of her and so many others in war zones, hoping for peace.

What are you looking forward to in September or later this fall?

“The Rooster House” by Victoria Belim
by

“The Rooster House” by Victoria Belim

I know many of you read the wonderful fragrance blog “Bois de Jasmin” and follow its author, Victoria Belim. She has written a memoir called “The Rooster House“, about her quest to reconnect with her Ukrainian heritage and solve a longstanding family mystery. It has had very positive reviews and is on my list to read now that I’ve retired!

Have any of you read it yet?

Book cover of The Rooster House, by Victoria Belim; image from nytimes.com.
The Rooster House, by Victoria Belim; image from nytimes.com.
Perfume Chat Room, April 1
by

Perfume Chat Room, April 1

Welcome to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, April 1 — Happy April Fools’ Day! I couldn’t think of an appropriate April Fools post for a fragrance blog, though my personal Facebook feed is blowing up with silly posts from friends. Also, “rabbit rabbit” for good luck this month, and don’t miss the April Scent Semantics posts from six bloggers next Monday! I got to choose the word for April, which is fun for me. But it’s a secret until Monday, so please check back!

This week, I had to attend a neighborhood meeting to discuss a proposal for designating our neighborhood as an official historic district, which would protect us from encroaching development, roadways, and demolitions of old houses. It has become a flashpoint of controversy, and a number of homeowners who don’t want additional restrictions on what they can do to their houses — if the houses were built before the 1960s — have become very angry, threatening to sue the neighborhood volunteers who lead our civic association. I didn’t want to go to the meeting, but went to support the beleaguered volunteers and to voice support for the historic designation. Whew! Glad the meeting is over, though the controversy continues! And yes, I wore Chanel No. 19 which is my fragrance armor.

Liv Tyler as Arwen, in The Fellowship of the Ring movie; New Line Cinema.
Liv Tyler as Arwen, in The Fellowship of the Ring movie; New Line Cinema.

Victoria at “Bois de Jasmin” has written very knowledgeably (as always) about Chanel No. 19. She discussed its reformulations, adding this historical insight:

A side note on galbanum, fragrance and politics. When Chanel No 19 was created in 1971, it was formulated with a superb grade of Iranian galbanum oil, which was sourced especially for it. However, when the Iranian Revolution broke out in 1979, the oil became unavailable. No 19 had to be reformulated, which was accomplished with much difficulty, because the original galbanum oil was of a particularly fine, rare caliber.

History. Always fascinating, sometimes enraging.

Do you have any thoughts on what fragrance to wear for April Fools’ Day? Or for “rabbit rabbit”? Or any fragrance-related history? Do share!

Perfume Chat Room, February 25
by

Perfume Chat Room, February 25

Welcome back to the weekly Perfume Chat Room, perfumistas! I envision this chat room as a weekly drop-in spot online, where readers may ask questions, suggest fragrances, tell others their SOTD, comment on new releases or old favorites, and respond to each other. The perennial theme is fragrance, but we can interpret that broadly. This is meant to be a kind space, so please try not to give or take offense, and let’s all agree to disagree when opinions differ. In fragrance as in life, your mileage may vary! YMMV.

Today is Friday, February 25, and it is a somber day in Eastern Europe. Russian forces have invaded Ukraine. Thousands of anti-war protesters in Russia and other former Soviet countries have taken to the streets. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians are fleeing west. Whatever one thinks of the geopolitics involved, one can surely feel for the residents of Ukraine whose lives have been turned upside-down. My heart goes out to them.

Some of you probably also read the wonderful blog Bois de Jasmin, written by Victoria Frolova. Although Victoria lives in Brussels, Belgium (where I spent part of my childhood), she is Ukrainian by birth, and she traces much of her love of fragrance back to her years of visiting family in Poltava. She has been my own little window into a part of the world I don’t know well; I pray that her family, friends, and their hometown remain unharmed.

Today is ex-Beatle George Harrison’s birthday, and in honor of that, the “community project” at Now Smell This is to pair a fragrance with a song by George Harrison or the Beatles. Robin thinks that was my idea at some point; I don’t remember suggesting it, but I’m happy to take credit! The clear choice for my SOTD is my beloved Ostara, the very fragrance of yellow daffodils, paired with one of my favorite songs by George Harrison, “Here Comes The Sun.”

Gibbs Gardens daffodils; song by the Beatles; copyright and credits here.

I recently watched the documentary “Get Back”, about the Beatles’ work on their album “Let It Be”, and it shows very clearly some of the tension among the Fab Four, but also the joy and fun they often had while working together. Sadly, it really does show how George was sometimes brushed aside as a songwriter and wrote many of his songs on his own, unlike the formidable Lennon/McCartney songwriting partnership. Watching the documentary was like watching a marriage break up in slow motion. There was still so much love and affection, and many moments of laughter, but it seemed to me that John Lennon was clearly pulling away, Paul McCartney was like the partner who sees this long relationship ending, against his wishes, George was like the child whose needs are being overlooked because of the marital drama, and Ringo Starr was like the kid who’s just trying to make everyone happy by putting his head down and doing his job. At some point in this era, though not on film, Lennon apparently referred to his desire to leave the group as “wanting a divorce.”

“Here Comes The Sun”, released on the album “Abbey Road,” was written by George after a day spent in the sunny garden of his friend Eric Clapton. I have read that it is the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify, which is remarkable given their legendary output. I also have fond memories of it because it was my youngest child’s very favorite song of any when he was a little boy, which matched his sunny, happy disposition. Happy birthday, George, and thank you for helping to create the most memorable songs I recall from my childhood and beyond!

Hillside covered with daffodils at Gibbs Gardens
Daffodils at Gibbs Gardens
May Melange Marathon: Lily
by

May Melange Marathon: Lily

Parfums Christian Dior is responsible for possibly the most famous muguet fragrance of all time, Diorissimo. A less-known, discontinued muguet fragrance by Dior is the lovely Lily, launched in 1999. The perfumer behind it is Florence Idier, who also created Comme des Garcons’ Series 1 Leaves: Lily, another lily-of-the-valley fragrance. There is another fragrance called Lily Dior, but the one I have is just called Lily; it is an eau de toilette.

Advertising illustration for Lily eau de toilette by Christian Dior
Lily, by Parfums Christian Dior; image from Fragrantica

Fragrantica (which has a photo of the wrong bottle on this fragrance’s page, btw; it shows 2004’s Lily Dior) lists its notes as: Top notes are Green Notes, Fruity Notes, Bergamot and Brazilian Rosewood; middle notes are Lily-of-the-Valley, Lilac, Lily, Jasmine and Rose; base notes are Musk and Sandalwood.

I acquired my bottle of Lily within the past year, so it has never featured in my frequent “May Muguet Marathon.” It wouldn’t be May for me without some reviews of muguet fragrances! I like Lily very much, and if I didn’t already have several true-love muguet fragrances, it would be among my top dozen. Even as a vintage eau de toilette, its top notes are clear and strong, with a noticeable fruit note at the start that reminds me of a green pear. The only listed top note that I don’t really smell is the rosewood; the opening is very fresh and green.

The lily-of-the valley note steps forward quickly and it is very natural-smelling (although LOTV notes famously rely on clever combinations of other substances, as the flowers’ natural essence cannot be extracted). The companion notes of lilac and jasmine are evident, with the lilac slightly more obvious than the jasmine. At this stage, Lily reminds me a lot of the 1998 version of Guerlain’s Muguet, which was created by Jean-Paul Guerlain and launched the year before Lily.

Hmmm. The list of notes for each fragrance is almost identical, according to Fragrantica. The clear presence of both lilac and jasmine in the middle stage, as part of the evocation of lily-of-the-valley, is very similar in each fragrance. Lily‘s opening is distinctive, though, with that green pear note that gives it some zing together with the bergamot. I’m going to give Parfums Dior the benefit of the doubt here, though: Christian Dior’s association with the muguet, his favorite flower, goes back decades and prompted the creation of Diorissimo; the flower appeared regularly in Dior fashions: dresses, scarves, hats, jewelry, and apparently he had a tradition of giving sprigs of lilies-of-the-valley to employees every May Day, which the fashion house continues to this day. Don’t you just love this hat?

Hat decorated with artificial lilies of the valley silk flowers
Lily of the valley hat by Christian Dior

The Christian Dior name is also attached to a wide variety of household goods featuring lilies of the valley as his signature flower, everything from sheets to fine porcelain. A new collection of muguet-themed housewares was launched by Dior last year, and they are quite beautiful.

As my regular readers know, I truly love muguet fragrances. I struggle to grow them here in the South, as it really is too hot and humid here for them, but I have a few plants I have nursed along in dedicated planters on the shady edge of our front terrace, where I can keep them well-watered and mulched with the rich humus compost they love. Lily is very true to the natural scent of lilies-of-the-valley and it doesn’t smell soapy at all to my nose, unlike some LOTV fragrances. It doesn’t last more than a few hours, which is the norm for most muguet fragrances, especially in eau de toilette concentrations. While it lasts, though, it is very pretty. However, most of the prices you will see online for Lily are too high, considering that one can easily find lovely, newer, muguet fragrances that are more affordable, or at least fresh (see my “May Muguet Marathon” posts for some suggestions!).

For a lovely post on lily-of-the-valley scents, check out one of my favorite blogs, Bois de Jasmin. Its author, Victoria, mentions Dior’s Lily briefly in the comment section. She writes about muguet fragrances pretty regularly, as it is a favorite scent of hers. I know lily-of-the-valley scents can be polarizing; people tend to like them very much, as I do, or not at all. How do you feel about them?

My bottle of Lily, in front of my muguet

May Melange Marathon: La Vierge de Fer
by

May Melange Marathon: La Vierge de Fer

Today’s floral is Serge Lutens’ La Vierge de Fer, which means “Iron Maiden” in English. The Iron Maiden was a notorious (though possibly apocryphal) medieval torture device, an upright metal box shaped like a person, in which spikes were set into the interior of the opening, which, when closed, would pierce a prisoner locked inside the device. Lovely.

I don’t follow Serge Lutens very closely although I have and appreciate several of his fragrances, and I would love to visit his boutique in the Palais-Royal in Paris some day. So I don’t really buy into the self-consciously arcane descriptions of his fragrances, but here is what the brand writes about La Vierge de Fer:

Let there be light! And darkness no more. He who wishes does not have a black soul! “I will come as a thief …” said Christ; certainly in silence and probably, for him, wearing shoes. To deserve his title, the Thief must act under the wide-open eye of the absent owners. In this case, it is not that tenuous eye with which Cain stares without regret, but another, which in some way will make an accomplice of Abel. If the fetishes, idols and charms of the Museum of Man, in Paris, had not met the 20th century, everyone would have missed that incredible mockery of Eros which The Young Ladies of Avignon certainly is. “The Negros had understood that everything which surrounds us is our enemy”, the wizard Picasso said to his paintbrush. Who, if not one of them, decided on life, by death, would dare, to unclench the teeth of this sex of the world: fear. Since it is the fruit of our entrails, it must be elevated. For that, not fearing incest, we will embrace it. In this way, she will give birth to our most beautiful monsters. That is how, a little rusty by dint of doubts, my steps have rejoined La vierge de fer (the Iron Maiden); that lily amongst the thorns.

Continue reading →
Roses de Mai Marathon: Epine Mortelle
by

Roses de Mai Marathon: Epine Mortelle

So this Roses de Mai Marathon has finally inspired me to try a fragrance I’ve had in my collection for a while: LM Parfums’ Epine Mortelle. LM is Laurent Mazzone. The perfumers with whom he has worked include Jerome Epinette and Richard Ibanez, though it’s not clear which one worked on Epine Mortelle. Continue reading →

Fragrant Highlights of 2019: What Went Well
by

Fragrant Highlights of 2019: What Went Well

Happy New Year! Rather than listing my favorites or “the best” among the fragrances launched in 2019 (other blogs have done that so thoroughly!), I am going to list some of my own fragrance highlights of 2019. Some are actual perfumes, others are fragrant items or experiences. I feel so fortunate. I write about my many blessings in this blog to remind myself that, in spite of challenges and losses, I am thankful for the love and beauty in my life.

  1. First trip to Tuscany, Florence and Venice, with many perfume stops. I will not forget the aromatic scent of the Tuscan hills and the timeless beauty of their landscape — not to mention the fragrances of the vineyards and wines, and the cooking class I took. Florence and Venice were as magical and amazing as expected, and I brought back souvenir fragrances from perfumeries like Santa Maria Novella, I Profumi di Firenze, Aquaflor, Farmacia SS Annunziata dal 1561. Back home, I treated myself to Flower Fusion by The Merchant of Venice (gorgeous glass bottle, lovely fragrance); and my husband gave me Hermes’ Un Jardin Sur la Lagune for Christmas.
  2. Visit to 4160 Tuesdays’ studio in London and meeting Sarah and Nick! If you’re a fan of 4160 Tuesdays’ fragrances, and you wonder if Sarah really is as cool and interesting as she seems, the answer is YES! She and Nick graciously spent time with me, talking about their fragrances. And yes, I came away with several purchases, including the beautiful Truth Beauty Freedom Love and the silk scarf designed to go with it. I’m excited to see their new studio on Raynham Road when I visit London again! I also took part in the crowd-funding (such a brilliant idea) of some 2019 launches by 4160 Tuesdays, including Clouds’ Illusion, Christmas Concert, and Meet Me On The Corner. 
  3. Perfume-making workshop in Nice, at Parfum Et Vous, recommended by Megan of the blog “MeganInSainteMaxime.” It was a beginners’ workshop, but so much fun! And I was introduced to a line of fragrances I hadn’t tried before, Baruti.
  4. Meeting Megan in Cannes, and visiting the office of Atelier des Ors, including meeting its founder, Jean-Philippe Clermont and trying several of its fragrances which were created by Marie Salamagne: Nuda Veritas, Crepuscule des Ames, and Choeur des Anges.
  5. The publication of Neil Chapman’s wonderful book, “Perfume: In Search of Your Signature Scent.” Neil writes one of the longest-running and best blogs about perfume, “The Black Narcissus“; he is a true connoisseur and collector of fine fragrance as well as a very interesting, creative person. It was so exciting to read about his work on the book and its eventual publication and launch!
  6. Learning how to use Instagram!
  7. Two very special fragrance sets/Christmas gifts, which I can’t wait to explore: Dawn Spencer Hurwitz’ 2019 Heirloom Elixir Collection, and Sarah McCartney’s “January Joy Box” from 4160 Tuesdays.
  8. Giving in to temptation and ordering Papillon Perfumery‘s Bengale Rouge. It hasn’t arrived yet, from Ave Parfum, but I expect it shortly! This has been one of the most highly rated perfumes of 2019; given how much I love Dryad, I’m excited to have this.
  9. The continued success of St. Clair Scents, another independent artisan perfumer, whose fragrances Gardener’s Glove, Frost, Casablanca, and First Cut I thoroughly enjoyed in 2018. Although I haven’t yet reviewed them, this year’s issue of Pandora and Eve , the “Audacious Innocence Collection”, shows us that Diane St. Clair is here to stay, thank goodness, in perfumery as well as her legendary butter.
  10. Getting to try L’Iris de Fath, thanks to the wonderful associate at Jovoy Paris’ London store.

Some of the blogosphere’s “Best of 2019” lists:

Australian Perfume Junkies

Bois de Jasmin

A Bottled Rose

Cafleurebon

Colognoisseur

I Scent You A Day

Persolaise

What were some of your fragrant highlights of 2019? Feel free to comment broadly, it’s a broad category! Thank you for reading my online musings this year.

Featured image: Fleurs et Flammes, Antonio Alessandria Parfums.

Scent Sample Sunday: Anne Klein II, Revisited
by

Scent Sample Sunday: Anne Klein II, Revisited

One of my regular fragrances in the 1980s was Anne Klein II, launched in 1985. That was the year I moved into New York City, sharing an apartment with my younger sister and two friends from college. It was exciting: New York was on the upswing after its near-bankruptcy and political troubles of the 1970s; Wall Street was on the rise; socialites were unabashedly socializing; and we were in our early 20s, enjoying being young in a great, vibrant city. Need I say more? We all had responsible jobs, but we also had plenty of energy to go out after work to places like The Bear Bar and King Tut’s Wawa Hut. We had fun!

I associate Anne Klein II with all of that; and it is indeed a warm, happy, floriental fragrance (also the only one that has ever prompted a total stranger to ask me, on the subway, what my perfume was). Its top notes were: bergamot, galbanum, peach, rosewood, and lemon; heart notes were jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang, marigold, carnation, and orris root; base notes were vanilla, amber, sandalwood, musk, patchouli, benzoin, and civet. Victoria wrote a long post about it several years ago at her blog “Bois de Jasmin“, identifying the perfumer as Yves Tanguy, who also created another favorite of hers and mine, Jacomo Silences, as well as Lancome’s Magie Noire. Sadly, AKII was discontinued many years ago, although I continued to hoard my last bottle of eau de parfum. I was glad I had, since the price went through the roof on eBay, commanding ridiculous amounts far beyond the $19.99 on my original 50 ml bottle. This seems even more egregious when one recalls that “Anne Klein II” was the name of the design house’s “bridge line”, which offered less expensive options than the main designer collection to younger and less affluent women.

I was very happy to discover Jeffrey Dame’s JD Duality, which is not a dupe of AKII, but enough of an homage to it that it fulfills the wish for a semi-sheer, warm vanilla-based floriental. Its list of notes is somewhat different: artemisia, lemon, bergamot, cinnamon, coriander, cedar leaf, rose, jasmine, ylang ylang, carnation, water lily, lily of the valley, vanilla absolute, vanilla, benzoin, cedar wood, patchouli, sandalwood, labdanum and musk. Duality is also a great value: high quality at Jeffrey Dame’s usual reasonable prices. It seems to be sold out right now on his website; let’s hope he makes more, because it’s great stuff!

Imagine my surprise, though, when on a recent visit to T.J. Maxx, I spotted a tall, 100 ml spray bottle of what looked like the original Anne Klein II! For $12.99! I realized it couldn’t possibly be the original, but the packaging was identical, and for that modest amount, it was worth making a blind buy. Reader, I bought it on the spot.

It turns out to be a relaunch of AKII by a company called Palm Beach Beaute, and it is a very respectable reissue, manufactured in China. Since I still have a half bottle of the original, I have been able to compare them directly, one on each arm. While the original is richer and deeper, the new version smells very similar, and lasts almost as long. It even goes through the same stages of drydown at about the same pace as the original, at least on my skin. I suspect that the differences I can smell are mainly due to changes in ingredients that were necessary to comply with newer regulations. To be fair, also, the richness and depth that I smell in my original bottle may be partly because it has aged well for 30 years. As it dries down on my skin, its basenotes keep getting richer and sweeter, more so than those of the reformulation.

If you miss Anne Klein II and can’t wait for more JD Duality to arrive, look for this reissue! Like the original, it is a semi-sheer, vanilla-based floriental, not too heavy but with a warmth that is very alluring, especially in autumn. Some commenters on Fragrantica have not cared for it, but many have. If you buy online, it will be important to know the difference between the original and the reissue, as the packaging is so similar but the prices so different. The original was made in France by Parlux, and it will say so on the bottom of the box. The reissue lists many more detailed ingredients on the back of its box, as is now required, and it will say “Designed in the United States, Made in China” on the back, with the company name of Palm Beach Beaute LLC and its website, palmbeachbeaute.com.

It seems to be rare that a relaunch or reformulation satisfies fans of the original fragrance, but I am very pleased with this one, especially at the bargain price of $13-15 for 100 ml. Did you ever wear Anne Klein II? Have you tried the reissue? Or have you found any other reformulations or relaunches of favorite fragrances that you found acceptable?