Jicky

Perfume Chat Room, January 31
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Perfume Chat Room, January 31

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, January 31, and I’m back home from our quick trip to New England. It has warmed up here quite a bit (temps in the 60s) so I’ve been able to resume some gardening. I planted cool season vegetables this morning, and now we’re getting a gentle, soaking rain as expected, so I feel very productive!

I caved recently and bought three new fragrances, partly as consolation for having a much-anticipated trip canceled. Since most of our travel is based around my husband’s work ()which takes him to many interesting places, when that work schedule changes, so does our travel. No complaints — I’ll go with him on another lovely trip! And our trip to Vienna at the end of February is still on — whew!

I’ve been watching Parfums Dusita’s Cavatina and Rosarine for a while and had samples of both, so when one of the online discounters had them both for a significant price reduction, I bit. The third fragrance I bought was the 2021 Les Légendaires version of Guerlain’s Jicky eau de parfum. I already had an earlier version of the eau de toilette, which I love, and I recently learned that Jicky was to be discontinued entirely, so I took the plunge and bought the 2021 Jicky edp. I like it very much! Right now, I’m comparing the older eau de toilette on one wrist with the newer edp on the other wrist. I still prefer the opening stage of the eau de toilette — it has more citrus up top (bergamot, lemon, and mandarin orange) than the edp, which gives it a lively, fresh burst combined with the rosemary and lavender. The opening notes of the 2021 edp are lavender, bergamot, and rosemary, but the combination smells muskier to me than the edt. Within an hour, though, the two smell almost indistinguishable from each other (and they smell great!).

When I wore the 2021 edp the other day, on its own, I liked the opening but missed the lemon. After a while, the middle stage had almost an animalic tinge which I didn’t like much, and which wasn’t reflected in the list of heart notes (fougère accord, rose, pelagornium, woody notes) but that didn’t last very long and the drydown stage was lovely. It lasted a long time, too, about 12 hours; still detectable on my skin when I woke up the next morning. Fragrantica has a very nice review of it here: Guerlain Jicky Eau de Parfum: A Marvel in a New Dress.

Guerlain’s Jicky; image from Fragrantica.com

I’ll be interested to see what happens with the rest of the Les Légendaires collection; I’ve noticed that more mainstream outlets like department stores and airport duty-free shops only carry a few of the scents, and others are popping up for sale among the online discounters, which is often a sign that a fragrance is on its way out. I’m very happy to have the ones I’ve already bought: Mitsouko, Vol de Nuit, L’Heure Bleue, Après l’Ondée, and now Jicky. I’m intrigued by Chamade, as it has so many notes I love, but I have a bee bottle of that and I’m on the fence. Some commenters have said the 2021 version is much better than that, but not outstanding on its own. Thoughts?

Guerlain’s Jicky; image from Guerlain.
Perfume Chat Room, November 30
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Perfume Chat Room, November 30

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 Saturday, November 30, and I’m a day late posting! In my defense, I’ve just wrapped up the annual food fest that is an American Thanksgiving, and our two kids who don’t live here just left today. We’ve been so productive — got the Christmas tree up and decorated, put up outdoor lights, cleaned up the house post-holiday (just in time for the next holiday!), and finished the leftovers.

This is such a fragrant time of year! Fresh evergreen smell from the Christmas tree, hot apple cider mulling on the stove, the late roses I cut yesterday before we get hit with our first frost tonight. Brrr!

Illustration of "January" as woman in red cloak by artist Alfons Mucha
Janvier, by Alfons Mucha

I’ve been doing a lot in the garden to get ready for freezing temperatures, so I went for a massage this afternoon to get the knots out of tight back muscles before I spend the night on an airplane tomorrow night. The aromatherapy I chose was lavender, and it just smelled heavenly.

We head to Barcelona tomorrow, with our final destination being Tarragona for the week. I don’t expect to do any fragrance shopping, as I really do have so many already and I’ll be getting one for Christmas (the updated Après l’Ondèe eau de toilette from Guerlain). I’ve even resisted Black Friday! Speaking of Guerlain, I’ve read on Basenotes that they are discontinuing Jicky! And it’s not on the Guerlain website. I really like the eau de toilette that came in a bee bottle several years ago; for a long time, it was my bedtime scent. Do you like Jicky? In what formulation?

GUERLAIN Jicky (Eau de Parfum 75 ml)

Scented Advent, December 15
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Scented Advent, December 15

The Guerlain sample I pulled today was one that I tried and liked in the Las Vegas boutique, Frenchy Lavande. This version was launched under that name in 2021, but it is basically the same as Le Frenchy, which was launched in 2017. Like a few others, it was renamed and moved into the collection “L’Art et la Matière”. It is called an “aromatic fougère”, so classified largely because of the central role that lavender plays, but others have called it a citrusy aromatic. Fragrantica lists its notes as: Top notes, Lemon Verbena, Lemon and Bergamot; middle notes, Petitgrain, Lavender, Citron, Sage and Neroli; base notes, Ambergris, Vetiver and Tonka Bean. Eddie Bulliqi reviewed it and Herbes Troublantes recently for Fragrantica: “Herbs for Winter; Guerlain’s Frenchy Lavande and Herbes Troublantes.”

The opening is lovely, and even my nearby husband looked up and commented, “That’s really nice, what is it?”. While the opening notes are in fact very citrusy, I also smell lavender right away. The lemon and lemon verbena are more prominent than the bergamot, and the lemon verbena adds a distinctly herbal tint to the lemon and lavender. I can’t pinpoint the moment when lemon gives way to citron, but I can say that the partnership of citrus and lavender continues in the middle phase. I only get glimmers of sage, and the neroli is a latecomer to this stage, at least to my nose. It gradually replaces the lavender, as the fragrance moves toward its base notes. Vetiver continues the aromatic, herbal aspect of Frenchy Lavande. I can’t really distinguish the ambergris and tonka bean accords, just that the base slowly becomes warmer and less herbal.

Believe it or not, there is actually a blog called “The Traveling Frenchy” by a young woman named Alex, and in it she has posted a guide to visiting the lavender fields in Provence. I highly recommend it if you are thinking of seeking out French lavender fields; she gives very specific information on the locales she prefers, and even lists particular villages and roads.

French girl in field of French lavender in Provence
The Traveling Frenchy blog’s Ultimate Guide to the Lavender Fields in Provence

Ultimately, though I like Frenchy Lavande very much, it is a bit like Herbes Troublantes in reminding one of a cologne, although it is in a eau de parfum format. I wouldn’t say that it is much nicer than my Jicky eau de toilette or even that it lasts longer; and it certainly costs a lot more. Bottom line: if you want a Guerlain lavender, I recommend Jicky. In fact, that may be my next Guerlain purchase, from its reissue of several Guerlain classics in the collection “Les Legendaires”.

Do you have a favorite lavender-centric fragrance?

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Thunking Thursday!

 

Image result for thunk

It’s Thunking Thursday! This week, I thunked a decant of Guerlain’s Jicky eau de toilette which I’ve had for a couple of years. I got busy trying so many other things that I had sort of forgotten about it, then fell in love with it again over the holidays. The EDT is just delightful. It opens with several different citrus notes, which give it a sparkle that Jicky’s other formats don’t have, lovely as they are. The lavender note is light and refreshing, the vanilla is a mousse instead of a custard.

Jicky is considered the first “modern” perfume because of its innovative use of synthetic molecules at its creation in 1889. Guerlain perfumer Thierry Wasser has tweaked its formula over the years to make good use of today’s synthetics and accommodate IFRA standards. It is truly unisex, and I encourage you to try it if you haven’t!

What have you thunked so far in January 2019? I’m counting up readers’ “thunk points”, so feel free to brag in the comments!

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Fragrance Friday: Jackie

This week, I flew to Washington, D.C. for work, and on the plane I watched the movie “Jackie”, starring the beautiful Natalie Portman as the late First Lady. The movie imagines her reactions during the week of JFK’s assassination, including her thoughts about his legacy and her role in shaping it, and her famous interview with Life magazine, when she compared JFK’s White House to Camelot.

Jacqueline Kennedy in pink suit and pillbox hat, riding with JFK in limo in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

November 22, 1963. Photo by Reuters.

It is a powerful, moving film. Ms. Portman’s performance is wonderful, alternating between heartbreak, anger, shrewd calculation, and maternal protectiveness. In flashbacks, we see her work to support her husband’s administration, bringing youth, glamour and style to a White House that hadn’t see much of those under Coolidge, Hoover, FDR, Truman and Eisenhower. We also see her fitting herself into Washington and taking her place as a leader there in society and the arts. That would have been no small task, as I was reminded on my recent visit; I am always struck by the aura of raw power that Washington projects, with its massive, monumental government buildings, the huge Capitol, the wide boulevards, the show of muscular strength, the many statues of powerful men, the many powerful living men who run the nation there. It is so ironic that Washington’s iconic flower associated with the city is the delicate, feminine, evanescent cherry blossom. I see a similar contrast between Jackie, the feminine lover of the arts and all beauty, and the city where she had to find her place.

Jackie Kennedy, JFK, Johnson, Nixon, Eisenhower at JFK's inauguration in 1961

Kennedy Inauguration, 1961.

One especially powerful scene shows Jackie showering, at last, upon her return to the White House as a new widow, right after the assassination. It shows her naked back, with her husband’s blood running down her back in the hot water as it washes out of her hair. We know that Mrs. Kennedy was splattered with blood, as close as she was to JFK when he was shot, and that she wore the same pink suit on the plane back to DC from Dallas. It is reasonable to surmise that the first shower she took washed away blood. Horrible to know this happened to any human being, but it is a very moving, vulnerable moment in the film.

The same scene shows, briefly, an array of fragrances on a shelf. Most appear to be Guerlain, in the fleeting glimpse I got. I think I spotted Shalimar, an unidentifed bee bottle, a bottle of either Mitsouko or L’Heure Bleue, and possibly one of Jicky. There was a clear view of Bal a Versailles, from Jean Desprez. Great product placement by Guerlain…

This got me wondering: what perfumes did Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis actually wear in real life? According to one source, she did wear Bal a Versailles and Jicky. She is also said to have worn Joy, and 1000, by Jean Patou, Fleurissimo, by Creed, Lovely Patchouli, by Krigler, and Jil Sander No. 4.

All of those fragrances have very different personalities.  How interesting that a First Lady, whose outer image is consistent with, say, Joy and Fleurissimo, also wore sexy powerhouses like Jicky and Bal a Versailles. All floral fragrances, but oh so different in so many ways! Fleurissimo, said to have been created for Grace Kelly on the occasion of her wedding to the Prince of Monaco: delicate, virginal, a fragrance for a bride veiled in white.

Jackie Kennedy's portrait in wedding dress

Jacqueline Kennedy

Joy, a sophisticated, elegant “evening perfume”, made in France and said to be “the most expensive perfume in the world” when it was launched.

Jackie Kennedy wears Givenchy evening gown to Versailles on state visit to France

Jacqueline Kennedy wearing Givenchy to Versailles

Her choice of Jicky and Bal a Versailles, however, suggest a more complex, assertive Jackie. Female, as opposed to feminine. Bold and confident when necessary, or desirable.

Jackie Kennedy in yellow at Hyannisport

Jacqueline Kennedy

What a complicated, lovely woman she was. I’m glad to have been reminded of her this past week, and also glad to have been able to see the fleeting clouds of cherry blossoms. Let’s not forget that many of those fragile cherry trees have outlived the men who planted them and walked under their boughs. Maybe they are not as fragile as they look.

Blossoming cherry trees and the Jefferson Memorial at the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC

Cherry blossoms and the Jefferson Memorial