I was an apprentice essential oilmaker in Grasse at the age of 16, on the night shift. Among other essential oils, we made a lot of oakmoss, and after I’d put the distiller on, I’d lie down on a bed of it and sleep.
— From A Hermes Perfumer: Hermès’ master perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena on fragrant memories and fantasies at the Wall Street Journal, with many thanks to Kevin for sending me a copy. Image is Oak Moss [cropped] by Noël Zia Lee at flickr; all rights reserved, used with permission.
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Swoon.
Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?
Swoon indeed! It’s like a fairy tale story. Instead of Cinderella, he’s Oakmossellena. Sorry that was bad.
LOL…it really was bad
That was bad … but it still made me laugh.
Love it.
Do click through…there are some other great quotes in that story.
What a divine quote — can you imagine?
No — would love to try it! Not sure the fresh product is that strongly scented though.
Fresh, probably not, but dried it’s divine. Years ago, I bought some oakmoss from an Edinburgh florist. I put it in a bowl, on its own, as pot-pourri. I kept it until it disintegrated. I would love to smell it again.
Lying down on a bed of oakmoss sounds lovely!
Doesn’t it though?
Love those quotes! I love how he describes a cashmere pullover as “a little milky, a little woody”. Would never have thought that, but it’s true!
Yes, and loved the Bois Farine one too.
*Sigh* I enjoyed reading all of the evocative quotes, but since I’m such a wino, I could taste that delicious red!
Didn’t that sound lovely??
What this embodies to me is one of my strongest hopes. That the wonderful way that these artists think may not be locked inside of their heads. That the motivations, thinking patterns, etc. may be dispersed into our collective consciousness.
With that kind of understanding, maybe then our simple society will have the tools to appreciate these works of art and liquid poetry that invisibly inhabit our life.
Here’s to hope.
JCE does enough interviews & also writes on his own, so presumably the way he thinks is reasonably “dispersed”
Thanks for that beautiful picture. It’s great to have a sense of what these substances look like unprocessed.
Isn’t that a great shot? I need to get back to photography one of these days, I’d love to be able to take pictures like that.
Wow, seeing this picture I don’t know how I never managed to connect “oakmoss” with the stuff that’s all over oak trees. Genius, I am. Definitely never noticed it having a smell in its natural state but now I’ll have to check it out to make sure.
I don’t know how much smell it has before processing…
What a lovely article, and what a shame that the fragrant memories of jasmine and oakmoss, at least in their natural essences, will soon be all but that — memories — since they will be so severely restricted as of next year… Sorry to rain on the parade, but I’m still seething with rage at the new IFRA restrictions and expect to feel the same way for a long time.
But the man definitely knows how to talk about smells, doesn’t he?
Was just talking w/ Angie about the need to stock up on Joy extrait before it’s ruined, but she tells me her local Saks says people are already returning recently purchased bottles saying it doesn’t smell the same. I understand your sentiments, but for me, feel like it’s late in the game to seethe w/ rage…it’s already over, and the people who should have stopped it failed to act.
Yes, I know, it’s a done deal and it’s already too late for most classics…Still, I can’t help feeling that it’s a good opportunity to raise up a stink and let perfume companies know that can’t pull the wool over our noses. Maybe it could at least induce them to reformulate in a less sloppy way. One lives on hope!
I am not meaning to be arguing w/ you at all, you’re absolutely right…just feel like the time to let them know was a couple years back when all the new IFRA regs were first announced — and other than a few complaints here & there, there wasn’t any kind of concerted protest from consumers, from fragrance companies, from perfumers….
All the companies have now either reformulated or are already in the process of doing so, and seems so unlikely they’ll undo what they’ve done
Loved reading it! Thanks Robin!
Thank the WSJ
Wow!
Been thinking now about going to bed on a pile of rose petals, or sandalwood chips…
It sooo sounds as if the suppliers are in bed w/ the fragrance giants – IFF w/ Lauder, Guerlain, etc. Most of the items on #43 are coming out of patent, or can`t be patented – so less $$$ to politic with; their solution is almost banning the items to force $$$ into their pockets w/ new, patented synthetics!!! UGLY!!****!!?!! Supporting niche like Anya`s Garden, Andy Tauer, etc is a quiet way to buy quality & support good people! Maybe the Patou returns are the other way to fight!!
It’s possible, but from where I sit it’s very hard to tell. Having to reformulate nearly every perfume in your stable can’t be a small (or cheap) undertaking.