Byredo has launched Blanche, the niche line’s eight fragrance. According to Byredo founder Ben Gorham:
The idea for Blanche is, as the name suggests, built around my perception of the colour white. For the first time i actually made a fragrance for and with a specific person in mind.
I wanted to capture her innocent and untainted side, with a fragrance almost transparent in nature. Blanche also represents an appreciation for classic beauty.
The fragrance is pure and simple in structure but extreme in character.
Blanche features notes of white rose, pink pepper, aldehydes, violet, neroli, peony, blonde woods, sandalwood and musk.
Byredo Blanche is available in 100 ml Eau de Parfum, $195. (via shop.byredo)
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Hmmm. Sounds lovely, but will it be worth the price? Marking this one down for a sample…
I really love the “BIG-NESS” of Pulp….with the description above I wonder if it’s sheer and light? It just doesn’t sound very ‘Byredo’….does that make any sense?
I know exactly what you mean. But maybe this will be Byredo’s version of sheer and light? Which will really mean, not as big as the other fragrances, but still big?
I’ll have to try this one. I like everything else of theirs that I’ve tried, which is unfortunate. Well, financially unfortunate, I should say.
Except Bal d’Afrique isn’t BIG, either. I don’t think their intent is for everything to be a blast-your-nosehairs experience.
maybe my nosehairs LIKE being blasted off! hahahaha you know I like BIG fragrances. I didn’t try Bal d’Afrique because some of the “earthier” notes mentioned in Kevin’s review. You know me, all pristine notes and clean musk, butter wouldn’t melt in my mouth type.
Oh, I don’t think of you as a BIG fragrance person, so much. You love your Clair de Musc, your Hiris, your Philosykos well enough. You and I do agree though, that anything we wear needs to be BIG enough that we can smell our own sillage.
That’s weird, because Bal D’Afrique IS big on me. It also smells strangely like Dzing! somwhere in the first 15 minutes–I don’t know if anyone else had the same experience. After that, it doesn’t really smell similar at all.
Miss Kitty: the problem is probably those eetsy-beetsy little vials from which one has to DAB. Thus dabbed, BdA wasn’t big to me And of course I can never bring myself to DUMP the whole vial on me at once and leave nothing for future testing. It is just a horrible dilemma, this sampling!
I’d like to borrow your bottle with which to do my favorite: the ten-spritz job up and down the torso, neck, arms… then I can truly APPRECIATE a fragrance. Ahhh. Vials are the bane of my existence in more ways than one, but one can’t have everything.
“the Ten Spritz Job”….that’s what we call “spraying with abandon” around here! But of course that’s what I do too! I like to exist in my own little bubble of fragrance.
Amen,I don’t like the sample vials either. I feel I need to be able to walk through a cloud of a perfume to really test
Unfortunately, going up to the 1.5 spray vials is so much more money
As for Byredo having all big perfumes, I have Gypsy Water, but I don’t think of it as big…
Yeah, this is why I order the spray samples at TPC. I’ve decided to forgo any little dabby vials unless that’s the only option. (According to spellcheck, I just made up the word “dabby,” which I define as “things that you dab on rather than spray.”)
Always good to add to the lexicon Kitty….we perfume enthusiasts understand descriptives like “dabby” immediately….that sort of recognition is part of our genetic code!! That allele certainly being located on the little known Lemming Gene….
But what I wanted to say is —you really need to set yourself up with some dabby vials and start swapping!!!
Have the dabby bottles, have been swapping.
I still have not tried them all, but do love Pulp. The price is too steep for me though.
Yeah, that and Coromandel are the two I have been trying to justify to myself lately. I just can’t do it–and at least the Chanel’s are in those GIANT bottles. I have to console myself with samples.
At least Coromandel is double the volume of juice for the same price and you can sell off some. Splits are the way to go (2-, 3-, 4-way) on those Vats O’ Chanel (i.e., Les Exclusifs).
Joe, you have to try it, Coromandel = amazing!
Joe, are you trying to rival Daisy as the resident enabler? Don’t encourage me!! Oh, dear…now I’m going to have consider that… Coromandel *is* yummy…
Oh trust me—-Joe is a member in good standing with the Enablers Club…..has the shiny turbo charged membership card with racing stripes on the side!!! In fact, it’s his turn to bring cookies to the meeting….
Kitty, it sounds to me like you need to get involved in some true splits of Chanel Exclusifs! The juice isn’t so bad per ml…but 200ml is quite a committment! (financially and in terms of usage)
Oh, alright, twist my arm…
**twist, twist**
“Sheer” and expensive are mutually exclusive terms, my budget advises me.
My budget says: unless they’re Hermessences.
I’m with boojum: I look forward to sampling.
Speaking of ‘blanche’ scents (and not saying they’re remotely similar): but Lalique White is very worth sampling as well. Just thought I’d give it a plug since I discovered it recently.
Oh great….just toss out the name and that it’s very worth trying….must go look it up….there’s no rest for the perfumed.
I wish it was easier to find Lalique…NM has a few, but not many. I’ll see if they have White.
I sampled it recently in a discount store. The top notes are definitely citrus. I dont know about the rest, it didnt blow my mind.
Pink pepper!
See? They all love it.
I need a sarcasm indicator – it was more of a comment that yet another scent has pink pepper – lol.
No, I knew that! I meant see — the *perfumers* all love to use it. Did that make sense?
I got after re-reading (but not before posting) – that’s what happens where you’re hopped up on allergy medicine. I noticed that the new Kenzo has pink pepper, too.
What the heck does pink pepper smell like, anyhow?
I have no idea either! It is in so many things but I would be hard pressed to identify it….But Tama had a great idea, and I think I’ll try it.
Also now have an annoying itch to know who this mysterious person of inspiration is…
Me too!
I nominate Angela for that task…seems right up her detective/biopic alley.
I’ll just assume it’s not Blanche Dubois….nothing sheer and white about that girl!
Blanche Dubois was my first thought when I looked at this! Definitely not one for her.
I have to say, although I doubt I will get to smell lt, none of those notes are what I would associate as white smells, sounds rather blah. To me, a white perfume would be almondy, snowy and slightly silvery and fizzy, with some sugared anise. And crisp, like when you walk out the door on Christmas morning (definitely a fantasy perfume!)…but I digress :p.
Yes, this was my first thought: who is this innocent being with an untainted side (meaning, she/he has a tainted one). It could be a child, a friend, a lover, anyone, really…
Oh this does look like a must-try. Rose, violet, aldehydes, woods, musk etc. But I am more than a bit tired of pepper notes. I hope the pink pepper is subtle.
I was thinking the same thing–the pink pepper angle is a little tired. But I’m hopeful: I like floral aldehydes, like woods, like musk. Fingers crossed…
I might be the only person who *isn’t* tired of pink pepper. Possibly because, oh, 60-70% of my samples are classics, so PP is still “different.” That, or it seems more background material to me than it does to everyone else.
Oops, hit “post” too quickly! Anyway, the notes sound riiiiiight up my alley here. Is Byredo too expensive for me? Yep. Will I sample it anyway? Probably. Eventually. After I get tired of chasing down mini bottles of Jolie Madame and L’Heure Bleue and Arpege and Tatiana in parfum and vintage Shocking…
It is official. I am addicted to ebay. Somebody please stage an intervention… (But seriously, the vintage DVF Tatiana parfum is really great. It’s too bad that one turned into Cheap Drugstore Crap.)
I love it ! A new acronym for the Perfumista Lexicon!!!
CDC = Cheap Drugstore Crap
ok, the rest of the world might think : Centers for Disease Control? huh? But WE know……yes we do.
Hahahahaha!!!!
Count me as the second-to-last-person not tired of pink pepper. And this sound right up my alley! I haven’t tried a single Byredo yet (though Pulp keeps tapping on the shoulder and staring me down intensely). I am afraid I will love them. I am also totally addicted to ebay. I figure (like perfume) it’s less a nasty habit than Cocaine, but I still try not to admit it to others.
I’m done with pepper too. It actually contributes at this point to making everything smell the same.
Anyone else disappointed that a fragrance representing ‘purity’ looks to be pretty thoroughly gendered instead of even plausibly unisex?
Only if by “disappointed” you mean that once again, it’s implied that women ought to be pure, and men have no such requirement. That double standard is far more tired than pink pepper, IMO.
Except in perfumery, there are at least as many My Sins and Hotel Sluts as there are Pure White Things… And in any case, to my eyes this Byredo has close to the least amount of gender-politico subtext going on of almost any perfume copy I’ve seen in awhile. Just another POV.
Byredo’s track record doesn’t really matter here because Byredo as a company isn’t what I’m disappointed in, just the gendered angle of this specific fragrance and the implicit sexist mentalities brought out in the artist’s description of his inspiration.
You can’t really divorce the following statement from the implied expectations of gender:
“I wanted to capture her innocent and untainted side, with a fragrance almost transparent in nature.”
Untainted from what? The word was meant to be flattering, I’m sure, but deconstruct the phrase and you’ll see what I mean. What does it mean to be untainted? More to the point, what does it mean to be tainted? How can a person be ‘tainted’?
I was innocent until I discovered my G-spot. Now I’m happily tainted.
MONSTA! put that bunny back in it’s cage….naughty, tainted girl!
That’s more or less exactly what I meant, yeah: the continued implication that purity is a virtue that only meaningfully applies to women (and so, of course, women are expected to be ‘pure’) and to a lesser degree that from a male perspective it’s somehow emasculating to be ‘pure’.
There’s also the flawed concept of purity as a human characteristic, which to me evokes visuals of repressive religious standards, blond-hair blue-eye Aryans and anti-miscegenation laws moreso than beauty or chastity.
I’m sorry, I can’t argue with or discuss adequately with you… I put aside Lacan, Blechner, and Butler long ago and gave up all aspirations to academia.
As Robin might say, “if you have a problem with offensive, generalized, stereotype-laden language, you would be better off not having a perfume hobby.” And I’d add, “at least don’t read the copy.”
I’m not an academic and you don’t have to be to have this sort of a discussion. I’m sorry Robin feels that way though because I think it’s a crucial part of self-improvement to be aware of the depth to which stereotypes and generalizations pervade our hobbies and lives. You don’t have to jump off the deep-end and adopt an absolute anti-consumerist lifestyle in order to express a valid critique of the things that surround you unless you feel those things are fundamentally and irreparably broken.
I don’t mean this to be flip: I think some of us are plenty aware of the pervasiveness of stereotypes in media/consumer messages. We just choose to get incensed about other things. Personally, the minute I start seeing Aryan iconography in Byredo Blanche, I’m chucking my entire perfume collection. Let’s not even go near Orientalism, okay?
ptp, I would agree that it’s important to be aware of the stereotypes & generalizations in perfume advertising as in any sphere. But as ad copy rarely stands up to scrutiny on any level, much less in terms of gender fairness, and as we announce usually between 1 and 3 new fragrances a day…well, let’s just say that’s a subject for another blog.
Funny, I am an academic, a feminist and a strong critique of savage capitalism and I try to ignore all the advertising that goes with a perfume because they are usually irritating. But I saw no problem in this particular case. Mostly because the creator of the perfume had one single person in his mind. The purity and untaintedness here was not used to describe women in general, but this one woman, who he sees in this way. What I find really refreshing in this blog is the fact that people are really interested in the perfume juices and not in embodying any idea of cool, sexy, modern etc.. that the companies try to push on us with their bombardment of stereotypes.
But, ok, this is a subject for another blog, I’ll be quiet now…
Sorry, “CRITIC” (English is not my first language).
Exactly my thoughts Angela. Without placing a creative effort in its proper context, consumers are always left trying to figure it out for themselves, and talking about a creative piece almost always introduces problems with interpretation. The map is not the territory.
My concern about the current trend in perfumery (at least with the wide-release frags) sort of touches on the pink pepper issue. Almost everything you smell for women that’s widely available is mindless, cookie-cutter, sweet, sugary, well-behaved nonsense. If these frags are somehow considered to be an interpretation of female consumers’ desires and personalities, then it’s a heck of an indictment.
I’m an academic also. But perfume is a hobby of mine. It is a gift I give myself to be able to sniff, enjoy, compare, and read about without the pressures of academia. The closest I get to launching into a cultural studies critique of perfume is my rejection of perfume gender prescriptions – masculine, feminine, etc. It’s tempting, of course, to apply my “skills.” But let’s just say, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that if i spent all my time worrying about ad-copy for perfumes, then I wouldn’t enjoy them as much as I do. because, honestly, it would feel like “work.” (Besides, who cares about ad copy? It scarcely has anything to do with the beauty of the juice.) Thus, I will leave it to other perfume critics and cultural critics to analyze and critique perfume ad copy. Those brilliant people are out there. And I’m sure that when their books/articles are published, I will read them. But for me, just please let me spray myself vigorously and get back to writing MY book, which has nothing to do with perfume, thankfully.
Yes Norjunma, there are probably soooo many issues involved in the making of a perfume, I can’t even begin to imagine. It’s probably like the spin-offs or remake of a good movie, which they keep milking and milking until it becomes an embarrassing parody of itself. But I’m sure there will always be a little gem in the midst of the boring stuff.
Mjir, I too don’t want to mix work with pleasure in this case.
In the end, the pink pepper will probably annoy me more than the stereotype
LOL! I do find the stereotypes annoying in and of themselves. That said, anyone who knows me will tell you I’m far from being PC, and I find a lot of the concepts just silly. People need to focus on behavior and expectations and quit worrying about word choice, IMO. As for pink pepper, well….my novice nose doesn’t even pick it out yet, so I have awhile before I get annoyed by that.
And really, aren’t we supposed to be concerned with HOW IT SMELLS? Orientalism bothers me just as much as sexism. But, however lame and non-PC the admen or adwomen the manufacturer hired, however slavishly the perfumer conformed to some marketer’s notion, the fragrance should sink or swim on how it smells. And that’s why your blog is important, Robin; at least here one can get non-marketing-influenced impressions on how the stuff smells.
Yep! Agreed, also, I feel that novices are welcomed. I haven’t seen any signs of snobbery here.
Agreed!
Well, if he can’t be Pure..he must be Fresh…or was that Clean?
LOL !
maybe he’s fruity?
LMAO!
I for one am very excited about this.. I have loved all but one of their fragrances ( I think Gypsy Water is a little overrated..), and I truly think this one will be one for the former category…
Hope so!
what does LMAO mean?
Laughing my a$$ off.
Oh, thanks R!
Well, I loved Bal d’Afrique and Fantastic Man, which were soft and understated scents, but was not keen on Pulp or Rose Noir and Green was too green. This one sounds very nice in a CDG White, White Patchouli kind of way. And even if it isn’t like those, it still sounds as though I would like it – and I am in Stockholm in September, as it happens!
You will probably smell it before I will then, do report back!
I went to the Blunda Aromatics happening yesterday and tried the new Yosh fragrances. One of them, Sombra Negra (Black Shadow), has pink pepper but it’s absolutely delicious. I don’t know how to recognize the smell of pink pepper, so I can’t tell you if it’s too prominent in this scent. The list is: vetiver (Madagascar, India, Indonesia, Reunion), patchouli (Indonesia, India), oak moss, tobacco, pink pepper, black pepper, teak (the only non organic ingredient), cypress, davana, opponax, muschroom, organic jojoba oil. My untrained nose detects vetiver, patchouli, cypress, something very green, as in tree green, no grass, and a whiff of something medicinal. It’s at once fresh and woody, bright and dark. It has the strangeness of perfumes such as Dzongkha and Douce Amere but it doesn’t smell like any of these. I’m comparing more the element of surprise that I got from those scents which I also get from Sombra Negra. I bough a small (8 ml I think) little bottle of the oil ($35) and although the silage is not strong, has a good lasting power. Within an hour, it becomes warmer as the medicinal whiff fades. I love it!
How nice — and that’s an excellent price for YOSH, many of her earlier oils are terribly expensive.
BTW, there is nothing at all wrong with pink pepper, it’s actually a nice smell. It’s just that it’s in many, many perfumes and I get tired of it.
Oh, ok. It’s that although it has pink pepper, Sombra Negra doesn’t smell like anything I’ve smelled before. The other perfume is also amazing. It’s called Dew and has fennel amongst other things. It came in a gel form and it doesn’t last too long. I didn’t ask Yosh Han how (or even if) she’s going to put this in the market.
Oh, fennel, that sounds fun! Hope we’ll see both of these…Sombra Negra sounds wonderful.
I was just at this wonderful shop in Hamburg yesterday that has this line. Last time I tried the Bal d’ Afrique and even got a sample made by the associate. I really like it. Yesterday I tried Pulp and I am really intrigued with this one, too.
I wish I had tried the Blanche, it sounds interesting.
I love this line so far, but honestly, I don’t want 100ml of anything. But if I fall madly in love with one of them, I am sure I will cave in and buy one. I can’t stop thinking about that Pulp, it is really pungent, but in a good way.
Pulp is great fun! I don’t want 100 ml of it either though.
Hmm. I’m going to give this another shot in a few days, but my initial impression is…fabric softener. Very NICE fabric softener, but fabric softener nonetheless. On the plus (?!) side, I think I finally figured out what pink pepper smells like…. Curious to hear what others think.
Oh dear. But I have not smelled it yet.