L’Artisan Parfumeur will launch Traversée du Bosphore, a new fragrance by perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour, in November. Traversée du Bosphore was inspired by a journey to Istanbul:
The crossing of the Bosphorus, from one bank to the other, is an experience best enjoyed at daybreak…
The men sit around in an endless, casual debate, the tobacco smoke rising lazily from their hookahs. The scent of hot juicy apples floats up into the air.
Gardens bursting with a thousand dazzling tulips exude green notes carrying a hint of saffron. The delicate fragrance of the saffron becomes almost overwhelming as the spice market draws near, blending deliciously with the aroma of leather that scorches the air around the tanneries.
It is easy to lose oneself wandering through this maze of tiny streets at random, escorted and intoxicated by the suave, soft perfume of Turkish Delight, oscillating between rose and pistachio. A swirl of gentle musk emanates from every unhurried step, which slow and become almost aimless as dusk approaches.
L’Artisan Parfumeur Traversée du Bosphore will be available in 50 ($115) and 100 ml ($155) Eau de Parfum. (via press release)
Update: see a review of L’Artisan Parfumeur Traversée du Bosphore.
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Sounds very promising, and I am interested in anything when Bertrand Duchaufour is mentioned!
I’m assuming the list of notes are sprinkled throughout the copy?…
I assume so too…have not yet seen anything like an “official” list of notes.
Oh goodness! This sounds like a must try, despite the awful florid language.. Duchaufour is dangerous for my wallet!
Yes, it sound like Traversée du Bankrupcy to me
Yep…
Istanbul excited me, but this doesn’t sound like something I’d like.
I don’t think I like anything by Bertrand Duchaufour that I’ve tried.
Yeah, he is one of my favorite perfumers but I know several people who just don’t care for his style.
Though I’ve not tried anything of Duchaufour’s since his stylistic evolution, I am excited to try this. Well, I was. Then they mentioned hot juicy apples.
I’m OK with the hot, juicy apples, but not too sure about the combination of notes I’m reading in the copy (and why did they mention tanneries? Have they ever gotten whiff of a tannery?). I do admire a number of things Duchaufour has done, so I’ll be interested in sniffing this one.
But that copy really makes me want to visit Turkey and cross the Bosphorus!
Yeah, the tannery… Cuir de Russie smells like that to me, very close to rawhide and blood and animal parts and iodine, ick. I was surprised to NOT get what everybody else gets out of it. Sigh.
funny since I’m wearing Cuir de Russie today…
holy moly! a TANNERY?–eww…..but softly tanned leather–mmmmm
Uh, yeah, I wandered by accident near a “tannery” in Greece once upon a time, and it was not such a good smelling place. Hello bins of urine!….. But this fragrance sounds test worthy for sure. Maybe Duchaufour is on a leather kick? I got kind of a weird indolic suede accord from Nuits de Tuberose.
Yeah. I’ll take mine without the hot juicy apples.
Yes! It was all going so well otherwise, leather, tobacco, safron, even turkish delight, but apples..especially hot juicy ones.
“Bertrand Duchaufour” is code in my house for “take out your bank card”. How I love splits!
oh yeah—I’m headed over to the group to post for interest…Dee, should I just pencil you in my dear??
I see that I made the top of the split list! This is a big day for me
I smelled this last night at Henri Bendel in NY — they already have it in stock. Apparently it has just arrived. As I had already smelled a bunch of other things, and as I only smelled this on a strip instead of on skin, I can’t give a full account. My first impression was that it is surprisingly dry and leathery, but then a hint of a sweet, almost chocolaty note (?) comes through. Perhaps that’s the apples? It didn’t smell like apples to me at all. It’s very much in line with the rest of Duchaufour’s recent scents for L’Artisan — it has the dryness of Nuit de Tuberose and also is somewhat reminiscent of Piment Brulant.
bwahahahahaha —I’m on it!
Hey, are you doing samples out of those splits? If you are, sign me up.
done
Can I enter for the list of decants too? Please, say yes
rickbr—contact me at Daisyloo82 at gmail dot com……we’re doing a sign up.
Well, Chuck, I’m a big Duchaufour fan, but this sounds like a bit of a mess to me, from just reading the copy. However, your description leads me to believe that I’ll probably like it!
Yeah, I like Duchaufour a lot too, but all three of his recent L’Artisan releases (Al Oudh, Havana Vanille, Nuit de Tubereuse) have been disappointing to me; and (on an admittedly cursory inspection) I was not impressed by this one either. To be fair, I only smelled the strip for a few minutes and then moved on to other things, so this was not enough time to get a full impression of the fragrance.
Ohhhhhhhhhh noooooooooo…
oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no
oh yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yessssss!
I’ll have what Daisy’s having.
: DDDDDDD
My thoughts too! I want to be saving money, but you wouldn’t know it from my perfume spending
I refuse to get overly excited about a l’Artisan after the Havana Vanille debacle, but this does seem interesting. I am warming up to a few of these – I got a nice compliment when wearing Nuit de Tubereuse the other day, and we all know I fell hard for the new vetiver. I’ll be testing that one again tomorrow to make sure.
Yeah, I suffered from that HV debacle (love that term) as well. I’m not sure yet about the Vetiver. I only have a vial and it’s hard to form an impression (and I have so many vetivers already).
But this one sounds unusual. As I was telling Daisy, it sounds like it could be an amazing fall scent, combining the best of a tobacco scent like Ava Luxe Shish, CBIHP Gathering Apples, and some rosy/nutty Loukhoum scents. I love the idea.
that was meant to read “Ava Luxe Shisha”
I have yet to try any Ava Luxe!!
Yes, I’m reading apple shisha between the lines of that PR copy!
What was the “Havana Vanille Debacle” about? Was Castro Involved? Could I google that and get an answer? Is it like Milli Vanilli lip synching?
SOTD: Iris and Musk by J. Malone.
It got lots of glowing reviews (including mine). Many people bought it unsniffed, and hated it. Never buy unsniffed!
i nearly had my very own HV debacle: i was at Bendel’s and HV was still a month away from being release so i was super excited that the saleswoman would let me try some. when i took a whiff i nearly gagged! she probably knew i was lying when i told her how nice it was. uck!
I bought a decant of HV unsniffed based on the reviews, but i didn’t hated it, but it wasn’t what i was expecting too. On me it was a plain boozy vanila with something that reminded me of play-doh…
I was lucky. I bought it unsniffed and loved it!
Oh, Turkey! Tea, apple-tea, smoke, cumin, saffron – this will be a good one, loved his Fleur de Liane too.
I am still fighting with his latest, the tuberose. But I discovered Sublime Balkiss so my paycheck has already a mission.
Love Sublime Balkiss, too, but not the spendy price tag. I bought DKNY Delicious Night and Caudalie’s Fleur de Vigne instead for something like $30 for the pair. Alone, neither is an exact smell alike for SB but worn together they are very, very similar and so much cheaper.
There’s no apple, no cumin, no smoke. It’s light, sweet, and pretty. The leather is a very light note as well, far less than say, Daim Blond.
A “thousand dazzling tulips exude green notes carrying a hint of saffron”. Do you think they meant crocus? Tulips are gorgeous says this girl from Holland, Michigan, but they have nothing to do with saffron.
It’s a tulip accord, as imagined by the perfumer, but it does bear resemblance to those few tulips that have an odor.
And the hits just keep on coming!
Those folks at L’Artisan are hitting home runs this year! If I have not loved all of the new releases, I have certainly liked them a lot.
Now this new one?
I can’t wait to test it!
Hugs!
I loved the description! L’artisan is trying to bankrupt me lol I still have to try their take on vetiver and on tubereuse. But i hope that this one is not as safe as it was Havana Vanille, which disapointed me a lot.
They should do a coffret with all of the travel fragrances in 15ml each one. I’d buy one for me as xmas gift
LOVE the travel coffret idea and would buy it in a heartbeat (is my favorite perfumeur reading this???).
Duchaufour + L’Artisan + Istanbul = Lemmingzilla!
I’ve tried it and I find it really charming. It’s transparent and breezy. Basically, it’s a mix of 3 accords- light suede, an imagined “tulip” accord, that has a just a hint of saffron, and a pistachio/rose lokum accord. Is this the first leather gourmand?? It’s weird but it works.
But who wrote that ad copy??? Talk about purple prose, has the writer ever been to Istanbul in the morning? Smoked fish, fresh sesame bread, cheap cigarettes, and diesel exhaust. Thick coal smoke in wintertime. And tanneries? GAG! That’s a pong, not a smell. I sure hope they re-write that piece. Puh-lease!
That’s a very helpful summation, Masha – thanks indeedy. I was wondering if it had anything in common with the gorgeous Safran Troublant, what with ST’s saffron/rose/sweet’n'nutty intersection, but this one sounds more leatheresque.
ST, I’d forgotten that one! That’s a beauty. Yes, I think they must be cousins, kissin’ cousins! There is definitely overlap, but they are distinct from each other. TdB is sweeter, and the light leather note works well with the sweet notes and saffron. It’s more complicated than ST.
I love the word “pong”.
Masha, you made me laugh. Thanks for the rundown of what this scent is really like. Of course, perfume marketing prose is sort of what I’m coming to think of as the “Eat Pray Love” school of romantic travel copywriting.
Regarding leather gourmands: I tend to think of Cuir Beluga, Daim Blond, and maybe Cuir Venenum to fall into that category somewhat.
I hope it’s not so transparent as to disappear in ten minutes flat. Thanks again!
Turkey is one of the most scent-specific countries I know, and it smells like coal smoke.
Wanted to add that I tried this on paper today and, perhaps it’s because the fragrance was being pushed as a “Christmas special”, it seemed far more appropriate as a home fragrance than something one would wear. And given the marketing spiel, it wasn’t surprising to hear that the candles had been flying off the shelves. As others have mentioned, the leather is very, very light; I got apple (and pomegranate?) in the top notes with a bit of spice.
I would say that’s true of many niche fragrances: they’re possibly more appropriate as home fragrances, and tend to appeal more to people who don’t care about that distinction, I think.