Posted by Robin
on
10 March 2009
Imagine yourself in a Japanese garden – a family garden, surrounded by dozens of delicate trees, grapefruit and hundreds of bushes of gardenias. It's early morning, the day after a thunderstorm. Imagine the drops of the rain on the leaves with the sun breaking through the cloud. The scent of the white gardenia is strong. With the humidity and heat, the scent emanates from the ground.*
That's Camille Goutal of Annick Goutal, explaining the inspiration for the line's latest perfume launch, Un Matin d’Orage. It's a reasonably accurate portrait of what you can expect, I suppose, although to my nose, Un Matin d'Orage is both drier and more transparent than what you'd get from “hundreds of bushes of gardenias” on a hot, humid day — and just as well, as such a thing might knock you out cold.
The opening is heavily ozonic and aquatic, and has a slight mineral aspect; overall, it nicely conveys the sense of “after the storm”. The gardenia and magolia stand out most clearly in the dry down…
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Posted by Robin
on
24 February 2009
It has been a very long time since I actually swooned over the first sniff of any perfume, but the latest from the Hermessence collection at Hermès, Vanille Galante, was a rare case of love-at-first-sniff. Happily for me, so far it appears to be a lasting relationship — just as well, since I bought it unsniffed.*
I will start by mentioning that Vanille Galante is likely to be a disappointment to vanilla freaks (there have already been a few disgruntled customers on the fragrance boards). The early scents in the Hermessence series (Ambre Narguile, Rose Ikebana, Vetiver Tonka, Poivre Samarcande, Osmanthe Yunnan) were mostly “about” the material they were named after. Paprika Brasil and Brin de Reglisse were less directly so, and Vanille Galante, while presumably a reflection of some sorts on vanilla…
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Posted by Robin
on
23 January 2009
Annick Goutal will launch Un Matin d’Orage, a new gardenia-focused fragrance for women, in February.
The new fragrance is “meant to channel the ambiance of a Japanese garden after a storm”, according to Camille Goutal:
The idea is to imagine yourself in a Japanese garden — not a Buddhist Zen-type place, but a real garden with lots of greenery…
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Posted by Kevin
on
6 March 2008
Bvlgari Aqva Pour Homme and Aqva Pour Homme Marine, both created by perfumer Jacques Cavallier, are classified as aromatic aquatic fragrances, “designed to evoke the natural freshness and vitality of the ocean.” We’ve all encountered fragrances or perfume notes that claim to capture the scents of clouds, sun, snow, mountain air, deserts, or beaches. I admit to being susceptible to such perfumes because my imagination can ‘fill in the blanks.’ If a perfumer presents me with “Snow” (or more likely, La Neige) — she can bottle some pine needle and cedar wood oils, incense/smoke notes, and a “cold, damp mineral” accord and I will create a snow scene in my mind (a snug cabin, or chalet, located in wintry mountains, its lopsided chimney releasing swirls of sweet wood smoke that creates a lavender-colored haze around snow-capped evergreen trees and boulders) that can accommodate her perfume idea. But that scene doesn’t really smell of actual snow (ice crystals) does it?
Imagine the perfume possibilities when trying to re-create the smell of water…
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Posted by Robin
on
26 July 2007
I am packing for the beach and so thought it would be appropriate to consider something aquatic today. Sogni del Mare is the latest release from Antonia’s Flowers, and was reportedly inspired by owner Antonia Bellanca’s home on Cape Cod. The fragrance description did not sound particularly appealing to me (a “watery, fruity, floral with notes of Italian bergamot, cassis buds, wild rhubarb, orange and lotus”), but I had high hopes for it anyway because I so entirely adore their Tiempe Passate.
As it turns out, the description is pretty accurate. It is very watery and fresh, and while the rhubarb and lots of citrus in the opening do help to temper the sweeter berry notes, by and large, it smells mostly like a sweet but sheer berry musk enlivened by a dash of saltwater….
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