Indulging in a work of reinterpretation, Francis Kurkdijan [sic] has created a “ghost of a perfume” using only one hundred percent natural products. We discover the intensity of rose, iris, cut jasmine, tuberose and orange blossom. This fragrance is modulated by fine woody touches of cedar and sandalwood. To perfect the composition, two magnificent base notes were added…

Read the rest of this article »

…And, most evocatively, a powder-blue cabinet room, festooned with peacocks (an emblem of motherhood), with chair handles carved in the image of her favourite dog. This was the queen’s refuge, her powder room, in effect, and one still holds one’s breath in anticipation of its rouged, fragrant occupant. It was here that Marie Antoinette sought solace from stifling palace etiquette. As with today’s celebrities, chief among her confidants were her fellow image-makers: her couturière, Rose Bertin, her hairdresser, Léonard, and her perfumer, Jean-Louis Fargeon.

Read the rest of the article here, and many thanks to Ruth for the link.

The UK's Daily Record has an interesting article on some of the more unusual fragrance releases this year…

Read the rest of this article »

Each day, she dipped in a tub laced with a confection of blanched sweet almonds, pine nuts, linseed, marshmallow root and lily bulb, then rubbed her body clean with a sachet of bran.

A Scented Palace is about Marie Antoinette’s perfumer, Jean-Louis Fargeon. You may remember that last year Francis Kurkdjian recreated Sillage de la Reine, one of the perfumes Fargeon developed for the Queen, after Feydeau discovered the recipe in the French National Archives…

Read the rest of this article »

You can see a detailed list of the notes used in Sillage de la Reine in my post from February 25. The NYT article also mentions one other replica of a historical perfume: the Caterina de Medici fragrance made by i Profumi di Firenze.