Her own olfactory signature admits to certain genetic tendencies. "I am influenced by my family!" she admitted with rueful laugh. "Growing up Guerlain was always only nice perfumes, something you could recognize from afar, the sillage, and you would know it was Guerlain. I wanted to have the same approach."
— Perfumer Patricia de Nicolaï of Parfums de Nicolaï, quoted in Scent of a woman at the National Post.
Perfumistas will want to take note of two special events hosted by the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program in Washington, DC this coming February:
The Art of Fragrance (In Collaboration with the Embassy of France With Sparkling Wine Toast) with Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez, Friday, 5 February at 6:45 pm:
Tonight, we cut through the usual perfume-babble to illuminate the art of fragrance…
Un Coeur en Mai is one of the more recent launches from Parfums MDCI, the French niche brand that packages its perfumes in limited edition, numbered bottles featuring Limoges bisque stoppers. They’re $610 a pop, and anyone who reads here regularly knows that this is precisely the sort of “luxury” that is bound to irritate me beyond measure, and the price of the refills, $235 for 60 ml, hardly helps matters. So it was with great satisfaction that I tested the first 5 MDCI perfumes, found them beautifully done but neither outrageously wonderful nor outrageously interesting1, and moved on to other matters.
As always, I should have left well enough alone, but I dutifully tried the next 4 releases: Péché Cardinal, Le Rivage des Syrtes & Vêpres Siciliennes, and lastly, Un Coeur en Mai. I know Péché Cardinal has found fans, but it was very nearly a scrubber on me (ghastly fruit roll ups), and Le Rivage des Syrtes and Vêpres Siciliennes both left me cold. The last one to go on skin, Un Coeur en Mai, was the one that did me in…
Parfums MDCI has launched Un Coeur en Mai. Like their recently introduced Le Rivage des Syrtes, Un Coeur en Mai was developed by perfumer Patricia de Nicolaï of Parfums de Nicolaï.
The other route taken by Patricia de Nicolaï opens up for us a different imaginary world; this is a green floral which instantly evokes a fresh spring day, a walk through woods perfumed with hyacinths and lily-of-the-valley…
Parfums MDCI has launched two new fragrances for women:
Le Rivage des Syrtes (shown) ~ developed by perfumer Patricia de Nicolaï; “…an oriental floral with a name taken from a famous French novel by Julien Gracq, [it] uses fragrance to tell the tale of a lonely sailor who travels far from home– from island to island…
Stella McCartney in conversation with Alexandra Shulman (video, talks about new scent L.I.L.Y) http://t.co/VAKYigvK "French parfumier Guerlain on trial over 'race slurs'" article at Telegraph http://t.co/lVDxoZMi Vote for NST's Mood Board on FB and win a Zoya Nail Polish collection! http://t.co/MXHMN7I3