According to Cosmetic News, perfumer Pierre Bourdon of Fragrance Resources is planning to retire shortly. From the brief biography of Bourdon at Frederic Malle:
Pierre Bourdon earned a degree in political science before changing directions and enrolling in the Roure Bertrand Dupont school in Grasse. The only protégé of celebrated perfumer Edmond Roudnitska, he went to work for Roure in Paris…
No matter where I’ve traveled outside the United States, I’ve heard fellow Americans, also on vacation or on business trips, ridicule the hygienic habits of the locals — “these people” don’t: bathe or shampoo enough, use enough (or any) deodorant, or wash their clothes correctly to remove every particle of dirt and scent…on and on. It’s no surprise that Americans, even many perfume lovers, don’t like perfumes that smell “dirty;” perfumes that contain civet, musk and castoreum come under fire, as do perfumes with a hefty dose of coriander, cedar, cumin, labdanum, costus roots or any other ingredient or mix of ingredients that produces a smell of “body odor.” One of the ‘chestnuts’ of perfume description is “It smells like a cab driver!” (Poor cab drivers, always used as examples of the unwashed.) Recently, someone said the Eau d’Hermès I was wearing smelled like a “bum” — it took just a few seconds to figure out the person was not talking about a street person but a body part: the arse.
Yves Saint Laurent’s Kouros (1981), created by Pierre Bourdon, has been hit hard with the “unclean” rap. Before smelling Kouros, I read about 100 online reviews of the fragrance. Kouros inspires rapture — or revulsion…
Italian fashion house Luciano Soprani has launched a new fragrance for women, D Luciano Soprani, “the scent of desire”.
D is a fruity floral developed by perfumer Pierre Bourdon…
Gianfranco Ferre will launch GF Ferre Bluemusk this month. The unisex fragrance was developed by perfumer Pierre Bourdon and is geared towards a young audience.
Bluemusk combines accords from the four elements: air, water, fire and earth. The notes include bergamot, mandarin, pineapple, melon, blackcurrant, jasmine, lavender, violet, patchouli, vetiver, mahogany, grey amber and gunflint.
GF Ferre Bluemusk will be available in Eau de Toilette, Body Lotion and Shampoo & Shower Gel. (via cosmeticnews, moda.it, crisalidepress.it)
Other recent releases from Gianfranco Ferre…
Institut Très Bien is one of several historical fragrance lines (Lubin, Rancé, etc) that have been revived by new owners in recent times. Frederic Burtin, whose grandmother reportedly was a patron of the original Institut Très Bien spa in Lyon during the 1930s, found an old perfumery book with a recipe for the spa’s Cologne à la Russe, and with the help of perfumer Pierre Bourdon, came up with a fragrance “as close to the original as possible” (via cosmeticsint.co.uk, 9/1/2004) At the same time…
“We thought about how the range would have developed had the Institut not closed,” said Burtin, “and we produced Cologne à la Francaise and Cologne l’Italienne.” (ibid)
I gave all three scents a very quick try shortly after they were launched, and liked them well enough. Of the three, my early favorite was the Cologne à L’Italienne, a refreshing blend of citrus, herbs and orange blossom, but at that time the line was only sold in France, and given how easy it is to find a nice summery citrus in the cologne style*, they didn’t strike me as WIFFY**.
Now that summer is coming and the line is more readily available in the United States, I thought I would give the trio a more serious smell…
Another corpse flower has bloomed at Western Illinois U, & they're expecting 2 more... http://t.co/oRnROz6j (& they've got live video)