Winter is in full swing here in Vienna, the cars are snowed in, the children are having fun and my walks have a welcoming silence to them.
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The world is calm and soft under a pristine blanket of snow, sounds are muted and speed is reduced.
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Time to clear the air and the mind. Just let the white take over for a while.
Images: my own
The third bottle on my tray of heavy rotation perfumes at the moment also comes (no surprises there) from the capable hands of Jean-Claude Ellena.
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Jour d’Hermès was released in December at Hermès boutiques and will go into wide release this coming February. There is no official list of notes. It is available in 50ml and 85ml refillable EdP and a 125ml refill bottle (which is a really, really great idea in my humble opinion and a bargain to boot, compared to the niche prices these days).
Jour d’Hermès is maybe a perfume more suited to spring, which will tie in well with the wide release later this year, but I find myself craving sunlight and happiness in the easily available form of perfume every year around January. I probably wear more summery florals now than I do in July.
Jour d’Hermès is an amazing perfume. It is a modern, radiant floral, it is abstract and features a bouquet of green, dewy florals that revolves like a caleidoscope, presenting new facets every time you smell it. Before my nose lily of the valley, hyacinth, rose, violet and jasmine dance gaily and twirl away laughing before I can really pin them down. Throughout, a crisp greenness pervades the fragrance that slowly shifts into a warmer, muskier shade of twilight, like the sun hiding behind a cloud.
Jour d’Hermès has an (for Ellena) unusual tenacity and presence (even the Candy Perfume Boy, who is a floral fiend, is impressed).
Jour d’Hermès is by no means loud or overbearing, it fits the rest of JCE’s canon when it comes to delicate sheerness and transparent structure, but it has a radiance and an exciting multi-faceted power that surprises and elates me. Wearing it is fun, and it is fun that lasts all day long.
Now, how often can you say that about something?
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This surely warrants a place on my tray, and completes my Hermès trifecta.
All good things come in threes.
Do you enjoy a perfume no matter what container it comes in?
Is the outer appearance of a perfume important to you?
Are you influenced in your buying decisions by bottle and packaging?
Are you happy with decants?
Do you think the scent is all that matters or is it a Gesamtkunstwerk? (German for a work of art in its entirety, inside and out)
My Answer:
I wrote about how I bought a perfume solely for its bottle last week (Hermès 24 Faubourg Quadrige Edition), so apparently the outer trappings of a scent do count for me. Chandler Burr’s NY MAD exhibition and his Untitled series on OpenSky do away with all the trimmings of a perfume, leaving the scent as is, for us to experience unencumbered by other influences.
I don’t agree with that concept. Of course there are bottles nobody thought much about and that would not win a design prize any time soon, but generally the bottle tries to express visually what it contains. The bottle is very important. The best, the rarest perfume looses so much of its identity once decanted into a soulless little vial. Of course I am happy those vials exist and that decanting and sharing exists, as it is often the only option to experience some perfumes, but when it comes to my collection, I am hardly satisfied with a decant. To fully enjoy my perfume, I need its visual input as well. I have been known not to buy perfumes I like, because I can’t stand the bottle. Shallow, I know, but I can’t help myself, I just lose interest, or if I never smelled it, I don’t develop any interest if the bottle is not enticing to me. I know, I’m awful…
How about you?
By Neil
SLEEPING WITH GHOSTS by MARK BUXTON PERFUMES
The curiously named Sleeping With Ghosts may sound dark, daunting and gothic but the name is misleading: this is in fact a distinctly appealing, fruity vanillic scent that while linear and monothematic, is immediately touching and uplifting. It is a composition dominated by a sweet, spectral vanilla suggesting poignant memories; a lover’s body that has graced your sheets but has now gone, leaving nothing but the sensation that they are still there… just traces. These are the ghosts that the perfumer seems to be alluding to; those feelings of infatuation, happiness and spontaneity that love and reminiscence evoke, and a sense of yearning for those feelings again come springtime.
If vanilla is usually custard yellow, this is pink ivory white: pitched higher on the musical scale, creamily fruit-tinged, an insidious, addictive smell that dominates the scent, fused with barely perceptible touches of leather and vetiver. The beginning of the perfume is the stage I like the best though, as it is all about the vivacious smells of tagetes, peony flowers and, notably, a very bright and deliciously juicy quince, an unusual note in a perfume and one that works perfectly over the softer notes in the base. It is a perfume I would love to wear on an early sunny morning on a winter’s day in London, the fruited opening brisk and optimistic under a crisp white shirt, the softly tenacious sun-licked vanilla note rising up at various points in the day. Despite the slight disappointment I feel in the base notes, when the vanilla becomes a touch too subdued for a fiend such as myself, this is, for me, one of the happiest scents around.
EAU DUELLE by DIPTYQUE
I think of Eau Duelle as Sleeping With Ghosts‘ sister, because they share a similarly light vanilla and ease of temperament that is quite different to the more voluptuous Bourbons that we are used to in most perfumes of this type. Eau Duelle is no odalisque: she is a green vanilla, a gazelle of the forest; shy, demure even. She holds something back. Maybe too much so: like many other people who have been underwhelmed by this release by Diptyque, there somehow seems to be something, that indefinable magical extra ingredient missing in the scent, as though it needed just that extra sprinkling of sugar.
Nevertheless, the intrinsic duality of the fragrance, in which strangely verdant notes of calamus grass, juniper, tea and elemi contradict the ghostly frankincense and pepper underlying these cool and aerial groves of vanilla, makes Eau Duelle a youthful, spritely scent, delicately attractive and understated, the tendrils of chlorophyll cradling the vanilla right into the drydown as the deer disappear back into the hedgerow at the first light of dusk.
VANILLE TONKA by PARFUMS DE NICOLAI
This sophisticated, adult, even ‘difficult’ vanilla by Patricia Nicolai, who never toes the line of what is considered fashionable, but simply follows her well-esteemed instincts, is worth your consideration if you like darker, sultrier vanillas (which we will be looking into next week). Like Eau Duelle, Vanille Tonka features frankincense in its heart but far more intensely, interwoven with a incensey vanilla and dry cinnamon charge that takes the note in new directions. No ingenue, this is a feathery, silky boa of a perfume that has seen a few things: topped with tart, tangy notes of basil, tangerine and lime, she settles into her own dark corner of vanilla, ensconced in her corner; harder, more aware and brooding than her coquettish, lightweight contemporaries, biding her time, eyes lowered…
When we talked about the topic of beauty in my recent post about 24 Faubourg by Hermès, a commenter mentioned that she is in the habit of going out on walks to look for beauty, whenever she feels the need.
I took up this lovely idea and resolved to go about my normal errands with my eyes wide open to beauty, not downcast and lost in thought or my iPhone as usual. And lo and behold, I found this old cellar door right in my street that I had never seen before although I walk by every day.
I will to go out with my camera more often now (not only the one on my phone, please forgive the slightly blurry image) and try to find hidden beauty surrounding me in my daily life. I hope this is something you like, even though it has not directly to do with perfume.
And since we are on the subject of beauty… here is one gratuitous shot of two extraordinary beauties: I always find their smile is highly infectious.
Have a beautiful day!
I bought a bottle of the Quadrige edition of 24 Faubourg on the last day of 2012 (for 20% off, people!). I did that for several reasons (not including the 20% off enticement, I would have bought it at full price too.)…
The Quadrige Limited Edition bottle design.
Hermès has been my daily companion for the past two months, nothing but JCE’s translucent beauty could get my attention. But all of a sudden, I felt the need to branch out a little, I was ready for opulence, and who is better versed in opulence (okay, aside from everything Amouage) than Maurice Roucel, who is not known for his restraint and translucency, but for solid and symphonic scents, of which 24 Faubourg is a perfect example.
But! But I did not rush out to bring home this perfume because all of a sudden I felt the need for more, but – confession coming – because I saw that bottle, that beautiful bottle.
I friend recently wrote to me that he looks for aesthetics and beauty first and foremost in everything and he thinks I do too. This was a kind of absolution for me. A permit that this is okay. My parents have no interest in beauty, aesthetics just do not feature in their lives, in their philosophies and they have neither understanding nor patience for it, so all my life I carried a lot of guilt for wanting, needing, craving that quality. Slowly, slowly I have started to unload that unnecessary guilt, and this blog, the intense confrontation with perfume, have helped enormously.
So I saw this bottle on Bois de Jasmin and knew I wanted it for its beauty alone. That it holds an exquisite scent is only the cherry on top and something that makes me happy, but unexpectedly so, because all I knew about 24 Faubourg before I laid hands on my precious Quadrige Edition was from one spray on the back of my hand right there in the store.
So am I still a worthy perfume blogger? I violated several unspoken laws of good perfume behaviour after all…
The most important thing about 24 Faubourg was and still is, that it sparked my passion about perfume back into life. After a two-month stint of fragrant hibernation in a cloud of L’Ambre des Merveilles, I went crazy for something else again, even if it was only a bottle (at first).
24 Faubourg was created by Maurice Roucel in 1995 and includes notes of orange blossom, jasmine, tiara flower, ylang ylang, iris, patchouli, vanilla, ambergris, and sandalwood. It is available as Eau de Toilette and Eau de Parfum in both 50 and 100ml.
The regular bottle design.
24 Faubourg is more than a pretty bottle, obviously. It is a terrific perfume and it fits the image of the house of Hermès excellently. It comes from the pre-Ellena phase of more expansive perfumes and it is a necessary and valuable addition to the rest of the house’s offerings.
24 Faubourg is a full-bodied, honeyed orange blossom and ylang floral resting on an amber-coated patchouli and sandalwood bed.
It smells warm, sun-drenched, rich and sensuous. It smells classic, perfume-y and elegant.
It smells mature in a way that is not old, but grown-up enough for a wearer who knows a good bit about life and its vagaries, and is still young enough at heart to be able to laugh about it.
The woman wearing 24 Faubourg loves and appreciates beauty, she seeks it out and finally, finally knows that there is nothing shameful about that.
It’s the new year, Christmas is not far behind us and maybe you found some new perfumes under the tree. In any case, January is the month to take stock of what is good, what is bad, what to keep and what we want to change in our lives.
I have big plans for a major de-cluttering operation starting this week. I have to get rid of stuff, a lot of stuff. Minimal living has a great appeal to me, and while I never will be a true minimalist, I want to put the focus firmly on quality over quantity this year. In every respect of life, including perfume (minimalism is still used very loosely in the perfume context, don’t worry, I’ll never whittle it down to two bottles. 😉 )
How about your perfume habit?
Do you have New Year’s resolutions concerning your perfume closet?
Do you need to weed out your collection?
Do you want to purchase less (or more)?
What is on your wishlist for 2013?
My Answer:
I want to streamline my collection a bit more, but most of all, I want to buy almost nothing for as long as I can. My perfume wearing habits have changed profoundly in the past months, and I want to use this phase to really use my collection. I envision this as the year of serial monogamy. I’ll keep you updated as to how it goes…
On my wishlist this year?
All good things come in threes: Vero Kern’s Mito, Roja Dove’s Unspoken and Puredistance Opardu. I’m saving up for them.
Can’t wait to hear about your good intentions!
By Neil
Happy New Year to all you vanillophiles, and welcome back to Sweet Little Thing, Friday’s exploration of all smells vanillic! (Here are Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.)
I went into Tokyo yesterday in order to freshly reacquaint my nose with more vanillas for this post, stupidly forgetting that January 2nd is probably the busiest day of the whole year in Japan, the heaving multitudes cramming by the thousands into department stores for the January bargain sales, not to mention an equal number of people thronging the shrines in order to pray for good fortune; an annual tradition known as hatsumode. It was practically impossible to walk on the streets it was so crowded, and as for Isetan, Shinjuku’s best department store and the only real place in Tokyo to find good niche, it was hell: sheer claustrophobia. Still, the unusual number of customers meant that the snooty, exquisitely maquillaged sales assistants were busy for a moment and I could spray to my heart’s content without that look. And spray I did…
GOURMAND COQUIN by GUERLAIN
Over Christmas and New Year I attempted to perfect the art of making mulled wine by adding my own twist of Madagascar vanilla beans to the brew along with the other spices, letting the base blend macerate for a couple of days before adding the wine, brandy, and a soupçon of Cointreau. I was thus astonished to find this effect replicated yesterday in this perfume by Guerlain, which in its initial stages smells almost identical to what I was imbibing over the holidays. Spices, rum, and dark cacao simmer sumptuously over roses and Shalimar-esque vanilla pods before settling down gently to a cheekily luscious, chocolatey vanilla that while sweet, has enough character and taste to never quite go over the edge.
VANILLE ORCHIDEE by VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
Another vanilla perfume with a touch of enticing gourmandise is Vanille Orchidée by Van Cleef, a well-regarded scent that might possibly be the ideal ‘straight’ vanilla. A sherbety mandarin-lychee opening is a nostril-tickling ballet of delight, as particles of freshness dance before your eyes, edible and delicious as a cool lemon soufflé: a citric, effervescent apéritif that soon segues into a lightly floral, smooth and warm scent with delicate remembrances of the dessert trolley, bitter almond, cedar, and white musk. Perhaps a touch undaring in its coy, floral femininity, the perfume nevertheless has perfect balance, and a light, smooth, stable, vanilla base note that lasts for hours on the skin yet always remains subtle.
VANILLARY by GORILLA PERFUMES
Feral, indolic, Vanillary could hardly be a more different experience of vanilla. This all-natural creation by perfumer Simon Constantine is a very lush and overripe perfume that begins with a blast of animalic jasmine absolute and tenacious, coconutty sandalwood, over a thick meniscus of insistent vanillic sweetness and tonka bean. Like a powdery, heavy black-winged moth dragging itself slowly through the heat and viscid, dripping jungle sap, we drift along languidly in the heat but find ourselves suddenly subsumed by a giant, flesh-eating flower. All is rough; unseamless; driven – I find Vanillary to be a very erotic and id-driven perfume that will be worn to quite magnetic effect by the sultry and sexually confident, but it is to be worn with caution.
VANIGLIA by SANTA MARIA NOVELLA
This elegant, cultured, Florentine creature would simply faint, like Lucy Honeychurch in A Room With A View, in the presence of the vanilla gorilla above. The Santa Maria Novella profumi are about as far away from Anglo-Saxon literalness, or that charged, coquettish French volupté, as it is possible to be. Though sensual and rich, there is always an indefinable chastity in the monastery’s perfumes; a lack of sugar and nonsense that distinguishes them from other houses. Vaniglia is one such fragrance; liquorous, savoury, it is a frankly peculiar, but rather pleasingly idiosyncratic scent from another time that to me smells like spilled white wine and overdone crème brulée; yesterday’s sandalwood, and imperious, old fashioned, buttery musks – an unusual vanilla with a nostalgic, coppery reserve.
Editor’s Note: Don’t you adore Neil? I know that I do! His passion for perfume and his glorious way of writing make me run for my own vanilla scents every time. He agreed to continue to share is vanilla treasure chest with us for a few more posts until the end of January. I can’t wait for next Friday’s installment!
Have a great time tonight, whether you are partying or sleeping into the next year (I’ll do the latter, as I’m woefully old, but I’ll smell terrific wearing this…).
All the best for a great 2013, may all your dreams and wishes come true! Stay or get healthy and happy!
Keep on wearing perfume (and reading my blog! 🙂 )!
B x
It’s been a while since I have posted about my favorite things, the end of the year lends itself perfectly to such endeavors, and don’t we all love lists?
The year 2012 has been an interesting one. I mostly stuck to my one bottle a month rule (mostly, I swear!) until I met my current signature scent at the end of October and have stuck with it since. But, since I am not one to break my own rules (ha!), I did manage to buy a bottle for December as well, one that will probably be a serious competitor for daily wear – the newest work of my beloved Jean-Claude Ellena. His L’Ambre des Merveilles and now the surprising and gorgeous Jour d’Hermès have all my attention. This is kind of funny, for it feels like I have come full circle this year. I started with JCE, who I fully blame for my fall down the rabbit hole and now I’m back with him and his tender world of transparency and light (for good?).
So here is a list of my favorite things of the year and I cannot wait to read about yours…
Luxury (or the thin line between indulgence and delusion):
While Jean-Claude Ellena dominated my fragrant obsessions this year, the entire house of Hermès did as well. While I have been a fan of its timeless luxury for years, I must admit that it has become a bit more recently. Maybe it is impending middle-age that has me contemplating investment pieces… as a friend put it: at a certain age we have to think about investing in quality. So enjoy a stroll with me through the gorgeous offerings of the esteemed house of Hermès.
In my quest for the perfect cashmere shawl and a flattering way to wear my silks, I stumbled upon this wonderful blog, by an impossibly elegant and sophisticated Frenchwoman: take a look at MaiTai’s Picturebook.
Books:
Donna Tartt: The Secret History I have read this book at least five times and I love it more every time. Beautifully written, witty, intelligent and very, very strange, it is a fascinating read.
Kathleen Tessaro: Elegance A lovely book! Officially “chick lit”, it is that and a bit more. A woman transforms her life after finding an old book about being elegant (that book really exists, find it here). I have a penchant for these kinds of duckling to swan things…
Lessons from Madame Chic This little book, written by blogger Jennifer L. Scott (The Daily Connoisseur) is a quick read that is entertaining and fun, with some great tips, if a bit repetitive. Her blog is also well worth checking out. Jennifer gives advice on how to better your quality of life in all respects, from make up to table culture, from wardrobe changes to art appreciation.
Food:
Louisville, Kentucky Modjeskas My husband brought these home from a business trip – oh my, I almost wish he had never introduced me to this delicacy. Marshmallows dipped in soft and salty caramel is so much better than it sounds. Decadent and SO delicious!!!
Dr. O’s Turducken was a great, quite unexpected success. The Russian-doll-type food preparation style will have its rightful place in our kitchen from now on.
Daisy’s Bacon and Pecan Nougats Dear and generous Daisy from the food blog Cool Cook Style sent me her amazing Bacon and Pecan Nougats, the only problem I have with them is that they were gone in a flash. (Should have kept them all to myself instead of offering them to greedy guests. 😉 )
Skincare:
Paula’s Choice: I couldn’t be happier than with this very affordable and extremely well-researched line. I can highly recommend the products. No non-sense, effective and gentle, they make my skin the best it can be.
TV/DVD:
As a child, I had a phase when I was absolutely convinced that my future occupation would be Broadway Star. I wanted to be a musical performer and going to Broadway seemed to be the thing to do from a ten-year-old Austrian’s perspective. It seemed quite feasible at the time, and that dream took turns in my wishlist of professions with becoming a cover model for Vogue, being the next Anne-Sophie Mutter or marrying Prince Edward of England.
My musical star aspirations have seen a great revival this year, when I watched the DVD’s of Glee. What can I say – I love it. Showchoir is the coolest and I wish we had had such a thing in highschool. I might be living in NYC by now… 😉
And finally, this being a perfume blog after all – for all of you who made it through this long post so far – here is my nowhere near complete list of top-picks for the best perfumes of the year 2012:
Perfume:
Vero Profumo Mito: the best new release, because it is timeless and captures a deceptively simple beauty that is ultimately heartwrenching.
Neela Vermeire Creations India Trio: Officially launched only in January 2012, it seems as if these three glorious perfumes have always been here. I can only hope they will stay with us forever too! And don’t make me pick a favorite among the three, I couldn’t make up my mind the entire year…
Hermès L’Ambre des Merveilles: yes, I’ll shut up about it now…
Ann Gérard Cuir de Nacre and Perle de Mousse: Those two perfumes by Bertrand Duchaufour are delicate beauties and worthy additions to an ever-expanding (hopelessly oversaturated?) market.
Amouage Beloved: Bewitching, beautiful, expensive and hard to find.
Parfums MDCI Chypre Palatin: Another Duchaufour that is exceptional. Make it your starting point to discover the entire line (make sure to try Peché Cardinal!)
Puredistance Opardu: the fourth release by Jan Ewoud Vos’s ultra-elegant niche house doesn’t let us down. Tender and wistful, soft and nostalgic.
Guerlain Myrrhe et Delires: A classic case of love at the hundredth sniff, since I was not very taken with it from the start, but it grew on me to the point that I believe it has earned its spot in the Top Ten of 2012.
Nabucco Amytis: the ultimate luxury – an oil-based perfume that is enveloping you like the much-cited cashmere wrap, but what can I say? It’s true!
Hermès Jour d’Hermès: will be the next big thing in 2013.
So what are your favorite things right now? What do you love and want to share with us?
These blogs are also listing their end of year lists today, so don’t forget to hop on over to:
Olfactoria's Travels 