Latest London Scent News
Posted by ritaglh on Mar 6, 2008
10% of ALL perfumes, including Guerlain, Dior, Chanel, Annick Goutal and all others at Debenhams Department Store, Oxford St until this Friday. Some other perfumes are reduced between 25 and even 50%. Georgio, 50ml is reduced to £12.47 and 30ml Anais Anais to £13.95 less another 10%. All the latest celebrity perfumes are also on sale and the aisles are congested with perfume sales staff anxious to help you choose. But hurry, the last sale day is tomorrow.
Marjorie Midgarden by Summer Scent
just arrived at Liberties in London on Sat 1st March. The official launch date is the 1st of April. Unfortunately, they don’t have any information about the perfume yet, nor samples, but I was impressed. This is a lush golden floral based around a “mystical bloom” of undisclosed name. I smell yellow and white flowers, like daffodils, freesia and tuberose. There is an unusual story behind this one. The model advertising the fragrance is not a model at all and a mother of three. There is a fairy on the yellow packaging and the perfume bottle is handcrafted in Toronto with a lot of bling, painted gilding and crystal stopper. Here is their website.
Some of the listed ingredients includes, jasmine, orange blossom, cassis, genet and a sparkling mandarin top-note, with a soul of honey and musk. This perfume reminds me of a woman, now deceased who used to have a vintage clothing store called the Banana Room. Her shop was filled with her signature perfume, a Guerlain. Her long lithe and wrinkly fingers were covered in dozens of emerald and diamond rings and her ear lobes were stretched with the weight of her carats. Despite her advanced age at the time, she wore dark kohl under eyes and thick mascara on her lashes. She was ever so elegant, deeply tanned feminine and fascinating. There is something vaguely vintage about this scent too, though the coordinating gems would be more like gold and yellow diamonds. The perfume retails at £120 and is much richer than the eau de parfum at £80.
Evening Edged in Gold by Ineke
This is also exclusive to Liberties and in my opinion the most beautiful of the Ineke range. I smell rum balls and myrrh, sweet incense and candy reminiscent of some of my middle eastern scents, but without the heaviness. This might have some balancing aldehyde to lift and disperse the woods and resins. The poetry on the packaging is lovely. “Midnight candy.. star of the evening garden, Angels trumpet, osmanthus and saffron cast their golden spells.” Officially in addition to the above this has plum, cinnamon, leather and woods. I almost bought this one on the spot, without even trying it on my skin, but reason prevailed..
Cherry Blossom Gel Perfume by Loccitane
Opening the unusual bottle reminded me of a childhood white glue with brush cylinder I used to have.(That smelt way too good as I recall!) But this gel really has the texture of white glue and the lid holds a little brush to wipe on to your wrist. The texture is a little gloopy and surprising. I have tried many variations of perfume from solids, to roll-ons to atomizers and oils, but this is the first brush I have ever used to apply scent. The fragrance is charming enough, fresh and sweet with cherry, freesia and blackcurrant. Cheap too at only £13.oo.
It is wonderful to go travelling and then come back to my own stomping ground and discover lovely new smells that appeared while I was not looking.
Rose and Violet Macaroons
Fortnum and Masons now carry a box of rose and violet scented mini macaroons. I couldn’t resist including these, as well a couple of antique rose and violet cards from my own collection to sandwich them. Of course you can also find rose and violet tea, confit, creams, crystallised petals, marshmallows as well. Don’t forget to admire the gorgeous floral china tea cups for afternoon teas too. If visiting there, don’t miss out on their utterly divine and revamped perfume parlour on the second floor, where you can also smell Caron’s Violette Precieuse.
Bioperfumes- more of ME and only ME scent
Posted by ritaglh on Feb 15, 2008
I came home last night from the “I Smell Love” event, with a mysterious new pheromone scent on my arm, my husband urged me to buy it. I would, only it isn’t available yet. The Science museum and Dana centre organises some nifty events, especially this one led by the perfumer and aroma scientist George Dodd. Here is a link to a previous scent event.
This was an enjoyable smelling event interspersed with scent science talks. We were invited to contemplate that couples spend approximately 1/3 of their life with their partner and their odours/pheromones. Also, our sense of smell and feelings are processed in similar areas of our brain. Dodd was suggesting that we are reaching a stage where we can alter our own pheromone profile to enhance our relationships, essentially so we don’t get tired of our partner’s B.O.
Some 5% of our DNA has been reserved for our sense of smell, and apparently this enables us to interrogate other’s immune system and hence establish mate compatibility. Our body odour can be likened to our own bar code, which in turn can nowadays be decoded and read. We also each have a personal portfolio of smells we cannot smell. Last night we were able to explore 6 of some 200 human pheromones that have been discovered so far, though at the time we didn’t know they were pheromones.
Dodd was proposing that we could take an individuals pheromone profile to create a “Bioperfume” which could be synthesized and recreated in intensity to boost or amplify our own profile. For example, by using a GCMS machine, identifying your own odours, recreating them synthetically and mixing them up together at higher concentrations than found naturally, perhaps adding some nice flowery essential oils and voila an Ueber You scent. Imagine an ultimate bespoke fragrance where the essence of you has been captured and wearing more of yourself and less of other things. This kind of science and techniques have been pioneered and are already available.
But what about for those of us who are not actually that keen on our own odour? Don’t I wear perfume precisely because I want to smell of something other than myself, something that I like more than me? We are moving from the conscious realm to exploring our unconscious reactions to smell here, and I personally fear there is something vaguely improper in radiating more of me intentionally. Are most of us not actually repulsed by our own natural odors and especially those of others? Perhaps consciously, but probably not unconsciously.
Might not wearing such a Me perfume, actually repel others, or is it possible that it might make us completely irresistable? If we are honest, we have probably been attracted to real body odours for millenia, otherwise would we be here today, had our ancestors who may not have had access to daily showers and perfumed soaps, not been drawn to their loved ones. Anyway, as a specialist in the Psychology of Scent and pheromones, Dodd is an expert in this field. How can I object, when as you will see below, I was besotted by one of the synthesized pheromones myself?
I am reminded of the poor man who attended a class I once did, whose body odour was so repugnant that each attendee was anxious to sit as far away as possible from him. He may have had a kidney disorder where toxins were excreted more from the skin rather than through normal routes, or perhaps just poor diet or hygiene. Nevertheless, the suffering for those around us was unbearable and we were all nauseated by catching a whiff of him. After months of enduring his odour we elected one of us to email him to alert him in the most sensitive way possible, and he simply never came again!
At this point I was thinking of Patrick Suskind’s book, Perfume where the protagonists tries to steal the scent of others to drench himself with. Modern perfumes have according to Dodd become more and more de-eroticised, less animalic and more vanilla. By wearing celebrity scents are we not on some level declaring that I like you more than I like me and by buying some of You (your smell/perfume) I can become you and loved like you?
After the talk it was time for us to receive our very own scent bags with 6 scent strips, colour-coded with mini stickers. One scent strip was so special that it was given to us individually. We were warned that some people might have very strong reactions to it. (All, the more reason to have a good sniff, so I thought) One poor woman took one whiff and had to run to bathroom to vomit! I approached her later and she said it was the worst smell she had ever smelt in her life, worse than gangrene. We were not given any indication what the smells on the strips were and only found out at the end of the evening.
On the first strip I smelt cheese, the second smelt glorious and of honey. I could not inhale this deeply enough. The third smelt of nothing and I asked to smell the same strip of the person sitting next to me, as I could smell rien. (Yes, later I discovered this was the scientific placebo). The other strips smelled mostly musty, of old barrells, earth or like armpit odour. We then had to list favourites and compare our favourites with people around us who chose similar colours and those who chose different ones.
Then came an embarrassing but funny hand raising to confirm our preferences. I say embarrassing because who wants to confess that they liked the goat pheromone, pig tongue scent or tomcat spray before finding out what they were? Regarding my honey scent, this was a synthesized human pheromone that some men smell of naturally, but more than half the room raised their hand to say they hated it.. All of the scent strips had single synthesized pheromones, carefully purified.
Dodd finished our humorous and revelatory evening by inviting us to pay attention to the scent of our loved one, our home and the world around us tomorrow. I was very grateful for the opportunity to speak to his partner Elizabeth Mountford who spoke to me about Allels and biochemistry. I asked her which perfume she was wearing and she confessed she was wearing none. I can imagine that her odour free slate being a welcome relief when your partner is a perfumer. I did manage to ask Dodd if I might acquire a sample of the lovely honey pheromone, which he kindly agreed to.
In September George Dodd is commencing a perfume course at his Perfume Studio in Scotland for those who may be interested. He also runs shorter courses there too. In London you can purchase his floral compositions at French’s Dairy reviewed on this site recently. You can also arrange to have a bespoke perfume made via Scent Systems.
Image Credit: Thankyou to David Drummond of 11 Cecil Court, London for this 18th paper cut image
Last Image from a painting by Marie Laurencin, Jeune Fille a la Guirlande, 1935
Luca Turin- How Smell Works
Posted by ritaglh on Feb 8, 2008
It was just as well that his new book, Perfumes The Guide has yet to be published, because afterwards he joked, he “would have to wear a bullet proof vest!” Thus commenced an extraordinary lucid joint lecture by Turin for the British Society of Perfumers and the Society of Cosmetic Scientists held at the Kings Fund in London earlier this evening. Actually, I hope he does give another lecture after Profile Books publish this new guide, perhaps from behind a pope shield?
Although his third lecture for the SCS he introduced this as his goodbye talk as he is due to take a sabbatical from Flexitrol and go back to University at MIT to work on sensors and molecular electronics. During his time between 2002 and 2007 with Flexitral they have patented numerous new odorants, and they seem to have been churning them out at a phenomenal rate, even with 2/3 of the cash available going to patent lawyers.
He apologised for sounding bitter about the filing of similar patents by rival companies, shortly after theirs. However, it is because to paraphrase him, “I actually am!” Jibes aside, this was a detailed slide presentation on the latest research, or state of the art of what we know about the olfactory system. I confess, most of the science, despite clear and illustrated diagrams went over my head.
I did take note though of some of the quirkier explanations. For example, the olfactory bulb was described as the only ”bit of the brain hanging in the breeze” and his revelation that some people don’t even have a bone in front of it, though most of us have “the snot on the way,” did surprise me. Apparently, odour receptors are proteins in the membranes. I also heard that 347 odorant receptors for smell have been sequenced in the human genome. Interestingly, these are not all found in the brain. There are some in the heart, kidney and even sperm.
Our receptors can smell 10’s of thousands of smells and large odor companies like Givaudan have samples of over 200,000 scent molecules. Any odor molecule is processed by the olfactory epithelium, onto the olfactory bulb and onto the Neocortex, where brain imaging can show how certain odors light up different parts of the brain. There are so many more odorants than there are receptors.
The discussions of various academic papers relating to the smell were discussed by Turin, as well as the human capacity to smell the difference between isotopes. The talk lasted approximately one hour and a lucky few had the opportunity to ask some questions.
I would have liked to ask about his forthcoming book, but appreciated the opportunity to have a brief chat with his eloquent wife and co-author Tania Sanchez. I asked her what perfume she was wearing and she volunteered that tonight it was the infamous Nombre Noir. (I am sure there must be an amazing story of how they had a acquired a bottle of it, but I daren’t ask) PS: Thanks to Heather from Memory and Desire for sharing the Nombre Noir Story by Turin
I can only dream of having an opportunity to smell some of the many hundreds, if not thousands of perfume bottles that might be in their possession. Just as I am sure eyes never tire of beauty or loved ones, nor the ears of speach and music, so I doubt that even in smelling thousands of scents, my nose will ever tire of the amazing array of scent compositions all those talented perfumers and scientists, have dedicated their talent and time to create. ”Thank you for the music, the songs your singing, thanks for all the joy their bringing…”
Roja Dove: The Art of Fragrance Report
Posted by ritaglh on Dec 15, 2007
For all those who couldn’t make it to the V&A this evening in London, I took copious notes for you and here is a brief summary of this wonderful lecture that Roja Dove gave. He ended his speech with a reverie of when he first realised the ”beauty of perfume,” which he describes as “bottles of magical liquid.”
As a small child, he recalls his mother wore a gorgeous gold lame dress one evening and perfume which metamorphosed her into a “Goddess“. As she lent over to kiss him goodnight he remembered the scent of her face powder and perfume.
Interspersed with the powerpoint presentation and riveting talk, out came rare eye candy bottles. We were also handed scent strips by helpful assistants, inviting us to “synchronized sniffing.” This was a well prepared treatise on the history of fragrance starting with the meaning of per fumen, which refers to smoke. Six thousand years ago we were burning wood resins as a sacrifice to carry our prayers to the Gods, uniting heaven and earth. Most religions still burn incense, even if we don’t all know why. Frankincense and Myrrh were precious commodities traded far and wide. Still today the best luban comes from groves owned by the Sultanate of Oman.
Kyphi was a fragrance found in the tomb of Tutankhamen and previously, Dove had been invited to Japan to study the impact of some of the fragrances on the brain. Some did indeed had a sophomoric effect. He joked about giving six minutes for a 6000 year history of perfume, and then moved to Georgian England, when the sign of perfumery was the emblem of the civet cat. We understood from his description that some English gentlemen wore pure civet. ( phewi, my words but he used “feral and schatalogical”) Onwards to the early 20th Century looking at the first clothing designers who added perfume as gifts for their customers. Some of the designers he discussed included Poiret, Chanel, Jean Patou, Shiaparelli and her fragrance Shocking (with some anecdotes about underwear, honey and civet…), Rochas and Balmain.
Prior to Chanel becoming famous she sang and begged in bars. One of her favourite songs was about her dog called Coco and that is how she acquired her nickname. We heard how Chanel no 5 had an accidental overdose of aldehyde, (which are actually a refraction made from the refinement of petrol) which caused the fragrance to sparkle and shimmer like no other perfume prior to that. From behind a large box he whipped out a super precious and rare box containing all of Chanel’s first perfume releases. Throughout the talk I detected sporadic jibes and what may have been some disparaging comments about the “detergent manufacturers” who own 3 of the 5 largest perfume manufacturing companies today.
Some raw ingredients used traditionally in perfumery are still expensive today, but overall perfume is more affordable than some of the luxurious perfumes from the beginning of this century. For example a Guerlain bottle of Shalimar or Mitsouko cost the equivalent of a roughly a weeks wage! Still, Dove cited how much he recently paid for a kilo of Jasmine oil from Grasse £28,000 for a kilo which goes into one his own exclusive fragrances. The perfume Joy by Patou also still has jasmine oil.
One perfumer Dove seems to particularly admire was the late Roudnitska who created Diorissimo, Diorama and Diorling. We got to smell Miss Dior of 1947 with its fresh leather notes. We also viewed the ingredients of Diorissimo, (one of my own favourites which my grandmother, mother and myself wear -and if I remember correctly, Princess Diana too). It is a sensual floral with Lily of the Valley, jasmine and ylang ylang, rosewood and sandalwood. He also showed us the stunning crystal decanter with the gilt bronze roses spouting from the lid.
Among fragrances from after the war which he looked at, include Balmaines Vert Vert with its green notes and gabalnum as well as Jolie Madame, a leather Chypre, which we all got to sniff too. One of the few women perfumers of that time was Germaine Celier who created Fracas for Piquet, rich in Tuberose. When Dove moved on to discussing Balenciaga he quoted someone as having once said that if a woman walks into a room wearing Balenciaga, all the other women in the room become invisible! Le Dix was described as the scent of smelling a “woman through a thin cashmere sweater” We received a scent strip of this one too, my favourite of the night.
Another little anecdote about the name of a perfume came from the story of Givenchy’s L’Interdit (forbidden), worn by Audrey Hepburn. This is a sparkling floral with aldehydes, rose, jasmine, incense, coumarin and sandalwood. The name came about because apparently she was always popping back for more, so the designer wrote a litte sign, prohibiting her from taking it away, which then became its name. Several more perfumes were discussed including one by Cabochard, a spicy leather note, with labadnum, oakmoss and cedarwood. Towards the end he mentioned names I had never heard of including Fath, Heim and Desses. The one by Fath, Dove described as “one of the most remarkable fragrances the world has ever seen“. Our last scent strip for the night was of Nina Ricci’s L’Air du Temps, still a classic composed in 1948, containing rose, ylang ylang, neroli, gabalnum, vetiver with a wood base. This is the fragrance we weren’t allowed to smell until he said so, (but of course most of us could not resist or delay gratification for sooo long) until after we had resmellt one of the earlier testers and could then compare and perceive its “freshness, sweeping around the world, a moving scent.”
The final part of the delightful evening examined the cult fragrances of Charlie by Revlon and Giorgio. Some women in the audience could remember the queues at Harvey Nichols leading out the store and down the street when this fragrance was first launched. Roja Dove finished with the beautiful descriptions of how he fell in love with perfume, which I started this review with. To end with another of his quotes on the night, “Great Perfume makes you feel like a million dollars!”
All attendees received an Exclusive invitation to experience a complimentary fragrance consultation with one of Roja Dove’s personally trained fragrance specialists at his Haute Perfumery. I can’t wait to experience my own “voyage of discovery” to find my signature fragrance. Further gifts included the Roja Dove catalogue, a large black glossy ode to several special perfumes, as well as the Beautiqe magazine for the British Beauty experts. Also, on the ground floor near the entrance, the Haute Parfumerie had a stunning display case filled with precious perfume bottles and all passerby received a spritz of one of the three new Roja Dove own brand fragrances. All in all a scent festival extravaganza.