vendredi 28 mai 2010

Duchaufour confidential: Pleine Lune


When we spoke about Nuit de Tubéreuse, Bertrand Duchaufour told me leather was a note he wanted to explore further, because he’d only tackled it once, in Bois d’Ombrie.

The good news is that he’s gone and done it.

The bad news is that you won’t be able to get it unless you’re one of Ann Gérard’s clients.

The Paris jeweler, who commissioned the composition, sells it from her studio in lovely opalescent hand-blown flacons in the extrait concentration. But she does intend to commercialize it on her website as soon as she’s tackled the problem producing the bottles in larger quantities. Hopefully she’ll be striking a deal with one of the most reputable U.S. online retailers for wider distribution. Don’t pester her about it, but feel free to convey your interest, and have a look at her gorgeous jewels while you’re at it…

Like the full moon after which it is named and the moonstone that inspired it, Pleine Lune conjures chimera. It is an odd shape-shifter of a scent I’ve been trying to pin down for a while before throwing my hands up. I felt it had an Iris Gris vibe – in fact, I still do – but when Bertrand made me blind-smell both scents side-by-side, I had to acknowledge they were quite different animals, despite both featuring iris and a lactonic peach note.

He insists it’s a leather, and it is – a smooth, flesh-toned leather powdered in nacreous iris. I read it mostly as a musky, animalic iris with peach-apricot facets, and it is that too. In fact, Pleine Lune unveils as many different faces as its namesake orb throughout the seasons.

A metallic disk as the iris rises – there’s real orris butter in this stuff, and it shows --, crackling with tiny ozonic-aldehydic sparks and green aromatic glints of citron, bergamot, angelica and coriander lashed with crystalline ambrette. Then a mauve milky moon in a mist of mimosa. Then the warm, russet Harvest moon as the cassie starts overtaking the iris, animalic, horsy, a little fatty, conjure a leather accord with the iris; this fatty fur-and-skin feel is picked up by what might be costus.

All through its development, Pleine Lune plays maddening mind games, throwing up many-hued olfactory flashes. On my skin, the lactonic peach note is prominent: an illusion produced by the fruity facet of ambrette and sweet, jammy carrot CO2, soaked in a drop of aldehyde C14. But just as I nod to the ghost of Iris Gris, Pleine Lune shape-shifts again. Floral? Yes, jasmine is slowly sprouting between the iris and peach, adding its tarry indolic accents to the leather accord. But the sillage unfurls candied violets in a powdery iris and white musk cloud, fleshed out by the musky facets of ambrette and angelica. Then as the scent subsides into a milky sandalwood, musk and vanilla base – a blend Duchaufour seems to have been using quite a bit recently, at least in Havana Vanille and Nuit de Tubéreuse, the “condensed milk” effect appearing in Amaranthine – styrax pulls the leather note to the fore once more.

I’m still not utterly convinced it’s a leather, but as leather is a perfumer’s construction and as such, can mean as many things as there are perfumers, I might as well say it is -- leather as eerily soft as female flesh.

But whatever it is, come the full moon I’ll be baying for a bottle. If I start sprouting fangs, claws and a silver pelt, you’ll know what bit me.


If you should happen to be in Paris, you can discover Pleine Lune, as well as Ann Gérard's jewels, at the Galerie Elsa Vanier, 7 rue du Pré-aux-Clercs, 75007 Paris, until July 25th. Don't walk, run.


Image: Girl with black hair by Susan McArthur.

28 commentaires:

  1. Haunting and beautiful review.
    Iris and leather are wonderful but tricky notes, at least on my skin.
    But when they work, it is magic, like the vision of a full moon floating in the sky...
    And the souvenir of iris gris smelled at the Osmotèque still haunts me... so now I want to try pleine lune soooo badly!

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  2. D, what an interesting combination, and perhaps a redeeming re-incarnate of Iris Gris.

    Point well taken about how some smell leather..... and others, not a hint.

    Question -- do you know if the extrait concentration is slated to be widely sold, or is that just a boutique offer?

    Marcus

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  3. Zazie, I get IG but they're really quite different: IG, despite its modernity, comes off as a little more old-fashioned than Pleine Lune. Hopefully it will become available in a not-too-distant future.

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  4. Marcus, I think you read too fast... The info is in the blog post: It will be sold online by Ann, and it might be picked up by a US online retailer.

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  5. What a wonderful review! BD's work gets more and more interesting and the idea of a shapeshifting fragrance in this beautiful opalescent flacon with that name - perfection! And it also matches ideally Ann Gérard's stunning pieces. I'm afraid I catched your fang-sprouting virus already - I have to go and check...

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  6. Gisela, then we'll go and howl together... smelling fabulous.

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  7. It sounds beautiful, D. I hope I'll get to try it some day.

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  8. Jarvis, you will. I'm pretty sure it will be picked up by a US retailer as soon as it becomes commercially available.

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  9. You really love to torture us , Madame....

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  10. D, I actually did read the bit about (possible) distribution through a US retailer -- I was just wondering if the EXTRAIT is what will be selling (and not an edp, edt, etc...).

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  11. I know. I feel guilty. But who am I to keep the good news of a new Bertrand D. from perfumeland?

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  12. Where did you read about that other than here, I wonder? Or do you mean in this post? The extrait is all there is, so if it's sold elsewhere, it'll be in the extrait as well.

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  13. D, ah, got it.

    Sorry, didn't mean to confuse you. I had just guessed there were other forms besides the extrait, but what you see is what you get, I guess!

    Marcus

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  14. Marcus, it's Friday. I wrote this at midnight and edited at 6 AM. Do the math. I'm easily confused in this state of sleeplessness.

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  15. Ouch. Get some rest, I hope. You've had a week from hell!

    Marcus

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  16. You're killing me! This sounds like a marvelous fragrance--iris, peach, and more in a kaleidoscope. I wait impatiently for commercial production so I can smell it (but that might work to my benefit since I can put away a little perfume spending money in the meantime!) Thanks for the terrific review.

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  17. Angela, I think Ann Gérard intends to price it fairly reasonably for what it is, somewhere between 120 and 150 euros for 40 ml of extrait, which while not being a bargain is good value for the money, especially since the bottle is very special too. Don't hold me to those figures though, she's still figuring it out.

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  18. Oof! This sounds utterly lovely!

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  19. Sarah, it is... As sensuous as Duchaufour's recent floral trilogy, but with that iris-violet gravitas... all dirtied up.

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  20. Ah, the perfume sounds lovely. I'd like mine with one of those gorgeous looking pearl cabochon rings, please...

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  21. You've got me baying already, D.

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  22. Alyssa, aren't we being a wee bit greedy? ;-)

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  23. Robin, let's just hope there are no silver bullets lying around...

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  24. I should have known...using the light of the full moon to conjure a shape-shifter and make it seem so desirable...

    ...in fact, you used the Planters' Moon to start yet another scented interest!

    I think I have a top-tier item on my "Things I'd Like to Do When I'm in Paris" list. Thanks for the verbal entertainment...and conjuring an olfactory ghost...

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  25. Scentscelf, if you come after July (and if Pleine Lune isn't more widely available by then) you'll just have to take an appointment with Ann. There are worse things. She seems like a terrific woman.

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  26. Oh, just kill me now. At this rate, I'm going to have to go out and get a real job.

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