vendredi 5 août 2011

Top Ten Perfumes of Summer, 2011 edition


If I were to list the stuff I'm mostly wearing, I'd be repeating myself, so I'm focusing on what caught my attention recently (or what I went back to for a second sniff...)

Hermès Eau d’Orange Verte, a classic match of citrus and minty, raspy green notes, composed by the great Françoise Caron early on in her career. An instinct-driven perfumer who claims she still can’t read a formula – but of course, who needs chemistry when your family’s been working in the perfume industry for several generations in Grasse – Caron says she found the accord after four or five mods. The result is as obvious as a thing born from nature, and a summer staple.

Parfums de Nicolaï L’Eau Chic. I find the geranium-mint combo in Dominique Ropion’s Géranium pour Monsieur a little nose-searing. Patricia de Nicolaï’s take on the accord tones down the mint so that the aromatic (lavender and Roman chamomile), woody base comes out more strongly. As clean, chic and easy as a crisp white cotton shirt.

Eau d’Italie Le Jardin du Poète. A delicate rendition of the garden of Marina Sersale and Sebastian Alvarez Murena (the owners of Eau d’Italie) in Positano, based on the almost floral scent of a green orange. The most interesting thing about Bertrand Duchaufour’s composition is its developments, which goes from the moist, green, shady patches of the garden (rose, cyclamen, lily-of-the-valley) to the dry chypre base (hay, moss, immortelle) which forms its background – the background landscape being a focus for Italian Renaissance painters. Olfactory form meets Italian pictorial content. Brilliant.

Parfums d’Orsay Bois de Coton. Olivia Giacobetti has a magic touch that turns her fragrances into intensely emotional, vivid scented environments. Bois de Coton is a room spray that smells of white linen bed sheets and the silky, silvery sheen of driftwood – actually a combination of aldehydes, dry-as-bone iris and oak. I’ve been spraying it obsessively on towels, bathrobes and sheets, but I think it would work well as a personal fragrance sprayed on clothing.

Technique Indiscrète Safran Nobile. The young Belgian designer Libertin Louison could have been fashion’s new boy wonder. He decided he’d rather be a perfumer. Safran Nobile, a take on the note that is much easier to wear than L’Artisan Parfumeur’s stunning Safran Troublant by Giacobetti, was inspired by the wedding of a friend to a young man who turned out to be an Indian prince, and their saffron-sprinkled banquet. The medicinal, leathery, almost sour notes of saffron are tamed and softened here with milky rice notes and musk.

Parfumerie Générale Indochine. Some of Pierre Guillaume’s scents are so gourmand they make you feel like force-feeding him candy. But his soon-to-be launched Indochine manages to stay on the right side of sweet: the dark Laotian honey and the sweet powdery milkiness of benzoin are offset by Kampot pepper and the smokiness of tanakha, a sandalwood-smelling, traditional cosmetic preparation. A stunning, Far-Eastern variation on the oriental genre, whose resinous, spicy wafts express themselves beautifully in the heat – but it will certainly transition well into fall, when it is launched.

By Kilian Sweet Redemption. For me, summer wouldn’t be summer without the intoxicating scent of white flowers. To my seasonal staples Vamp à NY, Nuit de Tubéreuse and Carnal Flower, I could easily add the glorious orange blossom and balsamic Sweet Redemption, Calice Becker’s second, still playful but more grown-up take on the flower for the Oeuvre Noire collection.

Profumo Italia Sharif. It may sound counterintuitive to wear such a high-density, leather-balsamic-civet composition in the hotter months (though the Parisian summer hasn’t been so cool since 1980), but after all, these are the smells that wafted from desert tents and Ottoman caravanserais for centuries, so if it’s good enough for the people who invented the science of perfumery, it’s certainly good enough for me. I’ll be reviewing Sharif very soon.


Yves Rocher Pur Désir de Fleur d’Oranger. A whiff of Elie Saab Le Parfum had me moaning out loud to the lady sampling perfumes next to me at my local Sephora that Yves Rocher did a better orange blossom (by none other than Annick Menardo) at one fourth of the retail price. A cheap thrill, bracingly citrusy in the top notes, baby-aspirin tart in the heart. Great for layering, lovely on a pillow.

Cartier L’Heure Folle. Raspberries are one of the few fruit the agro-business hasn’t found a way to mess up by making it bigger, shinier and sucking all the taste out of it in the process. So I’ve been gorging myself on bowls of them while they’re in season, never failing to sniff each spoonful to get the violet and the green raspy notes. L’Heure Folle, Mathilde Laurent's tribute to Mûre et Musc, gives off that natural feeling. It’s probably the only berry scent I can wear: a Pointillist rendition of the fruit in all its facets, leaves, twigs and thorns included.

For more Top Tens of Summer, get thee to:

And watch this spot for a special announcement sometime next week. 


Illustration: Issey Miyaké sunglasses by Irving Penn, 1995


17 commentaires:

  1. Oh thank you! All of these sound so divine! Now I can't wait to sample them all at Perfumend court (Helsinki is has quite bad niche-landscape).

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  2. Vasilisa, the only one that won't be available immediately is Indochine, I think. Not sure whether TPC stock Technique Indiscrète...

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  3. Lovely, D. Several here that I'm not familiar with. I do love Eau d'Orange Verte (and managed to convert my father to wearing this). I'm eager to try PG's Indochine and La Via del Profumo Sharif. I think BD's Jardin du Poète is brilliant and extraordinarily well balanced. I am unfamiliar with PdN's L'Eau Chic: is this new? And OG's Bois de Coton roomspray sounds fantastic.

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  4. I'm going to want some of that Indochine in the worst way, aren't I? It sounds fantastic. I'll start saving now...eystosp

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  5. Looking at that list makes me realize how behind I'm getting on all the niche releases. Cartier L'Heures, especially, and Technique Indiscrète is totally new to me.

    Back at home, summer meant cool, sunny days around 20C, but now that I'm living in Cairo the dark chypres and florientals I brought with me are very sulky when the mercury soars. I'm longing for fresh, pure scents, green like DSH's Viridian or vintage Cristalle. Even Eau Savauge tempted me at a discount store here, though I don't wear these types of scents outside of extreme weather.

    That being said, in a sweaty summer in the American south, I reveled in TF's Black Orchid. If I could teleport my bottle here from Canada, I just might.

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  6. Jarvis, yes, L'Eau Chic has just come out in France (LS will be stocking it). I'll be taking my samples along to Canada, it's fantastically refreshing.

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  7. Stylespy, Indochine is beautiful. Its only shortcoming is that it is oddly fleeting on my skin (oddly for such a potent blend). Mileage may vary I suppose...

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  8. Sugandaraja, I hadn't realized you were in Cairo now... I can understand how you'd want something cooling over there in the summer. I know Alexandria better (long story) and with the sea it was a little more liveable...
    And don't worry, I'm way, way behind too with the niche stuff. There's just no human way to keep up.

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  9. That Bois de Coton sounds absolutely lovely! In fact, they all do - but the BdC sounds like a crisp summer day in a bottle!

    xoxoA

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  10. Musette, Bois de Coton is fabulous -- never thought I'd fall for a clean laundry scent, but this one's got soul.

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  11. You mentioned F. Caron, and I wore her Ca Sent Beau to the beach yesterday and it was perfect! It's a lovely warm citrus scent.

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  12. Carla, I did have a sniff of it the other day at Sephora's. Kenzo did line up a lot of lovely things, didn't they? One line by Françoise Caron I haven't gone out to discover yet is Astier de Vilatte.

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  13. Alexandria is heaven in the summer. I spent a week I won't soon forget there in July, all swimming and fresh mangoes from the sellers on the beach.

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  14. What a tempting array of scents to try! Especially looking forward to your review of Sharif - I love La Via del Profumo's Mecca Balsam.

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  15. Sugandaraja, I've just been rereading the Durell Miller correspondence... Lots of olfactory inspirations in both!

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  16. Anonymous, I find the Balsamo deeply moving as well...

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  17. Such a fun list! I also mostly wear the same things all year round, but this summer has been a summer of rediscoveries. Hermès Eau d’Orange Verte has been in heavy rotation for me as well.

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