First off: you can now follow me on Instagram @graindemusc, where I’ll randomly post pictures of the perfume events I attend
(plus the usual flowers, cats and landscapes).
I was in London this week for the intelligent,
elegantly-executed Perfume, a Sensory Journey through Contemporary Scent at Somerset House, curated by Claire
Catterall and Lizzie Ostrom. The heat-seared city felt like a remake of the
1961 nuclear-scare movie The Day theEarth Caught Fire. But Hyde Park was irradiated with a fine gauze of linden
blossom, just like Paris: a heady, honeyed scent whose volume can’t be conveyed
by any bottled perfume. The closest may be my first seasonal pick...
Grand Chalet
by
Françoise Caron for Astier de Villatte
This tribute to the great lime trees shading the late
painter Balthus’s Swiss home, the Grand Chalet, captures what the writer
Colette called “a volcano of bees, a bush
of russet flowers, the rival of the orange tree, the insidious lover, the
golden rain of pollen”.
Jasmin de Nuit
by Céline
Ellena for The Different Company
Spilling out in scented nebulae from hidden city
gardens, star jasmine smells somehow oilier and spicier than true jasmine. The
cinnamon and star anise-spiked Jasmin de
nuit, though named after Cestrum
nocturnum, captures its early-summer headiness.
Fathom V
by Julie
Marlow for Parfum Beaufort London
The 2017 winner of the Independent category of the Art
& Olfaction Awards given out in Berlin, which I had the honour of both
judging and presenting. Inspired by Ariel’s Song in The Tempest -- “Full fathom five thy father lies” -- an eldritch land breeze wafting lilac and
crushed leaves; the latter, the acrid swig of brine inhaled just before
drowning, its saline sting of vetiver, salicylates and moss whipped into
foam-crested waves by a peppery gale.
Rosa America
by Annick Menardo for Une Nuit
Nomade
With Peau d’Ailleurs for Philippe
Starck, Menardo gave us what was, to my mind, the most original fragrance of
2016, a mutation on Féminité du Bois that
was sadly overlooked by the Prix des Experts at the French Fifis (but a
finalist of the blogger-led Olfactorama Awards). Rosa America is another radically contemporary interpretation of
the aquatic floral: a seaspray-splashed Atlantic rose. Algae absolute takes on
the role of oak moss; fenugreek adds an extra lick of saltiness.
Memory Motel
by Annick Menardo for Une Nuit
Nomade
A rework of the Patchouli 24 theme,
minus vanilla, with added tobacco absolute and a big, sun-seared carnation
planted in its heart, a ghost of L’Origan.
Like Rosa America, this is a riff on
Warhol-era Montauk, sparked off by a picture of the Rolling Stones rehearsing Black and Blue. And it’s been my go-to
scent since I got hold of a preview decant, even in the blistering heat:
fighting fire with fire.
Lui
by Delphine Jelk for Guerlain
Another flare-up in this season’s Carnation Revolution, Lui feels as though Delphine Jelk (now an in-house Guerlain
perfumer) had skimmed L’Heure Bleue’s
carnation and benzoin to whip them into an ethereal floral oriental. Totally
unrelated to Jacques Guerlain’s 1929 Liu.
Sweet William
by Rodrigo Flores Roux for
Carner Barcelona
After the fireworks of Oeillet
Bengale for Aedes de Venustas, Rodrigo Flores Roux revisits the iconic
Spanish clavel in a more naturalistic
style: Sweet William is built around
a headspace capture of Dianthus Superbus.
Jimmy Choo Man Ice
by Michel Almairac for Jimmy
Choo
To fend off the heat, Michel Almairac’s mint-cool splash, built on a
rosemary-ambroxan-patchouli axis, offers a chill, chic, original alternative to
classic colognes. The maestro says he’s particularly pleased with it, as it was
practically accepted as is by the brand. Proof that the mainstream can go
stealth-radical.
Hot Cologne
by Jean-Christophe Hérault for
Thierry Mugler
Another twist on cologne: the smell of the business class on an
early-morning flight, after the citrus-scented hot towels, and while coffee is
being brewed in the galley -- a distant waft that somehow seems to float above
the scent.
Jasmin Perle de Thé
by Fragonard
The Grasse-based Fragonard’s Fleur d’Oranger
has a cult following among arty Parisians. Jasmin
Perle de Thé offers the titular jasmine tea scent at a fraction of the
price of Guerlain’s now-discontinued Aqua
Allegoria Teazzurra or By Kilian’s Imperial
Tea, in an adorably colourful packaging.
For more summer round-ups, please see