Classics & Vintages: 171 posts

Due to a last-minute change, I have a space available in our Scent Training Masterclass on August 24, Saturday, 6pm-7:30pm CET (12pm-1:30pm EST).
Location: Zoom
Class duration: 1.5 hours
55€ SOLD OUT

I enjoy recreating historical fragrances. Even when modern materials are used, the combinations turn out to be so unusual and memorable that finding more sources for antique formulas becomes a quest. My incense journey began while I was conducting research for the ISIPCA course I’m teaching this fall, focusing on the cultural and historical significance of fragrance. As I delved into the subject, my interest in the ancient practices of China, particularly the art of incense, grew stronger. I was already familiar with Japanese incense from my university studies and travels and I knew that the tradition came to Japan from China during the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) and evolved into its own form. Learning about the original incense recipes and the scent philosophy in China thrilled me as it reminded me once again how deep and complex are the interactions between scent and culture, fragrance and art, perfume and society.

Incense was considered one of three “refined arts” in ancient China, along with tea ceremony and flower arrangement. Some of the earliest mentions of incense combinations date to the 3rd century BCE. As still remains the case, agarwood, the petrified wood of the aquilaria species, was the prized fragrance material, admired in its own right. Ancient texts mention frankincense and clove as ingredients to add facets to agarwood and lend it a different character, depending on the incense blender’s mood and artistic choices. Chinese women even mixed incense into makeup powders to paint their eyebrows black.
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When did we develop our insatiable craving for sweet perfumes? I could point to Thierry Mugler’s Angel, the grandmother of all gourmands; launched in 1993, this bonbon of cotton candy, bitter chocolate and patchouli still graces best-seller lists the world over. The success of Angel inspired several generations of perfumes redolent of crème brûlée, caramel and rice pudding, from Chanel Coco Mademoiselle to Kenzo Amour, and the boundary between fragrance and flavor became nebulous.

While Angel set the modern trend, sweet notes are as old as the art of perfumery itself. Many classics have accords that tease with their subtle references to desserts without venturing too far into patisserie. For instance, the combination of peach, roasted almonds and cinnamon in Guerlain Mitsouko, created in 1919, suggests an extravaganza worthy of Escoffier, while the moss and woods add an abstract, distinctly non-edible effect.

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“Art does not reproduce the visible, it makes visible,” wrote the expressionist painter Paul Klee. The same could be said about perfumery, which is an art of intangible substances. The greatest fragrances conjure up the most complex of images, holding the artistic intent of their creators and offering a glimpse into their thoughts and memories. Of course, the goal of a perfumer may not always be that grand (or, given the nature of the market today, they may have neither the time nor opportunity to leave their fingerprint on a finished fragrance). However, when it does happen and a perfume feels more than the sum of its parts, it can touch us as deeply as any great work of art.

One of my favorite examples is Lalique’s Encre Noire Pour Homme released in 2006, and which perfumer Nathalie Lorson composed with the intention of showing off the suave, languid character of vetiver – a note usually seen as bracing and cold. A type of grass originating in India, Vetiver is grown to prevent soil erosion and produces a complex oil with accents of licorice, bitter grapefruit peel, smoke, and damp earth. Everything that makes it interesting is present in Encre Noire, but Lorson went further. She balanced the different facets of vetiver and highlighted them with musk and woods, fashioning the roughness of roots into reams of black silk.

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Munnar, a hill station in the southwestern state of Kerala, is one of India’s largest tea producers. Ensconced in the Western Ghats mountain range, the town is surrounded by plantations that cascade down the hills and hide in misty ravines. I was in Munnar for my honeymoon, and my recollections of long languorous walks around the tea gardens, the tolling church bells, and the opulence of flower garlands at the Sri Subramanya Temple are laced with the scent of tea leaves. Crushed in my fingers, they smelled green and tannic; when carried by the morning breeze, the aroma resembled violets and driftwood.

The fragrance of tea has captivated many perfumers, but it was Jean-Claude Ellena who created the tea accord that became a trendsetter. Today it’s known as Bulgari Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert. Curiously, the fragrance wasn’t meant to make a big splash. When the Italian jewelry house of Bulgari approached Ellena, they were merely looking to offer a perfume in their boutiques, an elegant addition to their collection of adornments. Meanwhile, Ellena had a sketch of a fragrance that his other clients deemed a bit too innovative. It was an etude evoking the aroma of tea, and it was perfect for Bulgari. However, as soon as the house started offering Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert in its boutiques, it drew so much attention that Bulgari had to stage a wider launch.

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Announcement: I have an opening in the workshop/seminar on Japanese Incense.
Location: Online, Zoom
Date: July 14th, Sunday 12:00pm-1:30pm EST/6:00pm-7:30pm CET
SOLD OUT

In his marvelous essay Why Read the Classics? Italo Calvino offers 14 definitions of what makes a classic piece of literature. Reflecting on his list, I thought how easily its ideas could also be applied to perfumery. The same notions of the inexhaustible sense of discovery, timelessness, and “imprints on our imagination” also define a classic scent, be it Guerlain Shalimar or Chanel No 5. It was Calvino’s 13th point, however, that struck a chord. “A classic is a work which relegates the noise of the present to a background hum, which at the same time the classics cannot exist without,” he says. They’re rooted in the present even as they transcend it.

Inspired by Calvino, I decided to draw up a personal list of perfume classics, creations that reflect their moment and yet have timeless relevance. The first I selected was Serge Lutens’ Féminité du Bois, a fragrance conceived by the artist and photographer for Japanese brand Shiseido in 1992. Lutens wanted a perfume based on the Atlas cedarwood, and he sought to convey the softness of the ingredient that beguiled him ever since he came to Morocco in the 1960s. Initially when Lutens talked to the perfumers about his idea, he encountered a lack of comprehension. Cedarwood was traditionally treated as a sharp, masculine note and few fragrance professionals understood how to reinterpret it in a different guise.

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