The name and the fragrance

Fragrance, the world of illusions, the chamber of mirrors. What you read is not what you smell. Hay absolute is not hay. Coumarin can be hay but tobacco can be coumarin while IBQ cand do havana and oak moss can be a lot of things. Chypre can be patchouli, oakmoss, labdanum but also other notes without any relation to previous one. A smell can be an effect or it can be a molecule or even a structure. Even with years of experience you can swear smelling a certain note and the GC contradicts you. Others pretend to be experts. The formula is never false. You can redo 95% a perfume and your formula could look 100% different from the original paper. You read cedar on a description, but it can be so many things - vertofix, iso E super, cedar atlas, cedar texas, cedryl acetate plus other 10 molecules. Or it can be just an illusion - a fraction of an X essential oil + 2 molecules. You smell orange flower - is it methyl anthranilate or other 20+ schiff bases? The clean lily of the valley is it an aldehyde, an alcohol or something from the deep forest of acetals? Is it a spice, or just a proportion of eugenol/isoeugenol/cinnamic notes? The clean note is it from a musk, an aldehyde or it's just your cultural perception? The peach is a lactone, an absolute or a fractioned essential oil, an ester?
A fragrance description is never false, never true. Only with a GC, only by trial and error reconstructing a perfume you can be sure that "X note" is really inside, no matter wich molecule it could be. After years of working with raw materials you learn to be humble in front of a perfume that hides its secrets. You might work with 1000 rawmaterials out of other several thousands in the lab. But the perfumer who did that fragrance works with a 1000 that is different from yours.
Fragrance - the art of molecules - as said Christophe Laudamiel.

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Red Poppy - Красный мак

In 1927 the new factory Novaya Zarya (recently renamed) put on the market a perfume to commemorate 10 years since the Soviet Revolution, October - 1917. It was called Red Poppy or Krasniy Mak - Красный мак. For many years, until a recent "rebranding" in terms of packaging and formula (so close to Kenzo Flower), Red Poppy was a perfume from another time. The Japanese art deco style of the packaging (poor and poor after 70's), the letters and the bottle recalls a certain type of design popular just before the WWI when the previous factory Brocard was famous. Similar styles can be found in boxes from Gueldy, Violet, Roger&Gallet and several other perfumes from 1915 to 1924. While the name, Red Poppy can be taken as a soviet invention to mirror the Red Moscow perfume, it is in fact older than that. "Poppy" was a type of floral formula popular during the Belle Epoque era. It was from the same group of clover / orchid / hay (idea seen in Trèfle Incarnat to Floramye types), based on a specific salycilate and a certain spicy accord. Maybe a coincidence (or not), Roger&Gallet launched a year before an extremely beautiful fragrance and bottle called Silver Poppy (Pavots d'Argent - 1926). Was this a symbolic answer white and red, White Russia and Red Russia? Maybe just a coincidence. It is very possible that Red Poppy, the perfume born to celebrate the 10th anniversary of revolution, was built on a previous formula, by Brocard. Hard to say because very old versions of those 2 are so rare. After WWII this type was no more used and the same can be said for the box design. But Red Poppy from Novaya Zarya (New Dawn) continued to be sold.
Maybe because of its popularity the first Romanian fragrance factory, owned by the state and built in Bucarest on the "ashes" of several preWWII private cosmetic labs, was named Red Poppy or "Macul Rosu" (in romanian) in the late 50's.

my photo is from late 70's, the design was already poor.

Another picture from 1938 is in an older post from my blog.

You can see several Brocard photos on Brocard blog.

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Testing the cream

The most amazing beauty article of this month comes from Harper's Bazaar US. Did you ever doubt about cosmetic claims and miracle creams? This article "proves" that everything is true! The journalist did a trip in France and visited the major labs (which by simple coincidence ended the first half of 2008 in USA not so well…in terms of numbers) to see how creams are tested. The result is of course as expected. L'Oreal and Clarins are like Nasa and all the claims have 1000 pages documentation. It remembered me what some fragrance brands did in the past with journalists: trips to Grasse to see the fields, the rose and jasmin extraction and the … luxury perfumes based on expensive natural raw materials.
Believe it or not, I do like cosmetic marketing. There is allways a small invention to sustain the dream. So next time if you buy a miracle cream that doesn't work, don't complain to brands, but ask the question to beauty editors.

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The forbidden musk

Don't think that only musk ambrette, an outstanding product present in almost all luxury perfumes created before WWII, is forbidden. There are other so called bad molecules and this is a list from IFRA 42.

Musk alpha - 1,3-Dibromo-4-methoxy-2-methyl-5-nitrobenzene
Musk KS - 1,3-Dibromo-2-methoxy-4-methyl-5-nitrobenzene
Musk tibethene - 1-tert-Butyl-2,6-dinitro-3,4,5-trimethylbenzene
Musk moskene - 1,1,3,3,5-Pentamethyl-4,6-dinitroindane
Versalide - Acetyl ethyl tetramethyl tetralin

This five entered also many classic formulas or musk bases used in classic perfumes. Perfumes like those of Weil, Worth, Houbigant, some Guerlain simply cannot be reissued today as they used to be.
You can also read my Musc Oil (1) and Musc Oil (2) as well as the White musk article on Scented Salamander (2 parts).

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Eau de Mélisse de Carmes - adieu

After Eau de la Reine de Hongrie and following the introduction of distillation in Europe, many convents started to produce floral waters based on the plants cultivated in their refectory. For several centuries the distinction between the fragrance and the drug was not clear, many distilled products were used on the skin or drunk as a drug. The most known today monastery is maybe Santa Maria Novella. Starting with late middle age Montpellier was an important center for medicine/pharmacy but also fragrances. Some distilled fragrances from that period (but produced in many places) are the lavender waters, Eau de Carmes, Eau d'Ange, produced with aromatic herbs and spices, many of them still used in traditional medicine. But today the knowledge of the monasteries, as it was applied in fragrance products is not possible today according to IFRA.
When I studied pharmacy in Romania, the pharmaceutical industry was not as powerful as today and it was still possible to find pharmacy shops like those that in Europe had disappeared 50 years before. For a short period of time (during the summer) I worked in such a place and I helped the preparation of several drugs according to Romanian pharmacopoeia. Around me there were traditional porcelain and glass jars with essential oils, aromatic waters, plant extracts. One of the widely used was melissa, a plant that look like mint but smells delicious lemony-sugary. Melissa or lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) was used as an infusion in many European countries and it is the main product of a famous fragrance preparation in Europe 500 years ago - Eau de Carmes. Today this product is still available in France as a drink with revigorating properties.
In XXth century melissa oil was used in several luxury perfumes and fresh waters but not very much. It was quite an expensive essential oil.
Today you can forget about melissa essential oil. It is forbidden according to IFRA.
As an anecdote, many IFRA recommendations on plant extracts… do not match with several European Pharmacopoeia. There are several discrepancies that simply look hilarious when you known a little bit more than fragrance.
Today, a fragrance that could be also drunk as an ecclesiastic remedy is almost a Serge Lutens concept of blurring the lines between the olfaction and taste. But it cannot be done today with melissa.
I think I could not explain to somebody outside the fragrance world how it is possible to drink a plant extract as a revigorating product but you are not allowed at all to put it on the skin in even lower concentrations. According to IFRA this melissa could not be put at all in cosmetics, not even in lipsticks. What about the "Eau de Melisse" you can drink today in France and it touches your lips in greater amounts?

Sanoflore is a well known bio-cosmetic lab in France. They have right now a skin product called Acqua Melissae. I have no idea how they managed to produce it when melissa essential oil is prohibited.

From IFRA website:
"IFRA Standards are recognised and referred to in the European Cosmetics Directive. Brazilian policy makers have adopted the IFRA Standards into their national law, and the new South East Asia Pacific (ASEAN) cosmetic directive which took effect on January 1, 2008, explicitly refers to the IFRA Standards as far as fragrances in cosmetic products are concerned. It is the aim of IFRA to have the Standards officially recognized by all national governments and regional regulatory bodies."

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Thierry Wasser article

There is a portrait-interview with Thierry Wasser in september issue of Air France Madame. He speaks about his student period at Givaudan while doing the copy of Shalimar and Vetiver but also of the famous refrigerator of M.Thiboud (the director), where special materials, including classic Guerlain materials, where kept safe and very few were permitted to smell the bottles. He regrets he was not one of those. Also he speaks about a suggestion Jean Paul Guerlain made for Guerlain Homme, a note he introduced later in the fragrance.

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Prince Matchabelli

I was unsure if this brand was still on the market until I've recently seen Marie-Hélène's review and Luca Turin's short presentation (he thought the name was a marketing invention).
Prince Georges Vasili Matchabelli was an important name in American perfume industry of 30's and 50's (and even later if I think of their big hit and Rive Gauche like called Aviance). His first antiques shop (and russian objects) opened in 1924 on Madison Avenue was named Le Rouge et le Noir, after Stendhal. Le rouge was an allusion to his aristocratic origins (as a former Georgian prince) and the black was a religious allusion to the subject of the play Le Miracle where his wife, Norina Gilli (italian, born in 1888), was the leading role, first in 1911 in London, later on Broadway. This famous play also inspired a successful perfume of that time - Le Miracle from Lenthéric.
Prince Matchabelli died in 1935 but from the very start of his fragrance company in 1926 he had a strong marketing and business sense that helped the company to survive the Depression and the death of its creator. The crown shaped bottles (designed by Norina, it is said) established a very recognizable image and the first names (Princess Norina, Queen of Georgia, Ave Maria - dedicated to Norina, she played Madonna in Miracle) were close related to the family and established his legend in NY society.
Before 1933 he managed to cover distribution for all USA from California to NY and Chicago to Texas. It seems that his staff was composed by many "titles": count Waldemar Armfelt, prince Nicolas Demidoff, baron Paul Wrangel. Very soon he started to produce in France and his Parisian salon was famous in terms of interior decoration. Just before his death he had great plans for Europe and started to negotiate the opening of 2 factories, one in Milan, other in London (in that time export taxes were very high).

Short biography: Born on July 23, 1885, Prince Matchabelli studied in Tiflis - Georgia and later in Berlin as an engineer. The family name was Machabeli or Machablebi and they were located in the now very hot Ossetia. He started to develop a mining project in his natal country just when the Russian Empire broke. Then, before Georgia was occupied by soviets, he acted as plenipotentiary to Italy (1918-1921) and stayed another 2 years in Rome before coming in USA in 1923. He died on 31 march 1935 and the interment was at Mt.Olivet Cemetery, Maspeth, L.I. The business was inherited by his daughter, princess Marguerite Matchabelli. Norina and Georges were married in 1917 and divorced in 1933

The NY salon opened in 1935 on 711 Fifth avenue was decorated by Cecil Beaton and it was his first commercial decorating assignment.
Another prince who found that blending oils and making out of that a business was Prince Alexis N. Gagarin who established in 1934-35 a cosmetic/fragrance company. With less success than Matchabelli.
More fortunate was Artchil Gourielli-Tchkonia (1895-1955), another georgian émigré, who married Helena Rubinstein (some said it was just marketing for Madame). For a short period of time a line of perfumes and masculine grooming products (plus a salon) were available, few years before Estée Lauder turned Aramis into a major commercial success.

My favourite Matchabelli perfumes are Crown Jewel (an opulent floral like Joy) and Duchess of York (a lilac soliflore) but there are still some old creations that I was not able to test. For the fans of chypre animalic notes there are 2 creations, Cachet (an animalic Miss Dior note without the green - 1970) and Matchabelli (a chypre leather - 1980).

Note: Matchabelli's life is amazing and still full of questions for me. But a good subject for further research. There are aspects I'm not very sure about and many of them related to the fragrances created before the 50's.

photos: Prince Matchabelli; his wife, Norina.

See also my post on Abano bath oil from Matchabelli.

See also Company info and acquisitions on Wikipedia

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Politics and fragrance

Fragrance, as a form of luxury had always tight and not so well known relations with the power. Or politics in modern days. From the expensive spices to Catherine de Medicis, Louis XIV to XVI and later Napoleon I and III and modern moguls there is always an official history and a history that has not been written yet. There has always been a subtle distinction between perfumes that were used (or given as a present) and perfumes that were advertised as being used by a celebrity or a monarch in former days. I will not refer to fragrances that since XIXth century had been advertised as "approved", "dedicated", "inspired" or "used" by a certain prince, king, emperor. Like today, back in XIXth century or early XXth century there is big gap between history, marketing and what was written in newspapers/magazines. Despite all the confusion (and lack of information) for products created for a wider audience, there is another parallel world. In the fragrance universe there are perfumes that never go on sale. They were created for special occasions, given as an official present or simply fragrances for a very restrained circle that do not appear often in press (because they do not need press).

Japan: One example is Kamakura from Shiseido created in 1980 to celebrate 800 years of the first capital of Japan and it was given as a present to officials. It contained one of the most beautiful oud notes (and expensive because in commercial products the reconstitution is used). Other official perfumes were created in Japan for Kyoto, Bunka and Tokyo. Those are perfumes that have nothing to do with the 1 euro bottle of Tour Eiffel perfume.

Photo: Bottling Leningrad in mid 30's (around 150 bottles on the table :)

Soviet Russia: While Russian perfume industry mass produced many fragrances with political symbols (from Red Moscow to Kremlin) there were also "state gifts", perfumes given to other communist countries (rich, potent, sometime spicy patchouli, sometime very floral jasmine) members of CAER. There is an entire fragrant universe, from early 60's to late 80's, with special editions, perfumes that won prizes and so on that is not so well known today as they were not advertised or often described in Press. There were some rose based fragrances, often given as a present by Bulgarian Republic - based on true rose oil and many essential oils not so used today in the Western world (like other essential oils and sometime molecules used in former URSS).
An expensive fragrance was produced late 50's by Naarden in Netherlands for their queen and we know today the crystal bottle. Another one that I know is from 60's for Queen Elizabeth II. Many major fragrance producers (IFF, Givaudan, Firmenich, etc) created several fragrances since early 60's that did not go in the public circuit but had political "meanings" (usually gifts). The best known is maybe the rose-magnolia created for Laura Bush. There are also the big anniversary editions for brands (PG, Unilever, etc) that also did not go into the public circuit.

Middle East countries have always been great consumers of expensive fragrances, produced locally or in Europe, sometime by great noses. Modern Arabian expensive fragrances should not be confused with the concoctions found in souks or the glittering image used by some brands in their western marketing. A floral green fragrance was created by Jean Kerleo for Farah Diba, other were described by a Spanish perfumer. There are many types of oud notes (different in Asia and Middle East) but in modern commercial fragrances only the reconstitution is used, sometime it's just an effect (not even a base). To this I would add India, an even less known fragrant world of contemporary times (I speak of non boutique perfumes).
Marie Antoinette perfume available now at Versailles museum is not a perfume in the spirit of ideas I expressed. It evokes at its best an atmosphere but there is no historical formula with the queen's name, as it was clearly explained by the authors.

Another type of relation between politics and perfume can be seen in XXth history not in terms of tastes/rawmaterials/prices but in terms of economic developpement. Like Stalin and the birth of modern russian perfumery in mid 30's, the (re)use of german patents by american and british brands after WWII (sandalwood molecules, soap and detergent, disclosed formulas), the italian desire to create fragrances better than Paris (before WWII), the industrial espionage organised by former communist countries (like my country, after the 60's) for chemical technology.
In the confunsing world of 500 launches a year we are not aware that around us there are other fragrant worlds - not better or worth in terms of quality or aesthetics. Just different and sometime with notes that cannot be smelled in commercial perfumes.

This foto represents 2 italian perfumes from EMEF, a brand created in 1938 by Marchesa Fumasoni Biondi with the very precise goal to overcome the foreign influences in Italy, especially french. More than 10 fine fragrances were produced and in the picture you have "Roma Antica" and "Argento". Bottles similar to Bois des Iles (Chanel). It should be noticed that in those time in Italy there was a strong pressure on producers to use in their products as much as possible genuine italian rawmaterials. On professional trades hold every year in Milano brands were asked to declare if they used or not authentic italian products. A similar situation occurred in Germany but there it's more complicated, as they were one of the major world producers of molecules in that time.

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Guerlain - Dawamesk

Before Opium and its narcotic mythology there was Guerlain and Dawamesk - 1942, relaunched after the war and then renamed.

From Baudelaire, les Paradis artificiels, a famous quote:

"La plus usitée de ces confitures, le dawamesk, est un mélange d'extrait gras, de sucre et de divers aromates, tels que vanille, cannelle, pistaches, amandes, musc. Quelquefois même on y ajoute un peu de cantharide, dans un but qui n'a rien de commun avec les résultats ordinaires du haschisch. Sous cette forme nouvelle, le haschisch n'a rien de désagréable, et on peut le prendre à la dose de 15, 20 et 30 grammes, soit enveloppé dans une feuille de pain à chanter, soit dans une tasse de café".

There is an entire narcotic underworld that characterized Parisian society before WWII, from cultural to fashion cercles - Cocteau, Missia Sert, Chanel, Nathalie Paley - the most known today and related to fragrance world.

Will we ever see Dawamesk again in the Guerlain shop? Today you have to dare with such a concept, but it will sell well in some countries. :)

photo: Ragoarts.com

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Arpège quality

To see how beautiful was Arpège, rich and subtle compared to the very thin modern version, you can smell the Amouage Gold - quite close in spirit to the classic Lanvin perfume.

That was André Fraysse's style - opulent jasmine and rose and the exquisite quality of ingredients, all blended in the most delicate way.

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Requiem for Mitsouko

Since several days I inspect the Mitsouko extract as it can be found today in Paris. I do not think that the current reformulation of the Extrait is good. In fact, it's very bad and the problem inside is not (only) the oakmoss! Mitsouko is also very, very spicy (spices rich in eugenol) but the spices are not very well redone in the new. While most people thought only about oakmoss, there are at least 3 notes that are 100% missing. Also the methylionone inside has a bad effect as if they put allyl ionone with its potato shade :) For me what is called today "Mitsouko extrait" is a disaster and a shame for the memory of Jacques Guerlain. I can only hope that Thierry Wasser will repair in the future this pale reformulation (not only an IFRA-UE correct but also a modernized version that lacks some ingredients and LVMH price correct as they cheapened all the brands they acquired). The facets I'm speaking about can be seen in Rumeur (Lanvin) and Femme (Rochas) - the vintages. The bad notes of Mitsouko are more obvious with the time because they are in the foundation, the drydown of the perfume. Let me quote the Guerlain motto, as an irony " Ne cedez jamais sur la qualité…" (never make compromise on quality…) because here, they succeed to compromise Jacques Guerlain's heritage.
On the site au parfum, there is a very beautiful homage paid to Mitsouko, a very sensible and accurate description of the emotions given by this perfume, before its mutilation.
Quality is possible today, is possible with rich and classic materials and Serge Lutens showed the standards with his Palais Royal line. Unfortunately Guerlain is not in good hands, at least in terms of olfactory selection / direction. There is a clear lack of refinement, taste and sense of quality, not from the perfumers who work for the brand, but from those who decide. It is sad that today Guerlain was inspired by Serge Lutens only in terms of ideas (I don't like the word marketing) and not in terms of quality. Unfortunately Mitsouko extract is a victim in this game like many other classic fragrances from LVMH (see Diorissimo) who sacrificed quality for brand image and golden decorations, shiny plastic elements in an effort to mimic luxury and tradition.

The best from extrait, EDP and EDT today is the EDP. It has less obvious defects and it's a good option if you've never experienced the true perfume as it used to be. I wish you all to try the now available extract on the market, let in several hours on the blotter to see the bad aspects I talk about, the plastic&metallic touch, the lack of softness / deep notes and the sweetness that surrounded the "candied peach" wrapped in animalic leather.
As an anecdote, there was more than 5% of oakmoss inside old Mitsouko.
This photo of Jacques Guerlain was published in 1963, soon after his death. He would die again if he smells what happened to Mitsouko extract in 2008. A lack of taste from those who selected the version, and didn't understand a word from what "art de vivre" meant in Belle Epoque. Their culture is maybe only the online content of the brand.

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Evernyl, a mossy story

"Evernile" is not an evergreen on Nile but the secret key to unlock chypre mysteries, deep into the mossy caves of the history.
Several type of mosses have been used since a long period of time in fragrances (as infusion or powder) to provide long lasting qualities to ephemeral scents. But it was at the beginning of 20th century that mosses went into fashion in a new way. New products were available (resinoides, concretes and absolute resinoide), new mosses were studied (the most famous and used were oak moss and tree moss - Evernia prunastri, Evernia Furfuracea, Usnea barbata) and their composition started to be unlocked (though still today it's not completely known). The typical odor is given by the many products related to an acid, and the most famous is Methyl 3-methylorsellinate (from 10 to 25%), discovered around 1898. This is the famous Evernyl (Givaudan) also known as Mousse Metra (Florasynth) or Veramoss (IFF).This product had to wait almost a half of the century before it started to be used a single molecule. From the 60's it represented the new molecule for modern chypre and fougère notes. Almost all classic chypre notes from the 70's are based on Evernyl and very little on classic oakmoss. Later, in the 80's, when sophisticated classical chypre became again trendy, tree moss saw was used more than oakmoss to provide the chypre note, classical but without an "old" connotation (of course, the mosses were mixed in a perfume) like in Ysatis.
Evernyl was used in Chamade, Diorella, Chanel 19, Cristalle, Cool Water, Polo, Egoiste Platinum...
Before it was sold as a simple molecule, Evernyl (the methyl everninate) was used like many other molecules in bases created around the oakmoss note or leather. The ethyl everninate (with a faint but tenacious odor) was also used in moss bases and the same was for even rarer isobutyl everninate (iso butyl lichenol), dry and mossy.

Other mossy notes:
Seamoss (Quest) - methyl 3 methyl resorcylate
Orcinyl 3 (Giv.) which gives with Evernyl a strong oak moss character
Flouvane (a former base with resorcin dimethyl ether)
Some classic products (bases or specialties or special extraction):
Extrodor EichenMoss, Produkt EMA (Heine), Everniol, Fluvol, Evernia, Moss Oriental, Mousse de Saxe, Mousse des Indes, Mousse de Chypre, Mosuse de Bohème, Mousse de Bois, Mousse de Tyrol, Sylvestral, Lichenis

Moss infusion was used in both Fougère royale and Idéal from Houbigant.

Photo: Orcinyl 3 from Givaudan

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