2014 - My Year In Perfume, Moments Of Beauty In A Saturated Market

Looking back over my 2014 fragrance habit, I’m reminded of a feature written by Tania Sanchez in Perfumes, The A-Z guide. Sanchez describes her concept of our journey through a fragrance obsession in 6 specific stages leading from the childhood curiosity of our parent’s fragrances through to an enlightened conclusion. In this, the 6^th and final stage, she suggests that we might experience:

“Stage 6: Enlightenment.

Absence of ideology. Distrust of the overelaborate, overexpensive and arcane. Satisfaction in things themselves”.

This resonates with me.

In 2014 I was grateful to get my nose around a number of inventive and complex creations from the world of ‘niche’ fragrance (whatever that words means nowadays). However, I smelt a much larger number of ‘The Emperor’s new clothes’. By this I mean the fragrances that were churned into the market at high prices and high speed, often trading on the concept of ‘niche’ to justify the hoohaa. People talked about them and bought them. No doubt caught in the decadent grip of Sanchez’s earlier Stage 5:

"Stage 5: Decadence.

An ideology of taste, either of the heavy-handed or the barely there. The age of leathers, patchoulis, tobaccos, ambers; or, alternatively, the age of pale watercolours in vegetal shades. An obsession with the hard to find."

In 2014, brands that were initially marketed to the wealthy Middle Eastern consumer continued to be devoured by folk on ordinary incomes as online discussion groups were often dominated by ‘an ideology of taste’ that favoured the skilfully manipulated desire for the ‘private blend or the exclusif’. Additionally, some superstar perfumers increased the number of products in their own ranges at flabbergasting speed. This led to vast spending, often resulting in fragrance fans leaving Facebook groups to avoid the excessive shopping temptation created by discussions (and then giving in and coming back again such was the lure!).

The sheer number of 2014 releases from niche brands meant that many scents replicated what we have already smelt before. I found myself opening sample packages without the thrilling anticipation of the possibility that they could contain some sort of nose nirvana. This is not a good mental state for a perfume blogger!

However, it wasn’t all bleak.

Occasionally I’ll smell a perfume that penetrates my imagination so thoroughly that I can type up an article swiftly and with great excitement. Others require much pondering and a painful number of hours at the screen. When I smelt the smouldering Anubis by Papillon Artisan Perfumes, the imagery it created for me was instant and exhilarating. It was by far the most thrilling post to write this year. Click here to take a peek at David Hemmings’ marvellously wild face, some fatally seductive sirens and one of the most successful indie releases of the year.

Danger for lost seamen - Anubis

Thrills aside, my favourite article of the year was my post on Guerlain’s understated masterpiece - Idylle. I believe this rarely discussed scent is deserved of the accolades that Guerlain’s stable of historic classics receive in profusion. Click here to read why I thought it to be the misunderstood outsider.

The relationship between fragrance, music and celebrity continued to excite me as my imagination frequently allotted a musician to my perception of a scent. The gargantuan floral punch of Byredo – Flowerhead brought indie powerhouse singer Beth Ditto to mind which resulted in one of the odder of the Odiferess reviews. Whilst Nobile 1942 – Infinito evoked decadent sensations of late nice dancing in the woods at summer music festivals.

Betto Ditto in technicolour

My own wardrobe in 2014 gained some pleasing additions, with an increased fascination for floral, green and aldehyde notes occurring. My most appreciated new entry was Clinique - Wrappings, an overwhelmingly picturesque outdoorsy whiff, sparkling with aldehydes and unlike anything I’ve ever smelt in a perfume bottle. Its originality was amplified by my perceived stagnation of the overfilled market. That Clinique have not released this scent on their standard counters is bizarre.

The feeling of Wrappings, a bracing bottle of oxygen and nature

More greenery arrived in the form of a new bottle of Guerlain - Vol De Nuit, when I say ‘a bottle’ I actually mean the extraordinary object of great glassy desire that is the Parfum Extrait. Whilst I adored my (nearly empty) EDT, I felt a compulsion to be able to hold this gilt propellored creature in my hands and stare lovingly at it whilst anointing myself. I wasn’t disappointed.

My pretty thing

I clearly went through some sort of ‘grown up lady’ phase befitting for my forties as I frequently reached for Lanvin - Arpege, Chanel – No 5, Van Cleef & Arpels - First and Lubin - Nuit de Longchamp. Interestingly, my new job in September inspired me to dress with increased sophistication for work and make the effort to apply make up at stupid-o-clock in the morning. Perhaps these scents helped me to feel suitably groomed?

To round up, here is a list of my most frequently worn and adored scents of 2014 (you can click on those in a different colour to read a review) :

Guerlain – Idylle EDT

Clinique – Wrappings

Gucci – EDP (The discontinued caraway & leather oriental)

Chanel – No 5

Guerlain – Vol de Nuit

Chanel – 31 Rue Cambon (which has now been outdone by a last days of December purchase of the blissful Cuir de Russie)

Caron – Muguet de Bonheur

Lanvin – Arpege

Yves Rocher – Voile D’ Ambre

Robert Piguet – Calypso

And a list of those which I do not yet own but seduced me at first whiff:

Papillon Artisan Perfumes – Anubis

Scent on Canvas – Brun Sicilien

Guerlain – Idylle (in EDP form)

Clinique – Aromatics in White

Narciso Rodriguez For Her – Musc Eau de Parfum Intense (the flanker with the dusky pink metallic bottle that smells oddly like the opening of Serge Lutens – Tuberuese Criminelle)

Neela Vermeire – Mohur

Serge Lutens – L’ Orpheline

Hermes – Santal Massoia

Parfums Nicolai – Maharanih

Chanel – Jersey

As I consider my 2015 articles for Odiferess, I shall be searching for the magnificent amongst the mediocre and aim to bring you some reviews of genuinely innovative scents. As usual I’ll be letting my imagination investigate some eclectic cultural nonsense in which to tell you about them! In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your favourite scents of the year.

Regine Chassagne - Kaleidoscopic Woman, What Should She Smell Like?

 Regine Chassagne

Whilst watching the Glastonbury Festival on TV the other week, I was overwhelmed by just how much I adore Arcade Fire’s wobbly voiced soprano songstrel – Regine Chassagne. I’ve enthusiastically followed Arcade Fire’s art school indie style output for many years, but with the launch of the ‘Reflektor’ album they seemed to have morphed into a kind of ‘cyber rave orchestral noise spectacular’ of the kind that excites me the point of thinking “They are better than the Pixies”. Which is my measuring stick for how good a band is.

Watching the extraordinary Regine’s performance this year was an utter delight. She is simultaneously; charming, coquettish, exuberant, luminous and technicolour. Her voice possesses a beautiful flaw where amongst the high soprano peaks, cracks and creaks occur, perfection is boring. She isn’t.

I’ve always been inspired by these type of ‘women of colour’. Those who character (both in personality and visual appearance) radiates an uncontrollably vivid exuberance. As Regine whirls around the stage twirling coloured ribbons in the manner of an Olympic gymnast on amphetamines, I see a history of equally technicolour women of pop. There is no doubt that Regine must cherish Cyndi Lauper who shares a similarly squeaky voice and love of ‘dressing-up box’ clothes. 

The eighties also produced some fine ‘men of colour’. Remember the video for pointy faced love god – Paul King’s ‘Love and Pride’? It had all the elements of essential 80s pop played out in a sun parched quarry where Paul danced like Elvis wearing an amazingly green suit. To amplify the colour, many leather jacketed children ran amok spray painting each other's Doc Marten boots whilst graphic splatters of animated paint popped across the screen in time to the drum beat. Ahhhh.. the eighties.

Gorgeous and brilliant - King

I wonder what perfume might Regine wear? Arcade Fire present a psychedelic super charged extravaganza of light on their stage. Neon paint daubed onto their costumes and much (terrible fire hazard) metallic, fringed and futuristic lycra abounds. Lead singer, and Regine’s husband – Win Butler rejects the archetypal pair of shades for a ‘pair of shades theatrical make-up’ rendering him somewhat sinister and beautiful in equal measures. There is nothing natural about Arcade Fire. They exist in a futuristic and synthetic world where electric chaos reigns. With this in mind, I can only imagine any of them wearing a symbol of the future, an aromachemical, a very artificial one. The obvious choices where I to present Regine with a perfume would be:

Lalique - Perles De Lalique.  Whilst patchouli usually contributes a warm, earthy and damply sweet quality to a perfume, in Perles De Lalique it’s rocketed skywards by shockingly huge dose of space-age wood replicant – ISO E Super. Add to this a rather piecing rose and you have something that is (on the negative side) migraine inducing and (more positively) a uniquely bright and fizzy experiment in NASA-esque perfumery. I own a bottle. I wear it now and again. I love it but it makes me feel shouty.

Or

Tauer Perfumes – Noontide Petals. A rather ‘un-Tauery’ Tauer, Noontide Petals was inspired by the modernity of the 1920s and 30s, a time of air travel, fast cars and girls embracing the art of acting like boys. In perfume terms, this means aldehydes, those sparkling chemicals brimming with vivacity that brought an oddly chilly, metallic and genderless edge to the blousy compositions of an earlier era. If you haven’t smelt Chanel No 5 or Baghari for a while, sniff them out and ponder how strangely contemporary they feel. Noontide petals mixes Aldehydes with a whole caboodle of woody and floral notes but it still feels primarily aldehydic and as such makes me think of Clara Bow smoking a fag in manly pants whilst winking through a bit of untamed frizzy red fringe. In her time, as visually Bonkers as Regine or Cyndi. 

As for Cyndi, a fruit bowl would match her kaleidoscopic style. Byredo's vegetal overdose 'Pulp' is a possible choice. It polarises opinion, a love or hate scent where fans cite it as the greatest indie adventure in fruit of all time and others state that it recalls 'bin juice', a literal pulping of rotting vegetation leaking from the bin bag. Whichever side you take, it's certainly vivid, shocking and eccentric - perfect for Cyndi.  

 Tropical fruit warrior 

And lastly, little known Malcolm McLaren punk-pop invention - Bow Wow Wow. If you haven't heard it PLEASE watch 'Go Wild In The Country' on Youtube. Singer Anabella Lwin was just 14 when McLaren discovered her. She was immediately famous, if only for a brief time, shouting her angry lyrics over the tribal drum beats of the band in a combustive and rather glamourous wallop of noise. Fond of block coloured batwing jumpers, flappy bits of fabric worn in tribal headband style (another influence on Regine?) and bejeweled animal prints, Anabella is the ideal wearer of Kenzo's 'Jungle L' Elephant'. A curiously (or furiously) cumin fueled riot of mango rich spiced oriental decadence.

Anabella Lwin

If you've enjoyed this post, you may wish to read some other music related perfume waffle by clicking here:

On Olfactive Studio - Chambre Noire and Adam and The Ants

On Jovoy -  Psychedelique and Nico and The Velvet Undergound

On Byredo - Flowerhead and The Gossip's Beth Ditto

And for those of you who didn't see it. Here is the beautiful Regine singing Sprawl II (squeakily) live at glastonbury. Enjoy.

Review: Byredo - Flowerhead, A Boxing Gloved Contender For Fracas Fans

I am writing this post in the midst of my sixth day of an unfeasibly aggressive skin rash. This is odd as I’m not an allergic type, in fact I could probably shower in Swarfega and powder myself with Vim scourer without so much of a pimple arising. I can only assume that it’s viral. My chest and back have gained the prestigious status of ‘rash worthy of a photo on Google’. I won’t be posting one, but I’ve seen some corkers in the last few days that defy believability.

This please

An outcome of the rash has been a self-imposed perfume ban. Although it’s been interesting, from the point of view that I didn’t miss it after the first few days (eh?), I found myself today craving something obscenely ‘perfumey’.

And so I reached for the floral Armageddon that is Byredo’s latest creation - Flowerhead.

Curiously, the only part of my body that isn’t peppered with scarlet anger is my left wrist. Perhaps it’s developed a feisty blockade against any form of soppy skin type behaviour from the many years of being soaked in aroma chemicals at least 3 times a day. I figured it could cope.

After the tender watercolour fragility of Byredo’s 2013 release – Inflorescence, this years floral – Flowerhead, is the absolute opposite. It’s an enormous tuberose and jasmine madam that makes Robert Piguet’s notorious Fracas seem like a wuss. Which is quite an achievement.

The words ‘tuberose and jasmine’ are rarely uttered on Odiferess. I dislike this pairing as much as I dislike smoked salmon. It’s possible that my hatred of the slippery fishy dreadfulness stems from my sisters wedding banquet, where as a child bridesmaid I ran to my mum in terror at the fact that the waiters appeared to be delivering plates of dead goldfish to our tables. It doesn’t smell very pleasant either, which is exactly how I feel about a gargantuan dose of tuberose and jasmine.

So why am I writing about it? Because I think it’s brilliant.

Byredo’s website describes it thus:

“IN THE TRADITIONAL INDIAN WEDDING FLOWER HEADS ARE STRUNG TOGETHER ON GIANT LEIS, INCLUDING JAIMALA GARLANDS WHICH ARE EXCHANGED BETWEEN BRIDE AND GROOM AS A TOKEN OF MUTUAL RESPECT. COUPLES ARE OFTEN SHOWERED WITH PETALS BY THE GROOM'S BROTHER FOR SPIRITUAL PROTECTION. FLOWERS ARE ABUNDANT; FROM THE MANDAP WEDDING CANOPY, WHICH IS ENTIRELY COVERED IN EXOTIC BLOOMS, TO THE SPIRITUAL POOJA ROOMS AND VERANDAHS, THE EXPLOSION OF COLOUR IS WILDLY CELEBRATORY AND THE SCENT IS OVERWHELMING.”

Overwhelming indeed. It echoes it’s name in it’s atmosphere. The suffix of ‘head’ emphasizes whatever it follows. E.g. in expletives, we refer to someone who is a complete shit as a ‘shithead’, someone who lives primarily for the pursuit of wealth is a ‘breadhead’. In ‘Flowerhead’ we find a sense of extremism, an excessive slap in the face of white floral hedonism. Flowerhead does not have a complex structure, it’s simply a whopping great unapologetic dose of tuberose, jasmine and spikey wood. I can’t describe it’s precise scent any further than that, it is what it is.

There’s been a trend in recent months for barely perceptible fragrances where subtlety is favoured over character. It’s affected both the niche and mainstream market and has resulted in many perfume lovers being dissatisfied with poor longevity and the fact that they actually have to put nose to wrist to smell their own perfume. As the main point of perfume is it’s ability to scent the air around us, this is a bit rubbish. Flowerhead is capable of bombasting all noses within a 10 foot radius, for that reason, it will be received with great pleasure by those bored of fragrant will-o'-the-wisps. 

Beth Ditto - lead singer of The Gossip

Flowerhead will be greatly loved by those seeking a perfume that has the mettle and noisiness of a pre-reform Estee Lauder. In personality, it reminds me of the indie scene darling - Beth Ditto. She’s brash, strident, enormous and boisterous, loved and loathed in equal measures, and she’s in possession of an army of enchanted fans. I imagine that Flowerhead, alike Beth, will become a cult classic.

It was the ideal choice with which to break my fast, abstinence must be followed with excess.

Review: Byredo, M/Mink. The Bloody Toothed Beast

A peculiar event takes place when you pair patchouli with marine notes, it turns into an animalic beast.

We are fond of smelling our patchouli alongside ‘soft’ notes such as an amber accord, vanilla or balsamic benzoin and tonka. No wonder really as it’s strident character benefits from a little gentility. Together with some sweetness, patchouli is a sensual, warming note that evokes a comforting hippy vibe (as in L’Artisan Parfumeur’s Patchouli Patch) or a dose of late night glamour (at it’s best in Givenchy’s original Givenchy Gentleman).

Patchouli-fest

Byredo created an unusual (I’m understating here) patchouli beast in M/Mink. By beast, I refer not to a hideous ogre, more to a grand fierce animal.  It belongs in the category of ‘very close to human/animal/marine effluence that is strangely beguiling’. It shares it’s category with Maison Francis Kurkdijan’s Absolue Pour Le Soir, mentioned in my last post for it’s notably ‘pissy’ top note. To see the post click here. Alike Absolue Pour Le Soir, M/Mink becomes more comfortable after it’s challenging top notes wear off, leaving you with something quite beautiful.

Very pretty packaging indeed

It reminds me a little of ‘Secretions Magnifique’ by the notorious Etat Libre D’ Orange. However, it doesn’t make me gag or scrub at my wrist with Swarfega industrial gunk remover (which I did after first trying Clinique’s hugely abrasive skin Claryfing Lotion which is best left for cleaning a filthy computer screen or moments of terrible perfume sample application). What it does share with Secretions Magnifique is a veritable ocean of saltiness and minerals.

Back to M/Mink. At first application, you are hit (strongly, in the face) by a gigantic musky and leathery whiff. This often smelt, albeit with less intensity, in fumes that contain labdanum. It’s not the gentle Hermes saddlery leather, more a ‘bag from a market in Tunisia’ leather which still holds a little scented suggestion of the ‘only just about cured’ skin of it’s animal benefactor. This sounds revolting but it’s not. It’s (just) on the right side of animalic, beastly but not deathly. Leather is not listed as a note in M/Mink so I am presuming that the sensation comes from the pairing of a sea water note and patchouli, like an old lost boot washed up shore-side to dry in the sun.

Alongside the animal note is a very clear re-creation of the sea. Unlike polite refreshing scents such as Aqua Di Gio, this ocean is reminiscent of industrial docks, where working ships float in the murky water giving off a faint whiff of diesel, damp ropes and wood varnish.

M/Mink is said to have been inspired by a lump of solid oriental calligraphy ink, something I’ve never had the delight of smelling, but a quick flick through online reviews reveals a shared sense of printing toner arising in the nostrils of many.  Again, adding to the connotation of ‘industrial’ scent.

Maritime whiffs

Once you’ve ridden out the magnificently fearsome journey of M/Mink at it’s peak, the whole thing dries down to a very pretty and gentle trail of patchouli as we know it. It’s possibly the most charming dry down of any of it’s genre, the mewing kitten at the close of the bloody toothed roaring lion.

It’s not for me but I admire it’s eccentricity and powerhouse punch. So who would I recommend it to? 

• Those seeking a truly niche perfume that will mark them out as unique and adventurous.  
• Those who liked the idea of Secretions Magnifique but couldn’t contain their gag reflex.
• Those who frequent leather/rubber fetish clubs or adore German Industrial Techno.

A brilliant beastly marvel.