NICHE PERFUMERY LECTURE/ CURSO DE PERFUMARIA DE NICHO

The lounge minutes before starting

This blogger has a long term relationship with CDCP - A center for diffusion of perfume knowledge in São Paulo, Brazil. Through this partnership I have been invited to be one of the jurors of the perfume award Atualidade Cosmética and I have been making brainstorming sessions with fragrance houses and marketing strategy projects.

This year they invited me to give a lecture on Niche Perfumery as part of the studies of perfume in a year round course they offer to professionals of the industry of perfumery and cosmetics.

It was a 3 hours lecture where I told them the history of Niche Perfumery; the concept of niche; the classifications of niche brands an niche perfumery as it is today and its future. We explored many brands and many different concepts in a whiff & think session.

It was very interesting to share ideas with marketing managers and perfumers and how professionals of the cosmetic industry and packing developers could use some of the ideas of niche perfumery in their businesses.

The brands presented were:

Annick Goutal, Jo Malone, Antonio Alessandria, Heeley, Yosh, Mona di Orio, Keiko Mecheri, Olivier Durbano, Maison Kurkdjian, Jovoy Paris, Victoria Minya, Editions de Parfums Frederique Malle, État Libre d’Orange, CB I Hate Perfume, S-Perfume, Blood Concept, A Lab on Fire, Juliette Has a Gun, Nasomatto, Histoires de Parfum, biehl parfumkunstwerke, Fueguia 1833, Olfactive Studio, Clive Christian, Creed, Xerjoff, Puredistance, Ormonde Jayne, Rancé , Creed, Penhaligons’, Fragonard, Maitre Parfumeur e Gantier,  Lubin, Santa Maria Novella, Farmacia SS. Annunziata dal 156, Les Parfums de Rosine, Le Labo, Byredo, Ego Facto, Bond Nº9, Mandy Aftel, Rich Hippie, Pacifica, Tsi-La, Rebel Intuitive Perfumerie, Strange Invisible Perfumes, Honoré des Prés, Neela Vermiere Creation, Kerosene, The Vagabond Prince, Aus Liebe zum Duft, Aedes de Venustas, Min NY, Comme de Garçons, Aesop, Costes, Ladurée, Les exclusifs, Van Cleef & Arpels Colection Extraordinaire, Tom Ford Private Blend, Estée Lauder Private Collection, Cartier Lês Heures de Parfum, Dior La Collection Privée.

Shops mentioned: 

Aedes de Venustas, Min NY, Campomarzio 70, Nose, Crème de La Crème, Hip-Nose; and websites luckyscent and  Aus Liebe zum Duft.

LE PETIT GARÇON EDP - MY VERY OWN BLEND

LE PETIT GARÇON EDP

Launch: 2015 – Customized Edition

Perfumer: Ane Walsh

Olfactive Director: Simone Shitrit

THE COMPOSITION

Olfactive Notes of: Cedrat, white grapefruit, mimosa, genet, tagetes, osmanthus, roman chamomile, calendula, fabriana imbricata (pichi), adesnemia boroinoide (paramela), honey & pollen tincture, ambergris, musk algazal.

Olfactive description: Yellow-ish radiant, sweet, waxy-honeyed, slightly fruity, hay-ish and herbaceous, with a balsamic, warm leathery, animalic - mineral undertone. Unique, sensual and slightly inebriating.

INSPIRATIONS

Continuing to work on discrepancies in perfumery, this time I wanted to work the concept of incongruity, in such a way that we would not have either contrast nor opposition.

“To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys... But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world...” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944)

The Little Prince character represents the open-mindedness of children, as the prince is an explorer who restlessly asks questions and is willing to engage the invisible secret mysteries of the universe. The beauty of Saint-Exupéry's poetic writing goes into such details that in the original French version of the book he has never used the word adult. Instead, he calls adults "les grandes personnes" (the big people). What he meant with that was to say that what matters is the attitude of a person and not his actual age. In that sense children can act like "grandes personnes" and adults can also see the word as little children. Which brought me to an intriguing question that has been challenging me for a while: Do we all have a little prince (child) inside of us?

Continuing to explore psyche as inspiration the brief that I shared with perfumer Ane Walsh was the thought of creating a fragrance that would evoke this child that we have inside of us and what it means to have one when you have already grown. 

Having an inner child means that you are constantly questioning and opened minded without limiting your perspectives. You are aware of and sensitive to the mysteries and beauty of the world. 

But what happens when you let your inner child run your life?

“…The inner child comprises and potentiates these positive qualities. But it also holds our accumulated childhood hurts, traumas, fears and angers. "Grown-ups" are convinced they have successfully outgrown, jettisoned, and left this child and its emotional baggage long behind. But this is far from the truth. In fact, these so-called grown-ups or adults are unwittingly being constantly influenced or covertly controlled by this unconscious inner child. For many, it is not an adult self-directing their lives, but rather an emotionally wounded inner child inhabiting an adult body - A five-year-old running around in a fifty-year-old frame. It is a hurt, angry, fearful little boy or girl calling the shots, making adult decisions. A boy or girl being sent out into the world to do a man's or woman's job… And then we wonder why our relationships fall apart. Why we feel so anxious. Afraid. Insecure. Inferior. Small. Lost. Lonely. But think about it: How else would any child feel having to fend for themselves in an apparently adult world?" (Stephen Diamond, PH. D., edited)

In a nutshell: if the little child does not have an adult making the rules of the game there will be a lot of suffering. I asked the perfumer to stay away of tantrums! Suffering was not the aspect I wanted to explore because I wanted to come up with something that I would like to wear; that brings out beauty, not pain. For that matter I had to detail the brief in a more personal level and explain to her that it all came from the fact that a friend of mine once called me little prince and that I also have a little friend that needs my constant attention and that the fragrance had to be about him...and me:

MY IMAGINARY FRIEND

Garçon is a little boy born in the northwest part of France called La Bretagne (French Brittany), part of the six Celtic nations. In the Celtic language his name means warrior.

To bring the aura of Britanny I asked Ane Walsh to compose a bouquet with mimosas and genet. Mimosas brought a soft, delicate, sweet, powdery floral note with a suave green honeyed undertone, while genet added a hay-honey-like scent with a tenacious herbal tone. To add a marine sensation of a coast line ambergris was added. 

MIMOSAS

Photo credit: + Q Perfume Blog

Following the thoughts of the little prince's friend the fox, in the excerpt of the book cited above, Hervé is not just like a hundred thousand other little boys. He is a unique little warrior who has tamed me. He is my inner child, my imaginary friend. 

The inner child embodies innocence and openness; love and joy; creativity and curiosity; wonder and awe; appreciation and devotion; beauty and playfulness; forgiveness and unity; determination and strength; gentleness and enthusiasm.

Hervé has all that. He inspires me to create; he challenges my curiosity; he is the fine-tuning of my appreciation and determination; he brings unity to my thoughts. Garçon is the little child in me and he is responsible for what wonders and awes me and this is exactly what I wanted the be the core of this perfume.

In that line of thought the fragrance had to be about The Little Prince’s idea of grandes personnes and what Hervé represents to me. The name LE PETIT GARÇON EDP was my idea of a merger of both.

The funny thing is that this composition not only had to have a scented composition of La Bretagne, but it also had to have the golden locks of the little prince and myself (I also have them!). Garçon, my imaginary friend, has red hair and freckles. 

TAGETES, CAMOMILE, PARAMELAS, CALENDULAS 

Calendulas were added to compose an orange yellow-ish bouquet, adding a warm creamy texture (like redheads' skin) with an herbal undertone. Tagetes (marigolds) and a bright crisp, sweet-herbal balsamic chamomile with its apple notes brought the essence of little children and a fruity sprinkle. Honey and pollen tincture were not only the final golden touch but they added a spring-y solar aura to the fragrance.

“WONDER IS THE FIRST OF ALL PASSIONS”

René Decartes (1596–1650)

“Passion may be a friendly or eager interest in or admiration for a proposal, cause, discovery, or activity or love – to a feeling of unusual excitement, enthusiasm or compelling emotion, a positive affinity or love, towards a subject. 

The origin of the word passion is found in the Latin word "passio" which means suffering. On the surface, the word “passion” can stir emotions in us inspiring, motivating and elevating us to live life at a more exciting fulfilling level. But just as the core of an apple cannot be separate from the apple itself, “suffering” is always at the core of passion. We cannot have one without the other. In that sense could Hervé inspire passion without making me suffer? 

Both Garçon and myself are solar souls. So I wanted this aura for the very first whiff. I also wanted the notion of freshness because both children and passions have in its core the freshness of a new adventure, the excitement for life. Cedrat and white grapefruit were added to give this freshness that only citrusy notes can give, but also to balance the sweetness of the fragrance with a zesty varnish. Paramela notes were also added to bring a sensation of well being and fluidity.

LA BRETAGNE

So far the idea was a solar fresh orange yellow-ish Breton composition which brought me back to the question of incongruity (the proposal mentioned at the beginning of this post) and other questions that came along: is it possible to create a fragrance that is slightly carnal and yet, take you to a spring/summer trip to the blooming coasts and still make sense? And if we can't have passion without suffering how can I leave pain out of the brief?

The term passion is particularly used in the context of romance or sexual desire though it generally implies a deeper or more encompassing emotion. For that matter the perfume had to contain both wonder and awe, but in a different tone  - the tone of passion. Ane Walsh surprised me by adding Fabriana Imbricata, a note that is said to have inebriating effects when inhaled. By the way, I learned that Paramela smell is also very attractive. Both notes combined with ambergris and musk algazal ended up developing a rather disturbing stimuli. Something that it is kinda difficult to explain. Provocative and instigating.  Sensuality with a fleshy-warm-sweet kinky touch was added, bringing the sensation of touching skin, of instinctive sex, of something rather chemical (chemistry of attraction). Osmanthus came to compose the flowery bouquet with a sweet, warm, rich, honeyed leathery note and an elegant animalic undertone. Fact is that smelling this perfume on my skin makes me blush.

So, answering my very own question, as incongruent as it seemed, passion, desire, wonder, awe, the coast of La Bretagne and my imaginary friend were brought altogether to compose one fragrance. LE PETIT GARÇON EDP ended up being artistically conceived and unpredictable exuberant as passions are. 

***

Cole Porter was an all-time talented composer and song writer. In 1936 he composed a song about the incongruity of passions and in 1946 Frank Sinatra brought a beautiful romantic tone to the lyrics. 

Wearing LE PETIT GARÇON EDP puts a huge smile on my face and it feels as silky as Sinatra's version of I've got you under my skin.   It makes me travel to La Bretagne.  It fells like lying on the warm sand. It brings me closer to my inner imaginary friend Hervé.



I've got you under my skin
I've got you deep in the heart of me
So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me
I've got you under my skin

I've tried so not to give in
I've said to myself this affair never will go so well
But why should I try to resist, when baby I know so well
I've got you under my skin

I'd sacrifice anything come what might
For the sake of having you near
In spite of a warning voice that comes in the night
And repeats, repeats in my ear

Don't you know little fool, you never can win
Use your mentality, wake up to reality
But each time I do, just the thought of you
Makes me stop before I begin
'Cause I've got you under my skin

My very own custom blend by Ane Walsh

By now if you are still reading my blog and all the others out there and you have countless perfume bottles in your home (office, car, etc etc...) you are either a perfume addicted, a self-called "perfumista" or both, and you probably can situate yourself in one of the 5 phases of this perfumed relationship that are basically the following:

1. The Romance Stage: Oxytocine, Phenylethylamine and dopamine! You are dancing with many perfumes cheek to cheek! You are in LUUUV!

Falling in love is just like a drug addiction, but legal and so is the passion for perfumes that unfortunately although legal, very expensive at this stage. 
You want to smell everything on everyone! This is the phase where the interest of learning everything about perfume and perfumery is higher than taste. You will also tend to follow other people's taste for perfumes because they seem sometimes to know more about them than you.

2. The Love Hangover Stage: You are now 1000s of perfumes and samples away from where you started and just as in LOVE, you are no longer a perfume blind and you begin to smell the flaws. Yes, you begin to recognize perfumes and perfumers not only for they accomplishments and beauties but also for their flaws. Here is when you will encounter deception. You have a lot of perfumes in your wardrobe that now seems to be the case of asking yourself "what was I thinking?" kind of bottles. The good thing is that your nose is more accurate, more educatated. You no longer accept the opinion of other experts as the most accurate ones. All is arguable. You have developed your very own refined taste for perfumes.

3. The Stability Stage: For better or worst you will stick to what you define as a good perfume. By now you have already divided perfumes into 2 cathegories: loved as a concept but I won't wear/ love it and I will wear it because it is also wonderful on me! But of course you are still thrilled by new ideas, new brands...

4. The Commitment Stage: You select the best 5/10 perfumes of all times and these are the ones that you are really going to wear (some people have broader lists such as the 20 best).You will wear one of these perfumes till the very last drop before buying a new bottle (unless you found a real good financial opportunity).

Some people may stay or complete only these four stages of a perfume love affair. Some will be caught up in a loop where stages will start and end until the enlighten wisdom will come.

I took my love for perfumes to the next level where I found myself wanting to have something very specific. It is the fifth stage or Co-Creation Stage: At this point you know exactly what works for you and what is out there. You know which perfumers you admire, which creations you MUST have and now you want to go deeper into your love for perfumery  - which means to have YOUR VERY OWN BLEND! Some will be happy just to have a customized fragrance; some will try to launch their own perfume brands. (but there is a problem with that - read my posts called "The Trouble with the Curve - Part I/Part II). Yeap...Perfumery needs training and that means years of experience and that is exactly why I believe in what it is called Co-Creation. I am a lucky person who happens to know a very skilled perfumer called Ane Walsh who does not fear a challenge and has the heart of an angel! A Co-Creation means you need a partner to sin!

We started to talk about my very own perfume and needless to say IRIS is the olfactive note I love the most, so my dream come true was a fragrance that would explore this flower in the most fantastic way. 
I love most aspects of this note - silvery, salty, buttery, but I asked her to leave the green-y notes out of my fragrance because they interest me less somehow (although I liked Iris 39 of Le Labo). 
Ane had an iris root that was 90 yrs old (wow!) and that was our starting point. I also told her about perfumes that I love such as the Guerlain perfume called Iris Ganache that was unfortunately discontinued. For those of you who can't remember, Iris Ganache had a composition of bergamot, cinnamon, white chocolate, cedarwood, iris, gray amber, vanilla white musk, patchouli and powdery notes. It was launched in 2007 for the L'Art et la Matiere Collection and created by Thierry Wasser.
My idea was not to recreate this fragrance, because not only we respect Thierry's work of art, but also because I wanted something to call MY VERY OWN BLEND. I did wanted a chocolate-iris combination thou, but not the same as in Guerlain's creation. I wanted something that flirts with the Haute cuisine, but it does not smell like pastry nor a box of chocolates. 

Photo credit: + Q Perfume Blog

LA SIGNORA BY ANE WALSH/SIMONE SHITRIT

The result is a gourmet iris perfume that she named LA SIGNORA as the Piazza La Signora in Firenze, Italy. Firenze or Florence in English in Italy is the region concentrating the most beautiful varieties of iris flowers. It is also the home of the Società Italiana Dell'Iris giving the International prize for the best iris cultivators. According to Ane this Piazza is an effervescent point of Florentine culture since its very beginning.

LA SIGNORA REVIEW:

Launch year: 2014
Customized edition
Perfumer: Ane Walsh
Rate: Sky is the limit!
Family: Floral-gourmand
Some of the notes of my perfume are:

Top: Bee wax absolute, peach leafs, rosewood, cognac.

Heart: Iris Fiorentine absolute, orris tincture, iris mimosa absolut, violet, polen, calamus, zdravetz(*), Marrocan Rose.

Base: ambrette, white musk, tolu balm, benjoim, cacao, bitter almonds, ambergris tincture, earth blend.

At the very first whiff you fell the sweetness and the warmth of a golden syrupy-green peachy note accord. It contains a rich waxy, slightly smoked caramelized smell that blends well with the cognac, giving it a more mature aura (taking distance from juvenile obvious scents such as Marc Jacobs and others with honey themes). It slightly reminds me the opening of L'Abeille EDP by Guerlain - a chlorophyl-ish announcement of Spring season, puffed with pollen, but here peach leafs and cognac were added - so it does not smell like a luxurious product you get to spread on your face like L'Abeille. It is a honeyed note with herbaceous undertones and a depth that is both beautiful and welcoming.
The transition to the heart is smooth and continuous. Iris announces itself a bit salty and mineral and slowly blends even more with the honey becoming more feminine, more buttery then earthy. From there it will starts to bring purple-ish layers of violet notes, becoming slightly powdery. If you were trying to say the word ZDRAVETZ don't be frustrated. If you don't know Hungarian it seems almost impossible! All you need to know is that it is a geranium with woody tones.
The best is yet to come! Once you were presented to a whole lotta irises comes my iris-gourmet accord! Ambrette seeds with tolu, benjoim and cacao are simply a lick on the skin.  It goes to a Iris Ganache aura but much more luxurious and less sweet. In the composition of Iris Ganache Thierry used white chocolate - too sweet and too waxy-vanilla for my taste... here you will find a more sophisticated chocolat-y touch. 
Bitter almonds bridges with ambergris and the earthy accord are the final touch and once the dream is over (some hours later) you have the urge to start this journey all over again!! Yes It is for me a dream come true to me to see a perfume where the many facets of iris are presented, one layering another. 

To Ane the perfume was inspired by a Piazza; to me it brings one picture only to my mind: Van Gogh Irises.

I recall a very cold and rainy day in NYC during one Fall when my husband and I spent almost one entire day in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I sat down in front of Van Gogh's masterpieces and literally cried. Although I have the impression that these are copies because they have no protection whatsoever from people's touch and cameras... But anyways, original or not, it makes you cry because it is simply beautiful and genius.

La Signora is exactly what VG Irises is: harmonious, soft (gentle), sophisticated and amazingly unique.

The painting description by the Met:
"In May 1890, just before his release from the asylum at Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh painted four bouquets of spring flowers: two of roses, and two of irises, in contrasting formats and color schemes. Owing to his use of a fugitive red pigment, the "harmonious and soft" effect that he had sought in the Museum’s painting of Irises has been altered by the fading of the once pink background to almost white. Another still life from this series, Roses (1993.400.5), is on view in the adjacent gallery. Both were owned by the artist’s mother, who kept them until her death in 1907" (extracted from their website).

Van Gogh's Irises (1890) - Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection - NYC

Photo credit: + Q Perfume Blog

If one image can explain more than a 1000 words, that is LA SIGNORA:

IRISES BY SIMONE SHITRIT

Photo credit: + Q Perfume Blog

I took this picture with irises that I picked in my garden inspired by the painting, and today it represents a fragrance. My version of irises contained in a vial. It is the image of my very own blend!

Thank you so much Ane Walsh for making my dream come true! You are really a blessed soul! I love you!

Please stick around for the masculine complementary fragrance that Ane has also created for my husband so we can both share an iris moment together!