My very own MASCULINE BLEND by Ane Walsh

OFIR BY ANE WALSH

Photo credit: + Q Perfume Blog/Ane Walsh

I love the idea of a couple sharing perfumes. I also love pairing fragrances. For example, when I wear Narciso Rodriguez for Her I want my husband to wear Encre Noir by Lalique - read the article when Mr. Noir meets Lady Rodriguez (obs: it has sexual content); when I wear Un Jour D'Hermés I want him to wear Terre D'Hermés...

So the idea of presenting him with an Iris themed fragrance was also a dream come true for me. The starting point of this fragrance was to develop a masculine version of my LA SIGNORA but with a masculine side. A bad boy in leather jacket.  I told Ane walsh I wanted a leathery side of my fragrance - she offered suede and I loved the idea of a soft leathery note. I also told her that I love pink pepper notes and that in fact I am in a phase that I want to smell pink pepper all the time. 

Fading Gigolo

Photo credit: NYT

PERFUME REVIEW

Name: OFIR

Launch Year: 2014

Customized Edition

Perfumer: Ane Walsh

Gender: Masculine

Family: Floral - Leathery

Rating: ♡♡♡♡♡

The olfactive notes are most of the olfactives notes of LA SIGNORA:

Bee wax absolute, peach leafs, rosewood, cognac, Iris Fiorentine absolute, orris tincture, iris mimosa absolut, violet, polen, calamus, zdravetz(*), Marrocan Rose, ambrette, white musk, tolu balm, benjoim, cacao, bitter almonds, ambergris tincture, earth blend adding hindu Musk, styrax, linden blossom and of course pink pepper.

IMPORTANT: I forgot to add an important detail in my last article about La Signora perfume review: TIME. Time is crucial for a fragrance to mature and since these both blends are "babies" at this point, I will have to come back later to update on my description of both fragrances. 

So, for now this is what I have about OFIR:

The opening is Boozy - dark with notes of cognac and honey, just like mine, although much less honeyed than La Signora, it contains an almost hidden rubbery touch to it that makes the entire difference to the overall concept. It reminds me of Oud perfumes but Ane swears she haven't added Oud notes. It does have that smoky musky resinous smell of Oud anyways...She says it is Hina from India - that mix of oils including valerian, henna(Gulhinna), turmeric, nutmeg, cardamom, jasmine, rose, oakmoss and many other notes (yes, Hina is quite complex to make!)

It is not a boyish perfume. You have to be a man with a huge M factor to wear it (or wish to have the M factor).
If you watched Fading Gigolo you will understand that one does not need to be good looking to have women on their feet. One needs to be a MAN with a the M factor. So in a nutshell OFIR is Fioravante (played by John Turturro) - a man who knows his way with the ladies.
The iris notes were tuned down, but still having a presence that makes me feel in heaven. It is smoking good and once the resinous accent fades away the leather comes forward and the fragrance becomes more sensual.

Fact is that this perfume is really more suitable for colder days for its depth and smokiness, which is giving me the urge to make a flanker already since we are heading to summer... I will still need a lot irises and pink peppers!

Trouble with the Curve - PART TWO

If you haven't read part one yet, click HERE, before reading part two.

"Just as curveballs, perfumes create illusions. Perfumers combine chemical or natural ingredients to create olfactory representations, and this is what it makes them so special".

Obs.: Understanding here the term illusion as something that contains an olfactory awareness, it contains a sensorial abstract quality (effluvia), but no tangible or visual quality. Also understand the term illusion as a distortion of reality - as an example - a rose perfume does not represent an actual rose, but a illusion of a rose, an interpretation.

If perfumers are like baseball pitchers, what seems to be the Trouble with the Curve?

I have been hearing in the blogosphere, perfume forums, perfume groups or even outside the internet universe, things like "I am going to develop my perfume line", or "I bought a kit of scents and I am making perfumes", " I just finished a perfume making workshop and I will send you my perfume", or even things like "I know that if I would have the ingredients, I am sure that I could make better perfumes than the ones they sell today"...etc, etc...Perfume bloggers, perfume enthusiasts, perfume critics started to be adventurous and are developing fragrances. 

Fact is, that with a developed sensibility and some knowledge of scents everyone could end up with nice, let's say "vetiver, incense or rose perfume".  And they can eventually end up selling well, and the brand become the next hip indie. No doubt about it,  I have reviewed a few here. But the bitter truth is that their perfumes will enter only to the little league category, and with time and some luck (or with the help of good reviews) get even to the Minor League. That means that these so called "self-tought" perfumers will learn how to pitch fastballs and off- speeds, but they won't have what it takes to pitch a curveball. They will not have the ability to create a classic, or an iconic fragrance. They will not be able to create illusions, but only perfumes that smell nice.

The Trouble with the Curve is that it needs trainning. Proper professional training. One does not pitch a curveball simply because it has a "good hand for baseball".

It takes time to learn the perfumer's profession. A couple of years of technical education (as in a degree in chemistry and a post graduation in perfumery - such as Isipca maybe); years of training ( of actually working in a lab to become a master perfumer);and a sensorial inner journey called experience of learning how to translate emotions, sensations and imaginary hedonic values into fragrances.

It takes a lot of training in the baseball field to get to the professional league and become, per say, a pitcher of the NY Yankees, or Dodger's (you name your favorite team)! 

So don't get me wrong here. I am not saying that these perfumistas should leave the perfume making business because they are not good enough. I am saying something else: You have already the interest and the money to actually make a difference in the perfume industry, so go get your master in perfumery. Go learn how to pitch a curveball! We want to see you in the field pitching for the Yankees! 

The second Trouble with the Curve is that, in perfumery, training is not the only necessary condition to create great fragrances. If the market is a baseball field, we haven't been seeing a lot of creative players these days.

Perfumes classics or hits have been slightly changed and named differently. Perfumes became very ephemeral, like fashion trends. As an example, lets take one of the latest trends in perfumery: oud. 1000s of brands ran to their perfumers to create the newest OUD fragrance.  Oud this, Oud that...how many Oud fragrances were really creative compositions that could enter to the "Baseball Hall of Fame"? Name one fragrance where OUD was the essential component to translate or represent an outstanding illusion?

I leave you to answer that until the next game...