Esxence 2013 – Lecture on Tuberose
Polianthes tuberosa (Photo credit: kim77_au)
One of great privileges at Milano Esxence are lectures held from Osmotheque, Michael Edwards and other famous names and experts from the perfume world. Lectures are free of charge. First lecture I attended was about Tuberose, a flower which had not been used in perfumery until very lately. The scent is obtained by enflourage technique. It takes over 1200 kilos of buds to get 200 grams of tuberose absolute, which makes one of the most costly natural raw materials to use. So today synthetic substitute is generally used in commercial perfumes.
It is classified as "white floral", like jasmine and orange blossom. The span of facets this flower gives gets from metallic, medicinal, rubbery at the beginning to the intensive creamy, buttery at full bloom to the rotten, earthy, dewy when the flower dies.
We had a chance to try several so-called iconic tuberose perfumes, but first we were introduced to pure tuberose. After that we started to test fragrances among them was Robert Piguet's Fracas. Fracas created by Germaine Cellier was first launched in 1948 and reissued in 1998. It's perfume that is easy to love.
Next one was Chloë by Chloë (1975), a very romantic floral perfume. Created by IFF .
Very well-known perfume with tuberose was Giorgio from Giorgio Beverly Hills (1981), composed by Bob Aliano, which was so strong it was banned from restaurants due to huge sillage.
Ysatis (1984), amber, floral, woody perfume from Givenchy is still one of my old favorites. The nose behind is Dominique Ropion.
The following is not appreciated by many, but very well known to us all (even non-perfumistas). That is Poison (1985) from Christian Dior created by Eduard Flechier. Dark sensuality is brought out with flowers, spices, fruits, woods. Wearing this you cannot get unnoticed.
Panthere (1986) from Cartier is also one of fabulous perfumes in a gorgeous bottle. I find the bottle stopper like a piece of art. Created by Alberto Morillas this is another elegant amber, floral, spicy perfume.
Patricia Nicolaï created Number One in 1989 a lush perfume with jasmine, tuberose and orange blossom, and received an award for best perfume creator.
Not very successful but very beautiful perfume, and the bottle, is Fragile (1999) from Jean Paul Gaultier. It's creator is Francis Kurkdjian.
The must-try perfume in this range is Tubereuse Criminelle (1999) from Serge Lutens, created by Christopher Sheldrake. The opening of this one is really medicinal.
Mahora (2000) lovely floriental with tuberose and lots of ylang-ylang from Guerlain and created by Jean Paul Guerlain, wasn't on a market for long. I'm not sure what was the real reason for this but it is a great loss. Soon it was replaced by Mayotte and available only in Les Parisiennes series.
Of course no great perfume house shouldn't go without one tuberose scent in their range. The same stands for Caron's Tubereuse (2003). This scent is refreshed with citruses and is much lighter from all here mentioned fragrances. The nose is Richard Fraysse.
Carnal Flower (2005) from Frederic Malle, created by Dominique Ropion. This is the fragrance with the highest percentage of tuberose in the formula now in the market.
The conclusion is that this was the most interesting and inspiring lecture. I wouldn't mind wearing and owning any of above mentioned perfumes.
Many thanks to the lecturer Emmanuelle Giron from Osmotheque.
Neela Vermeire Creations Ashoka – new perfume
Neela Vermeire at her Esxence stand (2013)
At Esxence Milan I had an opportunity to try new perfume named Ashoka from Neela Vermeire Creations. Neela Vermeire created this pefrume in collaboration with perfumer Berthrand Duchafour. Neela explained the perfume's pyramid is revversed. That means it has base notes in positon of top notes. You can find that in Eau des Merveilles from Hermes.
Ashoka is a tribute to an emperor, whose own evolution from ruthless conqueror to benevolent emperor is reflected in Ashoka's journey from the fierce opening to softly floral heart and the gentle embrace of its richly complex drydown.
At Ashoka opening I smelled leather, maybe some galbanum or these were only crushed fig leaves. The effect is dry, green, balsamic. My first impression was that this is strange and so different from all other perfumes in Neela's collection. But very quickly fig milk and more flowery notes emerged. It is lactonic and with skin (at least mine) gets very nice. I wouldn't say gourmand, because there is not enough sweetness and other spicy elements. Tonka been just slighltly supports the fig-milk-skin mixture and what you get is like yor skin is covered body milk.
I was surprised by the lasting power of this perfume, which is quite long, even though the sillage is not big and perfume stays close to the skin. It is very confortable to wear but nevertheless quite unique.
Ashoka includes notes of fig leaves, leather, white and pink lotus, mimosa, fig milk, osmanthus, rose, water hyacinth, vetiver, styrax, incense, sandalwood, myrrh, tonka bean, fir balsam.
The perfume will be available in autumn 2013 in Eau de Parfum concentration.
There will be also new version of perfume Mohur, which will come in higher concentration. It will be available in the flacon of amethyst glass with a special panache (mist) spray. NVC perfumes will also be in new bottles designed by the perfume bottle designer legend Pierre Dinand. The new silver metal will have the NVC logo on it with Ashoka Dahrmachakra which has twenty four ridges on each side like the spokes on the wheel on the logo of NVC. Each spoke depicts one virtue. To me these bottles look so elegant and remind me of Art Deco era.
Neela's version of Dahrmachakra with stylized Eiffel Tower
You can get more information here in Serguey Borisov's interview with Neela here in Fragrantica.
Smoothie For Better Blood – Recipe
Hopefuly this will improve my poor blood, otherwise it just tastes good 
.
Recipe:
1 cup of yogurt with 3,5% fat
1 cup of almond milk
1 banana
1 handful of strawberies
1 beet (medium-sized)
1 orange
2 cm of fresh ginger - peeled and grated
3 tablespoons of agave syrup
pinch of Flower Power spice and flower mixture for decoration (optional) (from Sonnentor)
Mix all ingredients in a blender, except the decoration (if you want, you can mix that too) and decorate with Flower Power mixture for better look.Dont blend too long.
I like to drink it like it is, not too cold. Keep in refrigerator. It is best to use it in 1 day.
Esxence 2013 – Time Travel With Perfume
Always helpful - Cristiano Canali and Emmanuelle Giron - Osmotheque
After attending the Esxence - International Event of Artistic Perfumery, with almost 6.000 attenders in Milan, for the 3rd time, I decided to take it easy this year, therefore I tried only few perfumes. I almost "killed" my nose last year .
It is impossible to smell all that stuff there and it is even harder to get some impression after dipping a nose into few scents at short time. You are just able to say you like it or not, but not much more. To get samples is rarity and it is reasonable, because of large number of visitors and due to the fact that many new creations use rare or expensive materials.
Finding quite some new names between the exhibitors, missing some old ones, but generaly there were mostly the same as the previous 2 years, so I didn't have to catch up with all things missing all these years living in perfume ignorance and oblivion . It is advantage to have some mileage, at least with most of the existing products of the companies, so you have to check only new releases. And new releases are mostly presented at this or maybe some other large perfume event.
As usual I ran to the Osmotheque stand to see if there is something new. I tried Worth's Je Reviens from 1932, the great floral aldehydic perfume for women created by Maurice Blanchet. I'm not a huge fan of aldehydes and honestly, I didn't like this one. In the drydown it gets very skanky. The answer is in base notes that consist of sandalwood, tonka bean, amber, musk, violet, oakmoss, vetiver and incense.
After that I was offered to try Shocking by Elsa Schiaparelli from year 1937 created by Jean Carles. Actually I can't imagine how it was to wear this strong animalic, musky oriental floral perfume loaded with flowers, honey, spices and civet. It has a sillage to kill an elephant. After a week on a blotter it is still very powerful. If you want to be noticed just put a drop of this on and every single pair of eyes will be looking back at you. Not necessarily because of liking it . I should have tried this one at the very end. Everything after that seemed like blah! But how could I know that this is the one . Now you can't say you haven't been warned! The name of the perfume fits perfectly to what you get.
The next scent, much more in accordance with my taste was, Lanvin's woody leather chypre fragrance Scandal created in 1931 by Andre Frysse. Comparing Shocking to Scandal, is like comparing tiger and a kitten. First one loudly growling and the other one gently purring. That wouldn't be of course if I hadn't had tried the Shocking before. In normal circumstances the Scandal would be loud enough for average perfume wearer today. I would like to wear that. It's like soft suede, it has chypre character, but the vanilla, benzoin and a light incense soften the composition, a hint of the vetiver is present to the end. I guess this refreshes the juice.
Nina Ricci's Coeur Joie composed by Germaine Cellier to me is green white floral. It stays fresh throughout. It never gets sweet or powdery. Base have some woody background just for preventing it to from becoming too green. According to being launched in 1946 I find it quite modern.
Behind the scent Napoléon à Sainte-Hélène: L'Authentique Eau de Cologne de l'Empereur by Cosmalia lies a whole story. As we know Napoléon was exiled to the island of Saint-Helena in 1815 until his death in 1821 and he was obsessed with use of Eau de Cologne. At his imprisoning island he he ran out of the precious water and he was also refused to get some stock. So he asked faithful manservant of his, nicknamed Ali, to make a cologne based on ingredients available on the island with the help of formulas found in the library at Longwood and personal recollections. It has masculine herbal tones, with pine and bay leaves. Very refreshing indeed!
Jicky Extrait dated 1889 and as explained first version of the formula mastered by Aimé Guerlain. What a difference between this and the current edition! I love it! It opens with creamy lavender and in gentle background stays there to drydown. There are also citruses to add some sparkle and impression this is a masculine perfume. This was one of the first perfumes created with addition of synthetic materials. The heart is composed from orris, rose and vetiver. The base warms the freshness from the top and middle notes with adding patchouli, amber, musk and vanilla. This perfume is for men and women It is a masterpiece!
That is not all from the history lesson. More you will read in the next post...so stay online .
Esxence Milan 2013 – Perfume Fair
Meet me there from 21st - 24th March 2013. Get a glimpse into the Esxence 2012 in the video below. You can see me in 17th second of the video. I'm the one with the fire in the hair . Here is my report from Esxence 2012 - part one, part two and part three and from 2011 (that one is in only in slovene language).
Everything Wrong – Scented Artistic Project
If you are intrested how all the perfumes from year 2012 smell like, take a look at this project by Lernert & Sander. There you will also find a list of perfumes released in 2012.
Everything is a big bottle of perfume with a design that's reminiscent of a sample vial, containing extracts of each fragrance launched in 2012… that's 1,200 fragrances! A unique 1.6 L creation with an extraordinary scent.
The Civava’s Collection: Givenchy Organza for Women
Givenchy Organza EdP
I forgot how beautiful this perfume was. White florals: gardenia, jasmine and tuberose lying on a base of vanilla. Soft, sweet (nothing edible there), warm and opulent, but not too heavy. Sillage is moderate, longivety is great. Even after showering it was stil there. This is a dabbing bottle of eau de parfum. I think I had bought it in the year of release, that is in 1996 or maybe a year later. The perfumer is Sophie Labbe. Adorable bottle designed by Serge Manseau is gorgeous too (just from the front 
the back is plane). The perfume add and the bottle are according to what you get. Personally I would place this perfume under typical or classic floriental genre.
Givenchy Organza perfume add
I obviously liked white florals long before my fall in the rabbit hole of perfumes. I just didn't know that. I loved to wear this perfume a lot, and yesterday when I tried it again after many years, I was druged by it.
You can find one nice review here www.thenonblonde.com.
Checking the Perfume Closet
Here's my daughter checking my perfume closet. She does that regulary. She always picks up Dior's Dune first. She's got good taste 
.
My daughter sniffing Andy Tauer's Carillon pour un Ange
Carillon pour un Ange is one of my favorite perfumes. It's so close to the real lily of the valley. In this perfume you get whole; the greenery and powerful clean scent of the flower bells. To me this scent is so uplifting, I use it when I'm mentaly tired and need some boost. At my office I have a scented card sent by Andy and I sniff it when I need some awakening. Nice thing to keep in an office drawer.
The Civava’s collection: Ralph Lauren Safari – animal in me
This perfume was a love at first sniff. It still is my great perfume love. I never took the decision to buy a perfume so easily ever after. The picture above is from my own collection. The bottle on the left is bought in the early nineties and it quotes the date 1989 on the label below. The right one was bought some years later. Miniature is the youngest in my posession.
I still can't explain exactly what drags me to this perfume. It is true I have never met a perfume like this. Not even now when I have some mileage in a perfumeland.
Now I wear it rarely, because I go out now very rarely. This is not a perfume to wear in the office. I wear it when I want to make some kind of unspoken statement and that is:
Just look and don't touch. Yes, you have noticed me. Gooooddd! Now stay at the right distance, so you don't get hurt.
I wan't to be seen but not bothered!
What I like in this perfume is the right balance of ingredients in it. And it has great sillage. At least at the beginning and longevity of an elephant. So be careful when applying it. I prefer dabbing from spraying in this case. It opens with green galbanum and after a while, not very quick, it leads to flower heart where I smell lily of the valley, rose and jasmine. Here greenery lovely melt with flowers, slowly it gets to the resinous and balsamic base, but the flowers and slight green efect still linger around, just to make the composition complete and rounded. It never gets sweet or floriental, and that is what I appreciate. Safari is a definition of a chypre perfume for me.
As I compared the juices form both bottles, one to another at the same time, I couldn't smell significant difference between. I don't know about the later selling items. It is unfortunately not produced anymore, so I better stock up.
And the bottle fits the perfume perfectly. It reminds me of a colonial style. I guess crystal glasses for whiskey were or are cut this way. I still find the advertisment for that perfume so cute.
Safari was created by Dominique Ropion, and it seems I have a long relationship with this man, when I read the list of perfumes he created and the list of perfumes I own or I used do own.
Notes quoted at Basenotes are:
Top: galbanum, green notes, mandarin, aldehyde, hyacinth, orange daffodil, blackcurrant
Heart: muguet, rose, narcissus, carnation, orchid, honey, jasmine
Base: cedar, musk, vetiver, styrax, vanilla, amber, tonka bean, patchouli
You can read other reviews here: I Smell Therefore I Am, The Non-Blonde.
Picture below teggatz.com
Mona di Orio Les Nombres d’Or Oud – prefume review
My first impression after dabbing the perfume on my wrist was like I opened a woody closet with spilt cologne on a shlef, full of dust and dry rotten wood. The cologne effect stays for a few seconds. Actually Oud smells somehow near this, just multiply the effect of dryness and dry rottiness for a few times. A friend of mine Neela Vermeire allowed me to smell the essence of it. If you get the nose to close it has a razor sharp pungency. Oud or agarwood is said to be tough material to work with as it has so many facets. The smell of the material is dependent on the origin. Oud from Lhaos has the best qualities and the prices are in accordance to that. So many of the perfumers don't use real Oud although the names of the perfumes shoud lead you to believe so. Which is not in this case 
.
It is strong and dry and I hoped it won't stay that way for too long. Well it stays long enough to discourage you and somehow wanting you to get rid of it. But wait! Don't give up so quickly! If I learned something during my sniffing adventures, I learned to wait and expect unexpected. As soon as osmanthus and amber join the company, oud shows us the other face. Oh, the opening is so misleading. Mona's Oud gets gorgeous and almost addictive. I kept smelling my wrist like I'm a little obssesed.
Oud is the part Les Nombres d'Or collection and was created by very talented perfumer Mona di Orio, who sadly passed away last year aged only 42. For sure this is a great loss for the perfume world. Fortunately her perfumes stay with us and it is promised that her Signature collection will be recreated. The latest addition to Les Nombres d'Or collection is Rose Etoile de Hollande which is also getting many positive reviews.
The notes of the Oud are: Elemi Philippines, Green Mandarin from Calabre, Petitgrain Paraguay, Patchouli Indonesia, Absolute Osmanthus China, Nagarmotha India, Cedarwood from Atlas, Essential Oil Oudh Laos, Musk, Amber Gris.
Available in 100 ml or 3 x 10 ml Travel set Eau de Parfum Intense at the web site. You can also order a 7 ml sample or a lovely Discovery box.
Image: monadiorio.com