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Lostmarc'h Lann-Ael

I went to Brittany on holiday once. A long time ago. I recall the wild beaches, the beautiful scenary, the incredible food as a jumble now. However, one memory stands out strongly for me as a then New Yorker: sitting in a town square at 10:30 at night eating buckwheat crepes at an outdoor table of a cafe. It was just getting dark and the warm crepe was perfect.

No place I've been in the US is far enough north to have such incredibly long days. I felt full of wonder. And the quality of the light ebbing was completely different from anything I'd ever experienced.

I'm sure we had savoury crepes first, but I just recall the sweet one for dessert. I don't remember what I had within it (I'm sure it was a bit more complicated than just the crepe dusted with icing sugar) -- I recall the slightly rough texture of the flour, the nutty sweetness in the eating and the tinge of vanilla.

That's the Lostmarc'h fragrance Lann-Ael to a 'T' and it has me back sitting in that square, just a light cardi over a summer dress, astonished at the light and the flavours.

This is most decidedly a gourmand perfume, but it is gentle rather than in-your-face, as some gourmands can be. Cereals and vanilla, it is most surely mouth-watering, but soft and close to the skin.

Notes for this are buckwheat cereals, milk, apple and vanilla, which sound like breakfast. Don't let that deter you: this is thoroughly perfumy and very enticing. I think there's something citrus in this as well, though it might be the apple that gives it a tart edge, which keeps it from being overly sweet.

It is my pleasure that Scent-and-Sensibility Perfume is stocking Lann Ael, which is available in 100ml bottles in eau de toilette. Come have a look on Thursday.

PS The Lostmarc'h bottles are beautifully decorated

An ode to the labelling machine

I needed something to label the sample vials. I've seen all kinds of approaches by stores and companies to this issue: using 1ml pull-top vials attached to a paper cover, vials with labels made from clear tape with printed coloured or black text, vials with white labels cut to size.

Samples are a big deal at Scent-and-Sensibility Perfume, so I wanted a simple, straight-forward and fast means of labelling these little glass beauties that give you an inexpensive means of trying a fragrance before committing to a full bottle.

On to the internet I went, sticking in various search phrases until I landed with this site -- www.the-labelling-warehouse.com. Now, there are quite a number of handheld machines out there which purport to address exactly my sort of need. But, one has to read the small print to get a sense of whether said machines really fill the need in a truly appropriate manner. I looked at a lot of sites. I found this

on the one mentioned above. It does exactly what I need it to do.

Don't knod off yet. Now, I want to talk about samples. While I'm not wholly against buying something untested I no longer do it because of samples. However, there aren't many sites in the UK that offer them, which is why I'm prattling on now.

In the run-up to launching Scent-and-Sensibility Perfume, I've spoken with a fair number of people about perfume and my site. As a long-time perfumista it's been a bit of a surprise to me how many people buy their perfume without really trying it. They sniff the cap of the bottle and think, "Ooh, that's nice -- I'll have that". They buy (quite frequently at Duty Free) but once they get the bottle home or to their hotel room and spray it on, they realise 1) this doesn't suit me at all, 2) this is too strong or too light or 3) this juice turns into something bloody awful.

If you've got a large amount of money to throw around, who cares. However, if, like most of us, you try to stick to some sort of budget, this can be deeply frustrating.

I recall three particular times I did buy unsniffed (and unsampled) because I thought the notes list implied I would love something, with the following results.

* Frederic Malle's Une Rose: Supposed to be a dark, slightly odd rose, with a truffle (the ones pigs find, not made from chocolate) accord. Bottle arrived, I sprayed. Beautifully composed, high-quality ingredients. I got beautiful rose underscored by ... chicken soup. I just couldn't get past it. Gave the bottle away to someone who didnt' get chicken soup.

* Frederic Malle again. This time, Le Parfum de Therese. Melon and leather. Really really great. Wonderful for those days in the office when I needed the equivalent of an 1980's big-shouldered suit. But, alas, other than that it wasn't 'me' at all. I think I gave that away too.

* Serge Lutens Muscs Kublai Khan. Now, I bought this as a split with someone else, so the dosh dropped on it didn't hurt quite as much. Heavy-duty musk; seriously animalic: that's what the PR says. Afraid on me it's a fairly gentle, floral musk. Not at all bad -- again, beautifully rendered. However, it just wasn't love -- or, for that matter, like. The bottle it came in went off to the person I was splitting it with. My decant still lives at the top of my closet. I take it down every once in a while and sniff it. I can think of one time in the past two years I've put it on -- and that was in order to do a post here, not for the pleasure of it.

In each of the instances noted above, I'm sure I wouldn't have bought the fragrances if I'd sampled them -- and that would have meant I wouldn't have had to think about the spend when I did find something I adored.

So, that's why I think samples are the bees' knees -- and why a sampling programme will be central to Scent-and-Sensibility Perfume's offerings.

Basenotes award for Tauer Perfumes' L'Air du Desert Marocain

Many congratulations to the perfumer Andy Tauer. His gorgeous and evocative L'Air du Desert Marocain has won the award for best men's niche fragrance in the 9th Annual Basenotes Fragrance Awards. This is a most glorious, resinous concoction: a unique and memorable smoky floral perfume. While this won as a masculine, it would be equally beautiful on a woman.

LDDM, as it is sometimes abbreviated, second among the fragrances that Andy has released, gets a five star rating in Turin and Sanchez's Perfumes: The Guide, with a thoroughly fulsome review.

In addition to his success with L'Air du Desert, Tauer's beautiful leather, Lonestar Memories, took a bronze medal in the awards.

It's wonderful to see niche fragrances getting more attention and gaining accolades for composition. 

The Basenotes site (www.basenotes.com) is a treasure trove of information on perfume, both mass market and niche -- a wonderful resource for anyone interested in learning more about fragrance.

If you go to Andy's site, he has posted a celebratory giveaway on his blog (see www.tauerperfumes.com/blog).

I am so deeply happy to be stocking Tauer Perfumes at Scent-and-Sensibility Perfume.

From 30 July, you can visit www.scent-and-sensibility.co.uk for a bottle or a 2ml sample vial of all Tauer Perfumes offerings. I look forward to introducing you to his fragrances or providing a new bottle to replace the one that is down to its last quarter-inch of juice.

A local scent gathering

In anticipation of the launch of Scent-and-Sensibility Perfume on 30 July, this past Tuesday evening a friend who lives nearby organised a small perfume gathering to kick off the process of publicising my new venture.

A group of eight came together to sample some of the fragrances I will be offering. Only a few of those present are regular perfume-wearers, so it proved an educational as well as an aesthetic experience. And, it was wonderful fun.

After everyone had procured a glass of wine and some food, I gave a short introduction on the venture, on the world of perfumistas and the perfume blogsphere, on the niche perfume segment, and finally on the perfumers I will be stocking.

Then, we launched into sampling: from the glorious incense of L'Air du Desert Marocain, via the heady floral of Catarina de Medici, through the poignant intensity of Bell'Antonio and the mouth-watering Vaniglia del Madagascar, participants discussed differing preferences and the peculiarities of skin chemistry--or why does this work on you and not me?

The discussion flowed: who was more drawn to heady florals, who to soapy fragrances; surprise on being drawn to citruses or animalics after having worn a soft floral for years. The table was covered with bottles and blotters.

Participants listed the fragrances they'd worn in the past and where they had tended to buy perfumes.

While I've gone sniffing with fellow perfumistas in the past, it is quite different doing this sort of thing with people who aren't obsessed. They raised new questions, so I had to go off afterwards and look up several things (eg, how to explain certain notes more clearly), and wanted the concept of top, middle and base notes explained quite precisely.

We discussed the use of naturals versus aromachemicals and what the effect of the new European regulations (the IFRA's amendment 43) might be on old favourites -- what might be reformulated and was it worth stocking up now in anticipation of a perfume changing for the worse.

The several hours flew by. Towards the end of the evening, I brought out my copy of Perfumes: The Guide. More fascination and further discussion. Participants were surprised by a perfume 'bible' and loved the idea they could look up reviews of old favourites. I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon sees a surge in purchases of The Guide.

It is a true pleasure introducing the world of perfume in such a manner. I expect to be doing more of these sorts of gatherings once Scent-and-Sensibility Perfume launches and will report back on them.

Perfume Houses: I Profumi di Firenzi

I Profumi di Firenze fragrances were originally inspired by secret formulas commissioned by Catarina de Medici.

In 1966, perfumer Giovanni di Massimo discovered 16th century manuscripts giving details on the formulas for these perfumes.

Scent-and-Sensibility Perfume is pleased to be offering eight of these lovely scents:

Ambra del Nepal: A gentle, sweet amber. Cardamom, vanilla and amber; a whisper of woods and incense.

Catarina de Medici:  A knowing, heady floral. Damascus rose, lily of the valley and Florentine iris over a musky base.

Limone di Sicilia: A tart, green citrus. Green notes and lemon peel. The smell of lemon groves in the summer sun, with a bit of mint.

Magnolia Purpurea (Magnolia Dolce): A sweet, creamy floral. Sweet, light and green.

Spezie de Medici: A burst of spices. The scent of orange overlaid with cinnamon and clove.

Vaniglia del Madagascar: A luscious vanilla. Sweet and floral, with a touch of incense and a bit of caramel.

Violetta di Bosco: A candied floral. Lush and sugary, with a hint of green.

Zagara: A lush, sweet floral. Heady and intoxicating. Strong-scented neroli and orange zest: a walk through the  groves at dusk.

Full-bodied and unique, presented in plain but beautifully decorated bottles, these eau de parfum compositions embody the romance of Italy.

Perfume Houses: Lostmarc'h

Lostmarc'h is a beach as far west as you can go in continental Europe. It is located in the Finistère – specifically, on the Crozon peninsula.

The fragrances produced by Lostmarc'h reflect the Breton heritage and the area's proximity to and dependence on the sea. These scents are idiosyncratic, unusual, very much of Brittany.

Scent-and-Sensibility Perfume will stock four Lostmarc'h fragrances initially. I am very pleased to be able to offer

*  The sparkling sea-spray of Ael-Mat, with notes of heather, gorse, seaweed and jasmine.

*  The bracing citrus Din-Dan, with notes of lemon, mint and peach blossom.

*  The tender and gentle Lann-Ael, with notes of buckwheat and other cereals, touches of milk, apple and vanilla.

*  The fresh and subtle L'Eau de L'Hermine, with notes of lavender, heliotrope, bergamot, grapefruit and white musk.

Lostmarc'h is a wild place, with the feel of the end of the world. Lostmarc'h fragrances are a product of Brittany's unique natural environment: the perfumes provide a scented portal into the area's particular magic and mystery.

Perfume Houses: Hilde Soliani

Years ago I attended a wine-tasting course. My strongest memory from it is the intense scent of basil coming off of a big old Italian Barolo. The wine tasted wonderful, but it smelled extraordinary.

It was as if the wine was telling the story of its origins. In its flavour and very deeply from its bouquet, it related its history: the age of the vines, the texture of the soil, the fertiliser used, the other plants growing alongside the vines, the time it took for the grapes to ripen. It was all there for me to read, appreciate and enjoy. My memory of it is strong 15 years after the original experience.

The Italian perfumer Hilde Soliani does this sort of story-telling with the fragrances she produces. Inspired by her experiences, she weaves together perfumes that conjure relationships, memories, the experience of desire and pleasure.

Hilde was the first among the perfumers I contacted to agree to my stocking her fragrances. I was over the moon: I was already completely entranced by the tobacco-coffee fragrance, Bell'Antonio, an homage to her father.

The second, Teatro Olfattivo Di Parma (2008), celebrated her love for the local theatre.

The most recent one, Profumo e Gusto in Libertà, focuses on her experience of beautiful foods.

Hilde's perfume-making reflects her passion for the life she lives and incorporates the breadth of her experience.

Initially, Scent-and-Sensibility Perfume will stock the glorious Bell'Antonio, the joy-infused fruity-floral I Tuo Tulipano, and the green and earthy Stecca, based around the scent of tomato. Over time, I will add more of Hilde's wonderful, evocative perfumes.

Perfume Houses: Tauer Perfumes

                “A good fragrance should tell a story, maybe it is a story that you
                 have already sniffed in a different context. But by changing the 
                 context, the entire story seems to become fresh and new
                 and exciting”.

These words from perfumer Andy Tauer of Tauer Perfumes jibe absolutely with my own perception of what makes a good fragrance.

After I first contacted him about potentially stocking his fragrances at my new venture, we had to back and forth a bit to get a sense of each other's motivation (you can get something of a feel for those discussions in Andy's post about our collaboration on www.tauerperfumes.com/blog). Contrary to the deeply cynical and bottom-line-motivated world of mass-market perfume, Andy is completely idealistic and passionate about what he does.

Andy came to perfumery by chance and is self-taught. He has a background as a chemist (certainly useful for perfumery) and a PhD in molecular biology. But, his first perfume came into being as something of a fluke: a fragrance created for a friend's shop in Zurich, which had Moroccan products. So, the first fragrance, Le Maroc Pour Elle, a heady rose and jasmine, was born.

That was 2005. Eight fragrances later (well, 10 if you include the now discontinued Orris and Hyacinths and a Mechanic, which is a travelling experiment that you can read about on Andy's website) Tauer Perfumes is a very firmly established niche perfumery.

From Le Maroc Pour Elle, via the astonishing L'Air du Desert Marocain, to the newest release, the cinnamon-spiked Une Rose Chypree, Andy has created absolutely unique, surprising and beautiful stories in a bottle. These are full-bodied, complex creations – not only do they smell gorgeous, they make you think and wonder as well and I am overjoyed to be able to offer the full line at Scent-and-Sensibility Perfume.

A heady new adventure: The next step

When I started writing this blog at the beginning of April, I entitled the first post 'A heady new adventure'.

The blog was the first step in something more wide-ranging.

It was a platform from which to enter the perfume discussion-world, which has been wonderfully fun and interesting.

However, this website is about to expand, to enter the second step of its development. 

As of 30 July, the site will open as a niche perfume store under the name Scent-and-Sensibility Perfume. The next step in the adventure.

Fragrances will be offered online only and I'll be starting out small: four perfume houses initially and shipping to the UK only.

Scent-and-Sensibility Perfume is very much a labour of love (with the idea of hard graft underscored here). For UK-based readers, I do hope you visit the 'store' from its launch a week on Thursday: I'll be offering bottles, and a comprehensive sample service will be available. As a long-time perfumista, I view sampling as integral to the experience.

I've put much thought into how the site is set up. I hope visitors find it easy to navigate and intuitive.

And how does the blog fit into this? It will definitely continue: you will be able to reach it from www.scent-and-sensibility.co.uk/blog and from a link on the home page.

But over the next month or so, I will be posting about building up the ecommerce end of things: about the perfumers I will be carrying, about their fragrances, about the process of setting up this business. You can read about the perfumers from tomorrow.

So, on to the next step in my heady new adventure. I want to thank you all for reading so far and very much hope you will stay with me as the story unfolds.

A couple of musks plus some thoughts on chemicals and chemistry ... and a teaser

I had intended to post on a men's fragrance that had caught my eye, but it turned out to be quite generic when sprayed on ... and then I saw the bottle of Kiehl's Original Musk Blend Number 1 eau de toilette. I'd been meaning to try Kiehl's Musk Oil for quite a while, but this would have to do.

I'd read that this was a reasonably pongy musk, though not as strong as the original oil. Well, I'm a girl who likes her animalics. Off we go, I thought.

It started out as a lovely clean, floral musk. Definitely a 'good' fragrance, but not what I had been expecting at all. It went along like this for a while and then shifted into high-end musky soap. I thought I would probably be writing this off as nice but too nice. I went in search of a notes list and found that the mix includes bergamot, ylang ylang and among other things.

Ormonde Jayne Tolu

It's supposed to be summer, but we've entered into a very windy, rainy not-very-warm period. I was looking through the samples and came out with Ormonde Jayne Tolu. This is definitely not a warm weather fragrance. It certainly works on a windy, rainy day -- and I wanted an excuse to post about it.

Ormonde Jayne's fragrance Tolu is among her first offerings. It is a big, rich orientalwith very strong sillage and presence. Tolu is warmth personified. It is a beautifully dressed woman moving through a room at a party drawing every eye her way.

This is not a brash fragrance, not an '80s oriental. It is smoother, more seamless. Exceptionally well composed and a bit off the beaten track, I would highly recommend lovers of oriental-type fragrances sample this one.

By Killian Beyond Love

Tuberose is a stunningly beautiful flower. The strong, tall stems topped with lines of creamy, heady-scented blossom look gorgeous in a garden. Four or five stems grouped in a vase make for a singular centre-piece. Among my favourite flowers, I find tuberose a difficult scent to wear, however.

By Killian Beyond Love is a very true rendering of the fragrance of tuberose, even down to the strange rubbery accord that is one of the most interesting aspects of the scent of the flower itself.

On Iris: Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist and L'Artisan Iris Pallida

I wasn't that aware of irisin perfumery until I fell head-over-heels in love with Andy Tauer's now-discontinued limited edition Orris, which I sampled based a rush of positive blog reviews. After that, I was fascinated. I'm happy to have a go at anything with this note. So, today it's two fragrances: Serge Lutens' Iris Silver Mist, which is a bell jar fragrance (ie, a Serge Lutens Exclusive only available from Paris) and L'Artisan Parfumeur's Iris Pallida. These scents are very different from one another and in the end neither worked on my chemistry.

First, Iris Silver Mist.

Now, straight off: this is really really weird on me. Initially, I get sweet metallic carrot. Intensely unpleasant -- close to scrubber, actually. This has to be one of the coldest fragrances I have ever encountered.

After a while some dirt peeks through, and after around an hour and a half, this has quieted down significantly to become a gentle musky-rooty fragrance.

Hilde Soliani Stecca

Thursday was sunny again, after a few days of serious rain. But, it was cooler as well. So, not fair. I want hot and sunny.

I put on Stecca, as I said I would. I am deeply deeply enamoured of this fragrance, which is great combination of beautiful, interesting and perplexing.

Who'd'a thunk tomatoes could be so compelling and gorgeous. Not your ususual perfumery ingredient. However, tomato sorbet works quite well -- and that's a bit off in left field for cuisine.

Crabtree & Evelyn Sandalwood and some thoughts on garden smells after the rain

I had read on the Makeup Alley website that Crabtree & Evelyn's US stores group had applied for Chapter 11 protection. In the UK, all seems to be well. So, I stopped by my local (reasonably local, as in Hampstead) store for a look around.

Because I am forever on the lookout for good sandalwoodscents I decided to try out the one offered by C&E.

It is straight-forwardedly called 'Sandalwood' and is quite straight-forward in composition, which I found unsurprising.

Ethereal 2: The Different Company Sel de Vetiver

Sel de Vetiver is the sixth fragrance from the French niche perfume house, The Different Company. The nose on this is Celine Ellena, the daughter of Jean-Claude. She took over as house nose when JCE went off to Hermes.

While I enjoy some other TDC fragrances (in particular Jasmin de Nuit), I'm am entranced by this. It is simply a very beautiful rendering of the idea of skin drying after a swim in the sea. There are other fragrances that have played with this idea (first to mind is Antonia's Flowers Tiempe Passate with its use of Montauk rose), but this is a 'purer' rendering of that glorious fragrance.

Ethereal 1: Hermes Un Jardin Sur le Nil

Rleased in 2005, Un Jardin Sur le Nil is the second in Hermes' Garden scents from the in-house nose Jean-Claude Ellena. The making of this fragrance was followed by Chandler Burr in his book, The Perfect Scent. It is a very interesting journey, very worth following.

This is strongly citrus initially. So, why ethereal? Because I find it fits, in my head at least, among the 'ideas and experiences' fragrances. That may be because I read about it in between trying it several times. I do, however, find it a somewhat cerebral, a fragrance that draws you in to thinking quite a bit about how it was put together. Also, however, it can be hard to get to grips with: it morphs a bit on the skin.

Neil Morris Midnight Tryst (Vault Fragrance)

Hunting around in my sample box for something to write about, I came across the vial of Neil Morris's Vault Fragrance Midnight Tryst. I'd broken this out at a dinner party several months ago. It received a very intense positive response from a number of very different people.

To a person, my group of samplers found this to be seriously sexy. It's a deep, dark, resinous fragrance. A definite head-turner.

Tom Ford White Patchouli

I'm not overly fond of Tom Ford. I seem to recall he did interesting things while at Gucci, but since leaving his image implies overly smooth and oily to me.

The fragrances produced post-Gucci while he collaborated at Estee Lauder get good writeups. He seems to have followed the more-is-more trajectory, however, by releasing a lot of different things very quickly.

Since I love patchouli as a note I thought I'd have a go at his White Patchouli.

The Different Company Bois d'Iris

Around a year ago, I did some sampling of irisfragrances, looking for one that captured the smell of the small wild irises I'd encountered in Devon, in the south-west of England. Among the scents that I tried, the one that came closest to the woody, mossy and moist but also slightly floral character of those irises was The Different Company's Bois d'Iris.

While this starts as a really good skin scent--warm, soft and musky--it quickly develops more. An astringency comes out. It becomes rooty as well as having the powdery-metallic smell and feel I have found in other iris-based perfumes.

Paloma Picasso Mon Parfum

I'm not sure why I've started July's posts with Paloma Picasso. It did seem an interesting thing to put on the right wrist when I had Calvin Klein CKone on the left: a study in contrasts.

Indeed, it did turn out to be a study in contrasts: gorgeous (the PP) versus mediocre (the Calvin Klein). But I think it was the air conditioning in the store that lulled me into putting on what is decidely a cool weather scent on a day when it was 30-plus degrees here.

Created in 1984 for Paloma Picasso by the nose Francis Bocris, I sampled the eau de parfum and this is decidedly classy, but it also has something of the diva about it.