Victoria: 2669 posts

Who was the perfumer behind Estée Lauder’s Knowing, a chypre of roses tangled up with dark moss? For many years, Lauder, like many other companies, didn’t put the perfumers into the limelight, and this is why Elie Roger’s name is not often linked with Knowing if you search for the information online. Roger worked for the fragrance house of Firmenich, and he signed both Knowing (1988) and Clinique Wrappings (1990). While his portfolio wasn’t as extensive as that of some other perfumers, he had a distinctive style, and both Knowing and Wrappings remain beloved classics.

Roger passed away on Nov. 19, 2010, after a long career, which started in 1946 in Grasse, France, his hometown. He worked for 20 years at Firmenich, both in New York and Paris, and he received the American Society of Perfumers’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. Since he crafted two American classics as well as some other interesting fragrances, it’s well-deserved recognition.

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Bonfires are being prepared on the sandy beach lining the Vorskla, a river that cuts Poltava in half and hugs our hamlet within the city’s suburbs. One group of girls is busy weaving wreaths from wild flowers. Heaps of daisies, yarrow and cornflowers are spread out on the ground around them. Further along the bank, grills are being set up, and people are staking out spots with towels and empty crates. It is still early enough, several hours before the sun takes a dip in the river. The scent of hot sand, hay, wild thyme, cigarette smoke and water lilies hangs heavy in the still air. We are waiting for Ivan Kupala’s Eve.

Ivan Kupala is the Slavic version of the midsummer festival marking the summer solstice. According to the old style Julian calendar used by the Orthodox Church, it’s celebrated on the night of 6/7 July in Ukraine. (In neighboring Poland, Noc Kupały, just like the Swedish midsummer celebrations, takes place on 23/24 June.) Ivan means John (as in John the Baptist) and Kupala comes from the Slavic word for bathing. Although Christian traditions are woven into the festival, the roots are clearly pagan. Water and fire intertwine in various rites, and the river is worshiped as much as the saint himself. Today, the celebrations may involve more beer and barbecue than romantic rituals, but women still float wreaths in the streams to divine their future. Candles are still lit on the river bank. Couples still jump over the bonfire to test the strength of their relationship.

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This week is a holiday for my American readers as they celebrate the 4th of July, and for me, it’s a week of family activities in Ukraine with my grandmother and my mom–going for walks together, watching movies, talking, and of course, cooking. You might remember the cherry blossoms during my May visit, and now, all trees are covered with jewel-like fruit. I’ve already set my sights on a tree near the hammock for harvesting this week. There will be brioche buns with cherries, cherry strudel, cherry compote, and chicken in cherry sauce. And of course, my grandmother’s “royal cherry jam”. I will smell of cherry juice and my fingers will be permanently stained purple from pitting pounds of dark fruit.

While I’m pitting cherries and collecting scent impressions around Poltava, my grandmother’s hometown, our Scent Diary is here (Bois de Jasmin’s reviews and articles will be back on Monday.) It’s a place where we can share fragrances we encounter, good and bad, perfumes we wear and the scents around us. It’s a way to sharpen our sense of smell, but also just to enjoy the fragrance hobby in a different way.

Whether you write down 1 recollection or 10 matters less than simply reminding yourself to smell. You can add as many comments as you wish. You can comment today or over the course of the week; this thread will always be open. Of course, do share what perfume you’re wearing or what particularly good scented products you’ve discovered.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin

If you love Shalimar Parfum Initial as much as I do, consider stocking up, because Guerlain is discontinuing this gourmand perfume with an iris twist (along with its flanker, Parfum Initial L’Eau). There will be a new Shalimar interpretation called Shalimar Souffle de Parfum. It’s described as tender, warm, and enveloping, featuring notes of bergamot, lemon, mandarin, jasmine sambac, orange blossom water absolute, vanilla from India and Tahiti, and white musk.

“To emphasize and give to the orange blossom its honeyed notes, Thierry Wasser used orange blossom water absolute. This absolute is the result of a very specific process. First step, distillation, to obtain the orange blossom water, then, extraction, to collect the precious absolute. This powerful absolute accentuates the floral trail of the fragrance.”

It will be available next month at Guerlain boutiques and counters. Via Guerlain.com (thank you to Jaime K for the news)

“If you like Huile Divine, you should try Parfum Divin,” said the red lipsticked Caudalie sales associate at the local pharmacy, looking bored as she enumerated its features, carefully folding her manicured fingers one by one–trendy scent, big sillage and the fact that it smells exactly like the dry oil.

Since Caudalie’s Huile Divine is easily as fragrant and tenacious as any perfume, I didn’t understand why the last point was a draw. Wouldn’t it make sense just to buy the dry oil and have not only the perfume but also a terrific skincare product? But what the beautiful Caudalie rep didn’t mention was that Parfum Divin follows the same idea of Nuxe’s Prodigieux, Le Parfum–take the aroma of the cult favorite dry oil and turn it into perfume.

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