Patricia talks about an endless summer in a perfume bottle, from Bobbi Brown Beach to Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess.

In his novel Remembrances of Things Past, Marcel Proust used petite madeleines, little cakes shaped like scallop shells and dipped in tea as a literary device to bring his character instantly back in time. One sniff of Bobbi Brown’s Beach does the same thing to me. It transports me to a certain carefree summer many years ago, a summer of wearing madras shorts, skate boarding, kissing my first boyfriend, listening to the Beach Boys and Rolling Stones on the radio, and slathering on Coppertone, a popular American sun lotion.

Beach isn’t an exact match for Coppertone, but sweet jasmine and orange blossom combine deliciously with salty and marine notes in a way that is strongly reminiscent of it. It maintains the same balance of notes throughout, and there is no real progression from the top notes to the dry down. Although Beach wears very close to the skin, it lasts from five to six hours on me.

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French guidebooks often highlight local specialties, be it an Orléanais crayfish flan or Alsatian elderflower wine. That’s how I discovered the Provencal soap maker Marius Fabre.  While fantasizing of a vacation, I leafed through a book on the South of France and spotted a mention of Savon de Marseille, Marseille soap, produced according to traditional methods. Duly noted, Marius Fabre went onto my list of things to try.

Ever since I made my own scented soap as a first year perfumery trainee, I’ve been fascinated by the transformation that happens when fats, lye and perfume come together. One wrong ingredient, and a bar of snow white soap turns dirty yellow.  One more mistake–and the whole thing smells rancid, rather than delicious. So, when I stood with my nose pressed against a creamy bar of Marius Fabre’s jasmine soap, I knew that I had discovered something special.

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Maître Parfumeur et Gantier Santal Noble is my “reference” sandalwood fragrance, my baseline for other fragrances featuring this note.  It is part of MPG’s “Parfums du Levant” collection for men, the “Levant” broadly referring to a geographic area that is here stretched to include India and therefore the famous and now endangered Mysore sandalwood.

Although marketed to men, Santal Noble is, in true niche fashion, genderless.  Sandalwood connoisseurs might find the sandalwood note somewhat too mild, but Santal Noble gives me a rush of pleasure each time I wear it.  It is creamy, smooth, and I would go as far as to say, bewitching.

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Industry professionals and anyone interested in fragrance chemistry should take note of the Leipzig flavors & fragrances conference, which is to take place from September 11^th to 13^th, 2013. Organized by Philip Kraft and Johannes Panten, the event will cover a broad range of topics, including natural product chemistry, foods and flavors, perfumery and olfaction. Besides many prominent names in fragrance research and development (you can see the full list by downloading the program details), the conference will include lectures from perfumer Maurice Roucel of Symrise, artist Sissel Tolaas, and Etienne de Swardt of Etat Libre d’Orange.

The conference registration is currently open, but spaces are limited. For more information, please visit www.gdch.de.

September 11th to 13th, 2013
University of Leipzig
Lecture Hall Building (Hörsaalgebäude), Lecture Hall 9, 2nd floor
Augustusplatz
04109 Leipzig

Épice Marine is the 11th fragrance in the Hermessence collection from Hermès. Inspired by a meeting in Cancale, Brittany with chef and spice master Olivier Roellinger, it captures the scents of Brittany’s coast and  spices. Roellinger is renowned for his intricate spice blends, which are as complex as perfumes, and the interaction between the two creators inspired them both. Ellena went on to compose Épice Marine, while Roellinger–La Poudre des Bulgares, a blend of cardamom, vanilla, saffron and sesame to perfume yogurt.

The chef gave Ellena a taste of toasted cumin seeds, which sparked the idea for Épice Marine. Unlike fresh grains, toasted cumin doesn’t have the sweaty, animalic brashness, but it smells woody, caramelized and sweet. Other notes of Épice Marine include bergamot, cardamon, cinnamon, watery and smoky accents. Available starting October 2013 at Hermès boutiques.

Roellinger’s La Poudre des Bulgares is currently available at his store in Paris and at epices-roellinger.com.

Adding on: if you read French, I recommend taking a look at the Vanity Fair article Le Mariage d’un Chef et d’un Nez. It describes how Ellena and Roellinger met and how Épice Marine was born.

Via press release