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Parfums de Nicolaï presents a new collection called Oud. Amber Oud and Rose Oud are two new launches built around this rich woody note.  According to the press release, ” ‘I have created perfumes based on oud because I wanted to enrich my collection of powerful and long lasting fragrances’ explains Patricia de Nicolaï. ‘I wanted to combine the extraordinary richness of agarwood with amber for one perfume, and for the other, with rose, all the way retaining the tradition of French elegance.’ Patricia de Nicolaï added noble essences of patchouli, Atlas cedarwood, castoreum, tonka bean, costus or nagarmotha to magnify her oud.”

Amber Oud includes notes of lavender, thyme, sage, davana, cinnamon, saffron, agarwood, Atlas cedar, patchouli, sandalwood, vanilla, tonka bean, styrax, musk, castoreum and amber.

Rose Oud features raspberry, davana, osmanthus, rose, lily of the valley, agarwood, patchouli, sandalwood, vanilla, musk, castoreum and amber.

Rose Oud & Amber Oud will be available in 30ml (58 €) and 100 ml (174 €) Eau de Parfum starting November 19th. Via press release

He is one of the world’s top jewelers and can turn stones into shimmering flowers and butterflies. His work has impeccable quality, virtuous color compositions and dramatic effects. Joel Arthur Rosenthal, a native New Yorker who has been working under the name of JAR in Paris since the 1960s, is notoriously secretive. Unlike his jewel neighbors at the Place Vendôme in Paris, his boutique doesn’t even have a window, much less jewels displayed for all to see. So, it’s a special event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to present an exhibit devoted to his work.  Jewels by JAR running from November 20, 2013–March 9, 2014 in Gallery 913 will feature more than four hundred works by Rosenthal, including his delicate blossoms, leaves and “witty objets d’art”.  

Once you’ve had enough of JAR’s diamonds, sapphires, garnets, topazes, and rubies, you can walk over to Bergdorf Goodman (754 5th Ave) and try his collection of fragrances at the in-store boutique. Don’t miss Golconda, a bigger than life carnation, and Bolt of Lightning, an equally dramatic tuberose.

Boudoir 36 is a perfume boutique based in Catania, Sicily. Catania, a city at the foot of Mount Etna, is a sensory roller coaster by itself, but Boudoir 36 was one of the highlights of my visit.  Boudoir 36 carries an impressive collection of perfume brands and boasts an excellent customer service. Antonio Alessandria, the creator of Boudoir 36, works as an engineer by day and operates his boutique in the evening five days a week. Talk about passion for perfume! This unique place is the subject of my article for The Financial Times Magazine, October 26th issue.

“Spend a day in Catania, a baroque jewel on the east coast of Sicily, and you will understand why Boudoir 36, an artisanal perfume boutique, is such a great fit for this exuberant city. Every scent, taste and color seems more intense—jasmine draping the building facades, oranges piled into ziggurats on the sidewalks, and even the blue of the sky framing Mount Etna. The perfume selection at Boudoir 36 rivals the finest boutiques in Paris and London, but its flamboyance and opulence are uniquely Sicilian.”

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I have an article in the September 2013 issue of Perfumer & Flavorist magazine. It’s called “Story in the Bottle : Supporting Natural Ingredients Article,” and it’s about benzoin production in Laos. Benzoin is a vanilla scented resin used widely in fragrances and flavors, but its supply chain is extremely fragile. It’s mostly grown in the mountainous regions of Laos where small communities gather it to supplement their income. As the younger generation moves to the cities and other sources of income become more appealing, traditional activities like benzoin collection disappear. A loss of benzoin could have significant consequences to perfumers’ palettes.

A similar story could be told about many other natural raw materials used by the perfume industry, and I take a look at the current situation and what is being done to support the producers. Perfumer & Flavorist is aimed at the professional audience, so the article is on the technical side. Still, if you’re curious about such topics, you might like to take a look.

“The northern regions of Luang Prabang, Phongsali, Houaphan and Oudomxay supply the bulk of the benzoin used in the perfume and flavor manufacture. Benzoin is a balsamic resin obtained from the genus Styrax. The Laotian resin, tapped from Styrax tonkinensis, is considered to be of the highest quality, given its unique blend of vanilla, cinnamon and almond facets. In perfumery, benzoin can be found all over the fragrance wheel, from citrus colognes to orientals. Classics like Chanel Égoïste and Guerlain Shalimar rely on its velvety accent, while the addictive richness of this balsamic note is important for the caramel and chocolate flavors in ice creams and pastries.”

The magazine is currently available at www.perfumerflavorist.com.

If you’re curious to read more about benzoin and other resins, please take a look at my post Perfume Vocabulary: Resins and Balsams. Prada Candy contains the high-grade Laotian benzoin, and it’s one of the most interesting benzoin dominated compositions on the market. Despite a  generous dose of this rich, warm resin, Candy has a luminous, bright quality. On the dark and brooding end of the spectrum, I love the layer of benzoin in Chanel Coromandel. 

Photography by Bois de Jasmin, benzoin tears.

Christian Dior will celebrate Miss Dior perfume with an exhibition at Paris’s Grand Palais next month. Miss Dior was originally created in 1947, and it’s a green mossy blend that inspired many other perfumes in the same bold, distinctive style. Today, if you want to smell it at Dior, you need to ask for Miss Dior Eau de Toilette Originale. The fragrance currently bearing the name of Miss Dior and fronted by Natalie Portman was created in 2005 and launched as Miss Dior Chérie. It’s a fruity-floral gourmand.

It’s not clear which of these perfumes the exhibit is going to celebrate, but according to WWD, it features large-scale artworks by 15 female artists, rare photographs and a selection of outfits including the dresses that Raf Simons designed for Portman to wear in the Miss Dior campaigns.

The Miss Dior exhibition will run at the Grand Palais in Paris from November 13 to 25 (free to public).

Meanwhile at Chanel, Marilyn Monroe is the new face of Chanel No.5. New print and television campaigns will feature the celebrated actress who once proclaimed that she wears nothing but  Chanel No.5 to bed. Since I found the ad with Brad Pitt to be confusing, to put it mildly, I can’t wait to see the new ads.