Prior to the trend of putting a perfumer’s name on the bottle, or at least the press release, there was another way to find a particular perfumer’s signature. That was with each perfumer’s use of their particular fragrance base. A fragrance base is different from base notes. A fragrance base is a custom accord which was used over and over by a particular perfumer. Recently there has been a resurgence in interest by modern perfumers to re-create these classic bases and to put them back into the spotlight. One of the earliest examples I encountered of a base being associated with a perfumer was the base called Prunol which was created by Edmond Roudnitska and I first experienced it in his classic Rochas Femme. Prunol imparts this incredible concentrated fruitiness akin to creating a jammy plum. Prunol has been one of those bases which has never really fallen out of favor but there is only one modern perfume which has employed the Prunol base in a way which has elevated it to the level of Modern Masterpiece.

Aurelien Guichard

Laurice Rahme’s perfume house Bond No. 9 has always reflected its New York neighborhood sensibility. Many of the best fragrances in this wide-spanning line leave the same indelible mark as the real estate they are named after. Ms. Rahme has managed to find some of the best perfumers to work under her creative direction. In 2005 she found a rising star in Aurelien Guichard and gave him the task of interpreting Chinatown. M. Guichard is a second generation perfumer, his father is Jean Guichard, and coming from a family of perfumers I expect his knowledge of and respect for the early olfactory artists is great. This is why I think he chose to use his version of a Prunol base in the composing of Chinatown. It is this re-interpretation of the classic Prunol base which turns Bond No. 9 Chinatown into olfactory art.

M. Guichard’s twenty-first century take on Prunol is to add an overdose of peach blossom to it. This should be a figurative fruity “wall of scent”. Instead it feels more like a soft down pillow of fruit which is thick and luxurious but also has the ability to give a little. This very thickly sweet beginning is a bit polarizing but by adding the peach blossom to the Prunol it makes it feel like a classic revivial, to me. The heart of Chinatown is a spring bouquet focused on tuberose with peony, gardenia, and orange blossom also present. The base notes in Chinatown are where I’ve seen the most difference in opinion and experience. On me it comes off as a chypre as patchouli is married with cardamom and a woody mix along with vanilla. On my skin the vanilla comes off more as a modulator to the harsher tones of the woods and patchouli. On others I have sprayed Chinatown on the vanilla is much more prominent and it feels gourmand-like. My experience is of a fruity chypre and it is very memorable.

Bond No. 9 Chinatown has average longevity and above average sillage.

Every spring I look at the cherry tree-emblazoned bottle of Chinatown and reach for it often because M. Guichard remembered his basics.

Disclosure: This review is based on a bottle of Bond No. 9 Chinatown I purchased.

–Mark Behnke, Managing Editor