Model: Valentina Feula, Photo: Tommy Napolitano

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. An Art Director and a Creative Director working in the fashion industry in Paris meet and find their real passion is fragrance. After talking they go on to launch their own perfume company. While the story is far from unique the company Rosa Vaia and Elise Juarros created, Coquillete Paris, is something very special. They wanted to create perfumes which are artistically interesting but eminently wearable.

What constantly surprised me as I wore the first four fragrances released by Coquillete Paris: Herat, Moramanga, Sulmona, and Sumatera; was how easy they were to wear. I have often referred to fragrances as being as easy to wear as a pair of broken in denim jeans and all four Coquillete Paris fragrances achieve that chic and casual combination usually more easy to describe than to achieve. When I tell you that these easy fragrances are centered, individually, on a hashish accord, or vanilla, or tuberose, or green patchouli you might think I’ve been doing more than wearing my hashish accord. It is that very characteristic that makes this collection so interesting to wear; all four are office friendly but exquisitely interesting. They are as rich as the finest silk scarf and wrap you in a sheer veil of understated power.

Photo: Tommy Napolitano

Herat is far from the first fragrance to explore using a hashish accord as its nucleus. Where Herat differs from those other fragrances is that the hashish accord rendered in Herat is like the remnants of the evening before and that same effect of feeling like the notes and accords are coming from hours ago is carried through with the inclusion of tobacco and jasmine in some of the sheerest applications of both of those notes I have experienced in a while. Think about what I’ve just described a perfume comprised of hashish, tobacco, and jasmine and my first adjective is sheer. Herat swirls and captivates as myrrh and frankincense along with ambergris and vetiver are also incorporated in the pattern. As the days I wore Herat, wore on, the mix of notes persisted to allow me to have an incredibly wonderful day of fragrance which felt like it was very personal as the sillage of Herat was minimal. This pattern of being surprised by how much these fragrances were enjoyed by myself without spreading outside my personal space was repeated three more times.

Photo: Tommy Napolitano

Moramanga pulls off this concept while using tuberose as its heart. Gardenia starts things off and then tuberose supported by jasmine rise up. But as with Herat just as you might expect Moramanga to really crank it up it goes sideways and stays at a perfectly pitched level of white flowers realized as if they are across the room instead of right under your nose. Just as with Herat the supporting players reveal themselves slowly and provide a day’s worth of enjoyment as the development is languid and fun. A bit of benzoin bubbles out from between the florals eventually a sweet vanilla picks up the sweet from the benzoin and intensifies it into something which contrasts the flowers.

Photo: Tommy Naplolitano

Sulmona is a vanilla lover’s dream as it just keeps piling on vanilla after vanilla but somehow never becomes as cloying as that description makes you think it should be. A sugar frosting vanilla is where Sulmona begins and after you figuratively lick the frosting off you get to a heart of green vanilla orchid. This Madagascar vanilla has that slightly green aspect, and less of the sweet, by pairing bitter almond with it. It makes sure the greener facets are more prominent. The third application of vanilla uses orange blossom to lighten it up and keep Sulmona from being too heavy.

Photo: Tommy Napolitano

Sumatera was my favorite of these original four because of the use of green patchouli which feels like patchouli which has not had the chance to mature. It is patchouli that tells inappropriate knock-knock jokes and when it meets up with cinnamon and black pepper this rowdy trio seems likely to spiral into a fragrance version of a slapstick comedy….except it doesn’t. Instead the rambunctious notes each find a place to sit politely and speak sotto voce and I found myself leaning in time and again to get a sniff of the conversation. Sumatera is finished off as simply as possible with cedar and vanilla providing the rest of the gang but in deep supporting roles. Sumatera is exactly what I want to wear on a Saturday morning in the fall as it has the same amount of bite as that early morning frost.

Rosa Vaia (l.) and Elise Juarros (r.)

My hat is off to Signoras Vaia and Juarros for finding perfumers (or a single perfumer) to realize a very clear vision that sophistication can be presented in simple fragrances which have the ability to shout; but instead choose to strike up a day long conversation with you. Pick one to take to work with you, any of these fragrances will immediately make that work day a little brighter and more interesting.

Disclosure: This review was based on samples provided by Coquillete Paris.

Thanks to Coquillete Paris and Rosa Vaia and Elise Juarros we have a discovery set consisting of 5mL samples of the four reviewed fragrances. This is an international draw. To be eligible leave a comment on which one of these fragrances you believe will be your favorite. The draw ends on October 1, 2013.

We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.

-Mark Behnke, Managing Editor

Editor’s note: The new fifth fragrance for Coquillete Paris Tan Tan was debuted at the recently completed Pitti Fragranze 2013. I am really looking forward to seeing what comes next.