Monsillage Route du Quai (Isabelle Michaud) 2019 Review +Remember to Remember Draw

 

Monsillage Route du Quai Perfume "The roads of monsillage first perfume

 Monsillage Route du Quai, Isabelle Michaud

Hello September! Just as the season of the intense use of marine, aquatic and fresh fragrances slowly fades away, and it’s not yet the right time to pull out your heavy fragrant artillery – enter the new perfume Monsillage Route du Quai from the Canadian house of Monsillage (Route du Quai, the first of three perfumes in the new collection “The Roads of Monsillage”,  featuring new packaging and bottles design).

The idea behind this new trilogy is to revive three different routes Isabelle Michaud, the indie perfumer behind the brand, has explored throughout her life. The second “Route” perfume in this collection reflects a memory of a mountain expedition she took across France and Italy, but we’ll have to wait for this release yet to come. Isabelle, based in Montreal, braids and weaves dry leaves of grass cut off her memory lane, forming a basket filled with childhood memories of summer vacations spent in a picturesque village of Riviere-Ouelle,  nestled near the St. Lawrence River in Kamouraska region of Quebec Canada – its name coming from Algonquin, meaning: “where rushes grow at the water’s edge”.

 

Best Monsillage perfumes

Bridge Above Brackish Water, Unsplash  

At the edge of the Fresh-Aquatic genre of perfumes, Monsillage Route du Quai sets itself apart by introducing – brackish water, thus very elegantly escaping cliches that might have made you shy away from this perfume family, and challenging lovers of the same. Rich vegetation grows “at the water’s edge”, and Michaud wants you to feel it intensely, just like children do: imagine sitting in a car, driving down the road leading to your favorite Summer vacations place. As you make a short stop with all windows rolled down, familiar scents start to breeze in, painting the landscape you can recognize anytime, even with your eyes closed. Scent of sweet memories of carefree childhood days, great expectations of those yet to come.

This vegetation is moist, a dewy, greenish potion made of citrusy-bitter sage with the lingering freshness of still green juniper berries, adding a slightly sour, gin-like aftertaste, scents and tastes of a big, wide river flowing into the ocean. With another breath taken your nose can now discern fresh salty air carried by winds moving inland, bringing closer fragments of scents it picks up on its way: wild roses and honeyed, pollen-smelling lilac flowers, swaying in the wind. The scent of the road ahead of you too, earthy, with puddles of water scattered along the way.

Monsillage Route de Quai Isabelle Michaud

Riverside, Elena Cvjetkovic

This changes in time and dry dust of sweeter nuances slowly seeps in to Monsillage Route du Quai,  preparing you for yet another change of scenery: the ocean is near now, the scent of moist sea grass, driftwood and saltiness tingling your nostrils.

best oceanic aquatic perfumes

Ocean Rocks by Monsillage

This part I enjoyed the most, as well as the drydown: Isabelle uses sweetgrass, so terroir-specific for Canada and North America. Not a sweetgrass oil note: she created this accord herself using clary sage, coumarin and kephalis. Monsillage Route du Quai  with its aromatic-sweet, dry-vanilla like facet, hay-like sweetness of dry grass in combination with light musks, smooth cedar, and the accord of sweet and salty skin-like ambergris is so strangely satisfying and beautiful!

monsillage route du quai uses sweet grass

Sweet Grass, The Canadian Encyclopedia

Sweetgrass is honored as one of the four sacred plants of many indigenous nations, known as “Hair of Mother Earth”, braided with love and respect. They say:“Breathe in its scent and you start to remember things you didn’t know you’d forgotten.” Ceremonies, where sweetgrass is burned,  are to show you the way to “remember to remember” and even today it is a standard substance used in shamanic healing. It’s thought to attract good spirits and positive energies and it owes its distinctive vanilla-like, sweet tone to the presence of coumarin.

Fragrant notes of three out of four plants sacred to First Nations are used in this perfume, and these are their healing powers: sweetgrass – teaching kindness because it bends without breaking, cedar – offering protection and grounding, and sage – reducing and eliminating negative energy, although clary sage is not the sage used as traditional medicine. Isabelle didn’t use them on purpose, this turned out to be a meaningful „haphazard circumstance“ as she says, adding: “I don’t believe to have native blood in me, but maybe the Spirit is present.“

Canadain indians making medicine from herbs

Making Sweet Grass Medicine, painting by Joseph Henry Sharp

The Algonquin people believe when one takes something from the Earth, like when you pick sweetgrass, you should explain to the Spirit why is it picked and how you intend to use it. To say thank you to the Earth for what it has provided, you should give it an offering of tobacco in return for the generosity shown by the Earth, and by the plant itself. I also found this saying while reading the Algonquin story about Skywoman’s creation of the world, seeing it more as instructions for the future than an artifact from the past: “We are taught that these offerings (everything that nature provides) are gifts. All that is required of us is to be thankful and mindful of the generosity of the living world, making sure that the seventh generation in the future will inherit the same bounty and goodness.“ We should really all remember – to remember this.

Perfume memories

Remember to Remember, Unsplash

When was the last time you stopped on your way, rolled down all the car windows and just felt the olfactory impression of your surroundings, remembering to – remember?

Disclaimer: I’d like to thank Isabelle Michaud of Monsillage for generously sending me a 7.5 ml travel-size bottle of Route du Quai, opinions and feelings of my own.

Monsillage Route du Quai is an unique, finely blended and highly artistic unisex perfume of medium longevity and sillage.

Notes: Bergamot, clary sage, juniper berry, sea grass, salty sea air, rose, iris, lilac, Driftwood, sweetgrass, myrrh, cedar, benzoin, ambergris, musk.

– Elena Cvjetkovic, Guest Contributor

Isabelle Michaud of Monsillage Art and Olfaction winner for the Aftel Handmade Award

photo from Isabelle Michaud

Note: Monsillage is an Art and Olfaction awards winner in 2015 – perfume Eau de Celeri in the Artisan Category, and The Aftel Award for Handmade Perfume Winner in 2018 with Pays de Dogon perfume.

Monsillage Route du Quai review

Monsillage Route du Quai , Elena

Thanks to the generosity of Isabelle Michaud we have a 7.5 ml  travel spray for a registered reader in the USA or Canada.  We also will open this up to the EU but please state that in your comment. You must register or your comment will not count. To be eligible tell us what you enjoyed about Elena’s review of  Monsillage Route de Quai and where you live. Draw ends September 11, 2019

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29 comments

  • BostonScentGuy says:

    This sounds wonderful! I like how it sounds like a core/part of the fougere structure with intriguing salty, floral, and aromatic notes taking it in a different direction that the traditional fougere. I love how wistful and contemplative Elena made it sound. Thanks so much for the draw! I’m in the US.

  • Dubaiscents says:

    So interesting to hear the history of sweet grass and its use by the Native peoples. I didn’t know they believe you should give a gift of tobacco in return for harvesting the sweet grass. I have been a fan of Monsillage since Eau de Celeri and I would love to smell this one. I love the new packaging as well. Thanks for the draw. I’m in the US.

  • Dami says:

    The best part of this review is the sweetgrass inspiration, honoring the tradition of Native American healing ceremonies. I also like the combination of floral note with aquatic and salty notes. Thank you for the opportunity. I live in the USA.

  • ZachA says:

    Wow this aquatic fragrance fresh open8with the sweet dry down sounds amazing would love to get my nose on this amazing fragrance. USA OH

  • Geoffthurs says:

    I really enjoyed the discussion of the Canadian Sweetgrass accord and how it was achieved. I’d love to be entered into the drawing. I wear Aviation Club regularly and always look forward to new Monsillage scents. Isabelle is brilliant. I’m in NYC.

  • INYA says:

    I was not aware that sweetgrass was used in shamanic rituals. Aroma therapy is a wonderful way to heal. I would love to try this new fragrance by Monsillage. Thanks for the opportunity! USA

  • NiceVULady says:

    This sounds like a really interesting combination of notes and influences. The amalgam sounds so different from traditional scents. I am intrigued. Thank you Elena for a fascinating review and generous draw. I’m in the USA

  • platinumdust says:

    I love how the review talked about how the scents used in this creation come out of indigenous populations culture – even if by accident. I myself love the smell of sea grass and juniper berries. I’m located in California, USA. As always, thank you for the giveaway.

  • Salem says:

    If this fragrance smells anything like the mountain / forest photo with the natural stairway made of tree roots, I will love it. I like the sound of a natural, real, a bit bitter perfume. I also am interested in this sweet grass note, i have never smelled it before. I specify that I am from the EU. Thanks so much!

  • redwheelbarrow says:

    This sounds lovely. I grew up with a brackish river at the end of my backyard which flowed into the Atlantic. These scents make me thinks of a carefree childhood. The idea of explaining your intentions to something picked from the earth is just beautiful to me. Thank you for the draw. I am in the US.

  • chrisskins says:

    A chance to remember things forgotten…amazing image. How does Isabelle Michaud tame the brackish water? Very curious about this one. I live in the USA.

  • xoe says:

    A friend just recently described me as a dark mermaid that comes from brackish waters. So, I pretty much need this perfume.
    USA

  • doveskylark says:

    I don’t have a car, so I don’t roll down windows to feel my surroundings. But on my daily walks I think about the air, the trees, the grass, the rivers, and the sea. I think how threatened they are, we are. I always remember that. I loved reading about the Algonquin spirituality in Elena’s review.
    I live in the USA.

  • samppahoo says:

    The notes are wonderful in this one. Herbal aromatic notes blended with gentle sea airb and some subtle flowers and resins. I think it should be beautiful and would like to discover it, from EU.

  • Hendrix Wilson says:

    I love the parts of the review when it talks about the sweet grass. It makes it seem like a a very special ingredient. USA

  • Elizabeth T. says:

    I love most the journey that Elena takes us on while describing the various layers of this. Thank you for the review and generous draw! I’m in the USA.

  • Karen says:

    This needs to be in my skin. Fresh water, brackish water, marsh smells, flower water from a vase — I love them all. Thanks for the chance to win this.

  • riddlemo says:

    The seasonal transition fragrance is one of my favorite fragrance concepts. And I appreciate the step this brand takes by adding the sacred sweetgrass into the mix. It makes for an even more special feeling when wearing the perfume. Commenting from FL, USA.

  • ChanteusedesIles says:

    I love the uniqueness of Eau de Celeri by Monsillage and now I would like to see what she does with memories of going to the cottage! This is a summer tradition in Canada, and also one of my favourite memories growing up here 🙂 I really liked the description of sweetgrass and it’s history with the Algoquin First Nations, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it as a note in perfumery before! I live in Canada, Thank you.

  • wildevoodoo says:

    It sounds like Route du Quai is a distinct impression of, more than anything else, a journey taken at a specific point in time. It’s fascinating that she created her own sweetgrass accord using existing accords and captives! I hadn’t heard of kephalis so I looked it up- it’s a Givaudan molecule with ‘warm, rich aromas of amber and tobacco’. How interesting that Isabelle Michaud used three of the four most sacred notes without even realizing! I’d love to give this a try, it sounds amazing. I am in the US!

  • JozefJak says:

    As I usually don’t like mainstream aquatics, artisan perfume houses take on this genre is much more interesting, like Sel Marin by James Heeley for example. So this one can be very interesting, also connection with Canadian Indians is very interesting, Please open up to the EU because I live in Poland.

  • jeremyn87 says:

    I havent really seen sweetgrass as a note before. I’ve tried sweetgrass oil. It smells nice. It’s green with a sweet undertone. It’d work wonderfully in an aquatic leaning green scent.
    im in the US. thanks for the draw

  • patrick_348 says:

    I liked the part where Elena described how the sweetgrass accord was made not from sweetgrass oil, but from a mixture of other scents. I like how it sounds genuinely unissex and how Elena’s description evoked a strong sense of place. I also like how although the culture of First Nations is evoked, it does not seem like cultural appropriation. I am in the US, in North Carolina.

  • helenlam says:

    This fragrance sounds so meditative for some reason. But definitely very appealing and the review was so inspiring! I live in the USA.

  • Caliwas says:

    I love Elena’s review of the description of the notes. The sweetgrass and the herbalness of this fougere scent is very appealing. Thanks for this draw. I am in the US.

  • LORI LAWS says:

    I enjoyed Elena’s review and the history she included on the indigenous people! This fragrance sounds amazing and I also love that she uses materials from her home country of Canada. My favorite line is:”Sweetgrass is honored as one of the four sacred plants of many indigenous nations, known as “Hair of Mother Earth”, braided with love and respect. They say:“Breathe in its scent and you start to remember things you didn’t know you’d forgotten.” Ceremonies, where sweetgrass is burned, are to show you the way to “remember to remember” and even today it is a standard substance used in shamanic healing. It’s thought to attract good spirits and positive energies and it owes its distinctive vanilla-like, sweet tone to the presence of coumarin.” I haven’t tried anything from this house before. Thanks for the giveaway and I live in the US!