Cartier Declaration 1998 ad

Cartier perfumes always succeeded to be a  perfect extension of the luxury jewelry the house has designed since 1847. They looked daunting in their neo-deco steel and gold package and smelled utterly chic. Think of the subtlety of the top notch citrus laden Pasha, or the solid masculine confidence of the aromatic woods in Santos for example. At least speaking for the masculine side, they happened to smell also quite grown up for a 20 years old guy like I was in the late 1990s. So when I first smelled Cartier Déclaration in July 1998, it felt so elegant yet youthful that it was an instant crush and I immediately bought it along with a matching minimal-chic iron grey Prada suit to the wedding of a friend.

Prada Menswear SS 1998

Last May while in Turin for the cultural event Per Fumum – Torino, I had the chance to hear Master Perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena himself telling how things were with Cartier back in time. Right after the launch of Bulgari Eau Parfumée au the vert, Jean-Claude Ellena was still working at Roure (now Givaudan) but the management didn’t approve his revolutionary working method focusing on a limited palette and on total creative freedom. He was quite bored by this and so, started to write about perfume.

Haarmann et Reimer (now Symrise) was offering a three years contract in New York for a chief perfumer so what a better chance to leave Paris for some fresh air? He had quite a tough time in the States though, and later came back to Paris where he signed Cartier Déclaration the direction of Véronique Gaultier (who  after went to Hermès and later proposed that M. Ellena as in-house perfumer. She’s in charge at Armani Beauty now). They didn’t know each other and Monsieur Ellena presented to her another of his work based on tea, this time a smoked tea.

Jean-Claude Ellena with me at Per Fumum Torino.  He gave an amazing speech on the role of in-house perfumer (photo credits Ermano)

It is no secret that Monsieur Ellena is fascinated by tea in perfumes,  but not everybody knows that he used to enjoy his tea-breaks at Marriage Frères, that once he was allowed to stay alone at 30, rue du Bourg-Tibourg (close to the Parisian Town Hall) to smell various teas and take notes. As those small dried leaves in hot water release their magic, the same leaves out of that handwritten doodles dipped in an ocean of creativity gave us two modern masterpieces that set a reference for tea fragrances. Despite both wear gender-free, the lemony floral Bulgari lends more on the feminine side while Cartier with its herbaceous and grilled woods feels a tad more masculine.

Mariage-Frères Parisian flagship store (credits Mariage Frères)

Cartier Déclaration was nicknamed Souchong. A very spicy masculine loaded with a pretty original minty cardamom overload backed by a dash of bitter orange and the leathery warmth of cumin suggesting the smoked tannins of Lapsand Souchong. With Véronique there was a strong connection. She was pinpointing on the fragrance so Ellena asked her not to submit the trial to consumer panels as he knew he would have come to a cropper. Madame Gaultier submitted the perfume to the panel anyway and told him: “We tested it and you lost, but anyway it’s your perfume we chose”. This filled Monsieur Ellena with joy. As it happened for Edmond Roudnitska with Eau Sauvage (1966), another planetary hit for decades rejected by consumer panels, not only Déclaration happened to be a success in times when panels seems like Perfumery Gods Oracles, but also a Declaration of Independence.

Eau d’Hermès by Edmond Roudnitska (credits Art et Parfum)

Déclaration is reminiscent of another masterpiece from Roudnitska, Eau d’Hermès (1951), which Jean-Claude Ellena highly prized and studied to elaborate the same smoky radiance of this uberchic supple leathery cologne. While sharing the same cumin-cedarwood base topped by bitter orange, the Ellena haiku-style renders the herbaceous glow of fermented tea with cardamom and artemisia dipped in the peppery duskiness of iso-e super.

Hermès Poivre Samarcande

Déclaration is indeed the Modern Masterpiece that provided Jean-Claude Ellena a successful signature of mossy woods and salty clarity we can find also through other some of his other creations like Frédéric Malle Cologne Bigarade (2000) or Hermès Poivre Samarcande (2004), but above all paved the road to another best-seller like Terre d’Hermès (2006) that pushed even further the mineral lucidity pervasive in contemporary masculine perfumery.

Notes for Cartier Déclaration: bergamot, bitter orange, birchwood, cardamom, wormwood, juniper wood, artemesia, cedarwood, vetiver, oakmoss

This review is based on a personal bottle of Cartier Déclaration My opinions are my own.

Ermano Picco, Editor- Perfume Evaluator, reviewer, expert, author of  La Gardenia nell Occhiello  and  CaFleureBon Modern Masterpieces

Editor’s Note:  the success of Cartier Déclaration fostered the spreading of various flankers and limited editions from the Master Ellena himself and also from the current Cartier in-house perfumer Mathilde Laurent. She indeed gave us one of the most fascinating takes on the theme with the dusky rose of Déclaration d’un Soir (2012). In addition,  Jean-Claude Ellena ‘s olfactory art has now appeared three times in our series: for Frederic Malle L’Eau d’Hiver (written by former Managing Editor Mark Behnke), and  The Different Company Rose Poivree