In Santal Majuscule the cocoa is that dusty powdery smell of fine desiccated sweet. It dusts the heart of sandalwood in Santal Majuscule and then the typical Oriental beats of a Serge Lutens perfume arrive on the back of a Turkish rose. This is just a perfectly balanced sandalwood perfume.
Australia has spawned many superb perfume Houses; a couple of years before the last millennium turned, two very visionary individuals (Dianna Burmas & Deon St. Mor) began MOR in a small shop in Melbourne. Their love of travel, art, fashion and food eventually resulted in their release of lines of aromatherapy products and fine fragrances. Their process of blending old time ingredients with modern technologies has promoted what they call “an awakening of the senses with an innovative twist” in the creation of each new product line.
When I went to the San Francisco Artisan Fragrance Salon, one of the vendors that interested me was a brand new line launching that very day called Cognoscenti. The Scent Artist, as her business card title proclaims, is painter, architect, and designer Dannielle Sergent, who was encouraged to explore her unique, intuitive take on perfume creation.
I am coming to appreciate how much harder it is for a perfumer to have depth and contour when only using a very few notes, The Exclusive Collection is an example of what the skill of a Maitre Parfumeur, like Maria candida Gentile, can do with just a few notes.
I like a perfumer who brings raw materials to the table…. literally. Ineke Ruhland is this kind of perfumer. Names of synthetic and natural raw materials roll off her tongue in the most self-assured, yet generous way. Ineke shared her two newest fragrances Sweet William for Anthropologie and Hothouse Flower with me.
When our best niche perfumers take out the vanilla and think to use it as the focal point for one of their creations these vanilla fragrances become explorations into the possibilities of turning the pedestrian into something less so. Martine Micallef is one of these perfumers and her new set of four releases, for her Parfums M. Micallef label, called the Art Collection Vanille is the proof.
