Photo of Missouri bike trail by Jeff Rose, 417 Magazine
Great fragrances are not created by a price tag and fancy packaging, but by tapping the zeitgeist and bottling some part of it with creativity and good ingredients. Chatillon Lux founder and nose Sean Maher’s fascination with such scents led to the creation of his newest addition to his inventive, very personal line. The result is the wonderful, zesty-earthy La Petite Prairie, a sophisticated, vetiver-centric fragrance with a smile in its heart that smells of long-ago summer remembered on a city terrace: warm, damp ground beneath bare feet, citrus trees heavy with fruit, rhubarb baking in the kitchen, a warm glow of sinking sun. It is exactly the sort of fragrance Don Draper would have worn before he lost his soul.
John Hamm as Don Draper in Showtime’s Mad Men
Researching the structure of mid-century classics such as Dior Eau Sauvage and Guerlain Vetiver to inform La Petite Prairie, Maher found that the deployment of lighter middle aromas made those scents “more expansive while also making base notes and more forceful notes like vetiver and incense become part of the scenery.” He took heavier notes such as vetiver and incense and lifted them with tart fruits such as rhubarb and mandarin to “feel light and textural than opaque and heavy” and to create a tea-like accord that feels contemporary and moreish. To avoid overt retro, Maher used a minty, fruity geranium accord that played down the flower’s inherent rosiness, and a fresh carnation note that dispensed with spice. A touch of elemi and myrhh anchors the composition, giving a nod to the kind of bases popular in mid-century men’s fragrances.
Sean Maher of Chatillon Lux and Maher Olfactive
One of the pleasures of La Petite Prairie is the way its notes seem realistic and imagistic at once. Spray it on and immediately, a life-like yet diffuse citrus rises, as if grapefruit, orange and petitgrain had all been cut into simultaneously. The bitter perfume of the rind is there, and the woody bite of the pith, the squirt of fresh juice. But it isn’t a single, definable fruit. Light floral notes rise, and soon, I can make out silhouettes of velvety pepper of geranium, the creaminess of carnation. The flowers make the citrus trill like a tenor.
Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace, Warner Bros., 1944
Maher plays thoughtfully with the notes to create a fragrance that is wholly modern in its freshness and bounce, but that nods to the classics he loves. A shade of Guerlain Vetiver is there in the thoughtful interplay of citrus and vetiver. Haitian and Java vetiver are manipulated to tease out the grapefruit rind quality of the former and tamp down the smokier aspects of the latter while keeping its woody character intact. Mandarin and a generous dose of rhubarb provide a bright counterpoise that lifts the greener aspects of the vetiver. And this interplay of soaringly bright, tart fruit and earthy, loamy, vegetal garden smells carries on right through the dry-down. Hours later, I lift my wrist and breathe in. The aroma is urbane and bucolic, like Cary Grant wandered into my aunt’s fruit and vegetable garden.
La Petite Prairie will be released June 13 with a potentially limited run through the end of August. But I’m hoping it sticks around. With its perfect, balance of earthy and buzzy citrus notes, of highbrow and carefree, it could become a classic. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if a perfume writer is revisiting it right here in 20 years’ time.
Notes: Vetiver, citrus, rhubarb, geranium, elemi, myrrh, carnation, pineapple, rosemary and Sichuan pepper.
Disclaimer: sample of Chatillon Lux La Petite Prairie kindly provided by Chatillon Lux. My opinions are my own.
Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Congratulations to Chatillon Lux for being named a finalist in the Art & Olfaction Awards 2020 for Weinstrasse, reviewed by Lauryn here
Chatillon Lux La Petite Prairie courtesy of Chatillon Lux for CaFleureBon
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