Isabelle Larignon Le Flocon de Johann K (Isabelle Larignon) 2021 + Let it snow draw

January 4, 2022January 4, 2022

Isabelle Larignon Le Flocon de Johann K, as soft as a doe… – Doe ©Pixabay – Le Flocon bottle ©Mick Jayet – Collage ©Emmanuelle Varron

Isabelle Larignon Le Flocon de Johann K (Johann K’s snow flake) is the first perfume created by Isabelle Larignon, a French woman passionate about fragrance since her childhood. First an opera singer, then a food copywriter, Isabelle hesitated until 2018, in her forties, when she decided to study olfactive design at Cinquième Sens (a famous French training academy). A heck of a leap for this young mother who finally decided to make a living from her passion!

Isabelle Larignon – ©Studio Artichaut

Isabelle Larignon Le Flocon de Johann K was composed with a semi-constraint: creating a fragrance to validate her olfactory designer diploma. Isabelle Larignon hesitated between two paths: a tribute to being a wallfower in her childhood (she grew up in La Rochelle) or the story of astrophysicist Johannes Kepler snowflake. Almost 3 years ago to the day (December 30, 2018), she comes across the radio interview of Lydie Lescarmontier, a French glaciologist, who is depicting her famous 2011 Astrolabe trip to Antarctica, where she was struck in the ice for 56 days. As the journalist asks her about the smell of snow, Lydie Lescarmontier cannot find the answer. It was a sign for Isabelle;she will create Le Flocon. She sent an email to the glaciologist; they met, and ideas, sensations and emotions flow from their conversations. At the same time, in the first days of 2019, Isabelle sent her Happy New Year best wishes to one of the perfumers she admires the most … Bertrand Duchaufour. He answered her; they met and spoke about her project. Bertrand Duchaufour was a true mentor and offered to test her formula in his lab, helped balance it. Is Isabelle Larignon’s Le Flocon de Johann K a concept or perfume? As he told Mme Larignon when she asked Does this have to smell good? “ Bertrand Duchaufour simply replied ” Yes, otherwise it’s a smell, not a perfume! ”

astronomer Johannes Kepler – ©Futura-Sciences, glaciologist Lydie Lescarmontier – ©France Inter, and perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour – ©TechnicoFlor. Collage ©Emmanuelle Varron.

But back to Johannes Kepler and his snowflake. A famous German astronomer of the 16^th-17^th centuries, the latter is particularly known for having discovered the mathematical relationships which govern the movements of the planets in their orbit, later exploited by Isaac Newton to develop the theory of universal gravitation. Johannes Kepler is also the author of the first scientific treatise dedicated to snowflakes, in particular their hexagonal symmetry. And in 1610, while looking for a unique New Year’s gift for Matthaüs Wacker von Wackenels, his wealthy patron, he decided to offer him the concept of nothingness: a snowflake, accompanied by a 24-page booklet written in a playful tone, justifying this astonishing present. Here is an extract:

“I was in these worried thoughts as I crossed the bridge, confused by my incivility to appear before you without New Year’s gifts, […] without finding what is close to Nothing, nevertheless lends itself to the spiciness of intelligence.

But as luck would have it […] that little flakes fell here and there on my coat […].

There was something smaller than a drop, yet it had a shape.

There was a special gift for a lover of Nothing and worthy of being offered by an astronomer […] since the snowflakes fall from the sky and are like stars.” Johannes Kepler, On the Six-Cornered Snowflake (1610)

Alexander Calder Snow Flurry (1950) – ©Christie’s and Isabelle Larignon Le Flocon de Johann K bottle in the snow – Snow ©Pixabay, bottle ©Mick Jayet – Collage and montage ©Emmanuelle Varron.

Isabelle Larignon Le Flocon de Johann K opens by plunging into a vivid citrus breeze reminding me of aldehydes. I also perceive menthol, metallic and watery notes that bloom, like a fine snow of an intense freshness falling in small icy flakes that flush my cheeks. This indefinable scent fascinated me as a child, when I admired these little white balls that looked like cotton that I was desperately trying to catch … but melted in my hands frozen by the cold. Slowly, the incense develops, icy and intense in an almost mystical tone, silent and impenetrable. On my skin, the floral notes then take precedence: mimosa, in particular, with a facet of incredible purity, as if a bouquet had been placed on a vast bed of snow. As the fragrance develops the mimosa becomes more aerial, then tangles with mint under musky attire that gives it an almost polar appearance. The flakes become flowers, falling delicately to the freezing white ground. The narcissus absolute is then revealed, powdery and honeyed, accentuating the ultra-sensual softness of the perfume on the skin.

Isabelle Larignon Le Flocon de Johann K is an invitation to dreaming and contemplation. On the mouillette, I am immediately carried into the world of Johannes Kepler, so much that I could easily imagine that this perfume is only be a concept. What a mistake! On skin, it comes to life, amplified and offering vibrant facets that bewitches me. This is a superb tribute to winter and to the snowflakes falling in slow motion.

Notes: bergamot; lemon; cyclamen; cardamom; frankincense; mimosa absolute; watery, ozonic, minty notes; oak moss, white musk, narcissus absolute.

Disclaimer: An “énorme merci” to Isabelle Larignon for Le Flocon de Johann K. 10 ml bottle provided for this review. The opinions expressed are my own.

Emmanuelle Varron, Editor

Thanks to Isabelle Larignon, we have a 50 ml bottle of Le Flocon de Johann K for one registered reader in US, UK and EU. To be eligible, please leave a comment on what you feel about Emmanuelle’s review, what smell has snow for you, and where you live. Draw closes 1/8/2021.

Available by contacting Isabelle Larignon on Instagram (via DM) and on La Revue Nez eshop.

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