Despite coming from the distant island continent of Australia, Howard Jarvis has taken his passion for perfume and created a company that is responsible, natural and made very fine fragrances. Howard has gone back to the proverbial drawing board, donned his lab coat and “alchemist” cap and created some truly beautiful original perfumes. Many have intriguing names like: Ugly Bastard, Jezebel, Naiad and IF.
L’Eau Froide opens with the icy herbal freshness of mint which supplements the high pitched citrus of the incense. The mint is a wonderful player, as it feels like it’s clearing your nose in preparation for a better perception of the frosty incense.
The Wearing of the Green has been a tradition for centuries, normally in the form of a shamrock, which Saint Patrick would use to explain the Holy Trinity. I’m not sure how this tradition was started, but when I was a kid, if you forgot to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, you got pinched. Now that I am grown up and it is doubtful that I will be pinched again, I can wear my green in the form of fragrance.
“For ‘Fils de Dieu’ Etienne gave me two films to watch: ‘Reflections in a Golden Eye’ by John Huston and ‘The Masseur’ by Brillante Mendoza. The fragrance thus was inspired by Asian cuisine (hence the rice), a Philippine massage parlor (castoreum!) and the body lotions (musk)”-Ralf Schweiger
In 2007 the fragrance company Mane released a fragrance under their own imprimatur called Yu (Mandarin Chinese for rain). It was a limited edition of 500 bottles for an eye-popping $5,000. I finally was able to get a small sample of Mane Yu to try for myself. What I found was a fragrance more interesting for the pieces instead of the whole.
Certainly, the physical grace and nuanced performances of Berenice Bejo and Jean Dujardin, in the 2012 Academy Award winner for best picture ‘The Artist’, made it easy to imagine a signature fragrance for their characters. As Peppy and George moved across the screen effortlessly, I felt as if I could almost smell their sillage. The two have sweetly left an impression on my fragrance subconscious.
