I sent up a plea to the heavens for someone to hook me up with the upcoming Memo Paris release for 2012 Quartier Latin. John and Clara Molloy, the husband and wife creative team behind Memo Paris, heard my sad story and took pity on me.
Pierre Guillaume has been fascinating me with his Huitieme Art Parfums line from the beginning. I’ve always found the best of the Huitieme Art Parfums as studies in the possibilities of the central ingredient and the newest and tenth member of the Huitieme Art Parfums family, Podre de Riz is an excellent example of what I am talking about.
As the transgressiveness of perfumery gives way to “celebuscents” to boost the multibillion dollar fragrance industry, contemporary visual artists are increasingly turning to it as an expressive medium. Shigenobu Twilight is the creation of artist Anicka Yi and architect Maggie Peng.
The newest release by Chanel, Coco Noir is meant to be a popular perfume and I mean that with both sides of the popularity blade in play. Like Bleu de Chanel in 2010, Coco Noir is created for the woman who has a few bottles of fragrance on her dressing table. I expect Coco Noir will be the number one selling fragrance this upcoming holiday season and for those not immersed in perfume it will be something they very likely will buy again, it will be popular.
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.
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.
