New Perfume Review Salvatore Ferragamo Savane di Seta- Sweet Science of Iris

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As much as I enjoy complex developing perfumes. There is space in my heart to enjoy a simple accord. There are a lot of fragrances that aspire to be this kind of perfume but most of them manage to find the banality of this style. When it works it is because the accord is built to illuminate something that is not so obvious. Which is what I found with Salvatore Ferragame Savane di Seta.

Emilie Coppermann

One of the things I wonder about is on a simple perfume like this how can there be two perfumers. In this case they are Emilie Coppermann and Alienor Massenet. Purely as conjecture I suspect you might need to have a sounding board to find the balance you are looking for. A single accord is going to be most prone to falling apart due to one of the few ingredients overcompensating. I do know whatever the creative relationship between the two women, they did it right.

Alienor Massenet

The soliflore accord in this case is iris. I’ve written a lot of words about rooty and powdery. One adjective I don’t use a lot in reference to it is sweet. It is because the kind of sweet comes from an unusual place. It is the sweet of the earth or the yeastiness of rising dough. It gets lost in the more prominent faces of iris. Here with the smart use of two ingredients that sweet is given some space to fill.

The way it is achieved to start is with a hefty dose of carrot seed. If you’ve ever peeled carrots, there is a vegetal sweetness. Carrot seed gives a concentrated amount of that. It is an ingredient that gets used a lot because of its unique scent profile. Here the perfumers use it because they want it to find that sweet earthiness of the iris. They do it so well that it felt as if the iris was rising through the carrot seed. As the iris becomes more prominent the powdery nature does also. The final ingredient is sandalwood. This is that sweet creamy woody version. Here it finds that doughy center of iris and allows it to rise. As the three ingredients come into alignment it forms a gorgeous soliflore iris accord.

Savane di Seta has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

When a fragrance gets this style right it is like seeing an ingredient anew. In this case the perfumers introduced me to the sweet science of iris.

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample supplied by Nordstrom.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Memo Argentina- A Rose to Love

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I get emails which ask me, “Why do you hate rose?’. Hate is a strong word. I would more describe it as bored. Bored of having the beginning of every year swamped by demure genteel rose perfumes. This is the style that typically brings tears of frustration to my eyes. What is truly more accurate is if you show me the grown-up rose, I am much more interested in that. Memo Argentina gives me that type of rose.

Clara Molloy

Argentina is the latest of the Art Land collection within the brand. Creative director Clara Molloy collaborates again with perfumer Alienor Massenet. When I see Argentina my mind wanders towards tango. It is unfair to think of a country as only one thing. It is also unfair to think every perfume which refers to the country must be inspired by the dance associated with it. This is a perfume of passion. Which is what a great dark rose can bring out.

Alienor Massenet

The beginning sets the tone. A top accord of baie rose and the botanical musk of ambrette capture the sensuality to come. The rose appears from out of this. This is the Turkish version which contains a spicy core. The baie rose tweaks it with an herbal effect. Jasmine is used to take the rose and give even more depth. At this point it is almost like a rose soliflore. It changes as oud appears.

Oud and rose have become a classic combination. Mme Massenet manages to create a gentler version of the obstreperous wood. There is some real oud because there are nuances that only come from the real thing. I think it is lifted by an oud accord which allows for a more precise tuning. It meshes with the rose without clubbing it into submission. Over time it goes from intense to a skin scent memory of the night before.

Argentina has 12-14 hour longevity and average sillage.

Argentina is so appealing because it is so full of the beauty of rose. By allowing the grown-up out to play this becomes a perfume of adult passion. This is a rose to love, and I do.

Disclosure: this review is based on a sample supplied by Memo.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Memo Ocean Leather- Call Me Alienor!

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I have spent many days in a boat on the open ocean. Once you lose sight of land there is realization how small you are in relation to the water you’re skimming over the top of. There is a scent to those times. As I would move back and forth adjusting sails in my leather Top Siders there came a natural comingling of the shoe material and the ocean water. It was always one of my favorite combinations for it reminded me, I was out on the ocean wind in my sails. It has been a few years since I’ve done that. Memo Ocean Leather reminded me of it.

Clara Molloy

Ocean Leather is the latest release in the Cuirs Nomades collection for Memo. It has been one of my favorite collections of any perfume. Some of it has to do with the long-time partnership between creative director Clara Molloy and perfumer Alienor Massenet. They have one of the more creative partnerships in all of perfumery.

Alienor Massenet

For Ocean Leather Mme Molloy had a dream of Moby Dick. Not as Ahab hunting the elusive whale but as a penitent sharing the ocean with the leviathan. The beauty of it moving through the water. She asked Mme Massenet for, “a perfume excessive…. like a quest, an epic, a sailor’s tale”. Through a re-working of classic marine notes the fragrance delivers.

As I’ve mentioned the scent of the open ocean is much different than that of the sea spray of the waves crashing on the beach caught in the breeze. There is a weight to that sea experience. Mme Massenet captures that by taking a typical marine accord without the accompanying ozonic notes which give the expansiveness of a generic accord. In its place she lashes it down with two herbs and violet leaf. The herbs are sage and basil which become equally as piercing as the violet leaf. They add a textural depth to the marine notes making them rise and fall like the deep-sea swells. A combination of cedar and elemi find the wood of the deck awash in the ocean. The sweeter spice of nutmeg connects to the leather accord in the base. This is a rich leather accord which works ideally with the aquatic accord from earlier. Vetiver adds back some woodiness to the latter phase of development.

Ocean Leather has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

Ocean Leather is another recent perfume which has me looking forward to new aquatic releases from brands with imagination. Mmes Molloy and Massenet have consistently shown that. Ocean Leather was a fantastic companion on these spring days. Even as I was walking on dry land, I smelled the days I spent at sea. I also smiled to myself as I recalled Mme Molloy’s Inspiration. There was a part of me that imagined Mme Massenet chronicling her time with Captain Molloy through a perfume which says, “Call me Alienor!”

Disclosure: this review is based on a sample provided by Memo.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review L’Artisan Parfumeur Couleur Vanille – Sea Spray Gourmand

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I’ve done this long enough to not really experience anything truly different. Over a hundred years of modern perfumery has left little space for unique. As I’ve mentioned in the past if there is a place where some empty space remains it is around the gourmand style of perfume. As perfumers are given the chance to explore within that area it has resulted in my smelling something I haven’t before. When I received my sample of L’Artisan Parfumeur Couleur Vanille it was something new to my nose.

Alienor Massenet

Current trends have seen the rise of the floral gourmand which I have enjoyed. What makes Couleur Vanille different is it goes for a style I’ve rarely encountered by meshing the aquatic with gourmand. Perfumer Alienor Massenet wanted to capture the duality of the Madagascar source of the vanilla through the strong sea-breezes which blow through the plantation. It is achieved with a remarkable contrast of two styles which shouldn’t play well together. Mme Massenet finds the beauty within these olfactory opposites that I wouldn’t have expected were there.

This contrast blossoms right away. Mme Massenet marries her fleur de sel accord with the sustainably harvested vanilla orchid. By using the botanical source in place of the synthetic there is a vegetal tint to the sweetness. One of the things Mme Massenet does all the way through it to use the other ingredients to keep the vanilla from spiraling out into a confectionary tooth ache. The salty accord takes the first shift. I used to enjoy standing next to a stand of jasmine growing near the beach as a storm was coming. The waves were crashing with chilly spray catching the jasmine up in the sea spray. Mme Massenet does the same with the vanilla. The salt acts like an ingredient which adds expansiveness. It makes the vanilla opaquer in effect thus holding it back. It is a precise unique push and pull between the salt and vanilla. It gets better as immortelle gives the salt an assist. This is immortelle at its rugged best. I don’t know if it grows indigenously in Madagascar, but it is easy to imagine it does. These three ingredients form the heart of Vanille Couleur. It lingers like this for hours before eventually allowing the vanilla to slip its leash. It becomes a warm creamy version as benzoin and tolu balsam are present to give it its more typical scent profile for the final moments.

Couleur Vanille has 12-14 hour longevity and average sillage.

Couleur Vanille succeeds in its combination of aquatic and gourmand. It should have been a mess. It should have been unwearable. Instead it is one of the best perfumes of this year.

Disclosure: this review is based on a press sample provided by L’Artisan Parfumeur.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Comme des Garcons Copper- The New Green

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About halfway through the year I wondered if Comme des Garcons was going to do anything to celebrate their twenty-fifth anniversary. For a brand which has been so influential I thought it would be a shame for this milestone to go by without something new. Right about the time I was going to ask I received an e-mail announcing the end-of-year plans. Six new perfumes along with a stand-alone fragrance store in Paris. I have reviewed the other five perfumes for this anniversary, but I’ve left the best one for last; Comme des Garcons Copper.

Christian Astuguevieille

One of the things about the current popularity of transparent perfumes is it too often produces linear fragrances without a top-down development. It is that development which has always attracted me to my favorite perfumes. It is not that a linear perfume can’t be beautifully interesting. It is the ones which act like chameleons shifting colors as the hours pass that keep me engaged more fully. I think of those perfumes like classical music; evolving in movements. The best perfumes will have phases that have distinctly different rhythm and flow just as a symphonic piece has. Copper does all of this.

Alienor Massenet

As he has for the entire twenty-five years of Comme des Garcons fragrances creative director Christian Astuguevieille has overseen Copper. He chose to work with perfumer Alienor Massenet for the first time. In my press package I was told Copper was “inspired by the idea of lying in the grass next to someone wearing excessive suntan lotion”. I have no idea what that means in relation to the perfume inside the bottle. If you expect Copper to be another of these suntan lotion perfumes it is not even close. It wasn’t until I got a different description that I was satisfied; “fiery red metal; cool to the touch.” That describes it much more closely except the cool comes before the fire.

Copper opens with an overdose of galbanum. Overdose is almost too gentle for how much galbanum is here. This is so much galbanum it has rough edges around its emerald-like crystallinity. Before it gets to be too much, Mme Massenet adds in a precise amount of baie rose. It pierces that sharpness of the galbanum creating a gorgeous dried herbal accord. Then a dynamic transformation occurs upon a flying carpet of slightly metallic aldehydes. It whisks us away to a gentler movement of ginger and violet at first. A lot of the time ginger is a buzzy kind of ingredient. In Copper it is allowed to be at rest as the violet shades it in purple hues with grains of subtle powder. This becomes sweeter through dried tobacco leaf wrapping it up like a cigar. The interplay between violet, ginger, and tobacco is compelling. Then like an usher tonka bean takes this accord, by attaching itself to the tobacco, to the waiting embrace of amber. The base accord turns completely cozy. Vanilla and myrrh provide different vectors of comfort. A cleverly subtle use of labdanum stitches it all together into a warm place to spend the rest of the day.

Copper has 12-14 hour longevity and average sillage.

I have said it before over these past twenty-five years of perfumery there has been no brand more influential than Comme des Garcons. M. Astuguevieille sets the trends that others emulate. Back in 1994 M. Astuguevieille collaborated with a talented perfume, Mark Buxton, to redefine Orientals with an opening of galbanum. The same can be true of Copper as he now asks Mme Massenet to create the new version of green for the next quarter century. Copper is the best of what perfume can be.  

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample supplied by Comme des Garcons.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Juicy Couture Palm Trees Please- Summer Green

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I’ll admit that there are samples which arrive here at Colognoisseur HQ I expect little of. These are brands which are content with their derivative aesthetic and their share of the market. I never expect anything more than a competently designed perfume I’ve smelled many times before. When one confounds those expectations, according to Mrs.C, I double check it by re-spraying on a new strip. I also pick up the press materials looking with more intent. What is almost always the result is I am experiencing a perfume which is much different from expectations; usually done by a perfumer allowed some latitude to have fun. All of that happened when I tried my sample of Juicy Couture Palm Trees Please.

Alienor Massenet

The reason I continue to want to try each new release from Juicy Couture is because the third fragrance they released, Dirty English, is high on my list of best mainstream releases ever. It let me know that whenever they are in the mood to try something different it can result in something wonderful. Palm Trees Please is the fifth release in the “Rock the Rainbow” collection. The previous four are riffs on common fragrance tropes. It was what I expected from Palm Trees Please. What I found was this amazing chilly green floral which was ideal for the last days of summer.

Maurice Roucel

As I mentioned one of the reasons for a deviation from the norm is sometimes down to the perfumer. In the case of Palm Trees Please it is two of the best, Alienor Massenet and Maurice Roucel, working together. From the moment I discovered the perfumers much of the creativity present became evident. That they were given the leeway to be this creative is more surprising.

Palm Trees Please opens on a fresh, cool, green accord. The perfumers use a juicy nectarine as the core of the top accord. They surround it with lemon blossom, matcha tea, blackcurrant buds, and ivy. Somewhere in the interaction of all that a compelling chill settles across the fruit as if the green ingredients place it in a deep freeze. I spend every summer going through one “fresh” accord after another only to discover something truly fresh in the most unexpected place. The remainder of the development evolves in a straightforward manner as jasmine emerges from the top accord to eventually settle on a lightly musky base with sandalwood.

Palm Trees Please has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

If you’re looking for something to give a new type of fresh to your final days of summer give Palm Trees Please a try.

Disclosure: this review is based on a sample I received from Juicy Couture.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Memo Winter Palace- Citrus Susurration

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There are ingredients in perfume which are meant to be the equivalent of scented fireworks. They are usually top notes to only last for a short time with maximum impact. One of the best examples of this are the citrus ingredients. They often act like the opening act for perfumes which contain them. In Memo Winter Palace the citrus is used in a different way.

Clara Molloy

Memo has been one of my favorite brands for many years now. Creative director Clara Molloy and perfumer Alienor Massenet have defined an identifiable brand aesthetic. To keep that from becoming stale they have collaborated on several sub-collections within the overall collection. Winter Palace is the third entry in the Art Land collection following Marfa and Tiger’s Nest. The perfumes are inspired by places. Winter Palace is inspired by the resting place of the Imperial Dragon of China. When he wakes up spring and summer return to the land. The perfume evokes that moment of awakening.

Alienor Massenet

What Mmes Molloy and Massenet do is to use resins and oils to create a perfume which whispers its notes in long-lasting exhalations; drawing you in. The citrus oils are especially intriguing for their ability to last as resins along with a red tea accord swirl together.

Grapefruit, orange, lemon, and bergamot are easily recognizable perfume notes. In the early moments of Winter Palace they carry a soft unctuous effect because the citrus oils are used in a way to eschew ostentation. They whisper through the early moments before the red tea accord rises in swirls of scented steam. Mme Massenet uses some mate tea to tune the red tea to have a little more presence. Not a lot more just enough to insert itself into the citrus mélange of the top accord. These early moments of Winter Palace are testaments to the beauty of subtlety. As the resins begin to appear, they also tend to ooze into place without fanfare. Styrax, tolu balsam, and benzoin are used in their high potency resinoid forms. This also acts like coals on a brazier warming things up . This finishes on an arid woody base accord sweetened with a pinch of vanilla.

Winter Palace has 10-12 hour longevity and moderate sillage.

One of my favorite synonyms for whispering is susurration. On the days I wore Winter Palace I felt like it was a perfume susurration, especially the citrus. This is a fragrance which captures your attention like a dragon languidly uncoiling from a long winter’s sleep. When it is fully exposed it is magnificent.

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample provided by Memo.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Memo Moroccan Leather- Leather in the Background

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I write often about coherence of a collection. It is easy to call something a collection. It seems more difficult to find a creative through line upon which to build that group of fragrance. For a brand like Memo one thing which helps form that is a long-time partnership between creative director Clara Molloy and perfumer Alienor Massenet. They have collaborated on almost thirty perfumes over the last eleven years. I have always believed that creates the coherence I seek from a collection of perfume. Memo is a great example of that.

Something which has kept the creative partnership fresh has been the creation of sub-collections. One which contains some of my favorite perfumes from the brand overall is, Cuir Nomades. The baseline brief for the fragrances has been to pair leather with a geographical location. It has shown off Mme Massenet’s skill at using leather accords to different effect. For the most recent release, Moroccan Leather, the choice is to put the leather in the background in favor of iris and green notes.

Alienor Massenet

Moroccan Leather opens with a big slug of verdant galbanum. Mme Massenet uses the woody green of cypress to enhance that. Mandarin and ginger provide contrast. They push back with presence until a rich orris butter takes charge. This is the ice princess version of iris rising out of the galbanum and ushered into the heart by ylang-ylang and orange blossom. The powdery part is almost non-existent. The leather comes in but not as a keynote. It provides a refined support like iris-scented calfskin driving gloves. The green is recapitulated by a vetiver fraction which is magnified in the greener style of that ingredient. This is where Moroccan Leather lingers for a few hours before a typical synthetic woody base accord finishes things.

Moroccan Leather has 12-14 hour longevity and average sillage.

I enjoyed the choice to de-emphasize the leather in a perfume with that in the name. Once I realized that, the fragrance sorted itself out into a study of powerful green notes versus an earthy orris butter. That was something I enjoyed even if the leather was mostly missing. Because of that it is an odd entry in the Cuir Nomades collection as it felt apart from the others. If you’re looking for the kind of leather in the previous entries this will not be as satisfying. If you’re a fan of green notes and orris that will find its admirers here.

Disclosure: This review was based on a sample provided by Neiman-Marcus.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Memo Tiger’s Nest- Incense at the Roof of the World

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There are a few brands which connect with me. To the point that I am always interested to follow where they lead. I do have to admit there is a bit of a fantasy where I am approached by one of those brands and asked what you would like to see in a perfume. Sometimes it happens through serendipity as it has with Memo Tiger’s Nest.

Clara Molloy

Incense is probably my favorite ingredient in perfume. Amber is a close second. There are a lot of perfumes on my shelf with that combination. The third ingredient in Tiger’s Nest is a favorite floral; osmanthus. If creative director Clara Molloy and perfumer Alienor Massenet asked me for a suggestion I might have chosen these.

Paro Taktsang a.k.a. Tiger's Nest

Their inspiration for Tiger’s Nest is the temple of the same name in Bhutan. This results in a church-like incense surrounded by facets of polished wood. The osmanthus is like an offering at the shrine as it rests upon the resinous foundation. The creative team has captured this milieu.

Alienor Massenet

Tiger’s Nest opens with a fillip of an accord to represent the altitude of the temple which clings to the side of a cliff. A set of aldehydes freshened with lime capture the clean cool air of the Himalayas. It is fleeting; it is adroitly done. A thread of saffron leads inward to a shimmering silvery frankincense. This is the church-like incense version. There is an austerity to it that can be tough. Mme Massenet ameliorates that with the warmth of amber softening the inherent sharp edges of the incense. Osmanthus takes this in a different direction as the leathery quality of the ingredient finds purchase. Some tolu balsam acts like the polished wood of the surfaces inside the temple. This is where Tiger’s Nest lingers for a long time. Vanilla eventually adds a sweet finish.

Tiger’s Nest has 12-14 hour longevity and average sillage.

I will eventually purchase a bottle of Tiger’s Nest because of the way the osmanthus provides the kind of texture I desire in an incense perfume. When I wear it, I will imagines standing on a cliff in Bhutan about to enter a temple through a cloud of incense at the roof of the world.

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample I purchased.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Penhaligon’s Elisabethan Rose- Let Them Sniff Roses!

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Someday, somewhere, a perfume PR person is going to explain the reasoning behind putting the same name as a classic within the brand on a new perfume which smells nothing like it. I’ve never figured it out because those who loved the original version feel “cheated” when faced with the new version. It must be especially jarring when the new version very pointedly goes for a contemporary vibe. This is the case for Penhaligon’s Elisabethan Rose.

Back in 1984 the original Elisabethan Rose, composed by perfumer Michael Pickthall, was released. It was a big powerful aldehydic rose sandalwood affair. When smelling it for the first time in the early 2000’s I felt this was Exhibit A of what people meant as “old lady perfume”. It felt like it should have a warning sticker of “only for those with grandchildren”. I received a press release announcing that Penhaligon’s was bringing back Elisabethan Rose. My first snarky thought was there must be a new generation of grandmothers by now. As I read further into the press release I saw that perfumer Alienor Massenet has been asked to produce the new version. Once I saw the note list I became much more interested in trying it. Mme Massenet has a very lean style which was just what a new Elisabethan Rose needed.

Alienor Massenet

If the original Elisabethan Rose was the perfume of a Dowager Queen the new one is for the Princess first in line to the throne. Rose has always been one of the most regal perfume ingredients which something with the name Elisabethan Rose should reflect. With all of the aldehydes in the original you felt the crown was perched on a heavily hairsprayed coif. Mme Massenet creates a rose with vitality and verve for the lively Princess.

Mme Massenet substitutes a green opening for the aldehydes of the original. This comes via hazelnut leaves. This is a foliage type of accord. Almond is used in a judicious way to provide a kind of nutty woodiness. What comes next is what really drew me in as Mme Massenet uses cinnamon to add some shimmering heat to the top notes. Out of this a classic rose begins to increase in presence. It becomes very forthright; reaching a kind of sticky, near cloying, level. Mme Massenet has a firm grip on the reins which keeps it from tipping over into an unpleasant level. This is the regal spine of both versions. The cinnamon amplifies the spicy core of the rose making it a spicy jammy rose. The sandalwood is back from the original as the rose wanes. It is accompanied by a splash of vetiver, bringing back the green, and a bit of musk.

Elisabethan Rose has 10-12 hour longevity and average sillage.

I like this new version quite a bit more than the original. It feels like a rose for 2018 represented by a vivacious Queen-in-waiting telling her admirers to “Sniff the Roses!”.

Disclosure: This review is based on a sample provided by Bloomingdale’s.

–Mark Behnke