Illuminum Perfumes now available in Antwerp

You can now find the Illuminum Perfumes at La Maison du parfum in Antwerp! 

Acqua Fiorentina is back!

Horror it was, when I heard that Acqua Fiorentina from Creed was discontinued about a year ago. It was not love on the first sight on me but one moment I did fel in love with the fragrance when I completely perfumed myself with it. So far I had just testing it on my wrist but this was something completely new!

The fruity floral but also aromatic composition was inspired on a warm evening on the country side in Tuscany. The plum is what it made difficult for me in the beginning but once I wore the fragrance, I was so indulged by it's fresh but deep romantic aura.

The new Acqua Fiorentina has been reformulated, this due to damn regulations - I hate that perfumers are limited due to that! - and might be slightly different but almost unnoticeable.

Mr. Creed did add Diamond Jubilee Apple to the blend, a lively twist to the famous melange of Renaissance roses, green-gauge plum (often used in desserts), Florentine pear, sparkling white grapefruit, Sicilian bergamot, ... .

The result is a New "Old" Acqua Fiorentina, which hopefully may be available for many years!

(Picture: Maxime Heirbaut for YOUR Antwerp)

"A Single Man" - a fragrance by Wim Janssens

One of the most beautiful films that so deeply touched me is A Single Man by Tom Ford. The story, scenes, conversations, settings, ... everything is perfected by the maker. The emptiness, the sorrow, the loneliness, the pain, ... . The pure existential crisis of the main character who lost his partner in a car crash. Love that is so much more then the sexual orientation, love in its purest form. A cumulation of instant moments to define happiness... .

Reflecting to my life I recognize a lot of the emotions captured in the film. Pain I feel constantly due to suffering from a post traumatic whiplash injury which resulted in Fibromyalgia.
The lost of dear ones and the lust for living my live at the fullest as possible.

Pain is a constant drive to make me smell, craving for constantly olfactive impressions. That is why I did create my fragrance "A Single Man", which captures the deep scent of leather, the sweet embrace of violets, the warmth of tobacco and the depth of musk and tonka been.

Mona di Orio - In Memoriam

Mona di Orio was born and raised in Franc eand grew up in Annecy. Her mother is Spanish and her father Italian. She graduated from Art School with a degree in Fine Arts and Literature, but she became the pupil of the famous perfumer Edmond Roudnitska from who she learned the fine art of perfuming.

Mona did suddenly pass away last Friday due to the complications of routine surgery.

She was a visionary perfumer and a very sensitive and wonderful woman. She left an incredible footprint in the history of perfuming with her incredible creations and passion.

Dear Mona, I will treasure your "Nuit Noire" forever, one of your creations that deeply moved me that I sometimes not even wore it because it was to moving... . You will be missed and I want to pass my deepest condolences to your family and friends.

Fragrance is a language that unites people and it so sad to have to say goodbye to you.
Wherever you are, I know you are in peace and watching over us... .

 Wim Janssens
Sunday 12 December 2011

"Il Tuo Tulipano" by Hilde Soliani

 

Hilde is one of the most amusing perfumers I ever met. Her heart speaks and she has an incredible sense of humour! She is driven by her passions which are theatre, cuisine and the art of perfuming. How can you not like food when you live in Parma!

We spend a afternoon together during last spring and I really enjoyed it very deeply. Hilde talks with so much passion and I learned in one afternoon a lot from her. If she would come over for a week we would talk for days! I never stop and so does Hilde - perfect combination!

 

Hilde's scents are like her, unsettling, unusual, politically incorrect

Il Tuo Tulipano is inspired on a walk trough a field of tulips, based on contrasts, even though these contrasts blend and make an inseparable union. Fresh fruity notes add creamy and thick nuances, white floral notes create pure and innocent beauty in the heart, while woody notes and moss make this a serious and sophisticated edition. Tulipano is a cheerful fragrance, chic and wearable on various occasions.

It is full of love!

Top notes provide two fruity octaves, which make a juicy and creamy-fruity layer, while luminous lime and bergamot above them allow the fruity sweetness to breathe! The heart itself is based on floral notes (white flowers: lily of the valley, freesia and jasmine). The base is woody, strong and stable. As if all these fruit and flowers remain in the grip of its engraved musky-wooden cradle that accentuate it and blow your mind. This perfume is so rich and layered, so modern that it makes you an addict!

 

Il Tuo Tulipano and other creations of Hilde Soliani are nowe availabe in "La Maison du Parfum" in Antwerp.

Source: Fragrantica
Includes a review by Sandra Raičević Petrović. Click here to read the full review on Fragrantica

My Favourite Fragrances - "Royal English Leather" from Creed

Royal English Leather is the first fragrance ever created by Creed, commissioned by King George III in 1781. Creed was the king's glove maker and scented his gloves with this scent which he loved so much that he asked  Creed to make the same fragrance for his body so that he could wear it all the time.

Royal English Leather is a very refined leather fragrance. It is somehow sweet and velvety like they have added some violet to soften the leather note which is not the case. This iwas my olfactive impression the first time I smelled it.
It is the base of sandal wood and leather with a heart of ambergris and top notes of bergamot and mandarin that makes this fragrance rich and dense and somehow nostalgic.
A classic creation that can be worn by men and women and will remain in my personal collection forever!

7 December 2011: Royal English Leather has been recently discontinued and will be not produced anymore by Creed.

"Black Jade" by Lubin - The Queen's Secret Garden

In 1784, 10-year-old Pierre François Lubin became the apprentice of Tombarelli, a master perfumer of Grasse, in the south of France. Some years later, he came to Paris to complete his apprenticeship in the prestigious workshop of Fargeon, perfumer to the Royal Court.

His ambition was subsequently to join the corporation of perfumers founded in the 15th century.
The latter enjoyed growing prestige at the time, for since the reign of Louis XIV, hygiene had been making great progress at Versailles. The use of soaps, perfumes and cosmetics gradually became entrenched.

The queen’s perfumer Fargeon was therefore a familiar face at the Royal Palace of Versailles, where he regularly brought his preparations to Queen Marie Antoinette.

The 18th century saw the awakening of a philosophical and political consciousness that gave the period its name of the “Age of Enlightenment”. Monarchy and the absolute power exercised by the sovereign were increasingly subject to criticism.
These ideas spread to the people, and in 1789 royal power gave way to popular uprisings and was replaced by a revolutionary assembly elected by all, where the most radical elements eventually dominated.
Under increasing attack, the royal family was finally imprisoned in the Tuileries castle in Paris, while war threatened at the borders.

Amidst this revolutionary Paris, Master Perfumer Fargeon remained loyal to Queen Marie Antoinette and continued to supply her with his preparations. One of these was his “eau de toilette”, an alcohol based infusion that the queen applied to her skin during her morning ablutions to maintain the fresh complexion that caused so much envy at court.

The young apprentice Lubin carefully copied his master’s formulae: he would remember them when he set up his own shop in rue Sainte Anne a few years later in 1798, and launched the famous “eau de toilette” that established his reputation.

Marie Antoinette’s daughter, Marie Thérèse of France, who had become the duchess of Angoulême, quickly adopted it after her return from exile in 1815, and in turn appointed Lubin as “supplier to the Duke of Angoulême”.

But the young Lubin was also interested in a mysterious perfume that the queen had ordered from Jean Louis Fargeon during the creation of the Trianon gardens, her private domain. The roses in the recipe of course evoked the flower garden, and are combined with jasmine from Grasse, but the use of spices and noble wood imported from distant lands, those that inspired the motifs of the wall decorations at Versailles, gave it more exotic tones.
Precious patchouli and sandalwood, vanilla and cinnamon, coriander and cardamom, frankincense and galbanum were brought from India and French islands beyond the seas.
With these ingredients, the initially cool floral fragrance became mellow and warm on the queen’s skin.
It leaves a discreet trace with notes of amber, elegant and sensual. The queen took it everywhere in a small flask of black jade that protected it from daylight.

In the house of Lubin, the once lost but now resuscitated fragrance for a long time bore the name of “Jardin Secret”, until the 1930s, without any explicit reference ever being made to its origin.
Lubin restored its name of the time, “Black Jade”,

Available at La Maison du Parfum in Antwerp.