Annick Goutal Parfums was created in 1981 by a young lady, brought up in a chocolatier’s household, rebelling against a career as a pianist. After fleeing the rigour of piano for modeling she met a man and soon found herself alone with a baby (her daughter Camille). Next she was diagnosed with breast cancer and married her childhood sweetheart.
Photo Stolen from multi-brand
Her first venture into beauty was a skin cream business with a friend and Goutal felt they were missing two things, fragrance and packaging. “My fingers remembered”, she says, reflecting on her father’s confectionery. “I had acquired a great manual facility thanks to all the chocolate arranging. I had the idea of presenting the pots of cream like dainty packets of sweets. In beautiful handwriting we inscribed hundreds of tags to go with the bags”. After an encounter in 1977 with perfumer Henri Sorsana while talking of perfuming some creams, Goutal spent the next seven years memorising ingredients, discovering a talent and honing her skills, culminating in the creation of brand “Annick Goutal Parfums”.
Photo Stolen from ParisPerfect
Her boutique opened in 1980 on Rue de Bellechasse, presenting her first fragrances Folavril, Passion and Eau d’Hadrien which has become the most successful perfume in the Annick Goutal range. In time, as her talent, client list and reputation grew, customers and journalist friends spread the word of something wonderful happening in Paris. “It is very rare that a perfume creator can be free, because they are always linked to a big perfume company”, said Goutal. In the age of the corporate perfumer she provided a truly bespoke service. “I have always had complete freedom… It is like making music by myself”.
Photo Stolen from Escentual
“When my daughter Camille was seven, she was up on the terrace feeling the ivy and saying: “Maman, I want a fragrance like this.” So she was the inspiration for Eau de Camille-honeysuckle and privet tree mingle with freshly cut grass”. Her stepdaughter Charlotte wanted something less naive, more sophisticated, so Goutal used mimosa and cocoa. “This makes Eau de Charlotte a bit more gourmand…And for my husband (cellist Alain Meunier), I created Sables…”
Camille Goutal Photo Stolen from Vanity Fair
By 1985, the Taittinger group merged with and invested heavily in exposing Annick Goutal Parfums, both in France and abroad. The brand is extremely successful in the USA and was ranked number one in Saks and Neiman Marcus, they also began to export to Asia and European markets.
Annick Goutal added new fragrances with less citrus directions in 1996 such as Grand Amour, Eau du Sud, Petite Chérie, and Ce Soir ou Jamais and a range of candles and home sprays.
Photo Stolen from sassisamblog
In 1999 at the age of 53 Annick Goutal passed away. After, Brigitte Taittinger entrusted Camille Goutal (Annick Goutal’s Daughter) and Isabelle Doyen (a longtime perfumer in the Annick Goutal company) with the company’s development and they are responsible for bringing forth Mandragore, Songes, Un Matin d’Orage, Ninfeo mio and many more, following the brands history of creativity, authenticity and excellence.
In September 2005, Starwood Capital Group acquired Taittinger Group and Annick Goutal Parfums.
By August 2011 Korean group AMORE PACIFIC had purchased Annick Goutal Parfums, they are also licensees for Lolita Lempicka and French fashion house JC de Castelbajac’s perfumes.
Photo Stolen from CafeFleurBon
Thanks for coming on an Annick Goutal journey. tomorrow we’ll meet some of the perfumes,
Portia xx
These words are barely re arranged from their original forms on Annick Goutal’s site, FragranceX, Squidoo and Fragrantica.
Don’t you love Emma Watson? Great choice for Lancome’s Midnight Rose.
As promised I thought I’d chat about a perfume that I didn’t know I should be ashamed of till I started reading about it.
POEME by LANCOME
This time to start with I’m giving you extra reading, Brian at I Smell Therefore I Am did such a wonderful job on Poeme back in 2009 that I would like you to read it. It is the only review I found on the first 3 pages of Google that didn’t just dish the Lancome spiel back at me. He has thought about the perfume and worn it. Kudos!
Here is a late entrant into the reviews BoisDeJasmine has done a less enamored review with some better quality, same accord, substitutes. Thanks Undina for bringing it to my attention.
Photo Stolen from aaajs.com
Fortunately, there were no preconceived ideas of Poeme as the Lancome loser here, because it’s still on the shelves when fragrances like Cuir de Lancome, Climat, and Sagamore, among many others, are gone. That people like Luca Turin despise Poeme had completely passed me by. What a shame for everyone. Poeme is lovely, a perfume for a woman, a lady. Someone not afraid to smell lovely, to be fruity, floral and very slightly spicy. to me this is a no brainer, how can anyone not like Poeme. It is fragrant, yes. Intrusive? Really? It does have awesome staying power but why is that seen as a negative? Surely, spritz in the morning and respritz at night should be the way perfumes are made. You want to smell lovely and not have to worry about making sure you have your scent in your purse. No?
I love the warmth in Poeme as the citrus top notes melt into a vanilla floral bouquet. I can’t pick the notes but I’m sure I can smell some jasmine and tuberose, and they say mimosa is the strongest but I wouldn’t know mimosa in a fragrance if you slapped me with it, sorry. The notes in Fragrantica mention leather too, but I need leather to be a bit more in your face before I can parse it. It is warm and green simultaneously, the spice is quiet but when you warm up so does it. I know many of you are unimpressed by perfumey smelling fragrances, as if they are too easy to enjoy, like fragrance should be an endurance sport, extreme scents etc, and I do think there is a big fat wondferful place for such things, but that does not preclude the lovely, does it?
Poeme by Lancome is a well put together Floriental and if perfume should first and foremost smell good, then to me Poeme is on the money. Maybe it suffers from its availability, price point and old fashioned image but if one of the niche perfumers, that was hard to find and wildly expensive, brought this out now, I think the scentbloggosphere would be gushing and squawking with praise at their absolute refusal to follow the pack and at their dedication to the art of smelling beautiful. HAH! I am part of the scentbloggosphere and I just did. Please go and try Poeme at a Lancome fragrance counter near you. It costs nothing to have a go and you may like it.
As a Thank You for making it to the bottom of my thoughts here is one of the Poeme ads,
Much love,
Portia xx
Photo Stolen from multi-brand
Photo Stolen from ParisPerfect
Photo Stolen from Escentual
Camille Goutal Photo Stolen from Vanity Fair
Photo Stolen from sassisamblog
Photo Stolen from CafeFleurBon
Australian Perfume Junkies 