Olfactive Studio

Chambre Noire by Dorothee Piot for Olfactive Studio 2011

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Post by TinaG

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Hi APJ,

The concept behind Olfactive Studio is the interplay between imagery and perfume – a picture can tell a thousand words, so can a perfume capture the essence of time and place. It is this junction where the two meet that is Olfactive Studio’s creative space. Each of Olfactive Studio’s five fragrances are the result of teamwork between a photographer and a perfumer, working together to capture not only a moment, but the interplay of thought and emotion around that moment.

Chambre Noire Olfactive Studio photoPhoto Stolen Olfactive Studio

Chambre Noire by Dorothee Piot for Olfactive Studio 2011

Chambre Noire Olfactive Studio FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Schinus (pink peppercorn)
Heart: Jasmine, papyrus, violet, incense, prune
Base: Sandalwood, patchouli, musk, vanilla, leather

Chambre Noire is another name for “Camera Obscura”, the first type of box camera using pinhole light exposure so there is a bit of mystery, play of light and dark and what is revealed in shadowy corners. The photograph that this fragrance was designed in conjunction with is a barely lit hotel room, the reflections revealing more about the room itself than the direct view.

On first opening I get a big waft of violet and sandalwood and what I think is amber, although it is not listed in the notes. Within 10 minutes the violet had dropped away, with incense, shinus and a woody scent that I can’t really place. Schinus is the genus of pink peppercorns, and are not related to ‘true’ pepper, in that pink pepper does not contain the fiery piperine of true pepper. Shinus has warm, fragrant, bright and uplifting qualities. I managed to get hold of some the other day, and could quite happily chew a few pink berries without my mouth slowly catching on fire.

Chambre Noire Olfactive Studio Pink_Peppercorns WikiMediaPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

After 2 hours the violet & light florals make a return, along with some very gentle leather and the sandalwood humming in the background. A warm sensual mix, in a kick off your high heels & chat over a glass of wine kind of way. The feeling I get from it is more one of companionship rather than a mysterious liaison, like winding down for the day, but with enough of a zing in the air to keep conversation flowing.

The dry down at 4 hours has musk and vanilla joining sandalwood, which gently linger until it fades to a faint memory. I would wear Chambre Noir when going out with a small group of friends on weekends, or give myself a pick-me-up spritz in anticipation of Friday night after-work drinks.

Chambre Noire Olfactive Studio fragrancePhoto Stolen Olfactive Studio

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Smelly Thoughts
First In Fragrance has €125/100ml and €4/3ml samples
Olfactive Studio has $195/100ml Delivered to Australia

Have you tried Olfactive Studio’s fragrances? Did any of them stand out for you?

Tina G xx

Still Life by Dora Baghriche-Arnaud for Olfactive Studio 2011

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Post by TinaG

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Hi APJ,

One of the many blessings in my life is having whole new landscapes of experience opened up to me through investigation of fragrance. In a lot of respects I still feel very much like a “newbie” and can’t believe how lucky I am when friends drop the topic of perfume into a conversation, or hand me a sample, or take the long way round to lunch through a few shops to try new things. Portia kindly gifted me with a sample set from Olfactive Studio, who are a niche perfume company run by Founder and Creative Director Céline Verleure, with headquarters in Paris. The sample set included Autoportrait, Still Life, Chambre Noir, and Lumière Blanche.

Still Life by Dora Baghriche-Arnaud for Olfactive Studio 2011

Still Life Olfactive Studio FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Yuzu, elémi, pink pepper, black pepper, Sichuan pepper
Heart: Star anise, galbanum
Base: Dark rum, cedarwood, ambrox

Usually when I am looking into new perfumes, I’ll do a bit of research on ingredients and accords and work out what it is that I “should” be finding. This time I decided to take a different approach, and to test cold, to see what story the fragrance was going to tell me. First perfume out of the box was Still Life.

olfactive studio still life FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

On first spray I encounter a bright harmony of sharp and sweet citruses and peppery notes, containing something slightly resiny and green. Although the top notes in Still Life are full of pepper – pink, black and Sichuan, they are balanced as a supportive counterpoint rather than a triple-barrelled shotgun. After half an hour some warmer notes come through, and all of a sudden I have an image in my head of the inside of an old school desk draw, cedarwood with the ink and pencils and paper that it holds.

olfactive studio still life Fruit_and_Champagne Helen Searle WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Traditionally in life drawings, “Still Life” subjects are typically fruit or flowers, but the warmth of the drydown as the citrus fades brings a feeling that the fruit bowl has now been overlooked, gently moved to one side for a subject with softer curves and skin. At four hours, I get a sense of focused calmness. There is a lot of wood and furniture, sunlight falling thick with dusty flecks through a closed window, and a female model posing half reclined on a soft sofa. But there is such an intense presence of that moment in time – she being relaxed, daydreaming but enjoying being observed, and the artist who is showing appreciation of her curves with every stroke of the pencil. However, the purpose of the moment is also its totality, and there is no sense of time passing – there is no before or after, no anticipation of “what next”. Just this rich, warm, sensual atmosphere captured in a bubble of time.

olfactive studio still life Rum Picasso Ben Sutherland FlickrPhoto Stolen Ben Sutherland  Flickr

So, here I am in the middle of the day, overwhelmed and slightly disorientated by the strength of the image that this fragrance has managed to evoke. But how? How has that kind of beautiful false memory been triggered? One of the basenotes in Still Life, ambrox, I’m not at all familiar with so I do some research. Perfume Shrine describes ambrox: “(ambrox)…oscillates between an impression of ambergris (salty, smooth, skin-like), creamy musky & labdanum-like …something that smells warm, oddly mineral and sweetly inviting… approximating a person’s aura rather than a specific component…” Wow. That quite accurately explains how this story unfolded for me with Still Life. What a wonderful ride.

Further reading: Olfactoria’s Travels and Scentrist
Olfactive Studio has €85/50ml
LuckyScent has $195/100ml
Surrender To Chance has $20/the boxed set of four 1.2ml manufacturers samples

Tina G

Autoportrait by Nathalie Lorson for Olfactive Studio 2011

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Post by Jordan River

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Autoportrait by Olfactive Studio 2011

Autoportrait by Nathan BranchPhoto Taken by Nathan Branch

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot and elemi
Heart: Benzoin, incense and musk
Base: Oak moss, cedar and vetiver.

Boys, here is one for the 21st century man, not a flower petal in sight. The brief to the perfumer was a photo – create a fragrance inspired by the picture below. I first encountered this scent in December at World Beauty. When I trial a new scent I make sure not to read reviews or the even the notes on the packaging. February came and Autoportrait was still wafting through the scentmills of my mind. Back to the shop for another spritz. Back to the shop twice in a day. On my fourth visit the SA read out the marketing notes before I could protest. When I heard the words Nathalie Lorson I swooned as the attraction made sudden sense.

Autoportrait LUC LAPÔTRE olfactive studio

The photo that inspired Autoportrait. Photographer: Luc Lapôrte

Natalie created one of my best-loved ‘fumes, the warm masculine vetiver that is Encre Noire from Lalique. Autoportrait is Encre Noire released from the woods and flying above the clouds. The vetiver smells like the roots have been washed by a waterfall leaving a clear hint of something that is usually more vegetal.

Let’s take a quick side trip to the Moonlight Waterfall in Issan. Will you stroll with me? There is a path behind the waterfall. The waterfall will be an olfactory reference.

Sang Chan Waterfall Issan

Sang Chan Waterfall

image

Sang Chan waterfall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tzJx25falk

Sang Chan Waterfall

Sang Chan Waterfall, Issan, Thailand Photos: Jordan River

Back to Autoportrait: A tonal quality like a chime is what wafts from the bottle. Back in the office I sprayed this new delight. My Social Media Manager said “I’ve tasted that scent”. He was saying he had eaten elemi berries from the Phillipines. Resin from the elemi tree make up the top notes along with lemon and orange. We are seeing a lot of berry notes this season; the blackcurrant Co2 extract and absolutes hidden in The Enchanted Forest is another example of this direction.

After 30 minutes the scent becomes nice and dry. This is a skin scent meaning that you have to be reasonably but not intimately close to smell this. Your skin ++. Benzoin resin from Thailand, incense and oak moss or more likely a well composed synthetic substitute with a tiny drop of oak moss, are the other notes which all evaporate on me within 4 hours. No worries there, just top up.

image

Autoportrait is smooth with a clean feel but not in the laundry musk or American sense. Maybe clear is a better word. It’s not about the notes; this is a harmony of composition. A beautiful blend by a woman I admire.

Nathalie Lorson

Perfumer Nathalie Lorson

Love your work Nathalie. But this is not really work is it? This is an artistic expression which moves the vetiver story higher into the fragrant stratosphere. Next I am expecting vetiver in outer space.

Careful if you wear this: someone may want to eat you if they move close enough within the first 30 minutes. I know I like to taste everything.

Perfume Fridge

Center shelf, a welcome addition to the fridge

Autoportrait from Olfactive Studio is an EDP available in 50ml and 100ml.

Céline Verleure

Founder and Creative Director of Olfactive Studio, Céline Verleure

The photo is included in the box. My solution to flatten the curl of the cheap paper stock is to frame the photo for my office. At this price point ~ $US145, €85 (50ml) a higher gsm would be appreciated to carry this beautiful piece of art.

Further Information
Elemi is a berry tree from the Philippines. You can taste a dried version of the fruit at most Asian food stores.
Luc Lapôrte photography
Olfactive Studio website
Picturing Perfume – The Olfactive Studio story by Denyse Beaulieu

Reviews
What Men Should Smell Like – Clayton Ilolahia

Olfactoria’s Travels – Olfactoria

The Non-Blonde – Gaia Fishler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tzJx25falk

Lumiere Blanche by Sidonie Lancesseur for Olfactive Studio 2012

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

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Guest Post by Dionne

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Hey-O, perfumed peeps!

I typically trundle along at a turtle pace in the frugal corner of fragrance-land, as my budget and my personality both keep me from going crazy ordering massive bunches of samples. Plus, my skin chemistry is such that unsniffed purchases are a baaaaad idea – rate of failure in this area is embarrassingly high. Now I’m totally fine with keeping to my budget and plodding along, but I’ll freely admit one of the downsides is I’m REALLY behind on all the exciting new releases everyone else is talking about, and don’t usually participate in splits of the latest thing all the rest of you are groveling over.

However.

Being a frugal fumehound, one of my weaknesses is inexpensive sampling programs. I am a sucker for a great deal. So when I discovered that the relatively new line Olfactive Studio would send spray samples of their four fragrances, shipping included, for a whopping 6 Euros all the way from France (I LOVE getting mail from France!) I jumped right on it. And I’m glad I did.

Lumiere Blanche by Olfactive Studio 2012

Still Life and Autoportrait are lovely, but it’s Chambre Noir and Lumière Blanche that make my knees weak; because the line is relatively new, I was able to get in on a split over at Facebook Fragrance Friends.

Lumière Blanche showed up on a bunch of “Best of 2012” lists, and it was nice to feel in the loop for a change, because I’d actually smelled this, bought it, and loved it myself. Hey, it’s fun hanging out with the cool kids! And speaking of cool, I really enjoyed the concept behind the brand. Artistic Director Celine Verleure has paired photography and perfumery, and although I don’t know the details about who chose the photographers or the photos or the noses – Olfactive Studio has been very interactive right from the start with social media – it’s fascinating to smell how the four perfumers interpreted their respective photos.

LumiereBlanch OlfactiveStudioPhoto Stolen from OlfactiveStudio

What is especially interesting about this photo by Massimo Vitali is that my initial reaction of “Whoa, is that an iceberg?”  followed by the realization it’s actually a beach in the summertime is mirrored in the perfume itself. Typically, I cannot wear my winter frags in the summertime, or my summer frags in the winter; there’s something simply too jarring about wearing them out of season, and in the case of my winter perfumes in summer, far too oppressive.

Up until now I only owned two that were season-less: L’Eau d’Hiver and Jacomo #08. Lumière Blanche now rounds it out to a aesthetically pleasing trio. Major kudos to the perfumer Sidonie Lancesseur; creating a perfume that wears equally well at minus 40 degrees and plus 35? That’s impressive.

LumiereBlanche FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica and OlfactiveStudio give these featured accords::
Top: Cardamom, cinnamon, star anise
Heart: Iris, almond milk, cashmere wood
Bottom: Cedarwood, sandalwood, tonka bean, white musks

I think Lumière Blanche manages to straddle the summer/winter divide because it wears very lightly for a spicy fragrance. I mainly get cardamom and almond, and there’s a creamy milkiness woven in that keeps everything airy. Don’t be fooled by all the woods listed in the notes; if this was a dessert, it’d be a Pavlova.

The subtlety of this fragrance keeps the sillage close to the skin, so this would be very appropriate for work or anywhere else where you want to keep things low-key.  Of course, the downside is it doesn’t have the longevity of a typical oriental, on my scent-glue skin it’s gone in about 8 hours, about the same period of time that most naturals last on me. Thankfully the milky appearance of the jus means you could spray this on a shirt or scarf without staining, and then it’s still going full-strength the following day. My laundry basket’s been smelling really good lately.

4 piece Sample Set or Full Bottles from OlfactiveStudio

As far as glowing reviews go, here’s my final word. My 15ml decant arrived November 30th, and it’s almost half-empty. Let’s hear it for the impulsive spending of six Euros!

Till next month,
Dionne x