Patricia de Nicolai

The Osmotheque: Versailles: France 2014 Photo Essay

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 52 Comments

Hey Gang,

I wanted to share the most wonderful photo that was taken of Jean Kerleo, Patricia de Nicolai, Michael and I at the end of our incredible time at the Osmotheque. This is one of my life highlights. Meeting the perfumer, Jean Kerleo, that created 1000 and Sublime for Jean Patou and Knowing for Estee Lauder and Patricia de Nicolai, one of my favourite independent perfumers in a place that keeps many fragrances that have been lost and the memories of how they were produced. I cannot tell you enough how moving and magical the day was.

Jean Kerleo, Patricia de Nicolai M + P Osmotheque 2014

 

Anyone can book a course at the Osmotheque, we booked an English course (which was very easy to organise) and it was an incredible afternoon. Our contact was Florence Crenn info@osmotheque.fr and Florence could not have been more lovely or helpful. We organised to pay cash on the day but there are other ways to do it.

We chose to spend the morning at Versailles Palace and do the Osmotheque in the afternoon. Perfect choice. We caught a train from Paris to Versailles and then a cab from Versailles Palace to the Osmotheque. From the Osmotheque we walked to a different station to catch the train back to Paris, don’t buy a return ticket.

The Osmotheque: Versailles: France 2014

Well, how was our day? What went on? Jean Kerleo, ex Helena Rubenstein and Jean Patou perfumer and founder of the Osmotheque, was our host with the help of his buddy and translator Will. It was completely mind blowing and the work they do at the Osmotheque to archive and house the world’s most famous fragrances in their original formulations is not only extraordinary it is necessary for the continuation of perfumer knowledge. Also, the Osmotheque needs people like you and us to go and do the classes so they have money to continue the great work they are doing.

If you are a French speaker you can buy a ticket to many forum classes with the teachers at the Osmotheque, including Jean Kerleo and Patricia de Nicolai. If you have English you must book a class with an English speaking teacher. We were asked to pick a number of fragrances that we’d like to smell in their original form (L’Origan, Iris Gres, Shocking and Patou Pour Homme were among out favourites today) and your teacher will bring a few others that they think may be of interest (Suprise sniffs included nearly 60 year old deer musk, Crepe de Chine, L’Heure Blue and 1000). You get a 2 hour class and it was just Michael and I. One of the most incredible fragrance experiences of my life.

Michael Osmotheque 2014

Portia Osmotheque 2014

Jean Kerleo Osmotheque 2014

Jean Kerleo, Michael History.

I got the feeling throughout the day that Michael’s incredible ability to smell nuances and notes in fragrance got us so much extra lovely treatment. Jean Kerleo and Michael were really having a great old chat and I was a bit of flotsam eddying in their fragrant streams of consciousness. It was like watching two science geeks talking shop and I think I learned more in that afternoon about smells, scents, perfume and fragrance than in my whole life leading up to it. A lot of it pops back into my head if I am reading something on a blog that has something to do with their conversation. Finally a piece of puzzle will fit or a concept will become clear.

We got a touche wit every fragrance named and individually wrapped in a plastic paper bag. Also we bought an Osmotheque book each which is FULL of interesting and useful history and classification knowledge.

Original Musk Oil Tincture 1950s

Jean Kerleo Back Fridges Osmotheque 2014

Michael, Portia, Drinks 2014

Printemps Guerlain Window

Michael Worn Out Paris 2014

As you can see by the end of the day Michael was completely stuffed. Stuffed, satiated and full of the joys of adventure.

Want to read more about the experience? Bois de Jasmin and Versailles Tourism

The Osmotheque is a must do for any perfume lover. Get in touch with Florence Crenn info@osmotheque.fr

Portia xx

Patchouli Intense by Patricia de Nicolai for Parfums de Nicolaï 2009

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 9 Comments

Hoiya Perfumed Peeps,

Going through my stuff in the cleanup I came across dozens of samples and manufacturers carded stuff that never got a sniff. I don’t know hot this one got overlooked, it’s on a huge card with beautiful pictures and this from Patricia de Nicolaï: Patchouli oil is an essential oil of great importance in my perfumer’s palette. Among all woody notes, it is the most sensuous. Here I wanted to work with patchouli in a very unusual way, with an accord rose-geranium, on a deep amber vanilla and incense body.

Patchouli Intense by Patricia de Nicolai for Parfums de Nicolaï 2009

 

Patchouli Intense Parfums de Nicolai FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Patchouli, oakmoss, bergamot and musk

Oooh sizzling citrus rush at the open and then quickly it calms to a green, woodsy, earthy scent. No Essential Oil style patchouli from the oil burner here folks. This is forest floor in the just warming, still brisk weather. Sunlight dappled meanderings with no destination till tea time. Pretty and unisex, I can imagine Patchouli Intense could become very addictive if smelled on a new partner or someone you have recently met. It must be the combination of oakmoss and patchouli that gives such a parkland woods feeling. Though there are no flowers named I get some distinctly floral leanings mixed in too, like a marigold (tagettes) flower about half an hour after you crush/crumble it up. I keep thinking the word “verdant” and cannot for the life of me put it into a sentence that reads remotely real. Damnit! I think the word lovely and it does indeed conjure in my mind images of the merry growth spurt that is spring. Now that I’ve thought spring I also get a feeling from Patchouli Intense that is a lot like holding baby budgerigars when you are hand rearing them, they get a particular powdery, earthy, clean, alive smell as their feathers start to fuzz up. Though Patchouli Intense doesn’t smell like that, the feeling, the essence of the experience feels remarkably similar.

Patchouli Intense Parfums de Nicolai Baby_Budgie wikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

Booze? I get a boozy, casual wisp of something alcoholic, maybe dark rum? It coruscates out through the earthy middle ground. I also get almond milk and something a little sweet. As Patchouli Intense dries down it dries out and gets a very lived in feel, a musky, dusky, dusty cooling like the inside of a forgotten attic filled with the scent of the death of books, leather, wood and fabrics. Then it starts to fade and somewhere between 5-6 hours I can no longer smell it at all.

I have found in my three wears that an extra spritz at the 3 hour mark will more than double the fragrant life of Patchouli Intense, I can spritz before dinner, eat, hang, sleep. Then when I wake up in the morning I can smell it all over again, beautiful and sensuous the patchouli and musk have made sexy smell babies. MMMMMMMM

Patchouli Intense Patricia de Nicolai Fountain_Grass DeviantArtPhoto Stolen DeviantArt

Patricia de Nicolai has worked a wonder in this beautifully nuanced, soft but rugged, comfortable scent. It nods vigorously to mens cologne from a bygone era but is smoother, more sophisticated and easier to wear. This is the kind of scent I would have bought my Dad if he was still alive and Mum would have stolen more than half the bottle because it’s so good.

Further reading: Per Fumus
LuckyScent has $65/30ml
Parfum de Nicolai has €153/100ml

The more I wear Patchouli Intense the less masculine it reads to me, this is a totally unisex beauty, if you like a soft friendly patchouli then this could be the one.
Portia x

Le Temps d’Une Fête by Patricia de Nicolai for Parfums de Nicolaï 2007

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Hey Gorgeously Fragrant People.

Le Temps d’Une Fête (Time for a Party) is a fragrance I discovered through The Muse In Wooden Shoes, who adores it and writes so lovingly of it that I really felt I would like to know it but it was always shunted out of the Shopping Basket at the end of an online shopping extravaganza in favour of something more pressing. Then came the news that it would be either discontinued, or made limited distribution, and I realised it may be now or never.

Le Temps d’Une Fête by Parfums de Nicolaï 2007

Le Temps d'une Fête Parfums de Nicolaï FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Galbanum, opoponax
Heart: Narcissus, jasmine
Base: Oakmoss, sandalwood, patchouli, woody notes

Phwoar!! Just recently I was lucky enough to grab an old bottle of Le Temps d’Une Fête and the difference in opening sequence is astounding. Here I find immediate and awesome ZWOOOSH of narcissus, like you’ve crushed a flower in your hand with back ups by the resins creating a feeling of leaf pulp too, maybe even a bit of bulb. I also get a fruity, fun and waxy vibe floating through. More intense and deeper than my current edition, which I like very much BTW but they are like two similar sisters. If you were to meet them solo they would look alike but to see them together there are a bunch of differences. Patricia de Nicolai has made this very spare note list work super hard and Le Temps d’Une Fête is a full bodied sensual diva of a fragrance, in both old and new forms but now I completely understand where The Muse In Wooden Shoes is devastated at the changes.

Le Temps d'une Fête Parfums de Nicolai Sunflower_Pollen WikiMediaPhoto Stolen WikiMedia

Someone on Fragrantica describes Le Temps d’Une Fête as having “pollen like skankiness” and I think that sums the earlier hour or so but as it starts to head into its late heart/early dry down that skankiness becomes the clearest ringing bell of narcissus, so lovely and so innocent smelling. Like a young person on the verge of discovery, restrained, pretty, sweet even but underneath beats a heart just learning its power.

The base reads warm, soft and buttery for me. It may be the summer heat that gives it that feeling. What I do get through the whole life of Le Temps d’Une Fête is a shine, luminescence, radiance, a feeling that something wonderful could happen while wearing it. Time for a Party? Yes indeed!

Le Temps d'une Fête Parfums de Nicolai Lockwood Mansion WikipediaPhoto Stolen Wikipedia

I get around 4-5 hours from Le Temps d’Une Fête, though the last hour is not really fragrance but a hint that I smelled quite good earlier. First two hours had good projection and sillage before in moved to a quieter register and began the fade. Where would I wear Le Temps d’Une Fête? Date night, as a pick me up, reading, shopping, cleaning. Anything that could be enhanced by smelling beyond incredible is a good time for a sneaky spritz.

Further reading: Bois de Jasmin and Now Smell This
LuckyScent still has it $45/30ml and $115/100ml
Surrender To Chance starts at $3/ml

Have you spent some time with Le Temps d’Une Fête? Did you think it was time for a party?
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx