|
|
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SCENTS IN THE PAST
Why should the art of perfumery not have a history, with its masterpieces from the past, just like fine arts, music and theatre? Perfumes are siappearing without a trace, and their secret recipes are not passing from one generation to the next. However, we know from texts and pictures that the Egyptians held perfumes in very high esteem, that Alexander the Great would rush into Darius perfumery as if it were his main conquest over the Persians, and that Catherine de Medici would not travel without her Prized perfume specialist, Renato Bianco, known as Rene le Florentin. And the same is true of all major Eastern civilisations.
Starting by looking for perfumes from a bygone age, and breathing new life into them, that is the challenge being confronted by Nicolas de Barry: the task for a historian and archaeologist as much as for a perfume creator...
All perfumes in a luxury cristal bottle (spray) and box.
Price: 140 euros each.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Elisabeth Amélie Eugénie de Wittelsbach was born on 24th December 1837. Known popularly as Sissi (Sisi in German), she was the daughter of Maximilian of Bavaria and was married at the age of 15 to the future Emperor Franz-Josef of Austria. She would be tragically assassinated in Geneva in 1898.
Unlike the clichés spread around, she was not the young, amorous woman of glamour of the prince charming, the future monarch. Of course, she accepted the constraints of the Court, but would always do her best to stay away from the world. From then on, she concentrated on her own passions: travels (incognito), beauty treatment, antique culture, etc.
She marked the century with her beauty, 41 kg yet only 1 m 62 cm tall, she often suffered but always looked radiant. She went around Europe, travelled on the imperial yacht, went away to Madeira and Corfu where she built her home, the Achilleion, a magnificent villa in an ancient Greek style
She was an “emancipated woman” for her era, a “seagull of the seas”, she called herself. She liked poetry, horseriding and the forest. She spent a lot on making herself look attractive, and took care of her famous hairstyle, which the whole of Europe admired. She invented creams for these and every day, would especially rinse her hair using a vanilla lotion which she created herself.
Like all women of her era, she used, as a perfume, violet (from Parma or Paris): this encounter of a powdery perfume, so typical of European high society of the 19th century, and sumptuous, sensual vanilla, which is rather the opposite to it, is illustrated by Sissi’s seducing and unusual perfume...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Queen Margot, especially known for the Alexandre Dumas novel bearing her name, was born Marguerite de Valois in 1553. Her image is one of a really beautiful woman.
The queen has always remained faithful to the classic scents of amber and musk, which accompanied a powerful jasmine. All scents which Marguerite would order at great expense and very frequently from a Parisian supplier.
From her mother, Catherine de’ Medici, she would maintain the refined nature of the royal houses, by writing in paper bearing her Coat of Arms and her perfume.
A number of accounts from the past speak of the elegance and perfumes of Marguerite de Valois, either to take a leaf out of her book or to get away from this image of a “femme fatale” which Alexandre Dumas adopts on her behalf.
It is through research by Janine Garrison that Nicolas de Barry has managed to recreate the perfume of this exceptional queen.
For years, Janine Garrison has buried herself in the depths of the National Archives and especially worked on the accounts of the Maison de la Reine Navarre. There, one regularly finds the same orders: musk, amber and jasmine. As the lady of the Renaissance, as the creator (of fashion, poetry, etc.), Marguerite has lent a hand and is herself preparing ointments using the same precious raw materials.
To recreate Marguerite´s perfume, in a modern alcohol version, Nicolas de Barry has had to reconstitute or imitate these components which are no longer found in the market, like cold, blooming jasmine and natural musk.
With these three reconstituted raw materials, the jasmine/amber/musk bland has immediately taken pride of place, fresh jasmine dominating, softened by the presence of almost honey-like amber and “intensified” by sensual musk.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
She is Louis XV greatest true love: she reigns as an absolute mistress of the pleasures of the senses and notably the olphactory ones. She was fond of bouquets of flowers that mixed all kind of colours and smells, a refined pleasure to the eye and the nose -a taste shared with her notorious lover and the trend of the time-. This is the quintessence in the kingdom of flowers.
The orange flower water was used to heal La Pompadour's migraines. It was distilled for her at Chateau de Versailles Grand Commun.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Throughout Europe Louis XV's royal court was called "the perfumed court", either to be admired or to be mocked . In fact, the enlightement started in the 18th Century but also the epoch of perfumes and elegance.
Historians pointed to the King's and Marquise de Pompadour's passion for Orange trees, flowers, baths and pot-pourris. In those times no difference was made between male and female perfumes. In the secret and private appartments of the king in Versailles, the two famous lovers shared the same fragrances. In fact, the 18th century was the century of enlightenment, but also the epoch of perfumes and elegance. They exchanged and used a different one every day as in an erotic game
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Born in 1804, George Sand was the epitome of the 19th century and European romanticism: a succeessful author, she was friends with the intellectuals of her era and a companion of Musset and Chopin. Her Chateau de Nohant had become a meeting place known to every Romantic European.
She would host wonderful events at Hnohant, and do her own cooking-her recipes have been published; and she would maintain her own garden, especially a perfumed garden which would be used to product potpourri and little eoaps for guests. Her passion for flowers and perfumes came about through her considerable correspondence. Once Musset had returned to Paris, leaving her in Venice, she would write to him forefully so that he would send her the patchouli of the perfume specialist, Leblanc.
She gave many a suggestion to perfume specialists: in the 19th century, there were 500 perfume specialists/creators who had shops, and would constantly change their creations. George Sand would also be fascinated with patchouli, with its hints of Eastern animals(amber and musk) and the freshness of bergamot and lemon, scents from southern Italy which are so evocative of romanticism.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All the perfumes of the collection are filled in a luxury cristal bottle (50ml in spray) with a red silk-covered box.
Price: 140 euros each bottle
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NEW: Empress Sissi's perfume
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|