New Perfume Review Pierre Guillaume Collection Croisiere Jangala & Long Courrier- Cruising with Pierre (Part 2)

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Continuing the reviews of the new Pierre Guillaume Collection Croisiere with Jangala and Long Courrier.

In most of the islands there is this wonderful mix of rainforest which grows right next to the ocean. If you spend anytime walking thorough these jungles there is this bit of natural scent collision as the breeze off the ocean carries the smell of the sea deep into the verdancy of the rainforest. It is a heady mixture of green and ozonic. M. Guillaume’s attempt at this is called Jangala. M. Guillaume is the second perfumer who has recently used a bit of eucalyptus to simulate the smell of fresh scrubbed air as you breathe in. This air is what you experience after the rain has fallen in the rainforest. Everything is dripping with water but the air smells clean and sweet. M. Guillaume uses cardamom and ginger blossoms primarily to simulate the tropical forest. Then the sea breeze makes its way between the trees infusing everything with a marine lift. The damp earth of the rainforest floor is recreated with an accord of sandalwood, coconut, and vetiver. It is a moment in time and place captured in perfume.

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Pierre Guillaume

Long Courrier is what happens when M. Guillaume’s deft touch with gourmand notes decides to set sail. It is like fusion cooking as cocoa and vanilla bob upon the ocean. In the press materials M. Guillaume says he wants Long Courrier to be “the delicious scent of suntan lotion”. I think he did his job too well because it is much more delicious than it is skin product. There is much of the sea and sand around to not let you forget this is aquatic, though. It opens with a sea accord buoyed with the use of a particularly luminous orange blossom. It transforms into something opaque and ethereal as it slowly drifts away. What is left behind is a strong vanilla and cocoa accord along with the smell of the ocean underneath. I found this combination oddly compelling each day I wore this. It was always confusing as it felt like I was eating confections while floating on the ocean. M. Guillaume makes this work and in the final part of the development it is mostly vanilla and ocean on top of sandalwood which finishes Long Courrier off.

These four fragrances are just the start and I got previews of the upcoming four releases which will happen over the rest of 2015. The one called Mojito Chypre I have smelled on a strip twice and now I am eagerly awaiting its release as it is the perfect bartender’s scent. M. Guillaume has lived up to his promise to make me love aquatics all over again without using a drop of Calone.

Disclosure: This review was based on samples provided by Pierre Guillaume at Esxence 2015.

–Mark Behnke

New Perfume Review Pierre Guillaume Collection Croisiere Entre Ciel et Mer & Paris Seychelles- Cruising with Pierre (Part 1)

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Over the past year or so some of my favorite perfumers have decided to take on one of the most tired perfume tropes there is; the aquatic. What has made this particular fragrance genre so banal is the overuse of the aromachemical Calone. The great majority of aquatics start and finish with a huge quantity of this and no matter what you try and put around it the Calone is most of what you experience. The aquatics which have made me sit up and notice again have been largely a “Calone-Free” zone.

Prior to seeing Pierre Guillaume in Milan at Esxence 2015 he had told me he was working on a collection of aquatics. I didn’t hide my disappointment very well and he promised me he would do it without Calone. In what will eventually be a collection of eight fragrances I have the first four. The collection is called Pierre Guillaume Collection Croisiere. M. Guillaume did what he had asserted he could do he has created an entirely Calone-Free set of perfumes which take a very tired style of fragrance and re-invigorate it. I like all four of these and I am going to split my review up into two parts. I will start with Entre Ciel et Mer and Paris Seychelles.

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Pierre Guillaume

As one who grew up next to the ocean I think one of the things which bores me to tears is that perfumers and creative directors don’t realize there are so many different natural fragrances to the seashore. M. Guillaume does understand this and in Entre Ciel et Mer captures one of the key odors I connect with the ocean; the slightly iodine-like smell of the sea spray. M. Guillaume employs a new molecular distillation of sea algae from the Pacific. When you hear algae I imagine you are thinking “low tide” and the pungency which goes with that. Scrub that from your mind and instead think of the spray as the waves crash and you breathe it in fresh and damp. It really is a remarkable evocation of the crashing surf that M. Guillaume has achieved. He adds in a bit of thyme and ambergris but the star of this show is the algae. It all eventually ends on a sandalwood finish.

Paris Seychelles is all about the smell of the person sunning themselves on the beach. M. Guillaume wants the smell of sun warmed skin coated with suntan lotion on top of the milieu of the beach and the tropical flowers growing at the ocean’s edge. The bite of black pepper grabs my attention before we dive into his skin accord. He starts with the mixture of salicylates that form the typical suntan lotion accord. A bit of lily picks up the floral facets. Some coconut milk finds the creamy parts. Monoi oil brings in the tiare and completes the foundation of the skin underneath. All of this is accomplished while it is clear the sand and the surf are still around but off in the distance. It is the memory of beach vacation as it lingers for days after your return.

On Monday I’ll cover the remaining two perfumes, Jangala and Long Courrier.

Disclosure: This review was based on samples provided by Pierre Guillaume at Esxence 2015.

–Mark Behnke

Esxence 2015 Day 3 Wrap-Up: A Cruise on the Perfumed Ocean

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Every Esxence there seems to be one brand which starts to gain a groundswell of buzz. This year’s winner of that honor is Rubini. Founder Andrea Rubini gathered a team of creatives to help him realize his vision. A perfumer who prefers to be unnamed, package designer Francesca Gotti, and Ermano Picco. All four of these helped create one of the singular buzzworthy brands of the show. The packaging of Sig.ra Gotti is from recycled fiberglass from old boats. Don’t ask me what a boat recycling bin looks like. It looks like stone but is light as a feather. It is an apt metaphor for the fragrance called Fundamental. The scent itself is also something which also conveys lightness with surprising weight. Rubini Fundamental was one of the most unique perfumes in the entire exhibition.

Next was time to meet Stephane Humbert Lucas for him to premiere his new release Mortal Skin for his Stephane Humbert Lucas 777 brand. Mortal Skin is a brilliant realization of M. Humbert Lucas’ vision of a snake swaying and hypnotizing the wearer into a trance. It drew me in and never wanted to let me go. Before I left M. Humbert Lucas also showed me the limited edition for Harrod’s he is doing. He jokingly names it Mike Tyson because it opens with a fierce uppercut of intense notes. If you survive the first punch what remains reveals a sublime beauty.

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For the next hour I was treated to a tour of the ocean courtesy of Pierre Guillaume and his Collection Croisiere. The first four releases of an eventual eight were a tour de force in how to make interesting aquatics without resorting to Calone. Entre Ciel et Mer is like riding a surfboard under the curl as the spray covers your face before you emerge from the pipe. It is refreshingly icy for an aquatic. Paris Seychelles is for laying in the sun on the beach as you carry the warmth of the sun. The other side of the coin to Entre Ciel et Mer. If you’ve ever been in a tropical rainforest after a rainstorm has washed the air clean you will recognize the smell of Jangala. A really intelligent use of eucalyptus imparts a lung filling purity like when the world has been scrubbed clean. Finally if you’re on a cruise you need some suntan lotion and M. Guillaume’s Long Courrier suntan lotion accord is made of salty vanilla and sea spray.

After returning from my cruise I headed to Elizabethan England so perfumer Anais Biguine could introduce me to her new Jardins D’Ecrivains Marlowe. The follow-up to last year’s ultra-modern Junky, Marlowe strikes a more classical pose. It has a heady spirit exemplified by green tuberose. It exudes exuberance as well as grace. Mme Biguine has added another writer to her jardin.

This was my last day at Esxence 2015 as I will be on a plane as you read this. As always I want to thank the entire Esxence team for the invitation to attend and to be the face of this year’s Esxence TV. I am already looking forward to next year. Until then, Arrivaderci Perfumistas & Colognoisseurs.

–Mark Behnke