New Perfume Review Juliette Has a Gun Moon Dance- Terminally Pretty

Posted on by in Mark Behnke, New Perfume Reviews and tagged , , , , .

The first four releases from Juliette Has a Gun; Lady Vengeance, Miss Charming, Citizen Queen and Midnight Oud were some of my favorite releases of 2006-2009. They shared a common strength which made them stand out. All brands develop and Creative Director Romano Ricci moved away from that style over the next four releases. I thought they were all nice compositions but I wanted a return to the style of the first four. I heard that last year there was a very limited edition called Oil Fiction which did this. It was such a limited edition I never had the opportunity to try it. Then I received a press release announcing the new Luxury Collection which would be represented by Oil Fiction and a new entry, Moon Dance.

With it more available I was able to try Oil Fiction finally. As much as I wanted it to be like the first four it felt more like the more recent compositions which weren’t as compelling to me. Because of my dashed expectations I wasn’t expecting Moon Dance to be any more engaging. That turned out be an erroneous supposition. Moon Dance does for violet what the early four did for rose making it feel completely contemporary. Violet can have a natural vintage feel because of its use in so many of the older classic perfumes. It is one reason I think the more modern perfumers shy away from using it. Why have to deal with pre-conceived notions when you can go pick a different floral without the baggage. What I have found is in the rare cases where a perfumer will take on the challenge, if successful, the violet can be twisted to have something new to say. Moon Dance is a violet perfume with something new to say.

Romano Ricci

Romano Ricci

Moon Dance opens on a mix of sparkly bergamot over a full spectrum violet. To distinguish from old-fashioned violets this violet embraces all of the prickly metallic character of violet adding in the violet leaf to add sharp green facets. An inspired choice of another old-fashioned note, tuberose, forms the heart note which tries to tame the fractious violet. It doesn’t quite succeed but it does set up a delightful paso doble between the two as each stalks the other across the olfactory dance floor. There was never a moment during the first half of the development dominated by the violet and tuberose where this didn’t feel different and new. If Moon Dance ended here I would have been very happy. Instead my enjoyment is greatly increased by the decision to finish Moon Dance on an equally full-spectrum animalic musk. This makes the passion of the dance the violet and tuberose lead to something so primal it almost emits an audible growl. A tiny amount of oud and patchouli round off some of the more feral tendencies but Moon Dance ends with a snarl of desire.

Moon Dance has 14-16 hour longevity and average sillage.

Moon Dance is the best Juliette Has a Gun release since the original four. It carries much of the same brand DNA which existed back then. I am hopeful that this new Luxury Collection will be a place where M. Ricci will return to some of those themes he so excitingly explored in the early days. Moon Dance reminds me of a line from the Eagles’ song “Life in the Fast Lane” to describe Moon Dance, it is brutally handsome and terminally pretty.

Disclosure: This review was based on a sample of Moon Dance I purchased from Twisted Lily.

–Mark Behnke

Olfactory Chemistry: Ionones, Irones, and Methyl Ionones- Purple Rain

Posted on by in Mark Behnke, Olfactory Chemistry and tagged , , , , , , , .
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Two of my favorite notes in perfumery are violet and iris. The molecules which provide the smell of both of these notes are from a family of closely related molecules called ionones and irones. As you can see below the structures are amazingly similar:

alpha2

By just adding the CH3 group (in red), what we call a methyl group, to the ring of ionone you get alpha-Irone. If you add the methyl group to the end of the string of atoms to the right of Ionone you get alpha-methyl ionone.

The ionones, irones, and methyl ionones are arguably the second set of synthetic molecules to mark the beginning of modern perfumery. The use of synthetic coumarin in Fougere Royale in 1882 is the acknowledged beginning of modern perfumery. The three molecules above would be isolated in 1893 and have formed the building blocks of many of the synthetic aromamolecules in the 121 years since their discovery.

The olfactory differences in these three molecules are dramatic considering the tiny change in their structure. Alpha-Ionone gives off a woody violet quality with a bit of raspberry to it. Alpha-Irone is the smell of iris. Alpha-Methyl Ionone is softer and imparts the powdery quality to iris. If it was just these three molecules that would be more than enough but the reality is far richer as you can see below by just moving the double bond in the lower half of the molecule you create a new set of molecules called beta or gamma-Ionones and the analogous irones and methyl ionones.

alpha

Beta-Ionone has a fruitier and woodier quality compared to the alpha-Ionone. Gamma-ionone is the standard violet you find as an aromachemical.

This all leads to a discussion I had on one of my Facebook perfume groups. One of the members asked about the difference between orris and iris when listed in the perfume notes. The difference is orris is a natural source of irones. Orris is the dried root of iris and contains six of the Irone variations described above. The idea is that the combination of all six naturally occurring Irones present in the root together forms that complex iris effect so prized by perfumers. Because of the need to dry the root for five years after harvest makes orris one of the costliest ingredients in all of perfume. This is why you will usually only see it on the more expensive niche brands note lists. It provides a singular effect but at a high cost. As a result when a perfumer wants a bit of iris character in their fragrance without breaking the budget they will turn to the isolated synthetic molecules like alpha-irone and use that as it is much less costly than orris concrete or orris butter.

In the past thirty years these molecules have been the starting point for the discovery of numerous synthetic molecules which have seen widespread use like Norlimbanol and Iso E Super.

So when you smell a bit of purple in your fragrance it is likely due to one of the molecules related to the ionones, irones, or methyl ionones.

–Mark Behnke