Patricia
began by giving a brief history of
L’Osmothèque, originally set up by Jean
Kerléo in 1990. The original French word Osmothèque means,
“perfume
repository” although the word Osmothèque comes from the Greek
words OSMO-odor
and THEQUE-storage.
The original idea was to have
a house
of perfumes where professionals and the
general public could rediscover perfumes that they once loved. The
Osmothèque
became a unique location dedicated to the memory of scents. From its
inauguration in April 1990, the Osmothèque’s purpose is not only
to identify
and collect perfumes existing or future but also to trace the missing
classics
and revive them.
Patricia then gave
members the
opportunity to evaluate samples from the Osmothèque’s living collection
and
discuss the evolution of these fragrance families within the perfume
industry.
Beginning with the citrus family a comparison was made between Eau
de Cologne de Napoléon à Sainte Hélène
(1820), a fragrance whose
formula was found in an old cabinet at an auction in
Next we looked at
Florals and
evaluated Vera Violetta by ROGER & GALLET (1892) and Violette in
Love by
PARFUM DE NICOLAÎ (2009) a creation by the speaker herself. From
this we moved
on to Floral Bouquet with Fleurs de Rocaille by CARON
(1933) created by perfumer Ernest DALTROFF
and the comparison with the classic Beautiful by ESTEE LAUDER (1986)
created by
Carlos Benaïm and Bernard Chant.
The
next stop was Floral Aldehydic where we had three perfumes to compare,
L’Aimant
from Coty (1927) by Vincent ROUBERT , L’interdit by GIVENCHY (1957)
created by
Michel HY and the recently launched N°5 Eau première from
CHANEL (2008) by
Jacques POLGE. Staying with Florals we moved swiftly on to Floral green
with a
chance to evaluate Vent Vert from BALMAIN (1945) by Germaine CELLIER
and Envy
by GUCCI (1999) created by Maurice ROUCEL. Our last stop in Florals was
with
Floral Fruity Woody and a look at Iris Gris, FATH (1947) created by
Vincent
ROUBERT and at the other end of this family Dior homme by DIOR (2005)
created
by Olivier POLGE.
Our
next family was to be Fougere - Fougère Royale by HOUBIGANT
(1884) by Paul
PARQUET and R by PACO RABANNE (1973) created by Jean MARTEL were the
choices
for comparison. Following this we moved to the Chypre family with an
evaluation
of Le Chypre by COTY (1917) created by François COTY and Femme
by ROCHAS (1944)
created by Edmond ROUDNITSKA, which is a more fruity Chypre. Added to
this we
looked at Aromatics Elixir by CLINIQUE (1971) created by Bernard CHANT
that is
described as a floral aldehydic Chypre.
With
a few more families left to cover we evaluated the Woody family next
with a
chance to smell Vetiver by CARVEN (1957) created by Philippe Firmenich
and the
recent launch of Vetiver Tonka by HERMES (2005) created by Jean Claude
ELLENA
and then moved on to Orientals and the comparison of L’origan by COTY
(1905) created by François COTY and Oscar by
OSCAR DE LA RENTA (1977) created by Jean
louis SIEUZAC both where described as floral spicy ambers. On to Floral
Woody
Amber and we evaluated Le fruit défendu from ROSINE / Paul
POIRET (1914)
created by Henri ALMERAS and Angel (1992) from Thierry MUGLER and
Olivier
CRESP.
Last
but not least we covered Leather and in this family Tabac
Blond by
CARON (1919) created by Ernest DALTROFF and last but not least Dzing by
L’ARTISAN PARFUMEUR (1999) created by Olivia GIACOBETTI.
This rounded up an
excellent
evening that allowed the audience the chance to evaluate perfumes past
and
present and really see the evolution of these fragrance families over
time. We
would like to thank Patricia de Nicolai for her excellent presentation
and for
giving the BSP members a unique opportunity to compare fragrances from
the
L’Osmothèque archive. Further information about L’Osmothèque can be
found on
their website at www.osmotheque.fr
This report is the writer's interpretation of the event. It is not intended as a verbatim account and should not be read as such.
© Copyright British Society of Perfumers 2010