Costes, the fragrance from the heart of Paris

11/02/07 04:55:53

Fragrance always has its right time and place. The Parisian famouse hotel Costes` perfume was made to keep in memory the irretrieveable world of the hotel and to introduce it to everyone who didn`t have that luck to stay in it. The Costes hotel is located at 239 Faubourg St Honore in the very heart of Paris and it has never been advertized. Even on its website you won`t find any information or pictures of the hotel, only reservation contact information.

The Costes hotel, which is the property of two brothers, Jean Louise and Gulbert Costes was opened in 1996. This ultra-fashionable hotel is known by its interior, bar, summer garden, music and sounds; its regular guests are The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Craig David, Kyle Minogue...
The hotel, with its dominating royal colours, deep-red and purple, in every luxurious room along with the velvet draperies, heavy girdles and pompous Napoleon III style antique furniture, appeared in the age of minimalism. Only very brave and talented designer, such as Jacques Garcia, could allow himself that amount of freedom. The hotel and the designer combined, became the celebrities.

The hotel captures all our senses because it is not only luxurious place to spend the night in, but the true world with its air, scents and music.
Costes issued a few lounge music cd-s, including the music by famous French DJ Stéphane Pompougnac (cd Cafe Costes, cd La Suite).
The hotel facilities` scents, as well as the spa and body scents, drafted Jacques Garcia in association with another famous designer Rami Mekdachi, Costes Fragrances` art director. The former musician and film producer Rami Mekdachi found out the power of fragrances, which became his passion and main occupation, along with the music.

According to Rami Mekdachi, the perfume-designer must not embellish anything, but only distill the brand philosophy. He was abiding that opinion while working on the Costes hotel perfume, cooperating with the perfume-maker Olivia Giacobetti.

The Costes pefume includes the notes of coriander, lavander, bay-leaf, white pepper, rose, musk and incense. It starts with fresh and grassy scent, intensive and a little bit sharp, just like heavy silk, with the domination of the romantic lavander and coriander seeds. The heart of the composition is hot with spices that gradually losen their strenghth and float cloud-like above the luxurious velvety notes of wood, incense and musk, elegant, strict and dark.

The bottle has round shape, is made out of thick, smooth deep-red glass (that is the colour of the hotel, that is, of its dark elegance) and contains 125ml splash liquid, without sprays and pumps. The fragrance was made in 2004 as a limited edition and can be bought in the aedes and luckyscent niche stores on-line.

You can find out more about the hotel and its bar from the visitors` comments