Signs of Spring at Anthropologie in New York

No 1. Le Labo counts on the perfume wearer as a sophisticated consumer, and likes to involve them in the creative process. The role for the scent lovers is outlined, but it’s up to them to complete the experience.

This extensively creative and original Niche perfume line was established by Fabrice Penot and Eddie Roschi (both formerly of Giorgio Armani fragrances) in 2006. Their presentation was entitled “The Art Of Perfume.” Le Labo blends essential oils with alcohol and water at the time of purchase and provides customized labels for the bottles. One of the main points of Mr. Penot’s presentation was Le Labo’s original approach to the development of perfumes: assuring long lasting symbioses, and keeping its true charm and heart in supporting the scent lovers’ imagination.

Mr. Penot presented five perfumes: Chant De Bois is a woody composition combining notes of bergamot, grapefruit, pink pepper, patchouli and cedar—the harmony of freshness with exotic and woody notes, very light and bright, a real song of the forest.

Belle Du Soir is a musky and rich scent of neroli, water lily and gardenia on a background of cedar, sandalwood and patchouli. Your nose will receive with this perfume a true definition of postmodern sexiness.

Orange Discrete is a citrus cocktail of petit grain, mandarin and orange blossom blended with woody notes of vetiver, cedar and musk. This was probably our favorite, once again putting the mystery right at the heart of how, in a seemingly effortless manner, this perfume affects your senses in the most positive way.

Poudre D'Orient is an exotic aroma of violet leaf, patchouli, vanilla and suede musk. This perfume tells you an old story in a new way. It gives you the desert setting, the possible characters slowly developing dramas of their lives, and above all, the mystery.

Bouquet Blanc is a white bouquet of cassis, bergamot, jasmine, tuberose and vetiver. This light floral perfume has iris root, an ingredient more often used in classic floral perfumes, but rare in oriental perfumes. The composition is so tightly together, it resounds in your nose and your mind like one big choir. Mr. Penot demonstrated an outcry for scent lovers’ completing the authors’ originality, by contributing their own character.

No 2. Strange Invisible Perfumes. The perfumer opens up worlds and you decide who you’ll be. These perfumes are so dynamic that you can switch roles, transform from extraverted to introverted, and from quiet and subdued to passionately open and imaginative.

This category is reserved for Alexandra Balahoutis, the driving force behind the Strange Invisible Perfumes. The name of her presentation was “Botanical Essences.” She reminded us of a Greek Goddess who with great subtlety lives through every step in the creation process of her scents. In her fascination with the ingredients, more recently with myrtle, she finds the words to broadly and poetically define them. This is how she describes Fair Verona, one of our favorites: “…precious array of jasmine essences sweetly conjure Shakespeare’s heroine, Juliet. This Strange Invisible classic inspires clarity and charm.”

In her presentation, she also displayed extensively her interest in visual aspects of her work, as the photographs of the ingredients came alive and became a true multidimensional sensation. For example, pictures with hydro-extraction of myrtle leaves as well as orange blossoms, flowers and fruits together. The vivacity and the unfolding of her scents is something that is distinctly precious and truly uncommon on the perfume market.

The essences of her custom extracts undergo rigorous criteria before they become part of a perfume: “The only way to know essences is to know the people who extract them. In many cases we grow some of our own plants and distill our own essences.” She further clarified for us hydro-distillation versus steam distillation. “Steam distillation is a very commercial technique of distilling plant material where plants are exposed to an intense heat. Steam distillation loses very fine constituents of the plant vital to presenting the plant’s true aromatic beauty. In contrast, the technique of hydro-distillation is gentler; it ensures a thicker and richer odor profile.”

Alexandra is committed to harnessing the plants with great respect, and it comes almost to the point where you can sense the natural spirits in her perfume bottles.

Out of twenty-three pure Strange Invisible Perfumes, four were presented at Antropologie. Alexandra draws inspiration for her perfumes from her own imagination. Epic Gardenia is the essence of gardenia. It was a challenge to extract gardenia, but it brings us the melodies of a river siren. The base is a slightly earthy plant-based musk with a long-lasting intimate sandalwood dry down.

Magazine Street instantly draws excitement with its flare of florals in a courageous interpretation of New Orleans. The notes are magnolia, vanilla, patchouli, vetiver and botanical musk, all that makes our heart long for intensity that is also subtle and which can we eventually tame. Her words for Magazine Street are “brazen, sumptuous.”

The other two perfumes presented by the Strange Invisible Perfume were Fair Verona and Arunima. Fair Verona won us over with mimosa soaring playfully out of the heart of sandalwood, organic Italian citruses, and jasmine essences. Arunima (meaning "glow of dawn" in Sanskrit) is a rich fragrance with which we can take on many different roles, anything between a graceful Gandhi admirer to the adventurer journeying to Tibet. It’s an orchestration of blue lotus, Madagascan vanilla, frankincense, cardamom, key lime and lavender from Kashmir.

Ineke is the first name of a perfumer Ineke Ruhland. Her presentation was entitled “Building Blocks Of Fragrances.” Ineke's style is an exciting oxymoron of discreteness and colorfulness. She and her husband love to garden, and this is how we soon felt as we were hearing about the different ingredients and blends in Ineke’s perfumes. They presented five fragrances. The first one was After My Own Heart, clearly giving you the upper hand in gentleness and self-appreciation, or “a romantic recollection of finding a person, place or thing that just feels right.” This Lilac soliflore is between lightly fruity and green top notes, and heliotrope, musk and sandalwood at the base.

The second perfume Gilded Lily resonates with very high frequency of the Goldband Lily of Japan heart note. This perfume gives you the role of a sophisticated Sayonara who will find and exhilarate her object of passion. Gilded Lily will grab you and take you in the midst of feminine extravagance without intruding on anyone's personal space. With Field Notes from Paris your role is to have an adventure in the ripening spring breeze. This woody fragrance has light top notes of orange flower. As it dries down, it releases a hint of patchouli grounded in well-worn leather and vanilla.

With Evening Edged in Gold, you “recall sparkling soirees and the opulence of a night-blooming garden”. This perfume is a highly original blend of Gold Osmathus and plum at top, Angel’s trumpet and Saffron at heart, and leather and woods at the base. Balmy Days and Sundays “embodies weekend relaxing” and will lend you a role of feeling self-confident throughout the day with the natural blend of freesia, grass, rose, mimosa and musk.

Ineke draws her inspiration from nature combining the unexpected. Her perfumes are an organic collaboration of photographers, designers, perfumer and her genuine personality.

No 4. Honore des Pres:  The perfumer and the perfume are playing truth or dare with you. He wants to give you a role, but at the same time wants you to transform into something that will make you feel unique and different.

Honoré des Prés is a modern daring perfume House by Olivia Giacobetti. She could not attend but her coworker Christian David stirred some excitement as he presented “Scent Organics” with two lines of her work available at Anthropologie. One edition is truly timeless and includes the Nu Green, a unisex experience with mint, tarragon, cedar and musk. The other, Sexy Angelic is an ode to femininity, composed with kukuta blossom (Conium maculatum), angelica seed and traditional French sweets Calisson.

The second edition is dedicated to New York City and has three original contributions to capturing the insanity of NYC. It includes I Love Les Carottes, Love Coco, and Vamp à NY. I Love Les Carottes stirred excitement with how vivid the carrot smelled across the store even before the sample was handed to us. The transformation into the pleasant earthiness of Caribbean vanilla, patchouli and iris root butter was pretty stunning, too. Perfumer Olivia Giacobetti reportedly spent some time with carrots while developing this one: she was cooking carrots from organic farmers in the streets of Harlem. 

These Parisian organic fragrances are packed in take-out coffee cups à la NYC, preparing you for a shot of adrenaline, like NYC. Love Coco is not a conventional sweet coconut, as the coriander with a soft touch of vanilla gives it a more urban and narrative aroma. It’s easy to stir excitement with this all-organic vivid blend.

Vamp à NY is the third fragrance of the "New York Collection." This perfume is described as “extreme French couture.” With tuberose flower and rum aromas it is a new definition of the ultimate sexiness, and leaves it to you how much joy you will derive from being endlessly seductive and attractive, hopefully without developing a headache or two.

No 5. Joya offers the Wagnerian multisensory approach. With the synthesis of asymmetrical mysterious design, the tactile effect, and the originality of the scents, the perfumer places you in are in your own castle—and you decide the boundaries of your empire. Joya`s founder Frederick Bouchardy describes the personal fragrance collaboration between him, perfumer Rayda Vega and the ceramic artist Sarah Cihat as a “thoughtful labor of love.”

Ms. Cihat has created hand-cast ceramic bottles for the two presented FvsS perfumes. Rayda Vega has created two fragrances which embody the cream white and dark grey colors of the beautiful ceramic containers: Composition No. 1 and Composition No. 6. During her travels in Argentina, Ms. Vega encountered a red quince paste called “dulce de membrillo.” She had effortlessly proven the playfulness of quince in a fragrant form.

From the sophisticated sweetness of this Composition No. 1, we encounter another level of intriguing exquisiteness with the Composition No. 6. A juniper berry note is joined by cypress and tart yuzu on a base of dark, deep amber. The effect is freedom from the routine and the average.

We congratulate Anthropolgie for this performance that drew some 200 perfume lovers. We look forward to the “Signs of Summer” and the other seasons' events.

Hieronimuss fell in love with astrology many years ago as he saw many lives becoming enhanced with his advice and insight.

He is a Professor teaching at University in New York and a published poet. You can visit Hieronimuss at http://www.astroknowlogy.com/ with your questions and comments related to astrology.

Author: Olga Ikebanova