Olivia Giacobetti

Iunx Eau Frappee What real roses should smell like

, , 2 Comments

Iunx Eau Frappee
Iunx Eau Frappe was made by perfumer Olivia Giacobetti. She is one of my favorite perfumers and made wonderful perfumes like L’Artisan Parfumeur Dzing!, D’Orsay Tilleul, Frederic Malle En Passant, L’Artisan Parfumeur L´Ete En Douce. I have scented a lot of her perfumes but not a rose perfume. En Passant, a beautiful lilac fragrance was reviewed by me before.

While being in Paris some time ago I went to the Iunx shop next to the Costes Hotel. The Iunx shop sells home fragrances and perfumes solely made by Olivia Giacobetti. These are very exclusive as they are only sold here. It was owned before by Shiseido and closed for some time but is open now, fortunately.

Iunx Eau Frappee

The shop is quite small and uncomfortable, very minimalistic. All fragrances can be scented through a kind of diffusers. It is a very pleasant way to scent fragrances. Shopping in this shop is made quite interesting. Photographs of these tubes can be seen on the website of the Non Blonde. In all the excitement I forgot to make photographs while visiting. After hearing a fellow perfumista, Ron Slomowicz was visiting Paris I asked him to make some photographs. He was not allowed to make photographs inside the store but he did make some wonderful photographs from the florist next door.

After reading about the fragrance L´Ether on several websites I tested this several times in the shop on skin and on a blotter as well. But I felt a bit like the story of the emperor not wearing any clothes. I did not scent anything, a very strange experience in a perfume shop. Fortunately I found another amazing scent, No 6 Eau Frappee.

Iunx Eau Frappee

Eau Frappee instanty gave me the feeling of what a beautiful bouquet of roses should smell like. Very fresh, slightly citrus, soft and slightly powdery. Its notes of combava (kaffir lime ), sweet lemon and citron are meant to mimic the scent of soft rose. Eau Frappee is sold as an eau de toilette in a large 150 ml very large and not very practicle spray bottle for 135 euro. My bottle was a gift from my boyfriend. The package is beautiful as you can see on the photograph.

I can imagine some will not find Eau Frappee a very interesting scent. It is not layered, does not change its scent after some time. But to me it is the interpretation of Olivia Giacobetti of the scent of a rose, soft light citrus fresh almost transparent. It would make an excellent room spray in a rose flower shop, as the flower shop next to the Costes Hotel on the photographs which Ron Slomowicz made. Roses in a bouquet in the Netherlands do not scent any more, but if they would, I would like them to scent like Eau Frappee.

Rose shop photographs were specially made by Ron Slomowicz. Thank you very much !

Photographs from the Iunx shop:http://www.thenonblonde.com/2011/09/iunx-perfumes-postcards-from-paris.html

More information on Iunx:  http://boisdejasmin.com/2005/06/iunx_10_edts_sp.html

*Previously published: Octobre 26th, 2012

Re edited August 12, 2016

Frederic Malle En Passant The scent of Spring passing through

, , , 2 Comments

In a search of perfumes made by the perfumer Olivia Giacobetti I came across the perfume En Passant. I already knew other perfumes made by her: Tilleul by Parfums d´Orsay and L´Ete en Douce by L´Artisan Parfumeur.

Olivia Giacobetti made En Passant for the exclusive brand Frederic Malle Editions de Parfums. Frederic Malle perfumes are very special in the sense that all perfumers were given the oportunity to create their own perfect perfume. All perfumers are displayed in the shop with their photograph.

Olivia Giacobetti Olivia Giacobetti´s perfumes can be very light and almost made for another realm, the one of elves and nymphs. Like making perfumes for Arwen Undómiel in Lord of the Rings played by Liv Tyler.

En Passant is a perfume inspired by the idea of passing through a branch of lilac flowers during spring. It means passing through in French. This makes En Passant an excellent scent to use in spring or if you want to invite spring into your life.

The most wonderful thing happened after I applied En Passant this week. After spraying En Passant, I passed a lilac bush near my home and I could smell a wonderful light trail of lilac. This was the whole intention of the perfume and I got it in an instant. Not complicated, just a light trail of lilac. The perfume En Passant is passing through as well on your skin as it leaves after two hours. Maybe that´s the whole idea although I have noticed Olivia Giacobetti has made more perfumes which do not stay on very long like L´Ete en Douce. When you spray it on, you get a wonderful fresh lilac scent. You would want it to stay that way for hours and hours. So personally I think it is a pity you can only smell it for a short while. The only remedy is to keep on spraying or to use it with the bodylotion and layer it that way. Haven´t tried the bodylotion but would really like to !

Passing through lilacs in Amsterdam

En Passant is simply lovely and fresh. Not fresh like fresh washed white cotton shirts but like light fresh white or pink flowers. Personally I smell lilacs, cucumber and linden blossom. Some others state notes are white lilac, watery notes, cucumber, orange tree leaves and wheat. En Passant really reminded me of another of Olivia´s perfumes, the linden blossom scent Tilleul by Parfum d´Orsay. This is an adaptation of an older version of Parfums d’ Orsay Tilleul and it is one of my favorite perfumes. Both Tilleul and L´Ete en Douce are wonderful summer perfumes.

En Passant is superb to wear right now that lilacs blossom outside and it is springtime. It would make an excellent gift for a young girl as her first perfume as well. I can imagine it be suited for people who do not like to wear perfume as it is so fresh and stays very close to your skin.

Bottom line: I love it. My advice: Just smell it !

Photograph of Olivia Courtesy of Guillaume Luisetti, http://www.luisetti.net/ Thank you very much !

Originally published: May 10th 2012

Photograph 1. Olivia Giacobetti. Made by Guillaume Luisetti

Photograph 2. Passing through lilacs in Amsterdam. Made by Esperessence

Bissoumine Un Ange Passe

, , , 0 Comments

bissoumine3

Touched by an angel

Some weeks ago I was introduced to the French perfume line Bissoumine on the perfume blog Olfactoria´s Travels. I always enjoy reading Birgits reviews. Bissoumine is a French line founded in 2009. They sell beautiful handmade silk scarves, scented candles and perfumes. The silk scarves are true beauties! The perfume line includes 8 perfumes at this moment. Bissoumine means perfume in old Aramaic. From the 4 perfumes I tested so far Un Ange Passe instantly got my attention as did Un fleur de Nall.

Un Ange Passe started as a scented candle but after frequent requests from clients, it was turned into a perfume. Literally Un Ange Passe means an angel passes. In French un ange passe describes an unexpected break in a conversation causing awkwardness. This scent will probably cause the opposite. When someone passes wearing Un Ange Passe, it will cause a moment of relieve and lightness. If they can scent the perfume though, as it wears close to your skin.

bissoumine1
While wearing it, it reminded me a bit of the style of Italian perfumer Olivia Giacobetti as it is very light and fresh. The concept of trying to capture something passing by can be found in her perfume made for Frederic Malle, En Passant. In this perfume Olivia Giacobetti successfully captured the scent of passing by lilac flowers in spring.

Un Ange Passe is more abstract though.

It has the sweetness of perfumes made by French perfumer Patricia Nicolai only lighter, fortunately. It is described as a light amber by the perfumer Kitty Shpirer. I consider it a light white powdery musk perfume. The feeling it provokes is of wearing a large transparent white feather light veil. Un Ange Passe is a perfume you can give to someone who does not like strong perfumes or is starting to wear perfume. It would make an excellent perfume to wear during summer sunny holidays.

bissoumine2
The perfume Un Ange Passe, the scented candle and the beautiful scarves will make excellent gifts.  I have not tried their scented candles or scarves but they look and sound wonderful on the website. They can be bought online in the Bissoumine webshop. Un Ange Passe eau de toilette costs 80 euro for 50 ml spray. A beautiful sample set is sold online but including Un ange passe or Les Fleurs de Nall. The large scented candle is 35 euro and scarves are 160 euro online. Bissoumine is not sold in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, yet. It would be very suited for a boutique with hippie chic beautiful clothing.

 

Notes according to Fragantica are:

ylang ylang, rhubarb, mandarine
spicy rose and delicate anis flower, jasmine.
transparent amber, sandalwood and white musk.

Photograph of bottle: courtesy of Bissoumine, other two photographs by L’Esperessence

Origin of sample: pr

Originally published: October 2, 2012

Update: August 11, 2014 Bissoumine does not sell silk scarves any longer, Un Ange Passe costs 88,29 euro at the moment for a 50 ml edp bottle.

 

 

1 2