Early morning, La Manufacture Cologne Noble

La Manufacture, or La Manufacture des Chateaux is a new player in the perfume world. The house was founded by Bruno Truchon-Bartes who spend the last 20 years of his life working for the most renowned names in the industry. His two greatest passions are raw perfume materials and history preservation and the name “La Manufacture” is meant to evoke the craftsmanship and traditional work by hand. The outcome achieved is a trio of Essential Colognes – Les Colognes Essentielles.

Cologne Noble is the first perfume from La Manufacture that I would like to describe. Some time later I will introduce you to the other two as well. The perfume opens with a very high-pitched voice of lemon that is juicy, sparkling and mouthwatering. The lemon juice has a little bit of zesty and sour vibe to it. This intensive feeling lasts for around 5 minutes and then it tones down and the composition is joined by mandarin orange. The latter one is also juicy but it’s also delicate and gently sweet – creating a nice balance for more acidic opening I experienced.

After a while the bright and sparkling aroma of Cologne Noble starts evolving and some woody elements appear in the composition. I have a feeling like there was a little bit of cedar and for a few minutes I also get the aromatic vibe similar to pine needles. After 1 hour spicy accords appear on the skin. From the very beginning Cologne Noble feels kind of cool, chilly and refreshing. One would have  thought that nutmeg, cardamom and coriander would warm it up a bit.

What happens is that La Manufacture Cologne Noble does become warmer but only a tiny bit, so that the overall cold impression still dominates. That is really something interesting about this perfume that the spiciness of cardamom, the vibrant piquancy of coriander and nutmeg don’t change the character of this scent. As you spend more time wearing this fragrance you might notice that the progress of time adds a bit more warmth to it. At 2 hours mark nutmeg slowly becomes drier, like an old papyrus scroll. Then this slightly powdery, woody facet appears – that’s a touch of oakmoss.

After 3 hours the powdery feeling from earlier becomes a little bit more intensive thanks to the presence of iris accord in Cologne Noble. It’s not a typical powdery iris as it has also a little bit of earthy, rooty vibe to it. It creates a nice combination with citrus, which still is the main aroma of this fragrance, with spices creating a background. A soft and feather-like musk tops the composition of Cologne Noble. It smells light, airy and delicate, with a slight aroma of milk and vanilla somewhere around it. From this moment I don’t observe any substantial changes as the scent fades away.

La Manufacture Cologne Noble was created by perfumer Carla Chabert and it’s an eau de toilette concentree. The fragrance is available in 100ml and 245ml bottles (the last one is like a small tank) of simple and clean design. The outer packaging has a form of tube. On my skin Cologne Noble lasted for 5-6 hours – not bad for a citrus-based scent and it had a moderate sillage.

[note] 1st picture from La Manufacture Facebook page, 2nd from the press materials, 3rd is my own, all rights reserved. I got the samples at Esxence.

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Listen to the beat, Jardins d’Ecrivains Junky

Jardins d’Ecrivains is a brand that takes inspiration from literature. With all these older and current books available, imagine how many different perfumes could be based on them. The newest fragrance – Junky, which launched at Esxence in Milan this March was brought to life thanks to Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict by a beat generation writer William S. Burroughs and published as William Lee as an author in 1953. It’s a semi-biographical text.

Right from the starting point Junky presents itself as a very green perfume. There’s a lot of galbanum resin in the opening, which gives this very intensive, almost pungent odour of green stems and dried grass. After 15 minutes of playing solo the cannabis accord joins in. It is probably my first time to experience cannabis in a perfume and I’m happy to learn something new. Especially that in this perfume it does bring the aroma that I would describe as warm hay, wheat with a little bit of coumarin to it. It’s really fine-smelling and it gives a powerful start to the composition. The stage created with cannabis and galbanum lasts for around 1 hour.

After that time the composition of Jardins d’Ecrivains Junky becomes more substantial when the woody accord of palisander rosewood appears. This rarely used perfume materials adds some more tenderness and character, at the same time being elegant and smooth as if the wood was polished. No splinters to be found here. At this point the fragrance has a really great aura to it with a lot of aromatic potential to smell around the wearer.

The evolution of the scent slowly takes the wearers of Junky to the territory of more powdery and slightly floral tones. Violet emanates the aroma that is delicately sweet but not candied and there’s also something dewy about it. Gardenia on the other hand is really powerful and full-bodied in this fragrance composition, definitely covering the weaker violet accord. After 3 hours I could smell the note that I was dying to experience in Junky – iris. In this creation you get to experience the iris which is minimally powdery and mostly smells rooty, a little bit earthy. It also develops a lovely buttery vibe after some time when gardenia weakens.

Later on Junky becomes heavier and develops some greater density yet it doesn’t feel to powerful when you smell it on the skin. It’s strong and it’s the kind of perfume that makes a statement but not in a screamy or show-off manner. Cashmeran gives a silky vibe that somehow makes me also think of a suede or delicate leather as I find something slightly waxy in there. A woody vetiver effuses a nice aroma that causes Junky to develop a bigger volume of a fragrant cloud around the person wearing it. At the end of 5th hour some changes in the scent structure begin.

The balsamic quality of Junky by Jardins d’Ecrivains cumulates successively, slowly, minute after minute the scent becomes more balmy and tender. Dark and smoky incense fills the air around, making it slightly foggy and silvery. At the same time it feels airy and lightweight. What really surprised me in this perfume is that even though it’s incense that takes the lead it doesn’t feel cold (or churchy) like in many other perfumes. Even the usually metallic juniper which is a pair for incense in this perfume, it doesn’t give much of its metallic vibe. Just the aromatic stuff.

For the next few hours the notes in this new perfume loosen and tighten. Once you can smell most of the notes that appeared so far as if they were separated one from another but after a while this feeling subsides and everything seems to be blended so perfectly and seamlessly that you can’t separate iris from gardenia or vetiver from cashmeran. Isn’t that a funny thing how much a composition  can change in a short time or how differently our nose can work though it!?

The very drydown of Junky is composed of oakmoss and myrtle. The first one gives another woody facet to the perfume as well as there’s something slightly powdery, shrub-like and a bit raw about it. The feeling I get is connected with the imagery of an autumn forest with broken branches and colorful leaves on the ground. Myrtle adds kind of mediterranean vibe with a smell that is herbal. A little bit like maquis in fact. There’s also a twist in the drydown, where a floral bouquet appears out of no-where. I don’t pick any specific kind of flower – I just smell flowers, a nicely composed combination that’s like a cherry on top of the dessert.

Despite the fact that Junky from Jardins d’Ecrivains was inspired by a novel about a drug addict, it doesn’t smell like a scruffy men sitting on the pavement in the dark alley. No! Just kidding! I was never afraid it might smell like that. Spending more time with this perfume made me understand that it’s an addictive fragrance and this is the association with William S. Burroughs book that one should find in this scent. Anais Biguine did a great job with her new perfume. She mastered the ingredients to create a very unusual perfume that fits the beat generation concept. Junky is concentrated at eau de parfum level and is available in 100 ml bottles of typical Jardins d’Ecrivains design. The sillage is strong for many hours and the longevity was +12 hours on my skin.

[note] All pictures are my own, all rights reserved. A bottle of Junky was a gift from Anais Biguine.