When love is a curse, Jul et Mad Fugit Amor

Since their brand’s founding in 2012, Madalina and Julien Blanchard became known as connoisseurs of beautiful things. In their fragrance creations they conveyed beauty of different stages of love such as first meeting, falling in love or even honeymoon. They have also shown us a beauty of travel through their scents inspired by distant places and cultures. In a new chapter we get to know what kind of beauty they see in art forms of painting, sculpture and tapestry. One that I’m going to tell you about today was inspired by a Rodin’s work in marble that holds the same title.

Fugit Amor reveal its presence on my skin in a very aromatic way. Right from the start I can smell a lot of ginger emanating from my skin. To my surprise it’s not as zingy and lemon-y as I used to know. Ginger in this perfume serves a purpose of more spicy ingredient. It carries a soft, fresh spiciness that is quite mouth-watering I must say, it nicely resembles the aroma of a yellow-tinged ginger pulp. However it doesn’t take long until the note starts to smell more brownish, as if you were smelling just its outer peel instead of pulp. It’s definitely becoming more earthy. It’s also getting more substantive and intensive as we speak.

Arising substance of Jul et Mad Fugit Amor comes from vetiver. This note also presents itself in quite aromatic and woody rendition. It has a wonderful sillage of a tender & elegant richness. At first its scent is more like a fragrant grass but then it slowly transitions into more woody territory, however its hard to say if it smells of any specific kind of wood. At some point there’s also a tingly sensation of piquancy, which absolutely makes sense as the perfume features pink pepper accord. I also noticed a crunchy texture at this stage, which is coming from cardamom.

After around 40 minutes I start to smell carnation note. Strength of this fiery flower is gradually building up, introducing a nice change to the sctructure of Fugit Amor. Its fragrance is warm and sensual, setting you in the mood for cuddles. Aside of the floral aspect there’s also a sweet clove facet to this chord. Once carnation accord accommodates on my skin a very interesting thing happens. My skin mutes the fragrance so that it becomes soapy and clean. I didn’t expect such turn of events but I have to say that I love it! Smelling this soapy vibe instantly made me think of a very rich, luxurious soap a barber would use in his salon to shave some gentlemen. It’s a little bit a’la Infusion d’Homme from Prada, but more dry-woody and spicy-floral. I truly fancy this effect.

The smell of barbershop soap lingers on my skin for a couple of hours. During that time it continues to be clean but other notes shift – one moment it’s vetiver that is predominant, the other time it’s carnation. Once these few hours pass, a soapy vibe subsides & that’s when Fugit Amor start to effuse a generous dose of elemi. Its becoming balsamic in an instant. There’s richness and texture to this balmy aromaterial. There’s also something slightly salty and incensy about elemi here. Generally speaking new Jul et Mad turns out to be true chameleon on my skin.

Drydown, which still carries the remains of woody veriver, warm carnation and exclusive soap smell, is becoming more woody again – this time thanks to cedar. It’s substantive but since it’s a late stage of development it is nicely muted. Because of its rugged character it brings more masculine connotations. Amber note adds brightness of its shiny facets. It’s a nice oriental touch to the composition. Fugit Amor also has musk among base notes. Combined with cedarwood it’s a tad dirty in a bodily way but it’s more sexy and seductive because of that. You wouldn’t be bothered by this sensation, I can promise you that.

Fugit Amor was composed for Jul et Mad by perfumer Stephanie Bakouche in her atelier. She mastered all of the ingredients she used, which resulted in a full-bodied composition that changes its shape several times during the day, so that it smells slightly different every time you smell it. Fugit Amor is very complex and quite unusual masculine carnation fragrance. My personal soapy twist to it was most thrilling part of it. Presented in extrait de parfum concentration, the fragrance is available in 50 ml flacon (in more pricy luxury coffret version or in a cheaper box packaging). Its longevity is impeccable – applied in the morning it still smells in the evening, leaving a gentle trail behind the wearer. It’s a beautiful and elegant composition. Modern and classy at the same time.

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Perfume paradise of Esxence 2017 – day 3

Second day at Esxence was the busiest one for me. All the meetings I had and conferences I attended brough a lot of interesting thoughts and many of the perfume that I was able to smell on that day turned out to be really good discoveries. Cherry on top was a Masque Milano party & then staying at 10 Corso Como for a dinner with friends and newly met people. It was a great day!

Day 3 – Saturday, 25th of March

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Saturday was a 3rd & at the same time my final day at Esxence. After two previous days that I spent on intensive and excessive sniffing I was a bit tired and was ready to wind down a little bit. It was the most quiet day for me (but not a quiet day at the fair as it was open to the public) – I didn’t have any meetings planned which allowed me to walk around more casually and without rush.

I started my day by revisiting Jul et Mad stand as I wanted to talk to Madalina for a few minutes and I also wanted to try the fragrances again. The reason for that was that I smelled then the day before at quite late stage so I wasn’t sure if my perception was correct. Turned out it was and that Fugit Amor still turns into that almost fougere-like, vetiver and carnation blend that smells clean and soapy on my skin. I love the way it smells on me, even if I was the only person that made this fragrance change so much, as Stephanie Bakouche noticed when she was smelling it on my arm.

Then I was going to the conference organized by Osmotheque about fragrances of the 70’s. But before I managed to get there I had a quick chat with Puredistance team again, then I bumped into Gabriella Chieffo. She was not exhibiting at Esxence this year due to some health issues but she told me the brand is working on new release. She even mentioned to me the idea behind it, but I’m not telling you. By the entrance to the conference room I also met Olaf, an instagrammer that you might know as Vetyyver. We follow each other so it was nice to meet in person.

Back to the conference. The speaker for it was Patricia Nicolai, a very head of Osmotheque. During 1 hour lecture she guided us through various compositions, many of them were chypre. We smelled Revlon Charlie, Estee Lauder White Linen & Aromatics Elixir, Jean Couturier Coriandre and many more. It was a nice stroll down the history lane of the era when calone, maltol, jasmonates and damascones were first obtained in laboratory. They are still important part of perfumery.

Then I had a quick break with Pissara. Then I visited a stand of Welton, a brand from London. Their black, pillar-like bottles were quite attractive but I don’t really remember what were the fragrances like. Except of Bel Iris, which smelled like an iris and lots of dry paper, parchment. Intriguing.

Then I noticed that Stephane Humbert Lucas is presenting 2 new fragrances: Panthea and Wish Come True. But to tell you the truth I didn’t put my nose into them as they don’t have samples available on stand. In the past there were fragrances that I really liked and they said that they’re going to send out samples after the show. They never did!

As I was admiring some decorations at Making of Cannes – bottles lined up and standing in the spotlight as if they were movie stars I noticed Andy Tauer passing next to me. I stopped him of course and started some conversation. He mentioned working on some new interesting projects for Tauerville (perhaps this has something to do with his current trip to San Francisco, he made another of those hand-to-hand-only-while-he’s-there fragrances) He’s been also busy working on some special magazine for his distributors and retailers. Hope I’ll get a copy of it!

Later I had a quick stop at Verduu, a German brand that pairs fashion designers with perfumer (Mark Buxton) to make fragrances. Hien Le was quite nice. I especially liked the small size of the bottle, very perfumista-friendly. More discoveries followed few steps ahead.

When I dropped by Eta stand to say hi I was shown two new fragrances, Le Sixieme Parfum and Le Septieme Parfum. Both were committed by Luca Maffei. 6th fragrance was absolutely amazing, it contained tons of iris – soft, creamy, buttery and rich. 7th fragrance was focused on incense that was warm and spiritual. I’m going to explore Le Sixieme Parfum really soon to see how it behaves on my skin. I hope it will be just as good as on paper strip.

Afterwards I started yet another round around the entire Esxence area. I had a stop at Etat Libre d’Orange to smell You or Someone like You. I have to say that most scents by this house are difficult to me but the new composition, made in collaboration with Chandler Burr seems to be much more approachable and easier to love. I could smell basil and mint in the opening, however there won’t be any official notes for this fragrance. That’s what Chandler wished for.

There was some time for selfies with Muriel Madeleine, a time for Anatole Lebreton to show me his new travel set (great thing to have, you can select fragrances you want, duplicates are possible) I smelled Histoires de Parfums This is not a Blue Bottle 1.2 and 1.3 (yep, still no interest from the brand side to ask if I wanted to learn more). I also met Michelyn Camen from Cafleurebon. I saw her earlier briefly but now we could chat for a second.

I also met Angela Ciampagna. She was presenting her 2 currently existing collection. When I asked about the developments for future projects she told me with some sadness in her voice that the laboratory where they work on new formulas got damaged by the earthquake (there were so many in Italy lately) that they had to postpone new release, probably until next Esxence in 2018.

Then a quick whiff of all nominee fragrances of Art and Olfaction Awards and a peek at the Osmotheque vials with old-ish fragrances. When it got less crowded I decided to visit Unum. Filippo Sorcinelli was showcasing his latest work with a lengthy Italian name: Io Non Ho Mani Che Mi Accarezzino il Volto. Fitting the churchy style of the brand it smelled of incense that was warm thanks to tobacco and styrax. I liked it. The cap is covered with some black fabric.

At the Nomenclature stand I met Karl Bradl from Aedes Perfumery. Finally! I’ve been wanting to meet him but in fact it was our first live encounter ever. I was introduced to Lumen_esce, their 2016 release that smells like fresh and watery violets. The novely for 2017 is Shi_so – a fragrance featuring Glycolierral, a herbaceous molecule from Givaudan. The fragrance had uplifting, green aroma with hints of rhubarb. I will happily explore my sample when it becomes warmer.

Almost at the very end of the day I smelled 3 fragrances under the brand name of Teresa Helbig. It turned out these fragrances are a collaboration of Sara Carner (Carner Barcelona) and one of her sisters. Can you believe! Teresa was a lovely neroli-mandarin concoction warmed up by benzoin, Tangier Memories was leathery with hint of red berries while A Bulldog in the Atelier was warm, woody and spicy.

I spent my last minutes at The Mall sitting together with Neela Vermeire. We had a heart to hear conversation, admitted some facts that we both noticed and exchanged opinion on various topics. Together with Neela we have this policy that everything we say is confidential. Sorry guys! As I was about to leave the building I grabbed Sarah Colton for a moment so that we could have a photo together. I was one of the last who left Esxence venue. It felt weird and bit nostalgic to walk down the aisle with nobody around. I will be back for next year I suppose.

These 3 days passed really fast. I discovered not what I had to, but what I wanted. That’s a difference. When you come for the first time you want to try as much as possible. Over the years you learn that it’s only worth exploring what you truly want to explore. On Saturday evening it started to rain heavily and I still had a party to attend. Esxence party was at Spazio Gessi this year and dress code was to wear a flower. I got an artificial rose but my Airbnb host also helped me to make a flower out of empty plastic bottle! It looked wickedly interesting. I had to leave when the party was wild, I had to walk back (was too late for metro) and pack my suitcase.

On Sunday morning I was leaving Milan at 6 o’clock. It was still raining. The city was crying because I had to leave so soon, haha. I’m going to miss this city. I’m going to miss these people. And my world. Until I meet them again in Florence this September. I hope so.

I hope with these 3 parts of my Esxence trip you felt as if you were there with me.