Alexia “Miss Alexia” Petsinis dips one perfectly pedicured toe into perfume’s parellel universe…
(Illustrations: Alexia Petsinis, intern@voxfrock.com.au)
I sometimes take the liberty of mentioning to people that I was a perfumer by the age of five. My outdoor laboratory (the back corner of the yard) served as darling little haven in which I mingled a host of floral fantasies picked freshly from mother’s garden beds.
I remember the sight and scent of each brew as vividly as the ABBA tunes I was discovering at that time. There was one I called Waterloo; a greyish teal mix of smashed snapdragons and soggy agapanthus, and another named Fernando, a hideous concoction of soured red bottlebrush and pansies. They were ghastly (and decidedly worse after marinading in glass jars for several days), but I was determined to keep producing these exotic elixirs, believing (rightly) I had created smells nobody in the world had ever experienced before. Something niche.
In the world of perfume, the concept of niche is enigmatic; an elusive (and often very expensive) landscape beyond the glossy department store brands and their familiar offerings. Blood? Ambroxin? Hashish? Surely these are not things that can be distilled and worn on the skin as ‘perfume’? They can. They are.
Behind these peculiar scent combinations capable of repelling, seducing, hypnotising the senses, all in one whiff, is the creative mind of a true artist, a perfumer who has distilled an element of their soul into each drop of essence. Appreciating a niche fragrance is really no different to marvelling at a work by Kandinsky or de Kooning; we deconstruct the layers of sensory stimuli to experience an image, a path travelled, or a memory kept alive by a complex intoxication of the senses.
Amour Nocturne – L’Artisan
I have recently discovered a perfume by L’Artisan Parfumeur (the very first niche fragrance house to come into existence; French of course) called Amour Nocturne (above). It’s a sublime, milky mess of caramel, orchid and cedar, seductive and intimate. It’s gunpowder, however, that steals the show in this juice, the bitter pang of a gunpowder base note underpins its floral arrangement with a deeply sinister sensuality. This is not a fragrance. This is an experience. This is a ‘take-me-in-the-night’ niche!
Of course, you’ll never find anything niche in an overcrowded chemist window for $59.99. Among niche perfumes, there are no glitzy campaigns or half-dressed celebrities telling you that wearing this scent will make you an instant Aphrodite. Niche is history, it’s art, it’s something beyond the materiality of the product itself.
Eight & Bob, Albert Fouquet
Did you know, you can own the same fragrance that ill-fated US president John F. Kennedy discovered as a college student on tour in the French Riviera? A suave-smelling Frenchman named Albert Fouquet cultivated his own spicy blend which utterly captivated Mr. Kennedy who requested eight samples upon his return to America. There was a reason, linked to his equally ill-fated brother, Robert: “Eight, and one for Bob.” So, there you have it, EIGHT & BOB (above) is the latest scent we all want to be wearing right now.
Oh, ooOoh …oh (mist, wood, wind and guitar), Miller et Bertaux
If the niche market is as much about the wittiness and quirk of its marketing as it is about the scents themselves, wordy bugs like me have much by which to be entertained. I can’t go past the name of a scent by French duo Miller et. Bertaux: wait for it… Oh, ooOoh…oh (Mist, Wood, Wind and Guitar). Honestly, that’s what’s printed on the label. The thought of a customer trying to get that out without sounding like they are engaged in a moment of temporary bliss is beyond amusing!
Juliette Has A Gun, Romano Ricci
And, for all my fellow Shakespeare buffs, Romano Ricci (great-grandson of Nina Ricci, a lot to live up to) created a series of playful scents evoking the spirit of a modern day Juliette; a bold woman, back with a vengeance. Watch out, she has a Gun too. (Juliette Has a Gun, above).
I won’t deny I’m a niche perfume convert. It took a little while, but I won’t go back to the mainstream. Ever. There are complex worlds of knowledge and creativity distilled in niche essences. If you’ve had a bad experience with a niche fragrance, don’t be discouraged. It can be an enthralling journey of self discovery strewn with treasures off the beaten scent track.
Drolle de Rose, L’Artisan
Illustration: Alexia Petsinis
Amour Nocturne and Drole de Rose (Drole de Rose, illustrated, above, by Miss Alexia)
Eight and Bob
Juliette has a Gun and Romano Ricci
Oh, ooOoh…oh (Mist, Wood, Wind and Guitar)
