With a perfume heritage stretching back to 1826, Isabelle Gellé has dedicated herself to the creation of natural fragrances. One hundred and eighty years later, in 2006, she finally launched her own company and currently has three collections that take inspiration from travel right through to time. With a new home series about to launch, it’s time to discover Isabelle’s own perfume memories during “Stephan’s Six”.
January has been a vintage month for me this year with a chance to revisit some excellent fragrances that are sadly fading from peoples’ memories. This review is no different, but it’s a perfume that also holds family memories. When it launched I don’t think that anybody could have imagined just how successful it would become, and also how quickly its original origin would become buried beneath a copywriter’s vision. I’m talking about Soir de Paris, or Evening In Paris to give it its original name. Released by Bourjois in 1928, let me take you back ninety years and introduce you to this legendary scent.
"Transparency" is a word that you often hear mentioned when it comes to the perfume industry. For many years perfume houses would release fragrances under their own name, or assign them to an in-house "nose", when they had actually been created by an outside company. This wasn't done maliciously; it was just the way the industry worked. Customers were not particularly interested in who had made the juice in the bottle, just that it came with their favourite company's logo on the glass. Of course there had always been fans that wanted to know every detail but it’s only recently that "transparency" has become the industry's key word.
In 1964 Pete Seeger sang, "Where have all the flowers gone?" Well, for now I'm not concerned with all of them, just one. It was a staple of male and female fragrances as far back as you can remember but this treasure has now sadly fallen out of favour. I am talking about the vanishing violet. This wonderful floral adds a depth to ladies fragrances whilst emanating femininity, hints at a dangerous note in men's scents whilst softening, and in small quantities provides the finishing touch to a perfume by seemingly pulling everything together and then exploding it outwards! It is a truly magical ingredient, so where has it gone?
