A Perfumer’s Imagination

By Shereen Shabnam

The standardization and conformity of niche fragrances is celebrated with alternative brands selling anti-conformist juices. We explore the exquisite perfumes from J.U.S, an uninhibited perfumery producing impactful olfactory creations and strong packaging. Through 100% French production, J.U.S pays tribute to the roots of French perfume, a true heritage common to all. As usual, I feature some of my current favourites.

CUIRISSIME – Fabrice Pellegrin – Floral Violet Leather

Oily Leather Base > Astrotone> Violet Leaves Absolute > Concrete Iris> Hedione> Muscenone 

Fabrice wanted to honor the birth of Grasse perfumery with a leather note reminiscent of tanneries. A tribute to the tradition of Grasse leather but also to the use of perfume as an olfactory ornament. The leaves of violet create the link between velvety leather and the bitter pistacia lentiscus.

COFFEEZE –  Aurélien Guichard – Oud Expresso

Laos FirBest Oud > Santos Coffee SFE> Sandalwood Accord> Patchouli HE> Tonka Absolute

Oud is a mysterious and elusive raw ingredient with a complex mix dark and golden tones.

Fascinating and repulsive, it intrigues… and becomes ever more attractive.

Coffee is another dark material, flat and bitter, resolutely roasted.

This is a unique fragrance that forces the Oud and the Coffee to meet, to hear each other, to talk to each other, to get tangled in each other.

GINGERLISE – Alexandra Carlin – Spicy Heperide

Madagascar Ginger roots > Pink peppercorns and leaves> Bouquet of aromatics> Angelica roots> Fig Accord > Absinthe

“When matter becomes color…”

Madagascar, a land of colors and contrasts, of spices and shamans. I discovered  there, on this big red island covered with laterite, an endemic variety of zesty ginger with hints of lemon and verbena, whose freshly cut root is distilled and whose color turns blues in the light.

Added to this is Angelica root, earthy and musky, Absinthe leaf, bitter and intoxicating, the wood of Abreuva and its ambrette tone, musky, powdery, slightly fruity animal and masculine musks, and woody aldehydes.

NOIRESSENCE – Alexandra Carlin – Leathery Floral

Black pepper essence> orange blossom Absolute > Bigarade sorbet accord> Iris powder> Ink accord> Velvet leather

A leathery Eau that does not fall into any category ….

A pointillist portrait in blackcurrant buds, with an overdose of pepper, styrax, fucus and cade: a palette of dark colors to translate every intensity of black.

Shimmering black ink, shiny algae adorned with water pearls… a mineral reflection, the dark, flat mercury of charred lava.

And beyond all this black, a peaceful, radiating breath of bigarade orange and orange blossom, and the powdery halo of Iris root.