One of my favorite parts of releasing a new perfume (after the actual composition process) is writing my Scent Notes column. I love pulling the curtain back and explaining my creative process. I believe in giving people credit for being intelligent information-seekers rather than trying to build a shroud of mystery. In all the art I love, there’s nothing that really enhances my appreciation than getting a direct conduit into the artist’s creative process and inspirations.
However, now that I have split the Chatillon Lux Parfums line into a new luxury house that caters to my desire to stretch my creativity to its fullest, Maher Olfactive, I wanted to create a place that I could not only keep my Scent Notes columns for both houses in one place, but also allows more more random musings about the world of perfumery. That will be both written and, hopefully in the near future, video blogs.
Once again, I’ve come up with a musically inspired scent. This time my inspiration was from fellow St. Louisan Ann Peebles and her song, “Can’t Stand the Rain.” Give it a listen. It’s outstanding. In this interpretation, I wanted to create a scent that is sitting at an open window as the last few drops of rainfall while the sun comes out and begins to dry everything out. It’s coming out alongside Treget on May 19.
As with Admiral, I don’t want to create yet another aquatic scent in the style that’s been beaten to death at this point. Instead, this is a freshwater scent, one of rain, with bright citrus and coriander shining through, all the while a rich cedarwood, incense and oakmoss base supports everything without taking it over. The notes are petitgrain, lemongrass, jasmine, coriander, rain, cedar wood, myrrh, labdanum and oakmoss.
In the top notes, I used a bitter orange petitgrain bigarade essential oil, one of my favorite scents. This is supported by a vibrant but not overly spicy coriander essential oil, one that really helps lift up the petitgrain note. However, underneath it, I use a more rich lemongrass essential oil. There’s also a touch of sweet orange essential oil, as well, in order to round everything out and help it meld with the rain water note.
Additionally, a more traditional jasmine accord fits in outstandingly with the rain water note. It’s heaver on the sweet purple aspects like benzyl acetate, benzyl alcohol and beta damascone, while being lighter on the cinnamic spice facets and pink flower phenylethyl alcohol. It’s made a little bit more airy with Hedione and it’s slightly fruitier Hedione HC cousin, while a microdose of pyroprunat gives it a more round sweetness with it’s prunish, rasiny note.
Finally, the rainwater accord I keep mentioning. It’s meant to be fresh and totally devoid of the traditional dhydromyrcenol and Calone. The jasmine accord plays a dual role, helping to shape this accord from the outside, while Aquamate is the star material as it has a grapefruit-ish top note that disappears into the petitgrain and coriander, leaving its freshwater essence to shine in this accord. Finally, Helional gives is a shimmery, sparkly finish, like a droplet in the sun, beaded up on a leaf.
Underneath it all, I use the more modern Veramoss for the oakmoss accord, which fits in better with the red cedar note (of which I use Atlas cedar, which is light and delicate) and just a touch of cetalox, which is a more mild-mannered and mature version of ambroxan. Further giving the base weight is an incense/amber type accord, with a lighter labdanum absolute, myrrh, styrax and just a touch of sweetness with ethyl vanillin.
So far, I’ve heard a lot of great feedback from the test batch samples that I’ve sent out. I’m excited to release this one along with Treget on May 19 at ChatillonLux.com. It’ll also be available at American Perfumer very soon. I hope you enjoy it!
Ten years ago, I began working on what would become my first composition ever. It would be the keystone of what would end up becoming Chatillon Lux. I wanted the first fragrance in the line to be something classic, timeless and highly wearable.
The original fragrance, Delor de Treget, was named after the founder of Carondelet, what would eventually become South Saint Louis. He was also the grandfather of Henri Chatillon. It had notes of orange, bergamot, lavender, cedar wood and labdanum.
Now, with ten years of experience, I wanted to reimagine this original scent as Chatillon Lux prepares to enter its tenth year as of June 15. While I wanted something related to the original, bright, woody and easy to wear, I also was determined to make it modern and constructed in a way that I wasn’t able to do with the original.
Treget Eau de Toilette is a light, airy woody scent, with tinges of sparkling bergamot and a slight whiff of jasmine, on top of a breeze of sandalwood, Siam wood and cedar wood.
The top note of bergamot is simply bergamot essential oil from Italy, rectified in order to reduce the photosensitizing aspects of the material. It is combined with a jasmine accord that features Hedione, aka dihydro jasmonate, very prominently. This material is a jasmine breeze, something that filled in the gaps more than stand out on its own.
Additionally, the cedar wood note is simply my favorite red cedar essential oil, Virginia red cedar. It’s rich and thick, and is combined with an even richer Siam wood essential oil, which is very rich and silky. That is further enhanced by the resinous labdanum note, but it is a lighter, clear labdanum absolute. So it doesn’t tip the sales too heavily.
But the featured note of the whole thing is a very light, crisp sandalwood. The sandalwood materials of santaliff and ebanol and offset by a higher proportion of the supplementary notes that I use in the sandalwood accord. Dihydro ionone beta is a creamy, white floral often found in jasmine and iris accords, but it also has a woody tinge to it and is great for adding the creamy top note to a sandalwood accord. Additionally, nerolidol is also a woody, floral type notes that I used in a higher proportion than usual.
Finally, a big dose of Iso E Super makes the woody notes airy, clean and crisp. It adds longevity but also lift to the entire composition, and using it in this proportion is a big reason as to why it smells so modern and wearable.
Now, ten years later, Treget Eau de Toilette will be available at ChatillonLux.com on May 19. It will also soon be available at American Perfumer. The samples from the test batch have been a big hit, and so I’m excited to share this one with you!
What’s the deal with the new formulation for Madame Chouteau? What should you expect from this year’s American Perfumer release? This should answer some of those questions about why I would replace apricot with litsea cubeba, orange blossom absolute with osmanthus absolute and ambergris with musk.
During my formative years as a teenager who was obsessed with indie rock, played in bands and loved hanging out at the record store, it was only a matter of time before I heard the Pixies and fell head-over-heels in love.
My favorite album was always Surfer Rosa (and still is until this day) as I think that was the peak of creativity, viewing pop music through the shattered, art-rock lens of Black Francis, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago and David Lovering. However, there was something about the surf-rock shift of direction in Bossanova that was super intriguing. The album shows the height of intertwined vocals of Francis and Deal, two voices that could soar in similar registers, shifting above and below each other, like two birds in flight.
The best use of this on the album was in “Velouria,” a song that had shimmering, legato vocal melodies over crunchy, fuzz-laden guitar riffs and David Lovering’s solid beats with underrated and supremely tasteful flourishes (I love his trademark tom fills at the end of bars).
This is also the period where Black Francis became more obsessed with the supernatural than he ever had before. “Velouria” is the tale of a romance across time with an ancient citizen of the lost civilization of Lemuria, who legend has it currently live inside Mount Shasta. It’s a semi-melancholy tale of love across time, space and planes of existence, perfectly matched to the vocal melodies.
In order to reflect this contrast of styles (hauntingly beautiful vocal melodies over distorted electric guitar crunch), I composed a fragrance with notes of candied violet, orris, blueberry, frankincense frerena, Indian and Javanese vetiver, and musk.
Candied Violet, Orris and Blueberry
These three notes are an accord unto themselves, the sweet, soaring vocal melodies of the song. It hinges around the ionones that feed all the accords as well as methyl anthranilate, a sweet note (purple if you’re that type of synesthesate) found amongst florals, it was used in both creating a violet note as well as the blueberry note. I also used an orris root tincture to give all of these a more grounded feeling, as well as the fruitier Hedione HC in addition to bergamot essential oil, plus the standard benzyl acetate and beta damascone. Additionally, I used raspberry ketone to enhance the fruity aspect, jasmine sambac absolute, some spice in the form of cinnamaldehyde and caryophyllene beta, and finally some floral notes in Doremox and phenyl ethyl alcohol as well as the more green Isoraldeine and clary sage absolute.
Vetiver, Incense and Musk
The texture of vetiver, to me, is the quintessential fuzz pedal note, especially the Indian (very rooty) and Javanese (kinda smokey and rich) types of vetiver. These play with a Velvione musk and firascone to really play up the texture of a saturated guitar riff plus some Bicyclononalactone, a coumarin-type material, to smooth it out a touch. These combine with musks that rain from animalic (we are talking about Lemuria after all) to clean, including Traesolide, Ethylene Brassylate, Cosmone, Ambrettolide, Civettone (a cruelty-free civet replacement), Cetalox.
Finally, the incense notes come from frankincense (the fuzzier Frerena variety) as well as a frankincense absolute, a little bit more sweet and sticky (enhanced by a touch of labdanum absolute). It added the final touch, the David Lovering drum fill, if you will, to the entire composition.
Velouria Eau de Parfum is available now at MaherOlfactive.com, so grab a bottle or head to American Perfumer (very soon) to grab a sample!
I made a video (again, accidentally deleted the first…) illustrating how the creative process behind the development of Velouria for Maher Olfactive has progressed, the considerations and variations of the formula, and how I hone in on a final direction to focus on the final scent formula.
Sometimes, you have ideas that you don’t think are feasible. But you just can’t get them out of your head, no matter what. For me, I wanted to do an oud perfume. Of course, that’s not so unique. However, I wanted to create one that not only features the oud as the star, but also to find a unique twist.
Here’s the thing, though. Oud is expensive. Like super expensive. And between supply chain issues while also weathering an economic slowdown, there was no way I could justify spending enough to create a full batch release. So I decided to create something in a much smaller batch than usual, allowing me to spend on other materials in addition to the oud, while releasing it in 10mL bottles in order to make a bottle more affordable.
So I smelled many different ouds. Each one has such unique and often unapologetic characteristics that I realized that I should not come into it with any preconceived notions. I found three different ouds and let them guide me to find the right complements.
When working on this composition, a friend remarked that it was like smelling a string quartet. Smooth and interconnected. That brought me to the term, “Legato,” which indicates notes that are seamlessly intertwined with no space between them.
The composition began with the three ouds that I selected. The Cambodian oud is very polite for an oud. Rich, velvety, with a cocoa/leather nuance. The Thai oud is the polar opposite. It’s very assertive, with characteristics of a more medicinal oud as well as being the woodiest of the three. Finally, the Prachin Pearl has the most animalistic bent, rich beyond belief, and very heady. Simply outstanding. Thus, the Cambodian oud serves as a perfect mediator between the two.
I thought the opulent-but-not-overly-sweet nature of stone fruit would be a great sidekick to this oud combination. I built a plum accord that uses many of the same materials that I’ve used in the past, but with a boost of fructone in order to add to the sweetness, plus apricot essential oil from Robertet that is bang on for the flesh of a perfectly ripe apricot.
Next, I wanted to create a counterpoint. The first one was white lotus absolute, something that is very lush in almost a similar manner to a rose, but also with a carnation-type leaning that is spicier, avoiding a traditional oud/rose type of scent. It combines excellently with a natural saffron that I procured, letting the natural leather undertones of saffron help bring everything together with the oud and stone fruits.
Finally, I wanted some more texture. So I landed upon Virginia cedar, the deepest and most rich cedar oil that I have in stock. It’s what I think of when I smell the red cedar wood from my childhood. It adds a texture that helps counterbalance the spice while also not allowing the base notes to get too heavy.
I will release this limited edition at MaherOlfactive.com tomorrow, October 22. Because I let my instinct lead me, the scent signature is very much mine, but it is still not like anything I have ever created with previously unexplored materials. As always, I’m very excited to share it with you and hope you enjoy it!
One note that I have always loved is iris. Even though I (obviously this is the case) love raw orris butter, the iris accord intrigues me even more. Anything that doesn’t have a true natural material analog allows for pure interpretation, acting as a Rorschach test of the perfumer. What do they smell when they dream of iris, in that state of delirium where they are dreaming of the fantasy scent but are not truly asleep?
I have also always loved how ionone materials play with creamy sandalwood. So for this, I found the creamiest Mysore sandalwood I could find. It is extraordinary. It is the base note, but its presence permeates throughout the entire wearing of this scent.
Next, the iris accord is what will be most present upon spraying this fragrance. The accord revolves around an orris tincture, as well as the powdery notes of ionone alpha along with dihydro ionone beta, which leans a little woody, making it an excellent bridge to the sandalwood. There is also benzyl acetate, a material also found in jasmine, giving it what I think most would label as the sweet, fruity “purple” note in the scent. Finally, Limonene and Fructone give it a fruity zest, with the brightness reinforced by alpha pinene.
I also used Hedione here to help bring in the dreamy, airy amber accord that I needed to create to fill out the scent while not being too intrusive upon the magic between the iris accord and sandalwood.
The amber accord began centered around benzoin, labdanum essential oil (which I believe has a very distinct character as compared to the absolute) and dark-aged patchouli. Those heavier ingredients are toned down by Clearwood, an airy patchouli-like material without the earthiness, as well as Iso E Super, which is an airy, woody note that I’m sure everyone reading is quite familiar with. We’ve all worn Molecule 01 at this point.
Next, the sweetness was provided by a slight touch of the semi-sweet ethyl vanillin and caramel furfural. Just enough to give some pleasantness to the incense and earthiness. An even smaller touch of Pyralone and clary sage adds a hint of leathery green, which helps it bleed into the amber accord. Finally, the spice of Kephalis, the spicy creaminess of bicyclononalactone and the sweet muskiness of Globanone, Sylvamber and Traseolide ground everything and smooth the edges, providing the final touch for the euphorically somnambulant feeling of a waking dream.
This eau de parfum will be available on Saturday, September 6. I will be giving away samples of it with any purchase leading up until the release date, plus samples will be available at American Perfumer as always.
Scent Notes by Shawn Maher 