‘Make no sound, do
not speak: eyes, heart, mind dreams
are about to explore
a forest…A secret but tangible forest.’
Jean-Joseph
Rabearivelo, Madagascan poet, 1901-1937
If you use the
co-ordinates in the title of this most singular of natural perfumes, you will
find yourself located in the north-eastern part of Madagascar, near Ambanja.
This is ylang and vanilla country. The climate and geography of the region have
forged perfect growing conditions for bourbon vanilla and one of the world’s
most sensual blooms. Add frangipani, pink peppercorn, green mandarin, cocoa and
vetiver into the mix alongside the sweet leathered sheath and you have the
particular local materials needed to create a scent of remarkable grace and
beauty.
The talented trio of
friends Malvin Richard, Lukas Lüscher and Serena Britos launched their refined
and handsome house in 2013. Malvin’s father Jean-Claude is a perfumer and
created two of the RLB collection, 04˚N
74˚W, a coffee-infused gardenia scent
inspired by Columbia and 36˚N 16˚E, a Calabrian harmony of honeyed
citrus and woods.
From an early age
Malvin was exposed to the aromas and complexities of olfactive creation. He has
known Lukas since they were teens and the guys have grown up intrigued by the
machinations of perfumery and the possibilities of somehow doing something
different, utilising their travel experiences and producing a more natural
product, reflective of distinctive areas or regions. The final part of the
trio, Serena Britos is an expert in ethnobotany, a fascinating science that
aims to explore and explain the often complex, ancient and vital relationships between
man, cultures and fauna. Her skills, knowledge and field experiences were essential
to the final solidifying of the Richard Lüscher Britos idea of creating high-end
niche perfumery using only natural raw materials inspired by the concept of terroir.
Terroir (land in French..)is a term more commonly
associated within viniculture referring to a specific set of environmental
conditions – soil, climate, geography etc – that impact on the taste and finish of the wine. Winemakers often
refer to le goüt du terroir, the
ability to determine the provenance of the wine through literally tasting the
echoes of the vine’s root system, soil, weather and climate. It sounds far
fetched and pretentious, yet this idea of
terroir lies at the very heart of the rigid AOC or Appellation d’Origine Controlé system which defines the French wine
industry and many others.
The AOC system
dictates that certain regions, through a set of geographical and climatically
defined criteria impart distinctive and discernible qualities to the wine
produced in the area. It also implies that a described appellation cannot be reproduced in a region outside of its
designated area. It is a complex and much-debated system which aims to protect
and promote the individual particularities and idiosyncrasies of a given place
and set of unpredictable natural criteria. In recent times, the concept has
been widened to apply to cognac, coffee, tea, cocoa beans and even beef.
Applying these rules
to the scent or aroma of a particular region seems pretty crazy, even
impossible. However utilising the concept of terroir provides a singularly fascinating and not to say challenging
basis for a collection of natural perfumes. This is what Richard Lüscher Britos
have endeavoured to do, map the key olfactory influences and traits within
specially chosen areas across the globe. The areas they have chosen include the
Canton of Valais in Switzerland, Ambanja in north-eastern Madagascar, Causse
Méjean in Southern France, Columbia and Calabria in southern Italy. Each of the
scents is a specific portrait of the flora and gourmand influences of the
particular region. The Causse Méjean scent, 48˚N
03˚ for example looks at the dry, windswept lavender of the barren harsh
plateaued region, spicing this with juniper and softening the blend with the
sweet, smeared nuttiness of chestnut, an subliminal echo of a local dessert. In
46˚N 08˚E (Swiss Mountain Cowboy), Jean Claude Gigadou has created a hymn to Alpine woods, dense,
resinous and green, snow-clad and smoky with the odd muffling embrace of lichen
and moss clinging to the wet pine bark.
A lovely review of this can be found over at Cafleurebon by Nancy Lichtenstein, follow the link below:
A lovely review of this can be found over at Cafleurebon by Nancy Lichtenstein, follow the link below:
Vero Kern & Isi…
So the wondrous Vero
Kern works her magic with Madagascar. You all know by now how much I adore Vero
and her astonishing sensual work. It is like nothing else. The skin becomes art
in its magnificent pornographic structures. I have Onda, Kiki, Onda Extrait and Rozy
Voile d’Extrait in my collection
and they are a constant reminder to me of how truly beautiful, strange and
persuasive perfume can be. Arguably Onda is her masterpiece, her Demoiselles d’Avignon, a scent so
twisted out of time and shocking, its whiff and skank transfigures the
mundaneness of everyday existence into glorious warped transcendence. It is
brutal, dangerous, brazen and yet magnificently tender in its later stages, as
lights fade and you sit on the edge of on unknown bed wondering if his name is
really what he says it is and do you really care.
Vero’s work is
divisive. This is a good thing. Great work should be loved and loathed. Who the
hell wants to be mediocre? So I was very intrigued to read Val the Cookie
Queen’s account of the RLB launch in Zurich, Switzerland, attended by Vero.
I
already had in the back of my mind the memory of a short read somewhere about a
brand using naturals and the concept of terroir,
but I hadn’t really pursued it. Adding Vero and Andy to the mix made me realise
how intriguing and ambitious the project actually was.
As I have already
mentioned, Vero’s scent is located in Madagascar, Ambanja in the north east of
the island to be more precise. The majority of the island’s precious vanilla
production is located in the same region. Vanilla
planifolia is a fickle orchid, requiring meticulous care and attention in
order to produce the richly scented pods loaded with tenebrous, tarry seeds. Originally
from Mexico, the orchid had a unique symbiotic relationship with a particular
species of Melipona bee, native to Mexico. This meant reproducing the orchid as
a crop was impossible outside of the plant’s natural habitat. The breakthrough
came in 1841 with the discovery by an indentured 12-year-old slave boy named
Edmond Albius on the Réunion Islands. He found a way to hand pollinate the
vanilla orchids; all attempts to artificially pollinate before this had proved
to be financially ruinous and unsuccessful. Edmond’s discovery transformed the
world of taste as we know, allowing vanilla to be cultivated all over the globe,
without the need of the Melipona bee.
Vanilla planifolia
Vanilla is now grown
in various parts of the world, but the vanilla
planifolia or Bourbon Vanilla, (named
for the Île Bourbon, the former name of the Réunion Islands) is specific to
Madagascar, the Comoros and Réunion. The taste and very importantly the odour
of Bourbon Vanilla are very sensual, rich and warm, with toasted tobacco, hay
and almond facets. As befitting the world’s 2nd most expensive spice,
(the No 1 is saffron…) the scent is regal and mysterious. It is hard to imagine
a world without vanilla and I certainly can’t imagine my Foxy perfumed life without
it. I am obsessed with he profundity and allure of true olfactive vanilla.
Canaga odorata, the 'flower of flowers'
While the vanilla
note is exquisitely rendered in 14˚S 48˚E,
according to Vero, this is an ylang scent. Canaga
Odorata, the flower of flowers is a luscious marvel, the creamy curling yellow blooms
need a hot, wet climate and preferably volcanic soil to grow in. So the
Madagascan microclimate is pretty perfect. The distinctive custard-tinted
flowers are harvested by hand, usually by women at particular times of the day
and the flowers are then steam distilled in huge vats, resulting in various
grades of finished ylang distillate. There are far too many components in ylang
to explore properly here, but Madagascan ylang does contain high levels of both
geraniol and geranyl acetate, both of occur naturally in fruits and flower and
lend the ylang a deep sweet, plasticised aroma. There are also traces of benzyl acetate (for a soft pear-drops
and banana jasmine tendency), safrol
and alpha pinene that imparts a muted
mossy drift over the floral radiance.
Vero and I have
become great cyber-friends, chatting across the electronic ether to one another
and I let her know I had bought 14˚S 48˚E
and how much I loved it. I asked if she elucidate her scented workings a little
for me; I was very intrigued to know how challenging it was to work with 100%
organic and natural materials. I also wondered if Vero had been to Madagascar
as part of the brief or if she used her olfactive imagination to assemble a
beautiful fiction of scent and effect.
‘It was clear from the beginning that I
wanted to create the terroir scent with complete oils, so no fractions or
isolates. Everything else seemed not opportune to me for this venture. The
difficulty with complex oils is, that they are proper blends with sometimes up
to 400 components and therefore must be very carefully mixed together. I had the
additional problem with my main component of Ylang Ylang as the use is
restricted by IFRA. After many trials however it seems time now, that my
creation, my tropical coastal jewel, reflects the many facets of its unique
terroir.’ Vero Kern
As an artist, for
that is indeed what Vero undoubtedly is, she researched and imagined a Vero
version of Madagascar, rich and seductive, lush with rain and moist, steaming soil.
The skies exploding with gorgeous water on the crops of cocoa, rice, pepper,
coffee and vanilla in the fields and villages below. A great writer can create
extraordinary places in the mind and never leave his own house. I think
sometimes, travel and the relentless exposure of social media have dulled our
ability to truly imagine places. Okay, there may be oddness and exaggerations
but surely the conjuring of destination in the mind is a magical, sacred thing?
Vero’s olfactive manifestation of this fertile glittering north-eastern part of
Madagascar is a sublime mix of research, botanical fact and her own perfumed
virtuosity.
Vero’s blending is
at once masterful and mysterious. Anyone expecting the full boudoir strut and
straddle of say Rubj or Onda will be very surprised by the
surreptitious charms and spiky sensuality of this rarefied composition. This is
a scent of beauteous place and atmosphere; everything assembled with the utmost
grace and delicacy. Vero has demonstrated great restraint in her handling of
the key ylang motif, a note that can occasionally subvert or drown formulae
with its unctuous fleshtones. It can be a troubling scent, causing headaches
and nausea in high doses, hence its reputation as an aphrodisiac. The skin
flushes, the heart races, love burns and reeks of skin and sluttish want.
Almost perversely,
Vero has ghosted this most fleshy of blooms, starved it until only a
translucency of desire remains, an ambient glow of spice-washed petal and
aerated corsage. Madagascan green mandarin, Messina lemon and the fragile
crumble of baies roses (pink
peppercorn) add a little texture and sweet heat to the floral haze. It is
ever-so-faintly dusted in cocoa as the base notes begin to rise through the
sensuous chicanes of settling. The benzyl acetate in the ylang reinforces the
indolic indolence of the frangipani, a note much strived for and rarely
achieved with any degree of accuracy. Here it is lithe and coy, with a balmy
come hither poise.
Working with Mr E so
much on Les (deux) Garçons compositions has really opened my senses to the
astonishing nuances of aromachemicals. We were using alpha and beta pinene in a
scent recently to add some verdant forest facets to some mods for future
projects. Vero’s manipulation of the ylang has caused this molecular component
of the natural floral oil to breathe a shiver of turpentine through the fleeting
flounce of blooms.
Vetiver in the base
reinforces this seductive sense of the tropical and as it settles gently into
the skin it seems to smell nutty and roasted. The notes on the website mention
toasted corn… and yes it does, but in a very particular way. I knew there was
something in the base that caught my attention, something with personal
resonance. I’ve mentioned before I spent much of my childhood living and
travelling in the Middle East and West Africa. These years have saturated my
olfactive memory with an evocative portfolio of aromas. Certain smells can
still bring me to my emotive knees in recognition of a place, hot rain, melting
road, duststorm, market, guava tree….
So this strange corn
nuance…. All I can think of is winding down the windows of air-conditioned cars
as we travelled dusty African wreck-strewn roads and smelling roasting corn in
the heated air. There were always women dotted along the routes squatting near
fires, thrilling flames with woven palm or lovingly shaped cardboard fans, back
and forth over the glistening, squealing cobs, their husks shucked off and
sizzling beneath them. I know it’s going to sound pretentious and dramatic, but
corn never tasted as good again. Why would it, tied as it was to the smell of burny
Van Gogh bright corn in scraps of salty paper in the austere security of chilled
expat vehicles.
The echo of this
roasted African roadside maize is a haze of contentment in Vero’s delicious
homage to ylang ylang, the flower of flowers. The more I wear this rare and
secretive scent, the more I fall in love with it. I know it never be be a
bestselling fragrance or feature prominently in blogs, wowing the masses, it is
an odour floating beautifully in the hinterlands of niche. But 14˚S 48˚E is outstanding olfaction by a
perfumer at the height of her powers and deserves scrutiny, skin and a certain
kind of romantic obsession.
Whether or not it
captures the reality of the Madagascan terroir
as intended is something I feel only the RLB trio can truly answer. I’m not
sure it matters to me as a wearer; the brief set to Vero was of course
fascinating and apparently quite challenging. What interests me is the result
of a rigid and atmospheric set of parameters meeting a perfumer with a truly
powerful understanding of skin and sensuality. Sex, body and effect are the
motifs that bleed through Vero’s perfumed oeuvre. She has had to rein in her
normal proclivities in order to focus her considerable skills on presenting us
with a succulent, rarefied location and a portrait of ylang ylang that is both
alluring and aloof. I am so glad I have 14˚S
48˚E in my collection, it feels unorthodox and lush, my senses seem to
crave it; I keep catching tendrils of petal, spice and smoky maize and have to
keep reminding myself, yes I smell that damn good. I am a coastal jewel.
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