Oriental fragrances draw upon the lore and mystery of the first perfumes used by man, full of materials derived from plants and
tree resins,
the thick and sacred unguents conceived and used in ancient Egypt,
Greece and Cyprus, Mesopotamia and classical Rome. On the wall of the
temple of Horos, at Edfu, perfumed mixes appear, among which
the scared Kyphi, burnt in early morning and at evening. In
Exodus
God gives Moses instructions on how to compose a holy perfume for him
and another one for his priests. The tear-shaped drops of the myrrh
resin stand in
Greek mythology
for the tears of a girl transmuted into a tree by the gods. Leaning
over my archeological notes, I'm never less than amazed by the wealth of
scented concoctions used for sacred but also for purely hedonistic
purposes by the ancients.
The invention of the "modern" oriental however is an olfactory trope of the late 19th century, made possible by the invention of two important synthetics: vanillin and
coumarin. The coupling of
ladbanum/cistus (a traditional resinous plant material from the
rockrose, used since antiquity) and of vanillin produced what we refer to as
the "amber" note. (You can read all the data on
amber in perfumery on this link). Coumarin was synthesized from tonka beans; it has a sweetly
herbaceous, cut hay scent.
The timing was crucial: The first oriental perfume to really capture the market was
Guerlain's Shalimar although Coty's
Emeraude is
also a prime contenstant (In fact the two were launched in the same
year, but Shalimar had a legal battle with another firm, making the
formula into a numerically-tagged bottle for the space of 4 years before
relaunching with the original Sanskrit name).
The roaring 1920s were a decade when society in Europe was really taken
with the orient. The East conjured up images of unbridled passion,
exoticism, khol-eyed beauties and addictive substances. It was the time
when Herman Hesse published
Siddharta, the West's first glimpse of Buddhism, and F.Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby,
a paean to the newly established American prosperity and its pitfalls.
Theda Bara had already lain the path to cinematic vamps to follow, such
as Pola Negri and Clara Bow with her bloody-red dark cupid's lips
immortalised on black and white vignettes, while Paul Poiret had
produced his own phantoms of the harem paving the way to modern
fashions. It was the time of
Les Ballets Russes, set to music by
Stravinsky and Poulenc with sets painted by Picasso and Georges Braque.
In short Orient was meeting Occident at the seams.
Historically modern oriental fragrances are roughly divided in two groups in terms of their formula:
those that are based on the "ambreine" accord and those based on the
"mellis" accord. An "accord" is an harmonious blend of fragrant
materials that are smelled together, like a musical chord, producing a
seamless, unified impression, something more than the sum of their
parts. It's very useful for the perfumer to have at the ready a few
thought-out harmonies as a building block for the composition they're
working on.
The "ambreine accord" is a harmonious blend constructed through the juxtaposition of fresh
bergamot, sweet
vanillin (synthetic vanilla; ethyl vanillin which is 4 times more potent can also be used, as in
Shalimar),
coumarin (smelling like mown hay), and warm
civet (originally an
animal-derived secretion
from the civet cat with a very erotic nuance), plus woody notes and
rose essences. The perfumes which are constructed on this basic
structure include the legendary
Guerlain Shalimar, Must de Cartier and Calvin Klein
Obsession.
NB. Please
note the "ambreine accord" is NOT to be confused with the ambrein
molecule, i.e. the chief scent element of "ambergris", the material
produced by sperm whales found floating in the ocean. [Refer to this link for details on ambergris.] Interestingly enough the ambrein used in perfumery is extracted from purified labdanum [1], hence the confusion between the scents of amber and ambergris for many people.
The "mellis accord" on the other hand is constructed through the tension between
benzyl salicylate (a compound with a faint sweet-floral-veering-into-musky scent, often included in
"beach/suntan lotion" smells),
patchouli (essence of exotic patchouli leaves), spicy clove (via
eugenol) and
lily of the valley (traditionally via the aromachemical
hydroxycitronellal). This is boosted with other
spices (notably cinnamon),
woody notes and
coumarin (a crystal derived from
tonka beans).
Perfumes composed around the mellis accord include Estee Lauder
Youth Dew,
Taby by Dana,
Yves Saint Laurent Opium,
Krizia Teatro alla Scalla and
Coco
by Chanel. Perfume professionals refer to this group as "mellis"
perfumes, but since this is difficult to communicate to the consumer,
and because the eugenol (sometimes communicated as clove and sometimes
as carnation) and cinnamon give a spicy tonality, these oriental
perfumes are classified into a sub-genre called "spicy orientals".
To the above "accords" other elements can be added to further emphasize
the exotic and warm character of the composition. These include more
ambery notes (based on labdanum), sweetly
balsamic notes (utilizing materials such as
benzoin, opoponax and Tolu balsam) as well as castoreum (another pungent
animal-derived note, this time from beavers) and rose & other flowers' (jasmine etc) essences.
These are historically important olfactory harmonies that have resulted
in classics and some modern classics. The combination of two accords
within the same formula or the invention of new accords coupled with the
previously used ones is producing novel experiences and pushes
perfumery forward. This is how perfumers have come up with new
sub-categories within the oriental family of fragrances, such as the
gourmand perfumes etc. But we will tackle those in an upcoming perfume
primer.
