63
Top Review
Not your grandma's or grandpa's scent: Chypre can still do a lot in the new millennium!
I believe you need to be of a certain - not to say: more mature - age to appreciate Chypre fragrances. I can’t explain otherwise why a reliable number of consumers claim to be too young for one or another scent of this genre. Occasionally, they are also labeled with attributes like grandma or old man scent, which always annoys me a bit, but probably only because I am slowly starting to belong to that generation myself.
And since I love Chypre fragrances, I don’t like to be told that it’s only because I have more than half a century behind me...
On the contrary: I liked Chypre fragrances even when I was in my twenties. ‘Eau Sauvage’ and ‘Armani pour Homme’ (now: ‘Eau pour Homme’) were scents I wore often. I particularly liked (and still like) the bitter facets of these fragrances.
Many young people, however, love sweet scents above all - the sweeter, the better. Bitter notes are often met with distrust and usually associated with something toxic.
So it may be a privilege of aging that one gradually becomes more tolerant of bitterness, but perhaps it is less a question of age than of the era.
Chypre fragrances had their heyday in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. By the 80s, they were considered outdated, even more so in the 90s, until the IFRA dealt a death blow to this genre at the beginning of the new millennium.
Another decade passed before the first perfumers attempted new Chypres. Creativity was truly required, as a classic formulation using the incriminated oak moss was out of the question.
Jacques Polge tried a combination of iris, patchouli, and labdanum (‘31 Rue Cambon’), Ralf Schwieger with rose, immortelle, and some resins (‘Afternoon of a Faun’), Bertrand Duchaufour used an oak moss largely free of the allergen atranol (‘Chypre Palatin’), while others resorted to a substitute like Evernyl or Veramoss (IFF), or Orcinyl 3 (Givaudan).
James Heeley launched his ‘Chypre 21’ in 2015, a fragrance that already carries the ambition in its name to renew the aging genre.
Has he succeeded? I think so.
However, the term ‘Chypre’ for this fragrance is often called into question.
So is it a Chypre fragrance? Yes and no, I would say - it depends on your perspective.
No, if you apply more orthodox standards, according to which the use of oak moss is absolutely essential.
Yes, if you are willing to deviate just a little from this orthodoxy. Because the step Heeley takes away from the classic Chypre structure is not that big.
The bitter, tart citrus peel of bergamot is there, the rose is there (also almost an integral part of the classic Chypre), patchouli is present, and even a tiny bit of oak moss. So far, so good, but for a veritable Chypre fragrance, that’s still quite little, especially since Heeley also forgoes the use of labdanum - another typical component of many Chypre fragrances.
Some time ago, I read in an interview with James Heeley (it was on Scentury.com, but unfortunately, it’s no longer online) that he tried to compensate for the lack of oak moss with the similarly complex scent of algae. He probably got the idea when he was working on his fragrance ‘Sel Marin’ a few years earlier, which features a whole carpet of algae at its center. This is not the case with ‘Chypre 21’, but the greenish-bitter, slightly salty aroma of the algae is quite recognizable. Oak moss also has this greenish-bitter, slightly salty facet, among several others, which distinguishes it from the scent spectrum of algae. Nevertheless, there is a certain overlap, and I think James Heeley has highlighted it beautifully.
The use of algae is not the only modern element that makes ‘Chypre 21’ a truly contemporary fragrance - saffron also plays a significant role here. As complex in scent as algae and oak moss, it enhances the characteristically bitter aftertaste typical of Chypre fragrances.
Heeley tries to build this aftertaste in the top notes using bergamot and a hint of rosemary, carries it in the heart with saffron, and reinforces it in the base with oak moss and algae.
Whether synthetic mosses are also in play, I don’t know, but I don’t get that impression. Rather, I suspect that Heeley wanted to show how the famous Chypre effect can be achieved without excessive use of synthetics.
He has definitely succeeded - in fact, I find the entire fragrance successful!
Heeley himself calls his fragrance ‘an ode to Parisian chic’. He also links it to personalities like Jackie Onassis, Grace Kelly, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, aka Wallis Simpson, along with her royal husband, the former short-lived King Edward VIII.
Heavy artillery, but so be it: those who don’t bark loudly won’t be heard - especially today.
Interestingly, however: none of them are French, but rather American women and an Englishman. However, they all have a strong affinity for France, particularly Paris. And James Heeley himself? He is also an Englishman, with a chosen home in Paris.
So the oak moss substitute he chose, algae, fits well here again, as they all had to cross the sea to get to Paris. And who, if not the algae, olfactorily represents the sea?
A bit speculative, I know.
Two years after ‘Chypre 21’, another Parisian perfume house - Ex Nihilo - has once again dedicated a remarkable Chypre fragrance to the chic of the French capital: ‘French Affair’. It also evokes the good old Chypre times, this time more the 70s and less the 50s, as in the case of ‘Chypre 21’.
Like that one, ‘French Affair’ also manages the balancing act between tradition and modernity.
Moreover, both are constructed quite similarly: bergamot in the top, a rose accord in the heart, patchouli and oak moss in the base, modernly accented by lychee and angelica here, and by rosemary, saffron, and algae there.
References for ‘Chypre 21’ are on one hand the original ‘Miss Dior’, and on the other hand ‘Eau Sauvage’, while ‘French Affair’ cites ‘Aromatics Elixir’ and ‘Aramis 900’.
Both fragrances, and this I particularly like, do not stop at mere citation, but emphasize especially their modern outfit. As if James Heeley and Quentin Bisch (and not to forget: Bertrand Duchaufour!) wanted to shout at us: look, what ‘Chypre’ can still do today - a lot!!
‘Chypre 21’ is absolutely unisex, has a wonderful presence that is not too loud but also not too quiet, and enormous longevity.
A great fragrance!
And since I love Chypre fragrances, I don’t like to be told that it’s only because I have more than half a century behind me...
On the contrary: I liked Chypre fragrances even when I was in my twenties. ‘Eau Sauvage’ and ‘Armani pour Homme’ (now: ‘Eau pour Homme’) were scents I wore often. I particularly liked (and still like) the bitter facets of these fragrances.
Many young people, however, love sweet scents above all - the sweeter, the better. Bitter notes are often met with distrust and usually associated with something toxic.
So it may be a privilege of aging that one gradually becomes more tolerant of bitterness, but perhaps it is less a question of age than of the era.
Chypre fragrances had their heyday in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. By the 80s, they were considered outdated, even more so in the 90s, until the IFRA dealt a death blow to this genre at the beginning of the new millennium.
Another decade passed before the first perfumers attempted new Chypres. Creativity was truly required, as a classic formulation using the incriminated oak moss was out of the question.
Jacques Polge tried a combination of iris, patchouli, and labdanum (‘31 Rue Cambon’), Ralf Schwieger with rose, immortelle, and some resins (‘Afternoon of a Faun’), Bertrand Duchaufour used an oak moss largely free of the allergen atranol (‘Chypre Palatin’), while others resorted to a substitute like Evernyl or Veramoss (IFF), or Orcinyl 3 (Givaudan).
James Heeley launched his ‘Chypre 21’ in 2015, a fragrance that already carries the ambition in its name to renew the aging genre.
Has he succeeded? I think so.
However, the term ‘Chypre’ for this fragrance is often called into question.
So is it a Chypre fragrance? Yes and no, I would say - it depends on your perspective.
No, if you apply more orthodox standards, according to which the use of oak moss is absolutely essential.
Yes, if you are willing to deviate just a little from this orthodoxy. Because the step Heeley takes away from the classic Chypre structure is not that big.
The bitter, tart citrus peel of bergamot is there, the rose is there (also almost an integral part of the classic Chypre), patchouli is present, and even a tiny bit of oak moss. So far, so good, but for a veritable Chypre fragrance, that’s still quite little, especially since Heeley also forgoes the use of labdanum - another typical component of many Chypre fragrances.
Some time ago, I read in an interview with James Heeley (it was on Scentury.com, but unfortunately, it’s no longer online) that he tried to compensate for the lack of oak moss with the similarly complex scent of algae. He probably got the idea when he was working on his fragrance ‘Sel Marin’ a few years earlier, which features a whole carpet of algae at its center. This is not the case with ‘Chypre 21’, but the greenish-bitter, slightly salty aroma of the algae is quite recognizable. Oak moss also has this greenish-bitter, slightly salty facet, among several others, which distinguishes it from the scent spectrum of algae. Nevertheless, there is a certain overlap, and I think James Heeley has highlighted it beautifully.
The use of algae is not the only modern element that makes ‘Chypre 21’ a truly contemporary fragrance - saffron also plays a significant role here. As complex in scent as algae and oak moss, it enhances the characteristically bitter aftertaste typical of Chypre fragrances.
Heeley tries to build this aftertaste in the top notes using bergamot and a hint of rosemary, carries it in the heart with saffron, and reinforces it in the base with oak moss and algae.
Whether synthetic mosses are also in play, I don’t know, but I don’t get that impression. Rather, I suspect that Heeley wanted to show how the famous Chypre effect can be achieved without excessive use of synthetics.
He has definitely succeeded - in fact, I find the entire fragrance successful!
Heeley himself calls his fragrance ‘an ode to Parisian chic’. He also links it to personalities like Jackie Onassis, Grace Kelly, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, aka Wallis Simpson, along with her royal husband, the former short-lived King Edward VIII.
Heavy artillery, but so be it: those who don’t bark loudly won’t be heard - especially today.
Interestingly, however: none of them are French, but rather American women and an Englishman. However, they all have a strong affinity for France, particularly Paris. And James Heeley himself? He is also an Englishman, with a chosen home in Paris.
So the oak moss substitute he chose, algae, fits well here again, as they all had to cross the sea to get to Paris. And who, if not the algae, olfactorily represents the sea?
A bit speculative, I know.
Two years after ‘Chypre 21’, another Parisian perfume house - Ex Nihilo - has once again dedicated a remarkable Chypre fragrance to the chic of the French capital: ‘French Affair’. It also evokes the good old Chypre times, this time more the 70s and less the 50s, as in the case of ‘Chypre 21’.
Like that one, ‘French Affair’ also manages the balancing act between tradition and modernity.
Moreover, both are constructed quite similarly: bergamot in the top, a rose accord in the heart, patchouli and oak moss in the base, modernly accented by lychee and angelica here, and by rosemary, saffron, and algae there.
References for ‘Chypre 21’ are on one hand the original ‘Miss Dior’, and on the other hand ‘Eau Sauvage’, while ‘French Affair’ cites ‘Aromatics Elixir’ and ‘Aramis 900’.
Both fragrances, and this I particularly like, do not stop at mere citation, but emphasize especially their modern outfit. As if James Heeley and Quentin Bisch (and not to forget: Bertrand Duchaufour!) wanted to shout at us: look, what ‘Chypre’ can still do today - a lot!!
‘Chypre 21’ is absolutely unisex, has a wonderful presence that is not too loud but also not too quiet, and enormous longevity.
A great fragrance!
Translated · Show original
17 Comments
Oh, and I find the scent absolutely wonderful too. It will surely be one that will adorn my small collection of fragrances in the future.