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Serenissima
Very helpful Review
8
once again in search of scent trails
Life in our fragrance world never gets boring, as it leads over time to lesser-known areas, i.e. to fragrances with stories and history that are unfortunately almost forgotten today, that even my generation no longer knew about.
Luckily, there are still keen collectors of these treasures who are also kind enough to generously share them as bottlings or even give away entire flacons.
So they can experience a renaissance here and exude their very own charm.
One of these fragrance treasures is "Shandoah", the eau de toilette by Jacques Heim.
But this is where the first question arises: "Who, pray tell, was Jacques Heim?"
The Internet provides the answer:
Jacques Heim (1899 - 1967) was a well-known fashion designer and costume designer for theater and film in his day.
For many years, he headed "La Chambre Syndicale de la Coutiere Parisienne", the fashion school from which André Courrèges, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino, among others, emerged with distinction.
This closes a circle, as they are all well known to us through perfume creations/brands.
Jacques Heim also created perfumes. the first appeared in 1945, the last fragrance was listed in 1966.
Such illustrious names as "J'aime" and "Amour" indicate the fragrance directions.
1965 saw the launch of "Shandoah" with its golden-brown charm reminiscent of chypre fragrances.
Ripe, sun-kissed fruits (bergamot and one or other of its citrus siblings as well as velvety-skinned peaches) also point the way to an opulent fragrance composition.
The radiance of aldehydes is of course not to be missed and the allure of violets and rich white jasmine blossoms with their familiar sensual touch is stylishly underlined by coriander and cardamom in a spicy and oriental way.
A classic and rich arrangement of spring and early summer blooms reveals the heart note.
But first, the spicy green aroma is reminiscent of branches of hawthorn densely covered with flowers. These small, densely packed blossoms, which, like those of lily of the valley and jasmine, can smell almost numbing and sometimes even repulsive when overripe.
("Little stinkers" is what Meggi and I used to call them in our texts.)
Here we can still find them in pure white in late April and early May: Well dosed, they make for an interesting change in the following bouquet.
Hyacinths pave the way aromatically (and often unfortunately also numbingly) and densely to roses over roses.
Fragrant May roses from Grasse and Bulgarian and Turkish scented roses bloom in lavish profusion, like a rose garden from the Middle Ages in which a troubadour sang songs of longing, love and loyalty to his lady. Do you hear them?
No bouquet of flowers of the time was complete without spicy carnations and proud irises, reminiscent of the early summer magic of the fields in full bloom near Florence.
And - Christian Dior would be delighted! - lily of the valley with its sometimes somewhat pungent floral spice is not missing either.
Beguiling vintage fragrance classics at their finest, entwined with perky tendrils of ylang ylang and all warmed by the sun's rays and brought to life.
How rich these floral arrangements were in color, form and fragrance, which were given to us here!
A fragrance like many of its contemporaries and yet so very different!
Even if the composition of the base, which leads to the finale full of fragrance notes, is once again quite chypre-typical.
Without the interweaving of powerful oakmoss, deep-rooted vetiver and patchouli with the creamy yet animalic sandalwood aroma, it would hardly be a work of fragrance art; all these building blocks are too beautiful to create an artistic fragrance mosaic without them.
And the same applies to cedarwood, which, with its familiar soft woody aroma, tastefully and spicily permeates a dense blanket of whipped musk cream.
There has to be order, at least since the creative work of the masters of the "Guerlain dynasty", whose rules are still more or less followed today.
Thus, in the mid-sixties, before everything was so noisily turned upside down, "Shandoah" was created, a wonderfully opulent, decorative fragrance that has retained its original radiance even today as an eau de toilette.
However, the sillage and longevity betray its fleeting nature; if you want to wear more than just a whiff of "Shandoah", you will have to spray more often to enjoy this full and harmonious fragrance for longer!
What other stories are there to discover here; only this one reveals itself to me.
Aldehydes
Floral notes
Fruity notes
