Paul Emilien Une Belle Journée – A Scent of Joy

by: Miguel Matos

I had never smelled the creations of Paul Emilien until the last edition of Esxence, in March. I passed by his booth and started smelling those little glass vases there with a flower inside. Over each flower, Paul sprayed his perfumes, and one after another, I started falling in love with his scent style. Very romantic and natural-smelling, delicate fragrances but not faint ones. His perfumes are not statements of daring, iconoclast creations. They are rather unpretentious and honest scents full of poetry and depth.

Paul and I had a quick but meaningful conversation and I found that he is an artist, someone who creates fragrance from the heart. I think you can smell this in each of his fragrances and I think his talent is one to watch very closely. He just redesigned his bottles to look even more beautiful, matching the gorgeous compositions hidden inside. If you don't know the work of Paul Emilien you can expect multi-layered fragrances, using beautiful natural raw materials. He also uses synthetic materials, but all the perfumes smell very earthy and we can sense a link to nature. I was particularly attached to one of them called Une Belle Journée.

Paul noticed that I was getting addicted to smelling this bottle and so he explained that Une Belle Journée (in English, “A Beautiful Day”), launched in 2014, is like an amulet for protection. It was meant to bring positive vibes to the person who wears it. When you expect to have a very long, maybe difficult day and you need something to help you cope with it, you take this with you on your skin throughout your day and it brings beauty and positive feelings. The intention was to create something that takes you away from where you are, from time to time. Something that removes you from the stress of the hard day you might be having.

Well, I did exactly the opposite when I went back home with a bottle of Une Belle Journée. I found this perfume to be heartbreakingly beautiful, so perfect and poetic that it felt like a waste to smell it during the hustle and bustle of the ordinary days. So I started taking this bottle with me when I went to very special places, on weekends or vacations. And now it is the perfume I wear whenever I go to a place that is very dear to my heart. Peniche is a Portuguese town by the sea that I have known since I was six months old. My first vacation was spent there with my parents and throughout all my childhood and adolescence I spent there the most beautiful summers one can have. It is a very rough place, with strong winds, bad weather and huge waves that make it a surfers' paradise. I can never forget the delicious fish, the wonderful people, the holy festivities in August, the smell of seaweed and sea water everywhere. To me it's almost an overwhelming experience every time I arrive there.

This year, the first time I spent a couple of days in Peniche, I took Une Belle Journéewith me. It reminds me of the smell of the sand dunes there, so I thought it would be appropriate. And God, what a gorgeous smell exhales from this bottle. It's a very powerful, very persistent perfume. One of the most persistent fragrances I have experienced. To the point where after 10 hours, when normally I will be applying something completely different, I still smelled it. So, caution, do not overspray or you will regret it. When I spray, the first thing I notice is a peppery and rosy geranium, in a floral and spicy burst of scent. The development of Une Belle Journée is not very complex, so what you smell in the beginning does not go into very different fields over time. Once the top notes settle, the spices subside and the rose dominates with a hint of mint. After that, there comes an accord I can only explain as “sand dunes.” I smell the beaches in Peniche with this perfume. It feels like a time/space capsule in such a strong way that it even confuses me. The sand dunes accord comes from immortelle, typically present on the Mediterranean coast, but it can't be just that, I think. Through the drydown, immortelle is the dominant note. Not in the syrupy, sweet facet this flower has. It goes more into the dry, earthy, ambery field.

I had the strangest experience when one day I was walking up and down the sand dunes in Peniche. I always loved the smell of that landscape. The mix of everything: green plants, dry flowers, seaweed, sea water, dirt, fog, sand ... It's a heady and uplifting combination of elements. So, that day was a bit cloudy and during my walk I remember feeling these smells stronger than ever. I even said, “Why does the dune smell so intense this year?” It was only after rubbing my nose on every plant and grain of sand that I discovered where that intense smell came: from my own body and the perfume I was wearing—Une Belle Journée. I had become the olfactory dune! And this is the story of how, without knowing the place I call home, Paul Emilien bottled it for my happiness. So this is the perfume I always take with me when I go to my special place and the perfume I smell when I am in my regular stressed day and I want to escape for a few moments, imagining I am in the place where I am always happy and relaxed.

PAUL EMILIEN UNE BELLE JOURNÉE

Top notes: lime, Turkish rose, mint, iris, mandarin orange
Middle notes: violet leaf, pink pepper, peony, rose, immortelle, geranium, jasmine
Base notes: jasmine, leather, oakmoss.

Esxence and Peniche images: Miguel Matos