Pierre Guillaume Paris Seychelles ... Madeira?

by: Miguel Matos

The aquatics ... The most hated family among niche lovers and brands. While everyone is still babbling on about oud and others venture into minimalism or the upcoming trend of the animalics, Pierre Guillaume dares to go the opposite way by launching the Collection Croisière. Yes, for even the snobbiest of perfumistas has to have some vacation with easy-on-the-brain scents to go inside the travel bag. And indeed this summer collection by Pierre Guillaume is so easy it could also be sold at any major perfume store. These are not challenging perfumes (except maybe for Jangala, but even this is pretty mainstream). And this is not necessarily a bad thing.

For now this Cruise Collection is comprised of four scents: Paris Seychelles, Entre Ciel et Mer, Long Courrier and Jangala. All of them are interpretations of the aquatic theme, which is the thing I just can't stand in perfumery, along with most fougères. But I have to say that what Pierre did is compelling and intellectually relevant. Taking something which is not high class, or which is not seen as new, luxurious and sophisticated, and making it a thing for reflection. It's high culture vs. lowbrow with interesting results. At first I didn't care much for Entre Ciel et Mer and Long Courrier. Nicely done but that was all. I fell in love in a second for Jangala, but later on I found it a bit heavy and sweet for summer. And of course, I had a favorite. The oh-so-elegant and chic vacation of a French woman: Paris Seychelles.

Some bloggers have reviewed this first and they speak about monoï, coconut and sand. To my nose this smells far more elegant and refined that that. It has coconut in it but it is not so sweet because there is also petitgrain. And of course there is that obvious dash of suntan lotion, but what this reminds me of is frangipani (plumeria) with black pepper, all drenched in a generous dose of salycilates, which in fact can be reminiscent of Ambre Solaire. It seems like a trip to the Madeira Island, in Portugal, where frangipani grows everywhere. I was there recently (and am going back in a few days) and I was mesmerized by the lusciousness of that tropical place.

The thing that struck me the most, smell wise, was the frangipani. There are a lot of these trees everywhere in Madeira (above), and I noticed that if you pick a flower and you leave it to rest some hours, it starts to decay. But this decay brings an evolution of the flower's natural perfume. It gets sweeter and more intense, but also very carnal, like indolic jasmine. The smell of decay brings an extra interest and it smells as if you were having sex over a bed of flowers. But there is even more to it. The sea in Madeira doesn't have a strong smell, as there is no sand nor much algae, and the rocks are volcanic. So there is an almost nonexistent mineral salty smell, within the usually moist air. Now, if I imagine a concentration of this decaying frangipani and the moist mineral scent of the air in Madeira, I can compare this to Paris Seychelles. This may not make perfect sense to most readers, or does it?

Funchal, Madeira

To lighten this up, Pierre introduced a white lily accord that freshens it up and brings us back to the Parisian woman. I actually think this could be a bit better if the lily was a bit toned down to give more voice to plumeria. After that masterfully blended opening of flowers and spices (pepper and ginger) with green leaves (from galbanum) and a pinch of what seems to me as tea, the marine notes come and keeps it watery and breezy. It never gets dense or too sexy. This fragrance is light and subtle. I think I would love to see this Parisian lady on a cruise undress her white silk caftan and verge more on the erotic side.

After a couple of hours, the spicy side of the lily emerges and Paris Seychelleschanges direction into a more deep and mysterious scent. This is very interesting and intriguing. The clove-y spiciness of the drydown works wonders in conjunction with the aquatic and skin notes. What seemed to be very simple gets complex at the end. Unpretentious perfection.

Madeira images: Miguel Matos