A Passion for Perfume and Diamonds: Introducing Orlov Paris

by: Jodi Battershell

An exciting new player has joined the luxury niche perfume market.  Attendees at last spring's Sniffapalooza event got a preview of the house, and we added their fragrances to our database here not long after, through it would be several months' wait before the official launch. At long last, the beautiful new fragrances of Orlov Pariswill make their debut at Bergdorf Goodman on October 16th.

Through Orlov Paris, founders and creative directors Ruth and Thomas Méaulle share their mutual passion for both diamonds and perfumes. Ruth is a gemologist and a graduate of HRD Antwerp, the world-renowned diamond laboratory and institute of Gemology in Belgium. Her passion for the beauty of gems has been honed since chidhood and she engages all her senses in assessing the value of a stone and the cut which will optimize its radiance. Thomas is a former banker whose business acumen and experience leading large projects with top-notch teams allowed him to recognize Ruth's association of scents with diamonds as a brilliant idea.

Add to the mix one of the world's top perfumers—Dominique Ropion, who has composed some of Ruth's favorite perfumes—top-selling fragrances like Amarige, Dune, Alien, Armani Code for her, as well as niche gems like Malle's Carnal Flower. 

(Coincidentally, one of Thomas's favorite scents was Malle's Vetiver Extraordinare, which just happens to have been another Ropion creation. Perhaps it was destiny for Ruth and Thomas to meet and create a perfume house featuring scents by Ropion ...)

Name each scent after a beautiful and legendary diamond whose history is as fascinating as the stone's sparkling facets.

Spare no expense on ingredients and house the fragrances in beautiful packaging that embodies the precious juices and the beautiful diamonds for which they are named.

Voilà! Orlov Paris is born!

Orlov Paris presents its first fragrances, the Diamant Collection: five olfactory jewels that together form a distinctive collection that radiates luxury and light. Each scent in the collection is beautiful and unique, with Ropion's style lending a cohesiveness to the collection. 

Fragrance Orlov as well as the house itself are named for the Orlov diamond, a 189.62-carat rose-style cut diamond distinguished by its bluish-green tint. Stolen from a temple in India, the stone made its way through Iran into the hands of Count Orlov, who used it with hopes of rekindling the affection of his beloved, Catherine the Great. It resides today in the Imperial Scepter of Russia, under the ownership of the Kremlin Diamond Fund. 

Orlov, the perfume, tells a story of love with a bouquet of classic white flowers: orange blossom, tuberose and jasmine sambac. Bergamot top notes and a base of vanilla and musk round out this beautifully feminine scent, a fragrance worthy of a queen.

Sea of Light (Dariya-i-noor) is one of the largest diamonds in the world today, at 182 carats. Rare and precious due to its rosy pink color and its unusual "table" cut, the fragrance has a long history as part of the Iranian crown jewels.

Sea of Light is is one of the unisex fragrances in the collection, opening with citrus notes and illustrating the diamond's pink color with fruity tones of peach and blackcurrant. The fragrances finishes with an aquatic twist of salty marine notes and musk.

The Cross of Asia diamond was found in South Africa in 1902. Originally a whopping 280-carats in a rough cut, an additional refinement was made in 1993 that reduced its size to 79 carats but e nhanced its color and brilliance, with facets resemblign a Maltese cross.

Cross of Asia pays tribute to the Far East in fragrant form, with geranium and ylang-ylang notes enhancing jasmine and the golden sheen of tuberose. A warm base of amber and musk echo the Cross of Asia stone's champagne-yellow hue.

Academy Award-winning actress Greer Garson was the lucky recipient of the Flame of Gold diamond, a gift from Texas oilman Buddy Fogelson. The 29-carat fancy cut yellow diamond was set in a beautiful necklace that became a symbol of eternal love.

Flame of Gold sparkles like its fiery namesake diamond, featuring amber and musk entwined with patchouli, cedar, vanilla and leather, for a warm and woody Oriental fragrance that both men and women can enjoy.

One of the most unique and rare dimaonds of the world, Star of the Season is a flawless pear-shaped beauty of 100.10 carats, for which an Arabian sheikh paid $16,500,000 in 1995.

The purity and sophisticated cut of the stone are embodied in Star of the Seasonfragrance with orange blossom, iris and rose. Patchouli and sandalwood, enhanced by vanilla, contribute to the symphony of notes, for a beautiful and covetable floral woody musk fragrance everyone can appreciate.

Each fragrance of the Diamant Collection is available in a beautiful refillable 75 ml flacon of black or white, with a shaped like a faceted gem. The retail price will be $330, with 100 ml refills availble for $270.

Two of the fragrances in the collection—Orlov and Star of the Season—are also available in special Elixir Editions. Each Elixir bottle contains a diamond graded and certified by Ruth. When the flacon is empty, the stone can be mounted in a ring, pendant or bracelet. The Elixir Editions arrive in luxurious white leather trunks, with a red velvet setting for the flacon. The Elixir fragrances are extrait de parfum concentration, and the Orlov Elixir edition is a richer, spicier version of the original Orlov scent, taking a sweeter and more oriental hue with added amber and vanilla. The retail price for the Elixir Editions will be $1,890.

The entire Orlov collection will be available at Bergdorf Goodman starting October 16, 2015.  I've been given the honor of sampling the entire Orlov collection prior to its official launch.  All of the fragrances are breathtakingly beautiful and have amazing longevity and sillage. I've found a couple favorites, which I'll talk about in another article.

In the meantime, keep an eye on the Orlov Paris website for additional details.

Source: Orlov Paris