Astier de Villatte Les Nuits
6 min read
George Sand by photographer Felix Nadar (1864) – ©French Ministry of Tradition-RMN Grand Palais / Atelier Nadar, bottle ©Katerina Jebb/Astier de Villatte, collage ©Emmanuelle Varron.
George Sand is a real legend in France: a prolific author (greater than 70 novels written, in addition to quite a few performs and tales) who additionally symbolizes the trendy, cultured and socially lively girl you would discover within the second half of the nineteenth century. Her first writings have been edited underneath her married title, Aurore Dudevant, adopted by others in collaboration with the novelist Jules Sandeau (then her lover) underneath the signature of Jules Sand. When she signed the novel Indiana by herself in 1832, her writer needed this title to be saved. Jules Sandeau would then have felt he had no legitimacy to lend his id this time; it was determined to solely preserve the final title of Sand and to decide on a forename. That’s how Aurore turned George, that means “who works the land” in historical Greek, a nod to her rural roots in Berry (the absence of an “s” on the finish of the primary title is in no way linked to the English type however to the female model of “Georges” in France).
The story of George Sand is commonly misunderstood and lots of of my fellow residents bear in mind her above all for an intense love life, with personalities who additionally marked historical past, together with the author Alfred de Musset and the composer Frédéric Chopin. It’s exactly this era (between 1838 and 1847) that’s on the middle of Astier de Villatte Les Nuits. Based in 1996 by Ivan Pericoli and Benoit Astier de Villatte, the model first created furnishings, tableware, printed books, house fragrances after which fragrance. In 2022, a really particular assortment was launched, known as “Trois Parfums Historiques” (three historic perfumes) for which three compositions have been discovered because of Annick Le Guérer analysis, undoubtedly essentially the most well-known perfume historian and anthropologist on this planet. Astier de Villatte Le Dieu Bleu (The blue god) is expounded to the well-known Egyptian kyphi recipe, Astier de Villatte Artaban that of the royal fragrance created for the King of Parthia (1st century B.C) … and Astier de Villatte Les Nuits the fragrance worn by George Sand on the time of her affair with Frédéric Chopin.
Astier de Villatte Trois Parfums Historiques assortment – ©Astier de Villatte
Grasp Perfumer Dominique Ropion had the immense privilege of engaged on the three fragrances, adapting them to up to date laws, however getting as shut as potential to the unique scents. For Astier de Villatte Les Nuits, it’s because of a journey bottle entrusted by Christiane Sand (the author’s great-granddaughter by marriage) to Annick Le Guérer containing only some drops of fragrance. Because the bottle was not possible to open, it was by piercing the glass with a really nice wick that the dear liquid was collected, then analyzed by way of chromatography. This made it potential to authenticate the fragrance because of the vintage molecules and consequently, to search out out the unique composition in its entirety. The IFF Grasp Perfumer then needed to adapt it utilizing at this time’s uncooked supplies.
Ivan Pericoli (co-founder), Emilie Mazeaud (designer and co-creator of scented merchandise), Dominique Ropion (IFF Grasp Perfumer) and Benoit Astier de Villatte (co-founder) – ©Julie Ansiau
Astier de Villatte Les Nuits is thus named in homage to the summer season nights spent within the author’s home of Nohant, the place she often invited many personalities from the Parisian intelligentsia. It was the summer season of 1838, and her relationship with Frédéric Chopin, launched to her by Frantz Liszt, was very latest. Simply think about the 2 lovers strolling within the backyard till daybreak, and George Sand’s fragrance intoxicating the ambiance, opulent. Dominique Ropion recognized this perfume as a precursor of chypres, which might develop into extraordinarily standard a number of many years later. An avant-garde fragrance like the girl who wore it, and which in 2023 sends me again to a really aristocratic sensuality and a sure class that has now disappeared, the place the uncooked supplies are luxurious.
Frédéric Chopin and George Sand portraits by Eugene Delacroix 1838 – ©Le Figaro
Astier de Villatte Les Nuits is an XXL floral, the place the rose is queen, current from the opening, powdered with iris and energized by bergamot. Over the minutes, it opens its petals and develops its fruity notes, a bit honeyed and candy. The hyperlink is of course made with jasmine which brings its luminosity and a really sensual animal side to which George Sand was undoubtedly delicate. Ylang-ylang accentuates the floral and heady spirit noticeable from the primary seconds, to make your head spin. Then very slowly, the chypre development takes form: when patchouli after which labdanum develop into perceptible, it’s a direct dive into this accord, one of the crucial majestic in perfumery. Fleeting however recognizable, vetiver provides a barely earthy word, as a tribute to George Sand’s attachment to the countryside and nature. With persistence, and to my delight, the bottom notes are a real olfactory fireworks show: cinnamon, civet, castoreum, sandalwood and benzoin are revealed in voluptuous and carnal peaks, surprisingly perceptible for a fragrance launched in 2022. I’ve the impression of rediscovering a 1972 Clinique Aromatics Elixir paired with a 2010 Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle Portrait of a Woman. As soon as once more, the previous turns into up to date, nostalgia is adorned with modernity and the avant-garde spirit of George Sand is reborn.
The perfumes that contact my soul at all times evoke feelings, recollections and a sure nostalgia. Astier de Villatte Les Nuits appeals to my latest attraction to “classic” chypre fragrances in addition to my admiration for the work performed by Annick Le Guérer Dominique Ropion and IFF for Astier de Villatte. Because of the expertise of the perfumers of yesteryear, to know-how, but additionally to the staff’s encyclopedic information of uncooked supplies, Astier de Villatte Les Nuits provides a bridge between an period fantasized via the 19th century literature, music and graphic arts which can be a part of our cultural heritage, and fragrance as we’d like to odor on a regular basis: technically well-constructed, composed of uncooked supplies with perceptible the Aristocracy and a path combining class and audacity.
Notes: bergamot, Damask rose, Tuscan iris, jasmine Grandiflorum, ylang-ylang, vetiver, patchouli, cinnamon, sandalwood, labdanum, civet, castoreum, benzoin
Disclaimer: merci beaucoup to Astier de Villatte for Les Nuits pattern offered for this assessment. The opinions expressed are my very own.
Emmanuelle Varron, Senior Editor and Paris Model Ambassador
Astier de Villatte Les Nuits 30 ml bottle – ©Astier de Villatte
Because of Astier de Villatte, we have now a 30 ml bottle of Les Nuits for one registered reader in USA, UK and EU. To be eligible, please inform us who your favourite French author is, how you’re feeling about Emmanuelle’s assessment and the place you reside. Draw closes 07/15/2023.
Astier de Villatte Trois Parfums Historiques assortment was featured in Ermano Picco’s 2022 CaFleureBon Finest Of Scent
Astier de Villatte Les Nuits is obtainable on the model’s website. Within the USA Aedes Perfumery carries it here and Luckyscent sells the Trois Parfums Historiques set
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