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Historical Perfumes

 

 

In 2003, Nicolas de Barry created a collection entitled: “The Historical Perfumes”. In order to get reliable information concerning the perfumes of the choosen historical personalitiy, he worked with biographers and he looked for formulas in archives and personal correspondences. In this manner, he has recreated the perfumes of some of the greatest personalities of the past. For George Sand, (Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin) a renowned French novelist and memorialist, Nicolas de Barry recreated a perfume built around patchouli and bergamot, or yet an accord based on jasmine-ambergris-musk discovered in Queen Margot’s archives …

 

Resulting from this research, is it nowadays possible to smell and appreciate perfumes of yesteryear, in versions that have been adapted to the constraints of modern perfumery.

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George Sand:  Based on a traditional oriental fragrance, a clever mix of amber, musk, oud wood, with a heavy presence of patchouli, the perfumer added a discrete floral note distilled by an oriental rose, giving the skin a feminine fragrance and an predominantly “Italian style” citrus top note around bergamot and Sicilian lemon for its spicy and erotic properties. Find out more ...

 

  - 100ml, Eau de Parfum: 210 Euros 

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La Reine Margot: Based on a lightly honeyed amber and a slightly sensual spicy musk, the perfumer added a floral note distilled from fresh jasmine with a powerful top note; a brighter, more sensual, narcotic and addictive jasmine. Find out more ...

 

- 100ml, Eau de Parfum: 210 Euros .

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Casanova:   A bouquet of citrus fruits and neroli (bitter orange blossom), emblematic Italian products from colorful Naples, with a slight hint of jasmine, gives this perfume an elegant, almost ambiguous impression, a surprisingly modern fragrance. Find out more ...

 

- 100ml, Eau de Parfum: 210 Euros .

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Shah Jahan: For this imperial fragrance, Nicolas de Barry reconstructed a princely oud attar based on traditional methods used by the master perfumers of Kannauj, who mixed rose essences with the woody scents of sandalwood and aloes wood. Rose gives a fresh note and creates and Indian fragrance that is truely masculine. Find out more ...

 

- 100ml, Eau de Parfum: 210 Euros.

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Mumtaz-l-Mahal: to create the royal couple fragrances, Nicolas de Barry transformed himself into a master perfumer. He dedicated an ode to rose, the emperor Akbar's favourite flower, that Mumtaz often sprinkled over her Persian miniature portraits. A floral and powdery perfume that reflects the character of a cultivated and aesthetic personality. Find out more ...

 

- 100ml, Eau de Parfum: 210 Euros.

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Impératrice Sissi:  Based on vanilla, which leaves a tingling velvety feeling just beneath the skin, Nicolas de Barry added a floral note distilled by violet, slightly quirky, and iris with fresh and light bergamot as a top note. Find out more ...

 

- 100ml, Eau de Parfum: 210 Euros .

 

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Louis XV:   For this royal perfume which is similar to his soul-sister, La Marquise de Pompadour, Nicolas de Barry used orange and neroli as top notes. The heart notes bring together a thousand flowers from all-seasons: roses, jasmine, violets, gardenia, hyacinth, daffodil and tuberose. Amber gives an overwhelming masculine elegance to this bouquet with a predominantly citrus tinge. Find out more ...

 

- 100ml, Eau de Parfum: 210 Euros .

 

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Marquise de Pompadour:   Opening with a sensual, sophisticated powdery touch provided by iris, this royal fragrance releases all the elegance of the Marquise's favourite flowers:  roses, jasmine, gardenia, violets, hyacinth, daffodil and tuberous. Iris and amber in large quantities give this bouquet a more powdered elegance. Find out more ...

 

- 100ml, Eau de Parfum: 210 Euros .

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Empress Wu Zetian: In the perfume reconstituted by Nicolas de Barry, Iris-tuberose agreement centralizes a sensual effusion where is incorporated the Chinese Osmanthus and the Oud very fashionable at this time. A perfume of provocative sensuality but with the aristocratic touch, properly imperial, of the Chinese Iris ... Find out more...

 

- 100ml, Eau de Parfum: 210 Euros.

Eau du Vizir:  The 19th century is marked by the fashion for Cologne, thanks to Napoleon's assiduous clientele. The British officers of the Indian Empire were looking for a little freshness and adopted Vetiver, a small fragrant root prized by the Maharajas who used it to refresh their palaces. The fashion for "fresh vetiver" began here before invading Europe... Sensitive to the olfactory universe of the Viziers, Nicolas de Barry created a warm perfume with green notes in duality with the freshness of Lemon, Bergamot and Orange in the top notes. Sandalwood and Musk give power and exoticism to this distinguished Water...

- 100ml, Eau de cologne: 210 Euros .

 

Eau du Cardinal:  Grande Cologne

It is a typical Eau de Cologne with citrus fruits But with antecedents.: because this fashion, which found its capitals in Cologne and Paris in the 19th century, began in Italy. Nicolas de Barry was inspired by an 18th century Venetian recipe which was particularly appreciated by Venetian clergymen and Roman cardinals. He wanted to recreate a fresh and delicate perfume: we find notes of Lemon, Blood Orange and Bergamot with a hint of Neroli

 

- 100ml, Eau de cologne: 210 Euros.

 

Eau de la Reine de Hongrie: Aqua Mirabilis

Originally, it is a rosemary flower alcoholate created in 1370 for the wife of King Charles Robert of Hungary, Elizabeth of Poland. The Queen of Hungary used it intensively, internally and externally, throughout her life. Legend has it that this marvellous water (received from the hands of an angel) allowed her to retain her beauty and that it was thanks to it that she was proposal to by the Prince of Poland when she was 72 years old. There is no historical confirmation to support this beautiful story. But it contributed to make her a mythical product until the 18th century... The Water restores the aroma of rosemary flower, on a structure of medicinal herbs (rosemary, sage, lavender, thyme etc.) for the purpose of water of health it is the ancestor of Cologne.

 

100ml, Eau de Cologne: 210 Euros.

Eau de Nostradamus: Aqua Mirabilis

Michel de Nostredame, called Nostradamus was an apothecary. It is said that he was also a doctor. Practicing astrology like all his colleagues during the Renaissance, he is known for his predictions on the march of the world.

Less well known is his activity as a perfumer: he produced balms in his workshop and he even wrote a "Traité des Fardements" (1555) from which we have taken a recipe for perfume: this fragrance had the originality for the time to include orange peel, a new and very expensive product. It gives lightness to a composition with a spicy-fruity heart, rose and the unavoidable amber and musk, with an interesting touch of calamus.

 

 - 100ml, Eau de Cologne: 210 Euros.

Eau du Prince Igor: Russian Leather

In the tradition of "Cuirs de Russie", Nicolas de Barry has recomposed a very classic perfume from the 1920s, which was a great success in Paris and Europe at that time:  taking up the very characteristic smells of saddlery, with a heady note of burnt birch wood (which evokes the Russian "Banya"...), this very "club" perfume echoed a Russian fashion in Paris. On a cultural level, Serge Diaghilev's Ballets were the main attraction at the time. And the star: the Nijinsky dancer who distinguished himself in Prince Igor's Polovtsian dances...

This princely eau offers a Russian Leather revisited: the birch and its smoky note, the woods, the leathers are there, but refreshed by notes of winter Bergamot from Calabria...

 

 - 100ml, Eau de Cologne: 210 Euros.

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