The heartbreak of Laurent Le Guernec's lost Made by Blog perfume mods...

Perfumers James Krivda (Mane), Sophie Labbe (IFF),

Laurent le Guernec (IFF) and Christophe Laudamiel.

Warning: Extreme Perfume Geekery to follow...

I'm feeling a little blue today. You see I've finally used up the last few drops of one of my favorite lost perfumes. And it doesn't even have a proper name. The scent was another concept scent involving a group of perfume artists who saw the Internet, and more specifically the perfume blogosphere, as potentially fertile ground for the collaborative design of a perfume. The complete back story of the people involved and their connections is somewhat lost on me. But from what I know, two prominent early perfume bloggers were given an opportunity to work with two young and talented, up-and-coming (or already established, really) perfumers.

I got swept up into the Made by Blog project somewhat accidentally and before long I began to receive a series of mods from two different perfumers. Of course you know by the title of this post that the perfumer who stole my heart was Laurent Le Guernec. It was one set of his mods (K and L, I think) that pretty literally knocked my socks off.  The 'fume was rich with notes of olibanum, musk, labdanum, balsam, geranium, coriander and thyme. It struck me as tart and taut by turns, leathery and then fluffy like a powdery meringue. A carnival of a scent and a love song winding its way through the heart of Shalimar. I was at once smitten and vexed. I'd committed a cardinal perfume sin by falling in love with someone else's baby. If it'd been for me the project would've halted right there. But it wasn't and I really had no choice but to sod off and try to forget about the whole thing.

So I did forget about it, mostly. Time heals most wounds after all. I'd used most of the mods up early on. I remember it was funny- I used "I" first, then "J" and I think "K" really was my favorite, it completely transfixed me. For most of the last three years, I've been nursing tinsy drops out of that darling little mod, doling out just a smidge here and a smidge there. Let me tell you, it's aged beautifully- the last few molecules were packed with so much incensey-woody goodness as to suffuse several mls of a bland cologne I poured into the plastic atomizer. It's been a winner right up to the very end. I'm wearing several spritzes of that same cologne right now and wondering at the power of the original essence, which I can still sense clearly but already miss immensely...

Care to share about any of your doomed perfume affairs?

The Vintage Perfume Vault, where the scent of yesterday's vogue lives.

Images:
Perfumes James Krivda (Mane), Sophie Labbe (IFF), Laurent le Guernec (IFF) and Christophe Laudamiel from Base Notes
Blue Circus by Marc Chagall from Tate.org