Marie Salamagne of Firmenich

One of the great pleasures in spending so much time in the scented world is watching promising young perfumers creating both mainstream brief-led client work and more idiosyncratic, personal formulae that perhaps reveal more detailed intent and desire. I’m going to do something a little different in this piece and discuss two beautiful scents both created by Marie Salamagne, a dynamic and intriguing perfumer whose work I have been following. One is the enigmatic Alaïa Paris, Azzedine Alaïa’s debut scent that launched in June and Mimosa & Cardamom, a graceful must-have new scent from Jo Malone London launching in September.

Marie Salamagne was born in 1977 and originally set out to be a doctor like most of her family before her; her mother and father were both anaesthetists, but she was distracted and diverted into perfumery. She trained at the ISIPCA in Paris, spent time at Charabot and has been at Firmenich since 2001. I was surprised and delighted to find she had created Kenzo’s bizarre and vastly underrated Tokyo (2007), a scent of pulsating city lights seen through ginger, grapefruit, shiso, nutmeg, red pepper, clove and guaiac wood. She worked on some of the Replica fragrances for Martin Margiela (in collaboration with Jacques Cavalier) and created the stunning Atelier des Ors helmed by Creative Director Jean Phillipe Clermont  including Lune Feline, one of the most purring, persuasive vanillic orchid saturated gourmands I’ve sampled in a long while.

Azzedine Alaia and Jasmine Ghauri Patrick Demarchelier 1991

It is surprising to think that Alaïa Paris is Tunisian designer Azzedine Alaïa’s first foray into the world of designer fragrance after decades of influential design work in the rarefied, secretive world of haute couture. Despite huge critical acclaim he has always chosen to do things his own way, discreetly, behind closed doors with the occasional flash of temper and diva-dom.  His essentially monochromatic palette with pierced detailing, animalic passions and vital cling has barely shifted over the years yet this of course has added to his longevity, clientele loyalty and only augmented his signature artistry.

Alaïa Paris  Parfum  (TSF)

Alaïa Paris was created by Marie in collaboration with Beauté Prestige International after a precise consultation period. Azzedine Alaïa had a specific motif in mind, a “smell of cold water splashed on burningly hot whitewashed walls.” A Tunisian childhood memory perhaps. Marie worked closely with Alaïa, his design team, photographer Paolo Roversi and Martin Szekely who designed the beautiful black glass flacon decorated in incised motifs echoing the laser cut leather of Alaïa’s cult collections. The gold cap resembles a spool of fine-spun golden thread.

Groninger Museum 1998 Azzedine Alaia  Exhibit

It does smell intensely smooth and cold, controlled and perfectly finished. There are some described notes of generic pink pepper, freesia, peony, animal notes and musks but these are by the by. They are undetectable and this is the point. Much has been made of the fragrance’s coherence and the inability to actually distinguish notes. This was intentional. Alaïa, Salamagne and BPI wanted a scent whereby no one note that resonated above another.  During the developmental stage, if any one note was more discernable than another, the mod was then marked, honed and reworked.  On skin it has a mineralised consistency I find incredibly comforting. It wears deliciously close, appropriately for the so-called ‘king of cling’. As with many things in life, the purity of simplicity is one of the hardest things to achieve but ultimately one of the most rewarding. Alaïa Paris is a rare designer perfume with gravitas and careful elegance.

Mimosa Bouquet TSF image

After her surprisingly successful marmalade and smoke mash up of Incense & Cedrat recently for Jo Malone London, Marie Salamagne has turned her mind to mimosa with fabulous and addictive results. Mimosa is a very French note, the essence of fluttering breeze-strewn, southern coastal summer roads.

 Model Kamila Hensen Mimosa and Cardamom Ad courtesy of Jo Malone

The fluffy yellow blooms are like chick-down and hold their scent close as if reluctant to share their creamy allure. As soon as you spray Mimosa & Cardamom you feel wrapped in correction, comfort, a sense of belonging to yourself. There is an instant boho throwback spice vibe to a thousand kitchens, a deliberate seventies paisley swirl of cardamom and milky korma. It is done with a precise and gentle touch. Cardamom can be a thuggish note, punching and kicking its way through formulae as it tries to find a settling place. But Marie has simmered the spice in a broth of lacteous musks and powdered amandine heliotrope and the occasional oily, sharp edge has been melted away.

Jo Malone Launch of  Mimosa and Cardamom, London

It is a lush and comforting scent with a cashew nut butter vibe. The mimosa opens up about five minutes in, like a sun yellow lamp bulb slowly warming up in a room alive with dust motes and sleepy evening folk wrapped in shawls and battered quilts. Perhaps a vase of tumbling mimosa is standing quietly in a rough-hewn vase in a shadowed corner, diffusing its pale light into the delicious cardamom debut.

Talitha (and Paul) Getty Marrakesh icon of Boho 1960s chic: Photo by Patrick Lichfield 1969

The damask rose lends the composition its rather swooning boho insistency, a romantic Talitha Getty Moroccan rooftop affectation that makes it privately striking rather than a room clearing bore. It’s love at first sniff.

Marie Salamagne

With both Alaïa Paris and Mimosa & Cardamom Marie Salamagne has demonstrated a beautiful ability to handle complex and subtle materials with lightness, dexterity and imagination. Both fragrances share a subtle sense of exquisite finish; the notes and effects are expertly blended, flowing in and out of focus with ease and calm.

Allesandra Ambrosia in Alaïa  (photo byWill Davidson for Russh 35)

The Alaïa barely ripples with facet yet is immensely affecting, a little bleak (which I love..) but cut and fitted to skin with precision and care to form. There is oddity and aloofness but this is perfect, too many scents these days aim to please at first sniff. Marie’s lovely piece for Jo Malone is also cool and collected, a grown up, offbeat essay in unctuous mainstream wearability. But executed with a dreamy moreish patina that gets better and better as the scent warms on the skin. I love both these delicious sophisticated perfumes and have been wearing them endlessly, often together. Marie Salamagne is a lovely talent, watch for the name.

The Silver Fox, Editor and Editor of The Silver Fox

Disclosure – Bottles of Alaïa Paris and Mimosa & Cardamom my own

We have a 10 ml decant of EITHER Alaïa Paris OR Jo Malone Mimosa & Cardamom for a registered reader in the US, Canada or EU. Please leave a comment with what appeals to you about  either of both of these fragrances, if you were familiar with Marie Salamagne before TSF reviews, where you live and your choice of perfume should you win. Draw closes 8/13/15

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