Caron Parfum Sacre Review (Jean-Pierre Béthouart)1990 ~The Sacred and the Profane

  Caron Parfum Sacre Jean-Pierre Béthouart 1990 review

 Caron Parfum Sacre  picture @Nicoleta

 I sometimes come across certain associations of notes that make me think I “suffer” (I do not suffer, I enjoy every second) from an acute form of musical-olfactive-synesthesia. (“Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway (for example, hearing) leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway (such as vision). Simply put, when one sense is activated, another unrelated sense is activated at the same time.”wikipedia)

The bouba – kiki experiment

Look the two shapes in the image above and imagine they were real objects from daily life. If you were to give them a name, which one would be “bouba” and which one “kiki”? Right! “The round one would obviously be bouba” you will say, without blinking. Why? And why is the answer the same for (almost) all of us? When the mouth makes a round shape when pronouncing bouba, the brain registers that shape and it immediately associates it with the visual that is more rounded. One the other hand “kiki” is made with sharper consonant sounds, much like the angular image A. The kiki-bouba effect goes to show that our brain subconsciously associates the linguistics of each word with the image that is similar.

Caron Parfum Sacre 1991 original FORMULA

Caron Parfum Sacre picture @Nicoleta original formula and flacon circa 1990

 As the most basic concepts of the philosophy of perception are based on visuals, how different would be the world in which the paradigm would shift towards olfaction? Imagine a kiki-bouba type of experiment applied to the most subjective of senses – olfaction. Would it even make sense? Open the cap of the perfume, breathe in, and close your eyes. What images roll before your eyes, what music do you hear, what taste fills your mouth?

Queen of Sheba painting

The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, painting by Edward Poynter

I hear in Caron Parfum Sacre the bombastic beginning: a glistening Arabian pure breed shakes its hooves, raising up in the air tiny particles of the desert sand, that can be felt, tasted even, scratching between your teeth and the tip of your tongue, nostrils sharpening at the feral scent steaming up after the long gallop. Smells of sand raised in the sun, warm dunes, the spice market with fruit baskets spilled over the piles of cardamom and pepper. The dust is slowly settling, and in chiaroscuro, we see a perfect rose, with petals as beautiful and intricate as a baroque lace, carefully rendered by the olfactive painter, obsessed with details- each nervure of the leaf, each prickly thorn, in absurd detailed macro beauty.

Caron Parfum Sacre

Caron Parfum Sacre picture @Nicoleta

From the background, the darkness embodied in the sticky myrrh pulls in the rose, and slowly drowns it in its thick molasses. All this struggle between the sensuality of the rose and the sacredness of the base notes: eros, agape, eros, agape is sheer delight.

If  I was to assign to it the perfect song, it would be Monteverdi’s Lamento della Ninfa

Parfum Sacre was launched by the house of Caron in 1990 and the nose was Jean-Pierre Béthouart.

Top Notes: Lemon, Black pepper, Mace, Cardamom;Heart Notes: Orange blossom, Rose, Jasmine, Ylang ylang, Orris, Carnation, Cinnamon; Base notes: Vanilla, Myrrh, Civet, Cedarwood, Rosewood, Amber, Musk

Nicoleta Tomsa, senior contributor

Disclosure: My own bottle, opinions are my own

Have you tried Parfum Sacre?

Please read Michelyn’s ode to the closing of the Caron Boutique in New York here

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15 comments

  • Even though I never try before Parfum Sacre by the house of Caron I really appreciate and enjoyed reading Nicoleta’s review. Love to learn about Musical-olfactive-synesthesia from your article and about “Sacre”, notes, association. Picture by Nicoleta also beautifully done.

  • Parfum Sacre is one of my favourite perfumes ever made, I own a few bottles including the early batches. It’s what I would call a “grand parfum”. I hope Caron will make it through these difficult times, this is a precious house for a vintage perfume admirer such as I.

  • Margarita K says:

    Beautiful description through images and music. I’ll try to find some samples of this “sacred” perfume, as well as some other Carons.
    I’m sorry they fell victim to dot.come economy.
    Learning about Kiki – Bouba experiment was enlightening. Thank you, Nicoleta.

  • wildevoodoo says:

    I’m so sad I never got the chance to try Parfum Sacré before it was discontinued! It always sounded so gorgeous from the notes, and this description makes me long to test it, just once, even more than before. Thank you for the beautiful review, Nicoleta!

  • maria mihalache says:

    Wonderful description, I did not try but I love lemon, ylang-ylang, cardamom, cedarwood, I think it is special.

  • I’ve had this one on my wishlist along with some other Caron fragrances but I think it’s just going to have to stay on the list of “things I missed out on.”

  • It’s great to see gems like these brought to life through your words. With all the new releases these beauties don’t always get the attention they deserve. This is a Caron I have not yet tried. Will seek it out on my next trip to my favorite vintage shop.

  • redwheelbarrow says:

    What a great review. I’ve never tried any Caron perfumes but this was a delight to read. And I could really use the smells of sand raised in the sun right about now. 🙂

  • It is still available from the Caron website. I believe they will ship internationally. The extrait was amazing. That is discontinued. I have loved sacre ever since the first bottle I bought in the 90s in the days when there were few grand houses and the niche and psuedo niche explosion and overpriced designer bling trash was non existent. When you bought a grand parfum from Harrods it was one. Please continue to buy this to try and keep Caron going. The face powder is amazing as well

  • Excellent review Nicoleta as you bring this notes to us. I want to learn more about the idea of Musical-olfactive-synesthesia. That is very interesting to me.

  • Never tried Caron Partum Sacre but have tried some others by Caron – I like their Yatagan. As they say, beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, so must it be true for olfactory beauty too. Some brains are different – I chose Bouba and Kiki names different from those expected. Kiki sounded feminine so chose curvy shape, and masculine Bouba got the pointy shape. I’m the olfactory universe, I will be an unusual nose indeed, Ha. Hope Caron will survive this pandemic.

  • Auto-miscorrects in last post, no way to edit, so reposting:

    Never tried Caron Parfum Sacre but have tried some others by Caron – I like their Yatagan. As they say, beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, so must it be true for olfactory beauty too. Some brains are different – I chose Bouba and Kiki names different from those expected. Kiki sounded feminine so chose curvy shape, and masculine Bouba got the pointy shape. In the olfactory universe, I will be an unusual nose indeed, Ha. Hope Caron will survive this pandemic.