Trust Ineke to find a place for bright florals even in a dusky leathery-tobacco. Field Notes from Paris is a study of the tobacco concept from head to toe, leaves and flowers included. This take gives it more of an American character, which is the origin of the plant, no matter how much of it is smoked in Parisian cafes… To me, it illustrates the life of the plant from growing in the sunshine, being harvested, hanging the leaves to cure and flavour, and finally enjoyed as a guilty pleasure once burnt and smoked to the last puff from a fragrant cigar.

Orange blossom is the star of the show at first, bright and with lavender and rosewood side-kicks it’s almost squeaky clean and with a strong masculine reference. Crushed coriander seeds notes are effervescent and floral but add a hint of dirty woodsy spiciness along with roasted coffee nuances. There is also a distinct fruitiness right from the beginning that smells like davana to me, even though it is not listed in the notes. It could very well be the tobacco flower note, which I can't recall ever smelling - but is described by the expert (Stephen Arctander) as having a scent "somewhat similar to carnation with a fresher note, almost fruity".

As Field Notes from Paris develops on the skin, it becomes more warm, woodsy, full bodied and little tannin with notes of dry cedarwood and patchouli, polished by pollen-like beeswax absolute and the pipe-tobacco flavouring note of tonka bean. The tannins become more apparent in the final dry down, as the cure tobacco leaf, leather and patchouli notes take over, sweetened and softened by vanilla bean and the powderiness of the tonka.

Previous post about Field Notes from Paris includes information about the perfume's inspiration and notes. I would only add that this is the most warm and complex fragrance from the line so far, even more than Evening Edged in Gold and it is my favourite next to After My Own Heart. But there are still a few more letters in the alphabet to cover before we get to know Ineke's full potential...

The scent is available directly via Ineke's website.

Come late September, Ineke in San Francisco is due to launch her next fragrance in her alphabetical fragrant anthology, Field Notes from Paris.

Ineke Ruhland, the perfumer and founder of Ineke Perfumes has studied and worked in France before establishing her independent perfumery in San Francisco. Her "F" installation in her alphabetical perfume collection is nostaligic nod to her days of studying in Versailles and living in Paris. Those who visited the city know that every cafe smells not just of coffee but also of tobacco smoke of all sorts. The notes Ineke used in this perfume to capture the mood of sitting in a Parisian cafe in the afternoon are:

Top notes:
Coriander seed, Orange Flower, Bergamot

Heart notes:
Tobacco Flower & Leaf, Patchouli, Cedar

Base notes:
Tonka Bean, Leather, Beeswax, Vanilla

If you are curious about smelling it - you may be pleased to hear that all purchasers of the current Deluxe Sample Collection Volume 2 from Ineke's website will automatically receive a sample of Field Notes from Paris when it is available. Also, one of the first bottles of Field Notes from Paris will be part of a drawing at Takashimaya during Fashions Night Out on September 10th.

More later closer to the launch.

It was a cold-gray-wet mid-November day in 2007. Ineke and I sat at the Starbucks across from Vancouver Public Library (the main branch, which Moshe Safdie has humorously designed to resemble the Colosseum and give my city an imposed air of culture). This was my first time smelling Evening Edged in Gold and my immediate reaction was that of familiarity. I couldn't quite pinpoint it at the context, so Ineke mentioned the influence of the grand woody-floriental scents from the 90's - Feminite du Bois and Dolce Vita, both with a pronounced cedarwood and fruity notes.

Months later, Ineke kindly sent me a sample of her new opus (by the way - Ineke has a new and beautifully packaged sampler set, with all her 5 fragrances, titled “Volume 2” and meticulously wrapped and packaged in their miniature matchbox-like case within a larger drawer-type box), as well as the three floral bases used in the perfume. Two of the bases are ones that Ineke has created “from scratch” so to speak, using flowering plants in her garden as a reference and inspiration.

Although these floral bases play a modest role in the formulation percentage-wise (the woody and musky notes play a more dominant role here, accounting for more than half of the composition), they sure are what sets Evening Edged in Gold apart from, say, Dolce Vita and Samsara.

The Angel’s Trumpet (aka Datura) base is reminiscent of lilies and reminds me greatly of the lily-and-orange blossom saturated Lys Mediteranee, yet with a far more pronounced lily-of-the-valley note (most likely from Phenyl Ethyl Alcohol and other muguet molecules).

The Midnight Candy base is a lot less floral that I expected it to be and smells very candy-like indeed, and has a dusky, smooth ripe-plum-like texture which goes very well with the more complex, apricoty-osmanthus base (Ineke used both osamnthus absolute and an osmanthus base for Evening Edged in Gold - I have to say I personally prefer the absolute as it is).

The Angel’s Trumpet I’ve taken pictures of (see above) did not have much of a fragrance (at least not in broad daylight). Keep in mind that I've met in in mid-day; according to Bill (Ineke's husband and business partner), it is at night time when the flower releases it's lily-like scent into the air, and the yellow variety is the one to look for (the bush I've found being peach coloured may not be as fragrant but I'm bound to check out if it's still in bloom this very evening).

Midnight Candy is the flower that “stars” in this fragrance’s packaging. Unfortunately, I haven’t smelled it either. Again, according to Bill this finicky dusky flower will only show off its olfactory capabilities on a hot day after 4pm. In a cooler day it won't be as generous sharing its fragrance. I am very curious to hear if any of you who have tried Evening Edged in Gold are familiar with these two fragrant flowers and could “find” them within Ineke’s perfume. I would love to hear from you more about the plant inspiration for this perfume.