Fragrance Bouquet Presents Le Jardin Retrouvé (Part 2)

This past Friday we put the spotlight on a man who was part of a team that shaped the face of modern perfumery by producing perfumes that we now consider classics, a man who first took part in a project combining music and perfume (even though last year journalists credited Francis Kurkdjian as the first to perfume a music event making use of ‘special machines’, it was in fact Gutsatz who in 1952 first took on the task to perfume an Opéra-ballet - “Les Indes Galantes”- and who figured out a way to dispense perfumes of his creation through the ventilation), and finally, a man who was at the forefront of niche perfumery. Today in the second part of our presentation of Le Jardin Retrouvé, we let the man, Yuri Gutsatz, take a background seat and bring his work, the perfumes he created for Le Jardin Retrouvé to the foreground.

• Citron Poivré: Let me start by saying I am not a huge citrus fan. I appreciate the sparkle and freshness they can bring to the opening of complex blends and as perfumery has advanced to allow for citrus notes to last longer and longer I have also come to love the way they can exalt other notes later in the development. It is rare however, the perfume that is entirely based on citrus and still manages to grab my attention. There are but a few exceptions and, I am glad to say, this is one of them. Citron Poivré is built around an exceptionally beautiful note of Calabrian lemon, which while retaining its bracing sharpness manages to also transcend it, being rendered at the same time as both creamy and candied. How this result is achieved, I do not know, but I can tell you that it is glorious. The candied, creamy character leaves behind all notions of lemon as a predominately cologne-fresh ingredient and elevates it as the main character in a composition that is, to my great surprise, a spicy oriental in character. Although come to think of it, the surprise mightn’t be so great, considering that Boucheron has similarly created a spicy oriental with a heavy citrus emphasis in the form of Trouble. This however, is far superior. The most winning feature of Citron Poivré is the marvelous interplay between the bright, candied lemon and the spicy, dark bursts of black pepper that give off like fireworks from the skin. While this pair dances its duet in the prolonged stage of the opening, one cannot possibly imagine a more pleasant combination of notes that could reach the nose. Slowly, the stage fills with yet more dancers, and while the lemon and the pepper remain at the center, the wearer’s attention cannot help but be drawn to the rest of the beautiful cast: pimento and geranium, a hint of bay leaf, but most importantly, cinnamon and clove. The cinnamon/clove pair is formidable and demanding: on the one hand, they complement the peppery lemon to perfection, on the other hand, the risk is high that they overwhelm the composition with their forceful character. One cannot help but marvel then, at the technical brilliance of the perfumer: the procession is slow; the main characters will not be obscured until the deep drydown. The composition bears however their strong stamp and Citron Poivré reads beautifully, like an exceptional Caron.

• Jasmin: Of all the Jardin Retrouvé fragrances that I’ve smelled, Jasmin is my absolute favorite. It is also the most interesting jasmine-based floral I’ve ever had the pleasure to come across. If you are looking for a photorealistic image of jasmine, you won’t find it here: the simple name might lead one to think this is a run-of-the-mill soliflore, but it isn’t. The perfumer has chosen to reveal to us not the scent of the flower in the absolute sense, but rather, the glory of its exotic nature. At the heart of the perfume, there’s always jasmine, true beautiful jasmine absolute, rich, exotic, warm, diffusive and animalic. What you cannot possibly be prepared for, is the complexity. The opening is smoky and dark and as this darkness dissipates, the following impression is that of a floral full of buttery, intriguingly oily nuances courtesy of the high concentration of ylang-ylang. This impression in turn is counteracted by an intensely green floral note that spikes through the composition. The slightest hint of clove spices the blend, while a supple note of leather hugs it all gently. It is the leather, along with the exceptionally intense animalic undertones which make this the most interesting jasmine perfume I’ve ever smelled. Simply astounding.

• Chèvrefeuille: Honeysuckle is one of those plants that fill my heart with happiness just by looking at it, no doubt due to associations formed in early childhood. Memories, fragmented but vibrant like snapshots, place me giggling alongside my friends in front of a huge honeysuckle bush, gorging ourselves on the nectar of its blossoms. Every spring I’d plunder the generous plant, the nectar seeming all the sweeter, for it was forbidden by my father - likely worried I’d get stung by a bee. For years I’ve searched for an accurate interpretation of its beautiful, seducing scent - a difficult task, considering its scent cannot be distilled or extracted. The closest I’d come to finding one I liked was Yves Rocher’s Chèvrefeuille, which although beautiful, and despite the company being famous for producing some of the most realistic soliflores, does not really come close to approximating the scent of the beautiful honeysuckle. Yuri Gutsatz’s imaginary reconstruction however, is a gift to all romantics like me, who love the gorgeous blossoms as much for their nectar as for their scent. Blossoming on the skin with the soft, hay-like, balsamic note of St. John’s Wort and fresh, Calabrian lemon, the perfume shows us already from the beginning the balance that will be held throughout the development: equal measures of fresh and sweet, to capture the marvelous character of honeysuckle, as fresh as it is nectarous. Although nothing can come close to the true flower, Le Jardin Retrouvé’s own interpretation comes as close to the ideal as I’ve found.


From the wide selection of perfumes Le Jardin Retrouvé offers, I’ve come to love most of them: Cuir de Russie, with its unique, surprisingly floral character, Verveine Cèleste which adds a beautiful, intense grassy element to the traditional fougere blend, Eau de Tubéreuse for its enthralling, compelling femininity (if you love tuberose, you must try this!). There were also others that left me less enamored, such as Santal or Pour Homme, the first one being too simple and powdery, lacking the essence of true sandalwood (a bit like Roger Gallet’s version), the latter too traditional and outdated. Today I’ve presented to you the three I love most, although I’ll admit it was a hard call choosing between a review of Chèvrefeuille or one of Eau de Tubéreuse. In the end, I chose the honeysuckle because there are simply not so many honeysuckle perfumes in the market, and moreover none so beautiful and realistic, despite the fact that Eau de Tubéreuse is in my opinion a superior perfume and probably one of the best tuberoses I’ve smelled. I’ve come away from these past weeks of researching Yuri Gutsatz life with deep admiration for the man himself as well as his work and I won’t hide it, a little sadness. Sadness for not knowing about him earlier, sadness that I still don’t know as much as I would like, sadness that I won’t ever get to speak with him personally, or shake his hand. There’s happiness too, for I got to smell some of his creations, got to meet his family and for the fact that I can tell you about him here, on Fragrance Bouquet. If you would also like to sample the perfumes of Le Jardin Retrouvé, follow this link for instructions. By paying 2 euro postage through pay pal you can sample three perfumes of your choice. Through this link you can access the order forms to order full bottles of perfume or other products, such as candles. If you wish to contact Le Jardin Retrouvé per mail, you can find all the information you need here. Lastly, for those of you wishing to find out more about Le Jardin Retrouvé, Yuri Gutsatz and his life, click here to access the website’s own forum, which has countless of interesting materials to read. Most of them are in French, but there are plenty in English as well. If I may suggest something to get you started, here is a beautifully written piece on the perfumes and scents of India written by Yuri Gutsatz himself.

Images: Lemon slice via www.sxc.hu, jasmine via Wikipedia, honeysuckle via www.morguefile.com

Fragrance Bouquet Presents Le Jardin Retrouvé (Part 1)

While on my vacation this summer, I received an email by Denis Gutsatz expressing both surprise and lament at the fact that this website, dedicate to perfume, bears no mention or word of his father, Yuri Gutsatz. I’ll admit that regrettably, I had never heard of the name before, but found myself not only intrigued but moreover moved by this first email contact. How noble, I thought to myself, how compelling and stirring to come across a son who makes it his mission to keep his father’s name, memory and life’s work alive. And so I followed the link that came with the invitation to learn more about this man of whom I’d previously known nothing about and discovered not only a perfumer, but also a brand, Le Jardin Retrouvé.

Yuri Gutsatz (1914-2005) was born in Russia but found himself in France at a young age, when his family fled their homeland due to the revolution. Barely out of his teens, Gutsatz became a self-taught perfumer, gradually honing his craft in the laboratories of Maison Mury (for a little more information on the Mury company, please click here for a short guide written by the incredibly knowledgeable Cleopatra’s Boudoir). His employment in Mury might have been self-described as "chance" or "serendipity" but there is no denying neither his affinity for the work nor his instant love for it. After the second world war, Gutsatz, due to another stroke of "serendipity" was offered the chance to study perfumery more formally in Grasse, an opportunity he gladly grasped. He later found himself working alongside Louis Amic, the owner of Roure - the company that innovatively brought fashion houses and perfumery together, by obtaining briefs from couture houses and using its star perfumers to materialize the wonders that brought said houses incredible fame and fortune. He'd later say that it was serendipity again that he found work in Roure alongside Amic, for while in Grasse he'd met none other than Jean Carles, with whom he became friends. When the two met again in Paris, Jean Carles invited him to Roure so that he could introduce him to Amic when he heard Gutsatz was looking for work. Chance or destiny? A serendipitous meeting or fate? And can we really take the recognition of talent out of the equation? I think not. During the years he worked for Roure together with a small group of other perfumers, the company produced almost all the perfumes for the grand houses of Jacques Fath, Nina Ricci, Carven, Balmain, Balenciaga and Piguet. For Gutsatz those were the golden years of perfumery, and its most bright star his co-worker, Germaine Celier, whom he graciously thought of as "...the most talented of us all."

In 1975, disillusioned with the state of perfumery, Gutsatz founded his own company - Le Jardin Retrouvé. Essentially, Gutsatz built a small perfume brand based on ideals, love and dedication to perfumery and in the interest of following his own instincts instead of briefs motivated by money, at a time when the public had yet no notion of “niche” and indeed at a time when he himself could not have predicted the meteoric rise of niche we witness today. Justifiably, his son - Denis Gutsatz - considers his father, alongside Jean Laporte as the ‘founders’ of what we now perceive as niche perfumery. Yuri Gutsatz, was not only a talented perfumer however. He was also a prolific writer and a polemical one at that. Poignantly, he sensed the danger perfumery was under long before the public ever awoke to the fact and set himself against the industry and its practices by revealing his disgust as he saw his beloved art-form becoming a cog in the grand money-making wheel. He went as far as to compare perfume companies to oil-drilling companies in their disregard for the value of perfume as an art form and their focus on maximizing profits by cutting on quality. He lamented the fact that perfume had become one and the same with marketing and image, in a sense a luxury that we buy with our eyes, instead of our nose. He found himself appalled at the fact that the public was being sold a myth of fabulous, rare and priceless ingredients with a matching price-tag, when the actual cost would be a fraction at best. So was born Le Jardin Retrouvé, a brand that offered (and still does) perfumes in unpretentious, inexpensive bottles, without ostentatious names, no marketing ploys and modest, appropriate price-tags. And how disheartening is it that the issues that so troubled Monsieur Gutsatz in 1975 are still incredibly current and burning today and moreover, that the company that he built in order to counter these operates in obscurity? Is it impossible to garner the attention and the respect of the public without sacrificing your soul to the altar of marketing and money? Are we unable to place as much value in a product that comes in simple, unpretentious glass instead of expensive boxes and sleek design? Finally, did Yuri Gutsatz ever get to see that there is now a growing community with the same burning questions, the same discontent and the same fears that he had? I hope so…

Join me on Monday for Part 2 of Fragrance Bouquet’s feature on Le Jardin Retrouvé, for a presentation of several of the line’s perfumes.