Fun & Famous

THE BAD BOYFRIEND PERFUME

by Ilonka Leenheer

I am a very monogamous type. When it comes to perfumes, that is. Some people have a fragrance wardrobe, I do not. I do stray occasionally, because you have to know if you are missing out on something great, but I always come back like a loyal cat to my signature scent. It all started when I was 19 with, how fitting, Chanel No 19. I found it very straightforward, just one perfume and my boyfriend too, when it came to thinking of gifts. Moreover, he felt like he was cheating if I sprayed on another scent, which had its advantages.

‘Are you wearing Fracas?’ And later she said to my boss: ‘She must be a very interesting woman.’ Wonderful, when your perfume does your PR for you.

But at 30, I decided it was high time for something else. I went searching. I tried Mitsouko by Guerlain: divine, but three friends used it too and snob that I am, I wanted something exclusive. In San Francisco, I wandered around Bloomingdales at the stand with niche perfumes and the saleswoman saw a challenge in me. She came with an old-fashioned little bottle named Narcisse Noir, from the old French perfume house Caron, and said: ‘This was Gloria Swanson's favorite perfume, so it has the glamour of old Hollywood but also something of ancient decay.’ Bingo! I didn't even need to smell it.

Now Narcisse Noir was a bit too exclusive again, as it was hard to find at that time, so I went looking for something similar that was also ‘noir’, a bit ‘difficult’ and ‘dirty’. Thus my nose found Fracas by Robert Piguet, a perfume from 1948, made by one of the first female perfumers, Germaine Cellier. I had never smelled anything like it: a heady mix of tuberose, jasmine, orange blossom, and there was also daffodil, just like Narcisse Noir. I went all in and was not the only one, as Fracas has a cult following among the likes of Madonna, Courtney Love, and Sofia Coppola, but I don't run into them very often, so that helps.

‘It’s like a bad boyfriend,’ she said, ‘I keep coming back to it.’

Some people might find it boring, but there is something about having a signature scent. At ELLE, I often heard: ‘I could smell you in the elevator that you were in the building.’ (Which fortunately does not mean that I walk around enveloped in clouds of perfume, who wants that, but that there was a trace in the air somewhere.) When I once met the French CEO, the first thing she said (imagine a thick French accent): ‘Are you wearing Fracas?’ And later she said to my boss: ‘She must be a very interesting woman.’ Wonderful, when your perfume does your PR for you. It’s also a handy icebreaker. When I interviewed model and writer Sophie Dahl, we turned out to be both Fracas fanatics. ‘It’s like a bad boyfriend,’ she said, ‘I keep coming back to it.’

The only downside of such a body scent is that you no longer smell it yourself after a while. So I alternate. But still with scents from the tuberose family. Lys 41 from Le Labo is a big favorite for example, just like the brand new divine body cream from Jo Malone: Tuberose Angelica. The Tuberosa from Lotte van Scherpenzeel Italian beauty items Alexander Sporre was a tip from Sophie Dahl, who uses the same trick, and Courtney Love alternates with Beyond Love by Kilian. American Maria Christofilis had a perfumer create a fragrance inspired by Fracas just for her, Fleur09, which is now also available for us, and Marfa by Memo Paris is already a gain just because of the bottle.

But Fracas remains my bad boyfriend. And that bottle is unfortunately empty, hint hint (why is my birthday only in October?).