Eau de Céleri ***

Monsillage sent me samples, including two larger bottles of fragrances that owner-perfumer Isabelle Michaud thought I would like. She was right: Eau de Céleri is a very refined, urbane, and charming spicy-herbaceous composition, the sort of fragrance you put on every summer morning as you would an Eau de Cologne. The difference is that the entire, and very clever, accord involves little or no citrus and achieves freshness by completely different and rather more durable means. Non-citrus fresh has been an unending quest in perfumery, witness Carven’s Vetiver (1957), Perry Ellis For Men (1985) and Courrèges’ Niagara (1995) among many others. This phylum of perfumery is distantly related to the aromatic fougères, but less forceful. To repeat a musical analogy I used in the context of Anatole Lebreton fragrances, it reminds me of orchestral string writing, all about tune and texture within a narrow range of timbre. Very nice indeed.