Innocence – the starting point of the olfactory experience
I have always been touched by scents, my mother’s freshly baked cake, my grandmother’s perfume. I remember when I was a child visiting her at the city of Karditsa, Greece, I used to smell her Myrto perfume lightly colouring the air of her bathroom. As I grew up whenever I encountered this, I always thought about her. In this sense it was linked to the smell of fresh citrus while it stood for comfort as a feeling and warmth. More than anything else however it was a metaphor for an identity , an archetype for grandparent’s caress as well as for the Greek Fws ( Light) and Alitheia ( Truth) some of the primordial essences of the Greek language and culture which we will delve into , as the project progresses.
If I were to link this perfume to constituents i.e the top, heart, base notes, I would associate it with the tope notes as well as the level of childhood innocence , it was linear yet emotionally precious, but it hadn’t yet evolved in terms of richness and complexity the same way that I hadn’t at the time.
Synesthesia
Recently as my deep interest in the domains of Light and Beauty ( capital L and B ) progressed I have started studying the nature of more sophisticated perfumes , I was mesmerized by the Guerlain concept.
If you visit the website it is an oasis for Refracted Light. White and black characters seamlessly fuse while Light opens up to all the rainbow colours. In this sense it is a website blooming in synaesthesia, it is within this context that I will examine the advertisement for the Mon Guerlain perfume.
Before I delve into the radiant world of Guerlain, let’s briefly illuminate the word synaesthesia. Synaesthesia happens when two senses blend , when one sense triggers another. It comes from the Greek roots ( syn) meaning together and aesthesis denoting sensation.
For example a person with colour- sound synaesthesia might see colours when they hear music perhaps a violin will appears as pale gold. Let’s play and make another association.
Let’s interwine a perfume composition with archetypes showing how these concepts dance together. An archetype after all evokes emotions so we could just as well associate it is with one or more senses
Perfume Architecture
Let’s start with the world of perfume composition , the literal world. The literal is associated with the Greek Language – the concept of Logos. What becomes super interesting and so beautiful is that the advertisement examines the literal through the non literal. To show the parallels with the design of the best hotels of the world the perfume composition is linked to the cultural code of a hotel. In Guerlain there is a common thread running through.
This thread is his House’s QR code, signature scent while the individual perfumes are facets , flowers of this code. In a sense the QR code is the three letter consonant root in Hebrew, while the perfumes are words blooming from this core.
This DNA is known by the term Guerlinade and it is a mixture of bergamot -rose- jasmine -iris- vanilla tonka bean~superb
Analysis of the advertisment
Going back to the advertisement just like in Leading hotels of the world , it doesn’t present the constituent scents nor does it mention the phrases top heart base notes or sillage. It presents them as an atmosphere. After all a perfume more than anything else is an aura that cannot be captured, hence it is better felt and not expressed though words.
In the advertisement the notes of the perfume are presented through the senses of vision , touch and sound.
In the beginning they are presented in a linear fashion. The video clip starts with soft music, ample natural light and an ethereal aura of Angelina Jolie – its Muse. This corresponds to the top notes the Greek language, the letter Aleph of the Hebrew Alphabet , the breath full of potential. Then like letter Resh of Hebrew it progresses the music becomes more sensual while the actress loosens her hair and the vulnerable back of the neck becomes captured in the camera, the heart notes take stage. Gradually we delve into the world of base notes the Hebrew language seeing Angelina against dark surfaces in contemplative slightly melancholic presence.
It is at this moment that the music culminates into crescendo, and the advertisement enters the state of flow where all languages and all perfume notes are presented together like a Greek Dionysian God feat. .After this marvellous synaethestic moment top notes are revisited , we immerse into ample Light which now dissolves into silence, the letter s of the Greek language which even though is the ending letter of the world for Light i.e Fws and many other words, it has an afterglow like the silage of world’s best perfumes.
Philososphical reflection
At this point I will introduce you to the archetypal image of Mom Guerlain. When ever you are wearing a scent you don’t just smell nice – you embody a certain kind of identity. The key word for the perfume Mon Guerlain is the word Mon which has a dual meaning ( it is a meeting point between opposites) . it involves possession and tenderness hence it dances between presence and absence. Mon resonates with self possession, radiance delving from within .
As a matter of fact this archetype is very much related to the post on chocolate [1] as well as to the poetic device of chiasm. The word chiasm comes from Greek letter x ( chi symbolzing a crossing). This crossing happens when the first half of a poem reflects or inverses the second. It was widely used in Ancient Greece ( Homer, Hesiod) and the Hebrew psalms (parallelism) as well as by contemporary poets such as Rilke and Elytis who embraced it more intuitively.
A chiasm progresses from the first part to the second path through a pivot, a turning point. A pivot is the meeting point of opposites and in many cases it as associated with the name of God, the implicate level of reality in other word where everything was connected to everything else. It is quite interesting that the numerical value of pivot [2]is the number 15, hence it is linked to the worlds of pearls, butterflies and grace[3]
Let’s view pivot through these lens before examining how it presented in the Guerlain concept.
In the examples of pearls and butterflies:
A is the pristine stage the stage of innocence
B is that of wounding descent
C is the pivot the invisible transformation meeting point of opposites
B’ The ascend – the gestation of new form
and A’ is revelation which is no other than the equivalent of peace and silence.
This process is spiral just like the example of chocolate and personal growth. A and B pass through C and evolve into A’ which is A revisited after it has passed through grace~~
Moving on to Angelina Jolie
In the beginning she is carefree , innocently happy. The door opens as she invites her inner Muse, her Dreamer to scent her world. The glimpses she exchanges with them are shy, fleeting she makes no sudden movements. However this is up for a change~~~
At some point in her life she encounters difficulties or she gains depth through education and experience , her meetings with the luminous inner presences becomes more frequent , they gain gravity they become more coherent..
The ad dances between softness and strength images , as she passes through complexity evolving into a higher state of of self possession. There are no loud voices in the ad, her starring at the mirror is not that of shallow vanity but of recognition of her central gravity.
After all the perfume bottle itself embodies duality in that it has geometry and curves , authenticity as seen through the transparency and thickness of the bottle it self while it also has a crown, a jewel of self worth beautifully portrayed though the gold detail on the top. It is discrete the same way she embodies rimless sophistication and underestimated poise.
Conclusion
In the end of the ad she has acquired a well deserved peace, the advertisment dissolving into silence , which doesn’t stem from innocence nor does it stem from a rosy life. Like the depth of Letter B thanks to internal dot the dagesh, it stems from quiet battles, a long term process of individuation as she travels spirally like the stairs in the ad towards the centre of her Self the axis mundi of her Being which is no other than spiritual Light.
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Fragnance card
World: The visible world- the world of senses
Accord: Greek Fws ( Light) it is about intellectual radiance and luminous structure
Undertones : French :The refinement of composition the art of making complexity seem effortless
Hebrew the origin of the radiance which is no other than Divine light – the ineffable
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[1] https://linguaaccord.com/when-philosophy-tastes-like-chocolate/
[2] To calcluate numerical values of words we take each vowel and give it a number corresponding to its position in the English alphabet and we add them. Pivot has i (9) and 15(6) =9+6=15=6