The Love Affair Continues…Caron Paris Resurrects Violette Precieuse

With imperial love comes imperial gifts. Caron Paris resurrects the essence of violet with a new feminine, romantic twist. Violette Precieuse embodies strength and love while preserving the femininity of a woman.

Violets, known in Greek Mythology as a token of love was created by Zeus as a representation of the finest flower for the finest of women. He presented these purple flowers to his sweetheart Io, and named them after her – “v-IO-let”.

Originally Violette Precieuse became a token of Caron’s founder Ernest Daltroff’s love to his partner Felice Vanpouille in 1913. Their love and understanding of each other was the key to many successes and avant-guard initiatives of the brand.
This fragrance is housed in a classic crystal cut bottle complete with spray pump and oval cap. “Violette Precieuse” is engraved on the front and a Caron ribbon adorns the bottle neck.

Violette Precieuse is an elegant floral fragrance is comprised of violet flower, violet leaves, iris and orange blossom notes which explode into a harmony of light jasmine and lily of the valley. Just like lingering love, a velvety warm scent of musk, sandalwood, raspberry and vetiver are left behind.

Richard Fraysse: Caron's In-House Nose & The Secret to Creating Perfumes

Caron Paris, the cornerstone in luxury fragrances reinvents itself with each new perfume created. For over 100 years, Caron has remained one of the last standing perfume houses employing an in-house nose. A single person to whom the magic and flare of a brand so eloquently dances.

Over a thousand scents sitting delicately in glass bottles await transformation in antique armoires with his most prized extracts delicatly housed in blue blown glass bottles aligned in rows around his work station.

As Mr. Richard Fraysse sits down in front of his majestic blue wall of scents, its almost as if he were a pianist for the start of a great concerto. Looking, waiting, thinking of which note and which cord to sound first, then second, then third... until each extract is swirling in the air around him and the next favorite of women everywhere is born.

From a very early age Fraysse, has been a part of the luxe perfume world. In the late 1800s in Geneva, his grandfather founded a laboratory that would become a famous perfume house, and already engraved his name on the Pantheon of Noses by creating the hugely famous English Lavender for Yardley. His father, the Lanvin Nose for more than fifty years, created Arpage, a huge hit for it's time. Today their son, for almost thirty years, has been fulfilling his role as nose with passion that stems from the highest regard for tradition.

In the words of the master perfumer himself...

"With Caron I have total freedom to exercise my creativity, without being subjected to marketing or budgetary constraints. I can give pride of place to rare natural essences, like pure rose or jasmine, and so be true to the grand tradition of luxury fragrance.”

“Despite the progress of chemicals and the pursuit of profit, perfume should remain a luxury product, something rare and precious, if it doesn’t want to lose its main purpose: make women wearing it dream.”

-Richard Fraysse-

The Caron olfactory consciousness has been taking shape for over a century now. Each new creation bears the mark of the previous one, without being imprisoned. Because all Caron perfumes are free: only the men and women who wear them bring them to life. We know that the olfactory memory is the most faithful sense there is and, year after year, the fragrance of a perfume could never bear even the slightest modefication.

Bulgarian roses, which enter into the majority of Caron perfume compositions, must be grown with the same constancy, in the same type of soil. Jasmine and mismosa, orange blossom and ylang ylang, fragrances so fine and varied, give the perfumer all he needs for his imagination to take flight.

Other sources feed the inspiration of Mr. Fraysse. Wood, bark and moss provide another range of components; herbs and spices lend their own special notes; fruit from Hesperides range (primarily citrus) round off the use of planetary flora. Fauna also provides some of its substances: musk and ambergris, among the better known. Production processes are somewhere between art and industry, using the finest advance techniques brought together by the Caron laboratory.

All Caron perfumes are created in the inner suburbs of Paris, which includes the pure extracts for the perfume fountains to the lines distributed by the selective retail network.

Eau de Réglisse: Licorice by Caron

Eager to share its passion for natural ingredients, CARON has created a refreshing, tender eau de toilette with Licorice by Caron, blended from an unexpected combination of freshness and woodiness, whose secret is known only to the Nose of CARON, its Master perfumer.

Licorice by Caron is a surprising harmony of fragrances, evocative of childhood memories and joyful moments, like the perfumes of happiness associated with the spring of our lives.

Licorice by Caron is a pure, clean fragrance, fresh and sweet. Its recipe is based on a blend of liquorice absolute and sparkling zest of Sicilian Green Mandarin, spiced up with a hint of basil, the whole built on intense heart notes of Indonesian Nutmeg and Nigerian Ginger, exuding a charm of smiling sweetness.

Licorice by Caron also brings a touch of gaiety, nonchalance, audacity… In a language all of its own, it speaks of a delicacy to be savoured from within the skin… tempting us to indulge in sweet sinful gluttony.

Licorice by Caron comes packaged in a simple and modern bottle, topped with a real wood stopper, to emphasise the new-look CARON, while preserving its image intact.

A Boudoir Classic Reinvented

Cobblestone clad Avenue Montaigne in Paris bustling with shoppers eager to find that one gem out of the dozens of stores that line the prestigious couture row. Caron Paris, a boudoir style boutique reminiscent of Parisian royal society presents Montaigne, a floriental essence sure to elude elegance through the air of every woman who wears it. Known as a secret pleasure, it has never before been available as an Eau de Parfum until now.

Montaigne captures the grace of old Hollywood with a touch of bold femininity and a dash of mysteriousness perfect for those with contemporary styles, classic or modern appeal. Notes of golden mimosa flowers mingle with jasmine and deepen with woody and exotic undertones of sandlewood.
A veil of beauty and elegance surrounds the Montaigne woman giving an air of sophistication around her. Presented in Caron’s signature tapered flacon now complete with spray atomizer, keeping in mind a modern woman’s lust for luxury and convenience.

Montaigne will be available nationwide in select retail locations Holiday2007.

Over a Century of History

Of all the great names in perfume, Caron alone can claim a spiritual and technical heritage that has been perpetuated continuously throughout a century. It was in 1903 that Ernest Daltroff created Caron perfumes which, in the wake of the Parisienne, never ceased to evolve. Reference to the past is a value that opens the way to modernity, a passion for conquest that constitutes the true essence of Caron. Through the twentieth century, the passing years imposed a great many changes, but through it all Caron never ceased to invent its future. The arrows of time, which pointed to future industrialization and mass markets never affected Caron.

From Ernest Daltroff, founding father (left), to Patrick Ales (the founder of the renowned Phyto hair care), the lifeline of Caron perfumes indeed knew many twists and turns, but never were its horizons limited by anything other than the imagination.

There are many similarities between Mr. Daltroff and Mr. Ales. Mr. Daltroff sported a gardner's apron and first created perfumes that were picked like flowers in his Asnieres laboratory. Mr. Ales, invariably clothed in a jacket and mandarin collar, had been communicating with plants for as far back as he can remember.

Ms. Felicie Vanpouille-Bergaud, joined Mr. Daltroff as early as 1906 and became his artistic director. It was the time of the first successes: the duo worked together in creation of Narcisse Noir, a world of wood and sensuality, presented in a round Baccarat crystal bottle, soon known as perfumery's new masterpiece. In no time, it had conquered France and the United States, and made its spectacular entrance among the stars of Hollywood.

For many years, the perfume became linked to the legend of Gloria Swanson, seen gripping the bottle in her hands in "Sunset Boulevard."

Love was and remains an eternal source of inspiration for Caron. The years brought with them perfume that was even more disturbing, more sensual, compositions that never failed to inspire the great perfumers of the time.

From generation to generation, from mother to daughter, women have always had the same dream: to wear a perfume that reflects who they are, daring and contemporary. It was women who encouraged, and even inspired Caron to revive twelve truly unforgettable and legendary compositions in luxurious perfume fountains; compositions only to be found in Caron boutiques in Paris and in New York: Narcisse Blanc, Or et Noir, Tabac Blond, Pois de Senteur, Acasciosa, French Cancan, En Avion, N'aimez que moi, Alpona, Rose, Farnesiana.

Just like haute couture, these most precious extracts are an introduction to the culture of elegance or luxury pret-a-porter, through lines of eau de toilette for men and women distributed worldwide. Today eternal formulas exist, as fashion and color evolves, style only remains. The style bearing the olfactory mark of Caron.