Next month, L'Artisan Parfumeur will introduce a new home perfume diffuser system, Chez Moi:
The new technique, a piezoelectric heat-free system, fragments the perfume molecules into microdroplets, and propels them in soft, sensual waves into the atmosphere of the room. [...] Olfactory fidelity is total, since the simultaneous cold diffusion of all the notes keeps intact the sumptuous complexity of the perfume. Regulated by a microprocessor, the olfactory atmosphere is of a completely astonishing subtlety. “Floating” through the air in lingering doses, the perfumed waves gently rhythm the space and the hours.
The fragrance itself is dispensed from a black glass bead (see image above); each bead holds enough scent to perfume a room for approximately 10 hours. You can turn the diffuser on and off, but you'll need to clean it before switching scents (a "rinsing" bead is included). Initially, there will be five fragrances available:
Mûre Sauvage fills the home with the souvenir of delicious promenades, sweet, tangy berries that melt in the mouth, the aroma of baked pastries and jam that delight both young and old.
Intérieur Figuier is a gentle summer breeze filtering through half-closed shutters, the coolness of a siesta under the fig tree, a light puff of wind evocative of suave summer serenity.
Mimosa Marin is a shrub of yellow blossom trembling with the nostalgia of the summer’s warmth, against a crisp, clear blue winter sky on the Riviera. A sea breeze playfully meandering through your dreams, evoking the promise of joyful memories.
L’Ambre is an invitation to linger languorously in the comfort of plump cushions or on the sofa, dreaming, carried away by the magic of a fragrant aura charged with mystery.
Cèdre Bleu evokes the warm, woody, resinous scent of a Mediterranean forest where the umbrella pines and blue cedars majestically rub shoulders, deploying their bluish shade streaked with the sun’s rays. The ashen earth is covered with pine cones and their harvest of scattered grey pine nuts.
The L'Artisan Chez Moi perfume diffuser runs on AA batteries. The cost for the unit is £150, and includes one Cèdre Bleu bead. Additional beads are £12 each or £30 for an assortment of three. A limited edition set of all five fragrance beads will be £50. (via press release from L'Artisan)
Update: the Chez Moi units are now available for sale in the United States. Prices: Chez Moi diffuser with one bead ($250), individual beads ($20), set of 3 beads ($50), set of 5 beads ($75).
Maybe I'm just cheap, but that seems INSANELY expensive: each “bead” comes to $25.50 Cdn. per fragrance, and it lasts only 10 hours? That's two, three, at most four days of use, so they expect you to pay no less than $200 a month (on top of the $320 unit) just to scent your home?
I don't get it. For that kind of money you could…well, you could do a whole lot of olfactorily pleasant things. (You could buy an awful lot of samples at the Perfumed Court, for one thing.) As much as I love L'Artisan, I would have to have really a huge amount of money to consider this something worth buying.
L'Artisan really seems to be targeting a much more upscale market lately. I can't say the price is unreasonable since I know nothing about the technology (and that is a nice looking unit — esp. compared to cheaper home diffuser systems), but it is out of my reach. So yes — guessing they want to sell it to people who have a really huge amount of money, and who aren't concerned with whether it is cost effective or not.
I was in new home sales for about 5 years and managed to sell more homes per year that all my other co-workers. You know how I did it? I would buy a Mrs. Smith's frozen apple pie on Monday morning and put the oven on 200 degrees…the smell when you walked into that model was unbelievable. It smelled like, well, HOME! And I would bake that same pie all week, throw it out and start all over the next week. So yeah, I think there are cheaper ways to fragrance your home. That is a cool looking gadget though 🙂
i was at the boutique in Paris and the store manager was explaining to me the concept. i responded that if sounded like a cold air diffuser(my wife has one from Young Living). And it is now that i see it. Cold air diffusers can run anywhere from 100-150 dollars. they are very delicate made with hand blown glass. i don't think the acutal diffuser they are offing is expensive based on the technology that is added to it. but there oil prices are high. As for how we use use our diffuser, you would only need 20 minutes of it to sent your large room or home. So figure each oil refil would be used of one hour a day, thus last of about 10 days. I am interested in the Cedre Bleu scent which is new for them.
The cost of the device does not seem at all outrageous to me. As you, R, and others point out, it looks well-made and relatively attractive for the price. The beads, however, are a ridiculous price and nobody is going to be able to convince me otherwise – unless the things do my laundry, wash my floors, etc. as well. I think I'll save my money for a The et Pain d'Epices room spray to use as personal fragrance instead!
I had heard of the apple pie thing, but using the same pie all week! That is disgusting, LOL…
Please come up with something I can bake at 200 to make my house smell like Premier Figuier 🙂
Yes, it does seem unlikely that you'd use up the whole 10 hour capacity in one day…certainly I never burn a candle that long in order to get my house well scented.
Cedre Bleu does sound nice, and will be interested to see how quickly (or not) they add more scents to the list.
LOL — that is how I feel about many really expensive perfumes — they need to start doing my chores in order to justify their purchase 🙂
This does look a beautiful bit of kit. I was trying to work out how much I drop on scented candles and the like and then comparing that expenditure to this. Hm it is still expensive, certainly initially, but in the long term probably not so much. I still like the look of candles though. Oh well, unless I win the lottery I'm not going to have the dilemna!
I like the look of candles too, and there is something very satisfying about having a lit candle in the house. This is less atmospheric, but probably also less trouble to use. I'm with you on the lottery!
I think the use of candles should be banned from apartment blocks: a while ago, I was in my partner's flat, which is in the same building as mine, right opposite mine across the communal gardens, when we saw my then upstairs neighbour light a candle on her windowsill and close the curtains behind it. We both screamed and grabbed the phone to call the fire brigade: luckily, my neighbour realised what she'd done and opened the curtains again. My flat – the entire building – could have gone up in flames if those curtains had caught fire (and I have no doubt they would have – our windowsills are shallow). Candles can be very dangerous in the hands of the absent-minded or careless. Whenever I see a lit candle in one of flats here, I tremble.
LOL — perhaps you need to arrange a group discount w/ L'Artisan and have the Chez Moi units delivered to everyone in your building. BTW, just as you were posting this, I was reading Boing Boing and found this gem (Reuters news story):
http://tinyurl.com/2xyg8r
I It is a great creation! It's beautiful, stylish… And it smells exquisite… Chez Moi has a blog! Check it out http://chezmoiblog.blogspot.com/
Thanks, I'll take a look!