The Different Company has launched Pure Virgin, a new musky floral unisex fragrance:
Pure Virgin is born from a simple idea: create a simple and comfortable perfume, fresh and luxurious a perfume as soft and elegant as a Seersucker shirt or a black dress.
For her or for him, a purely sensual luxury to wear every day.
Pure Virgin was developed by perfumer Celine Ellena, and reportedly it will be her last fragrance for the brand (going forward, she will be replaced by perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour). The notes feature evanescent musk, light wind, linen flower, white rose, cedar and calisson.
The Different Company Pure Virgin is available in 50 ml Eau de Toilette. (via thedifferentcompany, additional information via shopping-premiereavenue, osmoz)
Update: see a review of The Different Company Pure Virgin.
Duchaufour is all over the place! I wonder where Celine will end up?
IMHO, he is maybe getting TOO all over the place.
Pretty sure CE works for one of the big fragrance & flavor companies and has all along, I just can’t remember which one.
I agree Robin! I know that I’m in the minority, but Mr. D’s scents generally do not work for me and now there will be yet another niche company for which he’ll be the perfumer! Won’t niche then become as predictable as mainstream??
I’m with you, Rapple. Mr. D does not make fragrances with me in mind. I’ve tried many of his compositions from several different houses and they always go funky on me. The only one I can sort of wear is Dzongkha though I rarely reach for it. Nevertheless, he keeps making and I keep sampling hoping something will click.
Julia – I think of him more as a chemist than a perfumer. He likes to play with and rearrange the molecules of his ingredients. Damn it! I LIKE all of the molecules of patchouli!
Me, too! I’m GLAD Coromandel comes in a giant vat!
Unfortunately, he is not one of my favorite noses. It bothers me a wee bit that he is churning out fragrance after fragrance. It probably wouldn’t bother me at all if I liked most of his creations.
~D
Wow, this comes fast after De Bachmakoff. The starting idea doesn’t sound too bad but “light wind”??? Consider me rather not interested…
Sounds like another bid for the Asian market, a la L’Eau de Serge.
Hmmm… in the UK “Light Wind” is what one gets after eating beans. The rest of the notes sound interesting though. Duchafour is one of my favorite noses, along with Ellena senior.
Tee, hee. Flatulence was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw “light wind,” too. It means the same thing in the U.S. 🙂
Karin: You beat me to it! M. Duchaufour is rather ubiquitous these days!
He is popular lately, that is for sure.
And it will be interesting to see if he brings some of his darker moments to this line which I find to be rather light in general.
I agree.
I saw this back in November or something at The Perfume Shoppe online and could find *no* information about it. Glad to know it wasn’t a figment of Paula and Nazrin’s imagination! Sounds very fresh – I’m trying very hard to hold out hope for the calisson, but worried you won’t be able to smell it.
In the last less while, that’s L’Artisan, Penhaglion’s, now MDCI, that silly Marc Atlan thing, and now the TDC for Duchaufour?
That should have been “last little while”, of course, sorry.
Part of it is that anyone who uses his work is sure to announce his name, which isn’t true for that many perfumers. Still, I do think it’s too much.
Calisson has a special place in my heart – I was an exchange student and I lived in Aix-en-Provence as a teen. I generally don’t like melon scents but I will probably sniff this one based on sentiment alone.
I love that candy, too!
…and Eau d’Italie…
Pure Virgin? Irks me. Neither do I qualify nor do I romanticise it.
ROTFL!!! i needed that morning laugh.
Seconding that! 😀
Glad I could help! 🙂
Bravo a million times over! The obsession with virginity and purity is one of the worst vestiges of our past history. And have you noticed it only seems to apply to women? No one seems to be fretting about the “purity” of boys and young men.
I was wondering about the name too. When I was a young woman I refused to buy Opium (the perfume) because I found the name offensive. (Needless to say, I don’t buy CDS’s either).
Both this name, and some of the racier Etat D’Orange names could be embarrassing things to have. I may want my scent to send subliminal messages, but I don’t want my perfume shelf to make announcements which may or may not be true.
(It could also be confusing. Can one claim to be a Pure Virgin because Baby, I Don’t Swallow?, or because I just get my kicks from Opium).
Thanks for the laughs, everyone.
I will say that I love the ELdO “Vierges et Toreros”… but that name always makes me chuckle a bit. Pure Virgin not so much.
Personally, I’d be much more interested in a dirty virgin.
Good point!
I really like this scent, got a sample and have already used it up. I hate that name, though! I mean I hate telling anyone that I’m wearing something called Pure Virgin. The snigger factor is just sort of embarrassing… How do you say Pure Virgin in, say, Japanese? Or Russian? Maybe I’ll just make up a name of my own. Like, Cotton Shirt. Or Clothesline. Clothesline, I like that…
Yes, R, you are right, Céline Ellena works for Charabot. I am rather sorry to see her leave the brand, as I loved seeing how her style developed over the years.
She also has done some very nice work on Biotherm (love her Aqua Relax, which is unfortunately now discontinued.)
I’m sorry, too. Part of what attracted me to The Different Company was the father-daughter act.
Light wind???
Yep, that has me wondering, too!
Odd name for a unisex fragrance.
That’s what I’m saying! The concept of virginity (unfairly) does not have the same importance for both genders.
Maybe young women are meant to be one and young men are meant to *covet* one… either way, fairly lame. “Virgin” by itself doesn’t bother me as much somehow … I wouldn’t mind a perfume called that. I guess the word doesn’t always conjure up a person.
Richard Branson might object.
Good luck finding a celebrity spokesperson for a fragrance with that name.
Seriously.
I’m almost tempted to try this – I love CE’s work. I can almost picture how it would differ from other non-fragrance fragrances – like pureDKNY, for instance. Which I quite like, occasionally.
LOL LOL LOL
It would probably make sense to go for one of those “New Christian Music” singers, preferably a young one.
Isn’t it amazing though, that many of that type of celebrity end up in the weirdest public scandals?
Oh what a sad news. I’ve long associated TDC with the Ellena family. It’s like…a family business. And I love their products too, owning Osmanthus, Bergamot and Jasmin de Nuit. Hope Duchaufour can keep up with the good work!
I’m also surprised at the departure of Celine Ellena, and agree that — though I love Duchaufour — he is perhaps a bit TOO all over the place…. even doing MDCIs latest. I’d love to see more creations from young perfumers like Stéphanie Bakouche, the nose of Invasion Barbare.
In any case, I don’t really love the name “Pure Virgin” and I hope this isn’t TOO wispy. Thanks for the link to calisson… sounds kind of delicious.
Note to marketing: 1) How many men want to wear a scent called “pure virgin”? 2) “light wind”? Oh come on…
Note to all: If the coffee machine were working properly, I wouldn’t be so snarky…
3. How many men want to wear a fragrance that smells of apricot candy?
I suppose it could be a light, background whisper. I’ll certainly try this one, just to experience the “light wind”!
Oh sorry , MELON candy.
beautiful, stylish French men do 😉
Oh, no, that’s not flatulence, it’s a *light wind* !
This sounds a lot like the also insufferably-named Sexy Angelic by Honoré des Prés. It, too, was supposed to feature calisson, though I found it to be so sheer and quickly-disippating that I barely smelled a breath of almond and a touch of icing with lemon zest in it before it disappeared completely. I’m hoping this is better, but I’m not pinning my hopes on it.
I so far like more of B Duchafour’s scents than those of any other individual nose – from some of CDG’s incenses, to amarinthine, Timbuktu and some others. On the other hand I haven’t been bowled over by anything in TDC. So for me it may be good news…
I love Duchaufour, but I’m sorry to see Celine Ellena leave TDC. I’ve enjoyed her fragrances for them! This new one may have a dorky name, but it sounds lovely. I’m hoping that I like it.
it is divine!
I hate the name, but the calisson sounds potentially yummy. The rest of the notes make me think of dryer sheets, though.
There is an article on another site saying that he will be the in house perfumer of the Different Company. I`m very curious to see what will hapen with the brand now.
For me, musky floral fragrances are getting in the same vein of fruity floral frags. I`m getting sick of seeing musk everywhere, always playing a major part to fill the blanks of a poor project. And this, for me, seems to be this case. Different Company frags hardly stay on me, so i will not even bother to try this one. Another Black dress doesn`t feel essential in an ocean of very similar black dresses.
Using the old-school definition of in house perfumer — that is, having your own perfumer on salary — he is not going to be their in house perfumer. He’s just doing their perfumes, as JCE & CE did before him.