Blog post by Gwen
By the Fireplace – warm and smoky and undeniably seductive
Photo: perfumeniche
The days are getting shorter, and the nights are cooling down. At my house, that means the first wood fire of autumn.
And nothing sets a scene for seduction like a roaring fire. Snuggling in front of the fireplace, watching the oranges and reds of the flickering flames to the sound of crackling logs, feeling its warmth, envvleoped by the smell. Add a platter of runny cheese and some good wine; every sense is engaged, heightened, and ripe for exploration.
This scene is the inspiration for By the Fireplace from design house Maison Martin Margiela.
By the Fireplace is part of their Replica line, where each scent is, as it says on the package, “A reproduction of familiar scents and moments of varying location and periods.” By the Fireplace was signed by Marie Salamagne, who excels at creating fragrances that evoke a specific time and place, like her Venice and Sicily, for Memento Italian Olfactive Landscapes.
By the Fireplace is set in Chamonix, in the French Alps, in 1971. Chamonix is one of my favourite places to visit, especially in winter, when rustic wood chalet restaurants are close and cozy, warmed by log fires, often in huge stone fireplaces. Cheese fondues and molten raclette are shared with friends and create a closeness and conviviality with other diners that carries on later in your own chalet.
This is the mood, the feeling that By the Fireplace captures.
It opens with pink pepper, which smells rosy, not spicy, and aromatic, heady, seductive orange flower petals. This floral start is quickly warmed with a note of spicy, fragrant clove. As it warms on the skin, a soft, sweet, mellow chestnut accord appears. It reminds me of the marrons glacé my father-in-law so adored. Then the Gaïac wood appears with its gorgeous woody, smoky and tar-like aspects – this is a showstopper for me. Cade oil brings more smoke – aromatic and dark; it smells like the smoke that swirls up through the wood in a fireplace. This beautiful smokiness is soft and true and doesn’t overpower the fragrance but quietly dominates it. At the base, creamy, rich vanilla emerges. It stands up to the smoke and without it, the whole works might spontaneously combust. And wafting in from the forest is the woodsy, balsamy smell of Peru Balsam, its cinnamic and vanillic facets echoing the spiciness and sweetness that came before it, while cashmeran is perfectly musky and woody.
The drydown is smoky, warm and gently sweet.
A roaring blaze is compelling, seductive, and so is By the Fireplace - wearing it draws people to you.
True story. I first tried By the Fireplace in a Duty-Free shop in Montreal airport. I spritzed it on my wrist, and within a nanosecond, a middle-aged, quite handsome gentleman touched my shoulder and asked me what I was wearing. I held out the tester of By the Fireplace and spritzed a little into the air between us. Soon, a woman came up to him and asked him what he was doing. He spritzed her. She inhaled it, paused momentarily and said, “We buy this one”.
Check out By the Fireplace in our Shop.