Sunday, November, 25th in Hanoi

This coming Sunday 21st October, chez Xuan

We are happy to invite you to the autumn session of XUAN’S WAY.

 

Come and enjoy with us a relaxing, happy friendly and inspiring day in Hanoi ! SUNDAY 21st October

You might, shop, dance, play, listen to music and have lunch all at the same place in a street party ambiance! Children are more than welcome.

Pass the word around!!!

with ... the great Zippy and her new songs ! J'adore!

with exciting shopping : Dame Clemence' room fragrances, Carat's jewellery, valerie Cordier's bags, Genny's bijoux, l'Atelier, inspiring artists...

Natural<>synthetic

a short great video (4:28) for newbies by Dr barbara Olioso about what is a natural cosmetic and the challenges of being natural

To see the video, click on this link
... thinking of going to Bangkok attend the workshop...

About the creative process

Yet started to re-read "L'esthetique en question" from Edmond Roudnitska. Read it 15 years ago and had forgotten everything. It is always good to re-read books like this one after a long time with amother perspective. A highly philospophical work with references of Platon, Kant, Etienne Souriau... a bit difficult for me, but I think I need time to digest, re-read and have a better understanding. I haven't finished the book yet and sure there will be new things to bring to my reflexion. I like the distinction between the "taste" judgement (basic I like/I don't like) and the "aesthetic" judgement (appreciation as a connaisseur). It seems to me that the aesthetic judgement when appreciating something beautiful brings more pleasure that the taste judgement.

I asked people around me what were their creative process.
- This all started with Zippy, when we were having a coffee together. She just said : I need to write a song, I want it, I am ready for it. So I asked her : "What will be the song about?". She just answered : " I don't know, I have the words already, but I don't know what it will be about." I'll find out once the song is written! Mmmmmh Interesting!
- Emmanuel is an architect, I asked him whether when he started to work on a project he already had a clear picture of what he wanted to do. He said " No ways! When the project is coming from the customer, I collect all the data in the computer (mainly constraints regardimg the land, the weather, safety, technical issues...) and I look at them deeply, at some point one is winking and it is evident I have to go in this direction. I start a drawing and then I figure out that another one is winking and I have to redo my drawing. and so on until the deadline is coming and we have to present something consistent. The difficulty is to look for the evidence and follow it, not listen to the ego. That's why meditation helps me a lot Calm the ego! Experience shows that evidence makes the most beautiful buildings! I like the idea of shutting off your ego to reach beauty.
- Benoit is a sculptor. At the moment he is working on a bestiary. The creative process happens when he is drawing the sculpture. Hundreds of drawing are necessary to find the essence of the jaguar or of the shrimp. Sometimes he is locked, he needs to go to the zoo, watch more video to understand the animal. His sculptures goes to the essential : a few lines. He said that children can immediately see what the sculpture represents because their mind is more open and they don't have a finished concept of the animal. Once the drawing is finished, the sculpture is just a matter of dealing with the matter. He knows where he is going. The good sculpture should be nice whatever the proportions, whether you make it big or small. This is one of the criteria that the sculpture is good.

All these examples confirm my idea that when you start creating, you never know where you are going.

Edmond Roudnitska, creator perfumer of Diorissimo (DIOR), L'eau Sauvage (DIOR), Femme (Rochas) used to say that he had a clear form in mind before making a perfume and he could do it only with a pencil and a notebook.
In my creative process as a perfumer, I don't work as Edmond Roudnitska. I have an idea about a feeling I want to share, this gives me a blurred idea of what I want to do, I write a first draft with three to four ingredients. To write this formula I use my memories about the qualia of the ingredients, I use their properties like relative Odor Impact, tenacity.  I make the formula, I smell it, I adjust. Hundreds of experiments are necessary.

Here comes my question of the day :
"Is it because I am not experienced enough, and I don't have a strong understanding of the materials that I don't have a vision about what my perfume will be and my creative process is different than Edmond's one?"
Or is it because their are different types of creative process as their are different types of researchers.

Dame clemence on VTV3

Dame Clemence on VTV3 with Mr Som

This is a very difficult exercise, because Mr Som is very smart and he reacts to what I say with tricky questions. He speaks in Vietnamese, I listen to the translator in my ear, I reply in English and at the same time, I hear the Vietnamese in my hear, so I can not listen to what I say. And beside all this, my native language is French!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R91JHx2mF5k

Spring sale Chez Xuan

Next week on Sunday 13th May at Chez Xuan from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, 41 ngo 76 An Duong, Hanoi
Dame Clemence will be there with a full stall, and this glamorous spicy-woody scent, specially created for Valerie's bags...
Great inspiring designers : Valerie Cordier, Lolo Zazar, Anne Brey, Dany, L'atelier...
See you there...

Designing a fragrance for Module7S

When Phuc and Viviana came to present their concept of Module7S it was obvious that the perfume should be fresh, light, feminine and comfortable.

Phuc was thinking of hoa buoi, a Vietnamese scent used mainly in banh com, the green sweet rice wedding cake. Viviana is in love with roses.

To evocate Hoa Buoi's delicate, soft, floral scent I chose to use a very close orange blossom, called neroli.

Neroli, rose and a pinch of jasmine offer their elegance and femininity to the scent.

I brought freshness and joy with winter bergamot and orange.

To make the perfume more sensual I added benjoin, precious ambret and agarwood as a fixative.

The result is in a little signature bag that softly infuses the brand bringing you happiness and confidence while wearing your dress.

Spring Trunk sale in Hanoi

On Saturday 14th April, Chris will sell our products in a private sale in to Ngoc Van. I feel honored that Amelia from Mc Lain proposed me to have my products sold with her beautiful and exquisite linen and cashemere.
from 10am to 6pm.
92, To Ngoc Van, Hanoi, Vietnam

Being a natural perfumer in Vietnam

I received last week a phone call from Alain Chevallier who asked me to write an article as a cultural introduction about essential oils in Vietnam. Alain chevallier is organising Lifestyle Vietnam, a handicraft exhibition for traders who want to export Vetnamese handicraft. Dame clemence participated to the event 2 years ago. it was an interesting and rich experience, but we have decided that we are still too small to participate again this year. Alain hevallier is designing a catalogue with some articles as an introduction to vietnamese culture and traditions for the Visitors. He already wrote an article about Pho, and another one about rice. He asked me to write something about Perfume and Essential oils in Vietnam. So I did a first draft about my experience as natural perfumer in Vietnam. Then I figured out that it was not very relevant for Alain's purpose and I decided to write something about traditional medicine.
So today, as my draft about essential oils will not be published, i have decided to share it with you...

My experience as a natural perfumer in Vietnam : How easy is it to find my raw materials in Vietnam?

1-      Vietnam is an exporter of some essential oils, that are produced mainly for traditional medicine : citronella, Basil –ocimum basilicum and ocimum gratissimum, cinnamum cassia, ginger, black pepper, peppermint…

We can find very good quality of these oils in Vietnam.

2-      Vietnam has a knowledge in traditional medicine using a wide range of plants that were successfully used during the wars. Traditional doctors continue to use these plants mainly in tablets or decoctions.

3-      Vietnam offers as well a wide range of specific spices used by minorities; they are mainly wild plants from the mountains.

Scientific studies of these raw materials would be interesting.

4-      Vietnam has a potential in essential oils extracted for essences that are more specific for perfumes : Vietnam grows or can grow the precious ambret and agarwood. They extract it trough distillation, but the actual  methods are not sustainable. Vietnam also can grow Sambac jasmine, osmanthus, ylang ylang as we can see these trees in the pagoda. Vietnam produces as well tuberose or more specifically lotus flower or pomelo flower that are the favorite smells of Vietnamese people. Unfortunately no one does the extraction of these plants in a sustainable way.

      And personally I have to import some of these essential oils and extract. So frustrating !

         Unfortunately these plants are not extracted in an industrial way, by lack of knowledge, expertise or lack of opportunities.

6-      Even for the formulation of natural cosmetics, I have difficulties to find locally virgin oils of soya, or fractionated coconut oils.

7-      I believe that if the know-how is brought to Vietnam with investment and expertise to buy alembics, extractors with solvent or supercritical CO2, Vietnam has a real potential and could be a serious actor in the field, concurrence to India or China. Vietnamese have shown that when they investigate a market, they can become quickly a world actor, like with the coffee, the rice.

9-      The other challenge that manufacturers encounters when they grow organic farming is the corruption of the workers who would buy cheap Chinese crap to make the yield. It is very important to train the workers, give them good conditions and make them understand the value of organic farming.

10-   Developping a sustainable “filiere”for a new raw materials is a big challenge in Vietnam but it seems possible, there are successful attempts to sustainabily extract specific Vietnamese plants like the SAPA essential oil project.

      

     


       Another good example of a medicinal plant that is extracted in a sustainable way is Crila with extraction of Crinum latifolium. https://www.crilahealth.com/  Due to the know-how and the hard work of Dr Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram.

I encourage you to read the story of Dr Tram. It is engaging and inspiring!

Joy's Blogathon- the happy winners

A big thank you to all the people who commented on my blog during this special event. I am touched as they were all nice and positive to me, and also they were appropriate and some brought something new to the discussion.
Unfortunately many of you were not elligible as you don't have an address in Vietnam.

I am happy to announce the lucky winners for the blogathon.
post 1 : Jean Yves wins a Gourmandise de can Tho masssage oil.
post 2 : Ahsumaker wins a set of the six room spray collection 4 ml
post 3: Ahsumaker wins a blend of bergamot, vetiver, vanilla precious oil.
Ahsumaker, can you please send me privately the contact of your friend, then we can send the get-away to him.