Perfumed, divine, sublime, precious, sensual and sensual oils ...
This is the paradox of the season: sales of fragrant oils take off, when those of conventional care fall, after a winter to combine creams and other serums on our skin attacked. The warmth, the bronzed skin and a certain carelessness inspire us the mantra of the summer: to give pleasure with simplicity. We then offer ourselves the ad hoc solar, a flashy varnish and, on the care side, an oil with a holiday fragrance. Because, in beauty too, we like the rhythm of the seasons.
It is this desire for simple sensuality that Axa Jabès, president of Nuxe, anticipated in 1991, launching her Prodigious Oil: a UFO for the time, where the consumer had the choice between the sweet almond phial of pharmacy, the baby oil of supermarkets, or organic vegetable oils, with a fatty finish and a stale odor. " I had just had a child, and I dreamed of a sensual care that does everything in one gesture: nourish the face, satin the body, sublimate the hair, with a fragrance that projects me on vacation in the sun. This is how I designed this oil, "remembers Aliza Jabes. Today it sells a bottle every six seconds in the world, and the formula has been emulated. Not a mark of care that does not propose today a clone with promising title : divine, sublime, precious, sensual, sensual ...
A success not surprising the cosmetologist Jannick Thiroux: " This tide of oils responds to the desires of nature and authenticity of the consumers. These cosmetics are generally composed of vegetable oils with demonstrated nutritional powers; all the talent of formulators is to associate them with the addition of fatty esters, so as to give them a dry touch. Many even do without mineral oils. "
Not to mention that oil returns the image of a healthy food ingredient. Now, in these times of uncertainty about the traceability of what we eat, everything that is good for health is also good for the skin. Add to this the attractiveness of a short composition and no suspect chemistry, as in aqueous formulas with preservatives. Finally, recent technological advances offer practical pumps, to be slipped everywhere, without contamination by touch, and whose tinted glass protects against UV rays.
Fragrant oils: a delicate formulation
But if the oil seduces us as much, it is also for its immediate result: a body of siren, with seizing and brilliant skin, a fortiori when it contains spangles, with a bonus perfume of escape . " The fragrance accentuates the feeling of elsewhere and vacation," continues Jannick Thiroux, often with notes of vanilla, coco or white flowers. Our collective unconscious is lulled by the "olfactory madeleines" that are the Chaldée Oil of Jean Patou or the Solar Amber. It is the perfume that makes the signature of the product, especially since it provides the first feeling to the opening of the bottle, before even testing the texture. Indeed, Jean Patou was a forerunner with this famous oil, which appeared in 1927 (and stopped in 2001), with the scents of white flowers and coconut on an amber background. But also with a high concentration of benzyl salicylate (a molecule that protects UV with the very natural odor of skin warmed by the sun), which is found in Solar Amber (another protective oil, beginnings, in 1936), in many waters stamped sun, or, today, of fragrant oils.
Within fragrance houses, it is sometimes the formulators of alcoholic fragrances, sometimes those of cosmetics, which develop this olfactory identity, but the exercise on oil is more complicated than it seems. " As for the candle, the fatty support does not bring out the perfume in the same way as an alcoholic base, explains Julia Fiorentino, from the laboratory Nuxe. The very volatile, light notes, like some citrus fruits, fresh flowers and aquatic chords are not clear. Conversely, fragrant molecules located in the heart and bottom of olfactory pyramid, heavier chemically, mix well with oil. These are woods, musk, vanilla, balms, but also hot spices, such as cinnamon or nutmeg that are slowly revealed on contact with the skin. It is this technical complexity which explains in part the intoxicating and tenacious effluvia of white flowers, ylang-ylang or gardenia type, amber and musk.
So, the temptation is great to abandon its usual eau de toilette for a wake fitting with the season without risk of photosensitization. When it's hot, the fragrant oil offers a real fragrance of skin. Its notes are released under the effect of temperature. This fragrance embeds every square inch of skin and glows its aromas at the slightest movement. In addition, automation encourages us to rediscover our contours. "Holiday time frees the body from our habits by sleeping more, rediscovering the taste of things and experiencing sensory experiences," confirms the philosopher Bernard Andrieu *, of the Nivea Observatory. Exposing his body to others, on the beach or outdoors, does us good by embellishing our face, our skin and our image, "he continues.
The extract on oil, not so simple ...
Some may have in mind the dry oil Musc Ravager of Frédéric Malle or the bottoms of perfume of Serge Lutens? Look no further, they have (discreetly) been withdrawn. " It's complicated to decline a perfume on oily support," comments the perfumer Francis Kurkdjian. Some, with too fresh or discrete notes, would be impossible to render in a faithful and stable manner. For others, the cost is expensive, and the gesture, not always understood by the clientele (in Asia, for example, to put an oil on the skin does not make sense). "
The perfumer nevertheless declined three of his perfumes in oil extracts. " Once tried, customers remain loyal to this product presented in roll-on. This recreates the old gesture of the extract, that of patting gracefully the hood to his neck . "
To discover: the APOM Elixirs, Aqua Universalis Forte and Black Light by Francis Kurkdjian ( www.franciskurkdjian.com ).
Scented oils: a narcissistic pleasure
The oil thus perfectly fills this narcissistic pleasure , especially since its rich golden texture is part of the heavy tendency to return to more matter. The perfumed anointing also evokes ancestral beauty rituals: one imagines in Cleopatra or in Princess of the Thousand and One Nights.
This is at least the intention of the brand Les Sens de Marrakech, which develops its oils by drawing on local traditions. Thus, the perfume of its verbena, rising and lemony, reminds us that this country remains a great exporter of aromatic plants, when its support of argan oil imitates the ritual of the hammams. " An important challenge for the perfumer, which must take into account a high concentration of argan oil, with the remnant and almost animal smells ," explains the founder Céline Seguin Musquar. Many tests are necessary, as for an alcoholic perfume. The final product must pass all the sensory tests: spread well and penetrate without greasing, with a refined fragrance and faithful to the starting brief, while complying with the European regulations. Pleasure of touch, intoxication of the senses ... We did not find better than these fragrant oils to envelop us of eroticism and awaken our chakras for a very caliente summer.
* Extract from the article "Wellness of the body on holiday" (Observatoire Nivea).
Scented oils: the choice of VB
Cult by its six vegetable oils and its unique fragrance of orange blossom, lily, vanilla, amber and musk: Nuxe Prodigious Oil.
Nourishing vegetable oils, fine mother-of-pearl and an exotic flower scent that lulls the senses: Precious Oil Sublime to Kadalys Green Banana.
A silky finish in the wake of ultra sensual white flowers: Sensory Oil with 3 Flowers of Lierac.
A tenacious freshness and a formula that allows to massively lengthen: Sensual Verbena Oil of Morocco The Sense of Marrakech.
A vegetable oil with golden tints perfumed with eau de toilette Peony Flora: Peony Illuminator Peony Flora from L'Occitane in Provence.
Its refined fragrance (pink, vanilla cedar bed, and musk) makes it as addictive and original as it is essential to nourish the skin: Caudalie's Divine Oil.
Jojoba oil, fine and light, enriched with algae from the Dead Sea, with a wake of mandarin and cedar: Dry Oil for the Body of Ahava.
White petals of white flowers perfume this vegetable oil enriched in omega 3 and 6 sailors: Marine Oil Divine by Daniel Jouvance.
Scented oils: sensuality
To optimize its effects: one applies its oil after the shower on skin still wet: it penetrates better and perfumes more intensely.
To perfume her hair: one caresses its lengths with the palms of the hands coated with a hint of oil (Christophe Robin, Massato).
To boost the olfactory molecules: one deposits the oil where the blood flows: décolleté, neck and wrists.
To personalize its bath: a few drops poured into the warm water of our bath we lulk its fragrance with delicacy. For a more intense wake, its perfume is vaporized over, the oil fixing it perfectly: a combining fragrance.
For a relaxing break: a few drops in the night cream bring comfort and plunge us into the relaxing benefits of perfume: aromatherapy, in a way. For men too ... A little oil on wet skin helps to soften it and facilitates the sliding of the razor.
