Tag: caronparis

Leave a comment

THE ART OF CLEANING

It’s a fountain cleaning ritual in the House of Caron. 

Every two months, these precious perfume fountains will be clean by their staffs. And last week, I was invited to witness the special ritual in their first boutique in Plaza Indonesia, Jakarta.

These precious perfume fountains were created in glass and crystal by Baccarat. They’re the perfect storage for the extracts, therefore they need to be clean to keep their transparency and to preserve the highest quality of their perfumes.

First, they’ll empty the leftover perfume extract from the fountain and pour it into a special container using special paper filter. FYI, the leftover will be pour again inside the clean fountain if they didn’t change color or texture. Then, they’ll pour 60% alcohol into the fountain. Using a special brush, they started to brush the inside of the fountain. After the alcohol was put away, they will dry it with clean tissues, making sure that it dried 100% (as leftover alcohol will interfere the extract’s scent). The same extract (one fountain will always filled with the same extract) will be poured inside the fountain, about 500ml of them. They also cleaned the outer side of the fountain, using dry tissue. Voila! Clean and shiny, it’s ready to fill the Caron’s bottle. 

WHEN EVERY FRAGRANCE HAS THEIR OWN STORIES

After their home Paris, New York and Dubai, now Jakarta, Indonesia has our own CARON PARIS flagship store.

Located in Plaza Indonesia level 2, it actually had opened since the first of September. But they made the grand launching just last night. I was invited to the event and I believe this is the first time I ever took so much pictures in one place. Not just a place, the CARON Paris boutique is so….Paris. What can I say? Just look at the pics above and see if you agree with me. 

When I stepped into the store, the Parisian charm and the scent of luxury perfumes greeted me. Let’s just say every corner of the boutique had me at hello. Pretty artsy displays, yet very informative with every fragrance description and for me, the best part is their Fountain Perfumes. Something new for me, but CARON’s Fountain Perfumes is actually legendary. They offered their customers to fill a bottle (and you can pick the bottle there) and the fragrance will be dispensed from a little bronze tap. FYI, these Fountain Perfumes ‘dispenser’ will be clean by a special sort of ceremonial cleaning process every month in the store. Wow, I’d love to see how they clean that. 

As Indonesian, I’m proud that CARON Paris considered Jakarta as a potential market. I mean, CARON is one of the major perfume houses and Jakarta’s store is number 6 in the world. How awesome is that? Its’ unique history amazed me too. In 1904, Ernest Daltroff opened CARON’s first door in 10 rue de la Paix, Paris. His love for his colleague, Felicie influenced his constant fragrances creations. He and Felicie created “N’Aimez que Moi” in 1916, “Tabac Blond” in 1919, “Fleurs de Rocaille” in 1933 and the men fragrance “Pour Un Homme” in 1934. Each fragrance has their own stories, and the one that intrigued me is “Royal Bain” which was created in 1941. Back then, it was created exclusively for a Californian billionaire who wanted to replace his extravagant champagne baths. This one of the very first unisex Eau de Toilette is believed to bring happiness. Ever since they were created, those fragrances remains the same for their formulas and scents (they only changed the packaging nowadays to suit a more modern era). Until today, they work with their own perfume creator. 

In the 30’s Ernest also developed a manufacturing process for “Poudre Libre”, the loose powder. His method remains a trade secret until today, making their loose powder ‘the finest in the world’. I got the chance to try their loose powder and I love it. The expensive scent of Bulgarian Rose and its’ delicate feather puff added the pleasure of powdering your nose. If you love more indulgence, try their special “Powder Puff”. It was made of genuine soft goose down, but don’t worry, no goose was harmed. They plucked the bottom part of the feathers which will eventually fell off by time, anyway. 

Yup, you can find more than just perfumes in CARON’s boutique. They have porcelains and glass collections too. Every single one of them are just too fine to describe. Go visit their boutique, because seeing is believing!