Capital social, grado de marginación de la Ageb y tipo de apoyo

It’s always heartening to see a small company break every rule and succeed. The perfect example in perfumery is a French outfit called Divine. If Divine had been a case study at business school the student would have failed. Location: Dinard, a

sleepy little Breton seaside town across the water from beautiful Saint-Malo. You can almost hear the Paris MBAs chuckling: Dinard ? You must be mad ! Nothing cheec has come out of that part of the world since Anne de Bretagne left to marry our King in 1491. Products: Grande Parfumerie, taking the big guys head-on. What ? No “concept” ? No beach gravel in the bottles, no Celtic angle, no nautical gewgaws ? Product launch schedule: whenever the boss feels like it. What ? No “flankers” ? No line extensions ? Forget it.

Eppur si muove. The boss, by the way, is a guy called Yvon Mouchel who ran a perfume store until he decided to make his own. His first was the eponymous Divine, a lovely, powdery, buttery floral-animalic that smells lusciously expensive and isn’t. There are two other feminines, and more recently two fragrances for men, both composed by the young perfumer Yann Vasnier of Quest International. It’s a great story: Vasnier used to go into the shop as a child, smelling everything. He struck up a friendship with Mouchel, went to perfume school at the ISIPCA in Versailles, came out tops, and is now composing fragrances for his old haunt. My favorite is his Homme de Coeur, an unusual woody iris that strikes a perfect balance between dusty melancholy and optimistic freshness.

June 22, 2005 | Permalink

COMMENTS

I live in France, to Paris and i don't know " Divine ",where can we by their parfums ?

merci for any informations

Posted by: michel | June 22, 2005 at 02:58 PM click on the link :-)

Posted by: luca turin | June 22, 2005 at 03:01 PM

Shoot, now I regret giving away that sample of Divine someone gave me. I didn't really give it a chance, mostly because, as an American, the name Divine reminds

me of the corpulent transvestite star of so many John Waters movies. Very unfair, I know.

Posted by: Tania | June 22, 2005 at 05:37 PM

Tania, you have that problem, too?! :-D The scene I remember him best for is the most completely Anti-Fragrant_film footage I've ever seen (bet you know which one I'm talking about, too: that one gives new life to particular descriptive phrase involving a certain type of GRIN.

I plan to try every perfume that I possibly can in the time I'm given on this earth, and that includes the Divine line, but I admit, this ridiculous little hang-up I have regarding the name has prevented it from rising higher on my "must try" list. Of course, Mr. Turin's endorsement forces me to overcome this!

Posted by: Suzy | June 22, 2005 at 07:55 PM

I'm glad this wonderful fragrance line is getting more press, it really deserves to do well. My favorite fragrance from them is the signature Divine, a classy and classic French perfume. The price is also reasonable, especially if you buy directly from their website (L. T. provided the link above). Luckyscent also carries it, albeit they charge a bit more. But it's worth it, trust me. This has nothing to do with John Waters or Divine (even though I like the director).

Posted by: Curious | June 22, 2005 at 11:57 PM

Christian Dior was born in Granville... so I suppose this little corner of France can't be all that bad :-)

Posted by: Marcello | June 23, 2005 at 12:32 AM

After reading this review last night, I sent an email to them enquiring about samples.

I have received a lovely email back from Corinne telling me that they are sending me some with lovely message at the bottom of the email saying..'I hope they charm

and seduce you'.

Now that is what I call customer service!

Thank you Luca for bringing this line to our attention. Barry

Posted by: princebarry | June 23, 2005 at 07:06 PM

I`m so glad you like l`Homme de Coeur, this is my first creation for Yvon and Divine, and I am really proud of it ! and actually, this is the only fragrance i wear now. I created for him L`Ame soeur and L`Homme sage since I`ve moved in New York.

Enjoy Divine and you can buy it from www.divine.fr Yann Vasnier

Posted by: yann Vasnier | June 23, 2005 at 07:31 PM Thanks Yann, it's an honor to see your post

Posted by: luca turin | June 23, 2005 at 07:43 PM

There's also a DIVINE 's perfumeshop in SAINT MALO._L'Homme de coeur fit very well with britain rainy day

Posted by: dorje | June 23, 2005 at 09:47 PM

I just discovered Divine by Mouchel several weeks ago. I found the scent completely intoxicating - rich, satiny - this is how they USED to make 'em. Reminds me a bit of EL Knowing and the much maligned by women, but complimented by men, EA Red Door. It's got the feel of Dior Poison when it first came out - honeyed oppoponax perhaps? Anyway, I can't get enough of it and have been carrying my little sample vial with me to all sorts of stressful meetings - I even had it in my pocket as a kind of talisman when I had to speak before the Mayor last week. I ordered a larger quantity now, and am hoarding the remaining drop in my

sample vial until "reinforcements" arrive via post!

Posted by: Demetrue | June 27, 2005 at 05:17 PM

I am so glad to see a review of these fine scents. I own all 3 for women and love them, they are complex and unique, and a very good rapport quality/price. I can't wait to try the men's scents!

Tara

Posted by: Tara | June 28, 2005 at 06:40 PM

Last year I bought--blind--a 100ml bottle of Homme de Coeur on eBay. It's a masterpiece. Singular and fresh but not "fresh" in the manner of the current crop of popular but boring "fresh/clean" clones. (Why this compulsion for "clean?" A little "dirty" never hurt anyone.)

One comment. To this nose, besides the iris, there is an odd and lovely note in Homme de Coeur during the initial drydown that reminds me of the breath of a baby that has just been breast fed. I also pick up the freshly-broken stem of an old fashioned rose.

Griff

Posted by: Griff | July 02, 2005 at 06:26 PM

Oh-my-God!_I've found this blog by chance, read about Divine, wrote to them to know where I could find their perfumes in Italy and just yesterday I received a packet with a lovely card and all their 5 samples!_It was unexpected as they did not answered to my e-mail!_I couldn't wait to test them, but as I opened the vials I could only smell aldehydes... I thought: "Here is another common fragrance making firm! They just put some flowers, they add lots of aldehyds in and that's all!"_I was wrong. After 15-20 I put Divine on my arm I started sniffing delighted... I went to bed wearing Divine and had beautiful dreams! I can't really say which are the main notes as they are incredibly well blended! This is what I call a

"fragrance"._This morning I decided to test Un Ame Soeur and put just tiny amount on my wrist. Again aldehyds early in the morning :-S ..._Then after half an hour, trapped among human beings on a noisy train I started smelling this soft, delightful, feminine, romantic, delicately joyful, slightly powdery (in a good way) fragrance... _These perfumes are really misterious to me, because I can't pick up single notes. I know that according to recent common tastes they could seem perfume-y, but I am quite fed up with all these fake-fruity, chocolate-y, foody, pungent, candy fragrances on the market that people seem to like so much!_I was looking for the "real thing", the French one.

Posted by: Helly | July 07, 2005 at 12:07 PM

I received a packet of samples, too, after reading Luca's post. The original Divine is so captivating that I haven't moved on to the others yet. Interestingly, my experience of it is different from those posted here. Not that my nose "knows," but Divine smells clean to me, like washing my face with ivory soap in my grandmother's basin-and-pitcher stand under an open window.

Which brings me to a question I'm dying to ask-- Luca, can a person train her nose to perceive scent more accurately? Does just smelling more things make someone better at recognizing scents?

Posted by: Cynthia | July 13, 2005 at 08:49 PM

Can you please tell me were i can purchase Divine Perfume the first time i purchased some was from Brittany Ferries but came back to England yesterday and couldn,t find any on the boat this time i really like this perfume and would love some more perhaps by mail order.

Posted by: Joyce Buckels | November 13, 2005 at 07:25 PM Joyce: www.divine.fr