No doubt writers always use their senses to start the spiral of a story. I am sure Justine wore a Chanel perfume as a link back to her subject. Smell is a powerful stimulant able to transport us to times and places we had thought we had forgotten, a magic carpet of the nose.
So imagine my fancy when I discovered that Honore Balzac upon writing Cesar Birotteau he commissioned the original Guerlain in 1837 to make him a perfume that he sniffed frequently upon his desk.
I always thought that Colette's favourite perfume may also be Guerlain, L' Heure Blu, since she has a book of the same name, but alas it was not according to Truman Capote in his essay "Unspoiled Monsters", though Guerlain none the less:
The room smelled of her perfume…at some point I asked what it was, and Colette said: “Jicky. The Empress Eugénie always wore it. I like it because it’s an old-fashioned scent with an elegant history, and because it’s witty without being coarse—like the better conversationalists. Proust wore it. Or so Cocteau tells me.”
Alas, I have not smelled Jicky, I have heard it is animalistic and civety. Though I am intrigued, if I open a bottle and let it tickle my nostrils, will the muse alight with imagery and my pen take flight?
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