Following on from our mini life story and history of Annick Goutal on Wednesday, and our reviews yesterday, we have 3 more reviews and an extract from a fellow perfumista’s comments.

GIVEAWAY HERE

L’Eau d’Hadrien

This is citrus, but not the modern candied and tortured variety. Fresh, vibrant and alive citrus plucked directly from the tree, leaves too. Like a basket of citrus, all sorts, but warmed by the ylang ylang and sharpened by the cypress. It was the first fragrance made for the line back in 1981, apparently also an homage to Marguerite Yourcenar’s novel “Memoirs of Hadrien”, which I’ve not read, or heard of, but just ordered it from BookDepository for AUS$13 incl delivery to my door! Unfortunately, L’Eau d’Hadrien leaves me cold. Too nice, too colognesque, too nothing, yes it’s fresh and a little zesty but I want more. Sorry Annick Goutal, I know it’s your best seller and quite pretty but not for me.

UPDATE: Today while at group pedicure and lunch I gave my sample of L’Eau d’Hadrien to a girlfriend. We all tried it on, including me, and though it lasted less than an hour on us there was a delicious fresh dry down that I had missed before on just me. It was a soft and delicious skin scent. Sorry L’Eau d’Hadrien, you are better than I thought. Of course my friend was THRILLED!

Check out A Smelly Blog the comments are good too, Fragrantica here

The Annick Goutal site says

A symphony of glistening, refreshing citrus notes, orchestrated through the Sicilian lemon.
Creation date : 1981
Olfactory family : Citrus (Sicilian lemon, citron, grapefruit, green mandarine, cypress, aldehyde notes, ylang-ylang)

Ce Soir Ou Jamais (Tonight or Never)

This opens like the most delicious old fashioned rose, truly bittersweet, almost honeyed in its sweet intensity but packing a bark and leaf grain tartness. My BFF Kath’s father has roses that smell like this; sweet, dark and bitter all at once. I am not a soliflorous (I know, not a word) person. Give me a bouquet and then twist it a bit and then TURN THE SMELL UP! Make it enormous please. Which is why I am astounded at my love for this enchanting and bewitching rose soliflor. It is calm yet mysterious and lasts for ages on my skin, I can still smell delicious traces of it lingering next morning. It is polarising though. Last night while hosting Turbo Trivia I wore Ce Soir Ou Jamais and had 2 lovely unsolicited compliments and one, “OMG! What is that you have on? Yuck!.” Win some, lose some. I did have to remind the rude one that, in fact, I was wearing it for my own enjoyment and she could continue to wear her Avon (which I admit smelled really, REALLY good on her. It was yummy) for ever.

Perfume Smellin Things really understands the rose world and does a super review, Fragrantica is here.

The Annick Goutal site says

The scent of pure rose, breathtaking and elegant in its femininity
Creation date : 1999
Olfactory family : Floral (Turkish rose, ambrette seed, and a blend of essences kept secret…)

Eau de Camille

I love Eau de Camille too. I had a girlfriend during our teenage years and this scent reminds me of her every time I wear it. It begins sparse and almost spiky like cutting the ivy back every year at autumn and sweetens mildly as you get to know it and it warms on your skin, then gone. Not much longevity but pretty, vivacious and sparkly while it lasts nonetheless. Just like youth. Eau de Camille was the first fragrance that Annick Goutal created especially for her daughter Camille when she was 8 years old.

SweetDiva has this to say and Fragrantica

The Annick Goutal site says

Green, like an ivy garden, as fresh as a dewy morning
Creation date : 1983
Olfactory family : Floral, green (Ivy, privet tree, honeysuckle, seringa, cut grass)

Ambre Fetiche

I have never smelled Ambre Fetiche but I have a rave review from my comments strings. The lovely Dionne from BeautyOnTheOutside (BOTO) had this to say about it, I am now looking (lemming like) for a decent priced bottle but it looks discontinued around here.

A recent discovery for me was how much Annick Goutal’s Ambre Fétiche calms me down. I got a generous sample about a month ago from Dee, and put it on on a Monday morning when I was soooo sick of the gloom and overcast and snow (meanwhile a whole bunch of blogs were all “Let’s talk about perfume for spring while we skip through the daisies…” which didn’t help), and was majorly grumpy. Something about that amber/incense combo just made me slow down and find peace. The other part of the story is that I reapplied it Monday night to show The Engineer, he took one sniff and said, “I want you to buy that.” In my two years of being a perfumista, he’s never had that reaction before.

Bought a 100ml of it the following day.

If you need any more reason than that to go shopping Fragrantica has the details

The Annick Goutal site says

Classic and modern at the same time, a very textured and sensual interpretation of the amber.
Creation date : 2007
Olfactory family : Amber, Vanilla, Leather (Frankincense, labdanum, styrax – Benzoin, absolute of iris – Vanilla, geranium, patchouli, Russian leather)

I hope you’ve enjoyed our 3 days of Annick Goutal. it has been our pleasure to bring it to you.

Portia xx