Hey Hey Fellow Fumies,

Nuit de Noel or Christmas Night, what we call Christmas Eve today, was created in 1922 by the founder of Caron and self taught perfumer Ernest Daltroff for, it is rumoured, his paramour of many years. There is so much hype about this fragrance that calls to me, Roja Dove and Karl Lagerfeld are said to wear only this fragrance at Christmas time, it was made for the flappers of the era and that the gold band on the original extrait bottle was a nod to their headbands are just 2 of the stories. Below you’ll see the original 30ml extrait with the shagreen case and box.

Photo Stolen eBay US$295 sealed

My bottle is the current reformulation so real sandalwood is rare and oakmoss is IFRA illegal which means the heart of Nuit de Noel is largely gone or replaced with analogous chemistry but still the opening is very special and the dry down lovely.

Photo Stolen PerfumeShrine

Fragrantica gives these featured accords/notes:
Top: Ylang-ylang, tincture of rose, jasmine
Heart: Sandalwood, oak moss
Base: Musk, amber
but fails to mention the De Laire’s “Mousse de Saxe” base <Jump to PerfumeShrine opus on it

As the initial boozy vodka like scream passes in about 10 minutes, the jasmine and ylang ylang play central starring roles with a soft hint of a spicy rose underneath. As I breathe down my top it warms up beautifully with a very human warmth that could be mink-ish (or bedhead-ish) overlaying the flowers, there is still a hint of animalic skank through the flowers and the base.

I started writing this review earlier today and haven’t had a moment to come back and organise my thoughts. It’s 3-4 hours later and there is still some floral action but the amber has arrived, a slightly sweet vanillic amber filled with oriental spices, sweet but not gourmand. After the first rush this is a quiet, fleshy floral that turns very warm and cosy. Its stamina is good too, around 6 hours before I lose track and I think it might be a quiet skin scent for a while longer, some mornings I can still smell something lovely but others nothing.

Photo Stolen howtogeek

As always ThePerfumeShrine does a wonderful review with plenty of history and BoisDeJasmin looks at the way the new EdT is different from the past.
FragranceNet has 50ml around $35

Photo Stolen thepunch

Many of the comments on blogs and walls say that this fragrance has nothing to do with Christmas, well I think it has way more to do with Northern Hemisphere rather than Southern Hemisphere Christmas. Above you can see Santa and some of his helpers relaxing after their biggest night of the year on Bondi Beach in Sydney on Christmas Day, the rest of us Aussie Christians are having a feast of some sort and huddling around A/C or lying in the pool. I’m going to wear it this Christmas anyway, if it’s good enough for Karl Lagerfeld it’s good enough for me.

At AustralianPerfumeJunkies we wish an easy life for all of you, filled with great health, enough wealth and happiness, whether it’s Christmas or not, whether you’re Christian or not, everyone!
See you tomorrow,
Portia xx