.
Post by FeralJasmine
.
I love wildness, and consider it the source of some of the best possibilities we carry in us, hence my screen name. When it comes to perfume, though, you can encounter some serious pushback about wearing your wildness, so to speak, on your sleeve. I often see scents designated “not office-appropriate,” and this distinction makes sense, but there are times to cut extravagantly loose and let your inner wildcat roar.
This evening, for instance. Never mind the tasks that still have to be completed before you head home, and the chores that await you there. Suppose, this time, you didn’t do that. Suppose you rushed home, tore off your clothes and anything else that constrains you, sprayed a carefully chosen something on yourself, and rolled around in a kind of catnip ecstasy. What would it be?
Feral Favorites from FeralJasmine
I have a number of rolling-in-catnip scents, so I’ll keep my descriptions brief:
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
VINTAGE OPIUM by Yves Saint Laurent
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Coriander, plum, citruses, mandarin orange, pepper, jasmine, cloves, west indian bay, bergamot
Heart: Carnation, sandalwood, patchouli, cinnamon, orris root, peach, lily-of-the-valley, rose
Base: Labdanum, tolu balsam, sandalwood, opoponax, musk, coconut, vanilla, benzoin, vetiver, incense, cedar, myrrh, castoreum, amber
The alpha and omega, the Bitch-Goddess, the sexiest perfume I know of. I have a precious stock of the earliest bottles, not just pre-IFRA but pre- any costcutting that reduced the Mysore and musk component. Glorious. I would never dream of layering it, and would no doubt be struck by lightning if I tried that.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
HARD LEATHER by LM Parfums
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Leather, rum
Heart: Iris, honey
Base: Sandalwood, cedar, agarwood (oud), olibanum, vanilla, styrax
A lovely sexy vanillic leather that manages to be firmly male and lusciously female at the same time. A perfume that invokes both Dionysus and Aphrodite is not to be ignored.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
VINTAGE PANTHERE by Cartier
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Tangerine, grapefruit, pepper, ginger, incens, rose
Heart: Jasmine, gardenia, tuberose, freesia, orris, narcissus, ylang-ylang, vetiver, nutmeg
Base: Oak moss, Tonka, patchouli, sandal, civet, musk, amber, vanilla, cedar
The tuberose that roars. So intense that I’ve seen it referred to as “crass.” I beg to differ. Imagine a passionate night in a breezy bedroom in Mexico, with a huge bunch of tuberoses that have never seen the inside of a cooler tossed across a pillow, and you have the general idea. The modern version is quite genteel and doesn’t deserve skin time on a wild night.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
VELVET GARDENIAby Tom Ford
Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Orange, gardenia
Heart: Jasmine, rose, honey, beeswax, plum, lily of the valley, tuberose
Base: French labdanum, incense
This tragically discontinued Tom Ford captures to perfection the hint of death that hides within the vibrant life of a gardenia. When I remember growing up in Louisiana, and the sensuality of the climate, I want Velvet Gardenia. A few good sprays and I’m seventeen again.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
NOIR DE NOIR by Tom Ford
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Saffron, patchouli, rose, tuber, oakmoss, vanilla, oudh
Another Tom Ford, a lovely rose with a delicious truffle note. When your mood is more languid than wild, this one will suit.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
TAWAF by La Via del Profumo
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Jasmine sambac, rose, opoponax, narcissus, myrrh
The growling jasmine from AbdesSalaam. The source of my screen name, it smells to me like an a Indian wedding night.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
MUSCS KOUBLAI KHAN by Serge Lutens
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Civet, castroneum, cistus labdanum, ambergris, Morrocan rose, cumin, ambrette seed (musk mallow), costus root, patchouli
A little sweaty, a little cuddly, profoundly sexual with notes of profound innocence, this is a genius creation. It will carry you from the earliest wild thought right through to the afterglow, or give you all of that at once.
A favorites list is always a moving target, and all I can say is that, today, these are the seven sexiest perfumes that I can think of. But the id contains an endless supply of wildness (mine does, anyway) and needs its outlet, so if you favor other perfumes for your wildcat moments, do tell…
FeralJasmine x
Australian Perfume Junkies 
Hey there FeralJasmine,
This is a wonderful post. I love your choices and have a couple myself. I like the export bottle of MKK because for me the fragrance lives better spritzed.
Portia xx
LikeLike
I do love my MKK! I have once seen someone say on a board that she finds it all cuddly and can wear it to work, but all I can say is that her skin is pretty different from mine.
LikeLike
Excellent list FJ! I haven’t had the chance to try Hard Leather or Tawaf yet, but I will put them on my list right now. I have an original Opium parfum that I cherish as well…. and that Panthere, gah! That blew me away when I first tried it. I have some of the vintage parfum that I keep with my Opium 🙂 And you are right, the Velvet Gardenia is right on spot with the actual flowers, especially when they are a turning a little brown. I compared them to the flowers on my plant in the yard. Thanks, great reviews!
LikeLike
Based on your other likes, I think that you will adore Hard Leather. It’s a beauty.
LikeLike
I am definitely going to try it, thank you!
LikeLike
GORGEOUS.
LikeLike
Ginza!!! So glad to have you come by. I’m at work right now but will look forward to reading your latest this evening when things quiet down. By the way, all, some of the best perfume writing you will ever read is on Neil’s blog, so do click his link.
LikeLike
I agree 🙂
LikeLike
Excellent list. Vintage Opium would be my first choice too and I cast another vote for MKK. I would add Bal A Versailles – it’s my I’m-wearing-it-and-I-don’t-care perfume.
LikeLike
Yes…. Bal a Versailles, another love…
LikeLike
Somehow I have managed to miss BAV, and need to correct this. What’s the sexy aspect? I hear that it’s very civet -y.
LikeLike
Yes, it is civety. I like it because it’s all resiny and warm and fuzzy, a little vanilla and some skank thrown in for good measure.
LikeLike
That was in regards to the Bal a Versailles, btw.
LikeLike
Sounds lovely. I’ve ordered a sample. I don’t know how I miss some of this stuff.
LikeLike
Hi Feral!
Gorgeous list! So many faves for me here. And now I must get vintage Panthere….bigger tuberose the better!
Love,
M
LikeLike
I think I can honestly say that they don’t come bigger than this one. But this is the vintage, the one with panthers creeping up the sides of the bottle. I haven’t smelled the reformulation and don’t know anything about it. Any other sexpot scents that you can suggest?
LikeLike
Besides the classic Shalimar (vintage extrait), have you tried Rochas Femme Rochas (moss, leather, spicy, musky) or Schiaparelli Shocking (civety floral honey), and Dior Dolce Vita (there is some grrr in the old stuff) – all these are the vintage versions of course. And for sexy non-vintage I love Histoires de Parfums Tubereuse 3 Criminale, Olympic Orchids Golden Cattleya (honeyed flower sex), Keiko Mecheri Loukhoum Parfum du Soir (has on opiate effect on me :)), Xerjoff Mamluk….. I could probably go on :)…..
LikeLike
Thanks, Mary P! There are a number of things here that I haven’t tried.
LikeLike
Great list, except for the Hard Leather. That one turns to a chemical, rubbing alcohol, hot mess on me. I’m going to try it again in different weather but my first two tries were fails. 😦 I so wanted it to be a really sexy scent on me. I haven’t felt sexy in so long I don’t know what perfume I’d wear if I did.
LikeLike
Oh dear, Poodle, we have to find something to charge you up! Sorry the Hard Leather didn’t work. It’s just like that sometimes. My own Antigrail scent is Shalimar. I read about its shimmering beauty and I buy vintage, but on me it smells just like a disposable diaper. It’s the Perfume Goddess’s joke on me. But hey, that leaves me more money to spend on vintage Opium.
LikeLike
Loved this – dying to try Tawaf the most on this list – sounds like it will be a jasmine explosion.
LikeLike
Pingback: Pink Gardenia by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz for DSH Perfumes review « AustralianPerfumeJunkies