New Sniffs: 1.11.2018

/ AustralianPerfumeJunkies

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Portia

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Hey Hey Perfume Junkies,

The idea is that anything worthy of comment, either good or bad, that’s passed under my nose through the week will get a short write up. Up till now I have kept APJ positive comments only, those days are gone. If I think something is terrible, shamefully lazy, greedy or stupid and you should know about it, it will be said. Not everything works for everyone and it would be pretty boring if it did >>> YMMV. I’d love it if you all agree, respectfully disagree, have any thought-out opinion and want to share, do so in the comments below. The point is starting a conversation.

New Sniffs Aug 2018

Anything that I’m not keeping becomes a super simple GIVEAWAY. All comments are entered. Next week I’ll tell you who random.org picked. If the winner doesn’t eMail me during the week it will JACKPOT to next weeks winner who will get both.

Last Weeks Winner: No sniffs last week.

eMail me at (portia underscore turbo at yahoo dot com dot au) with your address please

New Sniffs: 1.11.2018

Had a Surrender To Chance order come in. Some 5ml Friday buys and a couple of new things. Plus I got to wear some of the Split frags that arrived a couple of weeks ago.

TinaG came over on Sunday and we had a little sniffy session so some of these reviews are double handers.

Le Frenchy by Guerlain

Cologne. A very nice cologne but it doesn’t seem worth the extra money.

Ilang Ivohibe by Perfumery Generale PG15

Yang, citrus, vanilla. Tropical yet more than that. The vanilla is dry, dry, dry so the fragrance is far less gourmand yet still has hints of the bakery. I like the heat Ilang Ivohibe brings and the ylang/citrus are very like an Australian friand or French financier, both small almond cakes.

Bouquet Massai by Perfumery Generale PG10.1

We smelled fruit as the main note. A berry/mango/blackcurrant amorphous fruity thing with a thick, dewy peony, quite powdery. Sounds like we hate it but it’s good. Not sure I’d wear it but TinaG would.

Sandalo by Lorenzo Villoresi

Opens really creamy, this is a decant so I’m pretty sure it’s a modern version. The creaminess seems to duck and weave through various other notes, mostly I can’t tell them apart. TinaG says patchouli and vetiver are strong and once she said that I tend to agree.

Le Participe Passé by Serge Lutens

WOW! Serge has hit the jackpot again. For those nay sayers who just love to diss dirt on Serge, this is a modern interpretation of his famous stewed fruit accord.All your happy memories of his old work brought bang smack into the 21st century. The only real surprise is that he kept the price reasonable. YUM YUM PIGS BUM.

L’innommable by Serge Lutens

Waxed wood and resin from ballet slippers. I smell a leathery, fruit mince pie, with sugar caramelised on top. Twinings Christmas tea and  booze (I say brandy but TinaG is not convinced). TinaG is smelling rotten orchard windfall apples.

Santo Incienso, Sillage Sacré  byThe Different Company

Woods, all the woods, nothing but the woods until it becomes the incense and the woods. I can imagine myself wearing this a LOT! If you had a 9-5 job and wore this to work you would devastate the masses. TinaG says the citrus lifts the woods and incense onto another level, and she would wear it too. Smell fabulous but kind of under the radar, stealth fabulous!

 

Have you tried any of these? How did they work for you?
Portia xx

74 thoughts on “New Sniffs: 1.11.2018”

  1. Yay for New Sniffs from you and TinaG!
    I’m not feeling the name “Le Frenchy” and the scent doesn’t sound up to much either.
    “If you had a 9-5 job and wore this to work you would devastate the masses” has to be the best mini review of a perfume ever.

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  3. So, obviously the Santo…blah, blah, blah perfume had me hooked with that review. I think Tom Ford needs you on his marketing team Portia. I have not tried the PGs you mentioned but I suspect I would like them very much. Pierre Guillaume and I get along very well, with the notable exception of Foudre, which I think is from his Croisiere line. Not sure if it’s the Cashmeran in there that turns my stomach, but it induces seasickness in me.
    Now as much as Pierre Guillaume and I are besties, the same does not apply to Serge Lutens. Tried many with little glee. Douce Amere seems to work, but that stewed fruit note simply does not play out well on my skin. Fille en Aiguille is a hot mess every time I’ve tried it.
    Last weekend after a particularly brutal day of stove/oven shopping, I stopped into the l’Occitane boutique. OMG! The shop smelled like absolute heaven. The gorgeous mingling of all the different products eased my stress like a good shot of well-aged single malt Scotch. Not a fan of their perfumes, but their body and home fragrance lines are lush and they all smell terrific. Picked up a bottle of Winter Forest home fragrance. Went wild spraying the inside of my car and then my house when I got home. A truly lovely, meditative scent that immediately conjures up freshly cut Christmas trees and pure white snow. Great for the season to come.

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    • Hey Marcella,
      I LOVE L’Occitane. Remember they did that great line of square plinth type bottles? Sandal & Vanille, Mer & Musc, Neroli & Orchidee and a few others. I thought they were excellent perfumes at reasonable prices.
      Yes, Serge either works or doesn’t. Totally polarising. I hear you. Almost all of them work a treat for me luckily.
      HA! Tom Ford does NOT need me on his team. I’d start telling the truth about what I think of some of them. it would be bedlam.Having said that I just got a couple of new ones to try, let’s see how they go.
      Portia xx

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  4. I have not tried these but did sample Sucreabille and Hexennacht this week. To me, they are shit. Derivative. Don’t last long. Turn to plastic. I don’t see what all the rage is. Deep Midnight and Solstice are much better. I guess it is the dark cult following that does it. Waste of $40.

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      • Hey Portia. I believe Hexennacht is an indie perfumer/perfumery. https://www.hexennacht.com/scent-descriptions Sounds a bit like a Satanic bakery, but then I have not sniffed any of the offerings.

        The incense thing sounds interesting, but now that the weather is colder in my hemisphere and I have gotten the appropriate scents out of storage, I am finding that most of the woods and incenses are all very similar when I apply them and already I am sick of them and it’s only November 1. Even the CdG incense line seems just okay.

        Anyone remember Matthew Williamson’s Incense? I recall it being absolutely amazing but that was a donkey’s age ago and well before every house was on the incense bandwagon…

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        • Now why on earth do perfume companies do this? The whole trend thing. Saffron, rose, oud. Woody Insence. Whatever. They all claim to produce massively original fragrances, but then they churn out one copy cat after another 🤨

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  6. Went up to Jenners to sniff Le Participe Passé… to find that they no longer stock Monsieur Lutens.
    Went to Harvey Nics to sniff the new Bottega Veneta Absolu… to find a big array of boxes, and no tester. SA couldn’t understand why it might be an issue not having a tester or samples for a brand new frag.
    Ho hum.

    I was also thwarted on my quest for red glitter DM boots… to find that they are not in stock yet. Only adult sizes, rather than the kids’ version. (Yes, these are for me.)

    On my new sniffs radar this week, though: I’ve tried two from the Zoo sample pack I ordered, and I;m smitten by both of them (Rhubarb My Love, and Club Design).

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    • Red glitter Docs 😍 well wowser. You’re lucky to be able to buy kid sizes as there’s always lots of variety in the glitter category. Love me some glitter.
      You didn’t have much success on your outing today. New fumes without a tester? Right so, won’t be buying there then🙄 Ridiculous!

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      • What’s even better about the kids’ sizes? no VAT. It’s just as well that I’m not one for grown up lady shoes, though… you’re not going to find a pair of fancy heels in a size 35.

        The other bit of thwarting: gloves. I get all over excited when I find small-sized leather gloves–in pink! red! deep teal!–and then sulk when the fingers are still at least a centimeter too long. Gah! Back to fingerless arm warmers and cuffs for me…

        (I had unexpected success though when some money accidentally fell out of my bag and a very beautiful plum coloured floofy scarf fell in!)

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  7. The Lutenses and TDC sound great, Portia!

    As of yesterday, I’ve got plenty of new sniffs if I may say so: new acquantainces from a perfume forum have sent me about two dozen of new scents. The ones I’ve immediately fallen in love with are Goutal’s Nuit Etoilee and Must de Cartier (damn, it’s criminally good!). Cuir de Cordoba is nice but there’s a bit too much spice in it for me. And a bitter review: I received a sample of something called Sasha Coffee Cigarette, a scent created by a Russian musician (!). It smells like a generic coffee flavour but it costs more than 120$ for a 30 ml bottle! WTF?!
    Also, I got a handful of Arabian houses’ perfume samples, their names tell me nothing (Wisteria, Bliss Perfumes et al.) which are pretty expensive, too, but most of them seem quite plain to me, overly sweet, plus I don’t appreciate the way the Russian distributors play on the gender stereotype: “this scent is for the charismatic sexy queen et cetera”. The bit about “intimate velvet touch of patchouli” got me cackling.

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  8. Interesting mix of sniffs this week, Portia. Liking the sound of those PGs, am dismayed at the Guerlain cologne😮

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  9. I’ve not tried any of your new sniffs, but am always happy reading your reviews and learning about new or unknown fragrances to me I must try the new Lutens! I am one of the lucky ones that enjoy and can wear Lutens fragrances overall. And Sandalo! I am a powder fan, and it’s from 1989 when fabulous fragrances were made. I’ll look for that one, although I know you mentioned a modern decant so it may not be available vintage. My new sniff this week was TF Lost Cherry. The top note very cherry and quite pleasant; however, I wasn’t loving the dry down was not interesting with poor performance for the price.

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    • Hey Kathleen,
      I find many of the Tom Fords have splendid openings and crumble halfway through to mediocrity. Not all of them but a significant number. Even a couple I loved the opening so much I bought it for that anyway.
      Portia xx

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  10. The only ones I’ve tried are the Lutens, Le Participe Passé was a bit of a rehash to me but I quite liked L’Innommable (of course the ridiculously expensive one). Oh, I did try Santo Incienso, which was pleasant but not potent enough for me. Most of the TDC line is quite weak on me.

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  12. Lutens Participe reviews are confusing me. Does it smell like Lutens Chene or dry fruity ones like Arabie? I got to smell Doblis, the version Val the Cookie Queen has, and I do feel it has the DNA of vintage caleche.

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  13. I’m really into stewed fruit of late so I’ll have to look into Le Participe Passe.
    I’ve been working through the Floral Street sample set. No big winners for me so far, though the bottles are quite pretty. Have you tried any of these yet?

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      • Mecca online has them but nothing jumped out screaming “buy me”. It seems all “done before”. But maybe I’m just being harsh.

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        • Not too harsh at all. Ylang Ylang Espresso is interesting at least, but none of them actually cause me any kind of emotional response. I still have two left to test, but it’s primarily a “meh” from me.

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          • I was going to purchase the discovery set but got a bit off track and jumped right into the Ylang Ylang Espresso instead. I really like it, too. It’s the 10ml bottle which isn’t a big commitment.

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      • I’ll send you up my sample set if you like, I only have two more to try. As with the bottles, the presentation is spot on but the juice isn’t convincing me.

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  14. This week almost everything you’ve tried sounds so appealing, most of all TDC and SL, both of them. I have avoided new sniffs recently because they always lead to at least one new decant or bottle.
    Le Frenchy – the name is cute and sexy but Guerlain has such a hyperproduction of scents and many are just unnecessary flankers that I don’t consider them to be serious anymore.

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  15. I tried Villoresi Sandalo around 2013. If i remember correctly I didn’t find it warm enough, and cannot remember creaminess. To my nose it was more masculine than feminine. I really have trouble finding a good sandalwood perfume, remember that warm, creamy smell of sandalwood from some expensive English soaps from the 70s. Sandalwood fragrances later have often seemed austere and some have had (seemingly) a fenugreek note or other foody aspect. Villoresi also does good candles, and I should revisit some of his other perfumes such as Yerbamate. I own a small bottle of Teint de Neige, but it turned out to be too powdery, so is sadly neglected.

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    • Hi Ingeborg, you could try Fragonard’s Santal. It’s very creamy and cozy and overall woody, not foody 🙂
      I agree with you about Teint de Neige. It’s the signature scent of one of my girlfriends and it smells very good on her but I wouldn’t want to smell so powdery all the time. And Yerbamate was a favorite of mine too.

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      • Fragonard is a brand to note. It is not available here, but surely there will be holidays in France in the years to come, or indeed some scent mules.

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  16. Keen to try all of these! I am a big fan of PG…and the Serge we are SUPPOSED to be getting at Mecca but I haven’t seen it around anywhere in the office for a sneaky sniff.

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