Gabriella

Boutonniere No 7 by Rodrigo Flores-Roux for Arquiste 2012

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Gabriella

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Hello APJ friends! Hope you are all well and enjoy my contribution today.

 

I’ve loved gardenias even longer than I have loved perfume. The velvety white blooms have been a constant in my house over summer ever since I was a little girl. As a result, I associate their heady scent with freedom, happiness and good times: summer holidays, splashing around in the backyard pool, savouring a cold ice cream, sultry starlight evenings and Australian Christmas. My adoration is so big that I’ve developed a little ritual each time I visit my parents at Christmas. As soon as my suitcase is unpacked, I cut some of the creamy buds and arrange them in a vase to put in my bedroom, their intoxicating scent allowing me to forget my work stress and delve deep into joyous memories.

 

Gardenias may be my perfumed perfection, but sadly, as many have encountered, it’s difficult to obtain a perfect gardenia perfume. As most will know, scent can’t be extracted directly from the flowers and needs to be created via synthetics. In addition, most great gardenia perfumes have been discontinued: Tuvache and the wonderful Velvet Gardenia by Tom Ford (which in my estimation is the most exquisitely lifelike rendition of the flower ever). Others are good, but miss the mark in my estimation: Chanel’s is more jasmine and a little uptight, Isabey’s is more of a floral bouquet, Il Profumo’s a much stronger rendition of the Chanel, Van Cleef’s is more lily and not narcotic enough.

 

Thankfully, the perfume gods were listening in 2012 and a number of perfumes featuring gardenia were released: Ineke’s Hothouse Flowers (which I haven’t tried yet), the dark, brooding gardenia of Serge Luten’s Une Voix Noire and

Boutonniere No 7 by Arquiste 2012

BoutonniereNo7 beyondblackwhitePhoto Stolen beyondblackwhite

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Lavender, pettigrain, gardenia, vetiver, genet, oakmoss

 

Interestingly enough, Boutonniere was conceived as a gardenia fragrance for men. This intrigued me, as when it comes to the flower, I can’t think of anything more femme fatale other than gardenia. According to the copy, the perfume is meant to evoke the scent of a group of gentlemen gathered at intermission at the Opera-Comique in Paris in 1899. They are wearing gardenia boutonnieres; the heady scent from the lapels intermingled with the bergamot and lavender colognes the men are wearing.

Boutonniere does have the crisp feel of cologne and I can see some men wearing it, but it is still decidedly feminine enough to satisfy this girly-girl. What Boutonniere brings to the aforementioned gardenia line-up is a luminous, very green rendition of the flower. The aromatic bergamot and lavender temper the creamy, ripe quality of the velvety petals and give them a soft incandescence. The fragrance has the lush quality associated with the flower but remains bright and soft.

londonDawn telegraph.co.ukPhoto Stolen telegraph.co.uk

When wearing it, I have been thinking of a young woman on summer holidays at a country estate. It’s almost dawn and she can’t sleep, restless with excitement about long languid days ahead. In her ivory nightie, she slowly opens the French doors to a luxuriant private garden filled with gardenia bushes, lavender and huge lemon trees. She breathes in the cool air, steps out with grass crunching underfoot. The daybreak sprinklers are on: petals and roots washed fresh under a sky of milky lilac; the air filled with hushed promise of new possibilities.

Boutonniere to me is the first part of a triptych of the perfect gardenia. If Velvet Gardenia is the flower in full bloom, ripe and voluptuous in the midday sun and Une Voix Noire the flower with petals gone sweet and overripe, then Boutonniere is the bloom yet to be born: tight white buds softly creamy and earthy green.

Downton Abbey series 3.Photo Stolen kued.com
It’s exquisite.
For other reviews, please see BoisDeJasmin and AnotherPerfumeBlog
You can purchase a 55ml bottle directly from Arquiste for US$195.
SurrenderToChance has samples starting at US$5/.5ml
Have you tried Boutonniere? Do you like any gardenia-based scents? What perfume signals freedom and summer holidays to you?
Until next time!
Madeleine x

Portrait Of A Lady by Dominique Ropion for Frederic Malle 2010

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Gabriella

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Hello fellow perfume lovers!

The advent of another new year has got me thinking about all the wonderful things that have happened to me over the past 12 months. Perfume-wise, it has been amazing, bringing me experiences that I would have never thought possible just a year ago. Not only did I meet the lovely Portia, start blogging and talking to all you wonderful people, but I bought my first vintage perfume (Chloe), acquired a Serge Lutens bell jar, added wondrous things to my collection, finally swooned over Mitsouko and also fell completely in love with a perfume that I had previously completely and utterly loathed.

Portrait Of A Lady by Dominique Ropion for Frederic Malle 2010

Portrait of a Lady FragranticaPhoto stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Clove, cinnamon, rose, black current, raspberry
Heart: Incense, sandalwood, patchouli
Base: Musk, amber, benzoin

News of Portrait’s launch a couple of years ago sent the perfume blogosphere into a spin but some were disappointed at first sniff and due to the fact that it was yet another oriental composition dominated by rose and patchouli. I was one of those people. Upon my first test, it did indeed fail to move me. Portrait was just OK, a bit ho-hum and I was deeply frustrated. I love Frederic Malle and especially Ropion’s creations, but Portrait seemed lacklustre against the rest of the treasures in the line. And why yet another rose when the line up already included Une Rose and Lipstick Rose?

Earlier this year, I got the temptation to revisit it. One evening, I tentatively dabbed some from a sample before heading out for dinner with Mr M. Mr M was in raptures and proclaimed his love instantly, but Portrait was so overwhelming I couldn’t concentrate on eating. It was practically screaming at me: “Rose, spices, oud, berries, patchouli!” in a discordant, off-key coloratura. It almost made me feel queasy.

How things change. Recently, I have been falling in love with darker scents and was tempted to sample Portrait again, both on skin and on a card. It was magic. Portrait’s screechiness was now a beautiful aria on my skin; the scent strip lying in my living room sending me into raptures each time I walked in. I was smitten.
The real beauty of this creation for me is that it is a perfect union of seemingly opposites: voluptuous Middle Eastern opulence and poised elegance.

NicoleKidman GuardianPhoto Stolen Guardian

Luscious raspberries and blackcurrant open the composition with a tart but slightly bruised quality as if they have been macerated, dripping viscous red and purple juices. Then there’s the rose, but it’s not a fresh dewy rose, but deep and rich. Its black petals thick and warm against the skin; the plushest black velvet enveloping the skin in a warm embrace. The composition then begins its journey into its Arabian Nights movement with oud and cinnamon the perfect support act for the rose; the scent of a souk in the early twilight of a summer’s evening. The rose, spices, oud and patchouli are seamless here in their harmony, no one note dominating the overall chorus.
The drydown for me is why Portrait of a Lady is called thus: the rose become gentler, the patchouli and oud soften their volume and the presence of musk gives the perfume a dusky elegance.

Since discovering this newfound love, I have been testing many dark roses for a comparison as one of the initial complaints about Portrait was that the dark rose oud patchouli thing had been done so many times before. But I’d have to argue that Portrait is special amongst these compositions: it weaves its intricate harmony so beautifully and stoically that it stands alone.

Lady oddballfilmsPhoto Stolen oddballfilms

For other reviews, please see NowSmellThis and for another equally enthusiastic take KatiePuckrikSmells
Portrait of a Lady is available at Mecca Cosmetica, Barneys and Les Senteurs.
SurrenderToChance start at $9/ml

Have you tried Portrait of a Lady? What are your favourite dark rose perfumes? Are there any perfumes that have gone from hate to love for you?
With much love till next time,
M x

PG04 Musc Maori by Pierre Guillaume for Parfumerie Generale 2005

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Gabriella

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Hello APJ friends! I do hope you’re all having a great festive season and for those that celebrate Christmas, I hope Santa brought many scented goodies your way.
I respect the Parfumerie Generale line enormously. I might not own many full bottles of Pierre Guillame’s concoctions but I love how he makes the conventional extraordinary and makes the unconventional tremendously beautiful.
Take his version of tuberose, the sumptuous Tubéreuse Couture, where the ‘conventional’ tuberose is taken to new heights by the addition of sugar cane and papyrus. Or Bois Naufragé where the inspiration was a photo of a nude on driftwood. The unconventional idea of skin and washed up flotsam and jetsam is transformed into a transparent milky fig and woody scent that is much more than a day at the beach.

PG04 Musc Maori by Parfumerie Generale 2005

Musc Maori is his take on the conventional note of chocolate. Now, I am not sure about you, but I am not really a fan of gourmand scents. I’m also one of those weird women that missed out of the chocolate-loving gene when I was born. The taste of chocolate, let alone the thought of a perfume centred around it, doesn’t exactly set my world on fire.
Musc Maori, however, is much more than just a chocolate perfume. It is an exploration of all chocolate’s elements: its taste, its smell, how it makes you feel and the memories it brings.

PG04 Musc Maori FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these notes:

Cacao pod, tonka bean, amber, vanilla, white musk, woody notes, coffee, floral notes and green notes.

Musc Maori’s opening is much more intriguing and complex than the whiff of a freshly opened chocolate bar.
Languid floral notes (which I suspect here is orange blossom and a little jasmine) combine with the cacao and tonka bean to create a vivid impression of entering a really good chocolate shop. The refrigerated air is perfumed with the sweetness of rows upon rows of prettily decorated and delicately flavoured chocolate nubs. It is at once rich, yet transparent, like an aerated veil of all varieties of the sweet: from plain dark to milky white; from raspberry fondant to orange crème.

The woody notes then underscore the floral sweetness but lend a tart, slightly astringent vibe that is almost crunchy in nature. It reminds me of my younger years when I did in fact enjoy the occasional tube of Smarties or two: biting into the brittle candied shell to devour the silky milk chocolate inside. It also evokes a flood of memories of birthday parties. There’s the sweet, powdery acidic smell of packets of balloons. There’s the scented melange of jelly sweets, chocolates and plastic trinkets in the take-home lolly bags mixed with the remnants of the perfume the mother wore when she carefully packed them the night before.

maoricarving 3news.co.nzPhoto Stolen 3news

Musc Maori then develops a strong lactonic character, but it’s not hot milk or even hot chocolate I smell. The milk note here is tepid with the gentle aroma of white flowers. Masses of jasmine and gardenia blooms steeped in white liquid. The drydown is the soft chocolate mixed with gentle musk and woody notes: the scent of a young child’s skin after a Friday night chocolate treat and a bath: warm, tender and sweet.

I find Musc Maori to be a compelling perfume to smell and experience. It’s one that really surprised me because it is just that much different from anything else I have tried. But while it has taken me on a lovely olfactory journey and evoked strong memories, it’s still not something I would actually want to smell like. I’ll keep a vial handy for the memories, but full bottles are for true chocolate connoisseurs only.

cacao healthpostPhoto Stolen HealthPost

Further reading TheCandyPerfumeBoy and Olfactoria’sTravels
Perfumerie Generale’s site starts at 30ml/€59
SurrenderToChance starts at 1ml/$5
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Have you tried Musc Maori? What are your favourite gourmand scents or ones with chocolate notes? Have you tried any perfumes recently that have inspired strong memories of childhood?
With much love till next time,
M x

Scented Niche Christmas Gifts to Impress

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Gabriella

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Ten Niche Scented Gifts for Christmas

Hello APJ friends! Hope you are all well and looking forward to the festive season.
When Portia suggested I compile a list of niche perfume Christmas picks, I was filled with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Excited because I could get really creative and think outside the square and scared because, well, let’s face it, buying perfume for loved ones, let alone niche, is fraught with difficulties.
So, I have taken a deep breath and hopefully risen to the challenge. For ease, I’ve chosen more approachable scents and assumed price is no object. Enjoy!
1.   Dad: Bigarade Concentree by Frederic Malle
Bigarade concentree Frederic Malle for women and men
Jean Claude Ellena’s modern take on eau de cologne, Bigarade Concentree starts with piquant, zesty blood orange and aromatic cardamom notes before settling into soft orange and hay. This is as refreshing as a dip in an ice cold pool, but still a refined classic scent.
Notes: bitter orange, rose, cedar, grass and hay
2.   Mum: Antonia by Puredistance
Antonia Puredistance for women
Possibly the most beautiful and sublime release of 2012, Antonia is an intricately weaved green floral with galbanum, ivy and jasmine. The Antonia woman is intelligent, graceful, self assured and wise – the best qualities of Mums everywhere,
Notes: jasmine, rose essence, ylang ylang, orris, ivy greens, galbanum, vanilla and vetiver.
3.   Brother: Sunday Cologne by Byredo
Sunday Cologne Byredo for women and men
A slightly balmy and spicy scent, Sunday Cologne combines the freshness of bergamot with star anise, incense and lavender. Clean, cool and utterly debonair, this can be worn equally with a sharp suit or t-shirt and jeans.
Notes: cardamom, bergamot, star anise, lavender, geranium, incense, vetiver, patchouli and oakmoss.
4.   Sister: Nuit de Cellophane by Serge Lutens
Nuit de Cellophane Serge Lutens for women
A refined take on the standard fruity floral, Nuit de Cellophane combines osmanthus and jasmine to create a gorgeously translucent scent. Nuit de Cellophane is demure and pretty with just a hint of coquettishness.
Notes: mandarin, osmanthus, jasmine
5.   Significant other (Male): Amyris Pour Homme by Maison Francis Kurkdjian.
Amyris Homme Maison Francis Kurkdjian for men
Sex in a bottle. A blend of aromatic rosemary and mandarin tempered by cool iris and warm woody notes, Amyris is the tall, dark handsome stranger at a swanky bar who buys you an ice-cold martini before saying sotto voce: ’Come hither’.
Notes: rosemary, mandarin orange, amyris, coconut, coffee, iris, milk chocolate, tonka bean and agarwood.
6.   Significant other (Female): Flor Y Canto by Arquiste
Flor y Canto Arquiste for women
A bewitching white floral, Flor Y Canto tempers the heady notes of tuberose and frangipani with bright marigold. Sunny and carefree, but still devastatingly sexy, this is for a confident woman who doesn’t take herself too seriously.
Notes: Mexican tuberose, magnolia, frangipani and marigold
7.   For the budding perfumista friend: Frederic Malle’s Coffrets
frederic-malle_coffrets
In my opinion, Frederic Malle offers the best variety of all niche brands. These coffrets offer small vials of the brand’s scents: men’s, women’s or a 2012 selection. Your friend is sure to find new love, whether it’s the mint barbershop vibe of Geranium Pour Monsieur or the brooding oriental of Portrait of a Lady.
8.   For the friend that hates perfume:  Aqua Universalis Perfumed Candle by Maison Francis Kurkdjian
Aqua Universalis Perfumed Candle
An impressive, weighty candle without an oppressive scent, Aqua Universalis is a fresh and delicate blend of green notes, orange blossom and jasmine.
Notes: bergamot, sicilian lemon, lily of the valley, sweet mock orange, light and musky woods
9.   For kids: Les Bulles d’Agathe by Maison Francis Kurkdjian
Les Bulles d'Agathe Scented Bubbles 3
These blowing bubbles are lightly scented with pear, violet, mint or cut herbs – fun for the little ones or just for the kid in all of us.
10.  Top niche Christmas pick: La Myrrhe by Serge Lutens
La Myrrhe Serge Lutens for women
In one of those coveted bell jars, Serge Lutens and his partner in crime Christopher Sheldrake have created a luminous rendition of myrrh – the essential oil and resin carried by the Three Wise Men. Warm aldehydes suggest the twinkle of Christmas lights on powdered snow while gentle spices and almond evoke the last bite of Christmas pud washed down with a glass of warm Amaretto.
Notes: mandarin, myrrh, lotus, bitter almond, sandalwood, honey, jasmine, amber, musk, various spices and pimento
Pictures sourced from Fragrantica, Basenotes, Polyvore and Wantist.
 
Where to Buy:
Arquiste: arquiste.com and Barney’s
Maison Francis Kurkdjian and Serge Lutens: Les Senteurs, Luckyscent and Mecca Cosmetica
Puredistance: Luckyscent
Serge Lutens bell jars: sergelutens.com and Barney’s
 
Hope you’ve enjoyed my picks. What are your top niche Christmas choices?
Love,
M x

Givrine by Evelyne Boulanger for E.Coudray (1950, 2004)

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Gabriella

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I am hoping for a long, hot summer down here in Sydney. Judging from the wet, cold and dire spring weather we’ve had over the past few weeks, I’m afraid my hopes might be in vain, but that doesn’t mean my olfactory choices can’t reflect a sense of optimism.

I’ve therefore been compiling scents for sweltering and humid conditions as summer temperatures can sometimes reach the high 30 or low 40-degree celsius mark come January. When you have had a long day, all you want to do is peel off damp work clothes, have a cool shower, turn up the air conditioning and slip on a soft cotton t-shirt and shorts. On days and nights like these, I want my perfume to be light and fresh, but still devastatingly feminine and pretty.

Givrine by E.Coudray (1950, 2004)

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Kumquat, bergamot and watermelon
Heart: Peony, gardenia, violet and lily-of-the-valley
Base: Sandalwood, patchouli, musk and white woods.

Enter Givrine by E. Coudray, a soft floral citrus perfume that sounds like the perfect thing for such needs. Les Senteurs even describes it as “the perfect summer holiday perfume – fresh and carefree and exhilarating”. The scent was originally launched in 1950 and then reissued in 2004 by perfumer Evelyne Boulanger. There’s very little information about Givrine, and discrepancies in notes lists. I was expecting a scent that was soft and clean. I was, however, thoroughly unprepared for Givrine’s supreme elegance and classical beauty.
It opens with a vibrant accord of mandarin and bergamot, so rich and lush, it speaks of old-school sophistication and grand chypres of yesteryear. The rose then comes to life – a rich red rose – with the citrus notes making it velvety and bright. The citrus fades rather quickly and the rose note is then underscored by powdery violets and peony. The florals here are all boudoir: a ballgown on a chaise longue, silk stockings, softly lit dressing table, crystal perfume bottles and jewellery boxes filled with strands of pearls.
Photo Stolen visit-the-farm
The effect also recalls the times when perfume rituals were taken seriously and women bathed in bath oil and sprinkled talcum before dabbing on the matching parfum. The result is a fragrant mille-feuille of dozens of soft petals gently caressing warm skin. The petals aren’t the colours of a vibrant rainbow, but the most delicate lilacs and pinks of a Monet painting. The rose-violet accord is accentuated by a hint of gardenia, the dry down a mellow skin scent of soft woods.
Givrine brings back memories of when I was a teenager. I was obsessed with fashion and would spend my pocket money on huge tomes of sea-freighted US Vogue, wide-eyed over the Chanel ads and pictures of Linda, Christy and Naomi. My parents, for various Christmases and birthdays, also bought me all the books in the Vogue “decades” series: “The 1930s in Vogue” and so on. Givrine to me is the “The 1950s in Vogue”. It’s not a femme fatale of the era like Jane Russell or Marilyn Monroe, but rather the smooth, feline curves of a Hitchcock blonde.
Photo stolen sensibility
Givrine is also the demure little sister to the pin-up diva of Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose. Both feature a central rose-violet accord, but the grapefruit and vetiver in Lipstick Rose gives it more lushness and vibrancy. Givrine’s powdery woodiness is somewhat more sedate and refined.
It’s not my first choice for a “t-shirt-after-a-shower” fragrance but would help me keep my poise during a blisteringly hot work day.
For more reviews, please see Fragrantica and Now Smell This, which reviews the original version.
Givrine is available at Les Senteurs and at Madame B in Melbourne as well as many other places worldwide, according to the E. Coudray website.
Samples from Les Senteurs are £5, while the 100ml EDT is £63.
Have you tried Givrine? What’s your favourite rose or violet fragrance? What’s your perfume of choice when the heat just gets that little too much?
With much love till next time!
M x

De Profundis by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2011

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Gabriella

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Hello everyone! Hope you’ve all been well and had a lovely fragrant month.
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Today’s post is part review and part confessional. The confession is that, until recently, I have somewhat overlooked the Serge Lutens line. Pre-perfumista days, I tried Fleurs D’Oranger and thought it was nice, but a little too much for me at a time when Marc Jacobs was my perfume of choice.  Once on my perfumista journey, I tried a few, but the whole stewed fruits and woods thing that Serge Lutens is famous for scared me a little. Somehow, I also got busy trying other things and the rest is history. Thankfully, I’ve now righted my transgression and have been delving into Serge’s world quite seriously of late, so much so that it now ranks as my favourite line with as many full bottle wants as the line which incited my passion – Frederic Malle.
Photo Stolen marathi.wunderground
Exploring Serge has also been a wonderfully informative journey. The perfumes I thought I would like and that get a lot of love in the blogosphere – Chergui, Ambre Sultan – simply don’t work on me. However, Serge’s weirder florals that I’ve tested with ambivalence are the ones I’ve swooned over and are ones that simply bloom on my skin. These include Datura Noir, Vitriol D’Oeillet and the magnificent Paris exclusive, De Profundis.

De Profundis by Serge Lutens

Photo Stolen zuzafun

De Profundis is a composition based on chrysanthemum, a flower traditionally associated with funerals and death. The name, translated from Latin means “out of the depths” or “a cry of appeal expressing one’s deepest feelings of sorrow or anguish”.  Indeed, literary and biblical references of the term emphasise feelings of melancholy and despair: Oscar Wilde’s letter written during his imprisonment, Christina Rossetti’s poem and Psalm 130, which starts with the line: “From the depths, I have cried out to you, O Lord”.
The copy accompanying the release also emphasises morbidity, stating: “the chrysanthemum invites Death to leave the cemetery and offer us its flower.” For me, however, this fragrance is not so much about death, but a story about the cycle of a complete flower, from the first signs of buds to petals bruising, brown and overripe.
 De Profundis Serge Lutens for women and men
Photo stolen from Fragrantica.
De Profundis’ notes are chrysanthemum flower with additional notes of violets, green and earthy notes.
The perfume’s opening is very sumptuous, green and radiant. It is the smell of a garden after a winter’s storm, a cold wind against dew on stems, bright and chilly. It is reminiscent of other green florals, but here the green notes are voluptuous and full, not austere or astringent in nature. The vivacious opening is tempered by the slight pepperiness of the chrysanthemum and powderiness of violets.
The composition is fairly linear in character, but as it warms on the skin, the wood notes become more prominent, giving the perfume a richness and earthy feel.  It becomes a portrait of flowers left in their vase too long, their blooms now pale and wan, the stems slightly fetid and decaying.
Photo Stolen paranoias
But De Profundis is not nearly as melancholy or moody as I expected. Whilst somewhat haunting, it still manages to have a fresh, sparkling quality that is joyful and bright. What I love most about it is that it full of contradictions: bright but dark, happy but sombre, elegant but vampy, restrained but voluptuous.
De Profundis is a must try for anyone who likes green scents or for those who appreciate some of the stranger Serge florals.  For me, it’s very much full bottle worthy. Mr M and I are now hatching a plan to try and secure one of those bell jars from Paris.
For other reviews, please see Bois de Jasmin, Perfume Posse, and The Non-Blonde
Samples available from Surrender to Chance starting at $4/ml
Have you tried De Profundis? What are some of the more bizarre Lutens creations that have worked for you? Is there a fragrance line that you’ve overlooked and then come to love?
With much love till next time!
Madeleine x

Perle de Mousse by Bertrand Duchafour for Ann Gerard 2012

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Gabriella

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Ann Gerard

Perle de Mousse

Hello APJ friends! Hoping you’ve all had a wonderfully fragrant time over the past month and that you enjoy today’s post.

It’s a very warm spring day. Sitting under an expanse of huge oak trees you feel the gentlest caress of a breeze. The air is rich with the smell of greenery: the lush grass, the ivy curling its way around the tree trunks, the fresh stemminess of white flowers. You feel the warmth of the dappled sunlight on your face, relish in the way it washes over you with its honeyed rays.Your significant other has surprised you with an impromptu picnic: it’s a treat following your decision to take a half day from work. It seems like you’ve spent years chained to your desk staring at a computer screen. You’re loving your newfound languidness. Sipping your champagne, you delight as its fizziness tickles your nose, quenches your throat. You take a deep breathful of mossy greenness.

Photo Stolen cntraveller.

Gently, you arch your back, loosen your hair from its tight chignon, smooth your crisp white shirt and remove your heels, delighting in the sensation of tingly grass blades on your soles. You lie back on the soft cotton rug, reach over to lay your head on your man’s shoulder. His shirt gently caresses your face, you smell the gentlest whiff of his citrus cologne. Your eyes close and you drift towards sleep in the soft yellow light.

Very few perfumes conjure up a complete story in my mind on first sniff, but Perle de Mousse is one of them.

Ann Gerard Photo Stolen elsa-vanier

The fragrance is a green chypre, composed by Bertrand Duchafour for Parisian jeweller, Ann Gerard. It is part of a trio of scents, the others being Ciel d’Opale, a linden-based fragrance and Cuir de Nacre, a leather perfume originally sold in a limited edition under the name Pleine Lune.

Perle de Mousse features notes of: aldehydes, pink pepper, bergamot, green mandarin, galbanum resin, ivy, lily of the valley, hawthorn, Bulgarian rose, clove, jasmine, gardenia, lentiscus absolute, ambergris, musk and a hint of vanilla.


Photo stolen from http://www.anngerard.com/
The perfume opens with a sharp burst of aldehydes and a sumptuous accord of galbanum and ivy: rich, verdant and dense. After this initial green spark, the composition quietens down quite rapidly and becomes linear in feel. The mandarin note is interspersed with lily of the valley and the other white florals, with no one note standing out.

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Perle de Mousse is an extremely soft and delicate chypre that gives a cursory nod to the Dior greats by Edmond Roudnitska: Diorella, Eau Sauvage and Diorissimo whilst still being completely its own scent. Anyone looking for a powerful tenacious green chypre or a typical Duchafour composition won’t find it here. Perle de Mousse is extremely gentle, with average sillage and longevity. Despite its ethereality, it is still a stunningly beautiful fragrance and a must try for any green or chypre fans.

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SurrenderToChance has the range starting at $4/ml
LuckyScent has a Discovery Collection 3 x 9ml in a coffret $65 or 60ml/$165
With much love till next time,
M x

Kiss My Name by Ramon Monegal 2012

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Gabriella

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Ramon Monegal

Kiss My Name

Hello Junkies!

Hope you’ve had a great time sniffing since my last post. I had hoped to post a review of the Bex London range today, but sadly I’m not. London is my second home and I was really looking forward to talking about how these fragrances evoked my memories of the city, but they just didn’t work on my skin. So, I’m shelving that.

Instead of taking you on a trip to London, we’re going to go to Spain and look at one of the new perfumes by Ramon Monegal. Portia’s already reviewed one of his scents, Lovely Day, in her Sunday quicksniffs and today I am going to review the white floral in his line: Kiss My Name.

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

First things first, as Olfactoria has mentioned in her review, it’s a strange name for a fragrance with unfortunate connotations. I’m not sure whether it’s an awkward translation from Spanish, but just thinking of the following exchange makes me want to laugh:

“What are you wearing?”
“Kiss My Name.”
“Hmmm, ok then.”

Strange title aside, when I read the description of this perfume at Luckyscent, I was expecting a full-on tuberose. While tuberose is listed as one of the notes, this is not anything like the tuberose classics: Fracas, Carnal Flower and Tubereuse Criminelle. In Kiss My Name, tuberose plays a quiet supporting act to the main notes of jasmine, neroli and iris. Kiss My Name features notes of indian tuberose absolute, iris cedre, egyptian jasmine absolute, tunisian neroli and tolu balsam.

The perfume starts off very tropical and green, but it’s not the suntan-lotion-with-a-pina-colada kind of tropical, but rather that of a humid rainforest at the start of a blisteringly hot summer’s day. The sun is peeking through a lush green canopy, the humidity and steaminess warming up the white floral shrubs and releasing their narcotic aroma. A cool vegetal iris underlines the composition and is reminiscent of the moist dense earth of the rainforest floor. The jasmine and neroli are quite heady, but the iris becomes stronger and lends a sharp metallic vibe to the composition. The cool metallic note versus the warmth of the white florals gives a nice duality to the scent.To my nose, the three notes or neroli, jasmine and iris also combine to give a distinct ‘green mango’ vibe.

Photo Stolen LiFE

Kiss My Name is rather linear on my skin, although it has felt quite different upon each wearing. Sometimes it’s all about the jasmine and neroli. Other times, the iris is the dominant note, with the metallic element sometimes soft and sometimes overpoweringly screechy. It’s obvious that Kiss My Name is meant to be the diva of the Monegal line, but it’s not the sophisticated diva of Fracas et al. It is the scent of a diva at on holidays, happy and at play. When wearing it, I’ve been thinking of Brigitte Bardot at Cannes or Marilyn Monroe in chic capri pants and white shirt, complete with cats-eyes sunglasses and ruby red lips. It’s a joyous fragrance and one that white floral lovers and any iris fans should try. I’m not completely sold just yet, but I think I might enjoy this on the upcoming humid nights of a Sydney summer.

Photo stolen themarilynmonroecollection

One other thing: I love the packaging. The inkwell-style bottle looks really sophisticated and sturdy. One of the nicest bottles I’ve seen of late.

Have you tried Kiss My Name yet? Have you tried any others of the Ramon Monegal line? What’s your favourite happy summer fragrance?

With love till next time! M x

Ophelia by James Heeley 2010

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Gabriella

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All Things Bright and Beautiful

Heeley Ophelia

Hello Junkies!

It’s Madeleine back again. I trust you have all had a wonderfully fragrant time since my last post and hope you enjoy this review of one of my all-time favourites.
 
Sometimes we need a little sunshine in our lives. As we’re still in the midst of winter here in Sydney, these words could never ring more true in my mind. When it’s cold outside, I sometimes pull out the traditional comfort scents to lift my spirits, but more often than not, my weapons of choice to combat dreary days are what I call my ‘joyful’ scents. These are the perfumes that herald balmy days ahead, of t-shirts and warmth, and are perfumes that just simply put a spring in my step. They are my olfactory mood enhancers. Fracas, with her brash, diva-esque tuberose never fails to make me smile, as does Le Parfum de Therese with her sun-tinged melon. But there’s a third perfume in my arsenal that just makes me feel happy and beautiful: the exquisite Heeley Ophelia.
Ophelia James Heeley for women
 
Conceived as an olfactory homage to Shakespeare’s tragic heroine in Hamlet, this perfume is an elegant, graceful and gauzy white floral. It is an outstandingly beautiful perfume and while it does have some love out there in the blogosphere, in my mind it remains a seriously underrated fragrance.
Ophelia’s notes are listed as: Green stems, Water lily, Jasmine, Yalang ylang, Tubereuse, White musk, Grey amber and Moss
 
Heeley’s website calls it “too pretty for words” and while I wholeheartedly agree with this statement, I shall nevertheless try to negate it and try to do the perfume some justice here.
 
Ophelia is a composition of radiant beauty, the scent of a summer’s day after a storm.  Dawn breaks and is greeted with the damp and dewy scent of green stems and leaves, verdant, deep  and lush. As the sun slowly starts to peek over the horizon, lilies and jasmine start to unfurl their petals and fill the air with their lovely delicate scent. The temperature continues to lift and tuberose starts to bloom, giving the composition a slightly carnal, creamy edge. Delicate musk tempers the heady white floral bouquet as the sun recedes and daylight fades. Ophelia also has an aquatic aspect, but here the watery notes give the green floral core a luminous quality and not the oceanic vibe that many perfumistas dread.
 
Ophelia is the scent of white gossamer; the wings of butterflies; the breath of an angel. It is profoundly delicate and graceful, but the depth of the green notes and the white florals mean it is decidedly a woman’s fragrance and not too girly girl or flimsy in nature.
 
The perfume’s pretty, feel-good vibe means some reviewers have been puzzled by the Shakespearian reference, given that the character of Ophelia in Hamlet is ultimately a tragic one. Torn between her love for Hamlet and her duty to her father, she goes mad and eventually drowns, which may or may not be an act of suicide.However, I think James Heeley composed this fragrance as an ode to Ophelia’s grace, her purity, and her beauty, not as a reflection on her darkness and despair.
Photo Stolen flavourscatering
 
Ophelia is truly romantic and would be a perfect wedding fragrance or for those in the throes of new love. It is also a perfume for those who love life. Ophelia just makes you feel good to be alive.
 
Have you tried Ophelia and do you love it as much as I do? What perfumes are your weapons against cold winter days? What are your favourite fragrances to lift your mood?
 
With much love till next month,
M x

AMOUAGE Awesome Foursome

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Gabriella

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Hello Everyone,
This is my first Guest Post for AustralianPerfumeJunkies and I will be back regularly.

AWESOME FOURSOME: A QUARTET OF AMOUAGE

For many years, the beauty of this wondrous Amouage line eluded me, not through a deliberate choice mind you, but because I initially dismissed it as more about marketing than lovely juice (how wrong I was!) and because I was having other adventures in perfume land, it never really registered on my radar. Even an eager SA at Selfridges when I was living in London last year couldn’t tempt me by waving a scented card of Ciel – one of the line’s white florals –under my nose. I was determined to discover things that weren’t available to sniff in Sydney – Balmains, Dior’s La Collection Privée etc – that it barely registered. Thankfully, things didn’t remain the same, Amouage finally came to my nose by virtue of a happy accident. In order to round out a sample order some months ago, at the last minute, I added one of their samples. I haven’t looked back since.

Created in 1983 by the Sultan of Oman, Amouage was to revive the ancient art of Omani perfumery. The house uses the traditional materials of Middle Eastern perfumery, such as frankincense and myrrh, to create traditional Middle Eastern- style scents but with a decidedly French vibe and very luxurious feel.

But what about the reviews?

DIA POUR FEMME

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Dia was created to be the daytime companion to one of Amouage’s most revered and popular scents, the aldehyde-laden white floral, Gold. While certainly a lot softer and gentler than her bigger sister, Dia is no less sophisticated or elegant. If Gold is all silk ball gowns, diamonds and killer heels, then Dia is all about a refined wool sheath dress, pearls and leather ballet flats.

Dia includes notes of fig, cyclamen, bergamot, tarragon, sage, violet leaves, bush peach blossoms, rose oil, orange flower, peony, orris, white musk, incense, vanilla, heliotrope, cedarwood, sandalwood and gaiac wood.
It opens with a rush of warm fig and herbs before quickly developing into a luscious heady floral bouquet of peony and orange and then settles into soft gauzy woods. Dia’s great beauty is its duality: it manages to be both cool and warm, both chic and comforting at the same time. My only complaint is that it lasts barely two hours on me. Longer lasting and a full bottle would indeed grace my perfume collection.
For more reviews of Dia Pour Femme please see I Smell Therefore I Am and Suzanne’s Perfume Journal

MEMOIR WOMAN

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

The lovechild of YSL Opium and Serge Lutens Arabie is what I first thought upon sniffing Memoir Woman. The perfume is rich and heavy in feel with such a cacophony of notes that it took me a few subsequent wearings to get my head around it.

Memoir Woman features notes of absinth, cardamom, mandarin orange, pink pepper, wormwood, clove, incense, pepper, jasmine, rose, white flowers, musk, french labdanum, oak moss, styrax and leather.
Memoir is classified as chypre but has a decidedly oriental feel due to its heady mix of spices. It opens with a medicinal blast of absinth and pink pepper before the other spices slowly come to the fore, folding over and over in a billowing wave. The richness of spices segues into a warm panorama of rose, frankincense and white flowers.
For me, Memoir Woman is the epitome of Amouage’s heritage and markedly opulent vibe. Wearing this takes me one on of the strongest olfactory journeys ever: I’m wandering round a Middle-Eastern market at twilight all swathed in rich fabrics, kohl rimmed and mysterious.
For more reviews of Memoir Woman please see Now Smell This and Olfactoria’s Travels

HONOUR WOMAN

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

Being a white floral lover, I was pretty sure I’d love Honour Woman and be whacking down the credit card to buy one of those pretty white bottles quick smart.

 It features notes of pepper, rhubarb, coriander, jasmine, tuberose, gardenia, lily of the valley, carnation, vetiver, frankincense, amber, opoponax and leather.
On first whiff, I was a little worried this was going to be an upscale version of a department store fruity floral. Honour Woman opens with a tart rhubarb note but thankfully the presence of pepper and coriander prevent it from becoming too mainstream in vibe. As the fragrance develops, the rhubarb is joined by a creamy soft gardenia note to create a very warm composition before soft incense and amber join the fray. Don’t get me wrong, Honour Woman is well executed and sophisticated like the other Amouages, but I’ve yet to fall completely under its spell.
 For more reviews of Honour Woman please see Olfactoria’s Travels and The Candy Perfume Boy

JUBILATION XXV WOMAN

Photo stolen from Fragrantica

That lucky sample I acquired all those months ago and my overall love of the line is the divine Jubilation 25, created in 2007 to celebrate Amouage’s 25thanniversary. Not only is it aptly named for that occasion, but because it literally had me jumping for joy at first sniff.

 Jubilation 25 features notes of tarragon, lemon, ylang ylang, rock rose, frankincense, davana, labdanum ciste, patchouli, amber, vetiver, musk and, myrrh.
It is such an impressive chypre produced at a time when pretty much everything in this genre is dead and buried. The beauty of the scent is that it manages to combine all the classic elements of chypres past, paying homage to their memories in a thoroughly modern way. It opens with a beautiful rich accord of tarragon, lemon and ylang ylang before segueing to a symphonic rose note that’s achingly bright. The herbal rose goodness wafts and whispers before the composition moves seamlessly to a classic woody and herbal chypre drydown.
Like all good chypres, Jubilation 25 made me sit a little straighter, pull my shoulders back and hold my head higher. Even when sampling in my PJs over a coffee or after a long day’s work over a glass of wine, I am suddenly terribly chic and sophisticated. Jubilation 25 makes me feel like the woman I aspire to be.
For more reviews of Jubilation 25 please see Now Smell This and Perfume Shrine

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed my thoughts on four of the Amouage line.

What Amouage scents have you tried? Have your experiences been similar or different to mine? I’d love to read what your thoughts are.
M XOX