Smoke For the Soul by Fabrice Pellegrin for by Kilian 2014

January 15, 2015 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 28 Comments

Post by Poodle

Hi APJ

I love smokey scents. Burning leaves, pipe tobacco, fireplaces, incense…all those wonderful notes that make you just want to curl up under a warm blanket. With a name like Smoke for the Soul I thought I’d find that type of scent. I thought wrong.

Smoke For the Soul by Fabrice Pellegrin for by Kilian 2014

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Eucalyptus, grapefruit, mate, birch, casmirwood, cannabis, cardamom

Sure, there’s a touch of smokiness in the beginning. Smoke for the Soul takes me back to college where I knew some people who occasionally smoked marijuana. I was never one to smoke anything because it made my throat and lungs burn which was not enjoyable. I was sometimes around people who did though, and this is the perfume of one of those evenings.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

It all starts with lighting the joint. There’s that bit of smoke and the unmistakable smell of cannabis in the air. The scent gets stronger as it gets passed around the room. There’s not much smokiness anymore really because everyone is holding the smoke in for a bit and then coughing. It’s a bit much so I decide I’m going to wait outside in the cold. There’s a chill in the autumn air and I can smell the leaves blowing on the ground. My friends emerge from the house and with them trails the scent of pot. By this point they’re silly enough to think that a piece of gum will cover up the smell and look to me for that. I’ve got no gum but I do have cough drops so now there’s a hint of eucalyptus in the mix.

Photo Stolen Flickr

The usual goofiness ensues and soon after the munchies kick in. I’m not driving this bunch anywhere so it’s back inside to raid the fridge. There is leftover roast chicken with thyme and lemon in there so that gets popped into the microwave to heat up. Later there’s still the faint smell of cannabis mixed with some generic men’s fragrance the guys spritzed earlier in the evening to try to make themselves appealing to the ladies.

Photo stolen Flickr

That’s the perfume in a nutshell. I can’t say I’d want to smell like this. It’s probably not something you’d wear to work unless you want to get sent to human resources to discuss your drug problem. I’d call it masculine. My hubby agrees but said he wouldn’t wear it. It’s weird and definitely worth a sniff but would I spend a ton of money to smell like it? Nope. No chance.

Further reading: Colognoisseur and Ca Fleure Bon
LuckyScent has $270/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $5/.5ml

The search for a Kilian perfume for me to love continues…

Hugs
Poodle

Apple Brandy by Sidonie Lancesseur for by Kilian 2013

December 11, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Post by Poodle

Recently I received a sample of Apple Brandy from a perfume pal who lived in NYC. This is the perfume that is exclusive to the New York By Kilian boutique. I find the exclusivity of certain scents frustrating for obvious reasons but since it showed up on my doorstep I gave it a try.

Apple Brandy by Sidonie Lancesseur for by Kilian 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Featured accords:
Apple, rum and plum accord, oak, labdanum, ambroxan, cedar, vanilla

At first sniff, Apple Brandy is full of apples and boozy amber fruit. The apples seem almost candied but the sweetness quickly moves from candied to caramel. It’s vanilla caramel wrapped around a juicy red apple. It’s not quite what I’d call brandy just yet but more like mulled wine from the plum note which also keeps the apples from smelling too fresh and crisp. There is a smokiness and a touch of amber that also prevent the sugar from taking over. The oak and cedar are noticeable even early on in the perfumes development and give it a rich, warm feeling. Imagine when you take a sip of a beautiful amber hued brandy and you can feel it warming you from the inside out. There seems to be a tiny bit of spice, maybe a touch of nutmeg. Apple Brandy has the makings of a great cold weather perfume. The scent seems to walk that fine line between a scent I want to smell like and a scent I want my home to smell like. (It would make a great scented candle.)

Photo Stolen Pixabay

As the fragrance develops the changes are slow and subtle. I wouldn’t call it completely linear but if you’re looking for a roller coaster ride of notes rising and falling you won’t find it here. The apples and fruit gradually slide away and the woods take on a tobacco like feeling at times. This is where it reminds me of brandy, when the oak-y woods blend with the fruit. The vanilla starts to become more noticeable but the caramel and candy that were present in the top notes have faded considerably.

Photo Stolen Pixabay
Photo has nothing to do with the scent I did think it too gorgeous to pass by though

I had to dab Apple Brandy on from a sample and got reasonably good projection. I was catching whiffs of caramel apples and liquored sweetness most of the morning. By early afternoon my skin was still scented softly with a wonderful woody vanilla. I’ve seen reviews say that this perfume was very boozy but my skin didn’t bring out that part of the perfume I guess. I don’t think I would have to worry that someone would think I’d been drinking.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

Further reading: Now Smell This and Ca Fleure Bon
by Killian has €150/50ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $7/.5ml

Overall I do like this perfume but can’t say it’s interesting enough to justify the price. I’d wear it if I had it but I won’t be splurging on a bottle anytime soon.
Have you tried it? Did you like it? Do you like exclusive perfumes?

Until next time…
Poodle

Sniffapalooza 2014: Breakfast

November 13, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 18 Comments

Post by Poodle

On a dreary day in October I boarded a train bound for NYC to attend my second Sniffapalooza. I wasn’t nearly as nervous this year. The city is far less intimidating when you have a native New Yorker to lead you around.

The official start of Sniffa was Saturday morning but I was barely off the train on Friday evening and Daisy had me on the subway heading for some sniffing and shopping. Needless to say, I wasn’t in town two hours and my purse was already lighter. But that’s another post for another day.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I mean, Bergdorf’s

Sniffa began on Saturday with breakfast at Bergdorf Goodman which is less about food and more about the newest perfumes along with some old favorites. There were about 20 perfumes presented in the two hour breakfast. They don’t call it Sniffapalooza for nothing. There is a lot to sniff. More than your thinking. I had planned on doing a photo essay but my camera had other plans and decided to stop working so I’ll recap some of the scents for you. From my notes here are some fragrant highs and lows.

The new Shalimar Souffle was disappointing.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Annick Goutal has released a perfume celebrating NYC called Vent de Folie. It’s supposed to be inspired by Central Park. The scent is very green, fruity and fresh. I can’t say it smells like New York to me but it is a perfume I could see selling well. I did get a compliment on it just the other day at the football game so even if it doesn’t smell like New York it does smell good.

I loved the new Diana Vreeland perfume bottles but haven’t tested the scents enough to form an opinion.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Kilian Hennessy of By Kilian was there in person and he introduced the scented jewelry collection along with the three perfumes in the new Addictive State of Mind collection. The jewelry is lovely as are the perfumes. I think I may have found a By Kilian to love with Intoxicated. It’s all coffee and booze with some smokiness. I came thisclose to buying a bottle. I had fears over the lasting power so I decided to wait and sample it some more when I was thinking more rationally. It’s easy to get caught up in the frenzy that is Sniffa. Light My Fire didn’t light mine although it did have some fans at our table. Smoke for the Soul was one of the stranger scents of the day.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Another scent worth sniffing is Gardenia by Robert Piguet. It’s not a screaming, in your face white floral and it’s far more interesting than the name implies. It has much more going on than just gardenia. There are notes of ylang-ylang, leather, and vanilla. I could see myself wanting more of this one. It’s not too feminine and has a great warmth to it.

There were more perfumes as well but it would be too much to list them all here. It’s amazing how much you can sniff in the course of two hours. Breakfast definitely whets the appetite for shopping right after on the fragrance floor. The rest of the day was filled with lunch, more presentations, sniffing, and shopping. The day was fabulous and I came home with lots of samples, a few bottles, and a few new friends. I’m looking forward to next year.

Hugs
Poodle

Kiss Me Tender by Patricia de Nicolai for Parfums de Nicolai 2010

October 16, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Post by Poodle

Loves me, loves me not

I’d been curious to try Kiss Me Tender for so long. I almost made a blind buy. It seemed so promising.

Kiss Me Tender by Patricia de Nicolai for Parfums de Nicolai 2010

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Orange blossom, bitter almonds, star anise
Heart: Heliotrope, cloves, cinnamon, ylang-ylang, spices, fresh hay, jasmine
Base: Opoponax, musk, vanilla, wood notes

The first time I tried it there was tons of ylang-ylang (more than you’re thinking) and a touch of spice. There was something retro about it as well but in a good way. When I was a kid my mom had given me some perfume nips to play with. They were these little glass-like tubes that were fused shut on the ends. In order to get the perfume out you had to snap off the end of the tube. Not something any of today’s overprotective parents would let a child play with but I had no incidents with them. Anyway, there was a ylang-ylang one and that’s what this reminded me of. That was my favorite along with the carnation. It was rich, creamy, sweet, and just a little spicy. It was soft and comfortable. When I smelled Kiss me Tender it was wonderful and I wanted a bottle then and there but I didn’t buy one.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

The next time I tried it it was different. This time there was still ylang-ylang but there was some serious sweetness as well. It was shot through with a note of green (the fresh hay?) which was an unusual contrast to the sugar. It seemed more bitter to me than green actually. Perhaps it was my mood but that day it set my teeth on edge. Lurking within this confectionary cloud I could smell some spice, clove and cinnamon to be exact, adding to the gourmand experience I was having. As the sugar subsided I was again brought back to my childhood with an odd Play-Doh note which drifted in and out. Where was all this hiding the first time I tried it? I didn’t dislike it but I wasn’t loving it like the first time. It wasn’t a good day for that much sweetness and any wrist huffing made my tummy turn a bit. On another day I might have liked it. Looking at other reviews lots of folks do.

Photo Stolen Flickr

I know I will probably have a different experience if I try it again but there’s no third try because what little I had is gone. Will I buy a bottle now? Not likely without another sampling. I’m just not sure why it worked so well one day and the next was so cloying to me.

Further reading: Grain de Musc and Perfume Shrine
Parfum1 has $150/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $4/ml

Anyway, have you ever loved a perfume one day and then had a complete reversal the next time you wore it? Did you ever fall in love with it again?

Poodle XXX

Elvis Presley – Love Me Tender (Lyrics)

Love's Baby Soft by Dana 1974

September 11, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Post by Poodle

Once upon a time in the 80’s there was a girl who loved perfume. She really believed perfumes were magical. She saw the ads in the magazines and thought she had found her secret potion. It said that the nicest things happen when you wear it. The photo suggested if she wore it she’d soon be dancing cheek to cheek with a cute boy. The silly girl was me and I simply had to have Love’s Baby Soft. If I had it my teenage crush would notice me. I just knew it.

Love’s Baby Soft by Dana 1974

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Geranium, lavender, jasmine, rose, patchouli, vanilla, musk

Like many others I was wafting clouds of Love’s Baby Soft when I was a tween and young teen. I believed that it would transform me from dorky, shy wallflower to the girl the cute guy I liked would ask to dance. Sadly, it never seemed to work but I still kept spritzing and hoping.

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

(The ads for Love’s Baby Soft in the 70’s were actually rather creepy and I’m glad the ones in my Seventeen magazine were more about school girl crushes than pedophiles and Lolita. Honestly, I’m not sure what the heck they were thinking with those older ads. Who was the target audience for those? But I digress…back to crushes and magic potions.)

Love’s Baby Soft was that first perfume lots of girls got in their Christmas stocking. If you haven’t guessed from the name, Baby Soft is powdery. It’s a fluffy, flowery, pink cloud of a perfume. It seems almost silly to try to review it and pick apart the notes even though it’s a pretty scent. There’s rosy powder, soft florals, a bit of clean musk, and a slight plasticky note which makes me think there’s some heliotrope in it.

Photo Stolen Flickr

If you like Flower by Kenzo or other powdery florals there’s a chance you were a Baby Soft girl at some point. It’s familiar and comfortable. Compared to the fruity stuff aimed at today’s youth, Love’s Baby Soft smells far more grown up even with that baby powder note. I think it’s got a powdery feel similar to vintage scents but is by no means of the same quality. It’s cheap and fun. I still wear it and especially like to wear it to bed. If it were repackaged and renamed I think it would have a lot of fans. I think a lot of people secretly like it but hate to admit it because they think they’re too old for it. I say, wear what makes you happy.

Further reading: Now Smell This and The Awl
FragranceNet has $3.50/15ml

Love’s Baby Soft made me think perfumes could be magical even though I didn’t get that dance I’d hoped for. Sometimes I think I was just young and silly. Sometimes I think not much has changed. Perhaps there’s part of us that always seems to be searching for that perfume that transforms us and makes us feel stronger, prettier, confident. Did you have a magic potion when you were younger? Do you still wear it?

Poodle X

Classic Orange by Camille Henfling for Von Eusersdorff 2013

August 14, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 14 Comments

Post by Poodle

Hi APJ,

It’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere and all the perfumes blogs are talking about citrus scents. I must confess I’ve never been a citrus kind of girl. I like them but can’t say I ever really crave smelling like one. Except perhaps lime or grapefruit…those notes I seem to like. Orange and lemon, well, that’s another story.

Scent memories can make or break a perfume. My problem with orange and lemon is that a lot of household cleaners smell like them and that makes me think of cleaning the house when I smell them. I like a clean house. I like the smell of a clean house. I don’t want to smell like a clean house.

Classic Orange by Camille Henfling for Von Eusersdorff 2013

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Blood orange, petitgrain, suede, Chinese osmanthus, black tea, sandalwood, musk.

Which brings us to Classic Orange by Von Eusersdorff. I got a sample from Cookie Queen and decided to not judge a perfume by its name and give a citrus perfume a whirl. Others have said it’s a realistic orange and have mentioned all the wonderful notes and nuances in it. Okay, let’s see.

(spritz, spritz)

Well, it’s orange but I wouldn’t call it classic. It’s rather sweet without much of the citrus tang I’m used to. As I grab the OJ from the fridge to sniff for comparison I realize I smell like orange soda more than orange juice. The perfume is sweeter than the oranges I’m used to perhaps because it’s a blood orange note. I’ve tried blood oranges and they do taste and smell different from a navel orange. They also don’t smell like the classic orange scent to me which means that I’m actually liking smelling like orange soda.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

Wait a minute, let’s go to the liquor cabinet. Triple sec? No. Curaçao? Oh…maybe… To me, Classic Orange is somewhere between orange soda and blue curaçao. There’s a tiny bit of green with a floral note too once the initial sweetness dies down a bit. Unlike most citrus notes which don’t last long, the orange does linger here right to the end. So Classic Orange isn’t that classic to me but I do enjoy it. I can’t say I would buy a bottle but I can see myself using up what I have of it. It’s cheery, uncomplicated, and easy to wear like a favorite sundress.

Photo Stolen Flickr

On my skin the projection isn’t spectacular and it wears very close within 30 minutes of spraying. Also, it is still detectable a few hours later which is impressive for a citrus.

Further reading: Notable Scents and The Goodsmellas
First In Fragrance has €115/100ml and samples

What are your favorite summer citrus scents? Do you like them only in summer or do you wear them year round for a little bit of sunshine anytime?

Poodle X

Waikiki Pikake by Brook Harvey Taylor for Pacifica

July 17, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Post by Poodle

Pikake (pee’ kah keh) means peacock and is the Hawaiian name for jasmine sambac, a flowering bush that is prevalent on the Hawaiian islands and often used to make leis. It was so named by Ka’iulani (1875-1899), the last crown princess of Hawaii. She thought pikake were beautiful, just like the birds she named them after. As a young girl she lived on an estate near the ocean surrounded by trees, flowers, and her beloved peacocks.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Iliahi is Hawaiian for sandalwood and since Hawaii was known for its native sandalwood, one can assume she was familiar with those fragrant trees as well. Ka’iulani also had a white pony (doesn’t every princess?) which she rode by the ocean. She referred to Pikake as the flower of love and once said that she would only marry if she were in love and no other reason would persuade her. She was known for her strength as well as her beauty and grace. It has been said that it was impossible not to love her.

Waikiki Pikake by Brook Harvey Taylor for Pacifica

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Pikake (jasmine), sandalwood

The perfume Waikiki Pikake is all about jasmine and sandalwood. There’s a definite tropical feel to the fragrance but without the fruitiness commonly associated with tropical scents. The jasmine here might just be a gateway drug for people who are usually afraid of it. There’s nothing here that says “dirty girl”, it’s more a beautiful jasmine fit for a princess. Never having been to Hawaii I imagine this is what the Pikake flowers smell like on an ocean breeze. Green leaves and ocean waves mingle with the jasmine and then swirl around a heart of warm, creamy sandalwood. A perfectly clear day in an island garden is what comes to mind but overall this isn’t a smothering white floral. It’s reminiscent of new love, fresh and innocent. On my skin it wears nicely in the heat without becoming overwhelming. Oddly it seems the heat tones it down but you might have a different experience. Waikiki Pikake wears somewhat linear on me, not changing much but gradually softening and fading away. I love it as a bedtime scent but I think it could be worn anytime.

Photo Stolen WikiCommons

My first sniff of this came from the body butter that I found at the discount store. That’s one thing I love about Pacifica, companion products. I love layering my scents once in a while and having a body cream that matches my perfume is so much easier than trying to coordinate which scent goes with which. That being said, you could easily get just enough fragrance from the body butter alone. I had the body butter first and loved the fragrance and the longevity of it so I bought the perfume to go with it.

Pacifica has Waikiki Pikake in $12/10ml roll on and loads of other stuff too.

So tell me, do you have a favorite Pacifica scent? Have you tried this one? Ever been to Hawaii and is it as fabulous as I think it would be?

Until next time…hugs.

poodle

Urura's Tokyo Cafe by Sarah McCartney for 4160 Tuesdays

June 12, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 15 Comments

Post by Poodle

The name of the company (4160 Tuesdays) is based on how many Tuesdays you’ll live if you make it to 80 years old. The idea is that that’s all you’ve got so make the most of them. Sarah McCartney is the writer and perfumer behind the brand. From what I can gather she’s based in London and had no formal training as a perfumer. Her scents were originally bespoke creations for friends and perfumes created to scent characters in a novel.

Urura’s Tokyo Cafe by Sarah McCartney for 4160 Tuesdays

Photo Stolen 4160 Tuesdays

4160 Tuesdays gives these featured accords in one line:
Grapefruit, tangerine, opoponax, tolu balsam, geranium, violet, rose, raspberry leaf

Recently I was lucky enough to win a bottle of Urura’s Tokyo Cafe by 4160 Tuesdays on Indiescents. I just started hearing about the line so I was excited to try it. If the rest of Sarah McCartney’s perfumes are like Urura’s Tokyo Cafe, she is proof that you don’t necessarily need training to be really good at something. For some it comes naturally.

Urura’s Tokyo Cafe was created to raise money for a charity event. The name of this does not really give an impression of what’s going on in the perfume. Actually it’s hard for me to pin that down as well. I mean that in a good way. It’s a chameleon on my skin. Depending on the day, the weather, my mood, who knows what else, it smells a bit different each time. It was easy to wear but hard to dissect. After wearing it almost daily for a week here’s what I can say.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

At times I get a lot of grapefruit and tangerine, more rind than juice. There’s a jammy quality but it’s never too sweet. It doesn’t smell overly citrusy either. I think the geranium keeps that in check lending an herbal bitterness which comes and goes to my nose. Some days it smelled chypre-like to me with an almost mossy quality. The rose changed on me day to day as well. It was dark at times, slightly sour and metallic on others, and then full bloom bouquet on the days the violet made an appearance. I have to admit I liked them all. The scent is well blended and a better nose might be able to pick it apart note by note, but I can’t, nor do I want to. It just smells good and unlike anything else I own. With the way it’s changed on me you might have a totally different experience with this perfume too.

Photo Stolen Flickr

Somehow it made me think of a cocktail, a Pimm’s Cup, which I believe are popular in London. Sweet yet bitter, fruity yet herbal. (I wonder if that was an inspiration in making this perfume…)
I think it’s easily unisex and I get hours of wear on my skin, on clothes it lingers for days and I find I bury my face in my scarf to smell it.

4160 Tuesdays has £40/30ml

Until next time…
Poodle

Jardins de Bagatelle by Jean Paul Guerlain for Guerlain 1983

May 15, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 22 Comments

Post by Poodle

Hello APJ, I’m Dreaming of Spring

It’s supposed to be spring here. I was out playing in the dirt of my flowerbeds just days ago but today it’s cold again. Hopefully by the time you read this it will be spring. Until then I have to pretend with my perfumes. One that conjures up a bright spring day is ….

Jardins de Bagatelle by Jean Paul Guerlain for Guerlain 1983

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Jasmine, violet, aldehydes, lemon, bergamot
Heart: Gardenia, rose, orange blossom, tuberose, magnolia, ylang-ylang, orchid, lily-of-the-valley, narcissus
Base: Tuberose, cedar, vetiver, patchouli, musk, neroli

I’ve gone through a few bottles of this in my life. It was my signature scent in high school. I wanted to smell classier than the Impulse Body Spray the other girls wore. I figured something from Guerlain was a good bet. I hadn’t worn it since then but recently got nostalgic and bought another bottle.

Jardins de Bagatelle has always seemed to be an unlikely Guerlain to me. It doesn’t have the powdery notes I always associate with the brand and it’s classic perfumes. It’s a huge floral. Bear in mind this was released in the big 80’s and it has some of the intensity you’d expect but doesn’t smell dated.

Photo Stolen Wikipedia

At first spritz, I’m hit with a blast of aldehydes and citrus, big and lush in the top notes. I can definitely smell violet, jasmine and many other flowers. I’m okay with spritzing but I could see someone who likes a lighter touch perhaps dabbing on instead. The effect isn’t so much sniffing a bouquet as it is sticking your face into it. I will add that the perfume softens beautifully within an hour on me even though the opening is so bold.

Chateau de Bagatelle Photo Stolen Wikpedia

As much as I try I have a hard time picking apart the notes. Once it softens it’s like the flowers come and go. Imagine walking through a garden and as you meander down the path you catch a whiff of a rose here but just around the bend there’s some tuberose, oh wait, no, perhaps that’s gardenia. When I think I have almost isolated a note, it changes on me. It’s supposed to smell like a garden and it does. The flowers are bright and dewy. There’s also a certain amount of green to it as well which keeps it smelling cool and fresh. I always smell something that reminds me of tea as well even though tea isn’t in the notes. The perfume is beautiful down to the base and never turns soapy or dirty. As the flowers fade it becomes a cozy scent with a bit of warm musk and wood.

Photo Stolen WikiMedia

Further reading: Perfume Shrine and Monsieur Guerlain
FragranceNet has EdT $68/100ml after coupon
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $3/ml

Overall I’d say that Jardins is bright and beautiful. It doesn’t smell like every other floral out there. It’s one of the perfumes I pick when I want to feel pretty. I was afraid it would remind me of high school but I guess enough time has passed to allow me to wear it and think spring.

Until next time…

Hugs
Poodle x

FR! 01/04 Magnol'art 3 by Amélie Bourgeois for Fragrance Republic 2014

April 10, 2014 / australianperfumejunkiescom / 6 Comments

Post by Poodle

Let the Music Play…

That’s the name of a song by an artist named Shannon that was released in 1984. It’s the song that came on the radio as I was writing this and since it’s about a dance, it seemed fitting. Fragrance Republic FR! 01/04 is supposed to call to mind a dance, the tango specifically, and a weekend getaway.

FR! 01/04 Magnol’art 3 by Amélie Bourgeois for Fragrance Republic 2014

Photo Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords: (slightly different in words & pictures)
Top: Yellow Italian Mandarin, Sweet Orange
Heart: Jasmine, Fleur de Cassie, Mimosa Maroc, Black Locust, Magnolia
Base: Sesame, Tonka Bean, White Musks

FR! 01/04 was not what I expected from reading the note list. I was expecting a citrusy, tropical thing that I would quickly dismiss. Instead I got something completely different that’s grown on me a lot.

It opens on my skin with a huge bouquet of flowers. The florals here are big and bold. There’s a creaminess to the magnolia that evokes the idea of big, fleshy petals. The sesame is also noticeable from the start to the finish. That and the Tonka bean give the scent an edible note that hums just below the surface. It’s not woody but rather nutty. I imagine a Latin dancer with flowers in her hair. It’s a hot summer night. She’s dancing with a handsome man to the pulsating beat of the tango. The song ends and they step away to share a sip of a tropical drink with orange slices garnishing the glass. All these aromas mingle with the musky sweetness of their skin covered in just a shimmer of sweat.

Photo Stolen Pixabay

The idea behind the perfume is Argentina and the sensuality of two bodies dancing the tango. At the start it’s musky, nutty floral. The citrus notes are nowhere to be found for me. It isn’t until later in the development they make a little flirting appearance. The perfume has an earthy quality to it but it never smells dirty to me. There’s a sensual facet from the big flowers but even the musks in this are clean and not animalic. While I was able to piece together the imagery it wasn’t the down and dirty fragrance I thought it would be. These two dancing bodies are keeping all their contact on the dance floor.

And she sang;

“I thought it was clear,
the plan was we would share
this feeling just between ourselves,
But when the music changed
the plan was rearranged,
he went to dance with someone else.”

There’s no roll in the sheets to end the evening for them. It’s all about the dance. In the end the perfume is all about the clean musks with that touch of sesame. That being said, it’s got just enough going on to keep it from smelling too clean and the sesame gives it a unique quality that I really like.

Further reading: Ca Fleur Bon
Fragrance Republic has $45/15ml

Poodle x

Australian Perfume Junkies

Olfactory Opinions from Oz

Poodle

Smoke For the Soul by Fabrice Pellegrin for by Kilian 2014

Smoke For the Soul by Fabrice Pellegrin for by Kilian 2014

Apple Brandy by Sidonie Lancesseur for by Kilian 2013

Apple Brandy by Sidonie Lancesseur for by Kilian 2013

Sniffapalooza 2014: Breakfast

Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I mean, Bergdorf’s

Kiss Me Tender by Patricia de Nicolai for Parfums de Nicolai 2010

Kiss Me Tender by Patricia de Nicolai for Parfums de Nicolai 2010

Elvis Presley – Love Me Tender (Lyrics)

Love's Baby Soft by Dana 1974

Love’s Baby Soft by Dana 1974

Classic Orange by Camille Henfling for Von Eusersdorff 2013

Classic Orange by Camille Henfling for Von Eusersdorff 2013

Waikiki Pikake by Brook Harvey Taylor for Pacifica

Waikiki Pikake by Brook Harvey Taylor for Pacifica

Urura's Tokyo Cafe by Sarah McCartney for 4160 Tuesdays

Urura’s Tokyo Cafe by Sarah McCartney for 4160 Tuesdays

Jardins de Bagatelle by Jean Paul Guerlain for Guerlain 1983

Jardins de Bagatelle by Jean Paul Guerlain for Guerlain 1983

FR! 01/04 Magnol'art 3 by Amélie Bourgeois for Fragrance Republic 2014

FR! 01/04 Magnol’art 3 by Amélie Bourgeois for Fragrance Republic 2014