Niche

Bull’s Blood by Josh Meyer for Imaginary Authors 2012

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Hello Everyone,

These Imaginary Authors have been on so many blogs in the last year, I have been totally intrigued to try their stuff. To be honest, the sample set arrived months ago and has been sitting in my To Do list ever since. While we were doing the sample cataloguing they floated to the top of the pile again. My first is the one that has garnered the most praise and hoopla, start at the top I say.

Bull’s Blood by Imaginary Authors 2012

Bull's Blood FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured notes in one line:
Patchouli, Rose, Costus Root, Tobacco, Black Musk & Bull’s Blood

WOW! This is an experience. Maybe it’s the hype but I really smell that tinny taste you get when you bite your lip or if you have gingevitis from lack of oral hygiene during my 20s then when flossing you will get blood too. It is a very specialised taste and Bull’s Blood definitely has a smell of that taste. It’s interesting and confronting but not disgusting like Secretions Magnifiques can be. I feel like I am wearing the olfactory correlation to art, it makes me think and I am seriously moved by the strangeness.

Notes swirl here like a merry-go-round or a school of fish, turning beautifully and precisely and I am not going to ruin my trip by trying to parse the magic, though I do get wafts of patchouli, rose, sweet tobacco and musk throughout the frag life, it’s more about the kaleidoscopic pictures than each singular piece. Waves and waves of beauty, with an edge, a touch of something slightly off kilter that keeps it interesting, a fine line between absolute beauty and terrible disgust. I AM HOOKED!! Bravo Imaginary Authors, this is drama in a bottle.

BullFight Demonstration pbsPhoto Stolen pbs

It’s now tomorrow morning and there is still a sweet, bloody musk, quite strong lingering around my body. It is now very much like the opening of MKK. The staying power on this baby is extraordinary, I think it may be the costus that has stayed so beautifully. Maybe I am plagiarising but THIS is what Lady Gaga’s fragrance could have smelled like, did anyone else write this. Beautiful and weird. I am definitely in the market for an FB. I can’t believe how reasonably priced this wonder is.

Further reading SmellyThoughts and CaFleurBon looks at the whole range.
ImaginaryAuthors has $85/60ml (which is a bargain for niche so beautifully constructed)
You can also grab the 7 x 2ml sampler at Imaginary Authors Site (<<<JUMP)

It’s a great name isn’t it? Do you have a favourite freakily named frag?
Portia x

Sorry, I couldn’t bring myself to add a photo of a bullfight, they make me want to cry. I don’t judge or want to change the Spanish tradition but I can not look at them without stupid sad tears of shame and anger pouring down my face.

Hothouse Flower by Ineke Ruhland for INeKE 2012

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Hello Fellow Fumies.

I have a great online fragrance buddy, Undina from Undina’sLookingGlass, she is smart, cool and always a step ahead. Sometimes I am lucky enough to get a small Undina curated frag pack in the mail of things she thinks I will like, or that I must sniff. This one got slightly lost in transit but when the shiny blue package arrived I was over the moon. Swapping is a great way to find out more scents with only the charge of some decanting supplies and postage. Thank You Undina again

Hothouse Flower by INeKE 2012

HotHouse Flower FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Green tea, green leaves and cypress
Heart: Gardenia, galbanum, fig and olibanum
Base: Guaiac wood, musk and corn silk

My first thought upon spritzing is gardenia, I so love that fresh fragrance and when it feels green, broken branch, sap and crushed leaves overlaid with gardenia I am in fragrance heaven. There is a luscious creaminess in Hothouse Flower that hovers above the green making our cool, sunny Autumn day here in Sydney feel like Spring. I feel as if I should walk outside to see the daffodils and spring runner iris in bloom instead of the Camellias flowering and the Liquidamber just starting to turn red at the top. A fresh gardenia with only the very slightest nod to its skanky, animalic deep notes, Hothouse Flower is a fresh burst of crisp that warm slowly over time but not a lot. It sweetens and the resins add a hint of amber or caramel, maybe it’s the fig adding a sweet milky note? We have a long waist high gardenia hedge four doors down the street and when it’s in flower we get a beautiful soft and elegant waft of an evening that drowns all other natural smells in the street, this smells like that hedge from our front yard. It is both fabulous and alluring, no wonder Billie Holiday chose it as her signature flower. In case you haven’t got the message, I freaking LOVE Hothouse Flower and will make it my first purchase from Scentsation in LA, May 11.

Though I can smell Hothouse Flower and feel extremely fragrant it doesn’t have a huge projection, nor does it take over a room quickly but half an hour later I come back to the room and I can smell a tiny pretty faded gardenia memory. About 4 hours of fragrant before I am left with only a whisper.

Raw Umber on Fragrantica said it excellently: Hothouse Flower smells like Spring erupting on all sides. It’s Spring on steroids. It is extremely uplifting and soothing….. It’s like natural anti-depressants. If you like gardenia, but dislike those heavy, sneeze-inducing, overpowering florals, this variation on a true to life green gardenia should help you begin your day on the right foot.

Hothouse Flower InekePhoto Stolen INeKE

Further reading NowSmellThis and Undina’sLookingGlass
INeKE has $95/75ml in the USA but doesn’t ship to Australia
SurrenderToChance starts at $3/ml

Have you tried this line? I liked Field Notes from Paris and thought it excellently done. Have you a favourite from the line yet?
See you tomorrow,

Portia xx

Une Fleur de Cassie by Dominique Ropion for Frederic Malle 2000 Perfume Review

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Gabriella

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Hello fragrant friends! I hope you are all well and enjoy today’s post.

Some perfumes paint pictures, others tell a whole story.

These words first rang true for me when I smelled the wonderful Une Fleur de Cassie by Dominique Ropion for Frederic Malle for the first time some years ago. Before that, I knew I liked certain scents and why they appealed to me and that others just smelt awful. I could occasionally pick out individual notes, but basically my conclusions were along the lines of: “I love that tuberose” or “I don’t like that perfume.”

Une Fleur de Cassie changed all that. From the first spray, I had a “wow” moment. As it began its luxurious journey on my skin, I finally realised what other fragrance reviewers and bloggers were on about when they spoke of a perfume’s progression, the wonderful journey from top to bottom notes and that a perfume was not just about smelling nice but could be an escape to a different world.

Perfume-wise, it was my lightbulb moment.

Une Fleur de Cassie by Frederic Malle 2000

Une Fleur de Cassie FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

BaseNotes gives these featured accords:
Top: Cassie, mimosa, clove, cumin and bergamot
Heart: Rose, violet, apricot, aldehydes and salicylate
Base: Musk cetone, cedarwood and sandalwood.

Une Fleur de Cassie is Dominique Ropion’s take on cassie absolute which is extracted from the small yellow blossoms of the acacia farnesiana plant. The perfume opens lush, full and dirty. The cumin note twinned with the cassie and mimosa brings out the dark, fecal notes of the flowers and conjures up not only their dainty yellow buds but roots, stems and leaves. It’s a picture of the whole plant after a strong shower on a cool spring day: buds bruised and battered in the wet and surrounded by muddy puddles. You can smell the flowers’ creamy sweetness but also the rank earthiness of the mud littered with the soiled pinpricks of yellow buds. There’s a fecund and carnal quality hiding behind those delicate flowers, completely raw in its animalic sexiness.

The rose and the violet take over, amplifying the sweet powdery effect of the mimosa, making it brighter and luscious, the apricot intensifying the yellow tones, all golden and rounded. The petals, once damaged and torn by the inclement weather are glowing again, blooming in soft sunlight: the promise of spring’s new dawn. The musk and sandalwood in the drydown is where the almondy powderiness of the cassie and mimosa come into full effect, sprinkling the skin with their delicate sweetness, all soft and angelic.

Whilst I consider Une Fleur de Cassie to be a true love, I do concede that it is not the easiest fragrance to wear. Many others have been put off by the stark, skanky fecal quality of the opening, but I personally love the transition from opulent rankness to delicate sweetness. This paradox makes Une Fleur de Cassie a somewhat bittersweet fragrance, better suited to calm and contemplative moments on a spring or autumn day when there’s a bitey chill in the air and the earth is damp.

WomanInYellowDress Lempicka irushonokLempicka Painting Photo Stolen irushonok

And the story it tells me is this. A young woman is staying at elegant chateau surrounded by verdant fields and blooms. It’s early morning and she’s been up all night after a party, still clad in her primrose yellow ballgown but her matching satin heels have been long abandoned in the wee, small hours. She’s been thinking, brooding over the events of the night before. Looking out the window, she’s engulfed by the need to be free, the need to roam even though the ground is washed wet by the rain. Barefoot hits muddy earth, but it doesn’t bother her, she delights in the deliciousness of squelchy mud between toes, feels liberated. A smile warms her face as she caresses the mimosa bushes, the sprinkles of raindrops of skin exquisite in their beauty and fragility. The warm touch of sun is a reminder that life can still be full of promise even though she’s trapped by the bounds of melancholy. For last night she met her first love. From the sudden surprise and heart thump, there’s a reminder of what could have been, of what has gone and what will never be. Her smile betrayed by the saltiness of tears.

AmedeoModigliani oungWomanina YellowDress irushonokModigliani Painting Photo Stolen irushonok

Further reading PerfumePosse and PerfumeSmellingThings
Une Fleur de Cassie is available in Australia from Mecca Cosmetica, $238 for 50ml
In the US, it is available from Barney’s and the Frederic Malle website, starting at US$130 for 3 x 10ml
SurrenderToChance starts at $7/ml

See you,

Mx

Un Bois Vanille by Christopher Sheldrake for Serge Lutens 2003

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Guest Post by EmmaKate

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Hello fumies,

As the weather is starting to get cooler my thoughts turn to things that make me feel warm on the inside during Autumn and Winter. I have chosen to write about

Un Bois Vanille by  for Serge Lutens

UnBoisVanille FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Sandalwood, black licorice, coconut milk, beeswax, bitter almond, musk, vanilla, benzoin, guaiac wood and tonka bean.

When I first started working at Mecca Cosmetica I found the fragrances all too much in terms of how different they were to anything I had ever smelt before. I couldn’t sell them because I had no back story, had no understanding of the notes and quite frankly didn’t like any of them. Being the girl I am I set out to find out about these fragrances that had grown women running in and gasping with delight. My first port of call was Serge Lutens. This brand was all round scary due to all that French – Eek! I chose to work with what I knew and selected Un Bois Vanille- a woody vanilla fragrance. And here our journey begins.

The first spray is a sweet creamy vanilla with a slightly bitter tart scent. (Back in the day I used to judge fragrances from the very first whiff, thank god that changed quick smart or I wouldn’t be sharing my thoughts with you all.) I didn’t like it. Not one bit. Oh well, try again with something else tomorrow. Except, about 20 minutes later I caught a whiff of it again and it had evolved beautifully into this full bodied creamy vanilla that I wanted to be engulfed by. It reminds me of pannacotta before it sets and I wanted to swim in it.

Un Bois Vanille PANNA-COTTA lafestaPhoto Stolen lafesta

This is a grown up vanilla that makes me glow on the inside during winter. It makes me feel like I am wrapped up in a thick silk scarf and nothing can touch me. The tonka bean gives it body and cuts the slightly acidic note that vanilla can have, it gives it a milky feel while almond gives it strength.

Un Bois Vanille by Serge Lutens is a Oriental Vanilla fragrance and wears well, I would say around 8 hours, but this always depends on the wearer.

VanillaWood 123rfPhoto Stolen 123rf

Further reading Olfactoria’sTravels and ChemistInTheBottle
SurrenderToChance starts at $4/.5ml
You can also grab a bottle at the usual places, I found an unboxed 50ml for $94 at FragranceNet

EmmaKate xx

Cuoio Nobile by Atelier Design Fragrance for Pineider 2012

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Hello you magically scented beauties,

Another fab fragrance I was introduced to, and ultimately grabbed a bottle of, while on the Pont de Rialto bridge in Venice by the wonderful crew there. When they brought the testers out for me to try they even handled them reverently, as if carrying something extraordinary.

PonteDiRialto ItalyTravelsPhoto Stolen ItalyTravels

Cuoio Nobile by Pineider 2012

CuoioNobile FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, mandarin orange, galbanum and lavender
Heart: Cypress and suede
Base: Tobacco, patchouli, musk and tonka bean

The first thing you notice about Cuoio Nobile (Noble Leathers) is the packaging, a fabulous wooden box with intricate detailing that is rustic but finished. The when you open the lever and the lid the bottle has a very streamlined look and the lid has hand stitched softest leather wrapping: GORGEOUS!! Already in the shop it had exceeded expectations and my pulse was racing because this kind of attention to detail bodes well in my mind for the juice.

So the first spritz is leather, new leather, slightly coarse freshly back from the tanners and ready to be cut. The smell of a leather wholesalers or tack makers with wood in abundance. Maybe even in a woodland setting down wind from the woodcutters of old. It’s not till this initial deep, dark fragrance wafts away that the citrus even get a look in, and when it does it is muted, even the lavender is muted and merely in a back up role.

This is a fragrance about leather and woods, a beautiful, indecently sensual leather that you want to wrap yourself in. Like a new leather jacket that your partner has purchased and it already has whispers of his cologne on it. The lavender, patchouli and tonka are all murmering together in the background even through to the dry down. Cuoio Nobile is a fragrance to feel safe and warm in. Like you’ve stolen that jacket and thrown it on in a log cabin, even in an unused, unwarmed, wood sauna. Hard to explain and give you a real idea of how this smells except it is amazing.

I get extremely different wear life with Cuoio Nobile each time I have worn it. 4-8 hours. No, I don’t know why.

The team that created this line of 6 fragrances is ADF, Atelier Design Fragrance who give their address as Florence, Italy, and they are currently looking for worldwide distributorship.

PineiderlogoPhoto stolen Pineider

Pinieder history: In 1774 Francesco Pineider opened his first stationery shop in the heart of Florence, in Piazzdella Signoria, opposite Michelangelo’s David. In the early nineteenth century, at the request of privileged customers, Pineider created a series of extremely elegant writing desk objects such as pens, inks, folders and accessories. Later on Pineider introduced leather objects made in Florence by master craftsmen. The paper today is still worked by hand and is still coloured with natural pigments, the sheets are still water cut, and the watermark is present even in the heavy papers.

AtelierDesignFragrances site has 30ml/€95 which is what I paid in Venice (pricey I know but such a limited distribution and craftsmanship)

Unfortunately none of the sample houses have it to buy yet.

Have you tried Cuoio Nobile? Any of the Pineider scents? Are you as WOWed as I am?

Till Tomorrow,

Portia xx

White Lotus by Illuminum Haute Perfume 2012

/ australianperfumejunkiescom
Hey Happy Huffers,
I must have purchased these fabulous set of samples from somewhere but I can’t for the life of me remember doing it. I also wonder if Jin went looking through the fragrance online world and found them, maybe the perfumer sent them? I am lost but can I just let you in on a secret: they are great!!

White Lotus by Illuminum Haute Perfume 2012

white_lotus IlluminumPhoto Stolen Illuminum
Top: Lily of the valley, blue lotus
Heart: Egyptian jasmine, Indian tuberose
Base: Lotus absolute, musk, patchouli
From the Illuminum site: If innocence had a horizon at its borders, you would find a pond of Lotus. Its beauty is impossible to describe as it is a blend of moods, tones and bricks of imagination where beauty, purity and your most angelic desires meet.
White Lotus opens very pretty, the lily and lotus are soft and fleshy, almost plastic, like when you run your nail down a petal. Within 5 minutes they are already eclipsed by the heart of jasmine and very womanly tuberose.  Not skanky though, just feminine, a little breathy and silky like healthy, young, taut, tanned skin after a scrub and moisturiser. White Lotus is a little softer than I am used to, a veil more than a mask. They sit lightly on top of my own scent and weave through it, in a way they become me, an interesting offering from Michael Boadi a UK stylist/hairdresser to the magazines and stars. I am definitely fragrant but in the softest and most unobtrusive way. Tenacious yet unassuming, best sprayed into fabric as well as on yourself, I can still smell it in my top the day after next.
The bottles look really hefty and their stark, linear shape is classy and elegant in the pictures. I think White Lotus is the perfect scent when you want to feel luxe but just for yourself and someone intimate. Perfect even for fragrance phobic workplaces, this will sail under everyone’s radar, and secretly you will smell fabulous.

Illuminum site has an incredible sample set 16 x 1.5ml vials £25
Illuminum site has White Lotus 100ml/£150 and extremely reasonable postage to the world!

Tried anything, or any brand completely new this week? I can’t wait to try some more Illuminum for you all. I have the set so await the next installment.

Take care of yourselves and those around you,
Till tomorrow,
Portia xx

Avignon: Comme des Garcons Series 3 Incense by Bertrand Duchaufour 2002

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Hey Fellow Fumies,

My mate Jordan has often talked to me about todays fragrance and when I saw it for a reasonable price on a friends sell list I jumped at the chance. As you may know I was taught by Nuns and then Jesuits and there was an enormous amount of RC Church going involved in my formative years, not to mention my choir years.

Comme des Garcons Series 3 Incense: Avignon 2002

Avignon FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
French labdanum, spices, incense, chamomile, vanilla, patchouli, ambrette, oakmoss, musk, olibdanum, myrrh, Brazillian rosewood, Virginia cedar, elemi

If you want to know what church smelled like, it may still, then you need to get your hands on Avignon. It opens like the refectory where we would get ready for the processional entrance and the priest would have his censer in readiness: incense, frankincense, myrrh, wood, men and boys, excitement. At once spicy, woody, aromatic and smoky Avignon becomes woodier and darker as it wears on the skin, but there is also a sweetness that emerges from time to time and becomes more prominent towards the dry down. A circular and circuitous fragrance, it feels linear because you keep coming back to the same pieces but in different arrangements, so similar but not the same. One moment you think the woods have moved into stay, next it’s all about the smoking incense, then vanilla-esque warmth and resins. There even seems to be a wood wax bit like they shone the pews and wooden kneeling pads, and also a candle wax accord. Am I imagining things? Also the scent of a blown out match and something quite alcoholic. Towards the end it fades slowly, never losing its integrity, just intensity, and remains beautiful and haunting to the end.

Unusually for an incense fragrance I get quite a long wear 5+ hours and counting on this occasion, but I spritzed in the cool of evening, in the day with more heat and movement the lifespan is a good deal shorter. This is a wear it for myself fragrance, though I imagine you could wear it almost anywhere except close working/fragrance phobic workplaces. It would be especially fun to wear to church, dinner with clergy or anyone, shopping, picnicking, movies etc.

censer ryanphunterPhoto Stolen ryanphunter

Further reading Birgit from Olfactoria’sTravels writes at PerfumeSmellin’Things
LuckyScent has 50ml/$80 and .7ml/$3

Have you been to Catholic rites? How does the incense in Avignon effect you? What if you aren’t from a Catholic background, does incense still effect you?

So many new questions every time I find some kind of answer for another one. It is kind of exciting to be questing though,
See you tomorrow.
Portia xx

Rosae Mundi by Profumum Roma 2012

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What’s HAPPENING everyone?

Well, more brand spanking new stuff is happening here today. You may know that lately I’ve been having a bit of a rose explosion in my library. All of a sudden I can’t get enough of them and I’d like to thank Neela Vermeire for reminding me that the rose is Empress with her glorious Mohur.

Rosae Mundi by Profumum Roma 2012

Rosae Mundi FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accord in one line:
Rose, patchouli, vetiver, cedar

LuckyScent describes Rosae Mundi thus: Sometimes a rose fragrance can take a quiet and docile path, blushing and giggling with an innocent and soapy freshness. Classic and traditional – she’s a safe bet and a loyal friend. Rosae Mundi is not that rose fragrance, and prefers not to show up to her boring parties. If she did decide to show, she’d kick down the door in a low cut dress and demand a man and a martini.

PinkRoseWeddingCake showusyourcakesPhoto Stolen ShowUsYourCakes

The first whiff of Rosae Mundi by Profumum Roma is not about the rose at all but cedar, patchouli and vetiver!! Licorice? A sweet and sugared rose emerges through the tangle of herbaceous woodsiness. Like a marzipan rose. I don’t get that the ad copy sells Rosae Mundi as a bad girl fragrance. This is nice, sweet as cherry pie, the innocent and fresh face of rose. A musky rose that hints more at confectionary that sexy siren, it does though have that wonderful perfumey smell that men can identify and compliment and I could imagine it being quite addictive if he was already enamoured. In fact, if this was your signature scent it would be totally transportative when you wear it for those around you. Though it’s not a huge factor during the heart I get something Gothic and haunting that weaves around for a while, it is an interesting by story and it also has a rose water baklava undercurrent at times too. The vetiver gets a little coastal towards the end and the musks are very noticeable, which is unusual for me.

Pretty good scent bubble, when I wear Rosae Mundi Jin can smell it from the moment he walks in the house, and the sillage is excellent leaving a rippling wake, I think a bit too fragrant for office work but great to wear for lunch and by the time you return safe enough to work in. I lose track of Rosae Mundi after about 4 hours but Jin can still smell it on me.

RoseWoman layoutSparksPhoto Stolen layoutSparks

NowSmellThis has to say of the line: Italian niche line established in 1996 by the grandchildren of Celestino and Lucia Durante, who had established a chain of stores featuring hand-made soaps, fragrances and the like. Today the Profumum line produces 15+ fragrances, has several boutiques in Rome and is sold in selected stores across Italy.

LuckyScent has 100ml/$265 or .7ml/$5

Are the roses taking ovewr your life too? Is there something in particular that has caught your attention? Please share, we love golden perfumista nuggets to pan for.

Waft on gentle perfumistas, till tomorrow,

Portia xx

Boutonniere No 7 by Rodrigo Flores-Roux for Arquiste 2012

/ australianperfumejunkiescom / 19 Comments

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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

Blu EdP by Bruno Acampora 2012

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Hey Ho All,

I love it when the LuckyScent Sample Pack arrives. Always some new and interesting stuff. My only bug bear is that they don’t do a 2ml spray sample set. I get only 2 wears from .7ml and it is enough to test the product but not enough to fall madly and deeply in love. I have only bought one full bottle from the sample sets and that is not a very good strike rate in any person’s books. Wearing a fragrance only at my desk and round the house is a review not a life changer, or a shopping inducement.

Blu EdP by Bruno Acampora 2012

Blu FragranticaPhoto Stolen Fragrantica

Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Tuberose, ylang-ylang, orange, sandalwood

A bit of background, this crew has been popular in Italy for years and Bruno Acampora, according to IndieScents, was a beautiful jet setter in his heyday and there is an Andy Warhol portrait of him!! Blu was a Fragrant Oil till last year and was created in 1974.

ZOOM! From zero to tuberose in seconds. the opening of Blu is ridiculously beautiful, capturing the buttery and the green facets of this glorious flower.Blu is so in your face at the beginning it’s almost a drug store Tuberose, my favourite kind. A big sappy blast of green and white flower with ylang ylang buoying it up and helping it float. If you could see me right now pushing the back of my wrists together in a downward V to get more fragrance up my nose. Close to there is a fabulously poisonous extremity in the fragrance that at arms length becomes a beautifully blended dream. The orange that I’m getting is white pithy and juicy, and the sandalwood hums below everything.

Blu’s facets weave a harmonious blanket, that sometimes lets surface one of more in prominence. After an hour or so the orange really makes a dash for centre stage, it comes back again later too. As the fragrance develops I get a salty seaside twang hiding that hints at dark places, a slight minty skew and some smoke/incense too sometimes. The only mentioned note that stays constantly in the middle to background is the sandalwood until the end where it’s all that’s left, still pumping out lovely velvet softness for hours after the rest have packed up and gone home.

capri avi2012Photo Stolen avi2012

I have never been to Capri but Blu certainly conjures the memories of fabulous nights spent on islands in Australia, Greece and the South Pacific. The heady, intoxicating aromas of white night flowers, citrus and surf. Scent bubble is incredible for the first 2 hours before it dies back to a dull roar, sillage likewise but you will leave a beautiful coruscating trail for up to 5 hours before Blu becomes a skin scent of sandalwood.

Further reading IndieScents introduces Bruno Acampora and MimiFrouFrou really gets to know Blu
LuckyScent has 50ml/$135 and .7ml/$5

Have you tried Blu? Any of the Bruno Acampora scents?

So today I am going to spend 10 minutes with Blu on and close my eyes and dream about my holiday. I know it will relax and refocus me so please don’t bother me till I’m done. Leave a comment and I’ll get back to you after my internal gloating meditation is over.

Love to you all, till tomorrow,
Portia xx