Monday, December 13, 2010

Mona di Orio: Carnation

UPDATE: Well, it seems I need to pay more attention to all the texts concerning fragrances I try as I managed to completely miss what the name of this one means. :) As it's not in English but in French (which also means I've been pronouncing it wrong - at least that was only in my mind).
Thanks to Carol for pointing it out, Carnation in French actually means complexion. So, my whole carnation introduction is completely beside the point. :)

Carnations are forever in my mind asssociated with having no smell and being THE flower of Communist/socialist regimes. That would probably be because for the first 10 years of my life, I grew in one. Which from my perspective then had absolutely no impact on my life in any matter, except that we all became little pioneers in our first grade and got a red carnation as well. So having held it for several of those type of occasions, I must say I don't remember it having any smell.
And for some reason I keep thinnking that whenever I see carnation appearing in a name of perfume, it is not going to smell good to me (lately I wonder where do I get these associations?). I wasn't able to find a reference to its smell, but that doesn't mean there isn't a carnation out there without one.

Anyway, you can probably tell from the introduction that I didn't think it wasn't good upon smelling Mona di Orio's Carnation. :) And I didn't. I was actually very much surprised.

It doesn't come often that if you don't smell a perfume straight away, you miss the opening. Lucky for me, I tried Carnation several times before this review so I got it from my second try. There is this initial sparkly burst of slightly citrusy aldehydes and if you're not there the second it happens, a bit later it's gone. And then the ride starts.
Smelling it without notes I kept thinking (again) how jasmine and orange blossoms were there in the beginning, and I don't know which part of the whole picture made me think old-fashioned but not in a bad way, but as in, you don't come across things like this any more. Some greenery peeks in through musky florals and there is a slight soapy-cream quality to it but lucky for me, the soapiness is here and then it's gone. It smells quite summery actually, I guess it's all the white flowers, green and citrus. But there also comes a time when a light leathery aspect appears, smelling rooty and chewy (not in a bubble gum way).

I hate the fact that I simply lack words for appropriately describing this.

There is just a vintage feel to the way this smells. And I guess a look at the notes can be revealing: bergamot, clove bark, Bourbon geranium, ylang-ylang, violet, jasmine, woods, msuk, amber, styrax.

It settles down into a lovely soft floral and you wonder if all those intriguing whispers along the way actually happened...?


Pic by: http://www.luckyscent.com/

6 comments:

  1. Ihis is not a carnation flower scent , there is no carnation in it .
    In French , Carnation means complexion , and I know because Mona told me herself when I met her in NYC....

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  2. Carol, thanks for pointing this out. And I was wondering how come it got called Carnation... :)
    Anyway, it seems that Mercury retrogade has been having its effect on me as I managed to miss the most obvious.

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  3. Doesn't seem too crazy a leap if it contains clove and geranium, which would both be elements of carnation ... so I wouldn't kick yourself too hard. :)

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  4. Thanks Elisa. :) It feels like such a stupid mistake to make. Oh well, it happens. :)

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  5. nažalost, ja ovako ne zamišljam karanfil...ovo je potpuno se slažem, nekakav vintage pogled na "umjetni" iliti pak plastično-truli karanfil...inače sam obožavateljica karanfila i imam nekoliko favorita iz raznih razdoblja..
    ovo je parfem gdje ja nisam shvatila "što je pisac htio reći", tako da ovu kreaciju rado prepuštam drugima.

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  6. Maja, vidim da smo krenule istim putem no ispalo je da to uopće ne znači karanfil. :)
    Ja sam se isto bila zaletila pa su me upozorili da se parfem u ovom slučaju zove Carnation na francuskom, što uopće ne znači karanfil nego put /ten tak da ni ne bi trebao mirisati na karanfil.
    Tak da ja na kraju uopće dosad nisam isprobala neku dobru rendiciju karanfila nažalost.

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