Smitten by vetiver - Mona di Orio Vetyver

Basically, you all need to smell it and then go buy a bottle (or a decant, the bottle is quite expensive and I'm not one bit grateful to MdO for making me want to buy it). But boy, it surely smells great.

This is by far my favourite vetiver. I am completely smitten by it. I keep testing it in order to get better

ideas of how to describe it but nothing worthy comes to mind. I am simply in love. :)

Notes: Bourbon vetiver, blue ginger from Madagascar, Virginia cedar, violet, cistus labdanum, clary sage absolute, tonka bean, musk.

I don't think any of my readers have any doubt now that I am a huge Mona di Orio fan.  I love her creations but some, I love more than the others. Those are also the most difficult to describe. I spray my little vial of Vetyver and I think I'm going to concentrate now, and describe what I smell, only to be disarmed and seduced by it and then I come up with only rudimentary notes. But nevertheless, here they are. :)

It's a sunny, dry, hay-like vetiver but the hay is interspersed with flowers and therefore smells a bit sweeter than hay usually does. But at the same time, the vetiver is giving it a  masculine vibe underscored by cedar. I think the ginger again is more in line with the sweet and feminine side of this vetiver.  The fact that it is all there makes this a perfect unisex perfume for me. Not that I ever take those labels into account.
It's a warm, snuggly vetiver, one you smell and then do everything to come closer and keep smelling it. I never thought I would say this about vetiver, but this one seduces you by making you weak at the knees.
I keep sighing deeply trying to describe it. :)

Eventually, it does veer into a more masculine vetiver, losing some of that initial floweriness (which  I have no idea why I keep referring to as such, as notes don't really list any except violet).

This is not a refreshing vetiver, it is a vetiver in line with the summer. It does nothing to cool you but instead makes you feel warmed by the sun somewhere in the flowery summer fields.

Les Nombres d'Or: Tubereuse and Amber

It takes some time to get to know perfumes by Mona di Orio and even then, you cannot say for sure they aren't going to surprise you sometime in the near future.
I've been happily testing the Nombres d'Or line and I love them all. Some more, some just a little bit less, but if I had them all, I would happily wear them. As I don't see that happening any time in the near (or even distant) future, I'll give my samples all my love. (btw, I ordered mine from Aus Liebe zum Duft and they might seem expensive but they are also big). :)


Tubereuse

Notes: pink pepper, bergamot from Calabria, green leaves, Indian tuberose absolute, Siamese benzoin, heliotrope, amber, coconut milk, musk

Honestly, I really shouldn't be reviewing any tuberose perfumes. So far, I haven't encountered a single one I didn't like. Tuberose is one note I cannot get enough of and I enjoy it immensely.
In this case, I'm happy to say, I found one that would work great in my collection, as it's a refreshing, green tuberose. In the beginning.
It's lightly sharp on the nose due to the pink pepper and citrus, and greenery is there too, hiding the tuberose  bathing in the coconut milk. At no point in development does tuberose take over and the greenery remains there, not perhaps as obvious as in the beginning but there to make this tuberose light for wearing and something tuberose haters might give a go.
Also, it made me realize how wonderfully (for me) tuberose works with coconut (this is not the first perfume where the pair is featured but perhaps the most obvious one). Which brought me to the idea that perhaps Love Coco and Vamp a NY might work well together...  Hmmm, I should give it a try...
(of course, if it doesn't work out great, I'll never mention it here and I'll just pretend I didn't try it) ;)


Ambre

Notes: Cedarwood from Atlas, Ylang-ylang from Comores, Benzoin, Tolu, Absolu Vanilla Madagascar

As much as I could tell the notes in Tubereuse, I can't really say the same for Ambre.
It smells like the epitome amber. Lightly sweet, lightly burned, vanillic, somewhat musky and for a little while powdery. Ok, so that last part might not sound like amber, but it works for me (and I'm not a fan of powderiness).
Of all my ideas as to what might work to provide powderiness, none of them appear in the notes.
Anyway, my boyfriend assures me I'm wrong, but I smell similarities between Ambre and the drydown of Shalimar (which is a very good thing in my opinion).
This amber has me baffled. Each time I smell it, I smell something different and it's all good. :)
It's just a great, lightly burned and woody amber. There would definitely be a place for it in my collection.

Like Birgit says, there is always a place for another amber.


Notes and pics by: http://www.luckyscent.com/