Santal Majuscule (and a minuscule draw)

There is a reason why I don't review Serge Lutens perfumes often even though I wear many and like many of them (wouldn't mind owning practically the whole line).
I just never seem to be able to find the words to describe exactly what I smell - that happens with other perfumes as well, but nowhere am I so strongly aware of it as with SL perfumes.

So, I'll try and do my best ut in the end, as is always the case with Uncle Serge perfumes, the reviews won't really prepare you for what you smell in the end. :) (I find that a great thing myself)

Notes: sandalwood, cocoa, Arabian attar rose, honey, spices

I've sampled and worn Santal Majuscule many times over the weeks I have it and still, each time I smell it, I find another facet of it to be revealed. I went through so many ideas of what this perfume smells like and each time I smell it again, half of the stuff I thought it smelled like aren't there but there are new things I smell.

Until I saw the notes, cocoa and rose never entered my mind  but once I saw them, I knew they were in there, I even remembered exactly at what point the cocoa comes to play.

Before I start describing what it smells like to  me, I should say that the most obvious thing I get from it is that it is a combination of perfumes that already exist in the line. I don't mean to say by that that I think it's not good or smelling differently, it's just that there are familiar accords jumping out at you at different times.

Sometimes it's the idea of sweet, sticky, spiced (and even boozy) fruit of what I'd like to think as Arabian market variety the first thing you smell, soon to be followed by the teasing wafts of how Jeux de Peau starts, following with opening of Santal Blanc until sometimes you come across barest hints of Ambre Sultan hidden in the murky depths of this perfume.
Because there ARE depths to it, you can smell them from the start. But try as you might, sniffing at close proximity won't get you anywhere near those depths.

So, what I smell in the beginning is described in the previous paragraph, warm, spicy, boozy fruit with the general feeling of seriousness and darkness (there's not frivolity to this fruit as the feeling is dry and not sparkling and happy) with cocoa underscoring the darkness and warmth and sandalwood making you swoon.
Now I know it's there, I can smell the rose appear and the fruitiness slowly disappear. At this point is where I feel a smile blossoming on my face. It is also where I feel the resemblance to Santal Blanc is most prominent.

Being true to my smelling practices, after enjoying this phase for quite a while, all I can say about the drydown, is, it continues to dry in the vein it smells.

Honestly, I don't know if you noticed, but I'm really not a drydown person.  My attention dissipates by that time.

So, for the minuscule draw I have two samples from my bottle, tell me why you think you might like/love this or why not? Both will work. :)

Vero Kern: Mito (or, please bribe me)

I don't think there is anyone in our perfume community who after some time doesn't start believing in synchronicity.
It seems each season, I have the same type of a problem. I want something new (to enjoy along some of my all time favorites) but I don't feel like trying many things I haven't tested yet looking for the perfect seasonal scent.
And then sometimes, they simply fall into your lap. :) Or, well, arrive in the mail.

After being offered the opportunity to try the latest Vero Kern perfume Mito, of course I jumped at it.

I might have guessed it would take a while to get us to know each other if I were to go by previous Vero Kern perfumes (Kiki, Rubj, Onda).

Notes: magnolia, citruses, champaca, jasmine, galbanum, hyacinth, cypress, moss

While checking for notes, I saw that this was classified as a floral and even though you cannot miss the florals, it still smells more like a (floral) grapefruity chypre to me. No wonder when you see galbanum, cypress and moss listed as notes.

For me it starts off green with a bitterish undertaste, helped along with citruses and cypress I guess, but I can't help but think of the citrus in this as grapefruit. That is my idea of the citrus in Mito. And well, you cannot miss the galbanum in the opening. If you are wondering how exactly does galbanum smell like, try Mito.
But what you can miss and if you're not careful and you blink (or don't inhale at the right moment), you'll miss the sweetness of mint playing hide and seek in there. You might seek after but it will be well hidden. :)
The whole perfume is a game of hide and seek for me actually.
Try it once, and you would swear there is the greeness bolstered by citrus and kept fresh and serious until the end.
Try it again, and there is the sweet mint playing hide and seek, and the hyacinth is making you wonder if that is its trail you're picking up when smelling some sweet powdery dryness in there.

And if you are trying to find the flowers, you will really need to play hard. Their hiding place is well chosen. You can hear them in the background but look as hard as you want for them, and they will elude you.

For some reason, I am trying to fit vetiver into this perfume. :) I don't know why my mind goes, Is there vetiver in there? as it's not listed in the notes (but then again, neither is the mint).
I realize my description might not be very helpful. :)

After the beginning, the best I can do is say, the galbanum dissipates as do the citruses and the floralcy becomes more apparent  but in my case not as you might point, aha! I see you jasmine! (I do glimpse you though) but more in the line of true perfumery - the florals enveloped in the greenery.
They do have leaves and stems after all and are usually located in a garden...


P.S. As a little side note, Mito actually means "a bribe" in Croatian. :) I wouldn't mind being bribed by this. ;)

Vetiver for all seasons: D600 by Carner Barcelona

Luck hasn't been on my side lately when it comes to winning anything. So, when I learned I was the lucky winner of D600 samples on Ca Fleure Bon, I took it as a good sign.
And I was right to do so. :)

I might be repeating myself with my love of vetiver, but I really can't help it when many of those perfumes hit the right spots for me - warm, dryishly sweet and green (sometimes more yellow) and spicy enough to tickle your nose and refresh it in summer and give off warmth in winter.

Therefore, it was really to be expected I would love D600 as it's one of those vetivers. :)

Top notes: Madagascan Black Pepper, Sicilian Bergamot, Grapefruit.
Mid notes: Guatemalan Cardamom, Italian Iris, Egyptian Jasmine Absolut.
Base notes: Virginian Cedar Wood, Madagascan Vanilla Absolut, Vetyver

It is difficult to put into words the notes of this perfume. For me it starts dryishly sweet, lightly fruity and peppery (it really just tingles your nose a bit). You can smell from the start that this is a vetiver perfume and it took me several wearing to finally locate that grapefruit (and bergamot).
There is a masculine quality to this perfume (masculine in terms if what is sold today as masculine) as there is a bitter and sharp quality to the vetiver in the beginning, even though it has a sweetness underlying all that (I guess vanilla is doing its thing).

And I do believe vanilla is doing its thing from the beginning because at some point there is a spicey-warm quality to the perfume, possibly of the rum variety and I thought there might be some clove in this, but as the notes don't mention it, I'll settle for cardamom, iris, cedar and vanilla working their magic.
Basically, I love it from the start to its dry, woody and hayish finish.

Séville à l’aube - a place where you get seduced

With the arrival of The Perfume Lover, there came a little round black bottle containing some of the most potent stuff I ever smelled in my personal fragrant history. The juice in that bottle could be called radio-active due to its strentgh, vibrancy and longevity.

Now my little black bottle is empty (and I've read the book), I believe I got to know it well enough to end up seduced by it. :)

The book also helped me identify more of the notes and smell the warmth of the drydown which I had problems with in the beginning getting pounced upon by orange blossom and petitgrain. It took me several tries to delve deeper than these notes.
I also think it has something to do with my skin as when I smell the bottle, I have no problem finding incense in there and the warm, full, sweet and rich, slightly ambery, base.

Just reading a review of what this perfume smells like will not prepare you in the slightest for what is to come. Plus, what is coming will last and last and you will have quite a ride before you reach the end.

For me it was a slow seduction, first I got to know the ebullient flowers, then I slowly delved through their depth to find incense coming through with occasional glimpses of metallic saltyness (which I'm guessing was the part meant to evoke blood), only to end up warmly enveloped in the still flowery cocoon of sunrise (possibly a bit drunk when I consider the lingering wafts of my little bottle).


Ok, I just took a look back onto my words and it seems I got more influenced by the book than I thought. ;)


The perfume is coming out soon so you can get ready for being seduced by it.

Notes: petitgrain, petitgrain citronnier, orange blossom absolute, beeswax absolute, incense resinoid, Luisieri lavender absolute and Siam benzoin resinoid.

Parfum de Nicolai: Odalisque

When it comes to perfumes, each spring I try and find green perfumes that would work for me. You know, not too fresh as it's not yet summer but they need to connote the springness - the sun, the grass, the flowers, the morning dew and chill and the gradual warmth permeating our world.
Each spring I don't know where to look but eventually a perfume makes its presence known to me and the spring suddenly feels like THE season for enjoying perfumes.

Before you start thinking I only came across Odalisque the other day, it wouldn't be true. I have a little bottle for quite some time now. But it only dawned on me some days ago that the greenery I seek might be hidden in this bottle.

It's a strange little perfume. It doesn't smell the same to me when I spray it on my arm and smell it there and when I spray it on me and I catch my own sillage. There aren't any big differences but what I smell in my sillage seems to be clearly chypre-ish while what I smell on my arm distinguishes itself with other notes.

Top notes : green citrus, bergamot and tangerine

Heart : lily of the valley, jasmine, orris, oakmoss
Base : musc

Honestly, lately I started to think that the only note I can always rely on smelling in a perfume is a citrusy one. :) I don't mean to say that Odalisque is the general thing you can smell anywhere, this is just what usually comes up in my first sentence when taking notes on a perfume. I'm starting to find it funny, but I also realize I'll have to develop my citrusy vocabulary because they don't smell the same.

Anyway, in Odalisque the little citrusy feel you get smells green and there is no sweetness at all (as evidenced by the notes). When I was smelling this without the notes, I thought that the little fruity aspect that could be gleaned came from some kind of a dark berry, but in retrospect I guess the tangerine-oakmoss combination works its little magic. I was also getting a light camphorous feel from it but I can't guess where that one came from.

The thing is, I would never have come across lily of the valley if I haven't read the notes (jasmine too). There is a barely floral tinge to the oakmoss in there and once I saw lily mentioned, I could smell it in there but the most important part of this perfume for me is that it reminds me of spring wet wood and grass. Not that it smells like that - but the oakmoss is working its magic with a lightly mossy and woody notes.

Btw, I just went to check the meaning of odalisque and came up with a serving girl in a harem. :)
I don't know how that would relate to the perfume and I don't really care - all I know is that it worked for me.

Penhaligon's Artemisia - my undercover business perfume

And when I say undercover, I mean that it works for me without anyone noticing anything. :)

Because, where I work, no one ever comments on perfume (two comments in 5 years don't count). But I noticed people tend to smile more and feel helpful toward me when I'm wearing Artemisia. So now, I count it as my undercover perfume when I need business situations to go my way.  ;)

The strange thing is, I know this perfume and can recall its smell without wearing it, but trying to put it into words - no deal.
I've been meaning to review it since I started my blog (which was 3 years ago) but the words i.e. notes eluded me. They still do, but I'll give it my best (people should  be aware of this little gem).

Head Notes: Nectarine and Green Foliage
Heart Notes: Green Apple, Lily of the Valley, Jasmine Tea, Violet and Vanilla
Base Notes: Oakmoss, Sandalwood, Musk, Amber and Vanilla

I would be lying if I said I can smell the fruity notes. The only way for me to know there is some fruit in there is by taking into account the whole I'm smelling - which is florally, powdery sweet with a hint of bitterness and something not letting it be dry and powdery but giving it warmth and joyful sweetness (at points interspersed with fresh burst of an orchard fruity smell).

Oh, I don't think I'll get it right this time either.

On the whole, the perfume doesn't change much, which is completely fine with me, as I love the calming effect it has. And for a perfume that seems so very mellow to me, it has some serious longevity.

My best description of it could be summed up with a creamy, lightly powdery, intricately floral, charming little minx of a perfume.



And for some reason, it reminds me of Paris. The smell of Artemisia never fails to conjure Paris in my mind.



Notes and pic y: http://www.penhaligons.com/

Visiting India III - Bombay Bling by Neela Vermeire Creations

Or, saving the best for last. :)

I really thought I loved Trayee and Bombay Bling the same, but there is just no getting around the fact that mango is my thing. In any way you can imagine.

The problematic thing with Neela Vermeire perfumes is that each time you smell them, something new pops up in your head as association to what you're smelling (ok, that's not really a bad thing, only when you're trying to describe it). :)

So, for me, this is a happy, smile-inducing mango perfume. In the beginning. The opening reminds me of a fizzy mango drink, as it were made with tonic, you know, lightly herbal (or green) and citrusy but mango is still the most prominent note.
At some point I started wondering if I were smelling tea again, but no, that turned out to be a black currant/cardamom combo. When you start smelling this combination, the whole perfume seems to get another twist - it gets a gourmandy background. Well, at least that's the way I see it. Or better smell it.
It's hard to explain but that whole creamy base of ylang-ylang, white woods, sandalwood and vanilla makes for me a gourmandy base for the fruit (probably because it reminds me of Thai food coconut/spicy dishes which automatically transfers anything into a gourmand for me).

Later, you lose the mango prominence and the whole perfume is a riot of smells (in a good way) - not too sweet, not very juicy, lightly flowery and spicy.


Notes: mango, lychee, blackcurrant, cardamom, cumin, cistus, rose accord, Turkish rose, jasmine, ylang-ylang, white floral tuberose accord, frangipani, gardenia, patchouli, tobbacco, white woods, sandalwood, cedar, vanilla


P.S. I'm not a cuminophobe, quite the contrary, and I can easily smell it in a perfume usually, but I don't smell it here at all.

Pic and notes by: http://www.neelavermeire.com/

I breathed a gentle fragrance – April Aromatics

By Asali

We all know the feeling; so much to do, so much we want to do, and yet there seems to be not enough hours in the day, days in the week etc, to do all that. I was actually in the privileged situation that Ines wanted me to write here on her blog, and it would have been a very suitable time to ‘help out’, since she’s busy with her thesis. But I just couldn’t find the space, neither in my diary nor in my head to write something, and that, although I wasn’t short of things that I wanted to write.

One of the things that I have wanted to write about, are the perfumes of April Aromatics. However, I got a bit carried away with one of them. So, I’ll save the others for another time.

April Aromatics are organic perfumes from Berlin based perfumer Tanja Bochnig. I first read about Tanja’s perfumes at another blog, where all her fragrances were listed with a mini review of each. One particularly seemed to be calling my name, not as usual because of the description or the notes as such, but the name; it was called ‘Unter den Linden’. This name associated so many stories for me that, wanting to refer to some of them now, I hardly know where to start, or how to explain the deep strings it tucks at with me.

First of all, the famous Boulevard in Berlin, the place where for the last three and a half centuries Berliners and visitors alike have been taking their Sunday strolls. It’s also the calling name for the famous old Statsoper Berlin, also called Staatsoper Unter den Linden (as opposed to the (former)West- Berlin opera called Deutsche Oper Berlin), in short Unter den Linden.  Any musician talking about Unter den Linden will be referring to this historic house. Then there are the numerous poetic references to lime tree in the German literature as being the tree of love. From Walter von der Vogelweide’s (1170-1230) ‘Unter den Linden’ to the Romantic poetry, the lime tree becomes the symbol of love and harmony, the place where lovers meet, below the lime trees. Perhaps most famous of all is Müller’s poem from Schubert’s Winterreise ‘Der Lindenbaum’ or ‘Am Brunnen von dem Tore’ as it’s called when sung as a simple strophic version of Schubert’s more complicated artsong. My own favourite song of lime trees is Mahler’s interpretation of a Rückert poem ‘Ich atmet’ einen linden duft’ (I breathed a gentle fragrance), where Rückert plays with the different meanings of the word Linde in German to make it respectively; the twig of lime blossoms, gentle, soothing or with ease. It is also under the lime tree that the thwarted lover seeks and finds eternal peace (as in ‘Am Brunnen...’, or another Mahler song ‘Die zwei blauen Augen’).  So there is also sadness in this idyll. You probably see where this is going...

UdL has a lovely fresh citrusy opening, like the first linden blossoms still light and gentle. As the fragrance warms on the skin, you feel other blossoms coming out to play, here I especially smell a rounded mimosa; but like with the bergamot in the beginning, it feels like they are there to add to the true nature of the linden scent, rather than wanting to take over from it. There is never any of that heavy summer drunkenness of the lime, it’s the early excitement of the first curious flowers all dewy fresh in their loveliness, and only slightly sweet. Now and again I feel as if a tiny bit of twig found its way into the perfume as well, as if in homeopathic style the flowers would still remember the tree which they grew from. The fragrance shimmers as if you were walking underneath the lime trees, the sun shining through the heart-shaped leaves, between lightness and sweetness, playfulness and reflection.

Unter den Linden manages to be calm yet uplifting, and joyous yet melancholic. It's an adorably beautiful Linden Duft, and just perfect these days as we long for warmer and gentler weather.

"Unter den Linden" spoke to me from the first moment, the name alone, I wanted a perfume with that name, and it was everything I hoped for and more too, and I'm delighted that it found me. That’s one happy linden-love story.

Notes for Unter den Linden from Tanja’s webpage; Linden blossom, Mimosa, Honey, Bergamot and Gardenia (and confirmed no twigs in thereJ) and can be purchased at

http://www.aprilaromatics.com/

As a little aside UdL has just been nominated for a Prix de Parfum Artistique.

Visiting India II : Mohur by Neela Vermeire Creations

It took me quite a long time to get to know these perfumes, but now I have (not completely, mind you), in my mind, they each have a designation beside their name: the Cardamom one, the Tea one and the Mango one (I'm saving the mango for the end).

I admit, my knowledge of India is limited to what I heard from people who were there (and school), but mango and spices do feature highly on the list of mentionable India characteristics.

Mohur for me, is the Tea one, and  "embodies, and is a dedication to, the mix of all the best of Mogul and the Bristish Raj".

I realize this is a "rose-based perfume" (that's what its description calls it) with additional facets "that can only be imagined during a hight tea after a polo match".

Still, for me it's a tea based perfume, as that is the note I get most prominently and with the most endurance. Although, I have to admit, it's a rose tea in my mind. :) The first two notes I got out of smelling Mohur were tea and rose, followed quickly by almondy (lightly alcoholic and salty of all things) quality with a lightly botanical tinge.
Here again, we have a shape-shifter perfume.

Wear it once, and you think you know what's it all about. Wear it again, and you're wondering what happened to the flowers from the first time, a more violet powdery floweriness is coming through. Then, wear it for the third time, and I wonder what did they do to make those flowers behave in such a transparent manner. And all the time I'm having problems teasing out particular notes, the scent is wafting as if on a breeze and when you want to stop and smell it, it wafts out of your reach.

Eeven though I'm calling this a tea perfume in my head, it's a perfume with a floral heart.


Notes: Cardamom Absolute, Coriander Seed Oil, Ambrette Seed, Carrot, Black Pepper, Elemi Oil, Turkish Rose Oil, Moroccan Rose Absolute, Rose Accords (more or less 11%), Jasmine Accord, Orris, Aubepin Flower, Almond Milk Notes, Violet Flower and Orris Effects, Leather Vitessence, Sandalwood, Ambre, White Woods, Patchouli, Oudh Palao from Laos, Benjoin Siam, Vanilla and Tonka Bean

Pics and notes by: http://www.neelavermeire.com/

Visiting India: Trayee by Neela Vermeire Creations

Sometimes you smell something and your brain refuses to provide the notes for what you are smelling. That is what happened to me with Neela Vermeire Creations (brought to life by Bertrand Duchafour).

It took me quite some time to form words around these perfumes, and today, I'll talk about Trayee, which name harkens to the divine origin of the first 3 Vedas, the Triad.

Trayee is one of those perfumes that each time you apply it, it smells a bit differently. A shape-shifter of the most interesting order which displays its shape-shifting nature mostly on skin.

Usually it starts for me with a sweetish, strangely earthy, cardamomy smell, soon to be enveloped in spices. Several times I thought it had a really natural start to it (as similar to what I'm used to with natural perfumers).
Sometimes, it smells like the resins from an evergreen tree are mixed with meadow flowers, but those flowers barely peek  through the spices mixed with cardamom.
Last time though, the cardamom got in line by the blackcurrant dancing on the fumes of sandalwood, cedre and vetiver.  It had that lovely dark fruitiness that blackcurrant can provide.
Eventually, the fruitiness dissipates and the smoothness of the base notes comes to the fore, interspersed with vetiver and other relatively raspy notes so the smoothness wouldn't be boring (I'd be lying if I said I could smell exactly which).
Sometimes the smoothness takes on a leathery tinge.

On paper though, the fruitiness completely bypassed me and instead smelled more like a combination of cardamom and cedre, lightly cinnamony and lightly sweet, but spicey (clove and saffron do their thing). Also, it was only on paper that I caught whiffs of ambery background.

But then again, who knows, maybe next time I wear it, amber and oud come out to play as well... :)

Notes: Blue Ginger from Madagascar, Elemi Oil, Cinnamon Bark, Ganja Effects, Blackcurrant Absolute, Basil, Sambac Jasmine Absolute, Egyptian Jasmine Absolute, Cardamom Absolute, Clove, Saffron, Sandalwood, Javanese Vetiver, Haitian Vetiver, Incense, Mysore Sandalwood Oil, Patchouli, Myrhh, Vanilla, Cedar, Amber Note, Oudh Palao from Laos and Oak Moss

Samples of all 3 were provided by Neela Vermeire.

Notes and pics taken from: http://www.neelavermeire.com/

It seems I love Gin-tonic more than I knew - Juniper Sling

Well, I might not be fast but I get there in the end. :)

I have to admit I received the samples of Juniper Sling quite a while ago (measured in months, not weeks) and I wanted to write about it but the time never seemed right.

(I should also mention there are quite a few more samples I received waiting their turn)

The thing is, I kept thinking that this was not the right season to talk about a perfume I considered a summer one.
But you see, the thing is, this perfume is the equivalent of gin-tonic. And although that might sound as a refreshing drink, it's not a singularly summer one, is it?
I mean, I can imagine having one this time of year too. Easy and sparkly, refreshing and calming after a hard day.
And before anyone starts thinking I consider alcohol as a solution, I don't. I just believe it helps unwind from a work-day and lets you relax a bit.

And that is what Juniper Sling does for me. After the initial burst of junipery gin-tonic freshness to perk you up a bit, it actually relaxes me.
I breathe it in and I can feel my mind and body relaxing with the exhale.

For me, it smells bitterly sparkly, slightly herbal and very juniperish (or anyway of a evergreen tree - I still have a hard time distinguishing between them).
The smell itself doesn't change that much - it retains that gin-tonic spiced with juniper feel but at the drydown it gets more into skin scent teritorry, acquiring a salty tang underneath, less sparkly, more musky. Perfectly relaxing.

I honestly didn't think this would get under my skin - I guess I just wasn't aware of the fact that I was a gin-tonic lover...

I'll leave you with the video made for the release - I really loved it. :)

Head notes: Cinnamon, Orange Brandy, Angelica, Juniper Berry
Heart Notes: Cardamom, Leather, Black Pepper, Orris Wood
Base Notes: Brown Sugar, Black Cherry, Vetiver, Ambrox



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

Wrong season but I need some energy (Eau Dynamisante, Clarins)

Clarins was always a company for good cosmetics and I never got the urge to try their scent. It always felt like a splash edt that they had and could sell along with the creams.

Now I know better. :)

I got a sample in a swap and from the instant I applied it, I felt better.

To me it smells like a really good cologne, exactly the one that I would fit into my collection as it has all the hallmarks  I find lovely in perfumes.

It has an energetic citrusy opening (the peel one along with the sparkly soda feeling) and what I like to call evergreen freshness.

Then, it also has a light spiciness to it so it's not completely innocent.

All that time you can smell the light sweetness and warmth in the base but on this summer day, you are refreshed and feel cool because Dynamisante is taking care of you.

It's not spectacular, innovative, strong or perfumey for that matter, but it's energising and dynamic and refreshing. It doesn't pretend to be other than that.

And I won't pretend I don't need a bottle for next summer. :)


Top notes are orange, coriander, caraway and amalfi lemon; middle notes are rosemary, carnation and cardamom; base note is patchouli.

The easy choice - Labdanum 18 by Le Labo

I'm calling this an easy choice because each time I have to go someplace and don't know what to wear, I reach for this. :)
My relatively large decant came through a split and the speed I'm going through it, makes me think I will have to start looking for another one soon.

Notes: Labdanum, tonka beans, vanilla, castoreum, patchouli.

If I were to describe this perfume in one word, I'd say it smells ambery. :)

Lately, I realized I write down my notes on a perfume, then I go see what are the notes listed and then I go investigate which parts combined to get me the smells I was getting.

One of the good things about Labdanum 18 is that I believe I know what castoreum smells like. The process of elimination brought me there. :)
So, the vanilla, labdanum and tonka beans are responsible for the ambery feel but all very nicely tempered so no note overpowers the other. I also detect light whiffs of some herbal sharpness and I thought that came from patchouli but cannot really say for sure.

The problem with this perfume is that it is better smelled around you than on you. I mean, for reviewing purposes, I get less when I smell it on my wrist than when I smell it around me when I wear it. Then it sort of jumps out at me at all times. Not that this perfume jumps, it's more like it suddenly stealthily overpowers you and you are left wondering how you didn't know it was there a second ago.
It's an aural perfume to me (you know, it has the amount of sillage like an aura - just right).

Which brings me to the last note and castoreum. I have a problem detecting that particular tinge to this perfume on my writs, but when I catch a whiff of my "aura" there is a light sexy, possibly dirty or animalic to some, tinge to this perfume. But when you want to take a better look, it's gone. And then when you're not watching, it hovers around the edge of your vision, only to disappear when you take a better look.

There doesn't seem to be much development to this perfume (at least not to me) but I don't mind that because I really love the way it starts and those "sleight of hand" changes it does so it remains smelling the same with some minor changes for the  duration.


P.S. I just checked the Le Labo site and they list more notes than Luckyscent.
The ones missing up there are: cista, civet, musk aubepine, birch tar, cinnamon, gurjaum balsam.
Can't say I got any cinnamon but the first 3 could be all responsible for what I thought was solely castoreum's part. Oh well, I guess I still need to learn how it smells then. :)

Late to the party - L'Air de Rien by Miller Harris

It seems everyone knows how this smells and it has quite a lot of fans out there as far as I could tell.

I only tried it today. So, yes, quite late to the party. :)

Notes: French oak moss, Tunisian neroli, sweet musk, amber and vanilla

I've been thinking of how to describe this all day.

On me it doesn't really display many changes, and I don't want it to.

(I also tried Lorenzo Villoresi's Dilmun today and wished it wouldn't change from the opening, but unfortunately it did, once again confirming LV perfumes and I don't go together)

Basically, L'Air de Rien smells like a cool, dry cover over a warm ambery base. The cover wouldn't let me get to the warmth hiding inside even though I could almost touch it.
Honetsly, I can't tell what notes the cover is made of, but as I see the list, the oakmoss must have done its thing with keeping the warmth and sweetness inside and neroli and musk as far as I can tell kept everything smooth and cool.

I really need some of this.

Tom Ford: Black Violet (and I'm upset)

Seriously upset! I mean, for the love of god, Mr. Ford, 200$ for 50 ml?!

And that was the cheapest one I could find.

I don't know how private these blends are, but unless Mr. Ford made them himself, there is no way I want to give that much money for 50 ml.
No matter how much I love this perfume.

I can't even convince myself Profumum's Ambre Aurea would be a justifiable purchase even though I go weak at the knees thinking of it (240$ for 100ml but the blend is 40% perfume).
Btw, is that normal? Going weak at the knees at the smell of particular perfume? Because Ambre Aurea isn't the only one - but luckily there isn't many of those around.

On to Black Violet.

It smells perfect to me.

It starts lightly citrusy-piney to me, the masculine accord but soon after that I get the sweet "pulpy" fruitiness, and the woods and I believe some resins too but the notes themselves are very misleading. There's got to be more in there than what is enumerated (I guess everyone who smelled this came to the same conclusion) but I can't figure out what.
I just love the way it smells. A lot.

I've been testing it for a whole week and I still have problems writing this review. Each time I try it, something new comes out. And it's not the violet. :)
There are some florals in there, beside violet that is. And I hope it's not my wishful thinking conjuring the violet feelings of this perfume (I hate being influenced but sometimes I can't tell if it's happening or not). Still, can't say I smell anything violety, I just have the color in my head.

That middle stage, after the masculine accord of the beginning and before the one in the end, lasts quite a long time. And I lack words to describe it - a woody, lightly salty moss lightened by fruity sweetness.
And the woody masculine drydown is still discernible after 8 hours of wear.

But still, 200$?!

No matter how much I love it, I won't be buying a bottle at that price (but if anyone can point me to a cheaper one, please do). :)

Notes: citrus, pulpy fruit, black violet, woods, oakmoss

Vitriol d'Oeillet - friend or foe (and a draw)

It seems that lately there isn't so much love for the SL releases. Beats the hell out of me why that is so, because to me, they are still so very Lutenesque. And by that I mean, it takes several wearings for me to get to know it and then get friendly with it and then, comes love for life.
That's my usual path with any SL perfume (exceptions exist but aren't many).

Therefore, I don't get disappointed if a SL perfume doesn't instantly sweep me off my feet. It is usually a complex stranger you would be wrong to take at initial value.
So, I don't. :)

I've been testing and wearing it for some time now and what can I say? :) I'm a huge clove fan. For some reason, I keep thinking of this as a clove perfume even though it exhibits the carnation most of the time.

Notes: cayenne pepper, black pepper, pink pepper, clove, carnation, wallflower, lily, ylang-ylang, nutmeg.

I guess you can tell by all the peppers it's going to smell sharp on the start (clove helps too). If you ever smelled an SL creation, you probably know that no description can prepare you for what you're going to smell. So, when I say it starts peppery sharp with a clove twist, I'm hoping you're imagining your nose tinkling in response. :)
But before that happens, just after the initial spray, before the pepper takes over for a while, you will get the  sweet whiffs of nutmeg being propped by ylang-yland and lily. I'm still not sure on how good the lily part is  but it seems to work. Later, it will take much more work to smell all this under the peppers.

For me this perfume emits a constant light charge - each time I smell it, it seems my nose gets a little electrical charge. Quite interesting really. And then I smell the carnation. But for the life of me, I can't think of this as a carnation perfume. :) Yes, most of the time, it smells like carnations. But those are metallic, strange carnations, emiting even a lightly meaty smell at one time. Ok, so that last part might not sound enticing but it's not bad.
And yes, I noticed my constant use of "buts". :) That's because I keep thinking that while I'm describing this, I'm making it sound bad and my opinion couldn't be further away.

Once the carnation gets going, there's not much change, it lasts and slowly loses the charge. Less clove-y, more floral.

And each time I wear it, it seems more friendly and easier to love (less sharp, more sweet). Luckily, I'm not going to run out of it any time soon... :)


As I was the lucky recipient of a whole bottle, courtesy of Ca Fleure Bon and  Serge Lutens (it was supposed to be a mini bottle but they generously sent me the whole), I have 2 little decants and a sample to give. State your interest in the comments, and let me know whether you think you can like this or not.

De Profundis

By Asali

I can’t remember anticipating a Serge Lutens release as much as this for a long while. The name of De Profundis had captured my imagination well before the beautiful bell jar with the purple juice arrived in its black box. Describing De Profundis, M. Lutens once again reached Sfinxish heights, referencing certain periods of French and English literature and its flirtatious fascination with death.

I find it is a fragrance full of quiet surprises on every corner you turn with it, from the very first green notes of the funeral march, to the last sweet whispers from beyond. Much has been written about the resemblance to funeral wreaths, church yards and mourning veils, but to me it’s not gothic and dark, if any connection to these, it’s more like a remembrance, a peaceful celebration, a sanctuary. But having said that, I don’t feel that the fragrance has limitations as such, I could certainly wear it often. Perhaps because it’s a quiet, all be it persistent, Serge. De Profundis Clamavi might translate as I shouted from the depths, but there is never any shouting from De Profundis EdP.

I like the opening of the green yet friendly, chrysanthemums followed by the cool violet and rest of the bouquet, which together with the aldehydes are all together more extrovert and less melancholic than I would have expected. The flowers have a bit of own spiciness and it feels like some musk works its way into the bouquet as the violet softly withers from the perfume. I get the decided feeling that the fragrance itself yearns and beseeches you to think of the violet, once gone, like an echo. There is incense but I find it only detectable as a feeling of calm and quiet, it isn’t a dominant note, and yet it almost feels like it is a main player of the fragrance because of the serenity it emits. Is it perhaps some chamomile which reinforces that sensation of peacefulness as the perfume slowly descends into the base? This is richer than one would have expected of the opening and the aldehydic flowers, yes, it turns out to surprise by its Lutenesque familiarity. Like a last caress, it whispers of spices and warmth.

I imagined many different poems and poets, before receiving De Profundis, but the one I’d like to share with you that I find to be the closest poetic soundtrack is by Rainer Maria Rilke and called Traumgekrönt.

Traumgekrönt

Das war der Tag der weißen Chrysanthemen,
Mir bangte fast vor seiner Pracht...
Und dann, dann kamst du mir die Seele nehmen
Tief in der Nacht.

Mir war so bang, und du kamst lieb und leise,
Ich hatte grad im Traum an dich gedacht.
Du kamst, und leis’ wie eine Märchenweise
Erklang die Nacht.


Crowned with dreams
That was the day of the white chrysanthemums,
Its splendor almost frightened me,
And then, then you came to take my soul
At the dead of night.

I was so frightened, and you came sweetly and gently
I had been thinking of you in my dreams.
You came, and soft as a fairy tune
The night resounded.

Olympic Orchids, part I

As I announced the other day, I want to finally put to words my thoughts on some of the less known perfumes out there made by people who obviously have a perfume vision unique to themselves.

One of those people is Ellen Covey aka Doc Elly of Olympic Orchids.

I'm ashamed to say that I've been sitting on the samples she sent for months now, not even getting around to smelling all of them, but now my vacation is over, and I feel I should be rested even though the heat here won't let me feel rested, I can finally start reviewing perfumes that I ought long time ago.

So, I'll go through them in batches, which means they'll be a bit shorter and here is the first. :)


Olympic Amber

Notes: labdanum, vanilla, benzoin, incense, resins, patchouli, and woods

Being a fan of labdanum, you'd think I'd recognize it when featured in a perfume. :)
For me, this is a raspy, lightly fruity, green-spicy amber. Not sweet and actually rather serious.
And in the beginning, amber is sort of hidden under that bold opening.

Which brings me, almost Ellen's perfumes seem bold to me. She has a signature of her own that you can recognize after smelling several of her creations and it's like nothing I ever smelled before. Can't say if it's in any way connected with orchids because the only ones here don't have any kind of smell.
Out of all the notes listes, the only one I can smell on its own is patchouli in these little, cute whiffs while the amber feel broadens.

Although as I said, this isn't a cuddly amber. Quite an achievement if you ask me.


Carolina

Notes: longleaf pine, hay, tobacco, lavender, green grass, magnolia, kudzu flower, honeysuckle, star jasmine, and tonka

Sometimes I wonder why I even review perfumes when there seem to be a lot of notes in there that I have no idea what they smell like.
I think for me, one of the easiest ways to know if a perfume is great is when I can't tease out the notes. Which seems to happen a lot with Olympic Orchids.

The best I could come up with for Carolina is that it's a flowery sweet, sunny and refreshing as a spring day with barest fruity whisps in the air.

I don't appreciate sugary sweetness in perfumes, but when the sweetness in there is from blossoming flowers, well, I'm on my knees. It's one of the best smells in the world if you ask me. I honestly couldn't figure out the notes I was smelling - they were combined into a perfectly lovely experience.
And here is the description Ellen wrote which seems more appropriate than my words:

"A dreamy scent of the American South that takes you from a day spent among sun-warmed longleaf pines, grassy fields, magnolias, and kudzu flowers through a warm, humid night sweetened with the scent of honeysuckle and star jasmine, always with an undercurrent of tonka-rich tobacco curing in the wooden barns and historic red brick factories."



Gujarat

Notes: saffron, tulsi, lime, tagetes, jasmine, rose, cardamom, cumin, fenugreek, ginger, curry leaf, turmeric, mango, spikenard, olibanum, vetiver, patchouli, choya loban, black agar, and sandalwood

Gujarat is among my favorites from the line. But that one is not for the weak hearted (or cumin-phobic). Not that you get a lot of cumin, just the underlying musky warmth of it but I still need to warn people as I can tell it's cumin, so I'm sure other people would too.
I hate it that my starting line is about cumin because that's such a minor player in this. This is a spice fest of the most luscious kind.
As you can see from the list of notes, there is no lack of spices in there. Which again brings me to the fact that I have no idea how most of those spices smell like. I do know though that they combine into a powerfully attractive mix to me.

The perfume starts for me slightly menthol-like with warm spices (here is where I detect cumin underneath) and lightly fruity as well. It practically emits warmth from where you apply it.
Again, I can smell the floral sweetness and the idea of what I come to call Ellen's signature.

By the time I can detect mango and oudishness, I am thouroughly glued to my wrist.
Which brings me back to the fact that I saw black agar listed here and oud listed on one other of Olympic Orchids perfume together with black agar, and I somehow thought it was the same...? Obviously, I need to learn a lot more. :)


Olympic Rainforest

Notes:cedar leaves, green sword ferns, rhododendron, forest mushrooms, beebalm, myrtle, oakmoss, black spruce, balsam fir, and Port Orford Cedar wood

This is my last Olympic Orchid for today.
This is the one that smells of lavender, and pine needles, of woods and fern. The whole deal.
It starts refreshingly and invigoratingly, it makes you breathe in fully and then lets you enter the underbrush of the rainforest, as it smells grassy and ferny to me (again barest fruity whisps, I seem to amplify sweetness in these perfumes).

One of the best things about perfume is that you learn a lot. I kept smelling this menthol-like freshness (many things piney smell menthol-like to me) and it turns out cedar leaves come from an evergreen, coniferous tree. And as I've never seen a cedar tree in my life (there aren't any here), of course I didn't know that.
The perfume then goes on to smell like you've entered the rainforest, lightly sweet fungi smell, slight dampness and rottiness of leaves and underneath all that, the smell of fern.

It gets less and less sweet until you are left with flowery cedar woods (I really don't know where am I getting all this floweriness from).


Pics taken from http://www.fragrantica.com/

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.

When perfume speaks, you can only listen - Pentachords by Andy Tauer

I am happy to be able to host a guest post by Asali who was recently a lucky recipient of some Pentachords samples and I feel lucky she wanted to share her experience with us by writing a post. :)

Three samples from Andy Tauer’s new line Pentachords arrived at my door some days ago. Two of them would not leave me alone, but kept telling me to write, so I did.

Andy Tauer did the perfumer’s answer to the painter’s restricted palette, and wanted to show how to create beautiful and innovative fragrances out of only five ingredients. 

Let me start with Verdant which is an edt with notes of (in his own words) dewy leaves, suave leather, brown tobacco, sweet earth, vibrant amber. This fragrance is quite unlike any green scent I ever smelled before. It is definitely earth and leaves, both moist and heavy with scent. It’s not aiming at transparency nor is it a stylized picture of nature forced into a little neat pastel. This smells like nature when you’re out walking in the rain drenched woods in your mac and wellingtons.  The leaves I find are more soaked than dewy and have, together with the rain-wet soil, the slight sense of bitter decay.

Doesn’t sound good? Well, it is. It’s rather marvelous. Because the tobacco sets in and gives the scent warmth underneath the dampness, and the leather makes you feel well equipped for this kind of walk in the forest. The slight bit of amber in the base feels like the anticipation of being home again. For me personally, this fragrance evokes memories of my childhood spent in a daytime forest kinder garden, with no playground and actual playthings, just the grounds and the forest at our disposal. This was in the late 70’s, and I suspect the memory connected with this smell of woods after the rain together with the scent of pipe tobacco which hung in the smoking caretaker’s clothes, to me breathes comfort and safety.

 White is an equally surprising white fragrance, which gives the extreme quality bourbon vanilla scent off, so that it almost has a whiff of sweet tobacco, it’s both a tiny bit fluffy and at the same time retains a low sense of gravity, and again the sensation almost of damp earthiness .  In contrast to Verdant, and although I think Andy Tauer was inspired by a winter morning run for this one, I feel very much like this fragrance is the one you put on as you’d wrap yourself in a comfy shawl, once you’ve returned home from your country walk. You hang up the damp clothes, make a cup of vanilla scented tea, and comfy yourself up in the sofa with a good book, ah, and then just enjoy.

The violets then kick in, but only after a substantial amount of time with the vanilla, so beautiful and a bit powdery and yet so earthy and rich, a real surprise after the bourbon vanilla. The dry down of ambergris and warm wood, is the lovely base on which the two main players are resting. I like the way as you read the notes, and kind of second guess the fragrance, only to be proven utterly wrong. White has notes of Bourbon vanilla, orris root, violet blossom, amber gris and warm wood, and it’s lovely.

May I suggest if the ‘wildlife’ of verdant is a bit too much for you, that you might try layering. Oh, yes, I know the whole idea was to restrict the perfume to 5, but they do go awfully nicely hand in hand. Both have 8+ hours at least.

The picture I get from both fragrances, the stories they tell, the time travelling is so vivid, so beautiful I can only encourage everyone who reads this:  Do go and try all of the Pentachords, I’m sure you’ll find they will tell you your own story, if you’ll let them.