Category Archives: World of Perfume

Vetiver for all seasons: D600 by Carner Barcelona

World of Perfume June 26, 2012 Comments: 12

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

World of Perfume May 30, 2012 Comments: 4

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

World of Perfume May 10, 2012 Comments: 7

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

World of Perfume April 16, 2012 Comments: 14

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

World of Perfume March 28, 2012 Comments: 13

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

World of Perfume March 12, 2012 Comments: 16

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

World of Perfume February 9, 2012 Comments: 28

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

World of Perfume February 6, 2012 Comments: 18
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

World of Perfume November 28, 2011 Comments: 13

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)

World of Perfume November 2, 2011 Comments: 15

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.