Join me on my journey through the worlds of perfumes and books
The new perfume collaboration by Neela Vermeire and Bertrand Duchafour – Ashoka (eau de parfum).
The only problem I see here – it’s going to be available in early autumn 2013. 😉
I can’t help but wonder, judging by the notes, if it would make a good spring perfume…
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/
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/
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/
