Tag Archives: Olivia Giacobetti

O Tannenbaum! A joint blogging event

Joint blog project, Short perfume review December 21, 2011 Comments: 24

I adore participating in joint blogging projects so when Joanne and Krista asked if we were interested in this year’s Christmas project of course we said yes (that includes Asali and I).

So here are Asali’s mini reviews for O Tannenbaum! project:


Pick #1:

Iunx, L’Ether; Only recently I discovered this fragrance, and I can’t get it out of my mind, so it is definitely my Tannenbaum perfume no 1 – in spirit, even if not yet in material shape.

Because this incense perfume invites introspective thoughtfulness, and in the middle of this almost spiritual swirl of fragrance there is a discreet rose heart, and there is the golden hue of saffron softened by sandalwood. Even if this can be worn all year round, somehow it manages to sum up the soul of Christmas to me. A divine creation by Olivia Giacobetti

My pick #2;
Another Giacobetti gem is Safran Troublant (L’Artisan Parfumeur), ok so it isn’t exactly an imaginative choice, but it practically IS all that is nice about December to me.  It smells like the most delicious bun that the Swedes do for Lucia day called Lussekat. The fragrance like the bun manages to sparkle in all its glorious saffron spiciness, rounded and softened by vanilla sweetness.  It is alluring and smooth, and a most wonderful fragrance. Sharing many of the same notes including the creamy sandalwood, it couldn’t be further away from L’Ether in its expression. On the 13th of December you can experience a little scenery of girls dressed in white with a candle clad garland on their heads singing the Santa Lucia song, and you can eat Lussekatte (plural), and you can relive it every time you wear ST.

Pick #3

Last but not least the ultimative Christmas party fragrance: Marron Chic from Nez a Nez.

It’s less “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire” and more sleigh ride style “We’ll be singing the songs we like to sing without a single stop, at the fireplace while we watch the chestnut pop, just hear those sleigh bells jingling , ring ting tingling too, come on it’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you ”

Comfy cosy and yet very sensual, it truly comes alive on the skin, oozing chic radiance, and like some of my most cherished perfumes turns you into something a little better than yourself.

Please visit other participating blogs to read more about what Christmas season perfumes bring happiness to them:

Another Perfume Blog
Beauty, Bacon, Bunnies
Beauty on the Outside
EauMG
Eyeliner on a cat
Fragrant Reviews
Muse in Wooden Shoes
Olfactoria’s Travels
Parfumieren
Redolent of Spices

Scent of the Day
Suzanne’s Perfume Journal
The Candy Perfume Boy
Undina’s Looking Glass


P.S. I’ll be posting my reviews later in the day.

Wish I’d get to a coast soon – Costes by Costes

World of Perfume April 7, 2011 Comments: 8

I’ve been hearing about Costes for a long time but somehow never got around to sampling any of their offerings. Until a little sample of Costes (edt I believe) arrived in a swap.
And then again it took me ages to try it. I rather don’t think about the amount of samples and decants I have and have not talked about (or sniffed at all).

As I always do, I tried it without checking the notes beforehand. Just for an instant, it wafted a little suncreen smell I recognize but can’t place as which particular bottle it might have come from. And besides, it disappearing so fast, it’s not really important.
What is important is that it starts off citrusy and lavender-like and well, strong. Here is where I need to clarify that not all lavender notes smell the same to me. Some take on a masculine character that is in my mind reminiscent of firs and greenery. Like this one. I also thought I smelled incense but wondered later if I was wrong because I couldn’t find it afterward.

Notes: lavender, bay-tree, coriander, white pepper, rose, incense, woods, light musc.

Yes, seeing the notes, I realize why I’m thinking of green lavender. 🙂
While looking for notes, I also came across the fact that this was made by Olivia Giacobetti. It seems she pretty much can’t miss out with me. I like this one very much, even though I don’t consider it as great as some of her other creations. And when I say great, I’m thinking more in the line of complex and changing.
Because after that initial green fresh blast, it goes into peppery freshness tinged by lighty sweet rose and pretty much stays there.

For someone who thought that roses are not friendly to her in perfumes, I somehow ended up loving them in all the myriad of variants they come out. I don’t know though what those variants are called and they are rarely named in notes so I still haven’t learned to distinguish them by names. But it seems Ms Giacobetti knows them inside out as this isn’t her first rosey perfume I tried, and I admit I love Eau Egyptienne a bit more than this one.
But having said that, if I had a bottle of this, I would be spraying it quite often, and at this time of the year too, as it’s fresh, optimistic, lively and extremely easy to wear even though I’m thinking some people might object to pepper as I find it quite obvious. But it’s just that little thing that adds a bit of sexy zestiness to it.

SO, one last thing I need to say about this is that it’s easy to smell the notes (I didn’t smell all of them but most) and to follow them through the scent but they don’t work in there for themselves, there is a synergy in there that makes the sum of the notes you recognize and smell, into a little work of art that is easy to wear.

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

I do love coconuts

World of Perfume September 2, 2010 Comments: 8

As I live in a country where coconuts don’t grow, it’s actually, now I think of it, a wonder how I seem to know forever now what it smells like. Probably since the first time I was taken for a beach summer vacation by my parents. The coconut note was quite dominant  in sunscreens then (well, it still can be found everywhere today as well). It was definitely the first tropical note embedded in my mind forever.

Unfortunately as I grew older and wanted to try and discover all kinds of cosmetics, I stumbled upon several different products pairing the coconut with vanilla and ending up with seriously upset stomach. That smell is also embedded in my mind as an example of how two things that smell so nice by themselves and sometimes together as well, can be made into an obnoxiously artificial and nauseating thing.

Ok, now that I put that off my chest, I can get to the subject of the post. Honoré des Prés. Or more precisely, Olivia Giacobetti. Or to be completely clear here – Love Coco.

After being lucky enough (and fast enough) to win a sample of Vamp a NY (and fall in love with it) from Grain de Musc and reading a really good review by Nathan Branch, I knew I had to get my hands on the coconut thingy. And I was right. 🙂 I just love it when I buy something unsniffed and it turns out a complete success.

It is difficult to describe a coconut perfume since, well, the most true thing you can say is that it smells coconuty (you surely didn’t know that?). 🙂
Luckily for me, even though the notes mention vanilla, my teenage nauseating experience was firmly forgotten with the first sniff of this joyful elixir.

I don’t know how many of you had the chance to use or smell coconut butter (which has some seriously good hydrating properties) but that is the closest smell Love Coco gets to. It’s not too sweet, it’s exactly like that coconut butter, like there is some bark mixed in with that milky-nutty lushness.

I feel a bit stupid saying this, but adding that coriander leaf into this mix was a stroke of brilliance. I mean Ms Giacobetti obviously knows what she’s doing. I would never guess that coconut smell can get this wonderful herbal sharpishness and spiciness. Makes me want to breathe it in more and more. And even though I forswore wearing coconut scents during my teenage years, I obviously found one that made me change my mind.

The good thing is, I cannot see myself wearing this outside summer, beach ambient so my bottle is going to last a while. That is, I’m hoping it will because I keep spraying my arms so I can inhale it during the day.

Notes: coconut, coriander leaf, vanilla.

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

SOTD: Eau Egyptienne by Cinq Mondes

Sample of the day June 20, 2010 Comments: 5

Turns out I’m reviewing Ms Giacobetti’s work two times in a row without doing it on purpose. I really didn’t know it was made by her until I went to check the notes some time into smelling it. Now, I’ll have to give it more effort and find her other creations to smell because I love this.

I have no idea what’s happening to me that I’m getting more and more into roses.

Notes: lotus, caraway, rose, mint, myrrh, cypress, geranium, jasmine, juniper, pistacchio.

I’m not going into how this came about, there is enough written about that. What I want to talk about is how incredible it smells to me. My initial thought was that it was a surprisingly good citrusy, spicy, flowery, warm thingie. I say thingie because it just seems so delicate, feminine-like but it turns out it’s only delicate because I think of it as feminine in the general sense of people who don’t understand women. I don’t think women are really delicate – quite the contrary. I think they are strong and solid while at the same time they are caring and warm. And this is what I get from this, the warmth in the heart around which the spices and flowers dance making it seem girly and feminine but the warmth giving it solidity and strength. If that makes sense. And the rose-lotus-geranium combo underscored by caraway definitely helps.

It’s warm and at the same time fresh with something that makes your senses come alive. And if I got the prices right, it’s 48 euros for 100ml. Which seems quite reasonable to me. 🙂