Tag Archives: World of Perfume

Unexpected surprises – Linari

World of Perfume March 8, 2011 Comments: 6

It’s been said over and over again how the perfume community is both friendly and generous. It’s true but I still get surprised each time the generosity ends up in my lap. Not that I mind, especially when it comes from Paris and one of the most intriguing and knowledgeable bloggers out there – Denyse a.k.a. carmencanada of Grain de Musc.
I took advantage of her perfume spring cleaning (I love those!) and she, knowing it was my birthday at the time, sent over some amazing things. Some of which I want to talk about today.

Honestly, sometimes I feel ashamed for not knowing about some of the perfume houses out there. And after smelling these two, I really ought to have at least had an idea of them.

Vista sul Mare

Notes: “fresh citrus notes of Calabrian bergamot, pink grapefruit, lemon and Italian tangerine with a cool ozonic accord, ingeniously surrounded by a spicy-floral bouquet of red pepper, cloves, lily of the valley and wild roses. White musk and seductive amber merge with natural cedar and hints of patchouli to create a sensual, elegant base note”.

I let you go through the notes because I like the way they sound. I didn’t get to distinguish them all but I enjoyed the perfume immensely. It certainly did evoke the feeling of a thrilling summer  seaside affair (this time we’re talking about the Mediterranean) with a sexy stranger. Who smells of green citruses, sea breeze (ozone air) and when you get closer after the dinner you had, you can smell his salty skin lightly wafting a citrusy floralness over the cedar base.
I do wish I could describe this better. It’s so much more than I said but the atmosphere is the one I described. It might not be novel or strange but it’s wonderful, absolute enjoyment to smell from the beginning to the end without ever becoming boring. And that is saying quite a lot.

Eleganza Luminosa

Notes: “enticing freshness of sun-ripened bergamot, luscious lemon and lively orange contrasts appealingly
with the lavish floweriness of finest rose oil, tantalizing jasmine, yellow freesia, powdery iris and lily of the valley. Warm woody notes of cedar and sandal merge with the sensual accord of white musk, whilst Javan patchouli and amber radiate to emphasise the long-lasting, timeless elegance”.

This one on the other hand doesn’t evoke summer breezes and sexy strangers, unless the sexy stranger is you. If you know how Ambre Gris by Balmain smells like, well, this one is similar but better. And Ambre Gris is good.
For me it starts florally-fruity (in an elegant way not celebrity way) with a touch of muskiness. Soon I can detect the grey amber note as it’s so similar to Ambre Gris. I probably should have stated up there with you being the sexy stranger that you are probably a woman as this is more feminine than Ambre Gris.
I just realized that I’m not really distinguishing the notes so well as they are so well blended as to create a story and not a sequence.
Both of them are perfumes for me in the real sense as each time I smell my arm, it is slightly different. I thought the drydown of Eleganza was a lovely ambery dust over the wood notes, only to smell it a bit later and realize amber is gone and floral woodiness is now in charge.

As the Linari site listed their perfumer, I wanted to put his name in the post as well, I do hope I remember his name from the first try as I am looking forward to trying his other creation – Egon Oelkers.

Notes and pics by: Linari site
All Linari perfumes cost 140 Euros but a sample pack is available for 9 E.

Going straight for summer – Nobile 1942, Casta Diva

World of Perfume March 4, 2011 Comments: 10

It seems everywhere I turn, everyone is talking about spring and waiting for it. I am too, but the thing is, we haven’t really had a real spring in years, it feels we go straight from winter into summer, with two weeks of spring in between. And I know spring is supposed to last longer. 🙂

So, expecting spring, I am valiantly trying to separate myself from my lovely warm, winter orientals (I just don’t want to let them go yet) and I sprayed on some Casta Diva, the sample of which was found in my bag after my last Flores visit.

I’m not even sure I should be reviewing lush, white florals anymore as I love them so much, I keep thinking I will never try any I won’t like. And I love this one. It would certainly fit well into my growing white floral collection. It’s actually one I would recommend people start with as it’s not as heavy and heady as they can get, so I find it acceptable work perfume.

Notes: green and fruity notes, jasmine, ylang ylang, frangipani, osmanthus, neroli, oakmoss, amber, white musk and vanilla.

It starts off smelling fresh and not yet completely tropically lush, you can detect it’s somewhere in there, but the sun hasn’t risen to its zenith yet and the lushness hasn’t permeated everything, there is still a fresh, green breeze wafting. The fruity sweetness you smell is more the cocktails on the beach variety than actual fruit, it has that slight plasticky, candy smell that actually works here. I personally find it great. 🙂
And then as the sun heats you up on the beach while you’re drinking your cocktail, the jasmine and yland-ylang sneak up on you and seduce you into feeling even more relaxed.

I need to see what other people think of this as I find this a very polite lush, white floral, I am not the most objective person in that regard as I could drown in them. But I do think this one will not raise any eyebrows if you wear it to work. It just might get your colleagues to wonder where did you spend your weekend exactly.

After the initial fruity sweetness, it’s no longer that sweet, just what the flowers and vanilla give you and it’s also very polite. And it dries down into a soft, vanillic floral just hinting at that lushness of white, sandy tropics.

A thoroughly enjoyable ride. 🙂

http://www.nobile1942.it/index.asp

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

Giving in to my perfume sweet tooth – Un Bois Vanille

World of Perfume February 21, 2011 Comments: 22

I find it both interesting and telling that at this point in month, the two perfumes that made such an impression are both sweet. 🙂

First, I’m forever thankful to the Perfume Posse for hosting that incredible mass swap before Christmas, I got so many wonderful things in exchange, I still need to go through them properly.

One of the things I received was the decant of Un Bois Vanille as I never tried it before and since I, well, like pretty much anything coming from SL line, I wanted to try it. It took a while for me to take it out (two days ago actually) and I decided to spray it on without testing it first.

It wasn’t a mistake. 🙂

In my case at least. I’m not sure though how many people actually appreciate burnt caramel smell. But it’s so wonderfully done! I keep getting that burnt caramel/sugar vibe with some smoke hidden under that heaviness but it’s so good. (I’m doing a little happy dance in my chair just thinking about it) 🙂

Before you start thinking that’s all there is to it, I do get traces of vanilla, the one that makes me love Vanilia by L’Artisan (why in the world did they decide to discontinue it?!).

For me the burnt caramel never truly goes away but it certainly dissipates enough to get you to smell a nutty (slightly bitter) vibe and then it just dries down to a less sweet (not that it was too sweet in the first place) woody burnt caramel/nuttiness. The burnt part has here already been mostly cleared by the wind.

Notes: Black vanilla absolute, licorice, sandalwood, coconut milk, beeswax, caramelized benzoin, bitter almond, Gaiac wood, tonka bean

P.S. I do wish I got a 10ml decant instead of 5ml.

Woody chocolate anyone?

World of Perfume February 17, 2011 Comments: 8

I should write this before it’s gone so if anyone has a liking, it can be snatched for a reduced price.
I’m talking about DSH Bois du Chocolate, a sample of which arrived with my last order and has been going around with me for weeks as it just didn’t beckon to me.

Today I decided to forget about the beckoning part and just try it. It’s wonderful! Simple yet brilliant. I don’t where this is coming from, I didn’t write this down when smelling it but now I look back to what it smelled like, I find it great.
Well, I thought it was great then as well. 🙂

Top notes: Sandalwood

Middle notes: Dark Chocolate, Vanilla
Base notes: Musk, Patchouli

Straight away I got dark chocolate and it wasn’t sweet. It was as dark chocolate is supposed to smell like. I wanted to describe that smell but the best I got is deep, dark chocolate. 🙂 And I need to work on better distinguishing variants of patchouli and vetiver, I thought I smelled vetiver and it turned out, patchouli was in the notes. But you certainly cannot miss the sandalwood. I did miss the musk and vanilla though. Vanilla isn’t surprising, as it probably underscores chocolate and is there to make it work its magic. Musk completely by-passed me, but then again, it was made clear to me yesterday, I can’t smell some musks very well (like Musc Nomade by AG, I could barely sniff it on my arm).

Anyway, I enjoyed smelling this, it’s exactly what it says, but it smells so much better than you can guess by reading the notes (or the name). Seductive but not sweet (I’m wondering now if I find the smell of dark chocolate seductive, it seems to pop out each time I smell a perfume with it).

And if I recover from my recent perfume stunts in time, while there is a bottle of this farewell item left, I believe I’ll have one. And check if men find it seductive as well. 😉

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

Ombre Rose by Jean-Charles Brosseau (vintage)

World of Perfume February 15, 2011 Comments: 8

First off, a huge thank you to Olenska from Parfumieren who sent this. And here is where I have to say that packages arriving from perfume bloggers/enthusiasts are simply the best. You know what you are receiving but there is always something in there you are not expecting that makes it so much more fun.  🙂

Oh, where to start…
I loved this one from the start. I smelled the aldehydes and the rose in the opening and so much more than words can convey.
I love smelling vintage perfume becasue unfortunately, you really can’t smell that anymore today (well, you can but very rarely and it will probably then cost some serious money). Anyway, the thing is, vintage doesn’t always correspond to something you will like/love, but usually it does mean you will appreciate the trip.

I was completely prepared to love Ombre Rose. It smelled to me like the first cousin of Shalimar. Obviously not a sibling, but very close family. Somewhat more proper but with a twinkle in the eye that hinted at more interesting things. Not as powerfully present and strongly opinionated as Shalimar but still having the same beauty displayed in a different manner.

Oh, I was seduced by the rosewood making my association to Shalimar veer off in another direction and giving this spirit of its own. I was so happy to find another friend.

And then we got to know each other better.

Turned out that the twinkle in the eye was only learned from the more experienced cousin but there was nothing afterward to give it credence. The interesting cousin turned out to be a proper little miss smelling of shampoo flowers/rose and not the sexy minx from the introduction.
Unfortunately, we were not meant to associate for long.

Notes: aldehydes, peach, brazilian rosewood, geranium, sandalwood, orris root, vetiver, ylang-ylang, lily-of-the-valley, cedar, rose, honey, orris, tonka bean, cinnamon, musk, vanilla and heliotrope.

I do wonder though, how it was possible to turn one into the other, perfumer-wise. It must be a feat.

Pic by: http://www.jcbrosseau.com/index.php

A walk through Arizona high-country and a possible mango grove

World of Perfume February 6, 2011 Comments: 15
I love it when perfumes manage to surprise me and one by Olympic Orchids did that splendidly. More on that one later, for now, I want to start with Arizona. And a huge thank you to Ellen who sent some of her creations for me to try. 🙂

Arizona

Notes: pine, juniper, sage, chaparral, high desert wildflowers

My geographical knowledge is well, limited to put it mildly, so when I first read the name of this, I imagined it was supposed to connote desert. Then I read the description on Olympic Orchids site and realized it was supposed to give you the following – “Experience a walk through the pine forests and clearings of the Arizona high country on a sun-warmed summer day.”

So, it’s not just desert but forests as well (and a quick google search helped clear all my misunderstandings).
Actually, it must be quite an interesting part of the US and it sure smells great when depicted by Ellen Covey.

To me, it starts dry and warm, like you’re smelling the dirt  on a path you’re walking along through shrubbery – wouldn’t really call it a forest at this point. Eventually the herbaceousness of the notes is more prominent and though it reminded me somewhat of lavender, I can imagine the trees giving off their scent lighty in the summer heat. The pine and juniper spiciness (for the lack of a better word), that at one point smell almost menthol-like (that’s quickly gone), are most of the time held in check by those wild flowers mentioned in the notes and even though I can’t really say I smell the flowers, I can smell those notes sort of floating on a cloud of something that makes them feel warm and subdued.
I thought I could smell both some cedarwood and sandalwood in the drydown as it starts to acquire a more creamy woody quality. It smells refreshing for the spirit as I’m sure a walk through a forest on a summer day must feel like.

And now onto my incredible discovery.

A Midsummer’s Day Dream

I cannot give you any notes as I couldn’t find any but what this smells on me is the most vivid mango you could imagine. I’m pretty sure that is not what this is supposed to smell like, I mean if you read Tarleisio’s review you’ll see what I mean, but I just can’t get past it. Not that I would want to, I love mango and I love the way it smells. I just wish I knew what notes are in there that conspired to make such a vivid mango picture for me.

It starts with that sweet juiciness typical of peaches and mangoes but never does it smell peachy to me, straight away there is this raspiness to it – if you ever tried mango, you’ll recognize the smell of it and the feel of it on your tongue. Ok, I understand that people might not want to smell like mango (but I sure do) – it is such a live image of it, cut for eating on a bright, warm, sunny day. The perfume is actually sparkling in its fruity exuberance.
Eventually, the juiciness subsides but the raspiness can still be felt and there is something else in there I can’t put my nose on but for me, the mango idea never goes away.

Pic of mango grove by: http://www.indianetzone.com/

Arizona pic and notes by: http://www.orchidscents.com/

The Outlaws, part 3

World of Perfume February 2, 2011 Comments: 10

It’s time I brought my outlaw experience to its end. Not that there is an actual end to this particular experience – I feel like I could test them over and over again and never be sure if my opinion was correct.

DSH: Mata Hari

Top notes: Bergamot, Coriander Seed, Fruit Note no.1 (botanical accord), Green Mandarin, Neroli, Orange Flower Absolute – France, Tarragon (Estragon)
Middle notes: Cassie Absolute, Champaca Absolute, Cinnamon Bark, Cinnamon Leaf, Clove Bud, Lilac Cocktail (botanical accord), Moroccan Rose Absolute, Orris Concrete, Sambac Jasmine, Tuberose Absolute, Vintage Orchid (botanical accord)
Base notes: Australian Sandalwood, Benzoin, Brown Oakmoss, Buddahwood, Cade, Cassis Bud, Ciste Absolute, East Indian Patchouli, Green Oakmoss, Indonesian Vetiver, Leather (botanical accord), musk eau natural accord, Tonka Bean, Vanilla Absolute

The best advice I can give you when it comes to DSH scents, just ignore the notes and follow your nose. There is always such a wealth of notes, there’s no way you are going to discern them all (or half of them, or a third…). 🙂
As you saw through my previous reviews, I had some problems writing coherent reviews that would give you the right impression. Mata Hari is one of those that gave me serious trouble. It is a fruity chypre. Ok. I have an idea what a chypre smells like but it seems my idea might not be true in all cases. This is definitely a fruity perfume (I seem to be a fertile ground these days for fruity, all the fruit practically blossoms on me, if fruit can do that).

Anyway, this starts on me with an amazing peach booze accord that quickly gets encased in chocolate. Like you had this chocolate filled with peach liquor that smells so very fruity when you bite through it so you can barely register the chocolate, the peach liquor is all that makes you swoon. It really lasts for me so by the time other things start to happen, my concentration is gone (drunk on liquor and chocolate).
Yes, I get some piquancy at one point (cinammon?), some leathery aspect peaking out from somewhere and a dark, marshy base that can’t get through but is there underneath the fruit giving this depth, opulence and a bit of darkness. Which is strange given the opening but obviously very appropriate given the name.
Anyway, this made me re-think my opinion on chypres, they are not the strange, unwearable creatures I thought I knew, but mysterious, deep, sultry enchantresses when put into right hands.
Even though I know I can’t wear this at all times, I find it really incredible.

Joanne Basset: Amazing

Notes: Oakmoss, Cassie, Cinnamon, Vintage Jasmine, Lemon Verbena, Rose Otto, Muhuhu, Ginger, Yuzu, Rhododendron, Benzoin, Violet Leaf, and 19 others

And if I don’t seem to be able to wear Mata Hari at all times, I definitely know when I can wear Amazing. Any time I need some happiness and sunshine in my life. This one is all that. It might not have the depths of some other Outlaws  but it sure has serious sunny effect.
It’s at the same time green, citrusy (quite so as it smells like you’re peeling the rind from a lemon), piquant and just alive. Eventually the citrusness subsides and some piquancy (not the lemon rind kind) is there – my guess is cinammon and this is where it gets strange.
By now, I realized that all the strangeness I’m feeling is probably due to the fact that I wasn’t familiar with real oakmoss until now and now that I am, I’m lacking words for describing it. But at least I’m learning. 🙂
The thing is – outlaw strangeness is good.

Dupetit: Cannabis

Notes: Basil oil (holy), Bay oil (West Indian), Bergamot leaf oil, Birch tar oil, Citronella oil, Clove oil, Geranium oil, Ginger oil, Grapefruit peel oil, Jasmine Sambac absolute, Lemon peel oils, Lemon verbena absolute, Lime peel oil (expressed) Mace oil, Nutmeg oil, Orange blossom absolute, Orange leaf oil, Orange peel oil (bitter) orange peel oil (sweet), Peppermint oil, Rose absolute, Rose oil, Rue oil, Taget (marigold) absolute, Thyme oil (thymol CT) Tolu balsam extract.

Well, how do you talk about a perfume that is named Cannabis? 🙂 I’ll do it quickly.
It’s a sparkly, Sprite-feeling cannabis perfume. Sparkly as in a sparkly soda made of lemon stuff (just check the notes on this one).
Eventually this subsides and  a nice feeling cannabis remains surrounded by floral, lightly resiny friends.

P.S. I really tested all of these many times and applied great amounts and had NO side effects what so ever.

Pics by: https://www.dshperfumes.com/index.asp, http://www.joannebassett.com/edt.htm and http://www.bioscent.info/cannabis_perfume.html

The Outlaws, part 2

World of Perfume January 31, 2011 Comments: 8

Like I promised, I’m trying to keep up with the writing, so another part in the Outlaws series (I’m way behind reviewing these). Can’t say I’m happy with my notes on them but I don’t think I’ll be able to improve much on them as each time I wear one of them, I get something else and slightly different than before. Shape-shifters, all of them. 🙂

Anya’s Garden: Amberess

Top notes: none, in the true Oriental style
Middle notes: Zambian Princesse de Nassau Rosa Moschata African musk rose otto and Musk rose absolute, Madagascan ylang ylang, South African rose geranium sur fleurs
Base notes: Indonesian patchouli, Himalayan amber oil, Turkish styrax, Greek labdanum, Peruvian tonka bean, Salvadorean balsam tolu, Balsam of Peru, Chinese benzoin, Madagascan vanilla

I kept wondering what exactly does a perfume with no top notes smell like and if they are really necessary in order to have a good perfume. The answers are good and no. 🙂 As to what exactly does it smell like, that’s a bit more difficult.

The opening is strange (I feel that’s the word I use most with the outlaws). 🙂 It starts familiar, and I can get traces of the rose that is going to appear but at the same time, it smells slightly acidic. Eventually, it subsides into a geranium sharpness you feel alongside rose and everything else that’s in there. It makes me imagine the opulent, oriental, carpeted room with delicacies on the table (of the sweet variety) and flower scented bedcovers. It smells what I would imagine a woman reminding you of an earth goddess might – rich, soil-like at one point ( very lightly), slightly green and wet and smelling of rose.
The rose feels very real in this one, the way I imagine the smell of rose when I think about it and then it becomes the smell of a rose on an oriental bed smelling of spices and woods.
Hmm, I keep getting that bed imagery, so I guess my mind is trying to tell me it’s seduction in a bottle. 🙂

Lord’s Jester: Daphne

Top – cypress , ginger , bergamot , tangerine , mandarin , grapefruit’, tagetes
Heart – immortelle , frangipani , magnolia , jasmine , jasmine sambac , rose , rose otto
Base – oakmoss , benzoin , labdanum , vanilla , tonka , pine needle , styrax , ambergris

Please don’t get frustrated when I call this one strange again. 🙂 Because it is. Even more so than the rest. It’s dark, in the beginning, it also upsets my stomach a bit. It’s at the same time sweet, dark and unsettling. I’m not sure what is unsettling my stomach, I thought it was cassia but it’s not listed so now I don’t know.
It smells deep, green and marshy while at the same time retaining the sweetness. I’m sure you can see now why I keep refering to it as strange.

In the beginning, you can smell spicy citrusness and ginger, combined with some kind of sirupy sweetness. But once the flowers start getting through, it all gets much more enjoyble. Morphs for a bit into something smelling more “masculine”, sweet and cool at the same time.
It strikes me as a very serious perfume, it doesn’t evoke any sunny or bright feelings.
The fact that I find it strange and unsettling doesn’t really mean I don’t like it, quite the contrary, I find it interesting enough to want to wear it. Not often though as it probably won’t make me feel happy but there are times when it fits the mood.

Artemisia: Belle Starr

Notes: Red cedarwood, ginger, bois de rose, bergamot, karo-karounde absolute, carnation absolute, jasmine grandiflorum absolute, tonka, lotus concrete, rooibos absolute and cepes absolute.

Sometimes when I smell a perfume, all I think is, why in the world do I think I can do this? I see the notes listed and I know I have no idea what half of them smell like. And then I smell the perfume, and still, I can tease out some, but the rest are floating around in a cloud of wonderful smelling perfume laughing at me. This is such a well-blended perfume, the best I can do is get teased by a note, only to find it gone once I think I’m smelling it, then another comes and does the same. So not fair! 🙂

It’s a slightly sweet and possibly rosy scent and I manage to tease out ginger, the rooibos tea and the bois de rose but I’m still getting a spicy, somewhat herbal vibe. The citrus here is used so perfectly to temper the possible sweetness of other notes that you don’t actually smell it as such but realize it’s there to keep the sweetness in check.
Mostly I think of this as spicy carnation, even though I got some jasmine and at one point (short-lived though). As it progresses, it gets more flowery until for me it gets to smell jasmine-y masculine. A clean jasmine (keep thinking there’s rose in there as well) mixed with woods.
I wonder what it would smell like on a guy, it seems to me it might work very well. If I’ll let him have it. 😉

P.S. I can’t seem to find Belle Starr listed on Artemisia site and the price for it.

Daphne is 30$ for 5ml and Amberess is 75$ for 3,5 ml.

Pics by: http://www.lordsjester.com/ and http://anyasgarden.com/

I need to stop loitering and start writing – starting with Parfumerie Generale

World of Perfume January 28, 2011 Comments: 27
I’ve tried so many good perfumes lately that it’s high time I stopped loitering about writing reviews and just do them. I do get into phases when I think that no matter what I write, it will never be good enough to describe the perfume so why bother, but I really need to talk about these because even though not many people read my blog, it just feels I need to spread the word.

I don’t know how many of you are aware of the fact that I love Parfumerie Generale offerings. Of course, I haven’t tried them all and not all of them are for me, but generally speaking, I find them made for me. 🙂
I’ll start with Drama Nuui because I thought I will like this one more than Bois Blonde.

Notes:petit grain, absinthe, jasmine, spices, guaiac wood, sandalwood, musk

That petit grain keeps bothering me. I can never figure it out for myself but after reading my notes and then the perfume notes, I can see how they merge.  I guess it takes a lot of time to train one’s nose into getting all these notes.

Initially I thought it smelled like white flowers iris or lily of the valley with a slightly soapy twist, all together reminiscent of jasmine. Like I said, in retrospect, I see where petit grain fits in.
It smells like it’s a white floral laced with some vanilla and with ylang-ylang hiding in there. But the petit grain not only gives it slight soapiness but also piquancy.
Honestly, the absinthe thing completely passed me by, and that is probably because I have no idea what it smells like in real life.

But the drydown of Drama Nuui is absolutely wonderful. You smell fine and delicately sweet and flowery sandalwood. I’m pretty sure the spices part is responsible for the whole structure of this smelling interesting throughout but I can’t really say I spied any with my nose. 🙂

Bois Blond

Notes: cereals, grass, galbanum, cedar, hay, blond tobacco, amber, musk

I’m not sure what cereals are supposed to smell like, understated probably with everything else in this perfume. It starts grassily green, smelling of grass sap, like grass was recently cut and is emitting that sweet, green smell (which works for me always). I guess galbanum really does its best here. 🙂
At some point when the grassiness starts to subside, I was sure I could get hints of something cuminy through but as the note is not listed, my guess is that hay and amber combined with grass had something to do with it.  And even though you smell the grass, it’s at all times tempered with some woodiness, making the perfume smell of wide, green, open spaces in the sun.
Once I read the notes, I could finally smell cedar and while the grass element is slowly subsiding, some smokiness gets a hold of you while you’re enjoying the warm, sweet cedar wafts. I don’t really smell tobacco, to me, it smells more of whiffs of that aromatic tobacco burning.
What I find absolutely stunning is the temperate nature of all the notes that can usually be quite overpowering. I’m still wondering where did the slight piquancy (a light pinching in my nose) in the start of the drydown come from? Smoky cedar perhaps?

In any case, a truly enjoyable perfume but as it’s part of the Private Collection, I’m not sure how available it is. I see Luckyscent carries it, 110$ for 50ml.

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

The Outlaws, part 1

World of Perfume January 14, 2011 Comments: 10

I am so happy Carol organized sample packages for all of us who didn’t participate in the Outlaw Perfume Project but still wanted to try the perfumes that got so many great reviews.

I spent a lot of time in the last 10 days or so since the package arrived smelling them over and over again and trying to gather notes that would do them justice.
I plan on writing about each of them and because I can’t talk about them all in one post, I’ll do several but in no way does appearing in the first means I think those are the best. Actually, I can’t really say which one I find the best. I would like to own several of them, and some are extremely interesting but at the same time, not something I like to wear. I usually don’t spend so much time sniffing perfumes before deciding to write about them, but these I feel I could smell over and over again and each time discover a new facet I didn’t smell before.

Wing and a Prayer: Notoriety

Notes:Oakmoss,Amber,Rose,Wild Rose,Lavender, Violet Leaf,Carnation absolute,Geranium,Bergamot and Rosewood

This was the first sample I took out of the bag. It was instant love. It’s piquant, green, earthy and well, slightly meaty for only a short while in the beginning (missable really). It has a nose-clearing sharpness of geranium, lavender and rosewood while at the same time it smells tame. Then it gets a rainy, metallic quality and gets very dark, my thoughts were that I’m finally getting what the oakmoss should be like. The original rose (the way I learned it smells here) is there as well, amid some light woodiness, like it’s a bush, not an actual tree.
It really escapes me for words, it’s a bitter rose smelling slightly patchoulish (there is no patchouli in the notes). It’s really another shapeshifter, in the end, I think it smells refreshingly cute and sweeter than before.

Tabela: Rose of Cimarron

Notes: pink pepper, black pepper, pandanus, rose absolute, wild rose absolute, jasmine absolute, labdanum, patchouli, angelica root, ambrette seed, blond tobacco and amyris

I got to smell this directly after Notoriety so my initial thoughts were, wow, a sexy rose and completely different from Notoriety. It reminded me of jasmine I bought in an Indian shop, like there were sandalwood and cedar in there as well but I guess I could be mistaking those for a patchouli with something else. It has that dark, sultry feel to it. It does have that peppery sharpness which I love, but it’s also fuller somehow than Notoriety while at the same time more dry. They both drydown to a nice ambery, rose, light woody feel.

Providence Perfume Co: Gypsy
Top Notes: Galangal, Lavender, Lemon Petitgrain, Cardamom
Heart: Pink Lotus, Bulgarian Lavender Absolute, Violet Leaf
Base Notes: Tonka, Oakmoss, Vetiver, Patchouli, Costus, Vanilla

I find it a bit difficult to talk about these perfumes as I often can’t describe the half of what I smell. For me, this starts peppery, green and strange. I love how I classify perfumes as strange, like that means the same to everyone. 🙂  Anaway, on my second go, I was completely sure I smelled cinammon but as you can see from the notes, it’s not there. My conclusion is that cardamom and petitgrain made me think that.
Then it gets sweet and resiny with something green like herb peeking through. It’s at the same time cool and hinting of sunshine.
I like it very much and my word for describing this is charming – spicily sweet (cardamom is in there) and slightly floral. Charming really.

Pic of rose by: http://www.tambela.com/