Robert Piguet - Mademoiselle Piguet

Picture: The Reader, oil on canvas by Jean-Honoré Fragonard ca 1770-1772,
captures the warm and comforting spirit of Mademoiselle Piguet

Mademoiselle Piguet is another fragrance in the great Nouvelle Collection from Robert Piguet created by the "house nose" Aurelien Guichard.

Mademoiselle Piguet could be described as beeing vegetal, combined with orangeflowers with a sweet honeyed texture. The vegetal note is not damp and almost on the verge to rottening (but in a positive way)as in some interpretations for example Guerlain Jardins de Bagatelle Edp and Annick Goutal Passion, the vegetal note is almost fresh and reminds me of a fresh sugar pea. A similar impression is expressed in a Fragrantica review by clover.chen who refers to processed mung beens in desserts, something that I havn't tasted myself but can image when smelling the greenery of Mademoiselle Piguet. The orangeflower I perceive as very natural and fresh, not chemichal at all. The note has a wonderful honeyed nectar texture and smells just sweet delicious, probably the apricot adds this facet. There is something in the orangeflowernote that reminds me of the same note in Fracas, but in Mademoiselle Piguet it is somehow domesticated.

To me the structure of Mademoiselle Piguet is linear, the notes are preseant at the same time even if the vegetal phase is more apparent in the first part of the dry down of the fragrance and later instead is acting as one of the supporting notes in the background. To me the sweet , honeyed,  Mademoiselle Piguet also seems to be the female counterpart to the (to my nose) much more masculine dry, herbal-orangeblossom NoteS which I reviewed earlier this week, they are fragrances of the opposite side of the interpreation of orangeblossom-scale and are interesting to wear as complementary fragrances for different moods and occasions. As NoteS is more complicated, strict and a excellent choice for daytime professional wear, the Mademoiselle is a fragrance both for evening and comforting daytime wear, versatile enough to warming up during cold winterdays and to bloom beautifully in the summerheat. Mademoiselle Piguet, thanks to the interesting and well harmonised vegetal notes, has its own identity even if partly familiar to other fragrances featuring the orangeblossomnote.The longevity of Mademoiselle Piguet is extraordinary for an orangeblossom scent, I can smell the orangeblossom on my skin more then 30h after application.

I think Mademoiselle Piguet would be appreciated by those who like L’Artisan Seville à l’Aube, Maria Candida Gentile Hanbury and Annick Goutal Tubereuse (even if featuring another white blossom note I think Tubereuse and Mademoiselle Piguet have a similar pleasant, honeyed texture).

Rating: 5

Notes: Bergamot, orangeblossom, almond, apricot, tonka been

Robert Piguet - NoteS

Picture: From the manuscript of Bach's lute suite in G Minor
Wikimedia commons

NoteS is one of the perfumes in the interesting Nouvelle Collection (described here) from the honorable perfumehouse Robert Piguet. NoteS is created by the houseperfumer Aurelien Guichard.

Classified as a unisex fragance, NoteS to my nose is leaning much to the masculine side at least in the top- and middlenotes, but it is definitly wearable for a woman, I got positve remarks at the office wearing this. NoteS starts a bit brisk in the classical bergamot and herbal style. The opening of NoteS smells like a classical quality fougere to me with its clean, herbal accord. Also in the heart the classical refreshing geranium is appearing, gently mixed with some discrete and somehow dry orangeflowery notes. It's interesting how the orangeflowernote (as all flowery notes) could be so differently interpreted in different perfums from dry too very sweet. From the middlenotes there is a balsamic texture in NoteS and this balsamic, smooth feeling is amplified the more the fragrance dries down, even if the herbal element still is there. In the basenotes NoteS gets in the chypre direction with mossy notes strengthened with vetiver and softened and rounded out with dry, powdery tonka. In the base NoteS is clearly unisex and not leaning into any direction as in the top- and middlenotes.

NoteS is a wellcrafted elegant fragrance in the classical style but interpreted in a contemporary, smoother, balsamic way.  There are no harsh edges and the notes are just fleeting into each other in a wellcomposed manner, just like the name of this classy creation indicates. There is no chemical aquatic, no shrill pepper or loud woody notes in this contemporary classic.Wearable year around, very suitable in chilly autumn, escpecially the comforting basenotes. Longevity very good, sillage medium +. Simply yet another sucessful creation from the restored perfumehouse of Robert Piguet. NoteS is a fragrance of growing liking to me, it's a somehow "difficult" fragrance that takes it time to be fully appreciated, something that I really apprecite when it comes to perfume.

A fragrance for those who like (even if not smelling the same the fragrances mediates a similar impression): Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche pour Homme (more herbal), Rochas Macassar (more flowery and mossy) Givenchy Gentleman (mossy greener, more wet), Maria Candida Gentile Barry Lyndon (lavendel instead of white flowers).

Rating: 4+  (a bit too masculine for me)

Notes: Bergamot, clary sage, geranium, orange flower, vetiver, moss, tonka been

Scented thoughts – November 2012

Photo: Mr Parfumista

The late autumn is here, the perfect season for staying inside perfumetesting and writing reviews. As readers of this blog are aware of, sampling, evaluating and writing about perfume is my fulltime sparetime hobby. There is a pleasure to test so many new fragrances either new launches or frags that are not new on the market but are not tested by me before. But sometimes when piles of (to exaggerate a bit) untested intriguing samples demands for attention, I can feel a frustrated of the fact that frags from my regular collection get no skintime. Almost always the crave to test an uncharted fragrances wins over the wish to calm down with a favourite. A positive side of a sampeling is that the more I sample, the more similarities I perceive between fragrances from different houses and within a certain category. The similarities together with the fact that I’m almost always is testing some sample leads to less purchases of full bottles, even if there are still too many, I’m still finding too many fragrances to love from the exercise of sampling.

I the latest months I have felt a growing attraction to some of the fragraces I was into when this blog started six years ago, ie the classics. For exemple I feel an urgent need to test and compare the new reinterpreted Molinard Habanita Edp (if I can get my hands on a sample) to the Habanita Edt I own. I also crave some “old ladies” scents as Lanvin Arpége, Rochas Femme and Madame Rochas and even if my skin doesn’t give them justice, they provide a welcome break from the contemporary scent map.

Writing about the contemporary fragrances there are so many interersting to test (here we are againJ). For the moment I’m excited to test the new Histoires de Parfums L’Olympia Music Hall and Veni, Vidi, Vici from the Edition Rare line and have also re-discovered the beautiful perfumline of Frapin. Late to the party when it comes to MDCI Chypre Palatin a beautiful frag I have smelled on my friend Fragrancefanatic from Riktig Parfym. Which make me think of that Riktig parfym carries a varied selection from the Etat Libre d’Orange-line and I hope that the new releases, The Afternoon of a Faun and Dangerous Complicity soon will be there as I want to put them under my nose asap. 

Parfumistans Blogg turns six years

Picture:Hip, Hip, hurra!
Oil on canvas, Peder Severin Kröyer, 1886
The colony of painters who worked in Skagen, Denmark, have gathered in a garden for a celebration.

Today six years ago this blog was born but under a slight different name Parfumistans Dagbok, The Diary of the Parfumista, it was in Swedish and at that time hosted on the blogservice of one of the Swedish newspapers. After almost a year the diary became Parfumistans Blogg on the website of the leading Swedish fashionemagazine Damernas Värld. But perfume is not that big in Sweden (or maybe beauty editors think it’s not that big because there is definitly a growing interest out there) and after 2,5 years the perfumeblog was cleaned out in favour of conventional beautyblogs and I was continued here on Blogger. What has started as a hobbyproject during marternity leave is today still a hobbyproject occupying most of my spare time when free from the duites of work. Of course I could continue my sampling without reviewing but as I also like to write and had to take notes when sampling anyway, way not do the extra and write for the blog rewarded with an increasing numbers of readers from all over the world. Thank you all! So I will continue to sample and learn (the more I get into perfume, the more I  discover the little I know about this botanical-chemistry-artform) blogging about my passion: Perfume.

Speaking of learning: SOTD celebrating the Parfumistans Blogg anniversary is the pleasant, wellcrafted, classy Puredistance I ,a fragrance that I finally has learned to understand and now truly appreciate.

Ramón Monegal – Dry Wood

Picture: Satureja Subspicata, Royal Botanic Garden Édinburgh
Photo by Peter Weis, (cc) Wikimedia Commons, some rights reserved

Dry Wood is a dark green, mossy, herbal, woody fragrance from Ramón Monegal. It’s a very potent creation and just two tiny spritzes are almost too much. But very light applied, Dry Wood offers an unusual experience and even if containing the usual cedary, peppery notes of contemporary woody perfumers gendered at the masculine side, Dry Wood highlights the note in a different way, somehow better blended.

Dry Wood starts with a blast of dark greenery over a woody backgound. Some full and rounded citrusnotes glimmering through and gives the introduction a spakle, just like the ray of light is shining through the treetops in a dense fir and pine forest a sunny autumnday. Dry Wood is really very dry and masculine in it’s charcter but anyway somehow wearable by a woman. In the heartnotes Dry Wood becomes rounder and almost soapy in style, like a green, herbal, mossy soap. When the fragrance dried down a little bit further, a slight almost liqueur-like note appears and lasts for quite a whlie. This is the only hint of something on the edge to sweetness in Dry Wood, the rest is non-sweet. In the basenotes, Dry Wood gets sharper again, woodier, with peppery elements but well embedded in the woody, mossy, herbal, dark green facets. The greeness is like that of the undergrowth in a swedish fir and pineforest during the autumn, moss, coniferus, humic, dry- and moisty grass, heather and hebal plants. An interesting ingredient in Dry Wood is satureja(savory), an herbal plant related to thyme and rosemary, which in Sweden is used to speice aquavit with, I havn’t seen that note used in perfume before, but I can smell some thymerelated notes in the blend.

As mentioned above, Dry Wood has the neutronbomb power in sillage and strength, in the same division as Montale Aoud Musk and Carner Barcelona Cuirs even if it smells differently. I have read opinions that reviwers think Dry Wood is onedimensional, but to my nose it is not, if (now I’m repeating myself again) applied very sparingly. Because a “normal” application of  4-5 spritzes almost ruins Dry Wood, the ingredients gets messy. I experienced this when Mr Parfumista tested Dry Wood, by mistake applying too much. Sillage is huge and the longevity for several days if not taken a sauna to sweat it out.

I think admiers of the bold herbal and mossy fragrances of the 80s and of contemporary fragranceas as Amoauge Opus V and Montale Wild Oud could appreciate Dry Wood. Even if not smelling the same, they conveys the same impression.

Rating: 3+ (a good fragrance but too masculine to me)
Rating: 5*)

*)Update February 2017: Dry Wood is a hidden gem which deserves a better rating. One have to see through the masculine a bit colognelike topnotes and wait for the rest, ie when Dry Wood unfolds in its intriguing dry fresh woody aromatic layers.

Notes: Citron, bay leaf, pepper, moss, sandalwood, cedar, cashmeran, amber, woody notes, satureja

Frapin - Speakeasy

Picture:This building at 1223 Connecticut Ave, NW, (the MCCXXII Club)
 was known as the Mayflower Club. It was considered the swankiest Prohibition-era speakeasy in DC
Author:dbking, Wikimedia commons (cc) some rights reserved 

Speakeasy was the nickname of more elegant illegal establishments selling alcoholic beverages during the Prohibition era in the United States. What could be more appropriate name for a fragrance from the old congachouse Frapin which since aboust ten years also has perfume as one of its businesslines. Speakeasy is a creation by perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato who usually works for his own perfumehouse Parfum d'Empires.

Speakeasy starts with a clean and pronounced leather accord. The leather smells new and fresh, the image is of light cognaccolored leather of a good quality used in a fine handbag. The leathersmell is very natural to my nose and mot mixed up with so many other notes as it often is. In the opening stages there something similat to the leather in Montale Aoud Leather but the Frapin leather is smoother, better balanced and  lacks the almost aquatic note in the top notes of Aoud Leather. In its texture and appearance, even if different in the leathery smell, Speakeasy reminds me of a masculine Cuir de Lancome. After a whlie a minty note appears and it or something else, adds a metallic vibe to the fragrance which becomes even  more masculine than in the first accords. Here a bold 1989s maco tobacco-leather comes to my mind and will stay there during the whole dry down as the metallic leather will be there more or less also in the coming stages: Gianfranco Ferre Man. Speakeasy is a tuned down, smoother, rounder and contemporary interpretation on a similar theme with GF Man. As Speakeasy reaches the basenotes, suddenly it gets warm and the metallic note steps a bit aside in favor of a round, mouthwatering, boozy, ruhmlike note (which I think is davana) supported by some light tobbacco. A certain tamed sweetness helps to ground the delicious boozy accord, it's almost as a cognac barrel. In this stage there is similarities to the boozy davana of  L'Oiseau de Nuit by Parfumerie Générale but less sweet and subtler in Speakeasy. Somewhere in the middle of the basenotes suddenly a very clean, almost airy immortellenote shows up, it's not the dense syrupy version that sometimes is too dominating in leather/tobacco fragrances. The shift from the clean, light leather over the very masculine metallic stage to the round, delicious ruhm and cognac barrel notes accompanied by fresh tobacco base is very interesting, something happens during the whole dry down. The final accords evokes the picture of well used leather clubchairs in which gentlemen has lighten their cigars and sipped their cognacs for decades.

Even if a bit more on the masculine side in the middlenots of the unisexspectra, I think Speakeasy is genderless and I think it was pleasant to wear on a quite chilly Octoberday. It's a perfect fragrance for autumn- and winterdays as for chilly spring evenings. Sillage is medium and longevity more than 12h.

Rating: 5

Notes: Ruhm, orange, lime, geranium, mint, labdanum, styrax, tobacco, leather, musk, immortelle, tonkabeen

Lanvin – Eclat d’Arpege

Picture: Ein Korb mit Flieder,
signiert und datiert Carl Massmann 1896, Öl auf Leinwand,
Wikimedia commons

Eclat d’Arpege created by Karine Dubreuill 2002 for Lanvin, has nothing but the name and the decoration of the bottle in common with the dangerous original (but of course reformulated) Arpége from 1927.

Eclat d’Arpege starts with some light green notes with some citrusy elements, but above all; lilac. The lilac which is not artifcial and cheap as sometimes happens with this note, it’s just like the colour of the fresh light purple lilac. There is a slight metallic vibe, but not the aldehydic type as in for example Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, it’s a more of a metallic facet of the flower. The lilac is’nt powdery as in Puredistances beautiful Opardu, the lilac note is quite clear and crips. It has more in common with another beautiful clear and bright lilac fragrance After my Own Heart by Ineke Rüland.

As Eclat d’Arpege dries down, mellower, fruity notes mixed with some warm flowers and a light tealike note appears. This accord somehow rounding off the metallic edge but the blend still stays flowery cool like a chilly day in the early spring. In the base Eclat d’Arpege is almost all about woody musk, but there is also a faint note of resin, probably the amber listed among the ingredients.  

Eclat d’Arpege is the perfect fragrance for spring, it’s overall chilly, flowery, woody, musky structure perfectly captures that season. One of the better balanced and not overly sweet fruity florals that is relatively easily aviable. It has also survived for ten years on the market, which is a sign for a certain quality. Eclat d’Arpege is somehow ageless in character, it’s a fruity-floral also for grown up’s, not obviously directed to the younger crowd. I don’t get the comparisons with Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue as that one is sharper, woodier, less flowery and with a green applenote, according to my nose. Eclat d’Arperge is smoother, more feminine and elegant in style. Eclat d’Arpege is a very wearable fragrance, especially for spring and summer but also for year around for days that demands something uncomplicated, nice smelling and office friendly. Sillage is medium and longevity not as good, less than 12h.

Rating: 3

Notes: Peony, peach blossom, tea, lilac, petit grain, osmanthus, wisteria, cedarwood, musk, amber