 |
Picture: HRH Prince Carl Philip and his fiancee Sofia Hellqvist
on their engagementday June 27th, 2014.
Photo: Expressen Sven Lindvall (c) |
Graine de Joie from italian nichehouse Eau d'Italie is a red berry boost raised to ten. Graine de Joie is created by Daphne Bugey. The fragrance is said to be
inspired by the idea of love and according to the marketing blurb "we have decided to celebrate love, and to create a fragrance that conjures up the irresistible light-headedness of when you fall in love." Graine de Joie would have been the olfactory background for the great royal news of last Friday: The handsome HRH Prince Carl Philips engagement with his charity working, from a small village, middle class background, girlfriend Sofia Hellqvist. Another Cinderella story following the one of HRH Prince Daniel. The color and expression of Graine de Joie is exactly the red color of Sofias elegant dress.
Graine de Joie starts very uplifting with ripe redberries and pomegranate, red, lush and mouthwatering delicious. The berry-pomegranate combo goes through the whole fragrance supported by a fizzy freesia who is contrasting and lighten up the fragrance. There are also a contrasting, tart note, maybe some redcurrant leaves is added to the mix or the note just picturing the tartness present in the berries themselves. Not unexpected, the berry-bowl is grounded in a well balanced musky, light woody base.
 |
Picture: The sunny spirit of Graine de Joie
Photo: PR Eau d'Italie (c) |
Beside the royal engagement, Graine de Joie gives me the image of a bowl with ripe red berries and fruits avaible when relaxing in a sunny mediterrian garden in the peak of the summer.Graine de Joie is a perfect fragrance for the season, something that departs from the usual fresh aquatics or citrus scents. The fragrance is much richer than the usual sommerfragrances and despite its full blown berry sweetness, it doesn't becames sickly sweet or smells chemical. It's an uncomplicated happy and easy to wear fragrance, appropriate both for work or casual wearing. Graine de Joie is a good composition in the floral-fruity genre. I find it more ordinary in style than the intriguing and demanding earlier Eau d'Italie compositions such as the burnt, spicy, woody
Bois d'Ombrie, the green, rough, woody
Sienne l'Hiver, the dramatic rose
Pasteum Rose and the special cologne styled first fragrance
Eau d'Italie which I personally prefer.
When it comes to similar fragrances, first of all Robert Piguet
Jeunesse comes to my mind, though that one has more dept and contrasting non-berry/fruity notes. Also the fragrances in By Kilians subline
In the Garden of Good and Evil are in the same style, reviews of
In the City of Sin,
Good Girl Gone Bad,
Forbidden Games and
Playing with The Devil.
Rating: 4
Notes: Red berries, red currant, pomegranate, freesia, flowers, praline, musk,cedar
I just received a sample of this but am holding off on testing as I just got my Byredo Flowerhead and am bathing in it. This sounds like fruity goodness although the freesia scares me a bit. I have no idea why but this line just never has turned my head. Maybe this will be the fragrance to do so?
SvaraRaderaDon't worry about the freesia, it's not at all dominating,it's there as a contrast adding coolness to the red, ripe berries/fruits who could be too much if not contrasted. GdJ is a good fragrance, not at all the usual chemical, sickly, sweet fruity-floral, my "problem" is that I really like the thouger/rougher dramatic aesthetics of the early Ed'I:s and GdJ is of a quite different (very pleasant and happy) genre
SvaraRaderaAww! HRH Prince Carl Philip and his fiancé Sophia are a fairy-tale couple, so beautiful to behold. Your post brings back good memories for me, Margareta, because when I visited Stockholm it was during the wedding of Princess Victoria. The whole city was in a state of revelry, which I hadn't expected. It was fantastic!
SvaraRaderaAnd your review of this fragrance makes it sound so happy and delightful. Don't know if I'll ever sample it, but I can see me being attracted to it, as I love berries and I'm probably one of the few perfume lovers who adores two of the scents you mention from the By Kilian line (In the City of Sin and Forbidden Games). Fruit is good, in my opinion. ;-)
What a luck/cooincidence you visited Stockholm just the almost maigical wedding weekend in June four years ago. The whole atmosphere was somehow different from normal everyday, relaxed and friendly.
SvaraRadera