Random sampling

Sometimes it feels like I'm invaded by samples they are just everywhere but of course when I want to test a particular one, it's almost always disappered. Here some impressions from some I random caught lately:

Picture: Gin Fizz
Photo: Lubin (c)

Gin Fizz (Lubin): Not as juniper accentued as Penhaligons' Juniper Sling, Gin Fizz concentrates on the citrus slice of the surface of the drink. Light, sunny and bright, a pleasant contemporary (even if originally created 1955 inspired of Grace Kelly, reconstructed 2009) citrusfragrance with a smooth hint of detergent but in a good way. Gin Fizz reminds me of a favorite in the genre, Dior Homme Cologne in the white bottle.

Picture: Au Coeur du Désert
Photo: Tauer Parfums (c)

Au Couer du Désert (Tauer): Starts like a denser L'Air du Désert Marocain then transfers to a phase which smells like a smooth and embedded version of the rough, smokey leather of Etat Libre D'Orange Rien. Later on A Couer transforms to a phase of a balsamic, glimmering, golden, velvety vetiver together with a warm, ambery, salty ambregris. An intriguing and beautiful fragrance.

Picture: Tuscan Leather
Photo: Tom Ford (c)

Tuscan Leather (Tom Ford): Impressions from Mr Parfumista who tested this and compared it to a favorite leather of him, Acqua di Parma Colonia Leather. Tuscan Leather is smokey, like a smokey but in the same time smooth as suede, vetivernote. The leathernote is very similar to Colonia Leather as also the raspberrynote. Over all Colonia Leather is drier, brisker and sort of higher (as high up in the crispy, chilly air), Tuscan Leather is darker, smoother, sweeter and sort of warm resinous.almost sort of chewing gummy.

Picture: Moonlight Patchouli
Photo: Van Cleef & Arpels (c)

Moonlight Patchouli (Van Cleef & Arpels): A velvety and in the same time cold white rose supported by a dark patchouli and earthy iris. It just like the dark, black winter sky with an almost white moon and millions of twinkling, diamondlike stars. A contemporary chypre as its best. Somehow Moonlight Patchouli featuering patchouli in a similar way as Perris Monte Carlo Essence de Patchouli, there is something similar in the dark, slivery, mysterious expression.

Parfums de Nicolaï - Incense Oud

Picture: One summer's evening they went with Bianca Maria
deep into the forest (1913)
Watercolor on gouche by John Bauer (1882-1918)
Wikimedia
(The swedish artist John Bauer, his wife and three year old son were tragically drowned in a
shipwreck on the lake Vättern 20 November 1918, ie exactly  98 years ago yesterday. )

Incense Oud is created by one of the best noses of today Patricia de Nicolaï for her own perfumehouse Parfums de Nicolaï.

Incense Oud starts with a clean and clear incense embedded in the typical "Nicolaïade" accord, sofisticated, smooth, slight soapy, chalcy, green with a sort of contemporary, retro touch. This Nicolaï accord in its different settings has a carefree, parisian, elegance. The oud is not a major player here, it's one of the interacting notes from the dept of the fragrance. The oud is not of the dense, smokey variety, nor the chemical, medical one. It's a transparent, herbal and dark green oud (if it had a color), refreshing in the same way as stayning in the deep forest among trolls and elves.
The oudnote is in the same vein as the oud note in Vescace Pour Homme Oud Noir and as in By Kilian Pure Oud, cold and sort of airy but quiter, smoother and seamless integrated with the other notes.  In the background there is also a slight musky almost animalic dept to the fragrance. A more prominent note which is interacting closely with the oud is patchouli. It's the same elegant (in the higher octaves of the fragrance note scale) herbal-fresh patchouli leaves note as in one of my favorite Nicolaïs Patchouli Homme later renamed to Patchouli Intense. Incense Oud reminds me much of the Nicolaï patchouli but Oud Incense is chillier, fresher, a bit herbal whereas Patchouli Homme has spicy and warm notes interacting with the patchouli. In Incense Oud I can also detect some of the slight green, chalky note present in Vanille Tonka. There is no obvious similarities with fragances from fragrances outside the house of Nicolaï, the fragrances of Parfums de Nicolaï are unique in its style compared to the rest of the market. One fragrance I come to think of when it comes to the herbal leaves patchoulinote is Coquillete Herat which blend of tobacco and a canabisnote reminds a bit of the patchouli accord in Incense Oud. There are also a tonality reminding a bit of By Kilian Smoke for the Soul but Incense Oud is much more structured, clean and not as thick and on the verge to messy as the Kilian blend. 

Picture: Incense Oud
Photo: PR Parfums de Nicolaï (c)

Incense Oud is a versatile fragrance wearable the year around expect in the warmest summerdays. It's a casual chic fragrance, suitable for office or for a day in the city. Sillage is medium + and the longevity is great. Incense Oud is unfragmented after more then 12h wearing and it's fully detectable after 24h and on textile after many days. The fragrance is unisex. From what I have smelled from the perfumelaunches of 2016, this is one of the very best.

Rating: 5

Notes: Artemisia, ambretta, coriander, rose, cedarwood, oud, cypriol, patchouli, frankincense, styrax, castoreum, amber, musk

PS: Parfums de Nicolaï is now also avaible from Fragrance & Art .

Maria Candida Gentile - Rrose Sélavy

Picture: Rrose Sélavy (Marcel Duchamp)
Photo: Man Ray, 1921 

Rrose Selavy is an intriguing rosefragrance from italian perfumer Maria Candida Gentile dedicated to one of the leading artist of the dadaism Marcel Duchamp and his double identity Rrose Selavy. In the 1920:s Duchamps was photographed as a women, Rrose Selavy in a cooporation with Man Ray.

Rrose Selavy is an all through rosefragrance, built around different types of roses, and from different parts and extractions of the roses. The perfume starts with the natural smelling rose accord as for example in Annick Goutal Rose Absolue and Montale Taif Roses. As in both of these fragarnces, Rrose Selavy has the for the natural roseaccord typical rubbery note,  but less rubber than in the two mentioned fragrances. As Rrose Selavy developes, some light animalic, a bit furry notes appears as also a dry touch of something similar to cinnamon. The fragrance has a tea-ish texture, but there are no sharp or harsh edges as in some tea fragrances. This texture reminds me of Masque Russian Tea not the scent but the apperance. The clean and natural rose petal note (vevet pink if it had a color) appears now and then in short glimpses during the dry down, the rest of the time it's mixed with the other notes of rose. There is also a sort of herbal, candided impression in the basenotes, as the rosepetals are glazed in a light herbal sweetness. In the basenotes there is also a light leathery note and some of the dry fur is playing underneath.

Picture: Rose Sélavy
Photo: Maria Candida Gentile (c)

Rrose Selavy is in the same cold, airy but in the same time not thin style of velvet pink rose fragrance as Hermès Galop d'Hermès but Rrose Selavy is more eccentric in style, completely unisex, and less sweet in its restrained rosy, slight leathery apperance. The leathery tone in Rrose Selavy has the touch of fur mentioned above as the leather in Galop is that of a fine pair of gloves with a scent bordering to suede.

Rrose Selavy is an elegant not so rosy, rose soliflore. It's perfect for daytime wearing for example for office. Sillage is close, it's parfumeconcentration, longevity for more than a day if applying liberally, if only little applaied it lasts shorter than a day.

A beautiful and rare rose soliflore. It smells as it has many more notes than the variations of the rose and maybe it has as, notelists are seldom complete. .

Rating: 5

Notes: Rose petals, Turkish rose, May rose, Michelle rose, rose stems, rose leaves

Thanks to Fragrance & Art for the sample to test

Perris Monte Carlo - Absolue d'Osmanthe Edp & Extrait

Picture: Absolue d'Osmanthe Edp
Photo: Perris Monte Carlo (c)

Perris Monte Carlo have created a wellcrafted line of fragrances and I have reviewed most of them during the latest year. Recently there are two additions, or to be completely true, four additions as each fragrance is avaible in a Edp and in a Extrait formula. First out for test and review is Absolue d'Osmanthe Edp & Extrait.

Absolue d'Osmanthe starts beautiful with a thick, flowery, sweet osmanthusnote. I've hardly smelled such a dense/thick osmanthus before, most of them I've tested before has been more diluted and with a tealike impression. After a while a pleasant barnyard note arrives adding a retro vibe to the blend. Smooth velvey flowers fading down the barnyard and an accord which reminds me of the taste of ceratin pastel patterned, fruity pastilles which was chewy and rectangular. I don't remember the name and it's probably discontinued as I haven't see the product in this millenium. Beside this pastille, there is also a light apricot, suedelike nuance in the fragance. Absloue d'Osmanthe reminds me of a much more discret and not as bold and vivid Yvresse from Yves Saint Laurent. As Absolue d'Osmanthe dries down a beautiful, well rounded, smooth, sandalwood appears connecting and anchors the fragrance together with warm and balsamic basenotes. The sandalwood is prominent

Picture: Absolue d'Osmanthe Extrait
Photo: Perris Monte Carlo (c)

The Edp and Extrait versions has the same notes, expect rose petals are added to the extrait, and smells similar. The Edp is in the higher ocataves of the fragrance notescale and more airy in apperance, the extrait is vevety, dark, rounder, smoother and more mature. The Edp emphasize the woody notes of the base and the Extrait the balsamic combined with the sandalwood in a subtle way. The different versions complement eachother, the Edp is perfect for wearing dayly especially in spring and summer, the Extrait is for the evening and for autumn and winter. The Extrait would be very nice as a perfume accompanying for Christmas.

Longevity is about almost a day when it comes to the Edp and between 12h - 24 h for the Extrait, depending on how much is applicated from the start. Sillage is close for both. Even if smelling very nice, the sillage and longevity of the extrait is not as good on my skin as of my favorite of the Perris Extraits so far, Ylang Ylang Nosy Be

Rating: 4

Notes: Osmanthus, jasmine sambac, sandalwood, vanilla, labdanum, tolu balsam

Today - A decade with the blog.

Picture: Nostalgia, a retro snapchat from the perfumcollection.
Photos from February 2004, long before Parfumistans blog
 was started 1 November 2006.  All the green ones above are still with me :-)
Photo: Parfumista (c)

This is a retrospective post. Today Parfumistans Blogg celebrates 10 years. It started as "Parfumistans Dagbok" (Parfumistans Diary) on the daily newspaper Expressen where it was possible for the readers to start up own blogs on the newspapers site. After six month I contacted the major swedish fashion magazines and the biggest of them, Damernas Värld, jumped at this opportunity. The website editor at the time proved to be interested in perfume, I doubt I would have my blogcolumn if this had not been the case. When she left and the there was a "site makeover" my blog was cleanad out for the benefit of blogs with broader content for example "Beauty" as a broader subject. Even today, six years after this (spring 2010), I can't find any specialized perfumeblog on the site. On the other hand, perfume is still not that big in Sweden even if the interest is growing and is far greater than ten years ago. In June 2010 the zenith of this perfumeblogging venture occurred (at least for the first half :-) as I was invited together with an expert from Swedens finest department store, NK, to talk about perfumes suitable for summer to the morning show in swedish television channel TV4. In October 2010 I moved to Blogspot and strarted to write in "swenglish" during 2012.

....as also these four
Photo. Parfumista (c)

Since then everything rolling on in the usual bloggingroutines writing on and sometimes two post in the weekend. I have found out which fragrancehouses I prefer to review fragrances from and mostly concentrate on them for full reviews. After so many years with perfume as a passion, I know which houses offerings generally suits me even if I certainly missing many good houses out there. Because of this non objektive selction of what is tested, most of my reviews are 4 or 5 rated and therefore I'm thinking of (but havn't decided yet) stop writing the rating figure as the selction is sort of biased from the start. A new experience During 2016 was that there has been a sort of writer's block during late winter, spring and summer but now finally the perfumespirits are back and some of the energy to write also. So this venture seems to continue, at least for a while.

Yours Parfumista

...the Hannae Mori is traded away since long...

PS: I'm painfully aware that I havn't checked the mail account which is linked to the blog for more than a year. Now I have to find the log in credentials and check the mail. I apologize if anyone  have mailed without response. There is no excuses but there are so many mails connected to first the mail at work, then the everyday household administration and probably because of that information overload, this maibox has been neglected :-(

...and so is the Trussardi  which I truly regret, the old formula
was a beautiful green, slight leathery chypre
Photo: Parfumista (c)