Puredistance - Warszawa

Picture: Puredistance Warszawa
Photo: PR Puredistance (c)

Puredistance Warszawa is a collaboration with the Missala family who sells Puredistance in their perfumeries in Poland. The perfume (extrait with 25 % perfumeoil) is created by perfumer Anotine Lie and is a tribute to Warszaw and it's people, inspired of the golden era of Warszawa in the begining of the last century. Warszawa was originally launched in 2016 and was sold exclusivity by Quality Missala for a year. Now it's at last avaible for the rest of us lovers of vintage styled fragrances.

The colour of Warszawa the fragrance is said to be dark green with some gold and grey, and that's is also my first impression of the fragrance. It's starts like an elegant, glowing fruity chypre and it reminds me very much of a restrained, darker and smoother variation of Yves Saint Laurent Yvrersse (Champagne). Yvresse is higher on the fragrance notescale and more extrovert whereas Warszawa is gentler and intimate in character. Warszawa is also less sweet and more flowery than Yvresse, more green where Yvresse has more of the golden glimmer, or to be correct, Yvresse sparkles and Warszawa glimmers. Galbanum is distinctive in the first part of Warszawa and it's then present during the whole dry down. In the middle notes the flowery accord first brightens with a fruity touch which gives me associations to the lipstick-textured fruitiness of Cartier Baiser Fou but in a darker and refined context. In one wearing the fruitiness stands out, the other wearing the more intoxicated, elegant, flowery notes. Warszawa is a fragrance with many layers and interesting twists. Later in the dry down an almost balsamic texture appears, wrapping the wearer in a gentle and mysterious skinscent. The basenotes are deep and dark green, with strikes of a mysterious golden glow, like the remains of a campfire in the dept of a big forest a dark night in the autumn.Warszawas slight cosmetic touch, without beeing powdery or too lipsticky also reminds me of a night in the opera or theatre in the pre WW1 era. Dim light, elegant women in fur, velvet and silk in dark jewellery colours, glowing gemstones, feather decorations, powder and heavy perfumes.



Pictures: Montage of Warsawa, Poland
Montage of  Foxy 1219 photos of  Radek Kołakowski, Marek和Ewa Wojciechowscy ,
 ekeidar, Marcin Białek, DocentX, Mateusz Włodarczyk
Wikimedia commons (cc) some rights reserved

Warszawa is a fragrance which has to be experienced in multiple wearings as new angles are appearing in each wearing. It's a fragrance for evenings around the year and for daytime wearing during the colder and darker months. The sillage is close, its a calm and quiet perfume, the longevity is for at least a day. A retro styled fragance in a contemporary interpretation.

Rating: 5

Notes: Galbanum, grapefruit, violet leaf, jasmin, broom, orris, patchouli, vetiver, styrax.

....and 5 other autumn frags

Picture: Maple leaves October 2017
Photo: Parfumista (c)

Last week was colder and autumn is now really here. Heavier stuff was worn, including some favourites such as:

White Oud (Montale): White, cuddling, with a white rose, something mashmallow-ish and a faint oudnote. Texture and smoothness like an angora kitten.

Amber & Spices (Montale): A pleasant, fizzy gingernote and warm spices with hints of a delicate rose and some oud. Smells like my grandmothers spice rack did.

Auburn (Andy Tauer): From the discontinued Pentachords-line (three fragrances built among just five notes). Auburn is warm, brown, cinnamon with tobacco and some white flowers. Even if a bit freaky synthetic, it's the ultimate autumnfragance. 

Sheiduna (Puredistance): Warm, embracing, spicy, balsamic whith some almost boozy notes. The ultimate pleasure to wear a grey, rainy day.

Incense Oud (Parfums de Nicolaï). Smells like the deep forest in autumn, damp and chilly, with dark green moss, tangy, slight herbal notes and earthy patchouli. A sort of refreshing fragrance. 

5 Autumn Fragrances 2017

Picture: Autumnleaves 2017
Photo: Parfumista (c)

Autumn is very rainy and quite warm this year. This weekend the sun was shining mauch and there was almost as late summer days. When it comes to fragrances, my choices are both "in between", transition fragrances or fragrances suitable for (almost) year around and some autumn/winter fragrances. And there are lot of Chanel I recognize when thinking of what I've worn lately.

Gabrielle (Chanel): The more I wear Gabrielle, the more I like it. This abstract, lightly glowing like an opal, restrained floral is an addicting fragrance. Gabriell is so easy and versatile to wear, attracting compliments and stay long on skin.

Twilly d'Hermès (Hermès): Ginger and a pale tuberose where the ginger is not too strong, it's just enough and adds a fizzy sparkle to the pale, watercolor tuberose. Twilly reminds me of a light outdoor variation of Vivienne Westwood Boudoir (the first version of it).

Coco Edt (Chanel): This one is of course for autumn and winter but is also a great transition fragrance. Warm, glowing like amber, with soft spicy notes where cinnamon most evident. A great spicy oriental, the Edt is more straightforward spicy than the Edp with it's more pronunced drak fruity and flowery notes.

1996 Inez & Vinoodh (Byredo): Light smooth leather over patchouli contrasted with the cold iris/violet and juniperberries that is very comforting and relaxing to wear. Perfect for grey, rainy days. Reminds me somehow slightly of the signature fragrance from Adrienne Vittadini.

Ambre Sauvage (Les Absolus Annick Goutal): A beautiful, dark, glowing amber. Like resting in front of the fireplace a dark and cold winterevening zipping on a good brandy or calvados. A clean an smooth amber contrasted by deep, black, patchouly.

Kerosene - Wood Haven

Picture: Wood from the Swedish forest.

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

Wood Haven is created by John Pegg, the perfume reviewer that started his own house, Kerosene. Wood Haven is a fragrance in the a bit weird but tempting and in the same time “nice-to-wear” and “deja-vú”style that is typical for the house of Kerosene. The “deja-vú” feeling that is present with almost all Kerosense fragrances is both positive: I can recognize other frags that I like, sometimes several in one Kerosene composition as in the best of them all IMHO: Copper Skies. The negative part is that I feel a bit dissapointed, I mostly (but not always, a very wellconstructed and alternating frag close to another could be interesting anyway) get bored when a fragrance is too close or similar in style to another already existing fragrance.

Wood Haven starts with a grapefruitnote that I can recognize from one of the other woodinspired Kerosenes Santalum Slivers. A beautiful, mellow, sparkling, note of a yellow lemon glimpeses by, I wish this shining note would last more than just a short moment. Soon a dry grassy, green note appears, like long, wild, grass dried in the sun on a meadow. There is also a slight herbal tinge to the grassy note. After a while a slight moisty, vegetal accord arrives and balances the drieness. Some light, bright, light spicy and dry wood is present in a discrete and pleasant way, the smell recalls the smell of sun warmed bark on conifers. There is also a distinguishable note of vetiver present adding a slight, clean, earthy vibe to the barknote.

Wood Haven is a woody-fresh-grassy fragance, not woody-acquatic and not peppery-woody, which is enjoyable daytime, both for casual and work, year around.To me Wood Haven is a lighter and less distinctive version of L’Eau Guerriere by Parfumerie Generale, which is a more powerful fragrance in the fresh woody bark note category.

Rating: 3+

Notes: Bergamot, grapefruit, lemon, black pepper, pink peppercorns, juniper leaf, ginger root, vetiver, cedar, gaiac wood

Thanks to Fragrantfanatic  (Riktig Parfym) for the sample of Wood Haven to test

Kerosene – Fields of Rubus

Picture: The 'Barnet' raspberry, a hand-coloured engraving after a drawing by Augusta Innes Withers (1792-1869),
from the first volume of John Lindley's Pomological Magazine (1827-1828), Wikimedia commons.

The Kerosene Fields of Rubus starts with a great deja-vú when it comes to me: I smell the great, robust and almost dusty, Patchouli Antique by Les Néréides. The patchoulinote dominates the topnote but after a while, step by step, a jammy, berry, note is sneaking into the blend, rounding up the almost harsh patchouli. Another moment later, the berrynote developes and shows to be the note of fresh picked raspberrys, for a while the smell of raspberry smells very true. Maybe the applenote mentioned among the notes contributes to the sparkle of the raspberry, I can’t smell it like a separate part, but I somehow can image it in this stage. After a while the jam is there again and Fields of Rubus becomes sweeter and similar to a raspberry, jam, vanillic, dessert with cream. As the fragrance developes the patchouli withdraws and becomes a player in the backgrund. The patchouli contributes to the dark facets in the base of Fields of Rubus, smoothed by the vanilla and musk that together with a light woody note, balances the though patchoulinote.

Before sampling, reading from the notelist and sniffing the outside of the sample vial, I had a great hope that Fields of Rubus would be as awesome as the ambery Copper Skies my favourite from the Kerosene line, but it turned out to be a good but not stunning fragrance when worn by me. Fields of Rubus starts interesting with the robust Patchouli Antique like accord and the sparkling raspberry that occurs after a while. But as FoR dries down it somehow loses some of its identity and ends up as an ok but not special scent. I wish Fields of Rubus would have developed in the opposite way, ie that the topnotes would form the base and vice versa.

Fields of Rubus is a fragrance suitable for autumn and winter as it creates a comfortable and sweet, delicious mood for the wearer. The sillage is medium and the longevity is good.

Rating: 3

Notes: Raspberry, plum, apple, tobacco wood, musk, vanilla, sandalwood, cedar, patchouli

Thanks to Fragrantfanatic  (Riktig Parfym) for the sample of Field of Rubus to test