Oriza L. Legrand - Chypre Mousse

Picture: The retro styled Oriza bottles are just awesome -
just as their content
Photo: PR Oriza L. Legrand (c)

One of the far best perfumelines I have discovered the latest years (thanks to P. at Fragrance & Art who has a truly refined taste for perfume) is the venerable french house Oriza L.Legrand. It started to produce powder for the whigs in the 18th century and perfumes later become a part of the business. During the 19th and beginning of the 20th century Oriza provided different royal courts with perfume and soaps. During the later years perfumer Hugo Lambert and his parter Franck Beleiche recreated the house, and have started to reconstructing the fragrances and soaps taking contemporary restrictions in to account. And the result is awesome, se my reviews earlier this year, Rêve d'Ossian, Relique d'Amour, Oeillet Louis XV and Déjà le Printemps.

From the description of Chypre Mousse, re-created by Hugo Lambert: "After the first rainfall in September nature exude scents of humus, peat and wetland. This is the time for a promenade in the woods to enjoy the freshness after the heat of summer." The original version (1914) of Chypre Mousse is said to be launched to the dandies of this world. My impressions are as follows:

Chypre Moussse starts with balmy and brisk green notes, in the first part of the fragrance I perceive more of the forest early in the spring (at least the swedish forest), just when the greenery buds and the moss is light green, young and fresh. The dominating note during the first half of Chypre Mousse is a fresh, natural smelling mint. The minty note is present during the whole dry down, even if it stays in the supporting background in the second half. In the first stages of the fragrance, a retrostyled leathernote is also present, its the dry, antique leather of book-binding. In the early stege the minty and green notes reminds me of Parfumerie Générale PG 11 Harmatan Noir  but without the salty/metallic almost bloody notes which are accompanying the mint in the latter. Chypre Mousse continues green and the green deepens, together with an almost animalic note, a bit in its later stages, and here the early autumn could be recognized. A beautiful note of fern is the protagonist on my skin in this stage. In the later middlenotes and in the base, there is an accord and impression that reminds me of Ava Luxe Chypre Noir if I remember correctly, could be Film Noir but without the cigarette smoke. Something which is striking with Chypre Mousse is the absence of flowers, I can't smell them anywhere. Despite that, Chypre Noir is fresh and balmy as a floral-green fragrance. In it's overall impression, but a tad brighter, Chypre Mousse reminds me of a favorite contemporary chypre, Parfumerie Générale PG 24 Papyrus de Ciane.

Picture: Fresh moss in spring
Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

To me Chypre Mousse doesn't reach the dark, velvety, earthy, damp and often dirty depts of the old school chypres. Chypre Mousse to me is more of a ligther and brighter contemporary green/fourgé with some mossy elements which skilfully mixed, creates a retro feeling but in a sort of contemporary frame. An intriguing and fascinating fragrance even if almost linear in my testing.The fragrance is unisex but more masculine than  Déjà le Printemps which is a green, feminine floral fragrance. With Chypre Mousse the dandies and all other men has their own, green Oriza but it has to be clearified that Chypre Mousse (even if better on Mr Parfumista than on me) fits women as good, the fourgé notes are not harsh and masculine in style of traditional fourgé fragrances. Chypre Mousse has good longevity, unfragmented after 12h+, traces after 24h, and good sillage. 

Rating: 5

Notes: Wild mint, clary sage, wild fennel, green shoots, oakmoss, galbanum, angelica, fern, wild clover, mastic, violet leaves, vetiver, pine needles, mushroom, fresh humus, roasted chestnut, leather, labdanum, balms

Oriza L.Legrand - Déjà Le Printemps

Picture: The Return of Spring (Le Printemps)
Oil on canvas by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1886
Wikimedia commons

Déjà Le Printemps is the fourth fragrance in the great Oriza L.Legrand collection that I had the pleasure to try. Reviews of the others Rêve d'Ossian, Relique D'Amour and Oeillet Louis XV are published already published the latest months. The fragrances are created by Elisabeth Feydeau.

Déjà Le Printemps is just what the name indicates, a spring fragrance. A beautiful, lasting and unusual green fragrance. The marketing blurb is just on the spot:"A promenade in the wood awakening from a long winter sleep. Morning dew is glistening like a beads on a wild grasses which exude fresh flavor. The sun rises and its rays awaken wet flowers and fragrant leaves of fig trees swaying by wind. Tree buds swollen with young leaves, flower buds ready to bloom, and the earth, with its smell of turf and twisted roots, full of vitality. The first lilies of the valley reveal itself. It’s spring awakening. Spring has come."

Déjà Le Printemps starts with the green smell of the crisp, green, leaves of flower bulbs accompanied by fresh, light green grass. This green smell is almost always a bit sharp but in DLP the leaves are embedded in a note tha smells like a delightful, soft  suede. This suede accord I could recognize in a rougher and bolder presentation in for exmple Ava Luxe Film Noir.

As DLP dries down the suedenote recedes step by step and the green accords becomes  more spakling and radiant. There is also an almost tart crisp flowery note with a touch of orange which I can image as hints of  Lily of the Valley and orangeblosssom. There is alsosome alomst herbal green flower which could be the clover mentioned among the notes. Overall the flowery notes are playing in the background balancing the fresh leaves and grass. When DLP settles in the basenotes, the suede note slowly appears again, accompanied by deeper green notes as moss and vetiver.

Déjà Le Printemps is very uplifting and joyful to wear. It evokes the impression of sun even if grey outside. Therefore it's suitable not only for spring and summer, it's also comforting during the darker and colder months.

Those who like fragrances as Puredistance Antonia, Balmain Vent Vert and Ivoire, Chanel No 19 Edt, Parfums de Nicolaï  Week-End à Deauville (swe) and Van Cleef & Arpels First will certainly also like the gem (emerald) Déjà Le Printemps.

Rating: 5

Notes: Mint, orangeblossom, chamomile, fig leaves,clove, mown grass, lily of the valley, galbanum, musk, vetiver, cedar, moss

Thanks to Fragrance & Art for the sample of Déjà Le Printemps

Fragrance(s) of the week(s) (13-14) 2013 - Easterfrags

Picture: Madonna mit dem Kaninchen,
oil on canvas ca 1530 by Titian (Tiziano Vecelli)

Easter is somehow a fragrance feast to me. Probably not only because of the scents connected to it from bulbflowers and sweets, as also the sacral connection. Probably the mainreason is that Easter offers two extra holidays and therefore the opportunity to dive deeper in the fragrance hobby :-) than during regular weekends. Different years I'm into different fragrancethemes during the Easter, which theme I think has to do with when Easter occours. Late Easter = the green floral bulb theme is tempting, an early Easter = the gourmand or the incense theme. This year I think the gourmands will win, it is still cold winter and recently I have been drawn to sweet and comforting fragrances. From this gourmand view I think the following will suit well for Easter:

Picture: L'Heure de Nuit
Photo: PR Guerlain (c) all rights reserved

L'Heure de Nuit (Guerlain): The house of Guerlain celebration of the hundred years anniversery of  classic (to say at least) L'Heure Bleue. A contemporary interpretation that captures the classic in a edible way. The classic iris-helitrophe-neroli accord is lands in an almost mashmallow and amaretto like accord.

Picture: Tonka Imperiale
Photo: PR Guerlain (c) all rights reserved

Tonka Imperiale (Guerlain): Almost too sweet, like a powdery almond cake. Delicious and creates the olfactive image of visiting an elegant confectioners. 

Picture: White Aoud
Photo: PR Montale (c), all rights reserved

White Aoud (Montale): Here the mashmallow note is present again, but combined with oud, saffron and cardamom in a well balanced creamy mix. soft as white angora but in the same time distinctive, it is Montale after all.

Picture: Loukhoum
Photo: PR Ava Luxe (c) all rights reserved

Loukhoum (Ava Luxe): Just enough but not too sweet to be a Loukhoum. Powdery notes, almond and honey moistened with rosewater, this is a delicious.

Picture: Angel
Photo: PR Thierry Mugler (c) all  rights reserved

Angel (Thierry Mugler): Last but not least maybe the most obvious choice in this Easter gourmand parade: Angel and sweets :-). The notes of dark chocolate, caramel, fruits, tonka and patchouli is still iconic and sadly, as I have understand it, severely threatened by the coming regulations later this year.

Happy Easter to all Perfumelovers!

Ramón Monegal - Cuirelle

 The Ramón Monegal testing is continuing....

Photo: Parfumista (c)

Cuirelle is an interesting and beautiful soft suede/leather fragrance from the Barcelonabased parfumer Ramón Monegal whose perfumehouse also bears his name.

As Cuirelle starts it’s a bit sweet and almost fruity with a rounding delicate suede accord. In the topnotes, Cuirelle reminds me of a smoother and less sweet and flowery In Leather Woman by Etienne Aigner (in swedish). As Ramón Monegal has created some fragrances for Etienne Aigner (don’t know if In Leather Woman in on of them) there is maybe a connection between the two fragrances. Another fragrance that comes to my mind in this stage is Ava Luxe Film Noir even if Film Noirs slight fruity suede note is tougher, rougher and more than a bit dirty.

When Cuirelle reaches the middlenotes it takes another direction than In Leather Woman. Where the latter highlighten fruity notes almost like applepie the former transforms to an almost chalky soapy accord, reminiscent to the accord in Vanille Tonka by Parfums de Nicolaï but less green and less distinctive. Later on a slight spicy, warm, honeyd  boozy note appears, similar to the interpretation in Mon Patchouly but without the cocoapowder feeling. In Cuirelle there are some light woody-patchouli notes that accompanying the delicate suedenote that depens as more the fragrance dries down. 

The basenotes is a beautiful accord of gentle and delicate, honeyed, clean leathery booziness with traces of cinnamon. The natural sweetness is just right balanced to create an aura of comfortable smothness. In this stage Cuirelle reminds me of a softer, warmer and sweeter relative to the discontinued contemporary cult leather Cuiron by Helmut Lang. In the base Cuirelle almost has transformed it’s suede to a smooth elegant leathernote, but just almost as the fragrances seems to be fleeting between soft sude and soft leather.

Just as most of the other Monegal perfumes I have tested, Cuirelle takes the wearer on an interesting journey during a day of wearing. Cuirelle is very well balanced, the notes mixes in each other in a very subtle way. It’s also like many of the other from the house of Ramón Monegal a thrilling blend where you can’t predict how the fragrance will end from just smelling the initial topnotes. That’s something that I really appreciate from a fragrance and one of all aspects that makes the perfumehobby so exiting.

Cuirelle is great to wear during the colder months, suitable both for daytime and eveningwear. The sillage is medium and the longevity is at least for 12h.

Rating: 5

Notes: Olibanum, patchouli, honey, cinnamon, vetiver, cedarwood, incense

Etat Libre D'Orange - Putain des Palaces

Picture: Au Salon de la rue des Moulins, oil on canvas

painted by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1894.

Museum de Toulouse-Lautrec, Wikimedia commons.

The fragance with the controversial name Putain des Palaces was created by Nathalie Feisthauer for the avantagrde perfumehouse Etat Libre D'Orange in 2006. To me PdP is a fragrance that is not created to smell good or to be praised for it's masterful blending. This is one of those perfumes that are primarily created to make an artistic statement and on many wearers it of course also developes to smell good. It seems that PdP fits with my chemistry as the discerning Mr Parfumista comments "Today you also have a frag that smells good and that suits you" when sampling PdP.

The name Putain des Palaces is just right to this skanky, animalic, lipstick-putty, blend. In it's texture and partial in the lipsticknote PdP has similarities with Lipstick Rose from Frederic Malle. The similarities ends there as LR is innocent and pretty and PdP is the quite oppsite character. After applying PdP I can smell a noticeable note of cummin in the topnotes. According to the notelist there is no cummin but ginger, probably this note is the outcome of a handling of ginger that I have not perceived before. I like PdP in the topnotes, the sweaty "cummin" that for a short while mingles with a dirty, furry-animalic note that I recognize from Parfumerie Générales L'Ombre Fauve. As PdP dries down and settles in the middlenotes/beginning of the basenotes, there is a light leather or more like a suede note, a sultry violet-rose, still dirty and with hints of something that I perceive as a chalky note. The lipstick note is also there but the violet and rose dont feel clean and clear as in the luxary lipstick of Lipstick Rose. Despite some creaminess from the lipsticknote, there is a certain sharpness hiding at this stage, an at the same time round note that reminds me of a golden apple on the verge to be overripe. This note, which I belive is suede combined with flowers, I have earlier experienced in Etienne Aigners In Leather for Women and in Ava Luxes Film Noir. As the dry down get further and finally settles in the base, the violet and rose appears to brighten, get less skanky and a note similar to papyrus glimpse in the powdery musky base.

Putain de Palaces is a suggestive, haunting and alluring scent. It is not especially pleasant to wear, you have to be in mood to deal with the tragic reality this fragrance will display. In contrary to what one expects from the perfume of a Putain de Palaces, PdP is lingering close to the skin and has a medium sillage. The longevity is, as in the case with almost all ELDO fragrances I have tried, quite good and it is still there unfragmented late in the evening with traces the day after.

Rating: 5

Notes: Leather, mandarine, ginger, rose, violet, lily of the valley, amber

L'Artisan Parfumeur - Traverseé du Bosphore

Foto: Parfumista (c)

Den flitige läsaren av olika parfymbloggar har inte missat den senaste tidens hype av L'Artisans Traversée du Bosphore. Tycks ha blivit något av en kultdoft bland parfymtyckare och de negativa kommentarerna är väldigt få. Med risk för att tjata ut ämnet kommer här då ännu en review:

Traversée du Bosphore som betyder ungefär "korsa Bosphoren" är den för nuvarande hyperproduktive, superkultnäsan Bertrand Duchaufours tolkning av sina (doft) intryck från den gamla multikulturella smältdegeln Istanbul. Alla ingredienser finns i beskrivningen av TdB härledda till olika maträtter, kryddor och andra doftintryck. För mig är TdB också en smältdegel men av olika parfymer som sniffat på genom åren som parfymintresserad. Så jag beskriver doften utifrån "parfymspåret":

TdB:s första not är ett lite tungt, nästan övermoget äpple som känns igen från Joop:s speciella äpple-/vaniljdoft från nittotalet All about Eve. AbE:s äpple är dock sötare än TdB:s annars är det precis samma not. Strax efter Eves äpplenot följer Cuir de Lancomes rena, ganska lätta lädernot och den följs i sin tur av irisen från Heeleys Iris d'Nuit som IdN:s irisnot doftar när den lugnat ned sig och den värsta morotsdoften lagt sig. Sedan följer gammalt hederligt rosenvatten över Etienne Aigners mockadoft In Leather som i sig också har något som jag tycker liknar en lätt äpplenot i sig. Därpå en skvätt gammalt hederligt rosenvatten och även lätt mandel som finns till exempel i Ava Luxes Loukoum, fast i TdB är det en torr loukum. I basen känner jag en bläckig not som jag i viss mån kan ana i sommarens L'Artisandoft Nuit de Tubereuse samt en torr krutkänsla som även finns i Lorenzo Villoresis Teint de Neige.

Hur faller då denna cocktail av gamla parfymer ut? Konstigt nog väldigt bra! De är inte mixade i en enda röra utan flyter in och ur varanda under doftens utveckling och en not som kommer in tidigt kan också komma igen lite senare men i lite mer framskriden utvecklad form. Så TdB är en riktig handledsmagnet där jag liksom vill följa med i vad som händer och upptäcka nya spännande vändningar hela tiden. Samtidigt är det en trivsam komfortdoft som är förvånansvärt lätt med tanke på de ganska krävande noter som ingår. Kanske är det IFRA-restiktionerna mot diverse ämnen som gjort doften flytande och transparent, skulle vara intressant att känna om den hade haft ett större djup om den skapats för tio år sedan. Eller också är det Duchaufours mening att den ska vara som en slöja. Troligen är det en kombination av vad som är praktiskt genomförbart i större skala och en konstnärlig idé.

En farhåga jag hade innan jag provat TdB var att den skulle kännas ofärdig på grund av Douchafours stora produktion de senaste åren. Jag tror inte att syftet är en särskilt komplicerad doft utan en doft som många kan gilla och som ska sälja bra till en ganska bred målgrupp. Ur den aspekten tycker jag att den är tillräckligt färdig. Skulle syftet ha varit en "svår" parfymnördsdoft så hade den behövt mogna lite till. Den enda invändning jag har mot TdB är att den är lite klen, det är för lite som återstår efter en lång dag, lite lätt vanilj, krut- och mockafragment.

Sammanfattningsvis: En intressant, trevlig och mycket användbar men inte så originell doft som jag tror passar många hudtyper.

Betyg: 3+

Noter: Äpple, granatäpple, saffran, läder, tulpan, mandel, ros, socker och honung.

Snart fri....

Idag är sista dagen av min maratonvecka med EL PCJWM så i morgon slår frihetens timme. Hur ska då den nuvunna friheten utnyttjas? Innan jag antog utmaningen så hade jag bestämt träff med Ava Luxe och nu längtar jag också efter Parfums de Nicolaï. Och så Amouage Gold förstås är helsugen på detta aldehydiska mästerverk. Längtar också efter Shalimar måste bara bli lite kallare ute. Vad jag inte känner för just nu är söta gourmanddofter, men det gör jag garanterat när vintern kommer.