Atelier Cologne - Part 1

Atelier Cologne is a house which I for many years have overlooked to discover properly. I love Jasmine Angelique and like Mistral Patchouli and Rose Anonyme very much. Café Tuberosa enticed me to try more of the line. Thanks to the generous Atelier Cologne Sales representative in Åhlens City, I've a bunch of samples to test. Here are my short impressions:

Picture: Tobacco Nuit
Photo: PR Atelier Cologne (c)

Tobacco Nuit: A stunning transparent Tobacco from one of the Edp sub-lines of Atelier, Collection Orient. On paperstrip it first smells like a anorectic version of Kerosene Copper Skies, on skin it's tobacco, citric notes, sort of a dry smell of soft paper and finally sparkling, fresh cardamon. A proper and clean tobacco for those who are afraid of a disruptive interpretation of the note. 

Picture: Encense Jinhae
Photo: PR Atelier Cologne (c)

 

Encens Jinhae: Also belonging to the Collection Orient, E J is dry incense wrapped in berries, pink pepper and roses. E J immediately reminds me of a smoother and more sophicated Vivienne Westwood Anglomania mixed with some Chopard Madness.

Picture: Clémentine California
Photo: PR Atelier Cologne (c)

Clémentine California: An almost natural smell of Clementine, slight bitter but in the same time juicy sweet. Green notes like the leaves of the tree and  also a cold, breezy impression. Compared to for example Hermès Eau de Mandarine Ambrèe  CC is brighter and sharper in apperance, In MA the mandarine is wrapped in a soft, glowing amber.Strong and longlasting for belonging to the cologne subline, somewhere between Edt and Edp on my skin.


Picture: Café Tuberosa
Photo: PR Atelier Cologne (c)

Café Tuberosa: I've already posted two mini-reviews of CT and therefore add both: "Starts with thick tuberose, bergamot, blended with dry cacao and maybe a hint of coffee. It's a thick blend, vintage in style reminding me in texture and style of Vero Profumo Rozy. Later there are traces of the colognestyle with hints of citric notes. " (April 2018) "What a comforting beauty! A dark oriental floral with chypre vibes. The coffee and cacao are not sharp or sticky, they blends very balanced with the tuberose in a retrostyled accord. The tuberose dosen't stand out as a flower, it's just a part of the dark blend. " (September 2018).

Further impressions from testing fragrances from Atelier Cologne will appear during the coming months.

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

Etat Libre D'Orange - Rien Intense Incense

Picture: Frau vor untergehender Sonne
(Sonnenuntergang, Sonnenaufgang, Frau in der Morgensonne)
Painting of Caspar Friedrich David, between 1818 and 1820
Wikimedia commons

Rien Intense Incense is a reworking of the powerful Rien which is a favorite of mine from the Etat Libre d'Orange-line. I read at Fragrantica that the old Rien was reformulated in 2014 and now is much softer. There are speculations that the Rien Intense is a replacement for the old powerful formula of Rien as Rien Intense Incense also was released 2014. When refering to Rien below, I refer to the pre-reformulation version which I also reviewed earlier this week.

Rien Intense Incense (RII) starts with a smokey, almost burnt leathernote, similar to the same note in Rien. I can also smell light touches of chilly flowers, probably the iris and cold aspects of rose.There is a lightness and almost sparkle to the accords, probably the aldehydes. This impression is more or less present also in the later stages of the perfume. Further on there is also a rubbery note, as fresh rubber from new tires and a very light, on the verge to powdery (but not at all sweet) quality appears as a veil swirling around the fragrance. The incense is intricatly interwoven as I can't detect it as a singular note but it is somehow present, almost like a shadow. The for some ELDO fragrances typical balsamic accord which has traces of something smelling close to a woody coconut is present in most of the dry down of RII. The same coconut like accord is also apperant in Kerosene Copper Skies which is also the fragrance besides Rien I come to think of when sampling RII. In the basenotes, the flowery facetts re-appears but this time it smells of tubereuse, a note which isn't mentioned in the notelist, it's like it evolves from the coconut accord and mingles beautiful with that and (in this late stage) the slight smokey leathernote.

Picture: Rien Intense Incense
Photo: PR Etat Libre d'Orange (c)

Even if very strong and powerful, RII smells more rounded and less rough than the original, pre-formulation Rien. There is not the same pronunced construction site + wet concrete in RII as in old Rien, RII is also a tad sweeter, warmer and the spices are somehow more apparent. RII is quite linear with some minor variations in the different stages, for example the flowers in the first part of the fragrance. I'm experiencing Rien as the sauvage one and RII as a more refined and well-behaved (everything is relative) but anyway intriuging to wear. There is something dark mysterious and compelling about RII, it's more dreaming in character, just as the painting illustrating this post.

The old formula Rien and RII somehow complements each other and I assume that this is also even more the case with the new, softer formula. If owning the old Rien it is questionable whether it's worth owning the RII, it depends on how much one appreciate the fragrance, each formula highlighting different aspects.

Rien Intense Incense is perfect for the colder months but also for rainy days in the summer. Maybe also for a warm day as the above mentioned Copper Skies suprisingly had a great development when I tested it a warm summerday some years ago. RII is perfectly unisex, sillage is grand and longevity for at least 24h.

Rating: 5

Notes: Aldehydes, caraway, bergamot, rose, iris, incense, amber, patchouli, labdanum, moss

Thanks to Fragrance & Art for the sample to try

Coquillete - Tan-Tan

Picture: Sahrawi tribal men performing fantasia at the
Tan-Tan (Moussem) festival, Morocco
Photo: Maxim Massalitin (c), Wikimedia commons
some rights reserved

Tan-Tan is the first masculine fragrance (also classified as unisex in some sources) by the nichehouse Coquillete. Tan-Tan is, just like the first edition of four fragrances Sulmona, Sumatera, Moramanga and Herat, inspired of warm, exotic places.

Tan-Tan starts green and balmy with a note reminding of a smooth rhubarb, not as tart and dominant as in for example Aedas by Aedas de Venustas. The tartness is present during the whole drydown and balances the milky, figgy notes as also the pine and artemisia. The figgy notes reminds me of Neela Vermeires green Ashoka even if the latter is warm and foody in texture where Tan-Tan is clean and balmy in comparasion. In the middlenotes Tan-Tan becomes more aromatic/herbal and reminds me of the classic green, moisty chypre Givenchy Gentleman. In the basenotes a oily note appears, creating a chalky-earthy-petroleum impression resembling of a lighter and smoother version of the base of Kerosene Copper Skies. This oily accord is perfectly conterbalancing the creamy figgy note.

Even if Tan-Tan, just as the other Coquillete fragrances, is subtle in its apperance, it's suprisingly distinctive and longlasting. Mr Parfumista who was performing the test thanks to a sample from Fragrance & Art, found Tan-Tan very pleasant and easy to wear while also intriguing waiting for the next step in the development of the perfume. Appropriate to wear daytime the year around, non-offensive but in the same time, interesting officescent.

Rating: 4 (November 2013)

Update February 2014: The more Mr Parfumista tests this, he is now on the 2nd sample, the better this coconutmilky fig-frag is.

Rating. 5 

Notes: Pinetree, bergamot, fruity notes, artemisia, fig, cedar, vetiver, jasmine, patchouli, carnation, coconut milk, fig tree, white musk, ambergris, sandalwood, leather.

Frapin - Paradis Perdu

Photo: View of the World's Fair, Paris, France,
engraving 1889, Wikimedia Commons

Paradis Perdu the latest fragrance from the also in perfumery so successful venerable house of brandy, Frapin, is created by perfumer Amélie Bourgeois.Paradis Perdu is inspired of the temporary iron and glass palaces of the Paris World Fair 1889. The pavilions, showing their iron lacework foundations, celebrated the rise of industry and the "Art Nouveau". The Eiffel Tower was completed to the fair and its entrance arch. From this time the house of Frapin has an unique storehouse created by the master of ironconstructions, Gustave Eiffel.

Paradis Perdu opens with green, juicy notes, like long blades of grass swaying in the wind an early, warm and sunny autumnday. A distinguishable and natural grapefruitnote are present during the the first part of Paradis Perdu, a non-catpie sulfatic grapefruitnote, something that I have positivly experienced in some fragances lately. Maybe there has been some developement of the grapefruitformula lately as the grapefruit is much more pleasing today than some years ago. Later on Paradis Perdu highlights dry hayish notes, contrased with fuller notes of slightly fermented grapes, after all, Frapin is a cognacmanufactur. In this stage the overall impression of Paradis Perdu is similar to Jour d'Hermès. An almost fizzy galbanum and a bright vetiver are also evident. The best part of Paradis Perdu in my opinion is the contrasting, dark, smoky, tarry woody, mossy, resinbase with some traces of wine, a base that reminds me of a much less bomastic and smoother version of the base of Copper Skies by Kerosene. In the base, darker and lighter passages interactes, the lighter ones, dominated by a fresh vetiver. Reaching the basenotes, is like  experience the chilly and crisp autumnevening just when the sun has went down.

To me Paradis Perdu the first 2/3 are light considering it's a Frapin fragrance. The basenotes are deeper, fuller and more Frapin-styled. Paradis Perdu perfectly pictures an early autumn day, from the crisp sunny beginning, over the warmer, sunnier, fuller and sweeter middle of the day to the chilly and fast darkening evening. Two days after my full wearing day of Paradis Perdu I put on the same jacket as I worn the testingday and smelled something very familiar: Ivoire from Pierre Balmain. On fabric Paradis Perdu has transformed to a more homogeneous fragrance than I experienced it on skin.

Picture: Paradis Perdu
Photo: PR Frapin

Sillage is close and longevity 12h+. Perfect for autumn but will also be good for spring, especially the earlier stages of Paradis Perdu. Paradis Perdu catches (like some other perfumes* the latest year) parts from different parfumes/parfumstyles and could therefore please a wide range of perfumelikings.

Rating: 4

Notes: Bergamot, grapefruit, citron, mandarin, basil, spinach, vine, ravensara, galbanum, elemi, paradisamide, vetiver, hay, cedarwood, rosewood, labdanum, precious woods, moss, musk

*) Kerosene Copper Skies was the first fragrance obvious with this concept (to my nose), Aedes de Venustas Iris Nazarena is another one.

Kerosense - Unknown Pleasures

Picture: Strand (beach) at Skagen (ca 1900)
Painting by  Peder Severin Kröyer, Wikimedia commons

Unknown Pleasures is one of the latest fragrance from the indieperfumer John Pegg, creating frags for his own brand Kerosene. Before John started to create pefumes, he worked in the Detroit automobileindustry which have inspired to the unique, by John himself, handlacquered bottles.

Unknown Pleasures starts with an accord very close to a waffle cone filled with lemon sorbet paired with vanilla icecream. Just in the beginning a citrus, slight woody classical cologne note appears creating an almost necessary contrast to the sweetness, probably this is the Earl Grey tea note mentioned in the notelist. After a while the teanote steps back and is not recognizable as a separate note but it's present as a part of the blend. When drying down to the base, the lemonsorbet-vanilla ice creme-waffle cone impression persist and the fragrance is becoming just slightly powdery. In the whole drydown but particulary in the basenotes, I can smell a sort of almost refreshing, green coconutty note which seems to be present to a greater or lesser extent in most Kerosene fragrances, probably a part of the "Kerosenade" base. This particular green coconutty accord is also present in another favourite of mine: Etat Libre d'Orange Tom of Finland which Unknown Pleasures reminds me a bit of in the basenotes.

Picture: Unknown Pleasures
Photo: PR Kerosene (c) all rights reserved

Unknown Pleasures is not the elegant, complicated and serious fragrance. Instead it is friendly, funny, sunny, warm and happy just like the pleasant feeling of eating icecream a warm and sunny summerday during the holiday. The fragrance is a great gourmand, truly delicious and it's the perfect replacement for a dessert and could therefore act as a substitute for a diet product :-). Unknown Pleaures, just as its name indicates, brings pure joy and comfort. The sillage is medium and longevity for more than a day. IMHO Unknown Pleasures is the second best fragrance of the Kerosene-line so far, and the best for me. The number one Kerosene over all is still (not for wearing myself but its suits great for Mr Parfumista) the multifaceted, boozy, dark and rough Copper Skies.

I think those who like vanillic gourmands in general and fragrances in the style of Estee Lauder Bronze Godess/Azureé Soleil would also like Unknown Pleasures.

Rating: 5

Notes: Earl Grey tea, lemon, honey, bergamot, tonka, caramel, vanilla, waffle cone

Thanks to  Fragrancefanatic at Riktig Parfym for the sample to test.

Kerosene - Whips and Roses

Picture: A frag for Lucrezia?

 Probably a portrait of Lucrezia Borgia,

oil on panel by Barolomeo Veneto

Whips and Roses is created by the Michiganbased selfmade perfumer John Pegg. John is a perfumenerd, like most of us reading posts like this, who has taken the brave step to create frags by himself and it seems like he as made a great sucess as he is very en vogue in Perfumland at the moment. John has worked in the automobile industry and the crafted Kerosene bottles are inspired by this background, they are all hand coated by the perfumer himself.

Pink roses, a tart greenery, a slight leathery note over a musky base, Whips and Roses is a fragrance that conveys creepy, spooky undertones. WaR starts with the tart greenery, as the leaves and steem is blended with the all but fresh floralwater in the vase. After a while the pink roses intensifies but they never becomes dominating. The roses are supported by a slight leathery note, just perceptible to my nose. The top and the middle stages of WaR, where the creepy graveyeard association appears, are the most exciting and imiginative phases of the fragrance. As WaR has dried down to the base the blend is transformed to a comfortable but rather common white musk.

WaR in it's earlier stages reminds me of a damp and sort of chemical Rose Splendide by Annick Goutal (review in swedish), RS conveys the same imagination of leaves and steems blended with the pink rose, but the Goutal fragrance is bright and fresh where the WaR is dark and damp (in a positive way). In the base WaR reminds me of the pink rosy musky base of Bulgari Rose Essentielle Edp but the Bulgari musk seems more delicate to me, the Kerosene is more rough edged.

To sum up: WaR is a starts as an eccentric rose but ends in a more familiar rosy-musk. When writing this I have only tried this and Copper Skies from Kerosene and of the two Copper Skies is definitly my first choice, se review earlier this week.

Rating: 3

Notes: Bergamot, blood orange, rose, jasmine, gardenia, iris, sandalwood, musk, leather

Kerosene – Copper Skies

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

Some amber marinated in tobacco oil, with coconutty leathery, almost medical notes surrounded by a wiff of menthol. The opening of Michigan self learned perfumer John Peggs Copper Skies is brutal and almost exaggerated, the impression is as the fragrance is blended in an old oil drum in the perfumers garage. This perfectly fits the image of John Pegg, the former automobile worker, now devoted to perfume creation for his own line of Kerosene. The leather – coconut note in Copper Skies reminds me of an accord in ELDO Rien and/or Tom of Finland, as I remember this is present in both these fragrances, with a rougher edge in Rien and smoother in Tom of Finland. Mr Parfumista also smells a dark lavendelnote maybe a concentrated lavendeloil smells like this. 

As Copper Skies calms down in the middlenotes, the amber becomes more apparent, and the blend becomes smoother and appears as a contemporary (not classic) amber surrounded by smooth and moderatly sweet honey accentuated with spices and cloves. There is no for the amber genre typical vanillanote, for example in By Kilian Amber Oud, something that differs Copper Skies from a lot off classical ambers. There is neither the obvious herbal ackord, typical for the more masculine ambers in the style of MPG  Ambre Precieux  and HdP Ambre 114. During the dry down Mr Parfumista smells traces of the note of silver polish present in Annick Goutal Vetiver and also some of the darker elements from Sables. As Copper Skies reaches the basenotes something unusual happening, it’s as the fragrance retakes, the amber/tobacco/clove accord becomes more intense and also whiffs of the menthol note appears again.

Copper Skies is a rough and tough fragrance, far from fine “haute couture perfumery”. There is a more or less muted ELDO-vibe during the whole developement of Copper Skies. But as mentioned above, some Goutals are also present and maybe there is a part of the secret of the Copper Skies sucess: Each wearer can recognise some of his/hers favoritescents.  Copper Skies also mediates a somehow homemade impression but in a positive, relieving way. The only thing that annoys me with Copper Skies and which lower its rating, is the feeling that the components doesn't blend together enough. It's like the perfumer has trown in different comfortable fragrances but haven't mixed them properly together and they are existing side by side/as followers of each other. On the other hand this gives the fragrance a own identity and as the same pattern is recognizable also in Kerosenes green creation Creature, this is mabye the characteristic mark of the Kerosenebrand.

Copper Skies is werable the year around, as it lacks the vanilla sweetness it’s also suitable for summer. Of course, as it name indicates, it’s a perfect late autumn scent, when the leaves has fallen from the trees, lying sparkling of yellow, orange and red of the ground, the air is chilly and the orange, blue, grey clouds chases across the sky. The longevity of Copper Skies is amazing 24+ , the blend is strong, heavy application is prohibited J . The development of the fragrance is interesting, the least interesting part is the middlenotes, but this is offset of the cozy feeling that this stage mediates, this is a constant wrist-sniffing stage. I’m sure Copper Skies will be a comfortable fragrance (despite it’s brutal start) to fall back upon days when I don’t know what to wear during the colder months. Copper Skies is truly unisex, even the picky Mr Parfumista sneaks from this and as there is very few new releases that please him nowadays, this is a high mark for Copper Skies. I rarely blindbuying frags, but in this case I'm glad I did it, despite it seems as Mr Parfumista has taken over the bottle :-)

Writing about the bottle: The eccentric bottle coated with car paint and the copperlabel is handpainted/ decorated by Mr Pegg himself.

Rating: 4 + on me, 5 on Mr Parfumista

Notes: Amber, tobacco, beewax, basil, clove

Update autumn 2012: Mr Parfumista has taken over the bottle for real and Copper Skies has fast advanced to one of his most preferred fragrances.