By Kilian - Voulez-vous coucher avec Moi ?

Picture: Volez-vous coucher avec Moi? - The Perfume
Photo: PR By Kilian (c)

Voulez-vous coucher avec Moi? (VvcaM?) the latest By Kilian for the new sub line (A Night) In the Garden of Good and Evil, "which draws inspiration from dark nights and exciting game of seduction".The fragrance is created by perfumer Alberto Morillas and described as a gardenia centered perfume over a smooth sandalwood.

VvcaM? starts light flowery, and is a bit tart. The flowers are white with shades of purple, the petals are cold and crispy. The first fragrance I come to think of when testing VvcaM? is Lanvin Eclat d'Arpege even if that one has a lilac themre. A light, smooth, woody accord balances the flower and as also a discrete almost fluffy vanilla. The vanilla is the earlier stages is of the down light, angelic kind as in Eau d'Italie Morn to Dusk but not at all as present as in the latter. In the basenotes the vanilla is combined with cedarwood.and I can trace similarities with the base of Chanel Allure Edp. These darker nuances creates dept and character to the fragrance. VvcaM? is not especially sweet and it's also not powdery. It's a fine, clean (but not at all chemical clean) unobtrusive floral which, has little in common with the daring name of the creation. Maybe Kilian follows in the fotsteps of the latest Serge Lutens fragrances with challening namnes which are more or less the opposite to the real impression from the fragrance. Speaking of Lutens, VvcaM? has similarities to Serge Lutens La Religieuse in its smooth, dark, discrete, flowery image.

Picture: Volez-vous coucher avec Moi? - The clutch
Photo: PR By Kilian (c)

VvcaM? is quite linear even if it gets darker and even if not exactly warm it's absolutely no longer cold in the basenotes. It's a very pleasant, sort of calming fragrance to wear, nothing loud, shrilly or extreme. The more I wear VvcaM?, the more I like it. Just as with La Religiuese this is a fragrance which doesn't unfolds directly, one has to be patient to tune in with this one. A contemporary, floral classic which IMO is very feminine in style.

VvcaM? despite its elegant aura, is easy and comforting to wear. It could be worn anytime of the year and for most occassions except for exercise and similar activites. Sillage is close and longevity almost for a day.

Those who appreciate Puredistance Opardu, even if that one is a bit powdery and with a lilac note, as also Ann Gerard Perle de Mousse with its almost shadowy impression with tart and moisty notes

Rating: 4

Notes: Neroli, gardenia, tuberose, ylang ylang, petalia, rose, sandalwood, cedarwood,  vanilla

Maria Candida Gentile - Lady Day

Picture: Billie Holiday (1915-1959),
Photo: PR  (Getty) (c)

Lady Day starts intriguing with a cold, dry, cold flower (gardenia) complemented with almost tarry, leathery notes. As Lady Day dries down the gardenia comes forward, the composition becomes warmer and almost balsamic. From the middle to the base Lady Day reminds me of a gentler and less sweet version of the early 2000nd Bertrand Duchaufour creation for Lalique Flora Bella. As I like Flora Bella, Lady Day is also a very nice acquaintance. Just as Serge Lutens Une Voix Noire, Lady Day is a tribute to Billie Holiday and I think both fragrances are appropriate as such; Lady Day mirrors the positive sides of Billies life symbolized by the characteristic gardenia worn by her, Une Voix Noire the darker sides with the decaying interpretation of the flower.

I can image Lady Day as a perfect companion warm and humid summerevenings in the tropics but also for the dark nights of August up here in the North. Medium longevity, lasts for a workingday, and close sillage as this is an extrait.

Rating: 4

Notes: Galbanum, gardenia, peru balsam

Thanks to Fragance & Art for the sample to test 

Guerlain – Cruel Gardenia

Picture: Gardenia flower from the gardens at Monticello
Photo:Querbubbles (cc) Wikimedia Commons, some rights reserved

Cruel Gardenia is a part of the Guerlain L’Art et la Matiere Collection where Guerlain let mostly “off-house” noses create based on one single note. Cruel Gardenia is composed by perfumer Randa Hammami in 2008.

As written so many times before, there is not possible to extract from the gardenia flower by any technique. Therefore there are many different white flower interpretations pretending to be gardenia. Cruel Gardenia starts with a bouquet of white flowers where quite soon the mushroom note typical for some gardenias shining through very clearly to me. I can’t feel a cheesy note that also is present in some other gardenia, but probably that is just another facet of the fresh, mushroom note. When the mushroom is faded a wonderful, creamy, thick, white floral blend is appearing and is the linear main theme during the whole dry down. There is also an accompanying, fresh fruity almost citrus, slight ozonic like note balancing the creamy white flowers and all this beauty is anchored in a white and clean musky base. The impression of Cruel Gardenia is that of a luxury bodycreme and the style and associations of smelling the scent reminds me very much of the beautiful Puredistance I. I isn’t as thick as Cruel Gardenia, it’s lighter and more ozonic in texture.

Even if Cruel Gardenia is not a groundbreaking composition, it’s an very wearable, utterly elegant comfort scent made of high quality ingredients and seamless blended. The longevity is very good, almost 24h and the sillage is medium.

I think Cruel Gardenia could be appreciated by those who like Cartier Baiser Volé and Ramón Monegal White Musk (Cotton Musk).

Rating: 5

Notes: Neroli, peach, rose, gardenia, ylang-ylang, gardenia, musk, sandalwood, tonka been, vanilla

Chanel Les Exclusifs – Gardenia

Picture: Gardenia thunbergia,
Source:Compton Herbarium, Kirstenbosch
Picture by Edith Struben, c 1915

Gardenia is another of the reinterpreted/reformulated Ernst Beaux classics from the 1920s in the Les Exclusifs Collection. The first version of gardenia was created in 1925. The Exclusives version is an Edt like all fragrances in the collection.

Gardenia starts with a blast of the smell of an elegant bath foam, a real bubbly bath. To me Gardenia smells transparent, in between light and dark pink, as a pink a bit viscous liquid. The bubble bath and pink liquid associations leads me to think of the transparent but viscous, pink, bubble bath tubereuse Michelle from Balenciaga but Michelle is stronger and bolder in it’s expression where Gardenia is more polite and unobtrusive. Gardenia, like all gardenia fragrances, is not the scent of gardenia as it can’t be extracted, but a interpretation of the perfumers, and probably also Coco’s, vision of her favourite flower. As the pink texture described, Gardenia to me is most about a delicate, medium sweet tubereuse, some other white flowers, some smooth fruit, some greenery and a contrasting, just a bit dirty, almost dry-furry note among the musky basenotes. 

Gardenia is a discrete, elegant, timeless Chanel fragrance, wearable in most situations, the year around. Blooms in summerheat and gives glimpses of a warmer season when worn during the colder months. Gardenia stays close to the skin and lasts for more than 12h.

Those who enjoy abstract, colder, tubereuse fragrances as  Mona di Orio Les Nombres d’Or Tubereuse  and L’Artisan Parfumeur Nuit de Tubereuse will probably like Chanel Gardenia.

Rating: 4

Notes: Orangeblossom, green notes, tubereuse, jasmine, gardenia, fruits, coconut, sandalwood, musk, vetiver, patchouli, vanilla

Serge Lutens - Une Voix Noire

Picture: Billie Holiday and her dog Mister, backstage dressing room,
probably at the Downbeat, NYC, Juni 1946
Photo: William P. Gottlieb, Wikimedia Commons

Une Voix Noire, the latest exclusive from Serge Lutens is a strange creature, almost as last years exclusive De Profundis. I suppose Une Voix Noire is created by Christopher Sheldrake as almost all the Lutens fragrances. Voix Noire is inspired of, and a homage, to Billie Holiday with her dark, dramatic voice (and life), often wearing a gardenia in her dark hair.

Une Voix Noire starts with a dreamy, almost dusky, putty, gardenia accord or a white flower that could be gardenia as it is somehow indefinable. The abstract gardenia is not fresh, it’s a gardenia that just started to wilting. There is also a green, slight mentholic note following, a note that is also present (but more clearly) in Serge Lutens Tubereuse Criminelle. As Une Voix Noire further developes, a note of strawberry appears. The note is not the syntetic, sickly, sweet strawberry note in candy or bubbelgums, the note is less sweet, darker and as the smell of the whole plant, the strawberries, leaves, steam and root with some dry, sandy earth on the rootlets. Soon thereafter a metallic note emerges, a note of steel but also with facets of blood. This stage is a bit gruesome and there is also a dusky, moist, almost sour and rottening vegetating note in the background, a facet that reminds me of the damp floral water note in Kerosene Whips and Roses. There are no distinct basenotes, of course they are there, some slight woody nuances could be noticed, but overall Une Voix Noire seems to be anchored in subtle dark rummy and tobbacconotes. The booziness is dark and minmalistic as is the tobbacco. There is not the blond, dry and almost fresh tobbaco of, for example Frapin Speakeasy, but a dark, slight moisty pipe tobbacco just taken out from the tobbacco envelope to be stuffed in the pipe. The dusky gardenianote is fleeting in the blend, making Une Voix Noire to a beautiful, dark, mysterious and strange composition that leaves me wanting to try this fragrance repeatedly, just as De Profundis a year ago. After two days of wearing it finally klicked which fragrance Une Voix Noire reminds me of when it has dried down and lingers there on the skin until the morning after: The a bit weird and special creation Psychotrope by Pierre Guillaume for Parfumerie Generale, which I like much. The Psychotrope is lighter in its tonality and there are different flowers but there I something in the texture, in the metallic and in some facets almost syntetic feeling that unite these two fragrances.

Just as the stunning De Profundis, Une Voix Noire is a contemplative fragrance that demands peace and quiet to be properly perceived and to evoke the imagination of the wearer. Une Voix Noire could of course evoke the picture of the dark jazzclubs where Lady Day performed, but I also think it has an almost macabre side, the bloody, metallic accord that also could conjure some unpleasant associations.

As concluded from above, Une Voix Noire is a fragrance for quiet days at home, at least until the wearer is familiar with this strange creature. Then it could be worn anyway, preferably during autumn and winter. The sillage is medium and the longevity is very good. 

Rating: 5

Notes: Gardenia, tobbacco, rum 

Ramón Monegal – White Musk

Picture: Gardenia jasminoides
Photo by Erin Silversmith (cc) Wikimedia Commons,
some rights reserved

If  Musc Intense by Parfums de Nicolaï that I reviewed earlier this week is a subtle, classical musk which evokes associations to the 18^th centruary and the powder-pastels of Madame de Pompadour, Barcelonean perfumer, Ramon Monegals White Musk is the opposite. It’s a true contemporary, high quality, imaginative, interpretation of a flowery white musk that certainly stands out even from the white musk niche-crowd. Just as with Musc Intense, the musk in White Musk is not the typical “mainstream white musk” if anyone can’t stand that interpretation of this interesting basenote.

White Musk starts with a intense cascade of gardenina blended with vanilla and the musk accompanying in a moist, creamy way, it’s like the gardenia is cracked and mixed together with cream and vanilla. The opening is an almost gourmand accord also somehow resembeling the smell and also the texture of coconut. This coconutty texture remains during the whole dry down of White Musk.In the middlenotes the gardenia note is becoming increasingly clearer, the sweetness from the vanilla is tuned down and a light, perfectly balanced, resiny peppery note is accompanying in the background, adding an interesting contrast to the creamy flower. The gardenia note is that of a perfectly fresh gardenia, a gardenia that just have entered the full blooming stage, it’s not the gardenia just started to wilting as in Serge Lutens Une Voix Noire. There are also some subdued, green, crispy notes that could be sensed, just like some of the leaves also are crushed down in the blend. Later on the gardenia gets more fragile, almost papery in texture, similar to the gardenia in the beautiful Gardenia by Isabey. All these notes are mingeling with a well balanced white musk that anchors and depening this sensual blend together with dry resinnotes, almost light blond woody in character. Later on in the further development of the basenotes, there is a sort of clear, a bit wet accord, that in smell and texture reminds me of the Helmt Lang cult-frag Cuiron.

White Musk, even if loud, requires lot of space and is not wellmannered as my top Monegal Impossible Iris, is definitly one of my favourites after testing almost all from the wellcrafted and beautiful Ramon Monegal line. I remember this was the one that immadiately caught my attention when I was “screening” all of the Mongeals samples by just sniffing them from the outside. As almost all Monegals, White Musk is a fragrance that involves the wearer during the dry down, there are many interesting twists and nuances to be find during the journey. White Musk almost also rivals my favoritemusk so far: Mona di Orio Les Nombres d’Or Musc but fortunately they are in quite different musk-genres: White Musk is a bold tropical musk when LNd’O Musc is a traditional, elegant, slight flowery, subdued musk.

White Musk is wearable the year around, I can image it will blooms perfectly a warm summer evening as it will warm up a grey and cold winterday. Not suitable for scentofobic offices, its more of a comfort, casual- or a great evening fragrance. White Musk is, like most of the RM:s, a concentrated fragrance and as it’s very intense, (a changes of name with Musc Intense would be appropriate :-) ) it has to be applied sparingly to avoid knockning the ambient. Sillage is huge (if not careful in application) and longevity extraordinary, 24h+.

I don’t find any “alikes” at the moment but I can image that those who likes Montale Intense Tiare and Les Nez Manoumalia will like this unusual, stunning creation.

Rating: 5

Notes: Rose, gardenia, olibanum, vetiver, vanilla, white musk

Scented thoughts – June 2012

Scented thoughts – June 2012

The summer weather this June has been very unstable with lots of rain and some (one or two) days as cold as + 4- 5 C during the day. Not so inspiring when it comes to using typical light summerfrags even if I appreciate big florals for the moment. And as always there is lot of scented thoughts as:

-         Gardenia seems to be the note de jour. Serge Lutens will launch a gardeniadominated perfume Voix de Noire inspired of Billie Holiday in the exclusive line. I’m already anticipating a blind buy in early autumn. Read more at Perfume Shrine .

-         From Andy Tauers blog , it  seems as he is started the work on a gardenia and I’m sure will be something special.

-         Seems as I have to dig out my Isabey Gardenia sample in the near future, I really appreciate its velvety, subdued, white floral elegance.

-         Thinking of gardenia and white flowers: The other day on the fly I tested Madonnas tuberose Truth or Dare, one spritz on skin and as I wore CdG Avignon that day it was a big contrast. My son commented when I picked him up from school that I was smelling pink and pink is exactly the colour I perceive when smelling ToD and a velvety texture. To me ToD is reminiscent of a medium powdery pink luxuary slik velvet.

-         Gardenia is of course also an important note in ToD, as in many tuberoseperfumes. ToD is, as mentiond many times in many blogs, not groundbreaking but it’s a well blended sweet tuby. The slight gourmand touch reminds me of something in Parfumerie Générales lovely Tubereuse Coture.

-         Indirectly Madonna with this release supports and educate in “good” perfumeculture. Launching a wellbalanced, classical blend with a modern twist, following in the steps of Piguets Fracas to a wide audience to a reasonable price is just great. As an almost collector of tubys, I will go for a 30 ml.

-         In the latest months I have sufferd from a sort of perfumerelated stress. I’ve have been in the state of constant hunting for new impressions, acquiring samples and some bottles too, constantly sniffing and evaluating. In the same time I have tried to going through my perfumewardrobe to find fumes to sell to avoid the collection to grow uncontrolled. This situation causes that I don’t live with and appreciate the frags that I already have.

-         To calm down I ‘ve decided, or to be more precise Mr Parfumista influenced me, to use and evaluate the stuff I alredy have to a much greater extent than I try and evaluate new samples.This year the circumstances have been in the total opposite.

-         This week I therefore have used some neglected, beauties, most of them more or less big florals. More about this in the next post.

Annick Goutal - Un Matin d'Orage

Gardenia flower from the gardens at Monticello

Foto från Wikipedia taget av Querbubbels

En morgon efter stormen, är den ungefärliga betydelsen av Un Matin d'Orage. Och det är precis det intrycket Isabelle Doyen lyckas förmedla i ännu en skicklig komposition som husnäsa hos kvalitetshuset Annick Goutal. UMdO ger mig bilden av en grön, fuktig trädgård med dignande, tunga vita blommor som väcks upp av solens varma strålar efter nattens storm. Några av blommornas blad har fallit till marken och andra flyter i den lilla dammen. I UMdO har Isabelle Doyen inspirerats av just en japansk trädgård men för mig kan det lika gärna vara en trädgård i sydeuropa.

UMdO inleds med ljusa och spritsiga noter som ger doften en känsla av hög och klar luft. En torr,vit gardenia understödd av en krispig grönhet från sina egna blad träder in och understryker doftens ljus och klarhet. Torrheten i gardenian gör att den får en känsla av papper, den ger ett skalat intryck. Det är alltså inte en tung och krämig gardenia utan något som känns som att blomdoftens spjälkats ned på molekylnivå i enlighet med modern doftframtagningsteknik och man sedan kombinerat valda delar för att få fram den speciella nyansen. Det samma verkar ha skett även med övriga blommor eftersom hela kompositionen känns ren och skalad men utan minsta kemiska känsla.

Den pepprighet, som kommer från ingefära som är karaktäristisk för UMdO, ialla fall på mig, träder in på ett tidigt stadium och är närvarande under hela doftens utveckling. UMdO vilar på en bas av varmt sandelträ vars träiga söthet på inte sätt dominerar utan smälter in på ett fint sätt och balanserar pepprigheten.

UMdO är en EDT och EDT:er från Annick Goutal har en tendens att vara flyktiga. Så det gäller att inte snåla vid applieringen av UMdO för när jag gjort det har den försvunnit efter halva dagen. I fallet UMdO är det faktiskt OK med en eller ett par extra sprits, då håller den långt in på kvällen. Det gäller  samtidigt att vara försiktig, för det är en svår balansgång, blir det för mycket kan UMdO bli för stark i de mest intensiva faserna med ingefära. Håller bättre på huden på vintern än om sommaren. UMdO är en perfekt doft en solig senvinterdag och den ger de första förnimmelserna om en inte allt för avlägsen sommar.

Sammanfattningsvis är UMdO en spännande sammansatt, grön, torr, vit blomdoft som även om den är modern i sitt uttryck ändå ger ett tidlös känsla.

Betyg: 4+

Noter: Citron, ingefära, gröna blad, gardenia, jasmin, champaca, magnolia, sandelträ

Höstdofter 2010

Foto: Herr Parfumista (c)

Den stora internationella parfymbloggarmaffian hade sin höstdofttopplistepublicering i fredags. Så då måste förstås en perifer liten parfymblogg som den här också klämma ur sig en lista. Här kommer den:

Private Collection Jasmine White Moss (Estee Lauder): Eftersom jag antagit Perfume Posses utmaning att bära EN doft i EN VECKA och det blev just PCJVM så är den förstås först på listan. Varför det blev PCJVM? Jo, den representerar genren vit blomma på en bädd av gröna blad som jag ofta dras till på hösten.

Miss Dior Cherie L'Eau (Dior): En light gardeina på kemiskt grönt men härlig ändå. Vad många skulle definiera som en vårdoft, men jag är på något vis tvärt om. I våras när den här "passade" var jag inne i en oud-period.

Gardenia (Isabey). Måtte inte detta prov ta slut!! En liksom pappersaktig men samtidigt dovt, fyllig gardenia med vintagekänsla.Herr Parfumistas först kommentar: "Det känns att det är en äldre bas". Han tycker att det finns likheter med Estee Lauders Spellbound och jag kan hålla med, om man tar bort kryddorna.

Nej, det är nog bäst jag slutar, det här är ju inte vad man förväntar sig av en normal höstoppdoft lista. Men efter veckan med PCJVM så blir det i alla fall en dag eller två med Guerlains Shalimar och Amouages Gold båda i parfymstyrka. Ahhhhh........