Fragrance of the week (9) 2013

Is the reworked Habanita Edp from Molinard. Vetiver, geranium and tobacconotes, dark flowers over the deep mossy, ambery, patchouli base. True to the Edt version but smoother and somehow more contemporary in style even if the vintage 1920s Flappers impression is still there. And the retrostyled bottle is just gorgeous.....

Picture: Molinard Habanita Edp
Photo: PR  Molinard (c) 

Place des Lices – Twenties

Picture: Where there's smoke there's fire" by American artist Russell Patterson (1893-1977).
Full-length illustration of a fashionably dressed Flapper, 1920s. Swann Gallery, Library of Congress.
Wikimedia commons. This would be the perfect illustration for Habanita :-)

Twenties from the Saint Tropez based house Place des Lices is a fragrance that will capture the spirit of the nightlife of the roaring twenties. As an eveninginspired fragrance from that era it’s “of course” an orientalstyled perfume, but a soft oriental contemporary interpreation.

Twenties starts with rounded spices which creates a soft and smooth aura round the wearer. As Twenties continuies in its drydown a slight gourmand note, but not especeially sweet note, appears, probably the honey. The delicious spicy-honey accord is resting over a well balanced ambery-patchouli base.

To me Twenties is not a wild, outrageous perfume for decadant nightlife of the 1920s, in my book such fragrances are for example Habanita by Molinard, Arpége by Lanvin and to some extent also Guerlain Shalimar. To me Twenties is a straight forward, easy to wear, comfortscent, perfect for relaxing with a good book in front of the fireplace. As a soft, non-offensive, oriental, Twenties is also suitable for daytime officewear to lighten up grey, chilly autumn- and winterdays. Sillage is close and longevity good.

Twenties resembles many soft oriental fragrances, it doesn’t stand out but is on the other hand a representative, well-made and quite affordable example of the genre, a good soft oriental basic alternative for the fragrance wardrobe.

Rating: 3

Notes: Vetiver, pepper, cumin, patchouli, amber, honey

Scented thoughts – November 2012

Photo: Mr Parfumista

The late autumn is here, the perfect season for staying inside perfumetesting and writing reviews. As readers of this blog are aware of, sampling, evaluating and writing about perfume is my fulltime sparetime hobby. There is a pleasure to test so many new fragrances either new launches or frags that are not new on the market but are not tested by me before. But sometimes when piles of (to exaggerate a bit) untested intriguing samples demands for attention, I can feel a frustrated of the fact that frags from my regular collection get no skintime. Almost always the crave to test an uncharted fragrances wins over the wish to calm down with a favourite. A positive side of a sampeling is that the more I sample, the more similarities I perceive between fragrances from different houses and within a certain category. The similarities together with the fact that I’m almost always is testing some sample leads to less purchases of full bottles, even if there are still too many, I’m still finding too many fragrances to love from the exercise of sampling.

I the latest months I have felt a growing attraction to some of the fragraces I was into when this blog started six years ago, ie the classics. For exemple I feel an urgent need to test and compare the new reinterpreted Molinard Habanita Edp (if I can get my hands on a sample) to the Habanita Edt I own. I also crave some “old ladies” scents as Lanvin Arpége, Rochas Femme and Madame Rochas and even if my skin doesn’t give them justice, they provide a welcome break from the contemporary scent map.

Writing about the contemporary fragrances there are so many interersting to test (here we are againJ). For the moment I’m excited to test the new Histoires de Parfums L’Olympia Music Hall and Veni, Vidi, Vici from the Edition Rare line and have also re-discovered the beautiful perfumline of Frapin. Late to the party when it comes to MDCI Chypre Palatin a beautiful frag I have smelled on my friend Fragrancefanatic from Riktig Parfym. Which make me think of that Riktig parfym carries a varied selection from the Etat Libre d’Orange-line and I hope that the new releases, The Afternoon of a Faun and Dangerous Complicity soon will be there as I want to put them under my nose asap. 

Midsommardofter mot strömmen

Bild: wikimedia.com
Ibland vill vi alla trotsa konventionerna. Varför inte satsa på något mörkt och dunkelt i kontrast till årets ljusaste dygn? Särskilt som vädret varken är varmt eller särskilt soligt.  Idag passar:
Messe de Minuit - Etros kryddigt träiga lite söta oriental från millenieskifet. Rökelse, honung, myrra, kryddor, trä i en säregen komposition. Associerar till katolsk mässa och till doften av  kalksten i medeltida kyrkor.
Poison - Christian Diors storsäljare skapad av Jean Guichard 1985. En "love or hate doft". Tung, blommigt, orientalisk med lite plommon. Doften ger associationer till giftmord, Katarina av Medici, Reine Margot och Bartolomeinatten.
Parfum Sacre -  Carons kryddiga, dovt blommiga oriental från 1992 skulle kunna vara inspirationskälla till Etros Messe de Minuit. Även denna speciella komposition mer myrra, rökelse och tunga rosor ger känslan av katolsk mässa.
Habanita - Molinards klassiskt mörka ambrerade blom- och läderdoft från 1921. I den fint harmonierade blandningen finns också spår av torkad frukt (långt ifrån dagens fruktigt-fräscha ackord) mysk och en viss rökighet.
Bandit - Läderchypre med animaliska noter för den som vill vara lite stygg under midsommar. Det finns även en ton av torkatgräs/hö som passar utmärkt en midsommarnatt. Ursprungligen skapad för Piguet 1944 av den stora kvinnliga näsan Germaine Cellier.

Doft-dekadens

Bvlgari Black är egentligen en lättare variant på de klassiska läder, lite rå-söta, rökiga mästerverken från tjugotalet Tabac Blond och Habanita samt efterföljaren från fyrtiotalet Bandit.
Den omedelbara associationen av dessa dofter är mellankrigstidens Berlin, Der Blaue Engel, Marlene Dietrich. Hennes dekadenta karaktär Lola ÄR dessa dofter: "Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt, denn das ist meine Welt und sonst gar nichts. Das ist, was soll ich machen, meine Natur. Ich kann halt lieben nur und sonst gar nichts ..."