By Kilian - Playing With The Devil

Picture: Quite contrary to the Devil: Kilian Hennessy himself,
as handsome as this fragrance is beautiful :-)
Photo: PR By Kilian (c) 

Playing With The Devil is the fourth installation in the By Kilian sub-line In The Garden of Good and Evil. As almost all By Kilians, PWTD is created by Calice Becker, a true champion when it comes to handle flowers in a delicate way. The first three fragrances of this sub-line, even if good, was a bit too similar and I find it difficult to distinguish them from each other. Playing With The Devil on the other hand, stands out from the crowd and is just stunning.

Playing With The Devil starts with the most natural smelling orange, in this case, Blood Orange I have smelled so far. The beautiful orangenote is underscored by darker fruity notes as a perfectly matched balckcurrant note and  round, delicious notes of peach and litchi. The peach is the same peachnote as in Flower of Immortality  from this spring, but slightly darker and fuller. The notes are nor sharp or synthetic smelling at all..

As PWTD dries down, flowery notes mingles with the fruit and in this stage PWTD becomes slight sopay on my skin and oddly, a chalky note that I also recognize in Vanille Tonka by Parfums de Nicolaï appears for a while but in a smoother interpretation. The flowers are accompanied by very smooth rendered versions of hot spices; pimento and pepper. This is very skillful performed, there is no traces of the typical peppernote that is common in current perfumery. In the basenotes, the fruity impression is still present, but darker and with an almost tobacco leaves/liqueur twist. This is probably the effect of fruit blended with resins, sweet tonka and delicate woody/patchouli notes. The base is lasting for hours and the fragrance is still unfragmented after more than 12h and distinct traces are still there after 24h.

Playing With The Devil is both elegant and comforting. It's very well blended, using high quality ingredients. It has nothing to to with the usual fruity floral offerings. It's just gorgeous!

Those who like wellcrafted fruity interpretations as Missoni by Missoni, Jeunesse by Robert Piguet, Bonbay Bling by Neela Vermeire Creations and Manguier Metisse by Huitieme Art will certainly appreciate PWTD:

Rating: 5

Notes: Blood Orange, black currant, peaches, litchi, pimento, rose, jasmine, pepper, cedarwood, sandalwood, patchouli, tonka been, benzoin, vanilla

Huitième Art - Manguier Metisse

Bild: Alphonso Mangoes in a box surrounded by straw

Foto: G. Patkar, (cc) Wikimedia commons, some rights reserved

Pierre Guilaumes Manguier Metisse är en doft som är totalt dominerad av frukt men ändå inte så typiskt sött kemiskt fruktig som så många fruktiga dofter är. Visst är Manguier Metisse kemisk men jag får ingen "kemikänsla". Mango är inte heller någon särskilt söt frukt utan mer ger ett mer neutralt, lite träigt intryck. I Manguier Metisse finns också en tropisk blommighet och fruktigheten är mörk och dov i tonen. Den not som för mig är dominerande under hela doftens utveckling är något annat, nämligen den plåsterliknande not som finns i Cartiers Panthere Edt och i Musst de Cartier Edt i tidig nittiotals formula. Framförallt ger mig Manguier Metisse ständiga associationer till Panthere och det alltså tack vare plåsternoten, texturen och det blommiga inslaget. Andra dofter med likheter är Montales Mango Manga och även Missonis mörkt fruktiga Missoni har en del gemensamt.

Precis som övriga dofter i Huitième Art linjen är Manguier Metisse en lättburen och vilsam doft, användbar i många sammanhang dagtid. Hållbarheten är ganska bra, projektionen relativt nära och till främst för bäraren själv.

Manguier Metisse by Pierre Guilaume is a fragrance that is totally dominated by fruit. But it is not the typical artificial, sweet fruity thing as so many contemporary fruity scents are. Obviously Manguier Metisse contains chemical ingredients but it doesn't convey a "chemical sense". Mango is also not a particularly sweet fruit, but rather provides a more neutral, slight woody impression. Manguier Metisse is also highlight a tropical floralness and the fruity notes are heavy and overripe. But the note that is most dominant  to me throughout the development is something else. Strangely I smell the patch-like note found in Cartier Panthere EDT and Musst de Cartier EDT in their early nineties formulas. Thanks to this note and the texture of the floral elements above all Manguier Metisse gives me associations with Panthere. Other fragrances thats comes to my mind  are Montale Mango Manga and even the dark fruity Missoni by Missoni.

Like the other fragrances in the Huitième Art line is Manguier Metisse is easy to wear and is somehow restful when I wear it. It is useful in many contexts for daytime wearing. Longevity is pretty good, and the projection relatively close to the wearer.

Rating: 3

Noter: Frukt, mango, frangipani, socker, the/ fruit, mango, frangipani, sugar, the