5 fragrances for Easter 2017

Picture: Violets in the garden April 10, 2017
Photo: Parfumista (c)

Easter is here and so finally the spring, even if some snow isn't unusual around 1 May but it doesn't last then.


Fragrances for Easter for me are almost always from the following groups: Gourmand (reminding of the food especially the sweets for Easter), Incense (reminding of the religious background to the testive) and floral green (reminding of the vegetation of spring with crispy bulbflowers and violets). This year I am not going to be that structured, below my impressions of some fragrances I like and which I've worn more than once the latest months.

Picture: Marconi 3
Photo: PR Profumi del Forte (c)

Marconi 3 (Profumi del Forte): This is among the cosiest and most comforting fragrances I've ever worn. In the same time Marconi 3 has an vintage elegance, a skilful blended oriental-gourmand-chypre styled fragrance with prominent vanilla, spices and patchouly. Smooth and addictive, it always renders compliments. I'm not sure if Marconi 3 is still in the PdF line since they have switched to a new design of the bottles. I'm so glad that I bought a tester of Marconi 3 before it's (eventually) gone.

Picture: Musst de Cartier Gold
Photo: PR Cartier (c)

Musst de Cartier Gold (Cartier): A hidden gem, probably missunderstood, as it could be bought quite cheap from discounters. Gold is Cartier inhouse perfumer Mathilde Laurents interpretation of the classic Musst de Cartier (Edp I'll say as my Edt from the 90s is more herbal and with a light band aid note) and Musst is fully recognized, at least in the second part of the fragrance. The beginning is greener, sunnier and lighter, and the whole fragrance is sort of a luminous "sunny day" version of the darker and heavier "sunset" variety Musst Edp. Musst Gold is an elegant floral-oriental with the characteristic comforting vanillanote which is also present in Musst.

Picture: Sheiduna
Photo: PR Puredistance (c)

Sheiduna (Puredistance): Sheiduna only gets better with more wearings. It's a beautiful perfum, which conveys the warm impression of "sunset over the desert dunes". It's dry and spicy, mixed with some of the pleasureable patchouly "old, dusty books note" with hints of dark roses, anchored in balsamic, ambery depts. It has a comforting elegance and is delightful to wear.

Picture: Bracken Woman
Photo: PR Amouage (c)

Bracken Woman (Amouage): This is a very nice surprise from Amouage. A sort of floral, green fougere for women, even if it's unisex IMO. It's a bit strange and I can imagine to some noses, off putting as it has an almost chemical vibe which occurs now and then under the dry down. Bracken remins med of fern, moss, moist vegetation contrasted with berries and tiny little pale flowers in a forest in the early springtime. Excellent fragrance.

Picture: L'Attesa
Photo: PR Masque (c)

L'Attesa (Masque): Finally I've tested it, one of 2016 cult fragrances. And L'Attesa is (like most Masque fragrance) very good. It's a dry iris, not the roty carrot varity nor the flowery version, and has a very realistic sort of clean lipsticknote, the best lipticknote I've smelled so far. There is also an wheat or beernote in L'Attesa, a note which is also present in Vero Profumo Kiki Extrait and in a sweeter context in Mancera Roses Vanille. Not surprising, Luca Maffei is the perfumer of this stunning fragrance.

Carner Barcelona - Rose & Dragon

Picture: Saint George and the Dragon (1432-35)
Painting by Rogier van der Weyden (1399-1464)
Wikiart.com

Rose & Dragon is the third creation in the luxury, well crafted Black Collection from Carner Barcelona. Rose & Dragon is inspired from the legend of Saint George who saved the princess from the dragon. From the dragons blood, a rosebush with dark red roses grew.

And that one can imagine: Rose & Dragon is a thick, dark, rosy, spicy potion, resting over an animalic, soft leathery dept. The fragrance is sweetened with the todays it-note in contrasting leather or other dark, rough notes: Sweet berries as raspberrys and strawberrys, which could also be found in for example Masque Russian Tea, Tom Ford Tuscan Leather and Acqua di Parma Colonia Leather (not mentioned among the notes in the latter but I can smell it). Rose & Dragon has some similarities in style with these fragrance but is rosier, more animalic and spicy. It is also sweeter, has a certain liqueurish vibe, is much more deep and mysterious. When it comes to the latter; Rose & Dragon delivers the same mysticism as another dark and deep rose, Frapin Nevermore, even if that spicy rose interpretation is almost dry and less sweet than Rose & Dragon.
To my note Rose & Dragon is also the most feminine of the three fragrances in the Black Collection and also more feminine than the fragrances mentioned above. A more feminine dark and mysterious rose I come to think of when wearing Rose & Dragon is Parfumerie Générale Isparta.

Picture: Rose & Dragon
PR: Carner Barecelona (c)

As apprehensible from all associations mentioned above, Rose & Dragon isn't anything new or groundbreaking but it's a very well crafted and smooth blended fragance, one of the very best in this genre. With such heavy ingredients there is always a risk that a fragrance becomes cloying, harsh and unstable, especially if cheaper ingredients are used. Rose & Dragon is avoiding all such mistakes, it is top notch.

Wearing Rose & Dragon is a pleasure and the day is filled with constant wrist sniffing. It's wearable also for elegant evening but should'nt be restricted for such occasions. It's a quite linear fragrance and one can enjoy its mysterious and beautiful accords almost all at the same time. Longevity is about 24h and sillage is medium.
Rose & Dragon is my favorite from the Black Collection, an excellent example of the dark, deep, mysterious sort of rosefragrance which I love.

Rating: 5

Notes: Saffron, cumin, wild strawberry, cinnamon, bulgarian rose, turkish rose, honey, incense, castoreum, leather, labdanum, amber

Maria Candida Gentile - Rrose Sélavy

Picture: Rrose Sélavy (Marcel Duchamp)
Photo: Man Ray, 1921 

Rrose Selavy is an intriguing rosefragrance from italian perfumer Maria Candida Gentile dedicated to one of the leading artist of the dadaism Marcel Duchamp and his double identity Rrose Selavy. In the 1920:s Duchamps was photographed as a women, Rrose Selavy in a cooporation with Man Ray.

Rrose Selavy is an all through rosefragrance, built around different types of roses, and from different parts and extractions of the roses. The perfume starts with the natural smelling rose accord as for example in Annick Goutal Rose Absolue and Montale Taif Roses. As in both of these fragarnces, Rrose Selavy has the for the natural roseaccord typical rubbery note,  but less rubber than in the two mentioned fragrances. As Rrose Selavy developes, some light animalic, a bit furry notes appears as also a dry touch of something similar to cinnamon. The fragrance has a tea-ish texture, but there are no sharp or harsh edges as in some tea fragrances. This texture reminds me of Masque Russian Tea not the scent but the apperance. The clean and natural rose petal note (vevet pink if it had a color) appears now and then in short glimpses during the dry down, the rest of the time it's mixed with the other notes of rose. There is also a sort of herbal, candided impression in the basenotes, as the rosepetals are glazed in a light herbal sweetness. In the basenotes there is also a light leathery note and some of the dry fur is playing underneath.

Picture: Rose Sélavy
Photo: Maria Candida Gentile (c)

Rrose Selavy is in the same cold, airy but in the same time not thin style of velvet pink rose fragrance as Hermès Galop d'Hermès but Rrose Selavy is more eccentric in style, completely unisex, and less sweet in its restrained rosy, slight leathery apperance. The leathery tone in Rrose Selavy has the touch of fur mentioned above as the leather in Galop is that of a fine pair of gloves with a scent bordering to suede.

Rrose Selavy is an elegant not so rosy, rose soliflore. It's perfect for daytime wearing for example for office. Sillage is close, it's parfumeconcentration, longevity for more than a day if applying liberally, if only little applaied it lasts shorter than a day.

A beautiful and rare rose soliflore. It smells as it has many more notes than the variations of the rose and maybe it has as, notelists are seldom complete. .

Rating: 5

Notes: Rose petals, Turkish rose, May rose, Michelle rose, rose stems, rose leaves

Thanks to Fragrance & Art for the sample to test

Mona di Orio - Bohea Bohème

Picture: The Yunnu hill, the symbol of the Wuyi Mountains
Photo by Ricky Chow (cc)
Wikimedia commons, some rights reserved

Bohea Bohème is the latest fragrance from the house of Mona di Orio and the second release which is not created by the great, and sadly, late Mona. Bohea Bohème is created by Fredrik Dalman, an unknown perfumer to me, the name sounds suspicious swedish. The fragrance Bohea Bohème is inspired of and will capture (according to a brief from the perfumehouse)  "the smoldering delicacy of the distinctive tea cultivated in the Wuyi Mountains of China. The precious Bohea Tea, fumed with pinewood, is prized for its complex aroma and rich character"

 Bohea Bohème starts with a  smokey, light tea-ish note infused with a note resembeling tar. There also a hint of cardamom and a light, uplifting blond woody impression, as wood in the mountains of a warmer climat, cooled off by the rain. There is also something bright and almost chilly to the first part of the fragrance, probably an effect of the chamomille inteacting with the woody notes. As Bohea dries further down, the fragrance becomes warmer, woodier, rounder and a tad sweeter, even if this is not at sweet fragrance at all.
The fragrane also calms down from the explosion of notes in its first part, it becomes a skinscent, close to the wearer. The basenotes of Bohea is a plesant, light smokey, sort of waxy, balsamic, woody.

Alltogether, the fragrance is loud and somehow refreshing in its first part and then calms down to be intimate and relaxing in its later stages. Bohea as a whole is not the typical tea-fragrance, tea is just one of the co-working ingredients. This make me think of another fragrance in this genre which Bohea may be inspired from, the intriguing  Russian Tea from Masque. The same concept with tea as a co-working note and some similarities in smell, i.e the smoky note. Compared to Bohea Bohème Russian Tea is more distinctive, rougher, tougher with more contrasts during its dry down. Except smoky, black tea, Russian Tea also have notes of mint, leather and raspberry. If roughly translated to seasons of the year, Russian Tea is a winterfragrance and Buhea Bohème is for summer.

Picture: Bohea Bohème
Photo: PR Mona di Orio (c)

Bohea Bohème is a fragrance suitable for daytime wearing, both for work and casual. Silage is big in the topnotes but then becomes a close skinscent in the later stages. Longevity is very good, I can smell unfragmented traces after 24h+. The fragrance is totally unisex.

Bohea Bohème is a good fragrance but to me it lacks the originality, creativity and depts of the creations of late Mona di Orio herself. Compared to Monas compositions Bohea is soulless and could have been released from any nichehouse. The unique style, skills and the bottled passion in the fragrances created by Mona are lost in the releases post Mona. There will be a difficult future for the house of Mona di Orio to stand out from the nichecrowd as the house did during the days of Mona.

Rating: 4

Notes: Bergamot, cardamom, iris, chamomile,  poplar bud, balsam fir, boxtree, geranium, black tea oil, smoked juniper, oakwood, sandalwood, beeswax, bay leaf, benzoin, vanilla absolute