Jehanne Rigaud - Ambre Obscure

Picture: Captain Haddock,
from "Les Aventures de Tintin"
Author: Hergé (George Remi),
picture borrowed from pinterest

Ambre Obscure is a fragrance from the relatively unknown and a bit under cover perfume house Jehanne Rigaud from Grasse. As I understand it, the house had a range of fine fragrances during the 1920s-1930s and the following decades but then focused on to produce essences, ambiences, basic colognes and eaux as also producing for other perfumehouses. In one website I can recognize bottles with the same shape and labels as some editions from the house of Les Nereides. As mentioned in the earlier post about Imperial Poudré, I smell similarities in style between Les Nereides and Jehanne Rigaud. maybe this is not a coincidence. Jehanne Rigaud, just as Les Nereides, issues really priceworthy perfumes, compared both to mainstream and niche releases. The whole Jehanne Rigaud line is avaible here at top notch niche shop Fragrance & Art.

Ambre Obscur starts and proceeds very familiar to me: I can smell an old favorite, the early 1980s oriental Prelude from Balenciaga. It's almost the same vintage smelling amber, deep and multifacetted containing notes  similar to old sherry oakbarrels.It's like looking in a caledeoscope with changing patterns in brown and ruby red nuances. As Ambre Obscur dries further down, a fine jasmine blends delicately with the dark, deep amber and balsamic notes from the basenotes. Patchouli is also present as a supporting note, well balanced and it doesn't take over the composition, the patchouli just enhances the vintage feeling. Ambre Obscur is slight powdery in texture but not at all as powdery as the powder bomb from Jehanne Rigaud Imperial Poudré. In its later stage, Amber Obscur reminds me of the discontinued gem from Estée Lauder Youth Dew Amber Nude and there is also similarities with Aramis JHL at least the vintage version I have on hand.

To me who is a bit tired of all the light and airy contemporary ambers released in later years, Ambre Obscur is a very pleasant surprise, dark, deep and vintage in style. This is a fragrance for those who wants more body in their ambers and I think those who like fragrances as Rania J. Ambre Loup and Maitre Parfumeur et Gantier Ambre Doré (with patchouli in Ambre Obscur instead of oud as in Ambre Loup and Ambre Doré), also will appreciate Ambre Obscur.

Picture: Ambre Obscur
Photo: PR Jehanne Rigaud (c)

Ambre Obscur is perfect for autumn, winter and early, chilly spring. It's also a good eveningfragrance and it's very comforting to wear for example by the fireplace a dark, snowy winterevening, Ambre Obscur is unisex even if leaning slight to the feminine side IMO. Despite that I couldn't resist to continue using a Tintin character, in this case Captain Haddock, to illustrate Ambre Obscur. I think he fits the bill as the fragrance has some dark, boozy elements..

Taken as a whole: Ambre Obscur is a very well blended, genuine, a bit wild and untamed, dark amber. Dark as its namn implies but it could, and not the new Annick Goutal amber, also be named Ambre Sauvage.

Rating: 5

Notes: Bergamot, orange, jasmine, amber, labdanum, vanilla, vetiver, patchouli, musk

Puredistance - Sheiduna

Picture: Perfumer Cécile Zarokian holds
the first sample flacon of Sheiduna Perfume
Photo: Puredistance (c)

Finally it's here Sheiduna, the long awaited release from Puredistance, the first since the beutiful flowery White early in 2015. White was also my "Best of 2015" .This time there is an oriental theme, the first oriental from the brand, in the spicy subcategory. Perfumer is one of the stars of later years, the talented Cécile Zarokian, creator of favorites of mine as Parfums MDCI Nuit Andalouse, Laboratorio Olfattivo Kashnoir, Masque Tango and of course, her breakthrough creation as one of the perfumers of Amouage Epic Woman. Sheiduna is released in pure perfume.

Puredistance tolds us about the inspiration of Sheiduna "With the creation of Sheiduna we wanted to bridge the sensuality from the Orient with the elegance from Paris. Wearing Sheiduna one wafts sensuality and at the same time feels like being wrapped up in a warm, soft blanket. Deep colours of Persian rugs touch the senses".

Sheiduna starts with a burst of a peppery note, maybe it's the clove/incense. Soon this fizzy intro steps back and a beautiful sort of deep, lush citric accord appears grounded in a light rosy touch. The tangerinenote appears very realistic, the best interpreation of tangerine I have smelled so far. A light gunpowdery dry note (as in Mona di Orio Les Nombres d'Or Ambre) also appears as also something soft and eveloping, slight Asian-kitchen-gourmand, green spicy coconutty note, a soft verision of a similar accord in Neela Vermeire Creations Ashoka. This accord is acting as a delightful background also for the rest of Sheidunas drydown. As Sheiduna dries further down, an accord appears dominated by a note of new-laid  vetiver, embedded and sort of glaced in spices and amber/balsamic notes. There is something rooty, green and tart with glimpses of a dry but warm incense, which contrasting the spicy/ambery/balsamic, oriental notes. The gunpowdery element reapperas in the basenotes together with the salty ambery note of ambergris. Blended with other oriental notes, this creates a special, a bit tart, dark, slight orange-y, balsamic, vintage, with a touch of the "old books", smelling accord which maybe is a sort of trademark for Cécile Zarokian as I have smelled it in various degrees in Kashnoir and Tango.A resembling note/accord is also present in Balenciaga Prelude. In the basenotes of Sheiduna I can also smell elements of a deep, soft dark rose.

Picture: The glowing Sheiduna
Photo: Puredistance (c)

When wearing Sheiduna I can understand the Persian inspiration (despite the light Asian-kitchen accord mentioned above), and than not just from the rugs. The fragrance brings forth an impression of spices, dried fruits, dark flowers, the architecture  and most of all the sunset in the desert with the glowing sun over the dunes.

Sheiduna is an intriguing fragrance, the impression shifts with and within each stage of the drydown. Much is going on, like a game where the interaction of the notes/accords quickly turns into contrasts and back again. The fragrance is warm and comforting, perfect for autumn/winter. But the enlighting and contrasting notes doesn't reserve Sheiduna just for the cooler month, the perfume will be a good choice also for humid and warm summer evenings.  The contrasting structure of Sheiduna prevents this contemporary oriental fragrance to become cloying and dense.

Sheiduna is classified as unisex which I agree with even if I think it lends a little bit more to the feminine side. The longevity is very good, traces are left after 24h, sillage is significant.

Rating: 5

Notes: Lemon, tangerine, geranium, rose oil, incense, myrrh, vetiver, patchouli, labdanum, ambergris, benzoin, tonka absolute, vanilla absolute,

Making of Cannes - Quick reviews

Picture: A chic bottle of Rocher Princier
Photo: PR Making of Cannes (c)

Making of Cannes is a perfumebrand based in Grasse which creations are inspired of the Cannes Film Festival and the movie industry. Founder of the brand is Audrey Courbier who worked for Estee Lauder form many years, I havn't found who the perfumer is. Technically the fragrances are wellcrafted of a good quality and contains at least 20% perfumeoil, from a creative point of view even if beautiful nothing new or innovative. The fragrances are comforting, elegant and easy to wear.
Below some short thoughts of the five first releases from 2014:

Premier Role: This light oriental amber has a lovely vintage aura, especially in the start with something as unusual as a soft galbanum, this note often tend to appear as sharp. Taken as a whole Premier Role is a mix between two interesting perfumes from the past. Dior Dune and Balenciaga Prelude with an extra dose of smooth, restrained, moderate sweet white and yellow flowers. The first one-third is the most interesting then the fragrance get linear and smells almost the same for the rest of the dry down. Very feminine, warm, soft and comfortable to wear.

L'Amour la Monde: This is Frederic Malle Lipstick Rose crossed with a finetuned, realistic smelling leather like for example Acqua di Parma Colonia Leather. The leathernote vanishes after the topnotes and intergrates with the musky, powdery, creamy lipstick rose/violet accord. The more L'Amour la Monde dries down, the more of the powdery, musky, aldehydic character steps forward in a comfortable way. Just as with Permier Role the first one-third is the most interesting, than the fragrance stays almost the same, even if intensifying.

Invalouable: Starts very feminine as a flowery light powdery vanilla with fruity accents. The vanillic flower in its texture, not in the actual smell, is similar to the style of the angelic, powdery, flowery vanilla from Eau d'Italie Morn to Dusk. As Invalouable dries down to the middlenotes it settles in a light peppery, white flower accord  and the fragrance is close to the sparkling Ramon Monegal duo Kiss My Name and Lovely Day. As Invalouable reaches its warm and musky basenotes, the peppery sparkle steps back and the fragrance reminds of the beautiful summery white flower of Gianfranco Ferré which bears the same name as the designer.

Amazing Shooting: Listed as unisex but to my nose it's lending more to the feminine side. Starts fruity in a air of chypre. The fruits are fresh, not the spicy Mitsouko style, but combined with slight boozy notes, it becomes darker, almost creamy and much more sophisticated in apperance. Something which smells like a wellbalanced, not harsh teanote also glimpses, probably this is the metallicnote mentioned in the notelist. Amazing Shooting reminds me in style and expression of a more balanced EnJoy by Jean Patou made of much better ingredients.

Rocher Princier:  Listed as masculine or unisex the woody-spicy, to my nose dominantly incense-oudy Rocher Princier goes for both. Starts with a cold aldehydic chalky incensy which is close to Montale Full Incense. As Rocher Princier dries further down, a light smokey, confier, cold oudy aura appears and the fragrance in this stage has similaritues with Robert Piguet Oud Some light sweet spicy elements combined with balsamic notes deepens the fragrance in the basenotes. A rounded, well constructed incense-oud without any sharp edges or annoying pepper, very pleasent to wear. The smooth incense interpretation in texture is similar to the sweeter and gourmandy cosy incense Juozas Statkevicius (Josef Statkus). The favorite from the line both for me and Mr Parfumista.

Guerlain - Myrrhe et Delires

Picture:  Commiphora myrrha by Franz Eugen Köhler,

 Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen,1897, Wikipedia commons

Myrrhe & Delires is the latest creation in the Guerlain L'Art et Matiere-line. It's created by the current Guerlaan inhouse perfumer Thierry Wasser.

Myrrhe & Delires starts sort of resinous, fresh and airy. There is also an accord that reminds me of classical, oriental/chypre perfumes fleeting in and out in the basic structure of the perfume during the top and middlenotes. The classical accord reminds me of the typical chic "french" smell of Balenciaga Prelude and also hints of Quadrille from the same house. This typical french-chic note is also present in Balmain Ivoire vintage version even if the latter fragrance is green, aldehydic, flowery, soapy which is not the case with the former fragrances. Quite early in the dry down the to some myrrhe fragrances typical licorie note appears. In M&D this note is light and airy, contrasting to for example Huitieme Art Myrrhiad (in swedish), is dark, dense and mysterious compared to M&D. There is also a streak of the cold, dark, slight smoky accord of Juliette Has A Gun Calamity J. but tuned down and expressed in a softer and smoother way. The rest of the dry down is soft, sweet, resinous and retains the airy interpretation of licorie. To me the opening accords (as with most of the fragrances I have tried from the L'Art et Matiere-line )  are the most interesting part of the fragrance, but the linear dry down that follows later is beautiful, very comforting and easy to wear. To my nose there are some similarities between the composition of the base of Tonka Imperiale and Myrrhe & Delires as also with Cuir Beluga.

As Myrrhe & Delires is'nt overly sweet and almost airy in it's texture, the fragrance is wearable for both day and evning during the whole year, except for the warmest days in the summer. Sillage is close, longevity about 24h.

Those who likes Annick Goutal Myrrhe Ardente, Serge Lutens La Myrrhe (in swedish) and Mona di Orio Jabu (even if myrrhe in Jabu is just a supporting note) will probably enjoy Myrrhe & Delires too.

Rating: 4

Notes: Bergamot grapefruit, osmanthus, jasmine, rose, violet leaf; patchouli, incense, tonka bean, vanilla, myrrh, licorice

Huitième Art - Naiviris

Naiviris, ja den heter faktiskt så, Pierre Guillaumes kompoisition med iris som huvudrollsinnehavare, en av de åtta första som lanserades när Pierres "fånotslinje" Huitième Art etablerades 2010. Vet inte om innebörden ska vara oskyldig, naiv iris men lite åt det hållet är faktiskt Naiviris i karaktären.

Naiviris inleds med den för irisdofter så typiska morotsnoten. Men här är den inte kall och jordig, utan det är en cremig lite söt morot. Jag får bilden av en kokt och stuvad minimorot, en primör. Moroten tonar snart ned och dyker ibland diskret fram ur bakgrunden. Irisen är en lite sötare, dammig och samtidigt cremig variant som drar åt hyacinth. Det är en ganska varm irisnot till skillnad mot de flesta irisdofter där den är kall. Naiviris är inte bara dammig i karaktären utan även damig. Det är en parfym som ger en elegant fransk retrokänsla och påminner mig om Pierre Balmains Ivorie och i känslan av Balenciagas Prelude som visserligen är en oriental men som har just den där franska retro vibben. Naiviris är i samma mjuka stil som Aube Pashmina (se föregående review) men AP, som för att vara en grön doft är ovanligt softad, är ändå skarpare i noterna där Naiviris är torrare, pudrigare och mjukare. Naiviris för tankarna till en vit och mjuk angora kanin ätandes en liten delikat morot eller till en kritvit angorajumper.

En mycket trivsam och elegant doft som förgyller en grå och småkall höstdag. Enda nackdelen är att hållbarheten på huden kunde vara bättre. Därför får den, trots att jag gillar doften lite bättre, samma betyg som Aube Pashmina som har fördelen att den håller längre på huden. Provet har jag fått från Fragance & Art.

Betyg: 4

Spridda parfymtankar - februari 2011

Foto: Herr Parfumista (c)

Det cirkulerar mycket parfymerade tankar i en parfumistas vardag. Som:

*Särskilt kul när jag läser parfymbloggar tycker jag är andras reviewer och intryck av dofter som jag själv också har testat eller funderar på att testa. Ju fler reviewer av en doft, desto roligare. Alltid  framkommer någon ny infallsvinkel.

*Undrar om jag är på väg att få en släng av anosmi (doftbilndhet) för jag tycker att fler och fler dofter inte gör något större intryck på mig och att de inte riktigt känns ordentligt. Att de liksom inte har någon kropp. Gäller både niche och designerdofter. Fast det kan ju vara en följd av IFRA-restriktionerna där de numera tillåtna substanserna i allmänhet verkar vara mer bleka än sina föregångare.

*Kanske har jag nått en punkt där jag totalt sett sniffat på "för många" dofter. För så myckat av sådant jag provar ger direkt associationer till en annan doft, vilket i sig är roligt. Men problemet är att i majoriteten av fallen så tappar jag entusiasmen för doften och den får kanske inte den review den är värd pga bristande wow-känsla.

* Något som ger wow-känsla är när en kollega bär den banbrytande herr-irisen Dior Homme. Den minglar så perfekt med hans hudkemi att doften liksom höjer sig till en ytterligare nivå. Klart det bästa uppbärandet av DH som jag känt hittills.

*Förra året var januari och februari de klassiska orientalernas månader. Opium, Mecca Balsam, JHL, Prelude och Imperial Opopnax gick varma. I år har det varit en mer blandad kompott, kanske beror det på att jag började längta efter gröna blomdofter redan innan jul. Längtan efter våren och allt provande av prover bidrar nog till att parfymanvändningen just nu saknar en fast inriktning.

*Doftutgivningen verkar nästan ha spårat ur. Verkar som om alla möjliga varumärken (inte bara inom mode och skönhet) ska manifestra sig genom en doft. Många av dem som redan är etablerade dofthus formligen sprutar dessutom ur sig nya (ofärdiga) kreationer.

*Gäller alltså att begränsa sig i vad som ska provas. Det dyker hela tiden upp så många nya dofthus som vill kommersialisera på framförallt niche-trenden. Har nästan blivit så att jag knappt vill prova nytt för det är inget kul att få ytterligare en "jaha"-upplevelse (=besvikelse).Det får alltså främst bli de gamla beprövade dofthusen som jag gillar, och så Andy förstås. För ärligt talat så känns det som det räcker med dem som visat vad de går för en längre tid.

* Så till det skrivtekniska: Har märkt att mina inlägg blivit längre och längre. Räcker med hälften till en tredjedel av texten i ett inlägg för att läsaren ska orka med.

Orientaler

Kan inte låta bli att skriva lite spontaninlägg här ibland ändå. Det är så mycket smidigare än på DV bloggen där alla inlägg först ska läsas igenom av en redigerare.
Nu till ämnet: Har nu (som jag skrev i förra inlägget) burit orientaler i flera veckor och de två senaste klassiska orientelar som JHL, Prelude, Shalimar och moderna orientaler i klassisk anda som Imperial Opoponax och Youth Dew Amber Nude. Och ännu har inte längtan efter lätta, transparanta dofter som förebådar våren infunnit sig som det brukar så här i slutet av januari. I stället känns det som att jag kommer att fortsätta den klassiska orienttrenden säkert någon vecka till. Känner ingen lust att lämna gruppen nu. Men det ska medges att det tog nästan en vecka innan jag började känna mig i komfort med de här dofterna igen. Och ja, JHL är en herrdoft men vem bryr sig.