Peccato Originale - Quick reviews

Picture: Papaver somniferum. (Schlofmoon)Franz Eugen Köhler (1897), Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, Wikimedia commons

Peccato Originale (Original Sin) is an Italian nichebrand founded by chemist/pharmacist Silivia Monti inspired from her her work in a pharmacy and the clients she met there. The fragrances har created by Siliva in collaboration with not revealed pefumers, expect one which is mentioned; Lucca Maffei. I have tested samples of four fragances from the line which consists of at least eight fragrances which is defined as unisex.

Antidoto Reattivo is a juicy citrusdominated fragrance with a cold spicy vibe from cardamon. There are also contrasting, green notes with an almost dry, airy, very light flowery, tangy touch and also a boozy slight antiseptic element in the base. Maybe the dry, flowery, tangy impression is from mate which is mentioned among the notes. Something in the over all expression reminds me of a less flowery Une Nuit de Bali Fleur des Fleurs.


Iniezione di Morfina despite its name this one is a classical, powdery, floral aldehydic musky fragrance with the usual flowers rose, iris, jasmine but here with an noticeable addition of lily of the valley. A late follower to fragrances in the style of Lorenzo Villoresi Teint de Neige, Etat Libre d'Orange Putain de Palaces and Frederic Malle Iris Poudre et al. The Morfina is very feminine to my nose

Picture: Tintura Spiritosa
Photo: PR Peccato Originale 

Tintura Spiritosa starts like a random Mancera/Montale fragrance with rose and spice but much less oud. The oudy impression soon disappears and TS becomes sweeter with a tangy blackcurrant (the berry) note combined with  a light boozy touch and tea accents. This over a  musky peppery resin amber base where the pepper is quite detectable.

Cantaride the softest and most polite of the four tested. A light amber with angelica which creates the typical contemporary classic suedenote. Some very light animalic passages as also a very light touch of booze glimpses by and all is grounded in a pleasant musky base. A comforting, calming and pleasant "wrist-sniffer". Cantaride makes me think of fragrances as Guerlain Cuir Beluga and to a soft and tame variation of Annick Goutal Sables.

My impression from the sampling is that the Peccato Originale line is quite ok but nothing as spectacular as some of the names of the fragrances indicates. All the first three tested fragrances have a cold (not Cantaride which is warm), almost boozy strike to them, maybe a recollection from the Pharmacy. The longevity is impressive, around 24h for all four fragrances. Taken as a whole, my impression from sampling three the Peccato Originales is that the house have some own characteristic even of beeing one in the crowd of new fragrancehouses which have flooded the market during the latest years.

Maria Candida Gentile - Finisterre

Picture: Fisterre, Galicia, Spain
Photo: Greta, Wikimedia Commons

Finisterre is one of the latest releases in the classical line of my favorite Italian perfumer, Maria Candida Gentile. Finisterre is a contemporary representative of the, among many (snobbish) perfumistas, not so valued (to be diplomatic) aquatic genre. This genre seems to have a revival recently with Hermès Epice Marine as a forerunner. The aquatics of the 2010s doesent have the traditional melon (calone) note and re-interprete the genre.

Finisterre is inspired by the second (the first is Cabo da Roca outside Lisabon which I've wisited myself) outermost tip of the Iberian Peninsula, Cape Finisterre in Galicia, where the wawes of the atlantic ocaean rolls in over the cliffs with full power. Finisterre really captures what I image as a sunny, windy summerday at the place. The first part has something in common with the original Kenzo pour Homme but without the intriguing aromatic aquatic twisted lily of the valley note that is the characteristic of the Kenzo. Very soon a very well done, not sharp, turpentine note appears and is present during the whole dry down. It's contrasted with a green, non sweet, minty note and when these notes are interacting a sea like note appears. There are also a woody freshness of fir present softened with a discrete sandalwood and immortelle. The immortele is not at all the bombastic proportions of for example Annick Goutal Sables or leathery strong as in Histoires de Parfums 1740 Marquise de Sade. The herbal qualities of Finisterre expresses itself as an soft anise/ licorice-like nuance which discretely accompanies the other notes. A note of crisp green leaves, just like fresh tulip or other bulbflowers crispy leaves i  spring also appears and this part reminds me of the beautiful springfragrance of Oriza L.Legrand Déjà le Printemps.  There is also a relaxing, salty, balsamic aspect of Finisterre, probably the ambregris which lends the composition a true oceanic expression.
Even if no distinguishable incensenote there is also an almost churchy aspect of Finisterre, a nuance of what is much more noticeable in MCG Sideris and Exultat. Maybe this is mirroring the fact that Finisterre is the final destination of the pilgrims of the Way of Saint James, the last 90 km walk from the pilgrim metropole Santiago de Compostela. When reaching Finisterre, the pilgrims following an old tradition, burns their clothes or shoes. Finsterre is a quite linear composition to my nose and one experience most of its features at the same time.

Picture:. The stylish bottle of Finisterre
Photo: PR Maria Candida Gentile (c)

I instantly liked Finisterre for the first time when I tried it and my liking has constantly growing through the wearing from the sample supplied by Fragrance & Art. Finisterre is also drawing compliments, several people have independitly complimented this aquatic wonder. A perfect summerfragrance, both for casual and for office. Not the most complicated MCG fragrance but on the other hand, who wants to analyze the whole time, sometimes at least me, just want to relax in a good fragrance. Finsterre is just great IMO and it has joined my other two most favorite MCG:s  Sideris and Cinabre in the top.

Rating: 5

Notes: Sea notes, immortelle, pine tree, ambergris, sandalwood

Fragrant dessert

Picture: Scent stripes
Photo: Parfumista (c)

Sometimes when we had dinner we ends up with a fragrant dessert instead of a conventional dessert loaded with calories. Sometimes there is a theme and sometimes there is just random sampling. We are testing on scentstripes in order to experience the fragrances unaffected. Here is an example from a recent fragrant dessert:

First some theme-oriented scentstrips: The intention was to compare immortelle notes which then devolved to compare immortelle and boozy notes.

Sables (Annick Goutal) The starting point was of ocurse the role model of immortelle, Sables. This rough and salty immortelle is the image of dunes, wooden boats and docks, the soggy and slaty air at seaside.

Cuir Beluga (Guerlain) Refined luxurry immortelle combined with the softest, light suedenote ever. Pure delight!

1740 Marquis de Sade (Histoires de Parfums) The immortelle is here and working together with leathery/balsamic notes makes a true dark, cognac, boozy impression appearing.

Speakeasy (Frapin) Of course 1740 MdS had to be compared with the lighter boozy immortelle Speakeasy. On scentstripe the minty note is very prominent compared to what I percieve when wearing it, worn it's more of leathery-dark rum.

After this immortelle study, we went on for a "similar in style and expression but contemporary vs old school" study when I once again complained about the discontinuing of the great contemporary chypre

Mon Parfum Cheri, par Camille (Annick Goutal) testing the less radiant and somehow denser Edp. MPCpC IMO is the best AG so far, dark, deep patchy- plummy, a contemporary Femme Fatal and as such clean compared to its (as I belive) role model:

Femme (Rochas) testing an old Edp of the 1989 version, dark, plummy and spicy, predominantly cummin which lends it just the right slight animalic skanky aura. This is perfume at its best, outdoing most of the current niche offerings.

Talking about current niche offerings, we went further to a great and at the moment hyped one:

Iris Nazarena (Aedes de Venustas) Mr Parfumista has complained this smelling "old man and Brut" on me but I suspecting he's just plotting to take over my sample of it. On the scentstripe the smooth, rooty-iris-carrot note is very pleasant and later on, maybe there is a hint of a refined Fabergé Brut. When Mr Parfumista wears Iris Nazarena the day after it smells like on the scentstripe. Maybe I let him have the sample after all...Unfortunately it seeems to be the same as with Mona di Orio Violette Fumée, I really appreciate the fragrance and want to wear it but Mr Parfumista wears it much better :-(

Finally to the antithesis of niche: My mother had handed over an interesting sample to me:

Oud (Alyssa Ashley) interesting because I'm interested to find out how a "budget-oud" is smelling and the answer is: Faint and fleeting, syntetical, dark woody fragrance with a slight almondy note. This note also appears in expensive nicheofferings but with more dept and accompained with more notes and nuances. In the Alyssa Ashley Oud interpretation it's somehow a flat soli-note. Not a bad perfume but nothing engaging either.

Guerlain - Cuir Beluga

Picture: Beluga whale, 

Photo: Attribution premier.gov.ru.

(cc) Wikimedia commons, some rights reserved 

Cuir Beluga, created  2005 by Olivier  Polge as one of the first three fragrances for the Guerlain exclusive Les Art et  la Matière line, is the most elegant and polite immortelle dominated fragrance I have tried so far.

Cuir Beluga is an almost linear, gourmand moderatly sweet, composition. A soft and gentle immortelle is the maincharacter complemented with warm  and moderate sweet supporting notes as heliotrophe, vanilla and amber. There is also a slight herbal touch in some stages of Cuir Beluga. The leather, reflected in the name, is a soft, utterly discrete suedenote that unfurls gradually and is most present in the baseaccord. The immortelle of Cuir Beluga is perfectly rounded, smooth and almost on the edge to powdery, it has no rough edges and lacks the syrupy note and loud charachter as the reference imortelle of all times: Annick Goutals predecessor Sables. Also the immortelle in Histoires de Parfumes Tubereuse 3 Animale is rough, tough and loud compared to how the note is presented in Cuir Beluga.The immortelle in Cuir Beluga is complemented with a discrete honey-like note that gives me associations to Serge Lutens tobacco fragrance Fumerie Turque. A more masculine and less subtle (even if also subtle) is Guerlain Tonka Imperiale.  The texture and imaged color of Cuir Beluga is soft suede white, just as the sweet Beluga whale on the picture above. Somewhere (I think it was on Basenotes) I have read that the Beluga in the name of the fragrance refers to this soft whale living in the cold arctic waters and not the russian caviar. Just like the beluga whale is a revelation of smooth comfort in such a harsh environment, Cuir Beluga is a true comfortscent during a cold winterday.

The overall impression of Cuir Beluga is that of an elegant and well balanced skinscent, it's there to comfort the wearer and those who comes close. The sillages is close and the longevity is for almost 24h. At first, Cuir Beluga was a fragrance of growing liking to me. It's a scent that I start to crave after a few days after my latest wearing. Once when I woke up in the middle of the night I could smell a beautiful, soft and calming scent from my pillow, suddenly I realised it was Cuir Beluga. Since that moment this fragrance finally has made me surrender and it's my absolute favorite in the LAelM-line.

Rating: 5

Notes: Aldehydes, mandarine, immortelle, heliotrophe, patchouli, suede, amber, vanilla

Balmain - Ambre Gris

Picture: Balmain Ambre Gris in it's fancy, heavy bottle

Photo: Balmain all right reserved (c)

After wearing Ambre Gris by Pierre Balmain three days running, I still can't figure out among which fragrances to place this interesting creation of Guillaume Flavigny. Even if somehow familiar Ambre Gris is it's own comforting creature and I enjoy it as such.

Ambre Gris starts very sweet, almost to sweet for my liking but in the same time it's a somehow delicious sweet-spicy smell and I can't stop sniffing my wrists. In the earlier stages Ambre Gris is gourmand-oriental in style. When Ambre Gris has dried down for a few hours it becomes drier and shows off a soft, slight flowery side. The imortelle is the flower that is most detectable and I can't say that I detect the tubereuse as a separate note but I think it's so well blended with the immortelle that these two together creates a subdued immortellenote, the imortelle in the "immortellestandard" Sables is relatively loud and sypury, here it's smoother and almost putty in texture. In this stage Ambre Gris reminds me a bit of Histoires d'Parfums Tubereuse 3 Animale but Ambre Gris is smoother, sweeter and subdued compared to T3. The tubereuse is not the loud, fleshy one, it's the putty, subdued style which is also present in Mona di Orios Les Nombres d'Or Tubereuse. When Ambre Gris reaches the basenotes it mediates an almost salty quality that evokes the picture of real ambergris, the drived ashore dried whalevomit that was (and sometimes is) a precious perfumeingredient. The basenotes is pleasant almost slight smoky-woody-musky in character.

Ambre Gris is the ultimate comfortscent for autumn and winter. Even if gourmand, spicy, woody, oriental with distinct, concentrated notes, it's soft and subdued. Ambre Gris has to be applied sparingly because the sweetness may otherwise be overhelming. For each wearing, the more I appreciate Ambre Gris and I think it's well worth tryning when passing NK or Åhlens City (in Sweden). The beautiful  heavy bottle is with the funny golfball or discoball of the top is well worth watching.

Besides the fragrances mentioned above I think admirer of Belle en Rykiel by Sonia Rykiel (louder and more vanillic + incense -lavendel) and Prada Candy (more powdery resins) will appreciate Ambre Gris.

Rating: 4 (but may increase as it seems to be a growing liking)

Notes: Myrrh, cinnamon, pink pepper, immortal flower, benzoin, tuberose, benzoin, ambergris, musk, amber, guaiac wood

Histoires de Parfums - Tubereuse 3 Animale update May 2012

Picture: strawflower, Helichrysum moeserianum.

Photo: Winfried Bruenken (Amrum) (cc) Wikimedia commons,

 some rights reserved.

Tubereuse 3 Animale is the third installment in the Histoires de Parfums Tubereuse triology, created by the HdP house founder the  ISIPCA-graduated Gérald Ghislain and Magali Senequier ( I think). The Tubereuse triology is a suite of different interpretations of tubereuse or more precise, perfumes with tubey as the common denominator but not necessarily tubereuse as the dominant note of the composition.

When I reviewed (in swedish) T 3 Animale almost two years ago I didn't like it at all. I thought it was an overdose of immortelle and too much tobacco and that the whole blend was unbalanced. But today, I
completely change my opinion, nowadays I just love this immortelle, hay, tobacco, slight honeyed tubereuse creation. Starts with a blond tobacconote, followed by a moderate dose of immortelle, not as heavy as in Annick Goutal Sables. As the notes mingles the tuberose quietly appears in to the blend. It's a tubey at the dark side of the spectrum, a tubey with the honeyed smell of the nectar, an interpretation that I have earlier experienced in Annick Goutals soliflore Tubéreuse (review in swedish) and in Mona di Orios Tubéreuse (also in swedish). The special tobacco-tubereuse mix I have earlier experienced in Liz Zorn (Sohivole) Tobacco & Tulle. As T 3 Animale reaches the basenotes there is something familiar with the blend. Mr Parfumista nails it when he states it has a similar vibe as Estee Lauders Spellbound but adapted to the 2010:s (even if created 2009 to be precise) as softer, more muted and without the bombastic sillage of Spellbound.  And as an old fan of Spellbound it is not surprising that I'm now also an admier of T 3 Animale.

Rating: 5

Notes: Neroli, kumquat, mandarine, bergamot, jasmine, tubereuse, plum, grass, hay, immortelle, tobacco, labdanum, wood

Lutensvecka

Foto: Herr Parfumista (c)

Så har det varit temavecka igen. Denna gång i Serge Lutens spännande kreationer. För det mesta uppstår temaveckan spontant, det är inget som jag planerar i förväg. Det är när jag  upptäcker att jag provat dofter från samma hus, kreatör eller doftfamilj två eller tre dagar på raken som jag hänger på och tar en full vecka. SL veckan inleddes med:

A la Nuit: En av marknadens bästa jasminer. Jasminen framträder olika vid olika provningar, ibland är den yppigt fruktig, ibland mer animalisk och nu sist framträdde de gröna bladnoterna på ett sätt som jag tidigare inte känt.

De Profundis: Passar perfekt en höstsöndag med sin kryddiga chrysantemum och sina kontrasterande jordiga och luftiga noter. DP har växt till att bli en av mina största SL favoriter.

Un Lys: Tillhör de dofter som jag minst uppskattar hos SL (allt är ju relativt) men den är ändå en fin liljekonvalj/liljedoft. Är just lite för liljekonvaljig för sitt namn, man väntar sig inte en bättre variant av Diorissimo (relativt dagens formula för Diorissiomo), det vore bättre att Un Lys hette Le Muget istället.

Fumerie Turque: SL:s tobaksdoft är trevlig, omhändertagande, en snäll oriental som är perfekt för hösten. Innehåller en stor dos erternell som gör att den påminner om en snällare men mindre söt version av Annick Goutals Sabels. Ju mer doften torkar ned, ju mer tobak framträder och under slutet av dagen dofter FT färsk, blond piptobak.

Muscs Kublaï Khan: Inte särskilt farlig utan en fin, halvmörk och diskret retromysk med en lagom dos kummin. En krydda som annars lätt har en tendens att överdoseras i parfym.

Sa Majeste la Rose: En knallrosa ros med lite grönt från stjälk och blad inleder. Sedan lindas den ganska snabbt in i en honungsliknande nektar pudrad med torr pollen. Det liknar mycket effekten i Annick Goutals Tubereuse fast stjärnan där förstås är en helt annan blomma.

L’Eau Serge Lutens: Lyxigt tvättmedel kombinerat med en lite syrligt, bitter not som påminner om Gin & Tonic exklusive enbär, alltså snarare Vodka & Tonic. Utskälld doft, men jag tycker ändå bra om den. Även SL måste få göra något annorlunda. Den doft jag mest associerar till är MFK:s Absolute pour le Matin som också har den syrligt, bittra noten men mer örtighet.

SL är ett i mitt tycke varierande hus men som ändå håller en viss stil. Troligen det parfymhus jag skulle välja om jag bara fick använda dofter från ett enda hus.

Histoire de Parfums - Tubereuse 3 Animale

Animale är den andra doften som jag provat på från Histoire de Parfums tuberose-trilogi. Vet inte hur jag ska börja men det känns som om mycket har gått fel i denna doft. Man har tagit i alldeles för mycket som med, mörka, mustiga och grova penseldrag i olja. Inte mycket som påminner om tuberose i Animale därimot en överdos av ertenell, ganska rikligt med tobak och lite gräs och honung känns det som, säkert en not från tobaken. Animale blir bara för mycket! Vill man ha en imortelldoft (erternellsläkting) så rekommenderas Annick Goutals Sables som trots sin ton av lönnsirap i sammanhanget känns verkligt finstämd. Kombinationen med tobak och tuberose har dessutom gjorts tidigare och på ett lyckat sätt av den amerikanska indieparfymören Liz Zorn i Tobacco & Tulle. Där är noterna inte kväljande och det känns att tuberosen lurar i bakgrunden.
Animale inleds enligt pyramiden med citrusnoter som bergamott, kumquat, mandarin och neroli. Den fasen verkar nästan hoppas över på min hud för jag hamnar tämligen direkt i mellanregistret med jasmin, tuberose, gräs och plommon.  Gräset är det som tonar fram på mig av det som nämns i denna fas. I basen hö, immortelle, trä, labandum och tobak. Som framgår ovan är det basen som tar över på mig väldigt snabbt.
Sammantaget blir Animale mörkt sirapsartad på mig och bara för mycket. Den har en unken, instängd karaktär som i det här tappningen inte blir särskilt spännande eller bra. Det finns instängda dofter där jag tycker om instängdheten tex Messe de Minuit även om den är av en helt annan typ. Säkert mixar Animale bra med någon annans hud, annars hade väl doften inte skapats. Men parfymören vill för mycket och allt blir liksom överdrivet och hysteriskt.

Betyg: 2