Picture: Tardes, afternon in the countryside
Photo: Carner Barcelona (c)
Tardes starts with slight chemical notes that disappears very fast and an airy almond shines through. Soon the almond is supported by flowers and some light herbal notes and it's not hard to imagine the source of inspiration to this balmy and calming fragrance. Tardes is fairly liniear during it's dry down and heliotrophe and musk are supporting and deepen the other notes in the base. I can feel a minior trace of the fresh lighted cigarettenote that I appreciate in D600 in the base, but it is just fragments compared to D600 . Maybe this cigarettenote is a part of the housenote of Parfums Carner, probably it's a part of the musk used in the base.
Tardes is an airy almondfragrance, not surprisingly as it's a creation of the queen of transparency and airiness Daniela Andrier. Tardes is not as sweet as most fragrances with almond as the dominating note. Fragrances as Etros Heliotrophe which has about the same sweetness but has more heliotrophe and tonka then Tardes, Kiss me tender (swedish) by Patricia de Nicolaï which is a pastry take on almond and heliotrophe which almost feels like marzipan. Fragrances as Dior Hypnotic Poison (swedish) and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Castelbajac (swedish) also features almond but are completely different, denser types of fragrances. Keiko Mecheris Taormine (swedish) is also a different almond, it's creamy and smells similar to an almondy bodylotion. Even if Tardes is slight gourmandy it somehow remains fresh in caracter during it’s whole dry down. Tardes is a very longlasting fragrance that remains unfragemented on skin after a whole day. The projection is fairly close.
The overall impression of Tardes is the airy, gourmandy and almost chilly expression that is also present in another late Daniela Andrier creation, Prada Candy (swedish). As Tardes was launched 2010 and Candy 2011 it is quite likely that the perfumer has worked almost simultaneously with the fragrances and they therefore shares the same theme but using almond as the major note in Tardes and benzoin/resins in Candy. Of the two, I prefer Tardes whith it's fine tuned, almondy, floweriness.
Tardes, as well as my other favourite D600, is a wellcrafted, comfortable and wearable fragrance.It is appropriate for daytime, both casual and to work. An almond that is suitable also in summer due to it's Andrierian transparency and almost chilly airiness.
Rating: 4
Update summer 2013: Rating 5. After wearing from the sample some more times, I totally adore the almond-rosewood-heliotrope combination. Just great and FBW.
Notes: Geranium, rose, rosewood, almond, cedar, plum, celery, tonka, musk, heliotrope