Etat Libre D'Orange - Vierges et Toreros

Picture: La muerte del maestro, oil painting, 1884

by José Villegas Cordero (1844-1921)

Vierges et Toreros is a spicy-woody fragrance, created for the avantgarde perfumehouse Etat Libre D'Orange by the two Antoines, Lie and Maisondieu in 2007.

As often with ELDO perfumes there is something strange and fascinating with the blend, ELDO creates fragrances that makes us reflect and recalling images. VeT starts with a weird spicy, slight plastic note, plastic in a soft, pleasent way.  Then a anorectic light smoky leather, with the plastic spices still there, sets in followed by a very subdued tubereuse. Also some patch are present but as the creation is well blended, there is hard to discern the notes from each other. The plastic-spicy impression reminds me somehow of Masque Luci et Ombre another unusual tubereuse fragrance. Even if not the similar scent, I think Mona di Orios Les Nombres d'Or Tubéreuse, which is more sophisticated, warmer and more feminine, is a similar concept with a subdued tuby togther with subtle spices. Also Histoires de Parfums Tubereuse 3 Animale has the tuned down tuby in common despite the immortelle dominated Animale is much stronger, louder and demanding than the quiet VeT.

Over all this is a quite comfortable, light spicy blend with some edges. Compared to the quite violent associated name, VeT is a quit and peaceful perfume. Suitable to wear year around, expect the warmest days in the summer, fitting both for work and casual.

Rating: 3

Notes: Bergamot, nutmeg, pepper, cardamom, ylang ylang, tuberose, leather, animal notes, costus, patchouli, vetiver

Thanks to Fragrantfanatic for the sample to try.

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

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