Top summerfragrances 2012

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

Suddenly the bright and shining early summer month of June disappeared, the high summer month of July is over and sadly most of the summer is gone. Two weeks ago I also noticed the first signs of the late summer, the late evening suddenly was dark, not bright as in the beginning of the summer. One week ago the crickets started to play a true sign of the late summer. Fragrancewise I have worn just a few typical summerfragrances, most of the preferred ones up to day I enjoy the year around. Even if I almost sampling different fragrances and not have much time to wear my favourites, here they are for summer 2012:

Nuit Etoilée (Annick Goutal): Light herbal, slight smoky this one reminds me of a starry night in the asphaltjungle.

Cologne Friction (Parfums de Nicolaï): The ultimate, green, grassy, cologne for lazy summers. Perfect for vacation in the archipelago or just anywhere. And for looking at a game of tennis.

Corps et Ames Eau de Toilette Apaisante (Parfumerie Generale): A 1970s inspired chypre-light featuring the verbena note. An airy and bright interpretation of the original CeA Edp.

Rebel (Antonio Visconti): A soothing, refined patchouli with delicate notes of dark and dry chocolate.

Cristalle Edt (Chanel): There is (almost) nothing like this citrus-mossy classic when it's comes to summer casual chic.

Impossible Iris (Ramón Monegal): Year around elegant-chic. Has made a rapid career and is now among my most appreciated irises.

Rose Etoile de Hollande (Mona di Orio): Monas lovely rose is an olfactorial masterpiece is a multifacetted creation that reflects both the brightness and the dark sides of the rose.

Amoureuse (Parfums DelRae): Whith it's dark, almost decaying flowers blended with cardamon, Amoureuse is a beautiful gem suitable for alls seasons. Love it.

Ubar (Amouage): There is a golden shimmer surrounding the white flowers of this fine Amouage classic. Always right to wear in it's understated elegance, the quiet sister among Dia and Gold.

Black Oud (Montale): This classic dark rosy, leathery, patchuli oud becomes creamy in texture when worn in warm and humid weather. And never fails to attract compliments....

XerJoff - Oud Stars Al-Khatt

Picture: Raoucha

Artist: Nasreddine Dinet, 1901, Wikimedia Commons

Al-Khatt, from the oud line of the mega luxary house XerJoff, starts with a pleasant barnyard oud followed by a refreshing, high quality, slight creamy boquet of flowers. Unfortunately the animlic oud disapperas soon and the beautiful flowery blends remains and develops as Al-Katt is drying down. Or maybe the oudnote doesn't disappears, the laotian oud is known to be gentle and flowery in it's character, an excelllent example is Mona di Orio Oud, maybe the out in Al-Khatt just going through it's normal evulation. Beside the disappering animalic oud note there is also another annoying thing with Al-Khatt: The beautiful, bergamot-jasmine dominated flowery blend is very similar to Amouages Ubar, but Al-Khatt has a cashmeran, smoot, creamy texture. As Ubar is one of my favourite Amouages this mimicry irritates me but apart from that the perfumers Sergio Momo, Sonia Espelta and Laura Santander did a good job. Al-Khatt, just as Ubar, conveys the feeling of a sunny and pleasantly warm summerday. As a XerJoff, Al-Khatt is a high quality fragrance where the best ingredients are used. The elegant flowery blend is seemless with an excellent longevity and moderate projektion, can't disturb anybody if not overapplied. The blend is concentrated and a little goes for a whole day. My 1 ml sample will thankfully last for long.

To summon up: Al-Khatt is not as oriental in style as one can expect from an oud perfume. But on the other hand, Al-Khatt as it's older sister Ubar is a pleasure to wear, it's the sort of high quality flowery fragance that makes the wearer unwilling to wear even a decent mainstream fragrance again. I'm in love!

Rating: 5

Notes: Bergamot, jasmine sambac, cashmeran, vanilla, oakmoss, benzoin, oud from Laos

Amouage - Honour Woman

Bild: Madama Butterfly, poster by Adolfo Hohenstein,

Wikimedia Commons

Lyxhuset Amouages senaste damdoft Honour Woman, den har som vanligt en manlig pedang Honour Man, är enligt Amouages storytellers en hyllning till Mme Butterfly utifrån hennes sons minne av henne. Honour Man ska för övrigt tolkas som sonens parfym. Honour Woman är skapad av två för mig okända parfymörer, Alexandra Carlin och Violaine Collas, kanske några näsor på g.

Honour Woman är en fint balanserad vit, mjuk, fruktig och krämig blombukett. Den ger känslan av mjukt, vitt silkessammet. Som vanligt när det gäller Amouages är ingredienserna av god kvalitet och jag får ingen kemisk eller skarp känsla som jag kan få av vissa andra vita blom dofter som tex Diors Pure Poison om den inte är helt rätt doserad. Honour Woman påminner i stilen mycket om åttio- och det tidiga nittiotalets stora blommor men inte lika kompakt och på något sätt mer transparant i uttrycket. Den doft som jag främst förknippar Honour Woman med är Laliques signaturdoft Lalique. Honour Woman är tämligen linjär, håller hela dagen, har en bra projektion utan att bli skrikig eller stötande för omgivningen som vissa stora vita blomdofter kan bli. Det är inte en doft som sticker ut eller är särskilt originell som exempelvis Amouages Gold (både dam och herrversionen), Ubar eller Epic Woman. Honour Woman är istället en riktigt behaglig komfortdoft som jag längtar efter att få använda om och om igen, en doft som inte kräver så mycket när jag bär den.

Bristande originalitet men av hög kvalitet kombinerat med min dragning till stora vita blommor, den höga trivselfaktorn och bärbarheten blir sammanvägt:

Betyg: 4 (2011)
Rating: 5 (2017)
Update in May 2017: Honour Woman is a beautiful, comforting, elegant, cool, crisp, versatile white floral which is a pleasure to wear.

Noter: Koriander, peppar, rabarber, nejlika, jasmin, tuberose, gardenia, liljekonvalj, vetiver, opoponax, ambra, rökelseträ, läder