M.Micallef - Ylang in Gold

Picture: Vintage Cote d'Azur PR poster 

Ylang in Gold is a truly delicious, luxurary, creamy, fruity, floral from french nichehouse M.Micallef situated in Grasse. Ylang in Gold is created by the "housenose" Jean-Claude Astier and as all Micallefs presentated in a artful bottle this one with shimmering gold, created by one of the two founders of the house, Martine Micallef. The juice itself is avaible in two versions: One goldshimmering and one plain transparent version.

Ylang in Gold starts amazing with an accord that smelle like a golden nectar. Creamy fruity notes, sprinkled with uplifting citrus and an almost liqour like note paired with coconut and slight green notes offsetting the sweetness. The flowers in Ylang in Gold is smooth, rounded and sweet yellow  in appearance (even if not yellow in reality), just as the protagonist of the fragrance, the warm, sweet and sunny ylang-ylang. The base is musky in a wellbalanced way with a damp mossy note offsetting the warm and sweet coconut, vanilla and sandalwood in the base. The whole composition is linear in style, extreamly pleasing and comfortable. Despite Ylang in Gold is consisting of powerful notes, the fragrance is surprisingly transaprent and subtle, sometimes almost not detectable for the wearer even if other can smell it. Ylang in Gold reminds me of a classic powerful floral-fruity-oriental from the early 90s, Chopard Casmir but in a current more transparent, smooth and less sweet interpretation. Casmir is louder, sweeter, darker and heavier with its vanilla-resin base   but there is a chord that smells very similar that goes through both of these fragrances.

Picture: The beautiful  presentation of the delicious Ylang in Gold
Photo: PR Parfums M.Micallef, (c) all rights reserved

Even if a symphony of pleasing sweetness, Ylang in Gold manages to lend over to the not too sweet territory. Ylang in Gold is very well crafted, highquality ingredients is used and it evokes true comfort and perfection, it is almost to perfect, there is no surprising twist hidden in the compostion. But that could be just ok for days when the wearer just need an elegant and caring fragrance, not a challenging one (as my favourite Micallef so far Le Parfum Couture Denis Durand for M.Micallef) that  requires constant attention. The image of the sunny south that the fragrance evokes, make it suitable for wearing in the summer and it has sufficient dept and longevity to last also during a hot summerday.

Ylang in Gold is a shining, yellow fragrance, casual chic, mediating a happy and sunny Cote d'Azur impression. Its texture reminds me of the cocosnutty and creamy character of the dessert gourmand Unkown Pleasures from Kerosene. I also think that those who like Estee Lauder Bronze Godess/Azuree Soleil will appreciate Ylang in Gold. And of course, fans of the original Hanae Mori, with the same name, as that 90s fruity-floral has similarities with Chopard Casmir from the same era.

Rating: 4

Notes: Peach, lichi, tangerine, fruity notes, geranium, sage, rosemary, artemisia, bitterorange, ylang-ylang, rose, lily of the valley, magnolia, mint, sandalwood, musk, moss, vanilla, coconut

Kerosense - Unknown Pleasures

Picture: Strand (beach) at Skagen (ca 1900)
Painting by  Peder Severin Kröyer, Wikimedia commons

Unknown Pleasures is one of the latest fragrance from the indieperfumer John Pegg, creating frags for his own brand Kerosene. Before John started to create pefumes, he worked in the Detroit automobileindustry which have inspired to the unique, by John himself, handlacquered bottles.

Unknown Pleasures starts with an accord very close to a waffle cone filled with lemon sorbet paired with vanilla icecream. Just in the beginning a citrus, slight woody classical cologne note appears creating an almost necessary contrast to the sweetness, probably this is the Earl Grey tea note mentioned in the notelist. After a while the teanote steps back and is not recognizable as a separate note but it's present as a part of the blend. When drying down to the base, the lemonsorbet-vanilla ice creme-waffle cone impression persist and the fragrance is becoming just slightly powdery. In the whole drydown but particulary in the basenotes, I can smell a sort of almost refreshing, green coconutty note which seems to be present to a greater or lesser extent in most Kerosene fragrances, probably a part of the "Kerosenade" base. This particular green coconutty accord is also present in another favourite of mine: Etat Libre d'Orange Tom of Finland which Unknown Pleasures reminds me a bit of in the basenotes.

Picture: Unknown Pleasures
Photo: PR Kerosene (c) all rights reserved

Unknown Pleasures is not the elegant, complicated and serious fragrance. Instead it is friendly, funny, sunny, warm and happy just like the pleasant feeling of eating icecream a warm and sunny summerday during the holiday. The fragrance is a great gourmand, truly delicious and it's the perfect replacement for a dessert and could therefore act as a substitute for a diet product :-). Unknown Pleaures, just as its name indicates, brings pure joy and comfort. The sillage is medium and longevity for more than a day. IMHO Unknown Pleasures is the second best fragrance of the Kerosene-line so far, and the best for me. The number one Kerosene over all is still (not for wearing myself but its suits great for Mr Parfumista) the multifaceted, boozy, dark and rough Copper Skies.

I think those who like vanillic gourmands in general and fragrances in the style of Estee Lauder Bronze Godess/Azureé Soleil would also like Unknown Pleasures.

Rating: 5

Notes: Earl Grey tea, lemon, honey, bergamot, tonka, caramel, vanilla, waffle cone

Thanks to  Fragrancefanatic at Riktig Parfym for the sample to test.