Phaedon – Coton Egyptien

Coton Egyptien from the Pierre Guillaume associated line Phaedon is (probably) also created by Pierre. CE is, like Verveine Figuier reviewed earlier this week, compared to the fragrances in the general Parfumerie Générale-line, a lighter and “easier to wear” fragrance.

Coton Egyptien starts with a somehow soft blast of galbanum, often galbanum is strong, sharp and dominating, but not in CE. Soon a papery, vanillic note appears and mingles with the green during the well balanced dry down. The base is slight dry woody, grounded in a white musk.

In style CE reminds me of some Patricia de Nicolaï creations, especially her geraniumdominated L’Eau Chic. Coton Egyptien is the galbanumversion of L’Eau Chic but also infused with some of the papery, chalky vanillic note from Vanille Tonka.

Coton Egyptien is a soothing scent for the summer and with it’s similarities to the Nicolaïs of course also a more elegant and refined alternative to the mainstream acqua-citrus-musky freshness. There is a clean but absolutely not laudery feeling of CE. Perfect for casual and the office. Longevity is not so good, CE demands a heavy application.

Rating: 3+

Update July 2013: This summer I've come to really appreciate this fine, wearable, casual chic fragrance which unfortunately seems to be discontinued in the rebottled Phaedon-line.

Rating 2013: 4+

Notes: Galbanum, iris, jasmine, lily of the valley, lily, orange blossom, musk, cedar.

Thanks to PG for providing the sample to test.

Phaedon – Verveine Figuier

Picture: Eisenkraut, Verbena officinalis, 1796,

Fig. from book Deutschlands Flora in Abbildungen,

Author: Johann Georg Sturm (Painter: Jacob Sturm)

Wikimedia Commons

Verveine Figuier is a Pierre Guillaume creation launched under the Phaedon label, a perfume joint-venture where Pierre is involved. Some fragrances are made by Pierre and some not, but as I have found Verveine Figuier is composed by PG himself.

VF starts with a light, green fignote that have some commonalities with the light, green figginess of PG:s Jardins de Kerylos. The fignote is balanced and gets a cirusy-green sparkling effect by the leafs of verbena. The green and citric notes are interacting in a quite linear formula, grounded in a light woody, white musky base.

VF:s formula seems simple and straight forward. The blend is very light to be a PG creation, it’s almost an Eau de Cologne, on my skin anyway. VF is a scent that should be splashed on to refresh during a hot summerday, and several applications will be necessary as it fades after 3-4 hours on my skin anyway. This verbena – fig styled almost colognelike blend is a good alternative to the classical citrusdominated colognes such as Guerlain Eau de Cologne Imperiale or the modern musky dominated such as Thierry Mugler Cologne. Other verbena fig styled fragrances tha comes to my mind testing VF is Hermès Un Jardin en Méditerranée and Heeley Verveine even if those,especially UJeM , is stronger and with a better longevity. Of the two the Heeley Verveine is most similar to Phaedon Verveine Figuier as it’s lighter and more citrus-green than the darker and denser almost ripe fig in UJeM. The musky, light woody part of VF has similarities with the great green, musky Eau de Lalique but EdL is more radiating and lasts for a whole day even in summer. Also PG:s new interpretation of Corps de Ames, the beautiful Corps et Ames Edt Apaisante features  verbena but the note is much more obvious in the CdA Edt than in Verveine Figuer.Maybe because the verbena note, just as the whole blend, is stronger in CdA Edt.

To summon up Verveine Figuer is the perfect stright forward, summery splash on, almost cologne for lazy days. Nice, dimmed and refreshing.

Rating: 3

Notes: Verbena leaves, fig leaves, fig wood, musk

Maria Candida Gentile – Barry Lyndon

Barry Lyndon is another beautiful fragrance in the complex and characterful Maria Candida Gentile spirit. But this time in a fragrance family that may not represent the typical dark and suggestive MCG style as Sideris and Cinabre beeing reviewed earlier this week.

Picture; Calluna Vulgaris (heather)

Prof. Dr. Otto Wilhelm Thomé, Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz,

 1885, Gera, Germany

Barry Lyndon is an aromatic-herbal-light leathery fragrance that perfectly suits the 18^th century irish adventurer, Barry Lyndon who has lend his name to this creation. I get images from a fox hunt an early autumn morning in the English countyside. The nature waking up, the chilly and crisp greenery, the smell from the leather in the saddles and and well-polished  ridingboots. Another image I get from Barry Lyndon is an Alpenwiese, a meadow in the alps a sunny day with it’s grass, heather and herbal plants.

To me Barry Lyndon starts with a dry and light almost dusty leathernote. Shortly it transfers to the pleasent “dust on a just ligthed bulb” note. Then the herbals gets more distinct I smell thyme and fresh minty notes but also an almost honeyed roundness, probably from the heather. As Barry Lyndon reaches the basenotes there is an almost suede-like note, combined accompanied with vanillic touches. There is also a fresh earty feeling present in the basenotes. A fragrance that comes to my mind when wearing Barry Lyndon is Maître Parfumeur et Gantier Eau de Camelia Chinois but that one is much less herbal.

Despite of beeing aromatic-herbal, Barry Lyndon is a full bodied fragrance, thick and complex in its contruction. It’s not thin, transparent and fleeting. As in the other MCG fragrances I have tried, much is going on during the whole dry down and Barry Lyndon doesn’t let it’s wearer rest. Unisex in style, leaning at bit to the masculine side. Proper for summer, this one will last also during the hot summerdays, and to the office.

Rating: 4

Notes: Aromatic herbs, artemisia, arnica, heather, leather, vetiver, vanilla

Later on I will certainly come back to review more from Maria Candida Gentile

as I highly appreciate this line.

Maria Candida Gentile - Cinabre

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

Cinabre is a beautiful, smooth, soapy, spicy rosefragrance, created by Maria Candida Gentile. The rose is preseant from the begnning even if changing it’s performance. Cinabres opening rose is similar to the rosy rose aspects in Annick Goutals Rose Absolue. The typical almost rubbery note that is a sign of natural roseoil is present. But as AG:s RA is all about roses and greenery, the rose in cinabre of course is leaning on cinnabar and other spices. After a while the rose is flowing in an opulent, retro soapiness. From this stage of Cinabre I get the picture of Sophia Loren taking a bath, using a luxary, rosy soap. In this stage the rose has darkened and is probably in the very beginning of decaying. The spicy, soapy, rose is resting on a warm, soft, smooth, almost woody-powdery resiny base. In the middle- and basenotes Cinabre partly reminds me of the beautiful natural perfume Roses des Bois from AbdesSalaam Attar Profumo (La Via del Profumo) another high quality italian perfumehouse.

Cinabre is very feminine in style. It is multifacetted and there is new interesting twists during the whole dry down. It’s an interesting fragrance that involves the wearer. Even if dense and bold and with a good projection the scent doesn’t take over the space. To me Cinabre is officefriendly (but probably not to the average swedish perfumewearer) because to me, wearing parfume, is not just about smelling good. It’s also about to get different impressions and to enjoy art in the everyday, and to me Cinabre is definitly a piece of art.

Rating: 5

Notes: Pepper, ginger, rose, benzoin, opoponax, vanille (and I bet a lot of others)

Maria Candida Gentile – Sideris

Picture: Piazza del Campo, Siena,

Photo by Ricardo André Frantz (Tetraktys), (cc),

Wikimedia commons, some rights reserved

Sideris by Maria Candida Gentile transports me to a small, Italian town, uncertain what century. Sideris to me is an ongoing exhange between the heat outside on the town square and the coolness in the medival church at the center by the square. But in the cool church there is also an almost sweet warmth, from the myrrh and incense burned as from the wax candles lighted during the mass. There is also some obscure, almost decaying notes lurking in the background, maybe deriving from what’s hiding below the stone floor of the church.

Sideris is all about a warm and fullbodied almost sweet incense. It starts spicy and with sweetness from the myrrh. In this stage, strangely enough I get an impression that is partly similar to Jean Claude Ellenas tropical-night blend Flora Bella from Lalique, probably due to the sweet myrrh and the dark, velvety feeling. As the dry down proceeds, the incense gets more pronounced. The incense and the whole fragrance stays warm, thick and dense during its whole dry down.The color of Sideris to me is dark, velvety blue, as the sky with twinkling stars during a mediterrian night.

Sideris is to me eternal and represent a scent in style that I can image have been used during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Sideris also reminds me of the impressions of another eternal scent, Etros Messe de Minuit even if that one is much more flowery, light and transparent in style, it also have some of this both pleasant and unpleasent churchy notes described above.

Sideris warms up a grey and rainy day and as with all MCG I think of Sideris as officefriendly.Unisex in style. Great longevity, at least 24 hours and a distinct but not intruding sillage.

Rating: 5

Notes: Labdanum, saffran, myrrh, pepper, incense, rose, sandalwood, benzoin, woody notes

Maria Candida Gentile – General impressions of the line

Maria Candida Gentile is an Italian perfumer educated in Grasse. After returning to Italy she has started her own perfumehouse that wears her name, Maria Candida Gentile. I think Maria could be proud of lending her name to these beautiful fragrances: This is amazing stuff, significantly different from the usual niche offerings.A “niche-in-niche” line.

The Maria Candida Gentile fragrances are timless in character and they are transporting me to Italy, uncertain what century. The fragrances are what I will percived as very genuine and somehow “rough”, but harmonious, down to earth, they are combining the traditional Italian style*) in a sort of contemporary frame. The MCG line equivalent in french perfumery is the also down to earth, not so polished compared to the french style, Les Nereides even if MCG is more complex, denser and of a higher quality. MCG mixing the high quality ingredienses, the perfumes contains a high precentage of naturals, in a very interesting and suggestive way. These fragrances involve the wearers imagination from the very beginning to the the very end, more than 24 hours later.The MCG fragrances are not easy-going, cosy-comfort scents, they are like living creatures, demanding attention from its wearer. There is something going on the whole time (which on the other hand makes them difficult to review). But all this is exactly what I’m appreciating from a perfume, almost always anyway, sometimes of course I need something nice, polite and easy going.

In the coming entries (starts tomorrow)  I will try to summeraize the spirit of some of the gorgeous MCG:s.

*)In general I percive the italian perfumery as bolder, denser, more adventurous and free in mind and creation than the more contolled, perfected and elegant french perfumery. MCG is an excellent representative of the italian style taken to perfection. The MCG frags are no doubt rare and great artpieces of perfumery.

The MCG fragrances could be bought in 15 ml travelsprays for 25 EUR from her website http://www.mariacandidagentile.com/ . The perfumes are concentrated, a few spritzes goes a long way, this is great value for the money. The frags are also avaible in 100 ml from Aus Libe zum Duft.

Euphoria

Picture: Loreen (Lorine) Talhaoui, The new swedish Mega Star.

Photo: Annika Aschberg (c), Picture from the pressection of Loreens official website

Today I’m not referring to the famous CK fragrance Euphoria but to the common state of mind here in Sweden the day after the very talented Loreens Great Victory in the Eurovisioncontest 2012. Euphoria (the song) and the somehow calming appearance of Loreen, also mediated by the great choreography of the number, is really a Eurovision contribution beyond the ordinary. Many, many congratulations to Loreen and best wishes to a very talented artist of whom we will for sure see much more of in the future.

And here's the performance: Link