Parfums de Nicolaï - L'Eau Chic

Picture: Pelargonium graveolens (Rose Geranium)

Photo: Laitche (cc), Wikimedia Commons, some rights reserved

Patricia de Nicolaïs L'Eau Chic starts with a brisk, green blast of geranium. The fragance is fresh but not in the characteristic contemporary laudery or detergent way. This is natural, green, sharp freshness with some minty notes followed by herbal and light spicy notes with a light woody background, blond wood as birch, aspen and linden. Even if Patricia de Nicolaï was inspiered by the scent of her parents geraniumsoaps I don't get a particulary soapy feeling of L'Eau Chic, there just some soapiness in the basenotes that somehow feels a little dry. 

To my nose L'Eau Chic is a woody take on one of my favorite Nicolaïs Week End 

à Deauville 2011. As an owner of that Week-End I'm not convinced that I need even a small bottle of L'Eau Chic as especially in the middlenotes, I feel many similarities between the two fragrances, Week End beeing a bit more flowery-green and with a mossy feeling, where L'Eau Chic is more woody-herbal-green.

Even if categorized as an Eau L'Eau Chic is sharp, distinct and longlasting, it lasts during a whole day. It's the perfect, chic, casual daytime perfume (especielly for spring and summer) that is very pleasent to wear and it feels very refreshing almost germicidal. Just as Week End à Deauville this is a fragrance that is very special and stands out from the crowd.

Rating: 4

Notes: Geranium, lavendel, mint, chamomille, clove, spice, sandalwood, musk

An unstressed (?) perfumeweek

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

As I wrote in my previous post, the previous week I have, in order to calm down perfumewise and to appreciate what I already have, endovered to use from my regulary samples and bottles and not from the unsampled samples waiting for test. This was the scents of the “calming down parfumeweek”:

Monday: The beautiful iris classic Annick Goutal Heure Exquise. Elegant and classy, longevity is great in the Edp-version. H E is the warm contrast to the resembeling but instead cold iris of Chanel No 19 Edp. A classic iris is somhow calming and creates confidence to the wearer, a good choice for the workplace.

Tuesday: Almost too late to the celebration of HRH Queen Elisabeth II sixty years of the thorne. Monday evening I’ve read the perfumtip for each day of the festive days on the Scented Salamander. But the last festiveday was Tuesday and I choosed one of the proposed scents, namely CdG Avignon as the church was celebrating the Queen this day. On Tuesday I also tested Madonnas Truth or Dare on the go and as a tubylover I of course fell for it.

Wednesday: Creed Fantasia de Fleurs. Thank to Mr Parfumista I still have this in my possession. I was in the process to advertise it when Mr Parfumista stopped me as he think this is a beautiful floral. Definitly he’s right, this is an interesting iris-rose dominated boquet leaning on a deep, sort of almost salty animalic base, the typical Creedian ambregris-muskbase. I’m so glad Mr Parfumista sopped me selling this off.

Thursday: I was wearing the according to my opinion the top classic so far during the 2000^th centruary, Prada Infusion d’Iris Edp. My judgement as a great classic is based on that Prada Infusion d’Iris Edp is a well crafted fragrance with its own identity and a timeless character. It fits almost every everyday occasion during all seasons. The wide distrubition that make such a classy and versatile fragrance available to many people is great. When I wore the Prada today I recognized a slight airy, spicy accord that I’ve never thought of before. This addad a cosy, comfortable touch to the otherwise almost businesslike aura of the I d’I Edp.

Friday: Today I wore a true comfortscent for meduim warm summerdays and also, have I noticed, for rainy, foggy days in the middle of the autumn: Bulgari Rose Essentielle Edp. Not a complicated arty creation but a beautiful, spritzy very pink, sunny rose with some supporting, very light, fruity accords. This wearing I recognized that in the top and in the beginning of the middlenotes there is traces of Yvresse from YSL, the same elegant flowery-fruity sparkling expression. Than RE Edp ets mote pink rosy and mingles well with the white musky base.

Saturday: Oh no, gone astray from the peaceful perfumetrack of the weekdays and fell into a day of “testomania”. Big sale on the Annick Goutal site made me digging up my AG samples to test and compare, some on skin, some on paperstrips. On skin I was comparing Mandragore vs Mandragore Pourpré, on my daugther Petite Cherie was tested and compared with Le Mimosa on a paperstrip. Vanille Exquise was on another strip, it has a peppery note that makes the impression strangely enough close too the gardenia/tuberose/ozonic green Un Matin d’Orage. Also re-tested and finally re-evaluated Nuit Etoilée on another spot on the skin and finally surrendered: I need more of this (the mens version of the bottle is soooo beautiful). A stressful perfumeday, but on the other hand – perfume IS my hobby and sampling is fun.

Sunday: Can not avoid some samplig today either. Mr Parfumista is sampling the beautiful, light and bright tobaccoscent Pohadka from YS Uzac. Oddly, this one although reported as weak in longevity from different reviews and also splashed from the sample, it lasts quite ok on Mr Parfumistas usually scent-consuming skin. A lovely, fresh interpretation of the tobaccoleave. And me, just J sampling two frags today. On the left arm I have applied from my neglected bottle of Armani Code Edp for Woman. All this just because Code was rated only as 1 in The Guide and described as a candy floral. To my humble opinion Code is much better than that and a versatile summerfragrance. On the left arm: The comfortable, smooth, fruity Juste un Rêve Parfums de Nicolaï. No sticky or harsh notes, just a jummy, creamy peachy/apricoty texture on the slight green calchy base, recognizable from some other Nicolaïs for example Vanille Tonka.

Summary: In the weekdays I almost managed to stick to old workhorses expect on Tuseday when I tested a spritz of Madonnas Truth or Dare passing a perfumeshop. Then relaxing on the weekend, everything was unleashed, an anticipated behavior from the perfumaddict I undoubtedly am.

Scented thoughts – June 2012

Scented thoughts – June 2012

The summer weather this June has been very unstable with lots of rain and some (one or two) days as cold as + 4- 5 C during the day. Not so inspiring when it comes to using typical light summerfrags even if I appreciate big florals for the moment. And as always there is lot of scented thoughts as:

-         Gardenia seems to be the note de jour. Serge Lutens will launch a gardeniadominated perfume Voix de Noire inspired of Billie Holiday in the exclusive line. I’m already anticipating a blind buy in early autumn. Read more at Perfume Shrine .

-         From Andy Tauers blog , it  seems as he is started the work on a gardenia and I’m sure will be something special.

-         Seems as I have to dig out my Isabey Gardenia sample in the near future, I really appreciate its velvety, subdued, white floral elegance.

-         Thinking of gardenia and white flowers: The other day on the fly I tested Madonnas tuberose Truth or Dare, one spritz on skin and as I wore CdG Avignon that day it was a big contrast. My son commented when I picked him up from school that I was smelling pink and pink is exactly the colour I perceive when smelling ToD and a velvety texture. To me ToD is reminiscent of a medium powdery pink luxuary slik velvet.

-         Gardenia is of course also an important note in ToD, as in many tuberoseperfumes. ToD is, as mentiond many times in many blogs, not groundbreaking but it’s a well blended sweet tuby. The slight gourmand touch reminds me of something in Parfumerie Générales lovely Tubereuse Coture.

-         Indirectly Madonna with this release supports and educate in “good” perfumeculture. Launching a wellbalanced, classical blend with a modern twist, following in the steps of Piguets Fracas to a wide audience to a reasonable price is just great. As an almost collector of tubys, I will go for a 30 ml.

-         In the latest months I have sufferd from a sort of perfumerelated stress. I’ve have been in the state of constant hunting for new impressions, acquiring samples and some bottles too, constantly sniffing and evaluating. In the same time I have tried to going through my perfumewardrobe to find fumes to sell to avoid the collection to grow uncontrolled. This situation causes that I don’t live with and appreciate the frags that I already have.

-         To calm down I ‘ve decided, or to be more precise Mr Parfumista influenced me, to use and evaluate the stuff I alredy have to a much greater extent than I try and evaluate new samples.This year the circumstances have been in the total opposite.

-         This week I therefore have used some neglected, beauties, most of them more or less big florals. More about this in the next post.

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)