Ramón Monegal - Kiss My Name

Picture: Rose Champagne Bubbles

Photo by Gaetan Lee (CC-BY-2.0; CC-BY-2.5.)

Wikimedia commons some rights reserved

A fizzy, peppery tubereuse-boquet is how I percieve Ramón Monegals tubereusefragrance Kiss My Name. The initial accord reminds med of the light, sight green, tubereuse boquet of Gianfranco Ferre (the fragrance has the same name as the designer himself). But very soon a blast of light, fizzy pepper appears and takes control over the blend. This stage is close to the developement of Lovely Day and just as with that fragrance, reminds me of Un Jardin apres la Mousson by Hermès. The glimpse of something that reminds me of an almost melony note is also present in Kiss My Name as in both of the former fragrances. I don't know from which ingredient the peppery note comes from, probably there is some woody note that is not mentioned among the ingredients that produces it. To me Kiss My Name, just as Gianfranco Ferre is first of all a sort of casual-chic dry, green white flower boquet where tubereuse has a leading but not predominant role. As Kiss My Name dries down the tubereusenote gets clearer. It's a clean and nice tuby-note that never reaches the dangerous dirty, fleshy, almost putty in texture, territory. In the late drydown, Kiss My Name is very close to the fizzy,airy, peppery Un Matin d'Orage by Annick Goutal.

Kiss My Name wears well during a warm summerday and I think it's proper for daytime wear year around. As it is strong in concentration, light application is recommended. A nice, happy and easy to wear fragrance, nothing complicated even if well crafted as the whole Ramón Monegal-line.

Rating: 4
Notes: Tuberose, iris, jasmine, neroli, tolu balsam

Ramón Monegal - Lovely Day

Picture: A Lovely summerday

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

To me the somehow dry frutiy-floral of Ramón Monegal  Lovely Day starts like a gentler and less distinctive version of Hermès Un Jardin apres la Mousson. I perceive a melon - peppery ackord that is not as tough and rough as in UJalM. As there is no melon mentioned among the notes I suspect that the black currant gives this effect. There is also no pepper among the ingredients but cedar often gives a peppery effect. Lovely Day developes the light, I image it as white pepper, peppery note continues and the melon-like note seems to go more like black curranrt. As this occurs a flowery element also becomes more evident. The flowers i somehow pink-bubbelgummy-powdery, just as an unchewed pink piece of bubblegum. The sweetness is sort of subdued, it is not sickly sweet and Lovely Day gives me the impression of a grown up almost frutiy floral. After a while in the developement of the middlenotes a coca powdery suede like iris note with light hints of the swedish paperglue "Björnklister" appears.This accord is similar to the irisinterpretation in Histoires de Parfums Tubereuse 1 Capricieuse and traces of the iris from Impossible Iris is also recognisable.  The whole blend is resting on a woody base that is well intergrated in hte blend but becomes increasingly evident as the basenotes develops. Despite just cedarwood is mentioned among the ingredients I also  percieve a woody note similar to a light oud.  The woody base gives a fine contrast and substance to Lovely Day.

Lovely Day is, as the name indicates, a happy fragrance that wears well during a warm summerday, both for office and as with most of the Ramón Monegal fragrances, for elegant casual wear. Despite Lovely Day seems a bit indefinite with its twists of  such different fragrances as Un Jardin apres la Mousson and Tubereuse 1 it's a fragrance that is easy to wear in different situations. The type of fragrance to choose for the days when I haven't got any idea of what to wear.

Rating: 4

Notes: Jasmine, rose, black licorice, iris, cedar, black currant

A Coco week

Last Sunday and the workdays Monday to Friday this week have been dedicated to the different Chanel Coco interpretations (some of them anyway, I havn't tested Coco and Coco Mademoiselle in EDT and parfume yet). During the six Coco-days I spent three with Coco Noir, two with Coco Mad and one with Coco.I have enjoyed all the Cocos to the fullest and I have to confess that I, by now at least, like Coco Noir a tiny bit better (just a very tiny little bit) than good ol' Coco. Maybe it just depends on my personal shape of the day that day, but I found Coco a bit too loud in it's orietal spiciness compared with the more subdued Coco Noir. Don't get me wrong, I still love Coco but Coco Noir is favoured these days, maybe it's just the charm of novelty.With Coco and Coco Noir struggeling in the top, Coco Mad, even if I like it much too, comes a step behind, it's somehow sharper and not so seamless blended as the both Coco:s in the top. Anyway Coco Mad is a good, wearable and comfortable fragrance which I will revisit another Coco week. Already looking forward to such a week :-)

Maître Parfumeur et Gantier - Soie Rouge

Picture: Gartennelke (Dianthus caryophyllus)

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

MPG:s Soie Rouge is one of several fragrances that was launched when Jean Laporte started the MPG house in 1988. Soie Rouge is MPG::s interpretation of the, to my nose, difficult note carnation. I'm not particulary fond of carnation dominated fragrances,Carons Bellodgia is to strong and clovy, Etros Dianthus too clovy and Serge Lutens Vitrioil d'Oeillet to weak on the cranation.

Soie Rouge starts with somthing like a dry fruity mess accompanied by a slight laudry/detergent smell. Fortunately this part is passing quickly and than a more pleasent note that seems familiar to the passionflower in MPG Fraiche Passiflore passes by. After fifteen to thirty minutes the carnation takes the centerplace and the fruity notes are tuned down to a supporting background. The carnation is without that mandatory clove which I find to be a great relief. A clean carnation supported by a soft, dimmed fruitiness and a something smooth, creamy, that reminds me of a rose note, even if it's not among the ingredients. All the notes are resting on a rather pale musky, sandalwoody base. Soie Rouge recalls memories from my childhood, from dinners in my grandmothers beautiful Jugendhaus. Probably  handsome aunt Birgit was the one that wore the carnation, maybe Bellodgia. My own mother was even then faithful to Dior; mostly Diorissimo but also Miss Dior, Dioressence and Diorama. How I wish she hadn't use up those bottles....

Soie Rouge is a good carnation, the best tested so far to me. I like that it's not paired and soaked with clove and more true to the flower. The blend is soft and very polite to be a MPG of 1988, the sillage is very colse to the skin and there is some longevity issues. But on the other hand, I have put Soie Rouge on a hard test: Shuffling heavy snow during an hour in the cold swedish winter, it is probably not fair to judge.

Update August 2012: Fortunately the winter has not arrived yet here in the north, there is still summer :-) This review was written when I tested Soie Rouge last winter and has been waiting in the archives since then.
Rating: 3

Notes: Pineapple, dried fruits, carnation, iris, jasmine, heliotrophe, apricot, musk, sandalwood, amber

Chanel - Coco Noir

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

I really have tried to resist to like this frag as described as a disappointment in the perfumeblogosphere. There has to be a lot of weaknesses with it, something that better trained noses than mine understand
:-) . After a rapid skintesting from the tester in the store and from sniffing a scentstrip during a day, I have to confess: I really like Coco Noir and I even think it match the beautiful bottle and the story behind it quite well. I think it's a very wellcrafted floral musk with sweet fruity patchouli notes. When reading this one can be missleaded and think it's just another pink, berry/fruity, patch, but to my nose it isn't. First of all, even íf a fruity-patch-musk, it has the elegance and aura that is Chanel and that separates Coco Noir from hundereds of other in this genre. Second Coco Noir is not pink at all. It is dark, fruity, flowery, patchy which notes are contrasting the initial blast of light citrus bergamot. Third, there is tuned down traces of Coco Mademoiselle (in swedish) a fragrance that I unlike most perfumenerds like very much. Fourth the longevity is very good.

As stated above, Coco Noir starts light with the citrus/grape-bergamott infused accord. Then a moderate sweet, dark fruity-green-flowery, patchouli accord takes over and creates a distinct contrast to the topnotes. This stage is a bit dangerous because if too heavy applied, I suspect that it could be sickly sweet. After a whlie a rosy green geranium note appears and it adds a beautiful soapy quality to the blend, a soapiness that I feel very comfortable in. The soapiness creates an interesting retro vibe to Coco Noir. In the base there is a withe musk anchoring the blend, together with a soft and powdery tonka been and some light woody, slight resiny notes.

Strangely enough, I percieve Coco Noir as quite noir, other fruity-patchy blends are sweetly pink in comparison. When I first sniffed Coco Noir my first reaction was the similarity to the original muskfrag by Les Nereides, Musc de Java. The same sort of fruityness, almost berrylike, the patch and the musk are similar to each other but Musc de Java, even if more robust and rough, is thinner in it's texture and has an original hay-note that is not included in Coco Noir. Musc de Java is also brighter and lighter and is lighter on the soapy note. Coco Noir is a full and mature variation on the Musc de Java theme.

As with last year Chanel No 19 Poudré (in swedish) that also was not well received (at first anyway) in the perfumeblogosphere, I think one have to judge the flankers completely separate from the original fragrance and look at them as they where released under brand new names. Just as with Chanel No 19 Poudré compared to Chanel No 19, Coco Noir has little or no relation to the original, the beautiful oriental spicy Coco (despite the noir vibe), I think most of us perfumepundits starts to compare it with Coco and Coco Mademoiselle and therefore don't judge Coco Noir on it's own merits.

To me Coco Noir is a wearable and comfortable fragrance, definitly fbw and I just wonder for how long I will be able to resist...

Rating: 5
Rating update March 2013: 4  
Rating update April 2018: 5

Seems as CN wear better in warm and humid weather than in cold and dry. I perceive CN as less  integrated between it's different stages and that the sweet accord stands out a bit too much in the top- and middlenotes. Reaching its basenotes, CN is just as good as last late summer. 

As times has gone by and I have worn the Coco family even more and become familiar also with the Edt versions of Coco and Coco Mad as also Coco Mad Intense, Noir is back as a 5 rated member of the family.

Notes: Grapefruit, bergamot, rose, narcissus, geranium leaf, jasmine, tonka bean, sandalwood, vanilla, patchouli, white musk, frankincense

Kerosene - Whips and Roses

Picture: A frag for Lucrezia?

 Probably a portrait of Lucrezia Borgia,

oil on panel by Barolomeo Veneto

Whips and Roses is created by the Michiganbased selfmade perfumer John Pegg. John is a perfumenerd, like most of us reading posts like this, who has taken the brave step to create frags by himself and it seems like he as made a great sucess as he is very en vogue in Perfumland at the moment. John has worked in the automobile industry and the crafted Kerosene bottles are inspired by this background, they are all hand coated by the perfumer himself.

Pink roses, a tart greenery, a slight leathery note over a musky base, Whips and Roses is a fragrance that conveys creepy, spooky undertones. WaR starts with the tart greenery, as the leaves and steem is blended with the all but fresh floralwater in the vase. After a while the pink roses intensifies but they never becomes dominating. The roses are supported by a slight leathery note, just perceptible to my nose. The top and the middle stages of WaR, where the creepy graveyeard association appears, are the most exciting and imiginative phases of the fragrance. As WaR has dried down to the base the blend is transformed to a comfortable but rather common white musk.

WaR in it's earlier stages reminds me of a damp and sort of chemical Rose Splendide by Annick Goutal (review in swedish), RS conveys the same imagination of leaves and steems blended with the pink rose, but the Goutal fragrance is bright and fresh where the WaR is dark and damp (in a positive way). In the base WaR reminds me of the pink rosy musky base of Bulgari Rose Essentielle Edp but the Bulgari musk seems more delicate to me, the Kerosene is more rough edged.

To sum up: WaR is a starts as an eccentric rose but ends in a more familiar rosy-musk. When writing this I have only tried this and Copper Skies from Kerosene and of the two Copper Skies is definitly my first choice, se review earlier this week.

Rating: 3

Notes: Bergamot, blood orange, rose, jasmine, gardenia, iris, sandalwood, musk, leather

Kerosene – Copper Skies

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

Some amber marinated in tobacco oil, with coconutty leathery, almost medical notes surrounded by a wiff of menthol. The opening of Michigan self learned perfumer John Peggs Copper Skies is brutal and almost exaggerated, the impression is as the fragrance is blended in an old oil drum in the perfumers garage. This perfectly fits the image of John Pegg, the former automobile worker, now devoted to perfume creation for his own line of Kerosene. The leather – coconut note in Copper Skies reminds me of an accord in ELDO Rien and/or Tom of Finland, as I remember this is present in both these fragrances, with a rougher edge in Rien and smoother in Tom of Finland. Mr Parfumista also smells a dark lavendelnote maybe a concentrated lavendeloil smells like this. 

As Copper Skies calms down in the middlenotes, the amber becomes more apparent, and the blend becomes smoother and appears as a contemporary (not classic) amber surrounded by smooth and moderatly sweet honey accentuated with spices and cloves. There is no for the amber genre typical vanillanote, for example in By Kilian Amber Oud, something that differs Copper Skies from a lot off classical ambers. There is neither the obvious herbal ackord, typical for the more masculine ambers in the style of MPG  Ambre Precieux  and HdP Ambre 114. During the dry down Mr Parfumista smells traces of the note of silver polish present in Annick Goutal Vetiver and also some of the darker elements from Sables. As Copper Skies reaches the basenotes something unusual happening, it’s as the fragrance retakes, the amber/tobacco/clove accord becomes more intense and also whiffs of the menthol note appears again.

Copper Skies is a rough and tough fragrance, far from fine “haute couture perfumery”. There is a more or less muted ELDO-vibe during the whole developement of Copper Skies. But as mentioned above, some Goutals are also present and maybe there is a part of the secret of the Copper Skies sucess: Each wearer can recognise some of his/hers favoritescents.  Copper Skies also mediates a somehow homemade impression but in a positive, relieving way. The only thing that annoys me with Copper Skies and which lower its rating, is the feeling that the components doesn't blend together enough. It's like the perfumer has trown in different comfortable fragrances but haven't mixed them properly together and they are existing side by side/as followers of each other. On the other hand this gives the fragrance a own identity and as the same pattern is recognizable also in Kerosenes green creation Creature, this is mabye the characteristic mark of the Kerosenebrand.

Copper Skies is werable the year around, as it lacks the vanilla sweetness it’s also suitable for summer. Of course, as it name indicates, it’s a perfect late autumn scent, when the leaves has fallen from the trees, lying sparkling of yellow, orange and red of the ground, the air is chilly and the orange, blue, grey clouds chases across the sky. The longevity of Copper Skies is amazing 24+ , the blend is strong, heavy application is prohibited J . The development of the fragrance is interesting, the least interesting part is the middlenotes, but this is offset of the cozy feeling that this stage mediates, this is a constant wrist-sniffing stage. I’m sure Copper Skies will be a comfortable fragrance (despite it’s brutal start) to fall back upon days when I don’t know what to wear during the colder months. Copper Skies is truly unisex, even the picky Mr Parfumista sneaks from this and as there is very few new releases that please him nowadays, this is a high mark for Copper Skies. I rarely blindbuying frags, but in this case I'm glad I did it, despite it seems as Mr Parfumista has taken over the bottle :-)

Writing about the bottle: The eccentric bottle coated with car paint and the copperlabel is handpainted/ decorated by Mr Pegg himself.

Rating: 4 + on me, 5 on Mr Parfumista

Notes: Amber, tobacco, beewax, basil, clove

Update autumn 2012: Mr Parfumista has taken over the bottle for real and Copper Skies has fast advanced to one of his most preferred fragrances.