Parfumerie Générale - Djhenné

Picture: Great Mosque of Djenné

Photo: Andy Gilham (cc) Wikimedia Commons,

some rights reserved

This year the house of Parfumerie Générale, founded by perfumer Pierre Guillaume, celebrating ten successful years with a fragrance that fills the vacant number 22 in the numberd collection, Djhenné. Maybe the number was left to unite the “2:s” of the founding year respective the year of Jubilee.

Djhenné is a town in Mali, famous for the big mosque constructed by clay in 1907. To me, Djhenné the perfume also smells as I can image the smell of the dry, hot, earth blended with some sand from Sahara mingled with spieces, cacao from the market, and some herbal green whiffs from the scores of the river nearby. According to an interview on Fragrantica Pierres inspiraton to Djhenné was “a fresh accord surrounded by hot sand. Oasis, a lazy hot atmosphere, and a little bit of freshness in a hot desert”

Djhenné starts with sparkling, almost spritzy light spicy notes that mingles with an uplifting green light flowery herbal note, probably the mint and flowers combined. The pepper from cedarwood comes forward in a quite early stage and after a while Djhenné reminds me of some sparkling woody-peppery fragrances for example the bolder L`Eau Guerriere which is bright and luminous but at the same time heavy in it’s notes and therefore has to be applied very sparingly. But after this short phase Djhenné turns to a softer, warmer spicy stage supported by some delicate and almost dry and powdery, sweet notes supported by an almost rounded, strawlike note which mingles and balances with a light resin-sweetness. The last accord is probably highlighten the original wheatnote and the myrrh, but a sort of stripped down, light myrrhm not the dark, warm myrrh of Myrrhiad from one of Pierres other perfumelines, Huitieme Art. In the Fragrantica interview the interviewer find similarties with another beautiful PG fragrance, Bois Naufrage. Even if not quite obvious to me, both have the same relaxing aura and Bois Naufrage is the wet woody version and Djhenné the warm, dry and spicy version of the theme

Except the short, cedar-pepper phase, Djhenné is a very relaxing fragrance with a comfortable dry, warm, light flowery, spicy and well balanced sweetness. It’s easy, but in the same time interesting, to wear as it repeatedly unfolds new discrete twists, especially in it’s later stages. The longevity, despite it’s perceived lightness, is 12h+. Djhenné is a fragrance that grows on me from the initial impression of a good but not especially distinctive fragrance, I can’t stop sniffing my wrists in the later stages of this beautiful and a bit mysterious fragrance that induces such exotic images to me, just as Pierres intention.

Djhenné is perfect for daytime wear year around, and as said above, a fragance for calming down .

Rating: 5

Notes: Mint, seringa, lavendel, cedarwood, cacao pod, myrrh, wheat

Top Fall Fragrances 2012

Picture: Maple leaves

Photo: Mr Parfumista 

As I read the toplists of some of the major perfumeblogs yesterday, I was inspired and couldn’t resist putting together an own list. Autumn to me is the best season for wearing perfume, the darker, warmer, heavier ones is suddenly suitable together with the intense or heavy floral fragrancs from the late summer. Here are some fragrances that I’m longing for at the moment (even if they are rarely worn as I’m in a intensive samplingmood):

Coco Noir (Chanel): Contrary to most of the perfume bloggosphere I was instantly fallen for this elegant, dark, slight spicy, musky, patchouli. Chic and wearble at the same time.

Ambre Gris (Balmain): This sweet and in the same time salty gourmand is like slipping in to a smooth and soft cashmerejumper. Perfect for warming up in grey and rainy days.

Lyric Woman (Amouage): Only recently, after years of recurrant testins, I understood this dark, red, cinnamon spicy, resin and incense grounded beauty. Mysterious and eternal. Maybe I will understand this years dissapointment Interlude Woman in a couple of years too.

Cuirelle (Ramón Monegal): This delicate suede with some boozy undertunes is elegant, smooth and with some interesting twists in it’s dry down..

Belle en Rykiel (Sonia Rykiel): This warm and comforting and in the same time interesting lavendel-coffe and milk – incense over a vanillic base, is a recurring favourite for fall.

Rochas Femme Edp (Rochas): Starts almost like a plummy liquer in the top notes, dark, mellow plums and spices over a woody, chypre base. The Edp is velvety, rounder and closer in sillage compared to the more radiant, sharper, heavy upon cummin Edt which is also good.

Seville à l’Aube (L’Artisan Parfumeur): Not as original or sensational as expected after months of hype in Perfumeland. But it’s a very good and wellcrafted very wearble orangeblossom fragrance, warm and comforting, reminding of warm summer evenings.  

Opardu (Puredistance): This elegant, lilac, powdery, slight musky fragrance, transports me hundered years back in time, to the era just before WWI. True elegance and beauty.

Kiki Edp (Vero Profumo): Intense and original passionflower, lavendel blend over a dark, patchouli base. This is just delicious.

Auburn (Andy Tauer): The intense and warm tobbacoaccord is amazing in Auburn. Auburn is like the essence of autumn, sparkling, maple leaves, high chilly air and an intense blue sky on a sunny autumnday.

Poudre de Riz (Huiteme Art): Elegant interpretation of rose combined with some tropical flowers grounded in a powdery, musk-vanillic base. In texture and expression almost like a clean variation of  ELDO Putain des Palaces.

Which fragrances are your favourites for this Fall?

Ramón Monegal - Cuirelle

 The Ramón Monegal testing is continuing....

Photo: Parfumista (c)

Cuirelle is an interesting and beautiful soft suede/leather fragrance from the Barcelonabased parfumer Ramón Monegal whose perfumehouse also bears his name.

As Cuirelle starts it’s a bit sweet and almost fruity with a rounding delicate suede accord. In the topnotes, Cuirelle reminds me of a smoother and less sweet and flowery In Leather Woman by Etienne Aigner (in swedish). As Ramón Monegal has created some fragrances for Etienne Aigner (don’t know if In Leather Woman in on of them) there is maybe a connection between the two fragrances. Another fragrance that comes to my mind in this stage is Ava Luxe Film Noir even if Film Noirs slight fruity suede note is tougher, rougher and more than a bit dirty.

When Cuirelle reaches the middlenotes it takes another direction than In Leather Woman. Where the latter highlighten fruity notes almost like applepie the former transforms to an almost chalky soapy accord, reminiscent to the accord in Vanille Tonka by Parfums de Nicolaï but less green and less distinctive. Later on a slight spicy, warm, honeyd  boozy note appears, similar to the interpretation in Mon Patchouly but without the cocoapowder feeling. In Cuirelle there are some light woody-patchouli notes that accompanying the delicate suedenote that depens as more the fragrance dries down. 

The basenotes is a beautiful accord of gentle and delicate, honeyed, clean leathery booziness with traces of cinnamon. The natural sweetness is just right balanced to create an aura of comfortable smothness. In this stage Cuirelle reminds me of a softer, warmer and sweeter relative to the discontinued contemporary cult leather Cuiron by Helmut Lang. In the base Cuirelle almost has transformed it’s suede to a smooth elegant leathernote, but just almost as the fragrances seems to be fleeting between soft sude and soft leather.

Just as most of the other Monegal perfumes I have tested, Cuirelle takes the wearer on an interesting journey during a day of wearing. Cuirelle is very well balanced, the notes mixes in each other in a very subtle way. It’s also like many of the other from the house of Ramón Monegal a thrilling blend where you can’t predict how the fragrance will end from just smelling the initial topnotes. That’s something that I really appreciate from a fragrance and one of all aspects that makes the perfumehobby so exiting.

Cuirelle is great to wear during the colder months, suitable both for daytime and eveningwear. The sillage is medium and the longevity is at least for 12h.

Rating: 5

Notes: Olibanum, patchouli, honey, cinnamon, vetiver, cedarwood, incense

Balmain - Ambre Gris

Picture: Balmain Ambre Gris in it's fancy, heavy bottle

Photo: Balmain all right reserved (c)

After wearing Ambre Gris by Pierre Balmain three days running, I still can't figure out among which fragrances to place this interesting creation of Guillaume Flavigny. Even if somehow familiar Ambre Gris is it's own comforting creature and I enjoy it as such.

Ambre Gris starts very sweet, almost to sweet for my liking but in the same time it's a somehow delicious sweet-spicy smell and I can't stop sniffing my wrists. In the earlier stages Ambre Gris is gourmand-oriental in style. When Ambre Gris has dried down for a few hours it becomes drier and shows off a soft, slight flowery side. The imortelle is the flower that is most detectable and I can't say that I detect the tubereuse as a separate note but I think it's so well blended with the immortelle that these two together creates a subdued immortellenote, the imortelle in the "immortellestandard" Sables is relatively loud and sypury, here it's smoother and almost putty in texture. In this stage Ambre Gris reminds me a bit of Histoires d'Parfums Tubereuse 3 Animale but Ambre Gris is smoother, sweeter and subdued compared to T3. The tubereuse is not the loud, fleshy one, it's the putty, subdued style which is also present in Mona di Orios Les Nombres d'Or Tubereuse. When Ambre Gris reaches the basenotes it mediates an almost salty quality that evokes the picture of real ambergris, the drived ashore dried whalevomit that was (and sometimes is) a precious perfumeingredient. The basenotes is pleasant almost slight smoky-woody-musky in character.

Ambre Gris is the ultimate comfortscent for autumn and winter. Even if gourmand, spicy, woody, oriental with distinct, concentrated notes, it's soft and subdued. Ambre Gris has to be applied sparingly because the sweetness may otherwise be overhelming. For each wearing, the more I appreciate Ambre Gris and I think it's well worth tryning when passing NK or Åhlens City (in Sweden). The beautiful  heavy bottle is with the funny golfball or discoball of the top is well worth watching.

Besides the fragrances mentioned above I think admirer of Belle en Rykiel by Sonia Rykiel (louder and more vanillic + incense -lavendel) and Prada Candy (more powdery resins) will appreciate Ambre Gris.

Rating: 4 (but may increase as it seems to be a growing liking)

Notes: Myrrh, cinnamon, pink pepper, immortal flower, benzoin, tuberose, benzoin, ambergris, musk, amber, guaiac wood

Maria Candida Gentile - Hanbury

Picture: Giardini Botanici Hanbury - pavilion.

Photo by Daderot, (cc) Wikimedia Commons, some rights reserved.

This weeks jurney to beautiful Italians Villa-gardens continuies also today. Villa Hanbury is a north italian Villa by the sea with a beautiful garden founded 1867 by the Hanbury family who runned the gardens for many decades but was passed to the University of Genova about thirty years ago. Among the flowers cultivated in the botanic garden, the golden mimosa is a speciality of the Hanbury garden and the flowers are also used to produce essence of mimosa. Mimosa of different types are present in some classical or familiar perfumes as Carons Farnesia, Annick Goutal Le Mimosa (in swedish) and Edition de Parfums Frederic Malle Une Fleur de Cassie. Mimosa is also the protagonist in Maria Candida Gentiles golden nectar Hanbury, a just beautiful fragrance that, just as intended, immediately transports me to a mediterrian garden in bloom.

Hanbury starts with a golden blast that I precive as produced by medium yellow flowers even if some withe especially the orangeblossom, also have prominent roles. On my skin a delicious orangeblossom is the most prominent note. There is also a winterblowing flower, Calycanthus praecox, in the fragrance, winterblooming flowers is unusual even in northen Italy. I don't know how it smells but I suspect it's one of the very nice notes that radiates from my skin wearing Hanbury. The florals are velvety in its structure and give me the impression of beeing soaked in honey and resting over a slight dry resiny base. Hanbury is a smooth and somehow full perfume and it has a beautiful depth. As the rest of the Maria Candida Gentile line, there a high precentage of naturals in the blend, something that is particulary evident in Hanbury, the flowery impression is very authentic. Compared to another delicious orangeblossom in a similar style, Sweet Redemption (summary in english) by ByKilian, Hanbury is more clean and flowery and SR more of a liquary and sweeter orangeblossom.

Hanbury is a beautiful, wellcrafted and casual- elegant fragrance that could be worn year around but blooms beautiful in warm weather. It's very feminine in style and wraps the wearer in comfort and pleasure. Sillage is close to the skin and longevity is medium almost for a day.

Rating: 4

Notes: Lime, bitter orange, orange, mimosa, white honey,calycanthus, musk, benzoin

Vero Profumo - Mito

Picture: Gardens of Villa d'Este in Tivoli, Italy
Photo: mmxbass, Wikimedia commons

Two of my favoriteperfumers lives in Zürich, Andy Tauer and Vero Kern. Maybe it's the fresh air from the alps that have formed their excellent sense of smell which makes them creating beautiful and innovative perfumes. Anyway, this month Vero Kern will launch another gem in her artful parfumeline Vero Profumo - Mito.

Mito is an olfactory interpretation of Veros impressions from the park of Villa d'Este in Tivoli, the flowers, the water in the basains, the moistiness in the shadow, the fresh grass, the sunshine, the architecture and the planning of the park. To me Mito really reflects these impressions of strolling around in a classical park wearing a casul-chic summeroutfit.

Mito starts with a mellow, very warm yellow lemonnote which to me is close to the real fruit. It's lika an explosion of sunshine when the topnotes developes. After a while the flowers skilfully blended with the green sharpness of galbanum shows up. The flowers, especielly the classical galbanum-hyachint duo somehow curbes the sharpness of the galbanum and creates an almost creamy, moisty but in the same time warm texture. Mitos appearence is close to the typical 70s citrus-flowery chypres as Chanel Cristalle Edt and Eau de Rochas, but warmer and more mellow in charachter. The magnolia is also mellow and warm, it's not the somehow stripped down almost cold version as is present in Chanel Cristalle Eau Verte. The jasmine is clean and proper, not an animalic, dirty one. The moisty, dark green moss is present as the perfect setting and the cypress adding some dry woodiness to the blend. A fragrance that comes to my mind during the flowery stages of Mito is Estee Lauders Private Collection Jasmine White Moss which is the same type of  contemporary, green and mellow, whiteflowery chypre. PCJWM to me is a tad sweeter and a bit more flowery in style. Another modern interpretation in this genre is Tiare by Ormonde Jayne.

Mito is an easy to wear fragrance considering it's an Vero Kern perfume. It is not quite as original as Rubj, Onda and Kiki but it's a very wearable fragrance, suitable year around, especially for the colder month, to remember the sunny and warm summer days. As the sillage  is very close there is a risk that the heat of a summerday will be to though to Mito, as with most fragrances heavy on citrus. This minor weakness  is the reason to that Mito doesn't receive the highest rating, but almost:

Rating: 4+

Notes: Citrus, magnolia, champaca, jasmine, galbanum, hyachint, cypress, moss

Ramón Monegal - Mon Cuir

Picture: La Debacle by Theodore Robinson (1892)
Wikimedia commons

Mon Cuir is one of two leather inspired creations in the spanish perfumeline who bears the name of it's founder the very long experienced (over thirty years) perfurmer Ramón Monegal.

Mon Cuir starts with one of the most realistic leather accords that I have experienced in perfume. It's far away from the rough and tough, smoky leather of for example Mona di Orio Cuir but it's also a bit away from the smooth, elegant leather of a a pair of long evening gloves as the light leather in such different frags as the contemporary Hermès Kelly Caleché or the classic Chanel Cuir de Russie. Instead the leather of Mon Cuir is somewhere in between, the opening gives the impression of a well-kept two coloured ( brown and mossy green) weekendbag in leather. Just as the leathery accord mellows into the middlenotes with the traditional orangeblossom accord, a glimpse of an almost minty note appears for a short while. This intermidiates a streak of something chilly in a otherwise warm and comforting fragrance and it reminds me a bit of Parfum d'Empires Cuir Ottoman. This is an example of one of those unexpected moments which are typical for the perfumes of Ramón Monegal. In the rest of the middlestage the flowery-leather accord becomes almost creamy and at the same time cocoapowdery.

Mon Cuir dries down in a tonka been powdery,slight musky, resin base with a light flowery impression still lingering. In the this stage Mon Cuir reminds me of a smoother and gentler version of one of the floral oriental icons of the 80s, the ingenious Joop Femme.

My impression of Mon Cuir is that of a soft and a bit sweet "feminine leather" (for someone who cares about division in gender when it comes to perfume) unobtrusive and "officeproper". Mon Cuir lingering close to the skin but giving away some inscrutable whiffs now and then. Mon Cuir is great for the autumn and winter months but also for chilly summerevenings. And of course for a relaxing weekend at the countryside, with the luggage carried in that perfect leather, weekend bag.

Rating: 4

Notes: Leather, orange blossom, labdanum, musk, sandalwood, patchouli, nutmeg