Vero Profumo - Kiki Extrait

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

Kiki Extrait from swiss perfumer Vero Kern is, together with Kiki Edp, the most original lavendeldominated perfume I have experienced so far. Kiki Extrait is'nt just an artful, a bit quirky creation, it's a creation of high quality materials (as my amateurnose understand it) and it is exceptionally beautiful.

Kiki Extrait starts with a very natural lavendernote, like the scent from fields of lavender in bloom, carried by a warm summerbreeze. The initial lavender is almost crisp and resting on some light green notes, there is no dusky and sultry nuances of the lavender that is present in some lavender perfumes. As Kiki Extrait dries down, interesting things happening: The lavender steps a bit in the background, but is still there during the whole dry down, gets darker and an velvety facett evolves, that gives Kiki Extrait a texture of a medium, lavender colored high quality silkvelvet. There are also traces of an attractive, chalky note and after a while Kiki Extrait takes another, additional, interesting twist: An accord that reminds me of the notes of wheat and beer occurs, the fragrance oscilliate between the fresh wheaten note and the fermented, tangy beernote. There is also an earthy accord lurking in the basenotes, and the longer Kiki Extrait dries down, the more the passionfruit comes forward. The wheat/beer twist is an unexpected and very successful contrast in the fragrance, that provides substance to the frag and maintains the interest for Kiki Extrait during it's whole dry down. Kiki Extrait is an example of a true nichefragrance, a piece of art where  pleasing the "nichecrowd" is  not the obvious motive.

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

Compared Kiki Extrait to Kiki Edp, the Edp is more of a comfort, almost gourmand, fragrance with it's dark patchoulinote and sweet, much more pronunced, passionfruit contrasting the lavender. Kiki Edp is the Angel of lavender IMHO. Both Kiki Extrait and Kiki Edp are must haves, well worth owning as they are different fragrances, sharing a common lavender theme. To sum the impressions up: The Extrait smells somehow quirky-elegant and the Edp quirky-comforting.

Kiki Extrait could be worn in any occasion. It is subtle and creates a pleasant aura around the wearer. Just as Kiki Edp, the extrait is suitable in winter but as not as sweet as of the Edp, Kiki Extrait could be worn also in the summer. Sillage is medium and longevity 12h+.

Rating: 5

Notes: Bergamot, citron, blackcurrant, passionfruit, lavender, geranium, musk, patchouli, oponax, amber, caramel

An unscented Christmas ...

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

I wish all readers of this blog a Merry Christmas!
This Christmas Eve will be unscented or at least almost, maybe a few spritzes of a light citrus cologne will be refreshing/tolerable. This as I'm going through the worst flu that has struck me in 10+ years and even if I'm feeling better, thinking of perfume is still too much. The perfume that I intended to wear is Amouage Beloved. I have not even sniffed at the sample I received last summer as I knew at once that I wanted to save it for Christmas Eve. If I'm fit for (perfume)fight to New Years Eve I'll will probably test it then instead. Review will of course follow.
Anyway, in the meantime: I've scheduled reviews of  some very interesting/beautiful perfumes for some of the coming days.

Happy Holidays to All!

The spirit of Puredistance...

Just wan't to share the Christmas Greetings from one of my top favourite houses, Puredistance. I think this personal and informative "Christmas Card" perfectly catches the intimite aura of the Puredistance fragrances.

Unfortunately I have not managed to transform the pictures into a proper size so one have to use a magnifier to read :-)  Anyway, the Christmas Card tells about the 2012 launching of the brand in some more exclusive perfumestores, the introduction of the Chinese market and the launch of the new perfume Opardu. News for 2013 are that 2 ml spraysamples (already in E-shop it seems as) and a 60 ml bottle will be introduced  (until now 17,5 and 100 ml avaible in bottlesizes)

Picture: Puredistance (c), all rights reserved

Robert Piguet - Oud

Photo: Mr Parfumista (c)

Oud by Robert Piguet is, as all five fragrances in the Nouvelle Collection, created by the Piguet housenose Aurelien Guichard

Oud starts with an almost animalic note accuented by the dry leather smell of antique books. Soon the the animalic touch disappears and soft leather, minty herbals and a green, woody notes takes the center of the stage. The pepper typical for the syntetic oud also appears but in a very balanced way, not overwhelming, at all, just a gentle touch. As Oud is a linear fragrance, it also continues like described during the whole dry down. Comfortable and pleasant. To my nose the topnotes is the most interesting part of Oud and I wish the initial animalic touch would be present also in the basenotes. To me Oud is somehow the Oud of the cold north. When I smell it, I can imagine the snowy, coniferous forests of the Nordic countries in the middle of a hard winter.

Oud doesn’t follow the most common rose-saffran-oud path, instead it follows the alternative track the colder, leather, herbal, oud. The latter is, to western standards, more masculine than the former oudstructure, which is a masculien one in the Middle East. Oud is a versatile and good everyday oud, not extreme in any sense and a good “beginners oud”. Oud is the oud-herbal-leather equivalent to the everyday rose-saffron-oud Juliette Has A Gun Midnight Oud, which also is a good and wearable “beginners oud”. Sillage is quite impressing and longevity is for 24h.

Oud was the fragrance within the Nouvelle Collection that I had highest expectations about before I started sampling. Despite Oud is a well made, balanced, comfortable and very wearable fragrance, it turned out to be the one that moved me at least. Maybe it’s just too perfect and to me BoisNoir is a notch more interesting when comparing the two Robert Piguet woods in the Nouvelle Collection.

Rating: 4 (Dec 2012) 4+ (April 2013)

Notes: Saffron, fir balsam, styrax, myrrh, woody notes, oud, patchouli

Update April 2013: Probably my testingexperience of RP Oud in December was affected by the outbreak of the worst flu I have had in 10+ years  just a few days later. Now I feel it's nuances better and i doubt it's a beginners oud any more. The animalic notes are for example still present in the basenotes, blended with the cold confierstyled woody smell and the oud that feels somehow cold in this creation.  There is also an almost leathery/metallic accord that reminds me of a sort of darker interpretation of the great Frapin Speakeasy.

Robert Piguet - Casbah

Picture: Kasbahs in Aït Benhaddou, southern Morocco
Photo: Donar Reiskoffer (cc) Wikkimedia Commons, some rights reserved

Casbah is an oriental spicy perfume, dominated by incense, created by Aurelien Guichard for Robert Piguet
as a part of the Nouvelle Collection.

Casbah starts with an accord that reminds me of grated orange peel that has absorbed a spicy mix dominated by incense. As there is no orange peel in the note description, I guess there is a note that emerges from the incense combined with some other note/notes. Because incense is the most dominating note in this well balanced fragrance. The incense is there together with the orangepeel and spicy smell troughout the whole composition. The cedar and the vetiver of the base is detectable in the later stages of Casbah and adds an almost tart aspect to this composition that overall seems to be a linear fragrance in construction.

To me Casbah is most of all an incensefragence that is embedded by spices and tobbacco which makes the incensenote rounder and smoother, in some stages almost balmy. Casbah evokes the picture of an oriental spice market to me or maybe the smells from inside the casbah, from the kitchen and from the Hammmam. But there is also, an in this context strange trace of catholisism in the fragrance, as I think the incense in Casbah is like a gentler version of the note as presented in Commes de Garcons Avignon. There are also similarities with Montales Full Incense but the latter has more of resin-ambery notes where Casbah has its spices instead.

Even if note the most imigative incensefregrance on the market, Casbah is a very wellconstructed, wellblended incense fragrance of high quality that causes compliments from surrounding people. It's definitly easier to wear than Avignon but it's no less characterful. The blend is very powerful and has to be applied with caution. The sillage is medium and the longevity is 24h+. Casbah is the perfect fragrance for the cold and dark winter and will be the perfect match for Christmas, drinking mulled wine in front of a fireplace with icy winds wining outside the doorstep.

Rating: 5

Notes:  Angelica, nutmeg, pepper, iris, incense, tobacco, vetiver, cedar

Frapin - Caravelle Epicée

Picture: The Noord-Nieuwland in Table Bay, 1762, oil on canvas
by anonymous artist, Cape Town, South Africa

Caravelle Epicée is a fragance that I tried some years ago and liked very much but than went on sampling other frags and havn’t come to test it again than recently. And I have to say that like this beautiful spicy creation at least as much this time. Caravelle Epicée is a unisexfragrance in my book and its created for the perfumehouse of Frapin, not for the beveragesdivision J by Jeanne-Marie Faugier.

Caravelle Epicée starts with a gentle, very true, spicy accord. I can smell different shades of pepper, cummin, saffron, nutmeg and other spices in a wellblended mix where the spices are interacting and none is dominating over the rest. The accord is in the same time soft in character. After a while CE:s spicyness becomes creamy in texture, there are also woody notes which balances the spices. There are also notes of dry coconut, as the smell from the coconut shell from a unopend nut. When Caravelle Epicée reaches the basenotes there is a slight sweet woody note, putty in character, probably from sandalwood. In this stage, Caravelle Epicée reminds me of an unsweet Bois de Paradis by Parfum DelRae, without the sweetened berry and plummy notes of the latter. There is also smilarities with the basenotes of Yves Saint Laurent NU Edp and also something similar to the base of Donna Karan Black Cashmere. Caravelle Epicée has a dark, rich and vevety dept in the basenotes that triggers the imagination. Caravelle Epicée mediates something vintage. Not exactly a vintage smelling perfume but the images of times that have gone. More exactly the image of an elegant lady from the Jugendera (Art Noveau) dressed for the winter season in silkvelvet in muted colors and fur. Or the image an old sailingship “Caravelle” carrying the valuable spices over the oceans on the old spice route.

Caravelle Epicée is one of the best spicy fragrances I have tried, if not the best. It’s wellcrafted and balanced, comfortable, feels very natural, as the percieved notes where the real spices and wood. Caravelle Epicée is a fragrance which creates images and makes the wearer daydreaming of sailing ships carrying its precious cargo over the oceans or about elegant art noveau ladies. There is something in the overall impresson that reminds me of a sort of soft Opium by Yves Saint Laurent but with much more spices and without carantion and cloves. Also Idole by Lubin comes to my mind but that one is airier and somehow lighter, more of a sommer spicy fragrance.

As indicated above, Caravelle Epicée is perfect for winter, and espceially as a Christmas fragrance, with its delicious, spicy apperance. Sillage is close and longevity good, for a day at least.

Rating: 5

Notes: Nutmeg, coriander; chili pepper, pepper, caraway, guaiac wood, sandalwood, amber, patchouli, tobacco.

Ramón Monegal - Ambra di Luna

Picture: Mondaufgang am Meer (Moonrise over the sea)
oil on canvas, 1822 by Caspar David Friedrich

Ambra di Luna is a true oriental (amber) fragrance from the excellent Barcelonean perfumehouse Ramon Monegal. As all the perfumes of the house, Ambra di Luna is created by the founder and owner Ramon Monegal a perfumer with more than thirty years experience from creating perfumes.

Ambra di Luna starts with an accord that resembles the dry, paperlike, amber note in Trouble by Boucheron.After a while Ambra di Luna gets sweeter and the furry, animalic note that have been taken to an extreme (in a very positive way) in one of my all time favourite ambers L’Ombre Fauve by Parfumerie Générale, is lurking in the background. This dark, dirty note is balancing the sweetness. After a while also a decadent, on the verge of withering, jasminenote comes forward and togheter with the furry note and amber it creates an almost vintage part of the fragarance.

As it dries in the later stages an accord emerges which is similar to the bubblegum, amber accord in the sweet, contemporary amber, Jean Paul Gaultier 2 but in Ambra di Luna the pink bubblegum is just an accent in the ambery accord and not at all as strong and sweet as in JPG2. There is also a slight leathery impression when indulging the basenotes.

Ambra di Luna has both classical, almost old fashioned phases, combined by contemporary, in the topnotes and in the early basenotes with the light bubblegum amber. As always with the Ramon Monegal perfumes, an interesting blend where the wearer could expect interesting twists during the whole dry down. Overall Ambra di Luna conveys the atmosphere that is present in music and paintings from the romantic era in the 19^th century.

Ambra di Luna is not as powerful as most of the Ramón Monegal fragrances, but lasts more than a day anyway. The style is subdued, close to the skin, amber-animalic-resin-powder and Ambra di Luna is most distinctive to the wearer her/himself. This is a fragrance for the colder months, suitable both for daytime and eveningwear. On the unisexscale I think Ambra di Luna is a bit more feminine. Ambra di Luna is a must try for amber lovers!

Rating: 4

Notes: Amber, labdanum, jasmine, castoreum, sandalwood