I wish all of you, who have been kind enough to visit, comment or link to my blog, a very merry Christmas! Whether you celebrate Christmas or another holiday, or just enjoy some downtime, I hope you can relax and spend a wonderful and peaceful time with your loved ones.
I will be taking a short break over the Holidays, with all the goings on I won’t be able to get a minute to blog.
I will be back to everyday business on Monday, though. My older son is out of Kindergarten the next two weeks (God help us all!), so it will be a bit (okay, a lot) harder for me to keep my blogging schedule, but I’ll do my best to post at least once a day, first and foremost to keep sane…
Now, on to the Christmas perfume review.
Nuit de Noel was created by Ernest Daltroff in 1922, allegedly for his business partner and lover Felicie Vanpouille (also the bottle’s designer), who was enchanted by Christmas and all its attendant trappings.
Legend also has it that Karl Lagerfeld uses nothing else around Christmas, to get into a holiday mood. It has been said that Caron always loved eccentrics and the other way around.
Notes include ylang-ylang, rose, jasmine, sandalwood, oak moss, musk and amber.
For me, Nuit de Noel smells like a sophisticated woman in a fur coat (don’t shoot me, I am not wearing it, only writing about it), wearing Chanel N° 5, beautifully made up with dark lipstick and face powder, going to Midnight Mass, where the incense is heavy in the cold air. All these aspects unite to make up Nuit de Noel.
The aldehydic start, the bouquet of classical flowers followed by this amazing, dark, dry, incense-y and animalic drydown (the vintage version is bound to be that much more intense, but sadly that is something I can only assume, given the notes of musk and oak moss listed), that lasts for a long time. It is capable of rendering even reluctant holiday revelers like me, into a festive mood. But it is a festive mood with a decidedly black edge, it is not happy all the way, all Caron perfumes I have tried, retain that slight melancholic, darkish aspect, that I find incredibly attractive.
It is that woman, in the fur coat, sitting in the dark, candle-lit church, shivering a little, happy for now, but always aware of her reality, not all is good, all the time.
Tonight she can smile, despite the darkness waiting behind the lit candles.
Picture sources: bostonherald.com, perfumeprojects.com, some rights reserved, thank you!
Olfactoria's Travels 
Head in cupboard searching for my Nuit de Noel now ! It is one of the first I bought when I started collecting again three years ago. I love Christmas and have a Houbigant vintage called Esprit de Noel which I am wearing today. I wish you a very happy holiday ,children grow up so quickly .angie x
Thank you, Angie! I wish you and Holly and your whole family a very merry Christmas. I hope you have a wonderful time! My children are completely nervous and revved up waiting for the “Christkind” 🙂
Nuit de Noel is what I’ll be wearing next Christmas once I’ve managed to get hold of one of those absolutely gorgeous bottles. Thanks for the wonderfully evocative review, I love the way you write about the woman the fragrance conjures up.
Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Merry Christmas to you, Tara! 🙂
What a gorgeous review. Merry Christmas!
Thank you, Marina!
Merry Christmas!
Gosh that bottle is gorgeous isn’t it!? I love Nuit de Noel and wish I had that vintage bottle of it instead of my little sample. Maybe next year. (And I do wear a fur coat, although not to Mass, mostly for walking the dog ;))
Merry Christmas!
It is a great perfume indeed, with a bottle to fit.
Merry Christmas, Krista!
Merry Christmas, dear B! Wish you lots of happiness in this new season, new year!
Your review is right on the mark, it is so sophisticated and elegant. Thank you, I live vicariously through you and Krista wearing Nuit de Noel today! 🙂
Thank you so much, V! A wonderful Holiday for you and your family!
You inspired me once more, I will be wearing Orris Noir tomorrow. 🙂
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Going through your old posts, and coming across this one, I suddenly realised something: I stumbled upon your blog months ago, far before I had a blog on WordPress myself. I was trying to decide between various Carons and Molinard’s Habanita, and I read your review of Nuit de Noel. I remember your post now because of your comments about the darkish, melancholy nature of the perfume and of Caron as a line in general sometimes. In fact, I *told* two people about your comment regarding Karl Lagerfeld! And now, totally by chance, I stumble across your blog 2 days ago again. 🙂 I ended up buying the Caron, btw, and I can’t make up my mind as to my feelings on it. I go back and forth constantly. If you want a very SUNNY Caron that is far from melancholic or dark, you may want to consider Montaigne. It is pure Cannes mimosa, sunshine and Van Gogh blue skies.
I’m afraid I can’t stand Montaigne, it seems I’m not made for sunny and carefree.. 😉
I’ll do what Karl does again this year.
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