Hey Hey lovely Olfactoria’s Travelers,
Portia with you today from Australian Perfume Junkies and Perfume Posse.
It seems I am the only person who has reviewed this lovely fragrance before. Sometimes the really good stuff gets missed in the overwhelming crush of releases that happens every year, it’s a crying shame that we are just not able to keep up and get the best the notoriety it deserves. Here then is my candle in the dark.
Hilde Soliani is a fragrance creator, artist and person of uncertain moods. I have seen her rip a whole group of people to shreds when they questioned one of her labels on a FaceBook fragrance board, yet she has also been very friendly with me in emails and what little I have had to do with her. Nobody questions her ability to make wonderful fragrance though….
24-09-11 was created by Hilde Soliani in 2012.
Photo Stolen Fragrantica
Fragrantica gives these featured accords in one line:
Calamus, amber, frankincense, myrrh.
Straight out of the spritzer I get a gorgeous wash of resinous amber, a sweet and caramellised amber that is both delicious and engulfing. I think one of the resins gives me a decidedly breathy, bed head smell that sinuously wends its way through the lovely toffee-ish scent that is 24-09-11. The calamus (at least I think it is, as I’ve never smelled it) gives a dryness that cuts through the resins beautifully stopping the whole fragrance from becoming a sweetened mess. It’s an interesting green note, dry and slightly dusty and reminds me a little of patchouli without smelling much like patchouli, more in the feeling and atmosphere that patchouli creates.
Photo Stolen Flickr
There is something cool and sunkissed about 24-09-11. A very good choice for Autumn and Spring as it seems to capture the coolness and wan sunlight of early morning in both mid seasons. An interesting, hefty amber fragrance made lighter and brighter by the addition of the calamus, made oppressive yet transparent. An interesting dichotomy, almost a fragrant oxymoron. Here we have hot liquid gold contrasted with dry and desiccated grass. The two never really come to terms with each other through the life of 24.09.11 and it is this frisson that keeps me glued to my wrist or breathing into my jumper all day.
From Fragrantica: 24-09-11 is dedicated to Hilde’s late father as an “angel” who guards her. Its notes are inspired by the flavors of Jerusalem, the Wailing Wall and the scents of the bazaar and markets with rich spices.
Photo Stolen Pixabay
If I spritz in the evening tomorrow morning I will awake with a smear of sweetness left that lingers extremely quietly till lunchtime. I don’t know how Hilde Soliani managed to create something so big and yet so ethereal. You are fragrant the whole time but its a fragrant that seems to fit my skin, fit me, as if it understands my smell and wants to make that smell the best it can possibly be. This interesting, awkward, enticing and unusual combination that is 24-09-11, it feels like me.
Were I to be a one fragrance kind of person, I think 24-09-11 would be in the running…
LuckyScent has $160/100ml
Surrender To Chance has samples starting at $5/ml
Have you spent any time with Hilde Soliani’s fragrances? Did they inspire and delight you?
Portia xx
Olfactoria's Travels 
I think you’ve found a winner. It’s such a great feeling when a fragrance just really works like that. The only perfume in this line I have sampled so far is Tutti something or other (I forget the name now at 5am) but it smelled like a field of sweet hay in the summer. It was quite nice actually. This sounds like something I’d like too.
Hi there Poodle,
Yes, it is a beauty on me. It makes a great fit for what I like in a frag and how I imagine myself smelling, though till I got some on my skin I was totally unaware that 24.9.11 was what I had been searching for unconsciously. Found it.
Portia xx
Portia, I don’t know Hilde Soliani’s fragrances but this definitely sounds like the one to start with.
I’ve found I like ambers when they’re cut with something dry or salty so this seems a good choice for me. The fact that it would be in the running for your signature scent makes me very curious indeed.
Tara,
If you ever get round to trying it I would love your reactions. It might be fun to do a multi continent skype throwdown.
Portia xx
You make it sound great Portia. I’ve only tried Bell’Antonio from this line and I really enjoyed it. Sounds like I need to test more.
Thanks Michael,
You may like it….
Portia x
This sounds very appealing, Portia. Amber and dry grass breathes fall.
Hiya RingThing,
Yes, you’ve captured it.
Portia xx
There is something drug like about this review that leaves me slightly disoriented. Beautiful.. I really like this perfumer, actually, and the word ‘engulfed’ makes me instinctively feel that I would like this.
WOW! Thanks buddy. That is nice. I wonder if it’s my crappy punctuation that makes you re-read sentences a couple of times tro worl out the necessary flow? Could that be the problem?
Hilde Soliani is one of a kind.
Portia xx
SORRY, times to work out the necessary flow. (One finger typing, looking at keys)
Hello dear Alll
HILDE SOLIANI writing ….. thanks alot for everything …….yr time mainly…….at yr disposal for any informations n samples
kiss n hugs from Italy
Thank you for writing, Hilde!