Olfactoria On Perfume Smellin’ Things

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Olfactoria

I am posting again on PST today. One more summer scent to go, before temperatures start to fall again… 😉

I hope to see you over there!

Posted in Ramblings | Tagged | 1 Comment

Pinocchio – Review: Parfumerie Generale Cédre Sandaraque

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Olfactoria

That vetiver is not my best friend is known by regular readers, I found some to like, but I do not seek them out. Sometimes though, a vetiver scent sneaks up on me, dressed as something else and takes me in. It would not need much effort for Pierre Guillaume, the man to take me in, and as it turns out, after sample after sample, it does not take his perfumes much effort to take me in either.

Cedre Sandaraque is another example of PG’s mastery in the gourmand genre. He makes everything delicious. Even vetiver.

Cédre Sandaraque was created as part of the Private Collection in 2005, notes include vetiver, African cedar, Sandarac resin, cereals and pralined amber.

Cedre Sandaraque opens very yummy – cereal grains, something nutty, not very sweet, indefinable but definitely delicious. Then there comes the vetiver, dry, reedy, cool and laced with that indescribable deliciousness, then the perfume gets woodier and drier still, the cedar and sandarac resin (a resin similar to frankincense, but less smoky) take over and shine for many hours, always shot through with that edible/nonedible je ne sais quoi that renders an otherwise dry and masculine wood accented perfume perfectly genderless and perfectly interesting.

Cedre Sandaraque smells first and foremost of wood, it feels like standing in a carpenters work room, sawdust on the floor, fresh and clean wood all around. Pinocchio would have chosen it as his signature scent, of that I am sure.

Cédre Sandaraque is reminiscent of Hermessence Vétiver Tonka in its combination of vetiver and gourmand notes. The difference is that in the Hermessence vetiver retains its character more, here in Cedre Sandaraque, vetiver is bent into a new angle. An angle I like very much.

Sandarac Resin

One more woody-gourmand perfume that cements the fact for me, that Pierre Guillaume is a genius in that category. Also, as I might have mentioned once or twice in passing, he looks very good, even Pinocchio would agree. But that is not the point here at all, is it?

Image Source: luckyscent.com, laflammedivine.chez-alice.fr
Posted in Fragrance Reviews, Parfumerie Generale, Woods | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 35 Comments

Winner of the Coveted Xerjoff Shingl! :)

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Olfactoria

Thank you all for participating in the draw. Although more of you rather passed, from he brave ones willing to try Shingl, only one can be the winner. Random.org has spoken!

The winner of the sample of Xerjoff Shingl is

Anna W

Congratulations! Please get in contact with your address as soon as possible!

Until next time!

Posted in Giveaway | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Paris Hilton And A Strawberry – Review And Giveaway: Xerjoff Shooting Stars Shingl

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Olfactoria

I don’t know why, but in the last months I have the feeling I am talking about perfume names all the time. That should not be as important a subject, but you cannot possibly review a scent called Shingl and ignore that gem of a name.

To take the guesswork out of it once and for all, despite the phonetic similarity, Shingl has nothing to do with the unfortunate malaise it conjures up in one’s mind, but is another meteorite crash site, this time in El Dorado, California, where a meteorite came down in 1869 or 1870. All the Shooting Stars collection scents are named after such sites.

Shingl is my least favorite of the Xerjoff’s I have tried, by far. Luckyscent describes it as Xerjoff’s Partygirl and I fully agree, but not in the positive sense that Luckyscent intends. To me Shingl smells more like the Paris Hilton of perfume – sweet, but grating and obnoxious, boozy and a bit vacant. (I apologize to Paris fans and Paris herself, it may well be my characterization is totally off the mark.)

Notes include bergamot, basil, anise, rum, iris, vetiver, amber, musk and vanilla.

Shingl opens sharp and alcoholic, rum and anise evoking a cocktail, my fantasy supplies the loud music and the crowded night club. Soon an enormous iris note, massive and over the top, too much, too rich, too big – à la style of the nouveau riche – rears its rooty head and stays for quite a while, smelling strangely of strawberries. The drydown is powdery-sweet. Vanilla and the blasted strawberry are here to stay, as is the case with any unloved perfume, forever and a day.

It is safe to say I do not like Shingl very much. But maybe that is just my unappreciative nose. All in all, I can’t shake the feeling that Xerjoff made a very bad fragrance out of very good materials, you can smell the quality despite everything, but a cheap composition will always smell cheap, even when clothed in silk and hung with diamonds.

Do you want to try Shingl?

I have a nicely packaged sample from Xerjoff to give away for one (lucky?) reader. Please leave a comment and let me know why you would love to test Shingl. Let’s make this one quick, I will pick a winner using random.org in 24 hours time, Friday, 8am. Good luck!

The sample will be shipped from England by a travelling friend, next week due to postal madness in Austria.

Image source: pub.ne.jp, noticiasfomosos.com, stawberries courtesy of Photo8.com

Posted in Floral, Fragrance Reviews, Fruity, Giveaway, Iris, Xerjoff | Tagged , , , , , , , | 45 Comments

Natural Grace – Review: By Kilian Prelude To Love, Invitation

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Olfactoria

Prelude To Love is the most summery Kilian in my set, so I have worn it the most in the last few weeks. It is fitting that it should be the first reviewed, after my initiation to the line with Back to Black.

Created by Calice Becker in 2008, I think of Prelude To Love as the first By Kilian, although it is actually the seventh, launched after the inital wave of six, when the brand first launched in 2007. Prelude To Love includes notes of seville orange, bergamot, Amalfi lemon, ginger, pepper, orange blossom, Florence iris.

Prelude To Love is a beautiful fragrance that above all, strikes me as young. Young, not in the sense of immature, but young at heart, innocent and un-disturbed, not yet corrupted by love, by the world in general. Prelude To Love is easy to love.

The perfume opens with a furioso of citrus notes, it sparkles and shines and makes me happy instantly upon spraying (and is great in the summer heat! Might that be my perfect citrus?). Later it softens, gets rounder, more demure, floral notes enter the scene, most prominently a soft orange blossom and a light, velvet-y iris with just a little touch of earthy-rooty greyness, to give the composition a little more gravity and touches it to the ground, quite literally, so it doesn’t float off into the blue, cloudless skies it evokes in my mind’s eye. A very soft spiciness adds dimension to the heart and the drydown is more earthy, a bit leathery and woody, but very faint. This is not a fragrance with a strong base.

Longevity is below average, although the others in the line are a lot more longlasting than Prelude To Love. It is in keeping with its character though that it trails off gently after about four hours.

Prelude To Love is very feminine, soft, tender, pretty and elegant in an unstuffy way. It possesses a natural grace, it is like a dancer’s light footfall, a beat of a butterfly’s wing, a rustling of leaves in the wind.

I adore the exuberant beginning of this pefume, I love the tender and graceful middle stage, but somehow the drydown is just okay. It doesn’t quite hold up its excellence throughout the entire development. But as I said before, it lies both in the character and in the nature of that kind of perfume that it is more fleeting than others.

Beauty, and youth – which brings us back to my initial association with Prelude To Love –  are fleeting after all. That is a fact of life many have their problems with, these days. Let us enjoy them while they last and turn to other things when they fade.

Image source: parfuemerie-brueckner.de, myvintagevoue.com
Posted in By Kilian, Citrus, Floral, Fragrance Reviews, Iris | Tagged , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

Then And Now – Review: Dior Diorella

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Olfactoria

By Tara

Before I discovered Diorella a number of years ago, summery perfumes never seemed to quite hit the spot. Traditional colognes, fruity perfume cocktails and summer florals were too simplistic and bland.  They just didn’t feel like “me”.

Then I found Diorella and it was just what I had been looking for. It was fruity and green which made it great for warmer weather but it was also interesting and intelligent.  Too often, summer fragrances seem rather air-headed but Diorella had a certain depth and quirkiness about it. It was also that word my mother hates – “sexy”. I’m not sure where it comes from, but the older formulations ooze an understated animal purr.

Released in 1972, Edmond Roudnitska has been quoted saying that of all his creations, Diorella was his personal favourite. This is no small praise considering he is also the nose behind Femme, Diorissimo,  Le Parfum deTherese and Eau Sauvage, among others. If you already like either of the last two but have not tried Diorella, I would particularly recommend it. Note lists vary but tend to include bergamot, lemon, basil, “green notes”, honeysuckle, peach, rose, jasmine, cyclamen, carnation, patchouli, vetiver, musk and oakmoss.

I would classify the pre-reformulation Diorella as a fruity chypre. On first spraying, the combination of orange, lemon and basil somehow give you a wonderful zingy blast of lime. This zesty brightness soon recedes and the rich scent of over-ripe fruit takes over.  It is this combination of warm fleshy fruit and feminine florals which makes it so unusual.  On paper, such a mélange really shouldn’t work but it does and maybe that’s what is so special about the old Diorella. It teeters on the edge, but never falls over.

The current formulation is recognisably Diorella and it is still very good but it is lighter, fresher and less floral. It is not quite as full-bodied as its former self and is missing that wonderfully odd, languid quality. It feels like it has taken a step towards the sexless cologne end of the perfume spectrum. Having said all of that, I would still highly recommend it because even in its slightly attenuated state, it’s still an awful lot better than the vast majority of mainstream fruity perfumes currently on the market. Plus with the changes afoot at LVMH, who knows what the next formulation will be like?

Diorella is currently available as a 100ml Eau de Toilette. It has only been around for a couple years, so it’s still not too hard to get hold of previous editions (in lavender blue or houndstooth packaging) if you want to seek it out.

Image source: parfumdreams.de, arcimboldo spring via fineartsamerica.com


Posted in By Tara, Chypre, Citrus, Cologne, Dior, Floral, Fruity, Reviews By Tara | Tagged , , , , , | 31 Comments

Monday Question – What’s In A Name?

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Olfactoria

How important is a perfume’s name to you?

Are you easily put off or interested in a perfume based on it’s name?

Which perfumes do you think are horribly misnamed?

Which names are brilliant, in your opinon?

My Answers:

Initially I do take note of the name of a perfume. If it is a great one, my interest goes up and if it is a ridiculous one, I might be deterred from trying the scent, since I have so many already, I won’t go out of my way to try something I perceive as silly or provocative, plain stupid or offensive.

I tried and fell for perfumes, the names of which  I didn’t like, I’m looking at you Oesel! And I have been disappointed by great names behind which a nice, but in the end not very exiting perfume hides (Love’s True Bluish Light). And then there are those with an awful name and an awful perfume – and that award goes to Xerjoff again – Shingl (review coning soon) takes the cake here.

In general I don’t like names that are only numbers, like a year, because I remember words better than numbers, but Frapin 1697 proves that the right number can make that problem vanish. I am not fond of Le Labo’s naming as well, since the expectations are slated in a direction that is no necessarily the right one.

The names of Etat Libre d’Orange (the company’s name is great, btw) perfumes make me uneasy. They are either totally over the top, outright offensive or faintly amusing. And I don’t like the fact that EldO does so much to distract their customers from the actual juice. But that is just my point of view.

Some great perfumes have truly great names, my favorites in this category are: Teo Cabanel Alahine – so evocative, it just rolls off the tongue, or Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist – that says it all, I think;
What do you say? What’s in a name?

Picture source: gomonews.de some rights reserved, thank you!

Posted in Monday Question | Tagged , , | 46 Comments

Last Week In Perfume Land – Weekend Link Love

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Olfactoria

Big news – we rented small house with a huge garden in the middle of a meadow.

We longed for a place where the boys could just roam free and do their boy’s things, a place away from the city, but not so far as for it to be a drag going there every weekend.

Our little house on the prairie is one hour’s drive from Vienna and our neighbors are six good-natured cows. This weekend we are going to furnish the house and make it habitable and comfortable.

I am so looking forward to the fact that the boys can run to their hearts content and get to know nature outside of a park. I’ll have to deal with spiders quietly though. 😉

Before I go, let us take a look at the past week in Perfumeland:

You all probably heard about the unelegant (and that is putting it quite elegantly!) way that Dawn Spencer Hurwitz was treated by the NPG. I think it became pretty clear, pretty fast on whose side most people are. I wrote to Dawn privately, but wanted to show you some public statements that reflect my own point of view as well:

Tarleisio on Scentless Sensibilities and Carrie on Eyeliner on a Cat posted very good articles on their blogs, and so did Jen of This Blog Really Stinks… take a look.

On  the more perfume-oriented side of things, Tommy, The Candy Perfume Boy wrote about his favorite 80ies perfumes and sparked a lively discussion.

Dee on Beauty on the Outside found her travel scent, and she did it unsniffed – a testament to the thrill of buying unsniffed.

Another Perfume Blog is getting married soon and what is she going to wear? Try your luck and vote your favorite from her shortlist and get entered in a draw!

Lucy of Indieperfumes reviews an interesting DSH collection – Secrets of Egypt. I love Dawn’s inspiring collections, I am still smitten with the Italian Splendor Collection (see my reviews here.)

My newest obsession right now is By Kilian, I have been wearing his perfumes all week, exclusively, that is quite a feat. This week I took another look at the previously shunned Back to Black, more reviews of the line are coming up soon.

What are you obsessed with right now?

What are your weekend plans?

I’d love to hear from you! Enjoy your day!

Image is my own.
Posted in Weekend Link Love | Tagged , , | 48 Comments

Out Of The Box – Mainstream Perfume Mini-Reviews Part 3

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Olfactoria

Welcome to Part 3 of my mainstream series. (Part 1 and Part 2 are here.)

By the end of writing, I was not happy because I felt I had too many similar, pink fragrances in this post. A bad balance. But then I realized, that was not my fault. There are just so many similar, pink fragrances out there. My mainstream box is probably an exact representative of what is out there. What I am still not sure about is, whether I ought to be happy about that or not…

Emilio Pucci Vivara Variazioni: Sole, Aqua, Sabbia – are very close variations on a theme, the theme being, um, laundry-fresh and fruity? Sole is straight up shower clean and a lot more aquatic than Aqua, which is sweeter, more cotton-candy than dryer sheet. Finally Sabbia is  a bit darker, more oriental, but only in comparison with the other two. This is a trio I can easily live without, I might go so far as to say, my life is better without them. What a waste of a very beautifully designed bottle and the name of a great design house.

Jean-Paul Gaultier Le Male: Notes include mint, artemisia, bergamot, cardamom, lavender, orange blossom, cinnamon, cumin, sandalwood, vanilla, cedar, tonka bean and amber. Le Male was created by Francis Kurkdjian. Definitely unisex in smell, if not in name, Le Male is initially an almost harsh and a bit synthetic smelling bergamot and mint dominated scent that morphs into a warm and sweet union of lavender and orange blossom spiked with spices and drying down to a sweet, quite feminine vanilla-tonka base. It is very potent, but when used sparingly I think it is great. Its ubiquituousness has subsided by now. A classic.

Giorgio Armani Idole d’Armani: If you want a pear scent, this is one. A really, really bad one, I might add. Synthetic pear, larger than life and twice as ugly. No need to bother with the quite nice drydown, the way there is all too stony, or shall I say fruity?

Bvlgari Omnia Crystalline: This is the first flanker of Omnia (the one in the brown bottle), created in 2005 by Alberto Morillas. Notes include bamboo, nashi pear, lotus flower, and balsa wood. This is subtle and inoffensive to the point of boredom. A very white, sheer, transparent, I guess crystalline fragrance that might be great for someone not interested in perfume.

Nina Ricci Ricci, Ricci: Notes include rhubarb zest, bergamot, moonflower, tuberose, centifolia rose, patchouli, sandalwood, floral accord “Belle-de-Nuit”. It is probably a lot better than I make it sound, but I am just so tired of fruity-floral gourmands in designer bottles, I’ll refrain from getting into it. There is no need, you all know exactly how it smells, it is pink. Enough of a description for this kind of perfume these days.

Alberta Ferretti Eau de Parfum: Features notes of freesia, pink pepper, bergamot, sweet pea, ylang-ylang, Casablanca lily, patchouli and golden amber and was created by Sophie Labbé. This is actually very interesting, in the sense of “Hey, this is not a pink perfume!”. A fresh opening of water-logged freesia and pink pepper (this was launched in the heyday of pink pepper, before it was dethroned by oud), follows a vaguely floral heart on a sweetish, non-descript base. Good idea, but it smells fresh and clean, no lily has ever been close to this creation. What pervades and permeates and massively diffuses all around, is my friend Calone. Yippie.

Issey Miyake L’Eau d’Issey Florale: Ah, good grief, another one of these fragrances where a glance tells you exactly what is about to assault your nose, long before you even open the bottle. At least you get the satisfaction of being exactly right. Notes include rose, lily, mandarin, and white woods, as well as the smell of water, hot air and the color pink.

Biotherm Eau Pure: The Biotherm Eaux are usually very nice, they do what they say, refresh and invigorate, smelling nice in the process and are gone after an hour. Eau Pure is fresh and minty and citrus-y and fruity and all out happy-go-lucky. It gets a bit too fruity and sickly sweet after some time, but it might be perfect for some. It is not perfect for me, but you knew that, didn’t you?

Marc Jacobs Perfume Eau de Parfum: Gardenia. Loud and…loud. Can I go wash this off now?

Victor&Rolf Flowerbomb: Includes notes of tea, bergamot, sambac jasmine, orange tree, cattleya orchid, freesia, rose, and amber, musk, and patchouli. Flowery dessert. Might be similar to some gourmand niche perfumes, but ultimately it suffers from its cheap materials. And a hand grenade as a bottle?  I give up.

I have one more post to go, before my mainstream stash is depleted and can be filled again with more pinkness. Stay tuned! 🙂

Image source: photo8.com                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
Posted in Amber, Aquatic, Citrus, Floral, Fragrance Reviews, Fruity, Gourmand, Green, Iris, Musk, Oriental, Powdery, Spicy, Woods | Tagged , , | 30 Comments

Start Me Up! – Review: Le Labo Bergamote 22

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Olfactoria

We are in the throes of the intense summer heat now and therefore I long for refreshing and cooling citrus scents. There are a few in my arsenal, but I am always open for variety.

My sample of Le Labo Bergamote 22 that has been patiently awaiting its turn in my sample box, was just what I was looking for.

Notes include bergamot, petitgrain, grapefruit, nutmeg, orange blossom, aspic, cedar, amber, musk and vetiver, the perfume was created by Daphne Bugey.

I love the top notes of Bergamote 22, a freshly squeezed cocktail of bergamot and grapefruit jolts you out of the heat slump. The citrus notes are joined by a spicy aspect and then slowly soften into the warmer feel of orange blossom with a green undercurrent. The drydown is soft. Vetiver and cedar join in, smelling like pale green velvet and lasting for a few hours.

Bergamote 22 is gorgeous in the first five minutes, lovely in the first hour and okay during the rest of the wear time. A fact that necessitates frequent reapplication to experience the invigorating and intensely refreshing spicy citrus top. Not a very economical way of wearing perfume, but that is the fate of citrus notes, their beauty is fleeting and evanescent.

Even perfumes that last longer like Anya’s Garden Light or the Atelier Colognes, cannot keep up the first sparkling spritz of citrus that I am addicted to when it is hot.

Le Labo Bergamote 22 is certainly a good, unisex fragrance, but I would not spend the money on a bottle. But this review has woken the hunter in me again, my mission: to find a perfect – if shortlived, that is part of the equation – citrus scent for less money. A lot less money.

Watch this space!

Image source: luckyscent.com, rakuten.com
Posted in Citrus, Fragrance Reviews, Le Labo | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments