As the weather cools in Toronto but we still have sunny days, I like to wear florals, especially big white florals. The kind of happy girly perfumes that I don't want in the winter, but are also too much for the stickier days of summer. Amoureuse seemed made to fit the bill: a big, feminine white floral with tuberose and jasmine.
Amoureuse starts with a juicy tangerine note and honey that is more animalic than sweet. The oakmoss helps to tone down the sweetness as well, giving the perfume a vintage feel. And that's pretty much what I was going to write about, big florals... indolic... honey dripping... va va va voom and tra-la-la.
But the more I wore Amoureuse, the more I started to think that this is not the southern belle, like Peche Cardinal, that I was expecting. Amoureuse beckons to me with dark eyes from a different country - India.
Tuberose and jasmine are both prominent flowers in India but the note in Amoureuse that ties it all together is cardamon. Intensely aromatic, cool somehow and almost minty, the cardamon in Amoureuse lifts this perfume out of the banal. It add a greeness to the perfume that, along with the lily, makes me think of lily of the valley leaves - their shape and colour, which is also the shape and colour of the cardamon pods. The cardamon tones down the sweetness of tuberose, to a level that I appreciate. Add a base of sandalwood and you have your whirlwind olfactory tour of India.
The far dry down, 16 hours later, is mostly that animalic honey. A well done "modern" chypre.
House: Parfums DelRae
Nose: Michel Roudnitska
Notes: tangerine, cardamon, french tuberose, french jasmine, tahitian lily, oakmoss, sandalwood, honey
Photo: Michael Foley Photography
This is a complete no-no on me, precisely because of the animalic honey! It brought on an instant headache, but I do have the most lily-livered skin out, so I am sure I am not typical. I think the fit with India is much better than its actual association with San Francisco, if I remember rightly. I have been to SF and if it had smelt of animalic honey I would reluctantly have had to abort my visit. India, on the other hand, is known as a place that assails all of the senses. Slumdog Millionaire in Smell-o-vision - now that would be really something!
ReplyDeleteflittersniffer: You're right, the company said the inspiration was SF but I think of India. But what do I know, Ive never been to either. Too bad about the honey. Is it all honey that does it to you? I quite like Mac's Naked Honey.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's spicy and/or animalic honey specifically - Naked Honey I own, ditto a decant of Chanel Beige!
ReplyDeleteFlittersniffer: Oh, I like Chanel Beige. I don't think it gets enough love.
ReplyDeleteThis is something I need to try, like now. Think I'll order a sample today. This appears to have everything I love in a fragrance, everything but fig. Cardamom is my olfactory weakness. I also love anything with honey. Honey is one of those tricky notes that works with me.
ReplyDeleteAnd hubby loves those obnoxious white florals :)
EauMG: you must try it then! the middle was very cardamom for me.
ReplyDelete