Byredo La Tulipe

Life is a bowl of tulips

It's a cold and rainy April day, perfect for contemplating my lovely vase of tulips. They were a gift from my old office. I start at a new office on Monday. Spring is a good time for new beginnings and tulips are my favourite spring flower. Beautiful, cheerful, delicate but strong, tulips don't have a strong floral smell, but they do have a soft, clean smell, like a vegetal musk.

Byredo La Tulipe was created to reflect the soul of the tulip, not just it's smell. It starts green and fresh  - not sweet but slightly peppery. The rhubarb is noticeable later as a sour-cherry note; it makes me think of the bright reds and pinks of tulip petals. The base is a cool clean musk with a hint of earth.

Overall, La Tulipe gives the impression of freshness, clean shoots and pink buds growing on a cool wet day. My only criticism is that it doesn't last long, but that means I can spray liberally.

House: Byredo
Nose: Jerôme Epinette
Notes: Rhubarb, Cyclamen, Freesia, Tulip, Blonde Woods, Vetiver

Photo of tulips, mine.

Atelier Cologne - Trèfle Pur

The luck of the Irish all day long

To celebrate March, the green month, and the upcoming hootenanny that is St. Patrick's day, I am wearing Atelier Cologne's Trèfle Pur today. I feel the need for green to get me through what is usually a not-so green month in Ontario. And a little four-leaf clover luck wouldn't hurt either.

A burst of freshness perked me up right away when I dabbed on Trèfle Pur. A "cologne absolute," Trèfle Pur contains 18% essential oils, which makes is much longer lasting than traditional colognes and it has better sillage. It was love at first sniff. Trèfle Pur is amazing and I only wish that I hadn't waited almost a year to try my sample.

Atelier Cologne only just started in 2010. Trèfle Pur is one of 6 perfumes they offer. To me, Trèfle Pur is an example of the best of modern perfumery. High quality, an interesting composition, and a sheer touch that lets all the notes shine individually yet also combine into a harmonious whole, are some of the hallmarks of the great modern perfume. I love being able to pick out the individual smells of bitter orange, violet leaf, and  neroli, even as they work together like voices in a choir.

Trèfle Pur starts like a sunrise over green fields and winds up in the soft grey dusk, The opening notes combine a bright bitter orange with a green grassy note. The gorgeous green of the cologne comes from clover absolute, and the spicy greeness of violet leaves and basil. As it warms on the skin, wafts of aromatic cardamom and and a lovely floral neroli lift the green off my skin and swirl around me, like an afternoon in a garden. In the dry down, a cuddly musk and a grey mossy feeling comfort me.

Trèfle Pur is almost a combination of two of my favourite Frederic Malle perfumes, Bigarade Concentrée and Angéliques sous le pluie. It has the beautiful bitter orange opening of Bigarade and the spicy, musky, greeness of Angéliques. It is perfect for men and women who are looking for something fresh and green.

I also appreciate the way Trèfle Pur seems to tell a story and set a mood. It creates an olfactory image, a character, that each person can make their own. The marketing images created for each cologne in the collection reflect this story-telling aspect of the perfume. You can see the example for Trèfle Pur, above. I love them; I think they are some of the best perfume ads I've ever seen.

House: Atelier Cologne
Nose: Jerome Epinette
Notes: Top notes: Bitter orange, cardamon, basil
Heart notes: Clover absolute, violet leaves, Tunisian neroli
Base notes: Patchouli, moss, musk