Frederic Malle L'eau d'hiver

In the lane, snow is glistening

Gentle and powdery as fresh fallen snow, L'eau d'hiver is both fresh and cuddly.

L'eau d'hiver was created for the Frederic Malle line by the famous perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena. Ellena's style is minimalist and sheer and L'eau d'hiver is a good example of that style. It's a light and easy to wear veil of scent. But simple doesn't mean boring.

With l'eau d'hiver, Ellena was trying to create a new concept in perfume, the "eau chaude." When I smell L'eau d'hiver, I smell a  perfume that feels like a sheer cologne, but instead of the traditional crisp and cool experience a cologne can provide, Ellena added warm, comforting notes as well.  L'eau d'hiver is a combination of these cool and warm elements. 

Powdery iris and musk and an ozone-like note create a impression of snow in the opening. Soft and sweet floral notes of heliotrope and clover-honey float in and change the cool grey iris into something warmer. L'eau d'hiver smells like pristine powdery snow and baby skin.When I wear it I imagine an early morning walk though an untouched snowy world, with the sunrise just turning the sky rosy. Around my neck is a cashmere scarf and on my head is my pink bunny-fur hat.

House: Frederic Malle
Nose Jean-Claude Ellena
Notes: iris, heliotrope, honey, musk

Vessel Parfums - Occult

Good Juice

I was approached recently by Hollis Schwanz, founder of the new indie perfume company, Vessel Parfums, and asked if I would like a sample of her debut perfume, Occult.

A disclaimer first: I don't make any money from this blog (really, really the opposite as it encourages the growth of my perfume collection) and everything I write here is my honest opinion. This perfume stuff is just for fun. I don't promise to review anything I'm offered, never mind positively. But I've been wearing Occult a lot and I like it, so here we go.

The marketing material tells me the notes for Occult were chosen to reflect the sensuality of the west coast "back-to-nature" movement in the 1960s. I'm not sure how that's supposed to fit with the name and bottle design (see below) but more on that later.

What I smell is a warm, mysterious ceremony in the woods. Occult opens with a note like mulled wine, fruity and with hints of cinnamon. There's also something rich about it, like creamed honey. There's vanilla but it's not too sweet. The focus of the perfume is on the smooth woods in heart. Sandalwood and cedar notes rub up against amber and civet, like a big, dark cat with gold eyes.

I have only a couple of criticisms. The first is that this rich, dark smell doesn't seem to fit with the idea of sunny 1960's California hippies to me. I could be wrong, I wasn't there. Maybe northern California, deep in the redwoods at night... But it's not the earnestness of the "back-to-nature" movement. Occult is a good name. Hmmm, "Rasputin" might be better actually.


The second thing is the bottles themselves. Occult is available in two sizes, the 2oz bottle and a small 0.5ml vial necklace, called "the talisman." The talisman feels cheap and young,  whereas the perfume definitely does not. The string, the charm, it's like something my 11-year old niece would wear. I don't like the full bottle design either: the Manson font and the vampire eyes. I think this juice smells better than that.

I've been carrying the little talisman around with me in my purse and re-applying often. Just a little dab goes a long way, so I think this is an eau de parfum concentration. Occult smells like quality materials, well put together, and the opposite of the insipid girly-vanilla perfumes out there. It has presence and weight, and is definitely unisex. Give it a try if you like rich orientals with sandalwood and cedar.

House: Vessel Parfums
Perfumer: Natasha Cote, Givaudan
Notes:
Top: Laotian beeswax, black plum, Somalian olibanum
Heart: Texan cedarwwod, Haitian vetiver, leather, amber, Indonesian patchouli, sandalwood
Base: Benzoin (Laos), vanilla bean (Madagasscar), civet, opulent musks

MAC - Naked Honey

Linden and clover, over and over

The linden trees out back are in bloom, and as I sat under them yesterday evening, I remembered MAC Naked Honey.

MAC released this perfume in 2009, a limited edition that quickly sold out. Luckily, I was reading perfume blogs like Bois de Jasmine and Perfume Posse at the time and their reviews had me hustling over to grab a bottle.

MAC Naked Honey is a honey-floral perfume that smells like linden blossoms. It's a sheer, green-tinged sweet smell, like standing beneath those waving boughs and breathing deeply the smell of gold and green dappled sunshine. Some people say is also smells like honeysuckle.

I smell clover. When I was a kid, we would spend the summer wandering the fallow fields and woodlots around my subdivision, playing in the tall grass, eating wild strawberries and raspberries and sucking the honey-sap out of clover blossoms. Naked Honey smells like summer memories to me.

MAC no longer sells Naked Honey, but if they ever decide to release it again, I highly recommend picking up a bottle. At about $25, it was some of the best perfume money I've spent.

House: MAC Creations Hue
Nose: Harry Fremont
Notes: white honey, floral notes, woodsy notes

Photo of linden: redteam
Photo of clover: Dendroica cerulea

Lancome - Magie Noir (Vintage)

Beautiful Witch

Magie Noir was launched in 1978. The generous JoanElaine at Redolent of Spices recently sent me  a vintage sample of it that has me bewitched.

Although it's classified at an oriental floral by Fragrantica, to me Magie Noir smells like a chypre. Its opening notes are those of a traditional chypre base. Dark, mossy and bitter, the opening of Magie Noir slaps you in the face with its "chypre-ness" and a healthy animal note of civet. She growls.

The earthy darkness of the opening stays throughout, but Magie Noir's gorgeous bitchiness softens after a few minutes. It has a sort of backwards progression from that of most perfumes. After opening with traditional base notes, honey, fruit, and flowers join Magie Noir and seem to smooth out her mood. Nevertheless, it still feels like the fruit and flowers are under the base notes, not the other way around. The red and black fruit, cassis and raspberry, are present but only if you smell closely. From arms length, I still smell mostly the patchouli and oakmoss.

The florals of Magie Noir are subtle but wonderfully complicated. I think I can smell hints of narcissus and a spicy greeness from hyacinth and galbanum. These notes make it a spring time perfume for me. Magie Noir reminds me of early spring, when the everything is still chilly and dark, but the daffodils and hyacinths are just beginning to sprout out of the black earth.

In the end, Magie Noir reverses direction and goes back to base notes of amber, and wood. Like an unpredictable woman, she keeps you guessing.

Unfortunately, Magie Noir has been reformulated and it has suffered. The current formula is harsh and chemical in the opening notes. I can see how the basic structure of dark notes over fruit and florals has been imitated, but the magic is gone. There is something sour about the fruit, and the dark base notes are not as rich, missing the oakmoss and civet. Only after the dry down does the new version become a tolerable, if slightly powdery, facsimile of the original. It's a loss.

House: Lancome
Nose:  Gérard Coupy
Notes: cassis, raspberry, galbanum, hyacinth, bergamot, bulgarian rose, honey, tuberose, jasmine, ylang ylang, lily of the valley, orris, cedar, narcissus, spices, sandalwood, amber, patchouli, musk, civet, oakmoss, vetiver.
Where to buy: skip the new stuff and try to find the vintage online.

Serge Lutens - Five O'Clock au Gingembre

Cozy comfort on a cold day

It's a numbingly cold February day, and I'm wearing the warmest perfume I could find: Five O'clock au Gingembre. Sweet, spicy and cuddly, FOaG is the perfect antidote to winter.

FOaG starts with a chewy, sweet ginger. The ginger is gradually surrounded by hot cinnamon and pepper and sweetened with honey, turning it into gingerbread cookies. FOaG drifts back and forth between this ginger-spice aspect and a bergamot-tea aspect, making it seem like the gingerbread cookies are served with a steaming cup of Earl Grey tea. The slightly astringent smell of black tea balances the sweet ginger. The perfume dries down to a nice woody amber.

I don't know how I missed FOaG when it was released in 2008. Its woody, spicy comfort is exactly my cup of tea.

If you like Five O'Clock au Gingembre, you might also like Like This and Omnia.

House: Serge Lutens
Nose: Christopher Sheldrake
Notes: Top notes are tea and bergamot; middle notes are ginger, cinnamon and woodsy notes; base notes are cacao, honey, amber, patchouli and pepper.
Where to buy: In Toronto, you can find Serge Lutens at Andrews, or online from The Perfume Shoppe

Photo: Tea Party by Charlyn W

Sisley - Soir de Lune

A bodice ripper chypre

In honour of Valentines Day, I bring you Sisley Soir de Lune, a good old-fashioned bodice ripper.

Dark and magnetic, like the eyes of My Wicked Earl over there, Soir de Lune really pops my pearl buttons.

Starting with smoldering spices, Soir de Lune unfolds its red rose petals dripping with honey and a touch of soft peach. Deep in the woods, it lays me down on a soft bed of earthy patchouli and moss. In the darkness is a hint of the bitterness to come in the morning when my love leaves.

House: Sisley
Nose: Dominique Ropion
Notes: lemon, bergamot, orange, mandarine, coriander, nutmeg, pimento, May rose absolute, mimosa absolute, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, peach, moss, musk, patchouli, honey, sandalwood
Where to buy: in Toronto at Holt Renfrew

Thank you to Victoria at Bois de Jasmin for giving me her extra sample!!!

Serge Lutens - Fumerie Turque

Istanbul smoke

Here's another tobacco perfume from my collection. I love a good tobacco scent in the fall. It's a comfort scent; it makes me feel like flannel shirts and kicking through piles of golden leaves on a sunny day.

Fumerie Turque recreates the smell of a Turkish smoking salon. I've been to Turkey but unfortunately never went to any of the cafes in Instanbul where patrons smoke nargile, a water pipe. A popular fixture of Turkish culture and a place to relax and chat with friends and strangers, these shops have recently suffered from a 2009 ban on indoor smoking. As far as I can tell from reading, it seems they now mostly have patrons partake outdoors on patios.

The nargile tobacco at these shops is frequently favoured with fruit. Fumerie Turque uses Serge Lutens famous stewed fruit accord well here, combining it with a light blond tobacco note that seems to float above like smoke. The perfume is this perfectly balanced between the sweet and the bitter, the dark and the light, the heavy and the weightless. The tobacco seems both dryly herbal and sticky fresh. It reminds me of pipe tobacco and the smell of my uncle's pipe.

In the drydown, the fruit becomes honey and the patchouli in the base is an earthy chocolate with only the tinge of bitterness from the tobacco to keep it from being gourmand. I highly recommend Fumerie Turque for anyone who loves the smell of tobacco. And you can use it indoors.


House: Serge Lutens
Nose: Christopher Sheldrake
Notes: honey, juniper berries, tonka bean, chamomile, patchouli, vanilla, jasmine leaf, turkish rose, red currant, tobacco, styrax and suede

Photo: robokow

Parfums Parfums DelRae - Amoureuse

An unexpected trip to India

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