Lancôme - Ô de l'Orangerie

Sundress

Doesn't everybody love a sundress? A sheer, pretty scrap of nothing that you can throw on and feel completely comfortable on a hot day is a wardrobe staple. Not into dresses? Think of a well-worn, soft linen shirt. Ô de l'Orangerie is like that - a sheer and casual veil for summertime.

Released this spring, Ô de l'Orangerie is the 3rd flanker to the original Ô de Lancôme. It opens with sunny orange blossom and a brisk orange peel. The heart is a light clean jasmine and the base notes are soft and almost undetectable. In general, Ô de l'Orangerie stays a pretty, lightly orange, slightly sweet jasmine on my skin.

Unfortunately it doesn't stay too long, but at only C$54 for 75ml, one could afford to re-spray often.


House: Lancôme
Nose: ?
Notes: orange zest, orange blossom essential oil, orange blossom absolute, jasmine, benzoin, cedar

Jean Patou - Joy

Affordable Luxury

Jean Patou released Joy during the Great Depression in the 1930's with an advertising campaign that billed it as "the costliest perfume in the world." Does that seem odd? It was actually a very clever marketing move. After the Wall Street stock market crash in 1929, the Parisienne fashion house lost many of its American clients who could no longer afford haute couture clothing. So, Jean Patou offered instead a luxury perfume that, while expensive for perfume, was still more affordable than the clothes. Joy offered a taste of uncompromising quality and luxury that still fit his clients' budgets.

To create Joy, perfumer Henri Almeras famously sourced that most precious ingredients in huge amounts. Ten thousand jasmine flowers and twenty-eight dozen roses are required to make each bottle of Joy parfum. Jean Patou has its own dedicated fields of jasmine and roses in Grasse, France.

I have a bottle of the EDT. Joy opens with sparkly, waxy aldehydes and green lily of the valley. After a few minutes you begin to appreciate the fragrant jasmine and rich rose bouquet. It's lush and very well blended. The dry down has a dark, slightly bitter note behind the flowers and a touch of warm muskiness.

According to the Jean Patou website, the formula for Joy is unchanged; I find that hard to believe, but the quality of Joy is undeniable. It is gorgeous and I highly recommend it to any fans of plush florals or jasmine. Joy may no longer be the quintessential luxury perfume (I found my bottle at Winners), but it's an everlasting beauty.

House: Jean Patou
Nose: Henri Almeras
Notes: (From Jean Patou website)
Top: Bulgarian rose oil, Ylang Ylang, Tuberose
Heart: Rose de May, Jasmine de May
Base: Musk

p.s The top photo is Greta Garbo in Mata Hari, 1931. Here are some more photos of her. Delicious, isn't she? I believe that's a bottle of Joy on her dressing table, on the left, in the last photo.

Estée Lauder - Bronze Goddess

The first day of summer

Estée Lauder's Bronze Goddess is being billed as a limited release for 2011 but it has a longer history. It was first released as a body oil under the name Azure Soleil in 2006, as part of the Tom Ford for Estée Lauder collection and re-released as a perfume in 2007 called Azure Soleil Eau Fresh. By 2008, Tom Ford had created his own perfume line and Estee Lauder changed the name of Azure Soleil to Bronze Goddess but kept the formula nearly the same.

If you would like to feel and smell like you've been to the beach, but don't have time to get away, Bronze Goddess is the perfume for you. It starts with a summery squeeze of citrus but becomes a creamy, coconutty floral with a warm salty edge.

To me it smells just like expensive french sunblock - I have a tube of 50+ Vichy at home and it has the same "creamy rich flowers and coconut" smell. Underneath, salty amber base notes mimic the smell of warm skin just out of the ocean being dried on a white sand beach.

It's gorgeous, but I admit that after wearing it a few hours, I sometimes feel the need to go shower and clean up before dinner, the way I would do on holiday at a beach resort.  But keep this one around for the cold days of winter, and it will make you feel the sand between your toes again.

A new flanker, Bronze Goddess Soleil, was released this summer. It's very different from the original. Bronze Goddess Soleil starts with a stronger citrus notes - I smelled grapefruit. As it warms up, it becomes a fresh greenish floral that's predominantly lily and jasmine to my nose. It dries down to a light musky and wood base. The only thing that ties the two perfumes together in my mind is that Bronze Goddess Soleil seems to retain a little of that warm skin character underneath its florals, the way that Bronze Goddess does.

While I liked Bronze Goddess Soleil at first, I got a little bored with it after a while. I still prefer the original for it's unique and almost perfect simulacrum of beachiness.

For other great beach perfumes, try Parfumerie Generale Bois Naufragé or Creed Virgin Island Water, both big favourites of mine.

House: Estée Lauder
Nose: ?

Bronze Goddess Notes: coconut milk, sandalwood, vanilla, vetiver, myrrh, amber, mandarin, bergamot, lemon, orange, tiare flower, jasmine, magnolia, orange blossom and lavender.

Bronze Goddess Soleil Notes: citron, bergamot, tangerine, lavender, petitgrain, pittosporum, neroli, orange blossom, jasmine sambac, grapefruit tree blossom, pink lily, blonde woods, iris, ambrette seed and crystalline musks.

Diptyque - Olène

Pretty please!

I used to be quite the snob about pretty perfume. Not for me, I said, the simple floral bouquets. Give me spices and woods and leather! If I wore florals, they were complicated with bitter moss or animalic bases to make them darker, bitchier femme fatales. I didn't do girly. Boy, was I missing out.

Olène is girly and sweet, but without being stawberry/carmel/cotton candy dreck. It's a simple, romantic floral  based on three notes: wisteria, jasmine and narcissus.

I've never smelled wisteria, but they must smell like lilac, because the first few minutes of Olène smell exactly like burying your nose in a big bunch of fresh lilacs. It's intoxicating. Then, a short while later, it switches to rich jasmine, wafting it's gorgeous, gasoline-edged and narcotic prettiness everywhere. The narcissus in the base is barely there but it adds a slightly waxy, earthy strength.

And that's it. Simple but lovely. And what's wrong with a little prettiness?  In the spring, who can say no to a little romance? Olène makes me feel like mushy love songs and cartoon hearts and bunnies and flowers.

House: Diptyque
Nose:Serge Kalouguine
Notes: wisteria, jasmine, narcissus

Amouage - Memoir Woman

A balance of masculine and feminine

In my limited, pop-culture understanding, the concept of Yin and Yang is about the balance of male and female aspects. In perfume marketing, that's usually a no-no. Perfumes are divided between those for men and those for women and SA's will die of shock if you wander between the two counters. But perfume lovers know that, just as pink looks great on men and women look hot in tuxedos, perfume notes may seem masculine or feminine, but really, who cares? Crossing that line is not only fun, it should be encouraged.

That's why I find it odd when perfume houses release "Man" and "Woman" perfumes. Maybe they think that people will feel more comfortable buying a gender specific perfume. Maybe they're right. But, although I haven't smelled Amouage Memoir Man, I can tell you that Memoir Woman is not a feminine scent. In fact, it's a blend of masculine and feminine notes. It's an intricate dance of a perfume.

Memoir woman starts with a rather bracing wormwood note, combined with cardamom and pepper and clove. It's sort of medicinal and spicy and this is the point at which it seems most masculine to me and reminds me a bit of Mechant Loup by L'Artisan Parfumeur. Then it softens and becomes more of a comforting, spicy scent, like Like This by Etat Libre d'Orange. At this point it's perfectly unisex.

In the heart, jasmine and rose bloom underneath a trellis of wood. This is the most feminine part of Memoir Woman. The transition is a little surprising, just when I thought I had a spicy masculine scent, now I have a woody floral. But the story isn't over yet.

My favourite part happens about 12 hours after application, in the dry down, when Memoir woman becomes an old-fashioned leather chypre. Smooth, musky leather and lovely oakmoss are wrapped in a creamy, resiny labdanum. This part is either old-school feminine or unisex, depending on how you feel about perfumes like Bandit. I can't keep my nose away from my wrist once it gets to this point.

Memoir woman is a complicated, changeable perfume and one of the best Amouage scents I have tried.

House: Amouage
Nose:  Daniel Maurel and Dorothée Piot
Notes: Top notes: cardamom, mandarin orange, pink pepper and wormwood; middle notes: clove, incense, pepper, woodsy notes, jasmine, rose and white flowers; base notes: musk, french labdanum, oak moss, styrax and leather.

Photo: innpictime

Roja Dove - Diaghilev

Glamour is not dead
As part of their exhibit to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Ballets Russe, The Victoria and Albert Museum collaborated with perfumer Roja Dove to create a new fragrance.

The Ballets Russe

In the early 20th century, an amazing confluence of art, dance, music and fashion was happening in Paris. At the centre of the this artistic playground was the influential company, the Ballets Russe and its founder, the Russian impresario, Serge Diaghilev (1872-1929). Under Diaghilev, the Ballets Russes collaborated with choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky and composer Igor Stravinsky. Artists who designed sets included Braque, Picasso, Matisse, Miro, de Chirico, Dali, and Utrillo. Coco Chanel herself designed costumes for four productions. The costumes and artwork (like the picture, right) of artistic director Léon Bakst, with their bright colours and swirling orientalism, had a great influence on fashion and design.

The Chypre

To celebrate this influential person, and the golden era of the Ballets Russe, Dove chose to create a chypre. Chypres were popular at the time and include some of the greats, like Coty Chypre and Caron Tabac Blond and legend has it that Serge Diaghilev used to spray his curtains with Guerlain Mitsouko.

Diaghilev, the perfume, is a true chypre, not a perfume that skips the oakmoss, adds patchouli and calls itself a "modern chypre." There is an uplifting citrus opening, a lush floral heart, and a warm, earthy base with oakmoss. But within this classic form, Dove has created a modern fragrance with transparency and complexity, like layers of chiffon silk.

What does it smell like?

Diaghilev starts with a sheer lemon-orange note that is slightly smoky. I always think that I haven't sprayed enough at this point; the old-fashioned bulb atomizer delivers such a fine mist. But as the perfume sits on my skin it seems to get stronger. Once the heart notes arrive it has significant sillage. And what a waft! Diaghilev is a sex bomb. Rowrrr. There's nothing animalic listed in the notes, but Diaghilev is a very, very naughty girl. It's a full and ripe and bed-headed in rumpled sheets kind of naughty. Diaghilev is a woman whose chic updo is a mess and her silk gown lies where it dropped on the floor last night.

The hussy heart of this perfume smells like some of the great vintage perfumes but done in a modern way. It's a "modern vintage" like The Party in Manhattan. The bottle features a figure by Baskt, Narcisse. Maybe that is why I keep thinking of narcissus when I smell Diaghilev, but it's not listed in the notes. There's rose and jasmine, a classic combo, and maybe baked peaches with spice, just a hint.  The base is sweet and dark and dirty and, of course, it has the necessary touch of oakmoss, without which it would not be a chypre.

I love Diaghilev. It was released by the V&A Museum in a limited edition, only 1,000 bottles, although I hear rumours they may make more. I bought it unsniffed, the first time I've ever done that, because I'd heard good things about it. I'd heard it was a chypre with classical bone structure and I knew that Roja Dove is a perfume expert and a connoisseur of the Grand Old Dame perfumes.

I'm not disappointed. Diaghilev is one of the few perfumes I wear that I want others to smell. You know how it is; I test so many different perfumes that most of the time I just want to keep my sillage under the radar. But with Diaghilev, well, let them smell the gorgeousness that is me.

House: Roja Dove for the Victoria and Albert Museum
Nose: Roja Dove
Notes: bergamot, amalfi lemon and orange; middle notes are jasmine and rose; base notes are vetyver, iris, patchouli, oak moss and vanilla

P.S. In my typical backwards fashion, I didn't read Roja Dove's beautiful reference book, the Essence of Perfume, before writing this. But I have a copy now and I'm looking forward to it. I may write a book review.

Nasomatto - Nuda

A jasmine manifesto

First the rant: The Nasomatto website is a perfect example of all that I find annoying in perfume web sites. It has music I can't turn off. The whole thing is Flash. When I choose one section, there is no way to go back to a previous one and the text is the kind of flowery, poetic "manifesto" that sounds like it was written in Italian, translated to Japanese and then translated to English.

OK, rant done, I feel better now. Wait, I forgot to mention, there is nothing on the Nasomatto web site about their new perfume Nuda, so I can't tell you the official notes and the site only mentions the perfumer by his first name "Allesandro." From Fragrantica, I find that his name is Alessandro Gualtieri, but the only note revealed in Nuda is jasmine.

I wish I could say I knew the smell of live jasmine intimately, but I live in jasmine-deprived Canada. I've fallen in love with jasmine from soliflores like Montale Jasmine Full and By Kilian Love and Tears, Surrender and Opus Oils Jitterbug. Nuda is another perfume that explores the different facets of this gorgeous flower. Nuda is simply jasmine,  intoxicating and romantic from top to bottom. 

Nuda starts with the gasoline rush of pure jasmine: that part-flower, part-fuel scent. As that fades, it becomes a more conventional, sweetly narcotic jasmine. It's a little innocent and  a little sexy at the same time. Staying close to the skin, Nuda is a jasmine to wear for yourself or for lovers.

Pretty though it is, I feel like something is missing in Nuda. Jasmine Full has the sweet orange blossom and honeysuckle to round out it's jasmine; Love and Tears has a green stems note to add to its spring flowers feel. I've read that Nuda was intended by be very "animalic" but it's not on me. The dirty indoles of Jitterbug have been mostly stripped from Nuda, leaving it clean and fresh but just... pretty, and just jasmine.

Still, Nuda is a very good jasmine. If you are a jasmine fan like me, you should give it a sniff. Unfortunately, Nuda doesn't last all that long and the lack of any discernible basenotes, like a musk or wood, means that once the jasmine has faded there's nothing left but sweet dreams.

House: Nasomatto
Nose: Alessandro Gualtieri
Notes: jasmine

Image: Amedeo Modigliani,  Nu féminin, 1918

Opus Oils - Dirty, Sexy, Wilde

I can resist everything except temptation.

Opus Oils created Dirty, Sexy, Wilde to mark the one year anniversary of the opening of their Jitterbug Perfume Parlour. According to them, it was inspired by turn of the century perfume formulas for handkerchiefs.

To go with that turn of the century inspiration, they chose the image and name of the famous wit, the Irish writer, Oscar Wilde.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Dirty, Sexy, Wilde is, in fact, dirty and sexy. The green galbanum has an almost pine-like smell in the beginning. It's tarted-up with a little mandarin, then eases into a heart of dirty jasmine. It's also very animalic, right from the start; if you don't like civet be forewarned. It dries down to a lovely warm, floral, musky leather and salty skin. Dirty, Sexy, Wilde is like a warm and very rumpled bed, or the skin on your lover's neck the next morning. It's wonderfully indecent and charming at the same time. Pure sex.

House: Opus Oils
Nose: Kendra Hart
Notes: Galbanum, Red Mandarin, Violet, Rose, Night Jasmine, Blond Tobacco, Oakmoss, Coumarin, Musk, Civet and Ambergris

Opus Oils - Jitterbug

The day I realized I was a jasmine slut

Opus Oils opened their flagship store, the "Jitterbug Perfume Parlour," in glamorous Hollywood, California, in 2008. Joshua Hart, Co-Creator of Opus Oils’ Jitterbug Perfume Parlour describes the baroque looking store as

“... a cross between the movie “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” and the book “Jitterbug Perfume.” Mix that with the TV show “Hart to Hart,” sprinkle it with “Moulin Rouge” and then add a dash of Flapper Speakeasy Culture.”

Sounds like fun, huh? I'd love to visit. The grand opening also marked the debut of their perfume, Jitterbug.

If you've never read the book Jitterbug Perfume, by Tom Robbins, and you like perfume, you must pick it up, it's a weird and wonderful romp. The story follows one ancient god, two immortal lovers, three perfumers and a crazy Irish man obsessed with immortality. The key to everlasting life may just be a holy grail perfume built around a note of incredible jasmine (and a secret ingredient in the base).

Jitterbug contains four different jasmine absolutes and opens with a strong note of "poopy" jasmine. The scent of jasmine, as well as that of gardenia, orange blossom and some other flowers, contains molecules called "indoles" that have a fecal smell. When a perfume review says "indolic" they mean that the dirty edge of the flower is discernible in the perfume. I assume this is attractive to insects, but weirdly, it is also part of what makes these flowers sexy to human noses. It turns out we like a little nasty in our sublime.

It was when I discovered that I was still enjoying Jitterbug, poopiness and all, that I realized how far gone I am. I am a jasmine slut. I adore jasmine and all of it's beauty and baseness and I can't get enough. I love it when it's green and virginal like in Love and Tears, Surrender; I love it when it makes me dizzy with gasoline fumes like in Jasmine Full and I love its funkiness in Jitterbug.

There's a hint of lemon the cut the thickness, but the funk lasts a good half hour before it resolves into just beautiful jasmine blossoms. Under the jasmine is lovely creamy sandalwood and warm, sweet, salty ambergris that smells like skin.  The ambergris is "beach found" which means it is real, natural whale vomit and thus extremely rare. Yet another something that sounds gross but is actually divine.

Opus Oils perfumes are all handmade with an emphasis on "natural" ingredients. They all have a base of coconut oil. I've never worn an oil-based perfume before, but it absorbs nicely, leave my skin soft, and seems to last a long time. There isn't much sillage from my little dabbings but even the next morning, my wrists still have a pleasant musky sweetness left from the ambergris with a hint of flowers. If there was a flower that could point one in the direction of immortality, I think it would be jasmine and wearing a little Jitterbug perfume behind the ears can't hurt.

House: Opus Oils
Nose: Kedra Hart
Notes: Four different kinds of Jasmine absolute, Honeysuckle, Lemon Essence, Orange Blossom, "Beach Found" Ambergris, Blond Tobacco & Sandalwood

Tauer Perfumes - Eau d’épices

An orange for October

When the leaves turn to flames on the maple trees and there are fat orange pumpkins for sale at my corner store, I start to crave perfumes that make me feel warm, perfumes filled with woods, incense and spices. Fall is usually the time of year that I put citrus scents to the back of the shelf. While I find them cooling and uplifting in hot weather, citrus scents are not what I typically want to wear in the Canadian autumn. Until now.

It took me a little while to warm up to Eau d’épices. Tauer Perfumes typically use high concentrations of their essences, and they can be strong to start.  Eau d’épices opens with a big blast of something that made me think of gasoline but it turns out to be an overdose combination of clove and cardamom. It takes a little while for these strong top notes to burn off and let the heart shine though.

In that heart are some gentler, warm spices and a lovely tart citrus that will be familiar to those who have tried other Tauer perfumes. Andy Tauer uses a juicy clementine or mandarin note in the opening of a few of his perfumes, such as Orange Star, Rose Chyprée, Le Maroc Pour Elle and Incense Rosé. I'm starting to think of it as one of his signatures. But in Eau d’épices the tangerine shines through the whole progression of the perfume, making it bright and lively.

The spices swirling around the orange aren't hot or foody, just dry and woody. Joining the pomander are fragrant orange blossoms. Like citrus, I usually like these white flowers in warmer weather, but they work perfectly in Eau d’épices, adding a light floral creaminess to the tangy orange and spices.

The drydown of Eau d’épices has the familiar "Tauerade" of incense and labdanum. I think there's ambrein in there; it's in many of Tauer's perfumes. Ambrein is a gorgeous extract of labdanum that Tauer describes in an interview with Nathan Branch as “pineta”, pine wood, ambergris on a chord of wood, dry fir needles under a Mediterranean sun, woody pine incense."  

In the same interview Tauer says that orange blossom and labdanum were two of the first essences he experimented with, his true loves. In Eau d’épices these two notes lift and sweeten the spices and create a beautiful resinous depth behind the orange note.

Leave it to Andy Tauer to create a citrus scent perfect for October. Eau d’épices is round orange moon rising above a dark spice forest.

House: Tauer Perfumes
Nose: Andy Tauer
Notes:
Head: An Indian basket of spices with cinnamon, cardamom, clove and corriander with red mandarines.
Heart: An opulent heart of orange blossom, jasmine, orris root and incense.
Body: A woody cistus ladaniferus resin, softened with ambergris, tonka beans and vetiver.

Photo: adaenn

By Kilian - Love and Tears, Surrender

First love

By Kilian is a line of luxury perfumes by, um, Kilian, the heir to "a long line of cognac makers." (Interesting, again we have a connection between perfume and an old French cognac family.) By Kilian perfumes are expensive, but they use high quality materials (you can really smell the difference) and talented noses.  

Love and Tears, Surrender was composed by Calice Becker, who also created the critically acclaimed and popular fragrances Dior J'Adore EDP, Estee Lauder Beyond Paradise, Pierre Balmain Vent Vert, Lancome Cuir de Lancome and Tommy Hilfiger Tommy Girl among others. 

Love and Tears is the latest By Kilian perfume, in a lineup that are all named with love affair themes, like Prelude to Love, Invitation, and Beyond Love, Prohibited, and Back to Black, Aphrodisiac. Love and Tears is a fresh, green jasmine soliflore that reminds me of spring and young love.

One thing I love about By Kilian is that they publish the "perfumer's formula" for each of their fragrances. Each ingredient/accord is listed, along with its measure in grams. So from the web site, I learn that Love and Tears has a Jasmine Heart composed five different jasmines: Indian Jasmine, Egyptian Jasmine, Jasmine Headspace, Solar Jasmine Accord and Water Jasmine Note.

Oh this jasmine is beautiful! Love and Tears is a hyper-realistic jasmine soliflore. It smells like fresh, wet petals. The jasmine comes complete with branches and green leaves. The petitgrain has a fresh woodiness and the galbanum (yum) is wonderfully green.

The floral heart seems to have other spring flowers as well. The notes list daffodil and lily of the valley but sometimes I also think I'm smelling lilacs. It just seems like a big bouquet of spring flowers. In the end, there's a light mossy-wood drydown with the ever-present jasmine.

Love and Tears seems to me to be the scent of that first passionate love, the one you never forget. It's the sweetest happiness and the tears when it ends. It's a gorgeous perfume and I want to wear it all the time these days, even though it's fall and I'm usually only craving spice or amber or woods about now. I may need a bottle. I think this would also be the perfect first perfume for my niece, if I wasn't a little hesitant to get her hooked on something so dear.

A recent study claims that the smell of jasmine reduces anxiety, promotes rest and is "as calming as valium." I believe it. For the past few days, I have been wearing Love and Tears to bed and I have had the sweetest dreams.

House: By Kilian
Nose: Calice Becker
Notes: bergamot, petitgrain, galbanum, jasmine, ylang ylang, daffodil, orange blossom, lily of the valley, cedar, styrax, oak moss

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

Montale - Jasmine Full

Addictive jasmine, honeysuckle and orange blossom

Jasmine Full should come with a warning: Unless you love it strong, do not sniff up close for at least 10 minutes! Seriously, put that wrist down by your side and leave it there. This is strong stuff. You would not want to spill a bottle of JF in your purse. Luckily, there's little chance of that with the practical aluminum cylinders that Montale uses as bottles.

The top notes of JF smell like hyacinth and gasoline. I wonder if the smell of gasoline is an aspect of the jasmine? Aha, yes! The Scented Salamander says that a "nuance of gasoline exhaust appreciated by connoisseurs of the flower." So, I guess if you are a jasmine aficionado, you won't be surprised by the top notes. They grew on me; now I love that blast of gasoline and spicy, thick hyacinth. I even get a hint of lilac, like when they are blooming and you stick your face right into the bushes and inhale – overwhelming in a good way.

So trust me, if you're sensitive, only remote sniffing for a few minutes. You will be rewarded. After 10-15 minutes the most delicious scent will be wafting around you. JF becomes the most perfect night-blooming jasmine, dark and mysterious and narcotic, like the smell of lust on a summer night. Then it gets better. The jasmine becomes a base for two other white flowers to ride on: orange blossom and honeysuckle. If jasmine is lust, orange blossom and honeysuckle are first love, pure and sweet. I enjoy the honeysuckle the most.  JF is the only perfume I've tried that has this mouth-watering honeysuckle note. It floats around me like a veil.

The lighter white flowers are lifted by the heady jasmine beneath them and Jasmine Full becomes more than a soliflore; it's an incredibly beautiful, summer-flowers bouquet. Even better, my husband loves it too. Unfortunately, without any real base notes, like woods, musks, etc., the gorgeousness is fleeting. What's so strong at 8 am is mostly gone by 4 pm. All the more reason that I am going to need that full aluminum bottle for my purse.

House: Montale
Nose: Pierre Montale
Notes: Jasmine, honeysuckle and orange blossom

Photo: Madmoiselle Lavender

Parfumerie Generale - Drama Nuii

Dry jasmine and herbs morphs into a pale green lily of the valley

Pierre Guillaume likes bitter green. I've only tried two Parfumerie General perfumes, Drama Nuii and Papyrus de Ciane, and both star a bitter green accord.

Drama Nuii starts with a lemony jasmine, and a green rose. The rose is soapy. As it develops a herbalness with a spicy edge comes out, that made me think of clary sage maybe. It's a little like hay, or dry grasses,  not sweet, but bitter and a little tannic like tea. The notes say absinthe, a story for the herbal green bitterness of the perfume.

The green floral smell becomes a light lily of the valley. After a while that's all I can smell, green lily, a little bitter and a little soapy. Then after a while, a little musky.

The whole is a dry, light green take on jasmine and lily. Not too sweet, it would suit a man or woman.

House: Parfumerie Generale
Nose: Pierre Guillaume
Notes: petitgrain, absinthe, jasmine, spices, guaiac wood, sandalwood, musk

Photo: sektordua

Ego Facto - Prends Guard à Toi

Who's afraid of the big bad... melon?

Never, have I seen such a disconnect between the press material for a perfume and what it actually smells like. The name  Prends guard à toi means "Beware." The Ego Facto web site describes this fragrance as:

Its motto: Gather thistles, expect prickles !
Its emblem: A stinging nettle leaf
Its heartfelt cry: Declare yourself defiant
Egoistic Profile: A woman but it could be a man for that matter, with an independent, free and consciously provocative character.

Really, Ego Facto? Really? Ok, here's what it smells like: watery green melon, metallic ozone, faint jasmine, clean musk.

Does that sound "defiant" or "provocative" to you? There's an infamous synthetic molecule called Calone, that is used frequently to provide an aquatic, slightly melony, metallic note - like sea breeze, in perfume. Chandler Burr calls it the "olfactory equivalent of corn syrup" because of its ubiquity. Prends guard à toi smells like Calone and jasmine and some clean musks. Nothing to beware of here. 

House: Ego Facto
Nose: Jean Guichard and Aurelien Guichard
Notes: Green and jasmine

Photo: Turtlemom4bacon

L'Artisan Parfumeur - Thé Pour Un Été

Jasmine tea with lemon

Thé Pour Un Été has a short list of notes and a simple concept that's been done before (see Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert), but the result is a very beautiful and satisfying perfume. 

TPUE was created by Olivia Giacobetti, the nose behind some of my favourite perfumes (like Philosykos.) I find that I'm starting to gravitate to her work and that of a couple others.  In her perfumes, the notes shine as naturally as they do in real life but also melt into perfect harmonies with each other.

TPUE starts with a realistic sweet tea note with lemon. I immediately thought of iced-tea. I don't really smell the mint, but there is a certain leafy greeness to the opening.

After the tart lemon fades the jasmine comes out and the tea morphs into the smell of jasmine tea, exactly as I remember it from university when I drank gallons of it. The jasmine and tea notes weave in and out - sometime I smell one and then the other. TPUE stays with these two notes - there aren't any real bottom notes - until they gradually fade away.

Or do they? At first, I thought this wasn't a long-lasting perfume - I believed it was gone by lunch. But TPUE is one of those tricky perfumes, the kind you can't smell if stick your nose right up to your skin but you keep catching whiffs of it floating in the air, hours after you thought it was gone. Stray notes of jasmine in the air like far off music and the tannic smell of tea.

House: L'Artisan Parfumeur
Nose: Olivia Giacobetti
Notes: tea, jasmine, bergamot, amalfi lemon and mint (Fragrantica)

Photo: Fenchurch

Penhaligon's - Orange Blossom

A light, sweet and refreshing orange veil for a hot summer day

Originally created in 1976 for their Anthology line, Penhaligon's classic Orange Blossom has been updated by the famous perfumer Betrand Duchaufour. You can watch a video of M. Duchaufour describing  Orange Blossom on the Penhaligon's site.

In the video, Duchaufour talks about how he wanted to modernize the perfume by giving is a more "contrastic" structure and richer notes. I don't know what the original was like, but this orange blossom feels quite sheer.

The top notes have a sharp lemony citrus.  Duchaufour speaks of adding a "leafy green" top note, and I do smell a little green here and it's also a little spicy.

In the heart Duchaufour added jasmine to the main orange blossom note, as well as other florals, but I think it's mainly the orange blossom and jasmine that I smell. He mentions adding a couple of florals that aren't in the official list, such as honeysuckle, narcissus and gardenia. I get a little of the narcissus, which has a feeling of pollen and once in a while, if I sniff deeply, I catch a hint of a rich gardenia.

To the base, he added "woody" notes and vanilla to make it more sensuous and comforting. What I mainly smell in the drydown is light, sweet wood and a slightly orangey vanilla. It is comforting.

On the whole, Orange Blossom is a light, refreshing, slightly sweet white floral with the barest hint of orange. It rests over my skin like a veil and is perfect in the muggy Toronto summer heat. Just a dab from the sample was not enough - I really have to pour it on to get the full effect - but it lasts all day and wafts up gently from my wrists as I write this. I might buy a full bottle and spray myself from head to toe this summer.

Perfume: Orange Blossom
House: Penhaligon's
Nose: Bertrand Duchaufour
Notes:
Head Notes: Neroli, Violet leaf, Bergamot, Lemon-cedrat, Cardamom absolute, Pink berries
Heart Notes: Orange absolute, Egyptian jasmine absolute, Tuberose absolute, Rose essence, Peach flower, Orchid
Base Notes: Sandalwood, Virginian cedar, White musk, Vanilla


Art: Mockingbirds on Orange Blossom by Albert Earl Gilbert

Creed - Virgin Island Water

Perfume: Virgin Island Water
House: Creed
Nose: Olivier Creed and Erwin Creed
Notes: white bergamot, Jamaican lime, Sicilian mandarin, coconut, Indian jasmine, hibiscus, ylang-ylang, ginger, musk and white rum

Put the lime in the coconut, and call me in the moooooorning

It's the summer solstice and I'm in the mood for a pick-me up summer scent. Virgin Island Water is my beach vacation in a bottle. VIW was created by Oliver and Erwin Creed, 6th and 7th generations respectively of the luxury perfume house Creed. Creed was founded in 1760 by James Henry Creed and has many famous clients. Creed's perfumes aren't cheap, but they are constructed with high quality ingredients.

Like many of my favourites, VIW is green in my mind but this time it's a neon green of lime and fresh coconut husks. The first blast of this scent has strong citrus and coconut notes, both of which I love. But make sure those around you love it too - VIW is a sillage monster for the first couple of hours, so spray carefully.

After the first few minutes, the creamy tropical florals, jasmine and ylang ylang, creep in, like a lei draped around your neck. Underneath everything is the sharp boozy scent of white rum. VIW is a unisex fregrance, and smells absolutely delicious on a man as well.

VIW isn't shy, as I mentioned it's actually a little loud at first, but it's so darn cheerful I don't mind. VIW is a friendly tanned hunk in a Hawaiian shirt bringing me a tall fruity rum drink with an umbrella while I lounge near the brilliant white sand and blue water of my dream beach.


Photo by Celine Nadeau