Farnesiana (1947)
by Caron

A mature mimosa scent with sweet ,creamy and earthy background...the hay note is companied the floral part and gives an earthy feeling to the composition(i receive a whole grain /cereal smell) ...vanilla adds creaminess and sweetness even more...
This is a grown up sophisticated and fine scent...
I really like it!

30th December, 2011.

Have to agree with Mimi Gardenia (and Taliaseki) that the first connection this scent creates is to the paraffin note in l'Heure Blue. It's a warm, enveloping note, and here it mingles with the equally present florals to become something sweet and powdery (with just the slightest suggestion of salty play-doh and almonds.) This is definitely one that keeps my wrist pressed to my nose. It's incredibly comforting in cool weather, almost more maternal than gourmand.

The only reason it loses a star is the risk of smelling like a freshly diapered baby. While there are no cheap notes here, a light application seems to elicit "baby powder?" more often than compliments from unsophisticated coworkers.

19th October, 2010.

A very subtle cream-gourmand of vintage years gone by - it's a warm almond- violet - vanilla -heliotrope scent that melds beautifully with skin . Caron's equivalent to Guerlain's l'Heure Bleue ? It is delectably good ,soft, romantic . Excellent. Full bottle worthy !

21st July, 2010.

Farnesiana is my favorite Caron fragrance, and one that I think really deserves more attention.

Though described as a mimosa soliflore, it owes as much to almond as it does to mimosa. The thick, creamy, marzipan-like almond note is accented with the tangy, fruity mimosa, and underscored with a faintly foody, vanillic base. Compared to modern gourmands this is subtle; very understated. The "fruity-floral" element is an inherent quality in mimosa rather than florals amped up with artificial fruit candy notes, as is common in the genre today.

It reminds me of a kind of apricot tart a local bakery used to sell. They were soft, almost cake-like, filled in the bottom with marzipan and in the top with apricot. Farnesiana is the fragrance equivalent of eating one of those!

The sillage is delicate, but the longevity is good ( I tried it in parfum extrait concentration ).

Highly recommended.

30th April, 2009.

Delicately sweet mimosa really pampers my mood and makes me feel lying on hammock in a summer garden; lazy and pleased. After the flashing opening comes a paraffinous note which i cannot name but stays there fading even to the end. when the scent settles on skin mimosas becomes comfortably dominant. If you smell it hard, to the end of your sniff comes an almondly aroma reminds me of almond buttercakes but really when you push it. So i do not find this scent gourmand. Also the cassies around here do not smell like that either. This is a nice mimosa scent which i would like to wear. If i should compare it with Champs-Elysées (1904) by Guerlain, though being 43 years older Champs-Elysées is a much more bright sunny joyful fragrance. Mainly almond flowers opening of Champs-Elysées is cheery with rose and buddleria. Farnesia is much more melancholic with violets and musk. Both would have their own place in my wardrobe but with a much more longevity Champs-Elysées is a better buy if you have to choose a mimosa scent.

5th July, 2008.

Have lately been interested in mimosa/cassie-type scents. I have recently been given Mimosa pour Moi from L'Artisan Parfumeur, and decided to buy Calèche Fleurs de Méditérranée. Both of these feature mimosa. Farnésiana mingles it with cassie (acacia flower, a related plant). Both are very green florals and seem to me to be very uplifting. The sensual aspect of perfumes is somewhat offset by the spiritual in the case of these notes, IMO.

11th October, 2007.