Malmaison (1830)
by Floris

I dearly love the smell of a good carnation perfume and Malmaison is resplendent in rich ,clovey spicey carnation. It 's not very different form Bellodgia by Caron except this is lighter in feel and less sweet-ambery . It's a beautiful sloliflore and very sad sad that this carnation scent is no longer produced. Thanks to HilaryJane for this lovely sample. :)

6th October, 2010.

I have 3 brand new, never opened, 100ml bottles of Floris Malmaison EDT. These have been beautifully gift wrapped by Floris with their own paper and ribbon and so would make a very special gift. This unusual, iconic and very wearable carnation scent has been discontinued by Floris for some time now (and they have no intention of bringing it back) so it is now also very rare. If you are interested in purchasing one of these bottles, please email me: michelle.j.aris@googlemail.com

2nd November, 2009.

It's very rare that I experience a fragrance drastically differently from the great reviewer foetidus, but that's what I'm experiencing with Malmaison. There's definitely a heavy dose of clove, but not nearly as overwhelming as something like Ava Luxe Kretek or even other carnation scents like CdG Carnation. The clove is prominent, but lurking not far underneath is a sweet, almost angelica-like green floral/carnation note and a touch of black tea. The fragrance is fairly linear, but I find it very enjoyable and thus don't really mind. As far as carnation scents go, Malmaison is one of my favorite. Sadly bottles seem to be hard to come by these days....

30th October, 2009.

To my nose, the use of cloves in Malmaison make it one-dimensional, linear, and causes cloves overload. It’s an even sharper cloves note than I’ve seen in other fragrances with the same problem — Geo Trumpers’ Bay Rum, for instance. The clove gets its extra sharpness, I believe, from its combination with the cinnamon and pepper. Maybe even the carnations add their spiciness to the accord, too. At any rate, Malmaison presents only this spicy cloves accord to my nose. It’s much too strong… and for me it takes over sixty minutes for the intensity of the cloves to ameliorate enough for me to tolerate. It becomes a skin scent at the end — a nice scent but very close to the skin. To recap: linear, one-dimensional, and cloves / cinnamon spice bomb. Then it morphs into a skin scent. If you like the smell of cloves, you’ll probably like this.

4th November, 2007.

Malmaison is one of my favourite fragrance ! But.. I'm not a woman. The very spicy clove note makes it a very unclassic masculine scent. Floris does not present Malmaison as a fragrance for woman.

24th October, 2007.

Perhaps it's the black tea, perhaps it's the heavy-duty clove, but this is one of the few carnation scents I find bitter (not sweet on me) and unwearable. I swapped it away.

It does smell lovely if you have the right chemistry. I think of it as a more masculine than feminine scent.

8th April, 2007.