Private Collection - Corps et Ames
by Parfumerie Generale

It's a chipper!

"What's that?"

A Chypre. It's a woody, floral, leathery chypre. I feel like it goes a little heavy on the rose (is it rose?), and yet somehow it never crosses that line into femininity. The sillage is "just right" and the scent itself is deep, rich, and dark while it maintaining a soapy cleanliness. It's a little more mature than, say, Aramis, but I'm a big proponent of the "no age limit" for fragrances because, "it doesn't wear you, you wear it." Corps et Ames also has a lot of "personality." All throughout my day while I wore it I was experiencing the smell shift and bend as different aspects of the composition connected with my nose. Everyone reading this should get themselves a sample so they can experience it once. Samples are currently available, but I'm ain't pluggin no website that ain't payin' me, say word.

10th August, 2011.

I was attracted to this because the perfumed court described it as a 'modern chypre", which is my favorite category.

Unfortunatlely this falls into the men's category, and calling it unisex is misleading.

To me this is opens dusty and dry. The Bourgon geranium perhaps? Not sure. It reminds me of how someone would smell after walking through a rank and poorly aerated bar (back in the days when people could smoke in these establishments) This also has the high ringing 'cologne' note, which makes it hard for me to enjoy.

I wore this overnight, and in the morning I detected a more pleasant leathery-floral aura. This phase was the most enjoyable, and the only phase I would like to smell on my significant other.

This fragrance will come down to chemistry, and I htink those who could pull it off are those that tend to 'sharpen or elevate' fragrances, not those who's chemistry sinks it or amplifies the basenotes.

1st August, 2010.

What an oversight in the perfume community. I do understand these PG PC ones are hard to get to and hard to sample, but this fragrance is extraordinary.

A true chypre-lovers chypre. And here I have been jadedly pondering the possibility that there are no new chypres out there to wow me anymore.

This has a very woody, bracing sort-of men's chypre facet (think Chant's creations) and almost too-woody base, but also a very floral sillage, that is almost delicate and seems to pop away from the on-skin fragrance.

Its rosy heart is dark and dirty and ties the hard leather base to the flightier floral aspect with the mediating aplomb to create a unified, riveting, very-noticeable, fatale of a daring chypre.

It bears a clear kinship to both 'Knowing' and Tom Fords 'Arabian Wood', with its slinky darkness and its soapy granular quality respectively.

Fantastic. Recommended. Five Stars.

2nd July, 2010.

I adore this and am completely flumoxed (sp?) by the complete lack of passion it engenders in others. If it is supposed to be a masculine, perhaps that is why, because I find it a very sexy feminine of rose, leather, sandalwood. It has near perfect sillage and tremendous lasting power at 12 hr. +. Faintly sweet but dry at the same time. Smells very classy and come hither. Pure love and 100 ml worthy. I'm really liking the PG line and am currently test driving Querelle, Psychotrope and L'oiseau de nuit. The only complaint I have with the line so far, is that it has a tendency to overuse that nauseating caramel note which I don't think has any place in perfumery, let alone niche lines, but that's just me. . . .

29th January, 2010.

pretty intense accords of patchouli and leather surface immediately with the lush, floral opening naccords. in some ways it reminds me of Givenchy Gentleman (openign accords). a lovely scent, well deserved to be in the private collection. thumbs up!

15th September, 2008. (Last Edited: 18th September, 2009.)

This has a peppery, intriguing and subtle start. Geranium rose and other rose notes are spicy, floral, translucent, not sweet and quite interesting. Woody bright hints of oudh -- good. Vanilla is very restrained. This settles into a pleasant peppery-floral-wood scent that is light and breezy. (substantially revised)

5th April, 2008. (Last Edited: 30th December, 2010.)