Un Matin d'Orage (2009)
by Annick Goutal

I feel compelled to step in to break the tie on this one. While not as offensive to my nose as it seems to have been to UBU, what starts out as a faintly pleasant floral deteriorates into an irritating ozone-tinged sweet floral after about 15 minutes. I get the concept: the thirsty earth soaking up the welcome rain, the scent of gardenias mingling with steamy soil, but there are no surprises in this fragrance. My nose is weary after smelling it for 30 minutes.

Disappointed. Started off bright but after 20 minutes my eyes began to water and I kept smelling body odor. Couldn't stand it - big-time B.O.

To me, Un Matin d'Orage smells like a dewy, unripe peach still hanging on the tree that would be tart and crisp rather than sweet and juicy of you bit into it. But you don't bite into it, you just put your nose next to its downy skin and inhale. I find most fruity scents too sweet and synthetic, but this is just lovely. Probably because there aren't really any fruit notes in it - the illusion of peach must be created by the floral notes. Which makes sense - magnolia can smell a tad peachy, but like a cool and unsweet peach note. It's definitely a moist and cool fragrance - rainy, even - I can see the raindrops clinging to the peach, and to the leaves of the peach tree, and the sun has not yet come out between the dark clouds. It's too delicate and pretty a scent to be associated with thunderstorms though - if so, it's definitely in the calm after the storm.
At first, I was surprised at the love-or-hate reactions and the scrubber reviews because I found the scent too pretty to be loathed with that kind of passion, but yes, after a while I can sort of feel the plasticky/metallic tang in the fragrance that might provoke that kind of reaction. It might be the ozone, and it might also be a discreet gardenia, since gardenia notes can sometimes have a plasticky sharpness to them (not existing in the indolic sweetness of the actual flower!) There's also a touch of grassy greens, and I know that some people are very sensitive to green notes, even though I personally love them and rarely can get enough of them even in fragrances supposed to be very green.
Cool fragrances supposed to evoke rain or dew rarely works for me, but this is a wonderful exception, very lifelike, like a photo of a summer garden after the rainstorm!

YIKES! At first sniff, the presence of ylang-ylang is distinct. For me ylang-ylang comes across as stinky. A potent stink weed. In Un Matin d'Orage; it is a major player - which is the first problem my olfactory detects. The next, and maybe more obvious offender, is shisho. (Never heard of it before now, so took a quick glance through wikipedia.) Apparently this is a genus of annual herb that is a member of the mint family. Grown in India & East Asia, a chemotype oil is extracted from the leaves. It has a terpene like quality, which explains the chemical bomb personality of UMdO. At times it smells 'indolic', in a dirty/chemical way. Not at all pleasant. I also sense a mushroom/fungi note that some may perceive as earthy...for me it is...mushroomy. Maybe that's the champaca. At any rate, I haven't anything positive to say here. This is one of the most unappealing scents I've smelled in a long time.

Annick Goutal Un Matin D'Orage

I grew up in South Florida and one of the scents that reminds me of my childhood is gardenia. In my neighborhood there were gardenias everywhere and the sweet, sharp scent of gardenia reminds me of humid days and sunshine. Un Matin D'Orage which means Stormy Morning is a 2009 release by Isabelle Doyen the longtime nose of Annick Goutal. She wanted to evoke a Japanese Garden after a storm. I'm not sure about the Japanese part but a garden after a storm she hits right on the nose. That evocation of a post-storm feel comes right at the top as there is an ozonic note redolent of the way the air smells after a particularly active thunderstorm has passed. It is paired with an aquatic accord and really does a nice job of starting this off on the right foot. As this garden begins to dry out in the sun the scents of the different flowers come back starting with gardenia. Mme. Doyen does a marvelous job of capturing the sweet of the gardenia but there is a green sharpness to gardenia that doesn't translate as well and this gardenia accord stays firmly on the sweet side of things. The other floral in the heart to balance this is magnolia which is less sweet and keeps the gardenia in check and from dominating the development of this one. Finally in the base a mixture of jasmine and champaca bring the sweet level down a notch and finish this with a sense of night falling as the aquatic notes creep back in. Un Matin D'Orage is a 100-proof floral which does one of the best jobs of evoking the garden after a rainstorm I've smelled, to date.

Reminds me of Donna Karan Gold. to me smells like some other apologetic scents. Lacks originality, even if the fresh water and soft distant, shy delicate flower smell may feel charming.
Well I suppose I am disappointed.
At times a whiff of surprising candour, almost sad, reaches up to my nose.