Fragrance Reviews by Lemur

On paper:
Nice peppery wood right up front with something warm and resinous in the background, not bone dry but not sweet, intriguing..and then... that's it.
Very disappointing, since the bottle, the name(from a variety of Sri Lankan sapphires the colour of lotus flowers and sunsets) and ingredients all made me want to like it.

On my skin:
something a bit sweet almost like black tea is making the pepper read as almost clove-like. The lightly honeyed tea note comes up a bit on my skin in a way it didn't on paper.Very little silage and its only the pepper that carries.
I feel like, on someone else maybe the sweet sandalwood and amber and musk notes that are supposed to be there might come forward and it could be wonderful.
On me, no lotus-hued sunsets, no such luck. Can't afford one of those sapphires either. My inner princess is going to go sulk now :(

My first impression straight from the sample vial was clearly black pepper. I'm quite new to serious perfume sampling but, I had no trouble distinguishing that without looking at the description. There was a light sweet kind of 'sugar water' backdrop to it too.
On a strip of paper, the pepper is there just as prominently but the lightly wet something balances it more, a bit of cedar was also apparent in the background.
After that I couldn't guess anything else so I looked at the description. The light sweet thing would appear to be 'white violet' . I have no idea how that differs from a standard blue violet but it sounds like it should be a clean lightly sweet fresh delicate floral and so, it would seem,it is.

On my skin a floral quality is more apparent and maybe more identifiably violet, if that's not just the power of suggestion but, if its violet, its more those violet flavoured breath freshening pastilles than fresh flowers.
The whole thing is light and sparkly and intriguing.
I could definitely see spraying this on sheets or for scenting drawer liners or something. There's a soapyness there..those pretty little guest soaps you never really use. Nice enough but, well..'nice'..

If theres patchouli here its very slight but I'm glad for that, any bergamot involved is lost in the mix for me too. Incense, yeah, I can believe that but in a clean soapy sort of way not at all heady.

I like it, I enjoyed sampling it and its quite unlike any other scent I've tried but I wouldn't buy a full size version.

This is the first men's scent I really fell in love with. There are so many cookie-cutter citrusy men's scents that remind me of shaving soap out there and this was a wonderful surprise. At first it was strangely like maple syrup but that goes away and leaves this luxuriant carpet of sandalwood and black pepper plus some other mysterious background notes, something a bit like camphor, there's more but I can't place it. I think I like not knowing, I just know it makes me wild. When a man wears this I want to stalk him like a leopard and bite his neck provocatively. When I wear it I'm distracted and just want to sit alone smelling myself all day. Purrrrrrr.

I never used to wear or even try perfume because most-synthetic essences (aldehydes in particula it would seem), heady or powdery scents give me a nasty migraine. I started hunting for something I could wear when I became involved with a man whose response to perfume was rather different ;)
Thats when I discovered the Annick Goutal line. She keeps the formulae fairly simple , not too many ingredients to confuse my sensitive nose and excitable vascular system.
This was the one we both settled on. I was surprised that there was such a feminine fragrance that I could like this much. I formerly tended towards citrusy mens scents and and occasional bit of spice or freesia since it never gave me headaches.

I'm not sure what other reviewers are picking up on but, on me at least. it definitely doesn't remind me in any way of baby powder or any other baby product. Baby oil ranks as the most loathesome scent known to humankind in my book so I feel like I'd notice if it did.
What comes up prominently on me is blackcurrant (which I lurrrrve) and lily-of-the-valley. Very warm, definitely feminine and sweet with some headyness, which would ordinarily bother me, but somehow the balance is right, the tart fruit and slight woodsy sombreness of the flowers balances it.
Unabashedly romantic but not in a soppy hearts and cherubs way, all sophistication and timeless allure.