Fragrance Reviews by RedRazz

Nacre is a sweet, heavy, womanly perfume, best worn lightly! If you favor soft or unisex fragrances, this one is not for you! Heart notes of rose, orange blossom, and jasmine are even further warmed and sweetened by a base of vanilla and amber, topped off with pear and a bare hint of ginger. On my skin, this combination tended to turn soapy after a period of time.

If Nacre calls your name, save it for a special evening, a lusciously feminine outfit, and a romantic frame-of-mind. Wear it for slow-dancing, for cuddling on the front-porch swing afterwards, for a quiet night-cap, and whatever comes after that….

This is a rich, delicious, wrist-sniffing fragrance. The blend of spices and dark chocolate is truly sensual and intoxicating--I dabbed this on more than 3 hours ago, and I am still firmly under its spell! While it is unquestionably a gourmand scent, it is not insufferably sweet, carrying--so far as I can tell--only the natural sweetness of the cinnamon and clove. My sample of Piment et Chocolat has prompted another DSH order, and I plan to use it quite regularly through the holiday season and beyond.

Top notes: black pepper, paprika, pimento berry (allspice), red chili
Heart notes: cinnamon, clove, nutmeg
Base notes: cocoa beans, dark chocolate

When I purchased this unsniffed (on sale at TJ Maxx) in the dead heat of summer, my reaction was, "No, this is too much for me!." So I put it up for swap. Luckily for me, no one came forth to take up the offer, and I am now finding it a lovely cool weather fragrance. Jan Moran classifies this as a chypre-floral, but to my nose, it seems an Oriental.

Top notes: bergamot, aldehydes, rosewood, fruits
Heart notes: jasmine, rose, ylang ylang, geranium, carnation
Base notes: patchouli, musk, leather, sandal, cedar, spices, amber, vanilla

This is a gathering of close friends, around a blazing bonfire, in the dark of the night, in the chill of mid-autumn. The spices of crispy leaves and hot mulled cider mix with wisps of dark smoke from the crackling fire, engulfing the senses with deep pleasures of this seasonal ritual. This is not an instrument of soft, delicate distraction, but of rich, full-out intoxication

This scent has pulled me in and will not let me go. I will end up buying the big bottle, I know it, despite the shocking price tag. Many have described this as a gourmand fragrance, and it does have mouthwatering undertones of apples and spice, but I cannot think of it as a foody scent. The amazing amber and the touch of orchid transform this into a contemplative, almost spiritual scent. Warm and exquisitely enveloping, Amber Narguile acts to keep me centered and present, senses focused on the deliciously unfolding Now. Another winner from perfumer Jean Claude Ellena.

Mmmmm... How I love the soft, warm spicy peaches in this gentle chypre composition. When I wear it, I think of Sploosh, from the book and movie, "Holes." For those who missed it, Sploosh is a cache of long-lost canned spiced peaches, which sustains two runaways in the desert. Yes, softly aged mossiness underlying gentle spices and mellowed peach. A dash of amber adds to the mystery and exoticism in this classic 1919 fragrance. I love this on me, and I think I would love it on a gentle, romantic man, too.

The $4.00 price tag at TJ Maxx was too tempting to pass up, just to satisfy my curiosity. After all, I've paid more than that for a tiny sample vial from Lucky Scent! Here are the notes:

Top: lime, mandarin, sweet orange, exotic fruit
Heart: plum, peach, candied fruit, gingerbread, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, cumin
Base: patchoili, incense, vanilla, musk, resins, ylang-ylang, violet, jasmine

At first sniff, I got the cola accord others have noted, and thought, "Hmmm...this isn't horrible." But the cola rapidly faded and the cumin note came on strong, combined with a lemony note. Made me think of a southeast Asian appetizer, or a cold avocado soup I once had, made with cumin and lemongrass. This phase of the fragrance might be okay if it actually were DINNER, but I did not enjoy smelling like cumin. The drydown was actually quite nice, as the spices and base notes came out.

If it weren't for the cumin, French designers Anne and Alexi Hardouin-Finz might have had a “hit” fragrance.

Eau de Camille opens with the deep, cool green of ivy, with a light wafting of lilac in the background. The lilac soon gives way to a breath of honeysuckle, still deeply shaded by ivy and privet. Gradually, the honeysuckle strengthens and sweetens, taking on a soapy note--reminiscent of honeysuckle-scented bath soap--as the ivy softens and blends with it. If you enjoy strongly-scented honeysuckle soap, you will enjoy this scent! Twelve hours later, the honeysuckle is still sweetly lingering.

Grain de Soleil is a delicious vanilla-based comfort scent, gently warmed with a light sprinkling of cinnamon and amber, and the barest hint of incense. These notes blend rapturously with a floral heart of rose, iris, and jasmine. Perfect for cool weather, though I find myself craving it in the summer too. While this is marketed as a woman's fragrance, I think it would be very sexy on a snuggle-bear type of man. Want compliments? Spray generously around your neck and shoulders, and go someplace you usually get hugged!

This is the closest thing I have to a signature scent. Last time I checked, it was available from Lucky Scent, and from the Fragonard website.

Though Timbuktu is not a scent I would wear, I love it for its gloriously evocative quality. When I applied Timbuktu to my wrists, I was hurled back in time approximately 30 years, landing with a thump in the hayloft of Grandpa's big old barn. Yes: that aroma of aging wood, the greenish spice of dried alfalfa hay, the faint tang of a rusting iron plow. In the dusky atmosphere broken shafts of sunlight sneak in through the cracks, illuminating the quiet dancing of dust. Timbuktu, thanks for the memories!

Ghost Deep Night is a deep, rich, rounded fragrance, that makes me think of a long note held on the cello. It reminds me of that moment just as night falls, when the transition from light to dark temporarily stills the wind, and all the scents of the earth are intensified. The visual I get with this is of a full moon rising over the ripples of a dark lake, with breezes whispering through the surrounding pines.

I don't mean to imply that there is either a water/marine note, or a pine note--there isn't. It's just a feeling.... There is a deep peach-plum note in this fragrance, very much like the peach-plum I detect in Femme and Alchimie. There is, however, no clove or moss as in Femme, and no sparkling note as in Alchimie. What I do get is a floral of some kind--something not common or readily identifiable. Maybe cyclamen? There is also a touch of amber, and sometimes I think I detect a fleeting hint of vanilla.

I would probably not attempt Deep Night for office wear. For me it's just too evocative of darkness and mystery. This would be a perfect fragrance for lying in the grass on a summer night, staring at the stars. Or a midnight ride in a canoe, on that moonlit lake.