 | The Infidels by AgonistI like Åsa Jungnelius, though I don't think the perfume bottles are among the better things she's done. As for the perfume, it's wonderful. It's been a long time since I smelt something so... old-fashioned. I mean that in the best possible way of course! The Infidels smells like some classic from Guerlain or Caron or possibly like something newer by Mona di Orio. So rich and warm and deep, it smells like its made of the best natural extracts with not a care for budget or regulations. So what does it smell like? Well, a very tart and natural-smelling blackcurrant note adds originality. Then there's a more spicy than racy cumin note and it's all resting on a woody-ambery oriental base. But notes or types can't begin to describe it - try it! 29th December, 2010. |
| | Lux by Mona di OrioA boozy, perfumey lemon cocktail with a touch of civet underneath. As previous reviewers have pointed out, there's a certain similarity to Jicky (and Mouchoir de Monsieur and L'eau d'Hermes) in the citrus/animalic combo, but without the lavender and less powdery. I really enjoy the tartness, juicyness, zest and zing of the lemon note, as well as the animalic note lurking underneath. The basenotes seem to support the citrus and help it keep fresh and true, unlike in most light citrus colognes where it turns flat and stale very quickly on skin. Despite the resemblance to Jicky I find Lux quite unique - definitely different enough to be worthy of inclusion in the same perfume collection. This is a citrus for citrus lovers who don't want to smell innocent and clean, an evening citrus. It's also the best lemon fragrance I've encountered, and lemon happens to be my favourite citrus note. 15th September, 2010. |
 | Osmanthus by Different CompanyGone without a trace within five minutes, hence the thumbs down. 18th August, 2010. |
| | Ilaun by Burren PerfumeryReminds me of Ofresia: softly, freshly, dewily green with a delicate, sweet yet airy, freesia-like floral on top and a somewhat soapy touch to it. Good for summer. 11th July, 2010. |
 | Fourreau Noir by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal ShiseidoI'm a bit surprised the name suggests this is a feminine fragrance. I suppose that's what's original about it, because upon first application I think it smells like a generic 21th century masculine fragrance: cool, clean and abstract with some sweetness and notes of licorice/anise, woods and nondescript florals, possibly iris. Then it turns drier, dustier, smokier and morphs into a very close relative of Gris Clair, only inferior. Gris Clair pour femme? It's the exact same combination of lavender, tonka and smoke, only muted by that "generic 21th century masculine" feeling. It's a bit sweeter, more syrupy, too I think but that doesn't detract from the "generic masculine" as they tend to be pretty sweet nowadays. I love Gris Clair and that bias makes me like Fourreau Noir as well, but I really don't see the point of such a similar scent in the same line. 6th May, 2010. |
| | Mandarine Mandarin by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal ShiseidoA citrus-centred fragrance which instead of going in the fresh, light, green cologne direction surrounds the citrus with spicy and woody notes. It's not rich as one might expect from a Lutens oriental, and not gourmandy in a sweet way. Instead it's flat, thin, dry, even cool. The spices don't drown out the citrus as they might easily do, though inevitably they dominate more and more as the fleeting citrus note fades. I agree with robyogi that there seems to be immortelle (a note I'm not very fond of) in here, though the dry and aromatic aspect might also come from the smoked tea note I suppose. Unfortunately, the mandarine note taking centre stage does not smell lovely, tart and juicy like fresh mandarine at all, but sharp and synthetic, reminding me of fruity schampoo. 6th May, 2010. |
| | Rahät Loukoum by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal ShiseidoExtremely sweet gourmand: cherry liqueur, bitter almonds, marzipan and vanilla. I enjoy the cherry note and I don't mind that it's strong and sweet and boozy, but it also has a sharp, plasticky quality that makes it smell really cheap and that seems to make me sneeze as well. Actually, the plasticky quality captures the tasteless jelly that is Turkish Delight pretty well, though the choice of gourmand notes does not really reflect the bland rose water, orange blossom and pistaschio aromas of the candy. 6th May, 2010. |
| | Rose de Nuit by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal ShiseidoI tend to like juicy/jammy and earthy/woody rose fragrances and dislike soapy/powdery and dry/spicy ones. Rose de nuit doesn't quite fit into either of these categories, and I appreciate its originality. It has the green acidity of the rose scents I tend to like, but it's not fresh and natural like a newly plucked rose, or sweet-and-sour in a gourmandy way. Instead it's intensely dark and leathery and dryly (not muskily) animalic, in the vein perhaps of Montale's Dark Aoud, though with a much stronger sour, musty, murky aspect. That might sound like a negative judgment, but I don't mean it like that. Rose de nuit may not be pleasant, exactly, but it's certainly intriguing. It smells ancient, like some antique leather or fur accessory once belonging to a long dead lady and still smelling of her attar of roses and patchouli and mothballs. Apart from Dark Aoud, it might be somewhat reminiscent of Voleur de roses and Diorling. I'm not a rose fan in general and I don't fall madly in love with Rose de nuit, but I applaud it. 5th May, 2010. |
| | Un Lys by Serge Lutens Les Salons du Palais Royal ShiseidoI tend to either love or hate lily fragrances. Many of them have composty or plasticky notes I can't stand, while I love Lily & Spice and Lys Mediterranee. Un Lys is actually so-so. It's identifiably lily, but it doesn't feel real. The white floral note is too creamy, powdery, soft, it doesn't have the unmistakeably waxy quality of real lily and none of the almost decaying, intoxicating richness. It might just be that I haven't smelt the particular species of lily it's supposed to emulate, but it doesn't feel like any real flower to me, it smells like a synthetic "white floral accord" too heavy on the creaminess. Perhaps it's the supporting vanilla note? It's not a cold fragrance but it's quite cool and watery despite the powdery/creamy feeling, with a scary hint of melony/aquatic notes in the top that's enough in itself to put me off it. 5th May, 2010. |
| | Lys Méditerranée by Editions de Parfums Frederic MalleApart from Penhaligon's Lily & Spice, this is the one lily fragrance I love. While Lily & Spice is warmer and spicier from saffron, this one is cooler and more dewy/green. It's a lily scent so real I can feel the texture of the flower - from the waxy petals to the dusty pollen. The salty sea breeze aspect of the fragrance is subtle indeed. 5th May, 2010. |
| | Jour de Fête by L'Artisan ParfumeurWhew, this is sweet! Almonds sprinkled with powdered sugar, marzipan and vanilla... It's not bad as far as gourmand scents go - the notes are natural and not sickeningly synthetic and the composition is even somewhat refreshed by a faint citrusy/green note that I suppose is the "green wheat", but I really don't see the point in smelling like a pastry shop. Besides, it seems the intense sweetness and dry powderiness combined makes me sneeze as though inhaling real powdered sugar. 4th May, 2010. |
| | La Chasse Aux Papillons by L'Artisan ParfumeurA very lovely, summery floral composed of light, non-indolic versions of white flowers such as jasmine. It has a distinctly peachy note which I would attribute to magnolia or gardenia, but perhaps it's an effect of the citrus flowers. Luckily I don't smell any orange blossom, as I really don't think orange blossom works in supposedly "light" and "fresh" compositions, always giving instead a sickly-sweet atmosphere to the scent. La Chasse aux Papillons is girly sweet, flirty sweet, happy sweet, but never sickly sweet. It's light and innocent enough to work in the daytime and in sunny weather, yet it's all sweetly floral with no refreshingly green/citrusy/watery cologne aspects. Perfect with a 50s sun dress with a floral pattern in some light colour. 4th May, 2010. |
| | Bois Farine by L'Artisan ParfumeurAn unpleasantly musty, sweet doughy fragrance with undertones of booze and Play-doh. I can't fathom why I tried this. It smells fake, like a gourmand scented candle of the worst quality. It might smell exactly like the tree in question, I don't care. 4th May, 2010. |
| | Balsam by AgrariaYum! Definitely the best fir tree scent I've smelt, beside the real thing: dark and deep and resinous and very close to nature, like walking in a coniferous wood, the black earth damp and strewn with pine needles. Some pine scents are fresher and greener, attempting to capture only the smell of new pine needles, but this is the entire woods, bark and sap and moss and lichen and earth and all. 3rd May, 2010. |
| | Futur by Robert PiguetOpens with a ton of aldehydes. I really don't like aldehydes. After all the aldehydes have faded, it's a warmly hesperidic/spicy fragrance, like a classier version of Old Spice. 3rd May, 2010. |
| | Calandre by Paco RabanneHorribly sharp, soapy and aldehydic. Might be a musty green floral buried underneath somewhere... 3rd May, 2010. |
| | Djedi by GuerlainIn the top I get some hesperidic notes that havent withstood the passing of time very well, then, vaguely, a sharply green note that might be oakmoss or vetiver. Mostly, however, the scent is dry and smoky in a way that reminds me of the smell of wool. It feels dense and flat and muted - it stays very close to the skin with non-existent sillage and doesn't develop much over time either. It's like it never warms or blossoms on my skin. I'm sad to say it doesn't do much for me and although it was interesting to smell I'm not as sorry it's discontinued as a lot of people are. In the interest of dosclosure, though, I only have a tiny sample and it might be better sprayed. 2nd May, 2010. |
| | Amaranthine by Penhaligon'sIt might be worth a try if you're a big fan of tropical fragrances, which I'm not. I think it's unpleasantly sickly sweet and milky in a stale way. It smells like some insipid, milk-based children's dessert with banana, coconut and some (fake) vanilla. That needn't be so bad, but the structure of the fragrance is like milk pudding too: dense and smooth with no air between the notes and no refreshingly bright notes at all, just a muddle of similar frequencies. 1st May, 2010. |
| | Gardenia by Penhaligon'sIt's funny, there seems to be something about the composition of gardenia perfumes that creates accidental, naturalistic fruit notes because I got unripe peach from Un Matin d'Orage and I get juicy, ripe, freshly cut Conference pear from the topnotes of this one. I'm not a big fan of fruit notes as they're often too sweet and synthetic, but these "accidental" fruit notes I enjoy.There's a sharper, less pleasant note besides the pear though, and after a little while the fresh pear fades and the scent turns more generically gourmandy - something like a combination of marzipan, anise, booze and bitter almond. Looking at the official notes, where did that come from? Eventually, though, the scent turns more floral as expected: a creamy/powdery white floral that might plausibly be gardenia if you know it's supposed to be but which is abstractly artificial like the kind of floral fragrance you get in lotions. 1st May, 2010. |
| | Calypso by Robert PiguetA classic chypre/green floral: bitingly green (galbanum and oakmoss, I'm sure), spicy, dry, slightly musty, with subtly animalic basenotes and no sweetness. I hope it'll be reissued! 1st May, 2010. |
| | Private Collection Jasmine White Moss by Estée LauderAn extremely boring, aggressively, synthetically "fresh" green/white floral that assaults my nose. 24th April, 2010. |
| | Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia by Estée LauderJust what the name says: tuberose and gardenia with little or no supporting notes. Though I'd say the order is reversed, with gardenia the most prominent of the two flowers. I grow a gardenia so I can testify to the trueness of the floral note: creamy, almost edibly so, sweet, heady and with a touch of thinner or gasoline present in the live flower as well. Yummy, but if you don't appreciate heady white florals, well, you should stay away from it. 24th April, 2010. |
| | Green by ByredoIt is indeed green, green as in fresh leaves with a citrusy touch without verging into herbal or aromatic or woody or green tea or freshly cut grass territory. Sillage and staying power are poor though which may be partly why it fails to make any real impression on a green fragrance-lover like me. 23rd April, 2010. |
| | Beyond Love by By KilianA candy sweet and edibly creamy tuberose, not unlike Parfumerie Generale's more coconutty Tubereuse Couture. I very much prefer the still rich and opulent yet less sweet and more naturally green Carnal Flower. 11th April, 2010. |
| | Ninféo Mio by Annick GoutalFinally a fig scent I can appreciate. The combination of milky and green notes in most fig scents tend to make me nauseous, but while this is recogniseable as fig (that is, the perfume version of fig - I know nothing of fig tree smells) it has none of the usual creamy/milky/coconutty aspect. Instead, it's green and aromatic like tomato leaf and geranium. Very plesant refreshing garden type scent. 10th April, 2010. |
| | Le Chèvrefeuille by Annick GoutalA rather pleasant fresh green floral, but it has nothing in common with honeysuckle as I know it. In fact, it smells rather synthetic and schampoo-ish. 10th April, 2010. |
| | A Scent by Issey MiyakeOn the test strip, A Scent smells just like the summer fragrance to make you happy, fresh without being sharp or synthetic, a refreshing, iced cocktail of grass, citrus and perhaps a tad green tea. Once on skin it fades and turns stale almost instantly, however. 16th March, 2010. |
| | Encens Flamboyant by Annick GoutalI wouldn't call this incense "flamboyant" - it's rather austere and minimalist, smoky and dry. It doesn't have the freshly cut wood note of some of my favourite incense fragrances, nor the cold metallic soapiness of my least favourite incense fragrances. Neither does it have the atmosphere of cool, murky stone churches. It might be the purest incense perfume I've smelt: pure incense smoke with no added scent. As such, it fills a gap in my incense collection and I applaud it. 22nd December, 2009. |
| | Myrrhe Ardente by Annick GoutalI'm no fan of myrrh. Candy-sweet with an oddly bitter edge and a powdery touch, it's the very essence of "perfumey". As far as myrrh fragrances go, I'm sure this one is perfectly fine so I'm giving it a neutral rating. 22nd December, 2009. |
| | Musc Nomade by Annick GoutalYummy! A skanky, dirty, musty, dry and sharply powdery musk with a hint of woods and resins, like the love child of Muscs Koublai Khan and L'air de rien! 20th December, 2009. |
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