All Invited! ♥ ♥ ♥ Sniff 'n' Speak Saturday, Dec 5, 2009 ★★★ GOURMAND

Yay! As Taolady says..."my favert"!

MMMmmm do they have a cheese flavor?

Actually, I'll probably choose either Frapin 1270 or Parfumerie Generale Aomassai

Yay! I'm so in. This will be my first ever Sniff 'n' Speak, it's time to stop lurking in the shadows.

I'm not sure if I should go for Safran Troublant or Serendipitous...

Gourmand, eh? A year ago this would have been a rather difficult category for me, but since I have finally found a few gourmand scents to love, I am looking forward to participating. I will probably wear AL Viva, for its black coconut note!

I just adore gourmands! I will not be able to post as we'll be on vacation. I've gone through some of my little vials and sorted out what i want to bring. So, I think I'll wear Lilly Pulitzer's Beachy for it's melonic coconuttiness. Yay!

I'm in! I love gourmands. Trying to think what to pick...maybe Pink Sugar or Poivre Piquant. Definitely going with something I haven't worn in a while.


Excellent! Glad you'll be joining us. As for your choices, you really can't go wrong with either. They are both yummy.

I get a blue cheese note from Velvet Gardenia.

I'm skipping S-n-S since I don't really have any gourmands. Or maybe I do? Chanel No 5 (particularly edt) has a wonderful base that (at least to me) smells like cinnamon buns ready to go into the oven; sweet dough, cinnamon, a hint of something buttery/rich... I find it incredibly cosy and comforting. My ultimate comfort scent.

Well, all these delicious foods without an assortment of beverages simply won't do. This may be a call for Thierry Mugler Pure Coffee.

I am quite fortuitously in Un Bois Vanille today. I find this a very grown up vanilla, it always makes Mr Hebe hungry for creme brulee. I love the hint of licorice, and I love that a couple of sprays do me all day. Lovely stuff.

I'm wearing the last few drops of a sample of by Kilian's Love...a marshmallow scent, my favorite confectionery fragrance. This is happiness in a bottle for me.

I'm wearing a gourmand that is always categorized in my olfactory mind as only a green. Premiere Figuier, an Olivia Giacobetti creation - for L'Artisan. From the very first spritz, the fig leaf and galbanum are evident, and remain the headliners throughout the development of this lush leafy scent. However...let's not forget the unsung supporting notes that lend this fig its creamy rich and slightly sweetened character - almond milk, fig, parasol lime, coconut and dried fruit! I was suprised to recently discover (through a 'coconut' thread in the ladies forum) that coconut lives within PF! I love it because it's not 'in your face'. Subtle, and supporting is the way these foody components come across - as they should! If you are one to generally shun gourmands, give Premiere Figuier a spritz the next time you have the opportunity. It might suprise you! Enjoy your yummy selves today everybody!!!

Forgot it was SnS Saturday, but coincidentally tried on Posset's Gingerbread Crackhouse this morning. It is sweeter than I expected, with the ginger, but all in all quite yummy and suitable for the cool weather. I keep sniffing it and smiling so that is all good!

Sharing the house with Ubu in L'Artisan Parfumeur Poivre Piquant. I love this yummy blend of crackly pepper with milky and honeyed notes.

Ambre Narguile for me. Can't drag the wrist away from my face.

I'm in the very best of company!

Can't skip gourmand day!

I have a veritable battle plan made for the weekend: today's was Sensuous, which to me is creamy orange-vanilla candies rather than woods (molten or otherwise). Yum.

For tonight, I dug out The World's Weirdest Gourmand: Montale Amandes Orientales. Only a gourmand in the strictest sense (it has almonds and a confectionery vanilla); I would not recommend eating anything that smells like this. A full-frontal collision between Bulgari Black's rubber-meets-vanilla and a Lutenesque oriental marzipan. Definitely an oddity, but it seems to be growing on me.

Tomorrow I'll have to reign in the weirdness somewhat so as to be palatable to my nearest & dearest for our Sinterklaas celebration: it'll be Safran Troublant. I love how that one manages to be totally unique yet totally acceptable to the non-initiated, too.

And somewhere I'll find time to include Aomassai 10. A gourmand weekend wouldn't be complete without its grassy, woodsy, caramelly yum.

Gourmand Coquin for me today!

Opps, I only posted in the SofD thread, better put it here too.

Started the day with Therese in Ambre Narguile. Love this, and only have a 15 ml bottle so better get me through the winter. Sweet, but never too much, with a lovely amber dry down.

This evening, I'll switch to Frapin 1270, with it's dessert wine sweet, boozy dried fruits and cognac feel to it. One of my winter favorites.

I checked the notes for my beloved Viva (Ava Luxe) and it looks like black coconut is the only gourmand ingredient listed. But what a tasty wallop it packs. Invasion Barbare is pretty spicy -- maybe I will put some of that on, instead. Oh, choices, choices!

Jean Patou's Sira des Indes for me! I've seen this categorized as a Woody Oriental and as a Fruity Floral, but to my nose this is edible.

Top = Banana accords, Bergamot, Pear, Pink berries, Cardamom.
Middle = Floral notes.
Base = Musk, Amber, Vanilla, Sandalwood.

The banana doesn't jump out too much on my skin, and it's only easily detectable in the first 20 minutes or so, but to my nose it is Banana's Foster served table-side in a dining room filled with tropical flowers. Like most decidedly sweet gourmands tend to behave on my skin, the sweetness in this quickly mellows to something warm and creamy and delicious, and certainly not cloying. It reminds be of L'Instant in a way, honeyed and golden, like luscious liquid sunshine.

You and me both!!

I'm late to the party today, and every post in this thread has made me spin around with indecision. Ambre Narguilé. No, Aomassai. No, Piment et Chocolat. Wait, Gingerbread Whorehouse! Safran Troublant, Poivre Piquant, Piment Brulant... what's a gourmand girl to do??

*blindly throws a dart at her virtual wardrobe*

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz - Piment et Chocolat
Top notes: black pepper, paprika, pimento berry (allspice), red chili
Heart notes: cinnamon, clove, nutmeg
Base notes: cocoa beans, dark chocolate

My clumsy way of describing this is that it is what I imagine Vianne's Chocolaterie smells like in the movie Chocolat... cocoa with an exotic, spicy kick.

I'm wearing Pilar and Lucy's The Exact Friction of the Stars today. A true gourmand in every sense of the word, this may be way too sweet for some.

Pilar and Lucy do not list the notes, but to me they would have to include vanilla, coconut, milk chocolate and just a drizzle of orange. The coconut is not beachy, tropical coconut, but rather creamy coconut pudding or a rich macaroon. Sometimes I think I can smell feathers, but I know it's just the little marabou boa on the bottle giving me that impression. I happen to think my bottle is a little cute, but I hear the new style does not have the feather boa ... pity.

Me, I smell like a confection in Lathers & Lights Chai Tea Latte body lotion. This is the real gourmand deal, though it's heavy on the vanilla and chai spices, and I'm half-imagining the tea notes, I think. I got this from the Lathers&Lights web site, which also sells some of the Possets perfumes. If you like sweet gourmandy skin and fragrance products, this place is for you!!! The coffee scrub is pretty marvelous.

Guerlain Spiritueuse Double Vanille

Notes: vanilla, benzoin, frankincense, spices, cedar, pink pepper, bergamot, Bulgarian rose and ylang-ylang (from theperfumedcourt.com)

Today has been full of surprises. One big surprise is that I expected Spiritueuse Double Vanille to be the epitome of vanilla fragrances. I mean, coming from Guerlain, the house that carved its niche in the perfume world by making beautiful vanilla-laden compositions, I presume that they know something about how to use vanilla. I am sorry to say that SDV is quite dire. After wearing Jicky and Shalimar for days on end, I have come to love the vanilla version of Guerlinade. SDV does not have it. It is raw, almost vanilla extract-like, with "perfumy" floral and powder notes that sit on the surface and never become integrated. SDV doesn't really develop, let alone reach the stature of a composition such as Shalimar. It simply stays rough an unintegrated, with notes of sawdust and fake, bitter florals rather than the lovely balsamic and boozy cask woods I wanted. There is even an almost hamster-cage like quality to the woody accord which is rather distasteful. I can't see why anybody would prefer this over one of Guerlain's own classics. Incidentally, SDV smells better on paper than on skin...strange.



Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille

Notes: Spicy Note, Aromatic Note, Tobacco, Tonka Bean, Tobacco Leaf, Tobacco Flower, Vanilla, Cocoa, Dried Fruit, Sap (from osmoz.com)

I was prepared to dislike Tobacco Vanille. It has received so much hype in the online communities, and is so brashly marketed, I honestly thought that nothing could live up to TV's reputation. Well, I am eating my words now, almost literally, as TV is an extremely well-done gourmand fragrance. On first spray, it has a lovely spiced cookie dough effect, with a combination of spices that seems a bit like the blend normally used for gingerbread, i.e., ginger, cinnamon, clove and allspice. Sweetening up this accord is a good quality vanilla which shies away from what would typically be found in a kitchen, and smells much more complex, woody, boozy and a little bit powdery. Woods and resins, also make TV a bit less edible, and are welcome additions to the vanilla and spice. The strangest thing, though, is that I really do not smell any tobacco. Vanilla by itself often has a bit of a tobacco quality, so it is not really such a stretch. Even though high quality tobacco is aged with botanicals, or treated with flavor chemicals, I definitely do not get a flavored tobacco impression from TV. For me, it sits squarely into the "kitchen aroma after you've cooked something both sweet and savory" category. The drydown is a bit less foody, and is really just a vanilla-heavy, labdanum-based amber, less alluring than Tom Ford's own Amber Absolute, but still extremely fetching. I am not sure this would be full bottle worthy, because the fragrance is actually quite one dimensional and linear. However, TV is a single-idea fragrance that is so deep and wide that a person can spend a lot of time contemplating it.

I'm glad you said this, because I was worried when this one didn't impress me. When I found it in the boutique, I was sure I would walk out with it. Nope - it didn't compare with Shalimar EDT in my opinion.

I expected to like SDV and dislike Tobacco Vanille...I just let my nose be my guide, and was surprised that it was the other way around! Now I'm wearing Shalimar because I needed a vanilla reset.

I ended up wearing AL Black Coconut instead. It layered really beautifully over the L'Interdit from this morning and the overall effect was both spicy and creamy.

Jumping in late with my contribution. I wore Posset's The Gingerbread Whorehouse and encountered a familiar gourmand problem: overkill. I chucked on bucketloads of this and ended up regretting it. It's great in small quantities but when applied by the gallon it got a bit, well, to be honest.. sickly. I still like it, I'll still wear it and I'll still probably order the new Yuletide gingerbread Fabienne has created (The Gingerbread Opium Den!). But I'll tone it down a tad.

Also Gourmand was another limited edition I tried this week: Yves Rocher's Marron de Noel (Christmas Chestnut) edt and shower gel. Very sweet, rich and vanillic, a lot like their regular Vanilla Bourbon, which I buy for Small. It's perfectly nice but I wouldn't say it's going to set the world on fire. However, if you want a sweet little stocking-stuffer it's ideal.

Small has an amazing ability to wear super-sweet scents which I seem to have lost. She can pull off everything from Hypnotic Poison to L de Lolita Lempicka. I'm getting to the point where I really can't wear L any more, but on Small it's heavenly. Funny stuff, skin.

My nose is even funnier than my skin. I absolutely can't wear Shalimar. Just don't like it or get it. Wierd, huh? And I adore SDV. Just plain contrary, that's me. Sounds like I'm going to have to try that Tom Ford TV though. Oh dear, and I'll be passing his store next Saturday...

yesterdays sotd was gourmand cocquin then sdv in the evening.

I usually love gourmand cocquin but it wasn't quite working for me yesterday. SDV wasn't working for me either (sometimes I love it and sometimes it just doesn't work at all...)

Today I am wearing Amen Pure Coffee and loving it.

EL Sensuous yesterday. To me, it's less of a "molten woods" and more of a gentle gourmand. Kind of a cinnamon bun, with more dough than cinnamon. I really liked this when I came out, but now it grates after a while.

SDV today.

Asha, we're almost evil scent twins (but I know that there are a few frags that smell good on both of us). SDV gives me a boozy, smoky, incense-y vanilla with pipe tobacco notes in the opening (my favorite part). I do find that dabbing is better than spraying--it can get overwhelming. I like the fact that SDV doesn't have the Guerlinade, which gets too sweet on me.

The Tom Ford on me was cloying, strong sweet vanilla and cherry. Yuck.

Vive la difference!

Lol, BlackCat--but if I remember, your skin sweetens things. Mine dries them out, so fragrances like SDV become unbalanced and bitter and very sweet ones like TV are fine. It sure is interesting, though!

Wore Serendipity 3 Serendipitous for the S'n'S, thanks tdem for the sample. I am not a big gourmand fan but there are a few that I am always keen to wear from time to time. i.e. Pink Sugar, Crème Brûlée by Ava Luxe and Vanilla Apricot by Comptoir Sud Pacifique.
Serendipitous is a yummy chocolatey fragrance, it stay fairly close to my skin and my friend had to lean very close to get a whiff of the smell. Although he commented that it smells more like caramel to him.

Montale Chocolate Greedy !