All Invited! ♥ ♥ ♥ Sniff 'n' Speak Saturday, March 6, 2010 ★★★ CHYPRES

[Quarry]

For newcomers, here's the lowdown on this monthly online event:

Every member, any gender, novice or veteran sniffer, is invited to apply a fragrance related to the theme of the month (listed below) and share your thoughts on the first Saturday of the month. This isn't a mandatory assignment; it's just for fun. Because not everyone logs in on weekends, you're encouraged to continue to add comments within this themed thread on subsequent days. If you don't join us for this month's discussion, please look ahead at the tentative lineup and join in at a later date.

JANUARY ~ Oriental
(warmth, flowers, spices, woods & vanilla)
FEBRUARY ~ Animalic
(civet-, castoreum-, leather-, or musk-influenced scents)
MARCH ~ Chypre
(used to be defined by oakmoss presence, but ...?)
APRIL ~ Floral
(single solifore or full bouquet of flowers)
MAY~ Fruity
(single sweet fruits or a bowl of fruity-florals)
JUNE ~ Citrus
(hesperidic: bergamot, lemon, orange, grapefruit, tangerine, etc.)
JULY ~ Green
(fresh leaves & grasses)
AUGUST ~ Fresh or aquatic
(cool, dewy notes and seaside scents)
SEPTEMBER ~ Opposite-Gender Fragrance
OCTOBER ~ Ambery
(dark, light or blond amber as feature note)
NOVEMBER ~ Spicy
(warm notes associated with cooking)
DECEMBER ~ Gourmand
(fragrances with a foody note, but not usually fruity--save for May)

Looking for suggestions?
See previous SnS discussions:
Oriental — Jan. 2007, Jan. 2008, Jan. 2009, Jan. 2010
Animalic — Feb. 2007, Feb. 2008, Feb. 2009, Feb. 2010
Chypre — March 2007, March 2008, March 2009
Floral — April 2007, April 2008, April 2009
Fruity — May 2007, May 2008, May 2009
Citrus — June 2007, June 2008, June 2009
Green — July 2008, July 2009
Fresh — Aug. 2008, Aug. 2009
Fougere — Sept. 2007
Opposite Gender — Sept. 2008, Sept. 2009
Ambery — Oct. 2007, Oct. 2008, Oct. 2009
Spicy — Nov. 2007, Nov. 2008, Nov. 2009
Gourmand — Dec. 2007, Dec. 2008, Dec. 2009
For the months of July and August 2007, regular BN was offline and supporters had access to an abbreviated site. We discussed aquatics and greens, but those posts are no longer accessible.

[TaoLady]

Oh Geeze!! Is it that time again???!!!

Checked out last year's EXcellent list by Moondeva and can't decide between....Mitsouko, 1000, Aromatics Elixir, Parfum Rare, (thanks Shades!!) Je Reviens (thanx TVLampboy, wherever you are) Cabochard....

...and the beat goes on!!!

[Baldufita]

YR Nature, which I have, lists oakmoss... Is this a chypre then? Otherwise, I would have to go for Aromatics, which I don't especially like... :/

[kumquat]

Oh goody, Chypre is my very favorite. I will have a hard time choosing. Maybe I'll go with one of my favorite green scents for spring; the reliable Azuree. BTW, the date is March 7, not Feb 6, correct?

[kewart]

I plan to talk about the very lovely "Y" by Yves Saint Laurent.

[trikkirikki]

Hmm, not my favourite category...I suppose I can wear Ma Griffe? Does Bandit count? Please help!

[VintageVogue]

trikkirikki, I'd certainly consider Bandit a chypre. Ma Griffe is another great chypre.

One of my favorite categories of fragrance is the chypre. Now to decide which one. So many greats to choose from.

Looking forward to everyone's choices.

[Nostalgie]

Ooh, ooh, ooh! I go in and out of chypre moods, have been out, I'm suddenly in. The month-to-accord matching is working well for me!

Will it be...
Champagne?
Scherrer EDP?
Odalisque?

Such a fragrant dilemma!

[Leesee]

Yay for chypres, yay, yay, yay! I have several worthy candidates. I can't wait.

[Twolf]

B., YR Nature is NOT a chypre, it is a floral, a nicely unique one too. Sometimes it is hard to tell which is which (Mille de Patou anyone?) but please do your homework -- read previous years' threads, collect some inspirations from other websites, etc.

[Baldufita]

B., YR Nature is NOT a chypre, it is a floral, a nicely unique one too. Sometimes it is hard to tell which is which (Mille de Patou anyone?) but please do your homework -- read previous years' threads, collect some inspirations from other websites, etc.

Thanks!!! In that case, I believe it'll have to be Aromatics Elixir... :/

[Lessa]

Too many choices!

Even narrowing it down to 3 for the day is a toughie, huh?

Can't wait though

[RHM]

Chypre, chypre, chypre...my favorita! I'm kinda singing a cha cha beat here.

[NebraskaLovesScent]

Ooh! Chypre! My current favorite category. Hmmm. Vintage Coriandre? Paloma Picasso? Mitsouko? Niki?

[pomander]

I'll quite happily be wearing 31, rue Cambon !!

[Mimi Gardenia]

Chypre is also my fave category - lots to choose from - a chypre fest !

[donna255]

Oh chypre is my second fav group. Wore Mitsouko parfum the other day so it will by Y in parfum for me.

[Sunnyfunny]

Chypre confounds me.

[kewart]

Not sure if we are supposed to sniff and speak here or in the Scent of the Day!
I have posted in today's SOTD but will do the same here too.

I have chosen to sing the praises of YSL's "Y" (or "ee grek," as they say in France.)
This is an elegant, classy, obscure, creamy chypre with lots of greeness, oakmoss
and lactonic peach. It is very easy to wear, never shouts above a discreet whisper,
yet makes it's presence felt nonetheless.

The part I like least is the very aldehydic opening, but wait a few minutes and it
settles down to one of the best chypres out there. Hard to find and relatively expensive as a result,
"Y" is worth tracking down.

[trikkirikki]

I'm wearing my vintage parfum de toilette version of Ma Griffe.

This seems to be the only chypre that I've tried to date that agrees with my skin.

The opening is very citrusy fresh and extremely wearable. My husband compared it to old fashioned citrus washing up liquid, but when he saw my face drop he was quick to say "not in a bad way, it still smells really good". I get the washing up liquid feel too, but it fades quickly.

I can't pick out the floral notes, maybe it's that my juice is going off, but the base certainly carries the typical damp moss. It stays very close to the skin, no sillage to talk about. I think that's what I really like about Ma Griffe. It's my own little secret.

[TaoLady]

OH FOOF!!!
I totally forgot ....and I'm in KM Loukhoum which lasts all day....

Will report....

[Antaeusintheair]

I'm wearing Acqua di Parma Profumo from a small sample I procured for just this event!



This is described as a dry, floral, woody chypre and it has the magical and ghostly bergamot-labdanum-oakmoss accord with florals, patchouli, styrax, civet, and spices. It is very soft and inviting... it feels like a fuzzy blanket and is quite elegantly balanced, with no particular note louder than the rest. Strangely it is both very natural and simplistic to my nose, but it also recalls classic grand parfumerie and supposedly boasts over 300 ingredients. I love it. Chypres in general smell fresh and clean to me without recourse to the aromachemicals that we associate with soaps, detergents, deoderants, and aquatic/sport colognes. I think that is why they fascinate me. They are just strange and different enough to warrant curious investigation, but also familiar... what I mean is, the accord is natural, but doesn't occur in nature. It is Other; it is man-made without being completely synthetic--a combination that is more than the sum of its constituent parts. Whether chypres smell like the forested hills of Cyprus, I do not know. But they smell both rustic and refined, evocatively old and inspiringly innovative, and most in my experience, from the fruitiest floral chypre to the dirtiest leather animalic chypre defy any specific gender association/categorization... they just smell good!



This is up there with Mitsouko in my mind, but it's not quite as strong, vibrant, or spicy and it's missing that peach which for whatever reason makes Mitsouko sing (I think I'll wear my Mitsouko later as this is just whetting my appetite for it). This sample of AdP Profumo edp is the 2008 reissue of the 1930s fragrance.

[lovethescents]

Now I find chypres the most difficult category to totally understand, despite my readings. I get the necessity of the woody oakmossy base, but earlier on, there are just too many options! I'll get there.....

Anyway, as noted in my post at the Sotd thread, I'm heading straight for Ormonde Woman. This makes the most sense to me now.

[Petra Ichor]

Feel free to beat me, but I seem to have absolutely no knowledge of Chypres at all! I did my research, and the only frag I have that seemed to tick the category reads like this:

* Top Notes: Caraway, Rhubarb, Lemon, Orange Zest and Bergamot
* Middle Notes: Peppermint, Green Tea, Sweet Jasmine, Spicy Carnation, Fennel and Celery Spice
* Base Notes: Oakmoss, Musk and Amber

Bergamot, tick. Jasmine in the middle, tick. Oakmoss, tick. The amber should fulfill the labdanum criteria - half tick.

It was a xmas gift from a friend, and I haven't got around to wearing it before.

Spritz, spritz, spritz.

and.. now I've been wearing this for a few hours I think I can tell it's not a Chypre. Or a very neutered chypre. There's a tiny tickle from the base of something clean mossy, like roof moss, but no oomph. After a lemony fresh start, this is all about minty green tea. Oh yeah, the frag? Green Tea by Elizabeth Arden. Sometimes the clue is in the name :)

Definately a category I'm going to look into more for the future though!

[VintageVogue]

Kewart, we're on the same wavelength. I, too, am wearing YSL's Y today. I love the tumble of moss, light peach, more moss, greens and subtle jasmine and rose. One of the greats, IMO, and always right.

[kumquat]

Estee Lauder - Azuree
I'm in one of my favorite chypres today. I didn't even know it was intended as a unisex scent when it was made in 1968. Well, at least, in Perfume Intelligence it is listed that way. I have always thought it made a great scent for either sex. It has a bright green opening and it mellows to a consistent green that keeps you in mind of early spring. I also didn't realize it had water lily in it. That explains part of my interest as I often gravitate towards that scent. The other scent given is "sea grass' but I'm pretty sure there is major galbanum here, too. Juicy, tart & fresh is the over-all feeling. As if I've been in a sunny meadow all day.

Perfume Intelligence: A unisex chypre edp with notes of sea grass, water lily, jasmine, amber and musk.

[Quarry]

Firstly, THANK YOU, KUMQUAT, for letting me know what month the rest of the world is experiencing. (I consistently miss the obvious.)

And thanks to all for joining in the chypre thrills. Antaeus, you've really incarnated the spirit of the day with your post.

I thought I'd venture into new-for-me territory this time around, but I've fallen back toward something I've had an on-again/off-again relationship: Scherrer. And I think the relationship problem lies with me, not you, Jean-Louis. I'm just bitter. Not in the soulful sense, but epidermisly speaking. So I must rely on cotton sleeves to intercede twixt me and Cabochard, Ma Griffe, Miss Balmain, Scherrer. Or—and I think this is what happened earlier this week when I was testing J-L S—if I have some lingering sweet scent on my wrist and then apply Scherrer, I just enjoy the sheer oak mossiness and pure greenness of it without the off-putting bitterness.

[kumquat]

No problem, Quarry. Happy to help. I miss the obvious most of the time, myself.

I also have to mention Antaeus' selection and helpful commentary. Very interesting. I also love this one. I may change into AdProfumo later on when this (Azuree) subsides. I didn't discover AdP until recently and it is a winner. Really superior juice in the time-honored tradition. It's so nice to know they still make good stuff if you know where to look!

[RHM]

I'm wearing Andy Tauer's Rose Chypree today both to satisfy my craving for rose and to participate in the SnS. Funny how OsMoz classifies it as a "floral chypre" but fails to list oakmoss in the ingredients. It does list "moss". However when you check Andy's own web site he states that it's a "floral oriental" based on a chypre and lists oakmoss as an ingredient.
Only goes to show, you have to check more than one resource these days to get to the truth of things.
Here's what I wrote on SOTD:

For SnS Saturday, I must continue to satisfy my craving for roses (as I am still in possession of my "pet rock" ), so today I am wearing the wonderful Andy Tauer's Rose Chypree. Here are the notes, as listed on OsMoz: top notes Clementine, Bergamot, Lemon heart note: Rose Damascena, Bay, Cinnamon, Geranium base note: Vetiver, Patchouli, Vanilla, Labdanum, Moss. OsMoz classifies Rose Chypree as a "Floral Chypre".

Here's what Andy himself says on his web site about this perfume: The composition
Une rose chyprée is an oriental rose on a chypre base.
It is an elegant perfume built around two natural extracts from rosa damascena: The absolute and the steam distilled essential oil. 15 ml Rose chyprée contains one pound of fresh rose petals, steam distilled in the traditional way.

Its heart is lifted by spicy Bay and hot cinnamon and a fresh accord built around bergamot, lemon and Clementine essential oils.
Green Bourbon geranium oil lets the rose petals shine and contrasts with the dark resinous accord in the base, built around labdanum, oak moss, patchouli, vetiver and vanilla.

Les memorables: Precious and hand made"

[trikkirikki]

Hi again,

I had to reapply my chrypre for the day, Ma Griffe, and now I can finally get the benzoin in the base. Bear in mind I have a bad cold, my sense of smell is not what it should be.

Apparently, Mademoiselle Carven had defined her creation as "an outdoor perfume that needs to give up its heady character". I say she was spot on! Notes include from top to base: Gardenia, Galbanum, Aldehydes, Clary sage - Jasmine, Ylang-Ylang, Sandal, Vetiver - Styrax, Cinnamon, Benzoin, Labdanum.

I'm so pleased that I have found a chypre I can wear. The only other chypre I can wear is Bandit, and I think I'll settle with that.