A Summer Garden: Ninfeo Mio by Annick Goutal

Last year I was bemoaning the lack of fig and then I found a very true to form fig in Lucy B's Apothecary Royal Green Fig and Vanilla . Somehow in my years I had never gotten around to sniffing Annick Goutal's Ninfeo Mio, I regret it, because Goutal released one of the most interesting fig scents I have ever smelled.

Ninfeo Mio is the scent of a summer garden for me. All the ad-copy will suggest watery spring garden in Rome but for me Ninfeo Mio is an early summer garden with the last remnants of spring holding on. Ninfeo Mio starts with a buzzing candied citrus note combined with the friendliest galbanum note you have ever met. I can't help but think of bees buzzing around in a grove of citrus trees with blossoms and ripe fruit at once. There is a sweetness in the scent that suggests the imagery of candied citrus or lemon peel in honey and yet not an ounce of this is cloying because Isabelle Doyen is keeping it all in check with an easygoing galbanum. The green herbacious note of galbanum is the perfect balance note to the buzzing sweetness of the citron and lemon. It also plays the chauffeur to the next stage of the scent.

Fig is frequently paired with galbanum, galbanum playing well with fig's green notes, yet sometimes they can be an overly harsh pairing on me. Not in Ninfeo Mio, the fig of Ninfeo Mio is all creamy goodness, this is the afternoon of the garden. The buzzing of the bees is gone because everyone is taking a nap in the heat, the citrus keeps going combined with the figs and galbanum, the effect is a milky green quality. It reminds me of the color of celadon.

The third stage of Ninfeo Mio is perhaps the one that catches everyone off guard the most. I like to think of it as the early evening stage. Everyone is awaking from their naps there is a tinge of clean sweat, you can smell the evergreen trees giving off the their resinous scent with the coming of a cooling evening. The animalic note of sweat is utterly there but instead of being off-putting Doyen is genius because it is balanced with resinous note of mastic and creamy fig. One thing I noticed about this clean sweat note is that it is far more pronounced if you spray the perfume but if you dab Ninfeo Mio on it is relatively mild.

Finally Ninfeo Mio settles into creamy resinous combination of fig and mastic there are still hints of citrus but the overall effect is milky green. The effect of Ninfeo Mio feels like going through a full day in a garden on the first warm day of summer, the green is still there, in fact it is peaked at its most lush levels but dry summer heat is edging in.

Try Ninfeo Mio if you like Miller Harris's Figue Amere, Coriandre by Jean Couturier, Lo Mejor di Mi by Mario Tomas, or Le Temps d'une Fete by Nicolai.

First Image from Basenotes.net
Second Image from Frances Benjamin Johnston
Third Image from Hellen Van Meene
Fourth Image from Tom Killion

Tackling A Classic: Must de Cartier by Cartier (1981)

Must de Cartier is a bizarrely maligned classic, the maligning mainly stemming from Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez's perfume guide which sums it up as smelling like cheap Russian chocolates. To this day that is the one review I truly and utterly disagree with them on. If you can love Angel then really in my head you have no ground to stand on. But let's actually get onto the perfume.

Must de Cartier has a complicated history, when Cartier released they also had a day version to go with it, the day version wasn't popular, but the evening version lived on. I remember reading somewhere that this was supposed to be Cartier's response to Calvin Klein's Obsession. Obsession is a scent that Must gets frequently compared too but to my nose they don't share a whole lot other than being in the Oriental family. For me Obsession is heavily dank spicy musk where as Must is well a composition of a different sort.

Must de Cartier is combination of green and elegant galbanum and narcissus and rich caramelized ambered woods with a whole lot of delicious tonka bean. There are hints of leather in the scent and to my nose also hints of delicious cherry pipe tobacco. I suspect that is the tonka bean playing with another note.

For me the genius of this scent is the use of galbanum and narcissus, this pairing of intense green notes with the caramelized woods creates the effect of making sure the heavier notes don't get out of hand. Must is no doubt an intense scent but those green notes give it an air of earthiness that lets it go beyond the usual sexy vavavoom-ness that we associate with the Oriental family. It is a cerebral oriental, it's not understated, but their is brain behind it.

What I find interesting is that to my nose it is the clear predecessor of two fairly well-loved scents. Dior's Addict before the reformulation and Fifi Chachnil's Fifi Chachnil. The likeness of Addict and Must de Cartier are found in the drydown where there is a definitely resemblance with the accord of amber, tonka bean, and vetiver being used but where as Must uses leather to anchor the notes, Addict uses heavy calorie vanilla to anchor the scent. The resemblance to Fifi Chachnil is also with the accord of amber, tonka bean, and vetiver yet I would also add I think Fifi gets some inspiration of using coriander in the beginning from the galbanum used in Must, the use of coriander provides that fresh green citrus note that lets the scent not get drowned out by the heavier notes. Ultimately, the divergence of Fifi is the much more prominent use of tobacco and rose in the scent.

Let's take a moment to also talk about reformulation. My Must de Cartier was bought somewhere in the mid 2000s at this point I know many spoke of it being reformulated yet it had not been reformulated to the point of being another perfume considering I have decant of the vintage parfum which it most definitely is akin too. The vintage parfum is gorgeous and a beloved for good reason, the notes richer, and more brocade like.

Try Must de Cartier if you like Dior's Addict, Fifi Chachnil, and Nicolai's Le Temps d'Une Fete.

First image from Makeupalley
Second image from Art Odyssey

Ava Luxe's Midnight Violets

(above thee Beau Brummel)

Notes: Violet, Blue iris, Orris, Earth, Black hemlock, Galbanum, Pink pepper, Cinnamon, Cedar, Sandalwood, Incense, Wood balsam, Moss, Civet, Cashmere musk. On the website she says this is for both men and women and I can believe. I think there is some definite inspiration from Balmain's Jolie Madame in this, what it doesn't have is the sweet gardenia/violet banana middle or the leather/asthtray note in the dry down. The violets are subdued and other wise the woods and incense take over with the galbanum bringing that note of harsh green soapiness. This definately has a chypre quality running through it but a bizarre hint of creaminess (which i can only assume comes from the cashmere musk and sandalwood). This would be lovely on a man; of course my perfume dream is to smell Jolie Madame on a man. The earth note runs strongly through this and the cedar definitily has its moment. Overall this is a smoother more approachable version of Jolie Madame, but does not lose the qualities that make Jolie Madame unique and wanted by those discerning few. A lovely earthy violet scent. Now to find a man to wear.