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

Ambering It Up

I suppose I sometimes think of amber as my scent, I feel a certain territorial quality for the note, I suspect it is because it is a note that from a young age has been a part of my life, a note that is always in the background. A note that I know blends well with my skin which is why it was so sad for me a few years ago to realize that chemistry of skin with amber had changed making my ambered fragrances take on overly sweet tarry note, but with time I have found some new loves in the amber category. So out of curiosity I decided to see all the amber fragrances I have and how I would categorize them and came to the conclusion that I am total amber nut:

Ambre Narguile by Hermessence- The ultimate amber pastry, completely defines the idea of amber being a pastry note.
Ambre Russe by Parfum d'Empire- A spicy narcotic decadent amber with a little bit of growling fur going through it.
Ambre Sultan by Serge Lutens- An herbal narcotic amber, very cool and hot at the same time.
Baltic Amber candle by Voluspa- I beautiful smoky creamy amber with hints of pine and vanilla, one of the few candles I have repeatedly bought.
Blackberry Amber by Bath and Body Works- A juicy blackberrry amber patchouli combo, very intense.
Must de Cartier- What I like to call gingerbread amber with smoke and beautiful green notes.
Sensual Amber by Bath and Body Works- A chewy dried apricot amber that has a nice resinous vanilla drydown.
With Love by Hilary Duff- a coffeed piney creamy amber. Bizarrely good.

As you can see I am no perfume snob, I can appreciate high and low end.

image provided by artnet.com

image: Venice Amber Vine Trio by Julie Lazarus

SOTD: Allure Sensuelle pure parfum

The lovely sunny spring weather has turned to rainy spring weather. Going through my scent wardrobe I was tempted to bring out my heavy oriental hitters: Organza Indecence, Must, or Un Bois Vanille. But the reality is I simply have come to that time of the year that even when it is cold outside spring is still very visibly here and no autumnal/winter scents are what I want to wear. So instead I am going with Allure Sensualle pure parfum (the only strength of Allure Sensualle I wear), which is very much a floriental scent yet the patchouli used in it has a cool earthy quality to it that makes it appropiate for spring weather. I almost dismissed this image as being to much in the mode of bodice-ripper, but I love the fact that the model is short haired, that is she not the "ideal" of beauty, but she has contemplative alluring quality on her face that well the more I look at the image the more I am drawn to it.

And a quote:

The only reason I made a commercial for American Express was to pay for my American Express bill.-- Peter Ustinov

In these days of craptastic economy I thought this one was highly fitting and appropiate.

image provided by artnet.com

Sensual by Royo

SOTD: Must de Cartier parfum

Go with the sensual elixir of Must de Cartier parfum. This is truly my favorite oriental, after years of thinking I could not wear one, this scent arrived in my life.