Bizarro Fresh: Womanity by Thierry Mugler

I finally get Womanity it just took me 6 years and finally trying it in the middle of a heat spell. Although every time I wear it, I think this will always be my first thought "This is fucking weird."

I want to take a trip down memory lane with this one. The first time I tried Womanity was a total "GET IT OFF!" moment in 2010, fast forward to January 2016 and I buy a random sample of it, it is not "GET IT OFF!" bad but still not doing much for me but there is a glimmer of something interesting. And now lets get to last week, Versus by Versace suddenly awoke a bizarre desire for fruity in me, which frankly you really cannot find in my personal perfume collection. So I rummaged through my samples and found Womanity. I then finally gained clarity on this fragrance, enough clarity that I finally bought a little bottle of it.

The clarity I finally got is that Womanity needs heat. In cold weather the vibrant fruit note gets drowned out by the salty animalic note it makes for something akin to smelling slightly pickled. In the heat though the fruit of Womanity gets to shine. Which is where it gets a little weird for me. Womanity touts a fig note and yet my nose does not read it as fig, instead the first thing that pops into my head when I put it on is salted strawberries and, I mean heavily doused in salt, what follows is the enhancement of the pungency of the fruit note with spicy floral fruit note of pineapple guava (I am actually surprised the scent of this fruit has not been mined by perfumery).

The beginning fruit stage is then followed by the addition of something fresh, green, and spicy. Katie Puckrik compares it to green bell pepper, to my nose it is more akin to bruised coriander leaf and chopped pine needles. Either way this is the stage where the pinkness of the scent starts to take on a salty woodsy aspect. Eventually the fruits give up center stage in Womanity and what happens in the dry down is a glowing musky creamy woodsy thing that somehow retains the neon-ness of the opening fruits yet does not smell inherently fruity.

This is my favorite stage because it smells like the best rendition of Northern California coastline at certain part of the day, its right as the fog is rolling in on sunny afternoon, you can smell the sea, and coastal scrub brush heated by the sun, intermingling. There is one type scrub brush that at the right time of day has a spicy fruity scent, I still don't know what it is, but over the years I have known it well from all my visits and hikes near the beach. I find this scent in Womanity. Womanity is also like that scrub brush in that it needs the heat to be understood properly.

Thierry Mugler discontinued Womanity, you can still find it at online discounters, but this is considered his big flop, it is also the only fragrance of his to this date that has caught my fancy. The thing is I am pretty sure released now it might have done better with the prevalence of niche now being found at the fragrance counter. Still this is a weird one, it is definitely a part of the solar family of fragrances. It is one of those ground breakers that tried incorporating savory for the first time, which is now that salty aspect that is now found in many scents currently. I would also like to mention that the tenacity on this scent is amazing and it smells great on clothes.

Try if you like MikMoi's Ao or Jo Malone's Wood Sage & Sea Salt.

First imageThe Scent of Self
Second image Miho Hirano
Third image Travel & Leisure

Tackling the Classics: Angel by Thierry Mugler

Welcome to the first entry in the Tackling the Classics series where I take a look at iconic scents and see if they live up to the hype on myself. Today we take a look at the legendary and groundbreaking Angel.

What has not been said about Angel? It is considered the booming loud opera voice that brought the gourmand genre to the forefront*, it is without a doubt the scent that you will have an opinion on, in fact I would say it is impossible not to have an opinion on Angel.

What is Angel for me? I think first thing I should mention is Angel has always caught me off guard by its name, Angel you think angelic, soft downy cherubs, but Mugler instead decided to go with the idea of the avenging angel Gabriel. In this case Gabriel's sword is patchouli and chocolate and unfortunately if not used right you could easily bludgeon onlookers with this scent. We have all heard the stories of the person who wore too much Angel.

After sampling Angel multiple times I have found it to be patchouli overload and sadly it remains just that on me. Every once in awhile I will get a glimmer of the other notes, but Angel overall for me is a particular patchouli that I have come to realize never melds well on me. It is what I call damp hay patchouli. Damp hay patchouli smells of dry sweet patchouli with the unnerving and not delightful note of hay that has been soaked with water and allowed to sit awhile. The other note that causes issue for me is the candyfloss note, now for many this note is a delightful gourmand note, but for me takes on an acrid limp quality that that just stagnates on my skin. It took me awhile to figure out what was causing this effect but I fully realized it when I tried the discontinued L'Artisan Vanilia which uses the same candyfloss note in a much larger percentage.

Yet, I do know the beauty and proclamation of Angel, just not on me. Years ago I had a colleague who wore it and on her it was swoon worthy sillage, Kuljeet's skin brought out the bittersweet chocolate, and fruit notes. What it ended up smelling like on her was the dark chocolate the kind with wine and berry notes.

As for the type of angel that Angel is, I think it is far more akin to Tilda Swinton's Gabriel in Constantine (the only good thing about that movie).

*Although, it should be noted that there are many fragrances before it that skirted the gourmand territory but never fully bellowed it like Angel.

image provided by http://www.theperfumeshop.com/fcp/product/womens-fragrances/thierry-mugler/angel/1580