Fuzzy, Warm, Fresh, and Golden: Onde Extase by Giorgio Armani

Isn't that bottle mysterious and attractive? I love it but I must say I don't think it actually represents the juice inside it. The color of that bottle should have been a variation on warm golden yellows with hints of green because that is what Armani's Onde Extase smells like as far as color is concerned. On the other hand I sort of adore that the bottle is not a "traditional" feminine color.

Onde Extase is a scent that was a bit ahead of its time. It came along in the era of fruity florals and niche scents exploring incense and woods. If it were released now with woodier and more floral scents being the trendier scents on the market I suspect it would have been a different story. Onde Extase is a soothing and pretty blend of florals and woods.

The floral aspect of Onde Extase is of two lesser loved floral notes a fluffy effusive mimosa and a gentle narcissus note that adds a hint of elegant greenery supporting these floral notes is a creamy jasmine which frequently hints at jasmine green tea. The mimosa is the most prominent of the floral notes, it is happy and resplendent, it's golden sunlight in late afternoon.

What supports the florals is cedar, sesame, musk, and a tiny hint of vanilla. The most interesting aspect for me is the gentle use of cedar it is not the patchouli so frequently used now or the smooth liquor wood accord found in Estee Lauder's Sensuous, but cedar, a note rarely these days emphasized in feminine perfumes. Combined with the sesame note it creates a warm nutty fuzzy base for the florals.

Overall the effect of Onde Extase is lightness, smoothness, powder, and tranquility. I am reminded of tea and incense in a mountain garden fully blooming with butterflies fluttering.

Try if you like: Yves Saint Laurent's Cinema, Bvlgari's Bvlgari Pour Femme, Lorenzo Villoresi's Dilmun, or Donna Karan's Gold.



First image from fragrantica.com
second image from thekimonogallery.tumblr.com

The 80s called and they want their perfume back or Miss Dior Le Parfum and believe it or not that first part is not a put down.

I think we shall begin this review with what this perfume reminds me of and I just want to add I do love this film, Working Girl, trailer below.

Miss Dior Le Parfum is such a throwback to the big perfumes of the eighties it takes you a few moments to fully comprehend what is going on because your nose is in a bit of a shock. Let's just say that the relationship with the current Miss Dior fragrances is that it hints at strawberry in its fruit notes and that is about it. Now on to what Miss Dior is actually related to: Mauboussin's Mauboussin and the original Fendi fragrance. 

Miss Dior Le Parfum starts big with amber spiced fruits, there is a hint of strawberry but I would say it is mainly plum, think fruit compote made with dried fruits and cinnamon. This is where the relationship to Mauboussin can be smelled, that heady rich amber fruit opening is definitely a call back to that iconic scent. Then Miss Dior Le Parfum gets dry, powdery dry, while the spicy amber fruit remains it is suddenly  in the background, what comes forward is dry woods with a heavy lean towards cedar with the addition of rose that smooths out the rough edges. This is the stage that reminds me of the original Fendi, that big bombastic cedar incense of a scent that demanded reverence and tribute when you wore it. It is not nearly as bombastic as Fendi but the dry cedar is prominent with spices that says this is no shrinking violet of a scent. Eventually Miss Dior Le Parfum comes to a dry down that reminds me of amber and exquisite makeup powder with hints of rose and vanilla that has been sitting in a cedar chest. 

I know Sigourney's character wear's Shalimar in Working Girl but I think she would have worn Miss Dior Le Parfum had it been available at the time. Her character is an awful awful person, but dammit I love Sigourney, and she played the role so perfectly. 

So thank you Miss Dior Le Parfum for going down the road of big hair and big scent of the 80s and for not really cleaning it up on the way there. You are a rather unexpected delight. 

image provided by Fanpop

Over the top radiance: Elie Saab Le Parfum eau de parfum

Orange blossom is the note that always catches my interest, it is the giant white floral I love, but then again I think I love it because it is a giant white floral that can be done so delicately. And if I were to be really honest it is also the white floral blossom that marries well to my favorite vanilla notes. Another attraction for me is the edible gourmand quality to it reminding me of exotic flower scented desserts.

So how does Ellie Saab's first fragrance fit into my love of the orange blossom, it is big and radiant, sure there is a honey note, but at no point am I thinking to myself, I would like to take a bite of this. No, this fragrance of modern renaissance princess. She is utterly aglow and has a crown of flowers in her hair. There is a sweetness to the scent but it is not just sweetness underneath is a horned section trumpeting the flowers and the earth with cool patchouli and cedar. The musk and honey creating a buzzing to it that makes the scent radiate, its a garden in late spring in area where summer comes early. It is quite frankly a sort of center of attention scent which sometimes is exactly what you want.

Give it a try if you love the orange blossom note in Narcisco Rodigruez eau de toilette and wish there was more of it.

Image courtesy of Aisle Perfect and is from the Hamda Al Fahim Spring 2013 collection

Paperback Romance or Vanille Insensee by Atelier Cologne

You know when you smell something so unlike what you expected that it really throws you, that is Vanille Insensee by Atelier Cologne for me. I had heard comparisons to Eau Duelle by Diptyque, but this is so unlike Eau Duelle I'm not even sure where to begin, the only likeness I can think they share is the use of a unique opening for a vanilla fragrance, but where as Eau Duelle ends up smelling like the little sister of Guerlain's Spiritueuse Double Vanille on me, Vanille Insensee is something completely different.

What first catches me is the incredibly dryness of it, no one is going to say way too sweet, then the lightest dusting of dry lime peel, and then the heavy but strangely light dose of cedar, and then a dry wispy jasmine kicks in, sure there are hints of vanilla, or more like vanilla dust swirled in there but the jasmine and cedar really take hold with a dry effusive musk. What it reminds me of in the end is the scent of paperbacks and fairly old ones, with the discoloring at the edges. What makes it all the more unique is that this is still recognizably a vanilla scent but so utterly strange.

This is not a scent I would choose to wear for one it uses a dry jasmine note that I have found constantly disagreeable on my skin (the jasmine note used in the original Nanette Lepore) on the other hand this is perfect for a weird olfactory experience. This could easily be worn by either sex.

A dry erudite vanilla, so bravo Atelier Cologne for creating something I did not think possible, seriously if you are vanilla lover and need to smell a unique take on vanilla try this.

Try if you like: Diptyque Eau Duelle, Prada Infusion d'Iris, The Scent of Departure Istanbul.

image by Alexander Korzer-Robinson

SOTD: Figue Amere

Today I am trying on something that I didn't really consider much of because I tried it on in the middle of Winter, Miller Harris's Figue Amere. Right now I am quite enjoying it, this may be the greenest fig scent I have ever smelled, I am picking up hints of angelica. When I tried it on in Winter all I got was an incredibly dry scent full of cedar, but now it is wonderfully green with sap. And I was right there is angelica in this beauty. I am going to have to give this one more testing. Bizarrely lush in a very dry way.

image provided by http://www.filmkultura.hu/2005/articles/reviews/index.hu.html

image: Kardhal, Mexico (1998) by Flor Garduno

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.

In a luminous grey haze..scent of the day

I'm wearing Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely today, it is hard to rhaps poetic about a celebrity perfume without delving into sounding fangirlish or sounding like you bought it only because they put their name on it, and too often the scent is mediocre or worse. But with Lovely it is another story this is a scent that immediately evokes a color to me and a texture, it is misty grey silk with just a hint of velvet at the edges. It starts often with a clean medicinal note that immediately awakens the nose with quality a winter breeze has on a sunny day, yet as the fragrance begins to change it takes on the character of grey haze that you often see before sunset in fall around the mountains. It is a clean hazy scent that is both enveloping crisp.
The notes are: patchouli, paper whites, orchid, cedar, musk, woods, manderin, bergamot, rosewood, lavender, apple martini