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

Elegant Bohemian: Vol 870 YUL-CDG by Monsillage (2014)

Sometimes I forget what a good elegant scent can do, for me it has the power to make me feel put together, not ostentatious, but like your own skin is perfectly fine and everything is clicking together. The thing about an elegant scent to me is that it must like feel like a melange of notes, no note is above the others, and yet there is a defined story. I know that is a lot to require out of a scent for it to be considered elegant and I admit there is a lot of Chanel influence in that assertion but that is how I define elegant scents.

On the other hand it is even harder to find an elegant scent with quirk, quirk is rather hard to describe but for me it has to be that note that strikes out and brings something new to the conversation but at the same time is utterly smooth in its compelling addition. Well if you are looking for a sort of unique contrarian elegance then I think you probably should seek out Monsillage's Vol 870 YUL-CDG. Vol 870 YUL-CDG is a bit of a wonder because perfumer Isabelle Michaud created a classic elegant scent that I would feel comfortable wearing at an elegant soiree or a bohemian retreat.

The beginning of Vol 870 YUL-CDG is all about the the osmanthus absolute for me. I adore osmanthus so I am always excited when I see a perfumer take the note and go in a different direction with it. Frequently osmanthus is paired with tea or used as a supporting player, but in Vol 870 YUL-CDG Michaud chooses to let osmanthus star. This is an osmanthus full of dried apricots and hinting at the resinous note that you smell in osmanthus absolute it is lovely and warm so different from other floral notes that once again I am reminded that I find shocking that it is not used more often in perfumery. There is a tannic quality to osmanthus that keeps the sweeter wine like qualities of it in check, it is the sort of scent that balances out the cold sweet of ylang ylang with tannins of black tea and the delicious tartness of dried apricots, it is one of the most naturally layered and complex notes you will ever run across.

What enters next is a rather genius pairing for osmanthus, the notes of balsams. I grew up on a ranch that was high enough in elevation that we had a variety of fir and pine trees and one of my favorite things to go do as a child was to play with the sticky fragrant sap of those trees much to the annoyance of family. Vol 870 YUL-CDG pairs osmanthus with pines and firs, the resinous and balsamic notes play beautifully with the osmanthus creating an elegant but frankly adventurous scent. The mingling of forest and ripe fruit is sensuous yet clever. The woven pairing of osmanthus and balsams play for hours on the skin, the fruit receding with time, and the drydown containing hints of musk, amber, and vetiver. It is a smooth blending that creates warm woods quality on the wearer.

Try if you like Ormonde Jayne Woman, Sonoma Scent Studio's Jour Ensolielle, or Le Temps d'Une Fete by Nicolai.


first image from fragrantica.com
second image Moki Mioke