Christmas Contenders: starting a list and looking for suggestions

This is the first year I’ve been wondering, well in advance, what I’ll wear during Christmas. Normally, I just wear whatever I want, depending on what I’m doing that day, or thinking about who I’ll be around. This year, I’m traveling to North Carolina to visit family so I’m planning in advance what I’ll wear and bring a few decants with me. I’ll be around my Mother, who pretty much hates perfume, or anything strong or what she calls “chemically perfume-y.” Yeah, I know, this means I can’t even consider bringing about 75% of my collection to NC (not that I’d bring the whole collection, I just mean this greatly reduces my choices to begin with).

So, I’m thinking about ‘comfort fragrances’ similar to comfort food. I’m thinking of scents that actually smell like Christmas to me (although I can’t bring Angel because Mom would suffocate, unless of course a few drops of Angel in pure parfum wouldn't shock her, since the parfum has much less sillage...hmmmm...or maybe the Liqueur version or Angel Violet). I’m aiming to bring 3-4 decants, I’ll be in NC for 7 days, and 3-4 should hold me.

Here’s what I’m thinking:

Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir: This is a lovely scent, utterly unisex, and it smells like Christmas. It’s somewhat soft and sheer yet I can smell it on myself all day. For a Jo Malone, the longevity is pretty darn good. It’s spicy and non-foodie yet it simply smells like Christmas. The Jo Malone websites lists the notes as: sweet fruity notes of raspberry, plum, pink pepper and pomegranate with patchouli, frankincense and spicy woods. You know, I don’t think this smells fruity at all. What I smell is the frankincense and spicy woods, and maybe a tart fruit, like what I imagine pomegranate to smell like, but it isn’t sweet and I don’t even get patchouli from this. I swear I smell balsam fir trees, a crackling fire, some nutmeg and maybe even a smidgen of snow and sparkling candle light.

DSH Mahjoun: Serge Lutens might think he holds court over the “loukhoum” type fragrances but my favorite is Keiko Mecheri Loukhoum. By a mile. DSH Mahjoun is another oriental which is said to focus on this Moroccan dessert but it’s nowhere near as sweet as the SL or the KM and, in truth, it’s much nuttier and more oriental than both. Let's just say there's no almond or cherry in sight. Mahjoun is a nutty, woody, slightly sweet oriental gourmand with dashes of cinnamon, nutmeg and what I can’t describe other than date-nut bread. Mahjoun is a crowd pleaser (thinking of Mom) but it also pleases me.

Ava Luxe Madeline: This is new, just arriving a couple days ago. Madeline is, I believe, Ava Luxe’s Christmas scent for 2010. Madeline is also similar to DSH Mahjoun in that it’s a gourmand but it isn’t as sweet as most. It is sweeter than Mahjoun, however, as it smells like spicy, creamy eggnog. The gourmand quality doesn’t go over the top because it has a blast of nutmeg keeping the sweetness in check. It’s delectable.

The Different Company Oriental Lounge: An essentially basic oriental, with both gourmand leanings and entirely non gourmand leanings (curry leaf). TDC Oriental Lounge has been a favorite of mine since I purchased it last year. It sometimes seems so basic in structure yet I find myself smelling it over and over again all day enjoying the off-beat twists that daughter-Ellena chose to include. TDC Oriental Lounge is again, a crowd pleaser (couldn’t possibly be called “perfumey”) yet it also pleases me.

Do you have any suggestions I might not have thought of? Of course, I can bring more than 4…(hee hee you know how it is!).

Oh, and PS: I'll have Teo Cabanel Alahine with me, because she's my closest friend, sort of like Oprah and Gail King; Alahine is always with me.

Photo is of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. I think we're attending a Christmas Eve event there.

Fashionable Attitudes: From Tuberose to Ylang Ylang

It's fascinating to read the comments about Abigail's Nuit de Tubereuse--mainly because I can't make any connection between what I smelled and what you all are talking about. A month ago, when I smelled it at Barney's, I found Tubereuse infinitely uninteresting. Like Abigail, I'm not much of a Bertrand D fan, though I do really love Amaranthine: I don't find it sugary or banal. But Tubereuse, which has been hyped for months and waxed poetically about, really seemed much ado about nothing to me, on top of which, the now-chronic persistence problem which characterizes all of L'Artisan on my skin. It's sad. Back when I first smelled a L'Artisan fragrance I thought the heavens had opened up. Now I'm horribly blase about the line. Maybe that's part of the problem. Maybe Bertrand just had his work cut out for him.

Meanwhile, I've smelled the new A Scent Florale and think it's a great addition to the original. Fainter, yes, and not as green, but the original has plenty of green to go around, and Florale retains a lot of it. I'm probably relieved that Florale doesn't feel like a corrective of some sort, an attempt to "fix" the most oft-cited problems with A Scent. Too sharp? Too masculine? Who cares? Florale is the kind of flanker I enjoy: it doesn't simply use its source material as a marketing springboard. It plays around with many of the same characteristic elements, tweaking and recombining them, almost as if the perfumers had been asking themselves, "How much can we push this, in baby steps, until it isn't quite what it was?" Only be staying very close to the original can the differences truly be enjoyed, the contrasts fully absorbed. The biggest difference are the highest top notes, a dewy burst of peony mixed with galbanum and, possibly, ylang ylang. Galbanum and Ylang Ylang have some interesting interplay, their rubbery, almost mentholated facets mingling nicely. The fragrance is closer to the skin than A Scent original but by no means a skin scent on me.

Speaking of Ylang Ylang, I'm only now getting around to Estee Lauder's Private Collection Amber Ylang Ylang. I'm glad to be smelling it now, while the conversation about Nuit de Tubereuse rages on. I remember how disappointed people were in Amber Ylang Ylang. I thought, wow, it must be pretty bad. I'm surprised to find that I like it very much, though I suppose like many who did I should qualify that by saying it isn't the most groundbreaking thing I've ever laid nostril on. I wonder what makes Tubereuse, which seems so uninteresting to me, the topic of so much excitement and praise, while Amber YY was regarded so resolutely as a failure. I can see things being worked out in it, like the challenge of bringing vintage balsamic florals into the future. Oriental Lounge seemed to be asking itself the same questions, and answered them differently and possibly more emphatically. My impression is that Amber YY aimed for a more languorous tribute to those older sisters Bal a Versailles and Youth Dew. Ultimately it presents a far more mellow meditation on those themes. Much was made of the price, but 80 bucks for an ounce of Amber YY doesn't really seem exorbitant to me. Again, I don't smell the vanilla overload everyone seems to have suffered under, but talk to me in the winter.

Know what I continue to love? Histoire D'Amour by Aubusson. Another Ylang Ylang driven fragrance which didn't have the good fortune to have been created by Bertrand D or manufactured by L'Artisan. Personally, I like it as much as anything I've smelled from either. Another good one for me lately, and I have yet to review it, is Yosh's EDP version of Omniscent. I've read very little about it, and it strikes me as one of the best releases of the past six months. I smelled the EDP version alongside the original when I picked up a bottle at Barney's. They smelled not very similar to me. I suspect people haven't been reviewing it because they assume otherwise. Like Amber Ylang Ylang and Oriental Lounge, Omniscent approaches the subject of an older style of fragrance with both respect and irreverence, resulting in a uniquely contemporary wear.

Annick Goutal Vanille Exquise

It wasn’t very long ago that I disliked Vanille Exquise. I think that any true fragrance fanatic would have to admit to changing her mind on occasion or even frequently.

Prior to November, 2009, I didn’t wear many vanilla focused fragrances but lately I’ve been having a vanilla renaissance. It started with The Different Company Oriental Lounge, then PG Felanilla, then L’Artisan Havana Vanille, then Montale Chypre Vanille and now Annick Goutal Vanille Exquise. Somehow it took liking these four non-foodie vanillas for me to understand Vanille Exquise.

Vanille Exquise (2004) came years before Felanilla, Oriental Lounge, Havana Vanille and Chypre Vanille and it’s another vanilla scent for those who don’t like foodie vanillas. Initially there was a note in Vanille Exquise that was too harsh for me – I think it’s either angelica or gaiac wood – but this harshness is no longer there, it has magically disappeared or more accurately I’ve taken a liking to this jarring slightly nutty, woody, dry and herbal quality in combination with sweet vanilla.

Vanilla Exquise (VE) also reminds me a bit of Guerlain Angelique Noire, but again, for the record, VE arrived on the scene 1 year before Angelique Noire. I find VE better than Angelique Noire because it’s less sweet and foodie. Like many Guerlains, Angelique Noire has that sweet vanillic/Play-Doh “Guerlainade” that I’m not fond of. You either love that Guerlainade or you don’t and my favorite Guerlains are the one’s without it. I’m pointing out that Annick Goutal VE came before many of the interesting non-foodie vanillas on today’s market for a reason, and that is, that Annick Goutal is a phenomenal perfume house and Isabelle Doyan a brilliant perfumer . The more I focus on scents from Annick Goutal, the more I realize there are plenty of gems and not just boring pretty stuff.

The vanilla note in Vanille Exquise is always present but it’s in the background like a pair of delicate hand made curtains framing a picture window. The vanilla here is sweet, but it is blended with angelica and gaiac wood which are dark, dry and incense-y. The longer VE stays on my skin the better it gets; the blending of vanilla with this incense-y dryness is sublime. As I’ve mentioned in my last few posts, some fragrances require me to ‘spray myself wet’ and VE is one of them – but once I do it lasts all day and the sillage is nice.

I’ve come to realize that Annick Goutal is one of my favorite houses. Spray yourself wet with a few from AG and you might find you missed the beauty before.

Notes include: vanilla, angelica, almond, benzoin, gaiac wood and white musk.

Above photo courtesy of Decomprose on Flikr

Montale Chypre Vanille

Montale is not my favorite line. I enjoyed Sandflowers last year, but as much as I still like it, I’ve grown tired of it and never wear it. I’m not a fan of Aoud so this rules out a good portion of Montale fragrances. Blue Amber is nice but I have too many other amber orientals I like better. Steam Aoud is one of the strangest fragrances I’ve ever worn. Granted there are loads of Montales I haven’t tried – simply because there are so many – and they’re expensive and can never be found on discount. But, I’m here to tell you, along came Chypre Vanille and I find myself oddly drawn to it.

For me, Montale Chypre Vanille is NOT a chypre nor is it a typical vanilla fragrance. I don’t smell anything like oakmoss nor patchouli which has come to be the ‘modern chypre’ base. I’ve read as many reviews of Chypre Vanille as I can find and I don’t agree with most of them. The vanilla here is not foodie but I would also not call it dry. It’s a sweet vanilla, but not a foodie vanilla, if that makes sense. Think of the sweetness of Shalimar – I would say it’s sweeter than that – but the vanilla here is similar to the type of vanilla in Shalimar (sans the citrus edge). I do not mean Chypre Vanille smells like Shalimar – it doesn’t. I’m just trying to describe this type of vanilla.

Overall, once dried down, I think Chypre Vanilla smells like the most buttery sueded vanilla LEATHER imaginable. It starts off syrupy and potent, like most Montales, with a hefty dose of powder. But this isn’t Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder – it’s more like an orris root powder. You’ll have to be a hardcore Scent Junkie to make this sort of powder distinction but if you can imagine what I’m describing, you’ll get it. Once you get past what I think of as a rocky start, it becomes a gorgeous soft vanillic suede. There aren’t any spices jutting out, it’s all about being smooth, creamy, cozy and sublime. I’m just so oddly attracted to it.

The past few months I’ve found myself enjoying vanilla fragrances when I don’t normally like this category at all. TDC Oriental Lounge is a nice take on vanilla and L’Artisan Havana Vanille is excellent. Montale’s Chypre Vanille is probably my favorite take on vanilla of late – it’s wonderfully unique and I can’t say I’ve ever smelled anything like it.

Chypre Vanille is easily unisex. The longevity is excellent.

Notes (borrowed from Luckyscent): vanilla, rose, amber, incense, sandalwood, iris, vetiver, tonka bean

Oriental Lounge, Celine Ellena: A Review

I've been anxiously awaiting The Different Company's Oriental Lounge this fall. My bottle arrived from Aedes last week and I admit to not being initially enamored with it. Before wearing Oriental Lounge, I read the interview with the perfumer, Ms. Ellena, on Grain de Musc. Take the time to read it, it gives the reader a unique perspective and definitely enriched my sniffing experience.

I haven't loved anything from The Different Company yet. I like Osmanthus, Sel de Vetiver, Jasmine de Nuit and Sublime Balkiss, but it isn't love. My favorite from the line so far was Sublime Balkiss, which is a very light, modern take on a berried chypre. From Ms. Ellena's comment on Grain de Musc I believe it's true that The Different Company (TDC) sorely needed to add an oriental to their arsenal, something spicy and wearable in cold weather. And so we have, Oriental Lounge.

Here's the thing about me. While I'm an absolute perfume enthusiast and worship loads of classics there's a part of me that looks positively towards the future of perfumery. Even in the midst of all these horrendous reformulations and IFRA restrictions, I still have hope for modern interpretations of classic structures, like the oriental. While I liked Sublime Balkiss, I enjoyed it's take on the old fashioned chypre format, the issue for me is one of longevity. Sublime Balkiss just isn't potent enough for $175 of my hard earned dineros. A good example of a modern chypre, for me, is Estee Lauder's Jasmine White Moss. This is a modern chypre done well. Jasmine White Moss looks fondly upon it's older chypre cousins while still being it's own sort of chypre and I love it. This is what Oriental Lounge is doing for me. Oriental Lounge is born of Shalimar and other classic orientals but it's done well enough and differently enough to be worthy of your time. Ironic that Celine Ellena said orientals aren't her favorite category because I think this is one of her best works for TDC.

Oriental Lounge, what it smells like: Angela from NST is right, Oriental Lounge starts off with a familiar Shalimar-esque beginning, in fact, it reminds me of Shalimar overall, except without the lingering citrus, less obvious aldehydes and zero civet/animalic/musky stuff. So, I do think you wouldn't be terribly far off by categorizing Oriental Lounge as a cleaned up Shalimar. There's a sharp bergamot/citrus start over an ambery-vanillic base. And I initially agreed with Angela that it seems flat and linear. I tried a spritz at Barneys back in October and my first impression was that it was too sweet, flat and boring. It turns out you need a few sprays (not dabs) to experience this perfume. But I should point out, that while you need a few sprays, Oriental Lounge is not fleeting or overly sheer, it has good enough presence.

If you absolutely adore Shalimar and think it's Guerlain's gift to orientals you probably won't be impressed with Oriental Lounge. If you like and appreciate Shalimar but find it old fashioned, a bit strong and difficult to wear, but you still like the idea of it, and find yourself sniffing it in private, then Oriental Lounge could be your ticket to the modern oriental airway. Now I will not mention Shalimar again, because while Oriental Lounge definitely draws from it's roots, it's interesting enough to be described on it's own merits.

After reading the interview with Ms. Ellena on Grain de Musc I realized the best part of Oriental Lounge is the caloupilé note (aka curry leaf). Apparently this note is what gives Oriental Lounge it's slightly green and metallic vibe. The addition of curry leaf (not to be confused with Indian food, there isn't anything foodie about Oriental Lounge) gives Oriental Lounge a nicely jarring quality. It isn't all warm, cozy and snoozy, in part because of this curry leaf aspect. Oriental Lounge is a lovely balance of sweet and dry, this may be, for me, the best part of it. I usually don't like flat, sweet, ambers in the least. But put a hunk of amber inside a swarm of dry, spicy, citrus and herbal notes and I'm there. Oriental Lounge can be described as lush, creamy and mysterious. There is a gourmand touch but it might only be a hallucination, something the scent makes you imagine, because really, it's not particularly sweet nor gourmand at all. The dry down does go a bit sheer and linear on me, it's main characteristic is a sharp ambery wood, but the hours prior to the dry down are swirls of warm oriental dreaminess.

Sniffing around the Dallas Northpark Mall

YSL Parisienne
This is supposed to be edgy, right? It's not edgy for me. It smells like fruity candy. A little tartness perhaps from blackcurrant. It's a nice enough fruity floral but isn't FB worthy for me. It will surely have fans, it's nice. I just can't help comparing it with Paris which effortlessly eats it alive in one gulp.

The Different Company Oriental Lounge
Sweet. Gourmand. Vanilla. Foody. I can think of loads of other oriental gourmands for a lot less $$ that I like better.

Byredo Gypsy Water
So faint I can't be bothered describing it. It's too faint for it's price tag.

Frederic Malle Angelique Sous La Pluie
Gin & tonic for 5 minutes then just water. Virtually scentless.

Frederic Malle Geranium Pour Monseuir
I didn't expect to like this, but I do. It's a greenish herbal (geranium) minty little number. I like the natural herbal freshness. I left Barney's with a large sample and will wear it a few more times.

Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles
This is not so much a perfume as it is the smell of Christmas. It's a beautiful pine-y aromatic scent. I also have a large sample of this and will try wearing it a few times. It doesn't strike me as unlikeable in the least - only that it might seem more like a home fragrance than a perfume to many.

Guerlain Idylle
Pleasant and pretty. Reminds me of Acqua di Parma Magnolia Nobile a bit. The bottle is nicer in person. Idylle is a light fresh floral. It will have fans, it's nice enough.

Now I WANT Le Labo Tubereuse 40 and LL Oud 27. Tubereuse 40 is not so much about tuberose but instead a citrus-y neroli. It's fresh and gorgeous. Le Labo Oud 27 is an easily wearable oud for me. It's softly sweet and resinous with loads of woods, straw, hay and a dab of honey. Oud 27 dries down to a woody musk that's not especially interesting but the beginning and middle stages are yummy and at least the dry down isn't band-aids or oud-pee. Until my visit to Barney's the last 2 days I didn't realize I was such a Le Labo fan. Go figure.