Sisley Soir de Lune (2006): A Review

I thought I read that Dominique Ropion created Soir de Lune for Sisley. I was a little surprised, but within 45 seconds I had found it on parfum1.com and bought it using their 25% off code. Soir de Lune arrived; I sniffed, I swooned, I love it, but now I can’t find the reference to Dominique Ropion being the perfumer. Perhaps he wasn’t. UPDATE: Turns out Soir de Lune *is* a Ropion creation

Nevertheless, Soir de Lune smells like a Ropion masterpiece. It’s a full bodied spicy, floral chypre, which somehow manages to be fresh, clean and classy. Soir de Lune literally translates to Moonlit Evening in English. Perhaps the name infers Soir de Lune is meant to be a decadent evening fragrance, but I would happily wear it anytime/anywhere. This is also why I’m writing about it on a 92 degree day in New Jersey. While Soir de Lune is a luxuriously full bodied and present perfume, it is also fresh and gauzy enough to wear in warm weather. I wore it last week on a dreary, chilly, spring day and just loved its spicy floral notes. Today was the hottest day so far in 2009 and somehow Soir de Lune managed to show me it’s fresh, clean, almost soapy-green-dry side. It really is a marvelous little wonder. Soir de Lune certainly envelopes the wearer and has potent sillage but miraculously it doesn’t overwhelm. I think of fishnet stockings, which cover the skin, but not completely, allowing all sorts of skin to poke through. Soir de Lune, like a pair of fishnets, provides a dramatic entrance, but allows the wearer to emerge, never overtaking.

Soir de Lune is one of those perfumes where a list of notes doesn’t give you a clear picture. I would describe it as a modern chypre, with a clearly defined citrus top, floral & spicy heart and woody base. Soir de Lune has the “dancing” quality of well done modern chypres, which causes the scent to be multi-faceted instead of uniform. The notes swirl around you allowing you to smell different aspects of the composition throughout the day. At times, Soir de Lune has a blazing rose heart, reminding me of Ungaro Diva, except subtract the heaviness of Diva and add a dose of modern freshness.

Notes: citrus, bergamot, mandarin, lemon, coriander, nutmeg, chili pepper, rose absolute, mimosa flower absolute, jasmine, lily of the valley, iris, peach, tree moss, musk, honey, sandalwood, and Indonesian patchouli

Rating: 5 stars
Sillage: perfectly potent
Longevity: excellent, all day or all night

The cap of the bottle is a bit tacky (sigh) but overall the fragrance is so good I'm starting to find it charming...

Feeling protective

Brian sent me a huge number of decants from his collection that arrived today. I have never smelled any of these fragrances. I opened the package, unwrapped all the vials, then I proceeded to take a nap without smelling a thing. I was utterly overwhelmed.

Once I started sniffing, I began sending him emails with my reactions to each. One interesting point Brian mentioned is that he feels protective towards certain colognes/perfumes and notes. That got me thinking. I, too, feel protective towards a number of fragrances. As I ran down the list I realized that most of them are powerhouse 80’s fragrances from high school. There are only two from the 90’s, zero from the 2000’s and zero from the niche category.

Here’s the list of fragrances that I feel protective towards, and, I suppose you might understand why:

1. Dior Poison
2. Givenchy Amarige
3. Lou Lou Cacharel
4. Thierry Mugler Angel
5. Ungaro Diva

Perhaps I’m more embarrassed than protective. All five of these perfumes are seriously powerful and shriekingly loud. There are only two that I wear occasionally now, Amarige and Lou Lou, and when I wear these I’m careful to apply lightly. But back in the mid-late 80’s when I was in high school, I cared not for others. I applied Poison and Lou Lou as if they were fleeting body sprays. I sprayed Diva in my locker, in my car, all over my bedroom with wild abandon. My friend Megan wore Estee Lauder’s White Linen in much the same fashion. Nicole bathed in Lou Lou. Becky was scented with Lauren by Ralph Lauren, Melissa was also a Poison girl like me and Lesley liked to wear Laura Ashley No. 1 (which was by far the tamest scent in our group). I shudder to think of what the car smelled like when we drove off together on a Saturday night headed for a destination entirely different from what our parents were told.

Fast forward to the early-mid nineties when I wore Amarige exclusively during college. I’ve never received as many compliments on any other fragrance by a mile. Amarige is sexaaaay and that’s the way it made me feel.

I wore Angel for about 6 months when it first hit the shelves in 1997. I felt like I was the first to wear it. I loved it. It was during this time that I also loved my job. I was traveling the world (Europe, Asia, South America, you name it) and I was professionally quite happy. Once an Angel-laden-smog developed around all major cities due to the number of people wearing it I had to stop. It was just too trendy. Now it seems like everyone hates it. I don’t hate Angel at all, I rather like it, but I think fifty years of olfactory distance need to pass before anyone can truly appreciate it now.

So it seems that these fragrances make me nostalgic. I’m protective of them because they hold the memories of good times in my life. I don’t think I’ll ever objectively smell the horrific things that others smell in these fragrances because I wore them, I loved them, and they’re tightly intertwined with happy memories.

PS: Happy Birthday, Madonna! Madge is 50. I can’t believe it.