Tobacco Honey by Guerlain L’Art & La Matière
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Tobacco Honey by Guerlain L’Art & La Matière

Hi there ULGers, The Guerlain L’Art & La Matière line is their mass-tige offering. Priced far above their regular lines but never feeling especially luxe. I love and own a few of them but with the introduction of the new bottles am finding them less and less appealing. Especially at this price point. Yes, I feel like a broken record but the dumbing down of fragrance bottles shits me. Guerlain had such a vibrant, beautiful range of bottles that spoke of their legacy. Sure, not all of them were winners but gah… Having said that, I am excited they went with the Flacon Bouchon Coeur for regular range now. It harks back to 1912 L’Heure Bleue and was Mitsouko‘s original bottle too. Anyway, I’m sitting here with a mini of Tobacco Honey. It came with a recent purchase and I’m retrying it again. First go was a no-go but it may have been my mood, weather, health etc. So I’m coming back at it, join me.

Tobacco Honey by Guerlain L’Art & La Matière 2023

Tobacco Honey Guerlain

Guerlain gives these featured accords:
Top: Honey, Cloves, Anise;
Heart: Tobacco, Vanilla, Tonka, Sesame
Base: Agarwood (Oud), Sandalwood

Delphine Jelk created Tobacco Honey. it’s big, loud, sweet and flamboyant. Spiced honey, dry vanilla, dark woods all combine to give an extraordinary, very immortelle like experience.

You know how cough drops are hyper sweet, cordial-like, very slightly medicinal tasting versions of whatever fruit they are purporting to be? That’s what Tobacco Honey is like for me. A confectioners recreation of these notes in a very gluggy immortelle style, but without the deep or dark of that note. All high intensity confection and a medicinal backtaste.

Wearing Tobacco Honey again tonight for work I enjoyed it immensely. Thick, rich, treacle like ropes of fragrance. There were multiple positive comments and I enjoyed smelling so delicious.

Leans heavily modern femme, has excellent projection and sillage. Careful, it can go full beast mode. Longevity is really good but during the last couple of hours I’m left with an amorphous sticky sweetness. Interestingly, for something so dense, this works of warm sunshiny days and sultry nights as well as it does in the deep cold.

Honestly, my favourite tobaccos are a bit darker and woodsier. This is very gorgeous though and I can imagine it being a wonderful signature for the kind of perfume wearer who does that.

What are your thoughts on Tobacco Honey by Guerlain?
Portia xx

 

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Saturday Question: What Are the Longest-Lasting Perfumes In Your Collection?

Over the years, we discussed whether the longevity maters and our ideal perfume tenacity. Some perfumes seem to disappear almost before we finish applying them, while others stay with us all day and sometimes well into the next one. Whether you enjoy that kind of persistence or find it occasionally overwhelming, most of us probably have at least a few perfumes in our collections whose staying power stands out from the rest.

 

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

 

Saturday Question #298:

What Are the Longest-Lasting Perfumes In Your Collection?

For those specific perfumes, do you consider it a benefit or something you tolerate?

My Answer

As with most of my recent questions, this one came to me as I was experiencing the topic. I woke up the next morning after a Mother’s Day celebration and realized that I could still smell Amouage Gold, which I had applied around 2 PM the previous day. And it was still wonderful.

I think most of my favorite Amouage perfumes easily last overnight on my skin and at least several days on a pillowcase. I always enjoy them and don’t remember ever getting that “the perfume wears you” feeling that I sometimes get even from less tenacious perfumes hours into wearing them.

 

How about you?

 

What Are the Longest-Lasting Perfumes In Your Collection?

Paddock by Hermes
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Paddock by Hermes

Hi there ULGers, Quietly and without fanfare Hermes (yes I know it’s Hermès but SEO) released a complete fragrant stunner in 2024. Only available in their stand alone stores. It’s also spendy. Not Roja spendy but still, you’ll have to really NEED IT to fork over that kind of money for something that literally goes up in fragrant smoke. I really, really want Paddock. It plays on my mind in the most inopportune moments. Currently I’m down to my last 2ml of a Surrender To Chance decant. They now seem to be totally out of it!?! GAH! I can’t even scratch the itch now.

Paddock by Hermes 2024

Hermes gives this description of notes:
Honeyed hay, Amber carrot seed

Christine Nagel has received a slew of hate mail through her tenure at Hermes. Following Jean Claude Ellena was never going to be easy. He had redefined the way that Hermes perfume lovers chose to smell. His fragrances seem austere and minimalist, even when they aren’t. His gluggiest (that I love BTW) Ambre Narguile, while being warm, rich and a little over the top gourmand still feels calmly restrained.

This feels like Mz Nagel is arrived. Like Eau de Citron Noir, H24, Cardomusc Terre D’Hermes Eau Intense Vetiver and L’Ombre and Eau des Merveilles Bleue (the ones from her I paid retail for) were just practicing to become this stunningly astounding perfection.

On my first sniff I’d completely dismissed Paddock. Then, this time last year Val the Cookie Queen came to stay with us. When she wore it I suddenly got what was meant to live in someone’s sillage.

This pic makes me so sad, only a few wears away from zero Paddock.

Paddock by Hermes STC Decant Apr26

Paddock is horsey, and yard-ish, and paddock, its feed room and tack room. It’s a whiff of all those things BUT it’s also none of them. Paddock is a surrealists dream of all that, while still being pure fine fragrance.

Please don’t go try it. Don’t fall in love with it. Don’t even go near it. There’s not enough to share and I freaking WANT IT ALL.

Did you try Paddock? Thoughts?
Portia xx

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Saturday Question: Which Perfume Names Refuse to Stay in Your Memory?

With the largish collections many of us have, it happens sometimes that we forget we have a perfume (especially if it’s in a decant or sample format). It would be strange to ask you about those. With perfumes from different countries, named in different languages, we might not know the exact pronunciation of some names. Not asking about those either. Do you have perfumes in your collection that you remember owning but can never remember their exact names?

 

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

 

Saturday Question #297:

Which Perfume Names Refuse to Stay in Your Memory?

What do you do about it? Do you have nicknames for those? Do you use partial names? Do you approximately envision the form of the name on the label?

My Answer

There are three perfumes in my collection that I can never remember – and I love them and have full bottles of each!

Mona di Orio Les Nombres d’Or Vanille – all I can remember is “Vanille,” so for my daily records in the database, I had to “rearrange” the name to Vanille Les Nombres d’Or (so that it would appear in the type-ahead field when I enter the only part that I remember).

Houbigant Quelques Fleurs Royale – that “Quelques”… Too many vowels. I checked the pronunciation, and still I can’t remember the name when I think about that perfume, even though the last two words don’t confuse me at all.

Serge Lutens La Dompteuse Encagée – even though this was one of the latest additions to my collection, the name disappears from my inner eye as soon as I stop looking at the bottle or the screen. I haven’t come up with a good mnemonic for it yet.

 

How about you?

 

Which Perfume Names Refuse to Stay in Your Memory?

Miutine by Miu Miu
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Miutine by Miu Miu

Hi there Looking Glassers, Miutine Miu Miu was released in 2025. Presented in the clear Miu Miu bottle but with black lid detail. One of two 2025 releases along with Miu Miu Rosee. They had a fallow year in 2024 and I thought they might be letting the fragrance side drop but happily not yet. I need to preface the review by saying that I really don’t think Miu Miu is making perfume with me in mind as the consumer. Though I’m madly in love with their signature bottles, especially the turquoise 2015 original, my wallet has not left my pocket for any of the offerings. They’re not bad but they just don’t seem to fit me. So I go in today with zero expectation to love this. Happy to be pleasantly surprised though. They’re selling it as a gourmand chypre, inspired by the timeless classic. As it’s created by master perfumer Dominique Ropion that gives me a thrill, his first for Miu Miu.

Miutine by Miu Miu 2025

Miutine Miu Miu

Miu Miu gives these featured accords:
Head: Wild Strawberry
Heart: Gardenia
Base: Brown Sugar, Vanilla, Patchouli oil, Oakmoss

Straight out of the gate I’m getting a confectionary, sugar free fizzy drink. Strawberry but not related to any strawberry that ever grew on earth. Also, with that strange, metallic backtaste of some of the fake sugars. I wasn’t expecting it to be SO sweet. Miutine is a bit like a strawberry Mugler Angel, but where Angel is full sugar fairy floss this is one of the pretenders.

Of gardenia I smell nothing.

The heart and dry down are extremely sweet. My hope was that as Miutine developed there would be a hit of deeper, richer patchouli and the furry weirdness of oakmoss. There is development but it’s not that. Some more bakery style confection. Maybe a strawberry iced doughnut.

My decant is from Surrender To Chance.

I can imagine someone who wants to smell like this going ape shit for it. Sadly, it’s not me. This is hyper childish feminine fragrance and smells to me like something you’d get in a $1 kids lip gloss.

Are you the target audience? Did it float your boat?
Portia xx

L’Air du Temps vintage extrait by Nina Ricci
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L’Air du Temps vintage extrait by Nina Ricci

Hellooooo Crew. Today I wanted to chat with you about a historic fragrance that seems to be long forgotten to the modern perfume community. L’Air du Temps was created for Nina Ricci by perfumer Fabrice Fabron with her son Robert, released in 1948 after WWII with a doves symbolizing peace and renewal. When I was a squirt bitch Nina Ricci was one of my counters perfume houses. Even then it was often eschewed for newer, glossier, better advertised fragrances and only its long time lovers continue to buy it. Actually, it was usually the men who bought L’Air du Temps for their loved ones.

L’Air du Temps by Nina Ricci 1948

L'Air du Temps Nina Ricci

Nina Ricci gives these current featured accords:
Top: Carnation, Gardenia
Heart: Centifolia Rose, Grasse Jasmine
Base: Mysore Sandalwood, Iris

While not being a beast mode, attack fragrance that will enter the room before you and dry clean the curtains L’Air du Temps is still a lovely fragrance. Ostensibly a pretty carnation forward floral, which is rare enough in the day of glutinous sweetness, it also still has a little growl of its animals in the base. Yes, even in the newest versions. I have a 30ml EdT bought in the last couple of years. Lighter, fresher but still unmistakable as L’Air du Temps.

The heart is a vivid amalgam bouquet and veers towards a Patou Joy type lushness but with the aldehydes of CHANEL No 5. Not exactly the same as either, and far less strident than both. L’Air du Temps feels like their cousin who never felt the need to try so hard. They’re comfortable, self possessed and, dare I say it, satisfied with their life cousin. The one who has thought about life and the world and accepts their place in it, chooses solid trustworthy friends and takes pleasure in their home and work.

As you will see below, my review bottle today is a 1990s extrait spray. Only 7.5ml and it doesn’t seem like the extrait is available to buy anymore. Shame, because it’s ridiculously beautiful.

Dry down is a floral amber/sandalwood with soft, mossy backbone. The extrait lasts for hours and hours but if I’m wearing the modern EdT it needs refreshing a couple of times a day to make it through to the end.

Aimed at the feminine but perfectly gorgeous on the dudes too.

Did you ever L’Air du Temps?
Portia xx

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Sunday Question: Would You Like To Smell Like Poo[h]?

I know, I know, it’s a juvenile joke, but I couldn’t help myself. I came across an ad for Mischief Academy perfumes on Instagram and decided to discuss their names and the concept with you.

 

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

 

Sunday Question #296:

Would You Like To Smell Like Poo[h]?

Perfumers Anh Ngo, Luis Hou and George Tedder created perfumes for “The Fairy Tales” collection:

  • Winnie the Pooh (Honey, Beeswax, Bergamot, Lemon, Lavender, Clary Sage, Vanilla, Tonka Bean),
  • The Little Mermaid (Pink Champagne, Lilac, Sea Salt, Ocean, Lemon Zest, Seaweed),
  • The Mad Hatter (Cognac, Rum, Toffee, Condensed Milk, Butter, Leather, Black Tea, Saffron),
  • The Cursed Apple (Red Apple, Poison (Bitter Accord), Rose, Violet, Lipstick, Wild Berries),
  • Hansel & Gretel (Gingerbread Cookies, Hot Chocolate, Rum, Cinnamon, Clove, Tonka Bean, Vanilla),
  • Pinocchio (Palo Santo, Sandalwood, Peach, Saffron, Vetiver, Cedarwood),
  • The Jungle Book (Forest Foliage, Fig Fruit, Pear, Muguet, Amber, Sandalwood, Cedarwood).

Do any of these names or notes sound interesting to you? Would you want to wear one of those (provided you liked the scent)?

My Answer

The names aside, what caught my attention was the brand behind them.

Mischief Academy, a new brand created in 2025, is one of hundreds that appear every year. It positions itself as a US-based brand (with the main address in San Francisco), but its parent company is from Vietnam. The same parent company has another perfume brand, d’Annam, which is slightly “older” (from 2023), and its portfolio holds already 25 perfumes. Two out of the three noses who created The Fairy Tales collection authored most of d’Annam’s perfumes.

d’Annam started with a Vietnamese collection, positioning itself as a Vietnamese brand. Soon after their first collection, they shifted their focus to Japan, expanding the brand’s scope to “Asian cultures.” Now we have this new brand experimenting with well-known Western fairy tales, clearly appealing to our “inner child.” For me, it feels like a pure marketing experiment without any substance, history or inspiration behind it.

But beyond all these considerations, in my opinion, perfumes for grown-ups should not be called any of those names (and perfumes for kids, even if we were to agree that something like that should exist, should not cost $120 for a 50 ml bottle). Looking back on my life, I can’t imagine any age beyond 12 years old at which I could see myself in the following dialogue:

– Mmm, you smell wonderful. What is it?
– Oh, thank you! It’s Winnie the Pooh.

 

How about you?

 

Would You Like To Smell Like Poo[h]?

Olympic Amber by Olympic Orchids
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Olympic Amber by Olympic Orchids

Hi there ULGers, Olympic Orchids is one of my all time favourite indie perfume houses. While doing the big cull clean up I can across a just over 1/10 full bottle of Olympic Amber by Olympic Orchids. Last time I used it there was at least 50% there so we’ve had some evaporation. What was once already thick, rich and luscious is now an extrait with teeth. It’s enormous, tapestried and utterly glorious.

From Olympic Orchids: This traditional amber was originally formulated as a base for other perfumes, but it stands beautifully on its own. A rich golden scent that will transport you on a jeweled magic carpet of olfactory delights.

Olympic Amber by Olympic Orchids

Olympic Amber

Olympic Orchids gives these featured accords:
Labdanum, vanilla, benzoin, incense, resins, cypress, patchouli, woods.

Vanilla rich labdanum. Furry, bed heady, a little pissy and the full, rich panoply of amber on display with what smells like a heavy dose of very animalic musks. If you are even a little amber averse then Olympic Amber will be your nemesis, your kryptonite.

The background is a very earthy patchouli, smoke and burned out campfires, sharp, green, freshly broken branches and cool breeze that’s come over lake water. You’ve smelled ambers before but they were polite and cuddly compared to this beast. A burnished amber that will rock you to your core, it may even pick you up like you’re made of cotton and give you a shake.

No other amber comes close. Don’t talk to me of Grand Soir, Musc Ravageur, Musc Koublai Khan or Prada Amber PH. These are all nice, polite, board room versions of the genre. In Olympic Amber we have the King of the Jungle.

There’s also the fact that perfumer Ellen Covey is a sweetheart, and bloody talented. If you’re going across to Olympic Orchids to buy their very affordable samples then I suggest: Olympic amber, Ballets Rouges, Chevalier Vert, Blackbird and Golden Cattleya as excellent starting points. Tropic of Capricorn and Lil are hard core, but favourites too. Just be aware that they are not doing international shipping currently. If you live outside the USA you will need a frag mule.

Do you think you could handle Olympic Amber?

Happy sniffing
Portia xx

 

 

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Sunday Question: Do You Own Any Perfumes You Don’t Like but Won’t Let Go Of?

Sometimes our perfume collections include pieces that don’t quite work for us – not anymore, or maybe never did. And yet, for one reason or another, we keep them: for the memory they hold, the person who gave them to us, their beauty as objects, or simply because we feel we should. For this SQ, let’s consider only bottles (so, no samples or decants).

 

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

 

Sunday Question #295:

Do You Own Any Perfumes You Don’t Like but Won’t Let Go Of?

Why do you keep it/them?

My Answer

In general, once a bottle of perfume gets into my collection, I have a really hard time letting it go. I can justify to myself keeping almost any of those that I used to like or got as a present from someone. I can explain not parting with bottles that I bought for the bottle’s sake. I still hope to maybe wear someday perfumes that came as a part of a set with the one that I wanted to own. But there is one perfume I own for no rhyme or reason – Bitter Orange & Chocolate by Jo Malone.

It was a limited edition released in 2013 as part of the Sugar & Spice collection. Bitter Orange & Chocolate was the most popular one; it smelled divine on my co-worker, and one of my friends loved it and even bought a backup bottle. I love chocolate. I like oranges. Angel Taste of Fragrance flanker with a chocolate note was one of my favorites. At that time, I liked most of Jo Malone’s perfumes. And still, this one didn’t work for me. I tested it repeatedly, hoping to change my mind – and I didn’t. It was almost sold out, so I decided to buy a bottle, telling myself that either it would grow on me (I had a sample to keep trying) or I’d be able to sell it later…

All these years later, the bottle is still untouched, and I don’t have a good explanation why.

 

How about you?

 

Do You Own Any Perfumes You Don’t Like but Won’t Let Go Of?

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Saturday Question: What Is Your Favorite Amouage Perfume?

My living space is almost back to normal after the flooding accident a month ago, and I’m back with a Saturday Question.

 

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

 

Saturday Question #294:

What Is Your Favorite Amouage Perfume?

Have you tried their newer collections (The Odyssey or The Essences)? What do you think about the new bottles for The Essences collection? Do you follow the brand’s new releases?

My Answer

It has been several decades since I’ve done (or even closely witnessed) any home remodeling. Now I have validation of all my fears about that and reluctance to entertain any serious work where I live. It proved to be quite disruptive, even though all the crews that worked on addressing the consequences of the unfortunate fire sprinkler incident were very fast and professional. But as I said, it’s almost over, and I started feeling more inclined to get back to less serious undertakings, such as blogging or testing perfumes.

Historically, Amouage was one of my “Top 5 Favorite Brands”, and when answering the SQ question “An Ambassador of What Brand Would You Like to be?”, I chose that brand as my #1 contender, which says a lot about how I feel about their perfumes. It also wouldn’t be hard for me to name my most favorite Amouage perfume, since Ubar (sadly discontinued) is one of my top 3 all-time favorites. But I can easily name another 5 that I enjoy wearing.

All of my Amouage “loves” belong to their Main Collection. The only two perfumes from later-released collections that I wear are Love Mimosa (The Secret Garden Collection) and Guidance (The Odyssey Collection). I don’t think I’ll ever need more of the former once my decant is gone, but I would love to add the latter to my collection eventually (even though I don’t need any more FBs).

I haven’t seen a bottle from The Essence Collection in RL yet, but I like how they look online, and I’m waiting for a couple of samples from that collection in my recent Luckyscent order, hoping both to like and not to like those perfumes, since $475 still feels like an insane price for a single bottle (especially given the size of my collection).

 

How about you?

 

What Is Your Favorite Amouage Perfume?