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Rattlesnake Musk by DSH Perfumes
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Rattlesnake Musk by DSH Perfumes

Hey Crew! Sadly, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz is now unable to send alcohol based perfume to Australia. It’s a complete bummer. The good news though is that Surrender To Chance has some of her work to sample. Currently five of them. So I did what we perfumistas do, bought myself a couple of ml to enjoy. DSH Perfumes has long been a favourite indie house for me, and I even got to meet Dawn in person at an awards night in London a few years ago. Yes, she’s exactly as bright and wondrous as expected. So here’s a little look at one of her 2022 perfume releases, Rattlesnake Musk. What a fabulous title.

From DSH Perfumes: A rocky snakeskin and animalic musk fragrance with a definite bite.  (A connoisseur’s fragrance…that’s not for the faint of heart).

Rattlesnake Musk by DSH Perfumes 2022

Rattlesnake Musk by DSH Perfumes

DSH Perfumes give these featured accords:
Africa Stone Tincture, Ambergris, Bulgarian Rose Absolute, Castoreum, Costus, East Indian Patchouli, Galbanum, Leather, Musk, Oude / Agarwood, Sandalwood, Snakeskin (Accord), Virginia Cedar

The opening is waxy and clean, brand new Tupperware. So interesting. This is the oil version. Once that plastic has burned off Rattlesnake Musk becomes a low key fragrance, smelling a lot like one of those old fur coats you find in thrift stores. It’s animalic and dusty but also has the ghosts of hundreds of perfumes. Memories of a life well lived before coming into your hands.

The heart smells/feels smooth, tight and just a little funky. If you’ve ever smelled a snakes herpetarium, then the smell will be a surprisingly good, amped up to 50 recreation. Yet, Rattlesnake Musk is also more than the bosky smell of a snakepit. This is no Demeter perfume. It’s a fine fragrance that includes woods and a bouquet. It says rose, and there is rose, but I’m smelling more than just the rose. I’m also smelling freesias and undercurrents of tomato leaves. Yeah, I know they’re not noted, maybe my nose is playing tricks.

Rattlesnake Musk by DSH Perfumes

Dry down becomes the smell of warm skin as you leave the beach. Bronzed, a little salty and full of the healthy glow of exercise and the great outdoors. Dawn has done such an amazing job of creating Rattlesnake Musk that most of the notes are completely unparseable, it becomes a beautiful, better than skin whisper lasting hours and hours.

I know my review of Rattlesnake Musk makes it sound like a weirdo but it really isn’t. Interesting, great life parabola and very different to anything else I’ve ever smelled.

Do you think it could be a winner for you?
Portia xx

Nuit de Bakelite by Naomi Goodsir
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Nuit de Bakelite by Naomi Goodsir

Hello, Hello, Hello! As you in the Northern Hemisphere enjoy the trill of cool weather and as we hit the scorching heat I thought we should look at an amazing but very queer fish. Jin and I were lucky enough to be in Esxence in 2017 when it was launched. Naomi Goodsir had taken a room in the nearby Grand Hotel and wrapped it all in a luminous almost white green. Everything. It looked like Christo and Jeanne-Claude had waded in, swathes of fabric ready to wrap. There were also strangely compelling installations of soft sculpture that I can’t really remember clearly but was open mouthed in wonder at. I had the usual five or so minutes and had not expected to be alone with Naomi and her business partner. Thinking it would be a bunch of perfumista journalists in a Q&A, and hoping to piggyback off their collective inquiries. Being face to face with the startlingly beautiful Naomi Goodsir was a terrifying treat.

This review is spurred by my popping over to the Naomi Goodsir site and all the perfumes are now unavailable to buy. Quelle Horreur! So I ran to my bottle and spritzed. I can still see them available in online stores with no disclaimer so I’m not currently freaking hardcore.

Also, this is my mate Scotty’s favourite from the line. He wears it like it was made just for him.

Nuit de Bakelite by Naomi Goodsir 2017

Nuit de Bakelite by Naomi Goodsir

 

Instead of a note list we are given some very Serge Lutens gobbledygook, with some featured accords thrown in “A green, obsessive & addictive composition supported by tuberose abs, galbanum, angélique flower, fleur d’immortelle, wooden & leather notes & styrax. A focus on the small peduncle that connects the flower to the stem, the sound of latex when several stalks of tuberose tangle, the wild majesty of the Persian tuberose. Inspiration – The premise of a narcotic lady”

Peony Melbourne gives these featured accords:
Top: Galbanum
Heart: Tuberose, Bakelite Accord
Base: Cistus Labdanum

Created by one of the main perfumers for Annick Goutal, Isabelle Doyen, and reminiscent in style to some of her more tapestried works for that brand. I feel one of her true abilities is creating fragrant chiaroscuro (brilliant light and inky darkness) that sets up a beautiful harmonious dualism. It’s alluring and just a little fractious, like a fragrant contrapuntal. I find myself searching for how she makes something feel so simple from arms length, yet incredibly multi faceted up close.

Nuit de Bakelite is no exception.

The opening is galbanum and petrol, smoke and char. Nuit de Bakelite is NOT for the faint hearted. It is the heart of a tree nymph, a moss covered Ent and a reed ringed shallow lake that is heading stagnant. Dark, dank and ridiculously gorgeous. So alluring, even though it may be to your death.

Who knows what a bakelite accord is? If it’s the burning tyre hiding behind the greenery then maybe that was the intention.

Nuit de Bakelite is laugh out loud gorgeous and repellent in equal measure. The first hour is utterly bewildering.

Nuit de Bakelite Naomi Goodsir

Once the fireworks settle I’m left with a shady riverside glen. peaceful, cool and restful. The scent of a dream of the kind of place you can watch butterflies and dragonflies flying through dappled sunlight.

Unisex. Longevity is well out of the ballpark and diffusion is huge for the first hour and then calms considerably. You’ll be fragrant, but not aggressively so, all day.

 

Do you think Nuit de Bakelite sounds wearable or too confrontational for you?
Portia xx

 

Aesthete by Le Galion
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Aesthete by Le Galion

Heya ULGers, You’ve probably read me banging on about Le Galion’s Aesthete before around the scentbloggosphere. From a brand that I love so many fragrances from it stands head and shoulders above the rest for most wears in my life. Whenever I seek it out it tends to stay on the desk or grab tray, getting regular spritzes for a few weeks. It’s a throwback beauty to a time when the gents fragrance were interesting and thoughtfully produced. The nose, Vanina Muracciole, has done some other work for Jovoy Paris and my favourite from Masque Milano: Kintsugi. Nicolas Chabot, the brands owner and creative director, has a perfect sense of balance when overseeing perfume creations. A knack for ensuring that even though the ingredients might be unusual or confrontational the end product is always a perfectly poised, wearable, piece of olfactory art. Sometimes that balance is construed by those seeking envelope pushing weirdo scents as boring but I think as those perfumistas hit a certain point they will understand the quiet beauty of Le Galion. It’s like the Le Galion oeuvre is made to make perfumers sigh in delight and resignation that they’ll probably never get to make something so exquisite.

Aesthete by Le Galion 2015

Aesthete by Le Galion

Top: Davana, mandarin, saffron, incense
Heart: Leather, oud, guaiac wood, castoreum, jasmine
Base: Sandalwood, vanilla, musk

This year Aesthete is celebrating 10 years! I’m celebrating 10 years of it being a staple in my collection and noticing that my bottle is down to about 1/3 have recently put a new bottle at the top of the To Buy List.

One of the excellent things about living in 2025 is that even though Aesthete is a traditional masculine, there is room for EVERYONE to wear this leather bound lovely.

Opening is a smoky incense-heavy woody saffron with a smooth, sandalwood creamy white floral. The oudh is dark and medicinal when it shows up as we head for the heart. Aesthete is rich and earthy but also refined and elevated. I can’t think of another oudh heavy fragrance that is so wearable and still holds such darkness and grit. The dry down sweetens just enough to be a noticeable warming and this earth/wood/oudh/vanilla base pumps out softly for hours and hours. A spritz on chest, nape and one wrist is enough to take me through a day and have whispered remnants next morning.

Aesthete by Le Galion

This is one of my true perfume loves that resurfaces a couple of times a year for many wears.

Does Aesthete sound like you might enjoy it too?
Portia xx

Chypress by Floris
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Chypress by Floris

Heya ULGers, One of my friends’ businesses here in Sydney City Perfume has been having a big sale on their Floris Travel Sprays. You may know that I’m gaga for a travel size. These are perfect, at 10ml, to throw in a bag and fly away. Also perfect when you know 100ml will probably never get used. So I grabbed three, only one of which I’d smelled properly: Night Scented Jasmine. I knew it was a love but couldn’t bear to buy another 100ml big white floral, so 10ml will do me fine. Probably more chance of me wearing it if it’s not a 100ml bottle in its box, in another box, in a cupboard, in my perfume room. Today I’ve been wearing Chypress and have just given myself another respritz. Maybe you’d like to come along for the ride?

Chypress by Floris 2017

Chypress by Floris

Floris gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot | Lemon | Orange Flower | Neroli
Heart: Jasmine | Rose | Osmanthus | Ylang Ylang
Base: Amber | Vanilla | Musk | Patchouli

If you were a fan of the early 2000s Narciso for her or SJP Lovely but wished for something a little more sophisticated then maybe Chypress is the one for you. Still a lean into the radiant floral but less OTT and more smoothly balanced. It’s like the next step in the story.

A rose flavoured orange blossom/ jasmine with a little tropical ylang running through. Not enough to be a major tropical night delight like Songes but a hefty nod to the genre. I love that the pithy musks of sharp citrus bergamot stay right into the heart. It gives a lovely shrill pipe above the bouquet.

Chypress dry down is that beautiful radiant white floral with a whisper of vanilla, still not tropical but a teeny bit more so.

Chypress by Floris

It’s now tomorrow lunchtime and still my arm has a wash of Chypress. That’s some serious longevity, maybe 16 hours. It’s more than a skin scent but you must be close to smell it.

Definitely leaning fem but I’ve been enjoying Chypress in dude mode for a couple of days now. Easy to wear and a lovely life story.

Have you tried Chypress? Sound good?
Portia xx

Oud Minerale by Tom Ford
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Oud Minerale by Tom Ford

Hiya Looking Glass crew. Tonight I had a big black dog come visit. Out of nowhere, and it’s been a long stretch since the last time. No matter how good a life, how loved and lauded, how beautiful the dogs are. Sometimes overwhelming sadness and crying crash over me. No reason. Sorry to burden you all but I’m talking to you tonight (it’s 3.35am) to help me out of this hole. Yes, I know it’s selfish but perfume can help equalise me. Writing too. A new order came in today from FragranceNet (not affiliated). In it was an 8ml FragNet decanted Travel Spray. Reasonably affordable and hopefully enough to last me for a good while. I’ve finished a 3ml Surrender To Chance decant of Oud Minerale but am not ready to lay down the kind of money Mr Tom Ford is asking for a full bottle (yet).

Originally a 2017 release, Oud Minerale is now a 2023 Signature Collection reissue with a round bronze bottle. Not sure which I’m writing about because the old bottle is pictured on FragNet but they just may not have updated it.

Oud Minerale by Tom Ford

Oud Minerale by Tom Ford

Tom Ford Beauty gives these featured accords:
Pink Peppercorn, Oud Blend, Styrax, Ambergris Accord, Fir Balsam, Marine Notes

Briny woods and burnt earth open Oud Minerale. Dark, atmospheric and feels like the scent of an art installation set in the forest. Say what you like about Tom Ford but his crew know how to load a fragrance with spectacular opening gambits. It’s so brilliant, shadowed and oily. Like Charlize Theron playing the evil witch in 2012s Snow White and the Huntsman. This is what my imagination tells me her character smells like when returning from being a thousand crows. Maybe it’s the smell of the enchanted forrest?

Once that awe inspiring opening burns off Oud Minerale becomes a lightly salted cold spoon, well like the taste and feeling of it. Stark and frosty. So interesting a turn and for the next few hours that is what hums quietly but noticeable. As we head to dry down the fresh cut pine-ish, resinous undertow takes precedence but the salty twang never leaves.

Oud Minerale by Tom Ford

Unisex but leaning traditional masculine. Longevity is excellent and the ride is really interesting, while still managing to be simple and wearable. Will there be a bottle in my future? Maybe, definitely.

Tonight Oud Minerale got me out of a depression hole. The storm has passed and I’m smelling pretty damn fine.

Hope you are all doing well and thriving,
Would you Oud Minerale by Tom Ford?
Portia xx

 

Ilio by Diptyque
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Ilio by Diptyque

Hi ULGers, Ilio by Diptyque was released in 2021. It almost completely passed me by. Recently I saw it at a Diptyque counter and gave it a spritz. Opening was jaw droppingly gorgeous. Sadly, it was completely overwhelmed by other perfume counter scents in the next 10 minutes. I really didn’t feel like we’d had time to bond. So, off to trusty Surrender To Chance and grabbed a decant. I wanted to write a post to tell you about it before finishing the decant.

Ilio by Diptyque 2021

Ilio by Diptyque

These are the featured accords:
Prickly pear, Fig, Iris, Jasmine, Bergamot (Lavender noted in some lists)

Prickly pear has become a huge problem in Australia. Once established it’s almost impossible to remove. We even brought in a specific moth to work as a biological control. Apparently it has worked wonders in certain areas.

The taste is analogous to a near ripe watermelon but a little gritty, according to the internet.

An interesting, floral opening that feels more like real life peony than any of the given notes. Ilio even has the powdery softness of a peony petal. Underneath and making itself known over the first few minutes is a pithy greenery. A bit like the pith of a sweet citrus and the smell after you cut hydrangea flowers, or give them a good pruning at the end of their season. Plus there is a some really dark greenery smell that has a bitter edge, it’s fascinating. Like pulling that thin green bark from a rose branch.

Through the hear a very green and earthy iris that has carroty coolness becomes more pronounced until it takes center stage and every other note creates an uplifting backdrop. For something that seems so simple there’s a lot of story to Ilio.

Dry down is a green amber and some lovely soft white flowers. Yeah, I know. Doesn’t sound regular. It’s not. Even the base is exceptional. Ilio never stops surprising.

Totally unisex. Ilio is refreshing but missing most of the tropes that create that feeling. Longevity is good I’m still smelling the base at 10 hours. Diffusion is excellent for the first hour and settles into a soft pump of fragrance.

Ilio by Diptyque STC

My question to myself is. “Though I’ve loved Ilio and worn it to the dregs of 3ml, will I wear it if I buy a bottle? OR will it sit unopened and unworn for the next 20 years?”. I don’t have a crystal ball but have added Ilio to the top of my To Buy List. It’s so interesting, and smells fabulous, all day.

Sound good to you?
Portia xx

 

Gilded Lily by Ineke
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Gilded Lily by Ineke

Hey Looking Glass-ers, If you’ve been a perfumista for a few years you might remember the days when the whole scentbloggosphere was completely full of the brand Ineke? It was really fabulous. There were all the mass-tige brands vying for attention and a few women also getting us all excited. Brands like Keiko Mecheri, Miller Harris, Annick Goutal and Ineke were all high on my radar and every new release from these crews would be met with widespread interest. Gilded Lily always struck me as a bottle that was delightfully festive. Red glass, golden pickings and black. It was the bottle that caught my eye yesterday when looking for something else. I just looked it up and sadly it has been discontinued to make way for their new Jaipur Chai. Ineke’s perfumes have stayed very affordable at US$145/70ml. Unheard of in the modern day of ridiculous aspirational pricing. They also do an affordable 7 x 1.5ml Discovery Set.

Gilded Lily by Ineke 2010

Gilded Lily by Ineke

Ineke gives these featured accords:
Top: Pineapple, rhubarb, grapefruit, elemi.
Heart: Goldband lily
Base: Patchouli, oakmoss, labdanum

The sweet screech of pineapple and grapefruit opens Gilded Lily, almost cartoonish in its intensity. I’m no perfumer but I think there is also the sparkle of aldehydes running through. The fireworks are quickly damped by smooth, calming, resinous elemi. Suddenly we are in the gilded age of perfumes. Very movie star glamour like a vintage Caron or Dior. Smooth but glittering. The lily plays through here. It’s not a white floral but a does have pieces of that scent profile. I’m going to say it sits halfway between a yellow flowering bulb and iris. Beautiful.

The base is not a typical 1970s chypre but a less dry and resinous amber adventure. A clean patchouli and some earthy woods. Forest-like. Calming. Gilded Lily ends in a peaceful mountain retreat.

Were you a fan? Are you sad to see Gilded Lily go?
Portia xx

 

Hydra Figue by Miller Harris
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Hydra Figue by Miller Harris

Hey there ULGers, Back in 2023 my mate Cinnamon from Perfume Posse talked about some new Miller Harris. I’m not sure when or where I got a boxed manufacturers spray sample of Hydra Figue. Maybe it came as a GWP? While going through stuff cleaning up my mess in the perfume room it turned up. YAY!

This from the company: “The scent of the artist’s idyll. Journey, to a Greek Bohemian paradise. A complex woody, citrus and marine fragrance combining the fruit of the fig with sea salt, Greek saffron and upcycled oakwood.”

Hydra Figue by Miller Harris 2023

Hydra Figue by Miller Harris

Miller Harris gives these featured accords:
Top: Bergamot, Saffron Greece, Cardamom, Ginger, Lemon, Ouzo Accord
Heart: Fig, Tuberose, Sea Salt, Sage, Marine Accord, Mirabilis Jalapa
Base: OakWood, Sandalwood, Ambroxan, Velvet Musk

Citrus zest, fig and zingy ginger all lightly salted. So good! A bright burst of glorious sunshine.

Hydra Figue’s heart stays salty fig and becomes enmeshed in a dark, slightly toxic greenery. Stunning, and so far removed from what I expect from the usually safe Miller Harris house. Reminiscent of Mugler Womanity but much less antagonistic. Darker, more interesting and the kind of perfume I could easily imagine the evil witch wearing in Snow White.

The heart lives for hours and gets darker and woodsier. As we head towards dry down there is a definite twist of sweaty humanity underscoring the beautiful woodsy/figgy depths.

How can Hydra Figue not have become a full on stellar fan favourite?

It’s unisex, full on, interesting and has a fabulous life story. I can seriously imagine the beast mode bros falling over themselves to smell this fabulous.

Hydra Figue by Miller Harris

HA! This is so good I just looked it up and bought a bottle.

Probably not for everyone but I’ll be glad to have it.

Salt seems to be having a few years of reprise. I’m so happy for it.
What about you? Does Hydra Figue sound wearable?
Portia xx

17 Nandan Road by Ulrich Lang
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17 Nandan Road by Ulrich Lang

Hi Crew, 17 Nandan Road by Ulrich Lang is a decant given as a gift with purchase from First in Fragrance, Germany. While shipping perfume internationally was still easy to do, I used to get orders together from Aussie perfumistas and combined we’d get free shipping to OZ. I’d then send it all out to our Aussies. It was excellent. Those days are gone.

17 Nandan Road by Ulrich Lang 2018

17 Nandan Road by Ulrich Lang

Ulrich Lang gives these featured accords:
Top: Green Leaves, Bergamot, Sicilian Lemon
Heart: Osmanthus, Iris
Base: Cedar, Ambroxan, Musk

Sparkling green open, like a freshly cut branch. It’s sharp green and so refreshing. If you are green fragrance averse then 17 Nandan Road  will be your kryptonite. Bright green writ large and gorgeously. This fabulous open doesn’t fade quickly either, I get a lovely amount of time to enjoy it before the gentle encroach of a rooty iris that is cool and earthy. I’ve only been in the vicinity of a flowering osmanthus once and this version is shorn of all the animalic leatheriness but has a delightful peachy florally. A pollen dusted cross between jasmine and narcissus. Under all the green breath of a florists fridge.

17 Nandan Road Ulrich Lang Sample

Dry down seems to hit about 1.5-3 hours in, day dependent. It’s a soft focus woody iris with no hint of the zingy green opening. Competent and pretty, it rises above the median but becomes very low key skin scent by the 5 hour mark. You have to be very close to really notice it. Only your intimate partners, closest friends or kids will get a whiff. I’ve been going for a top up because the opening is so good, I wanted to relive it again and again.

Totally unisex. The first hour has moderate plus projection. Longevity is under the current common average. This can be a plus if a perfume droning on ad infinitum bores the crap out of you (as it often does me).

Isn 17 Nandan Road calling your name?
Portia xx

 

Patchouli Paris by Guerlain
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Patchouli Paris by Guerlain

Hi there Looking Glassers, I’m clearly a Guerlain fan, it’s been a brand in my life since childhood. Also, I understand that perfume pricing has gone out of control. What was a fun hobby that could be played with spare change, it has now become a major investment. That’s taken quite a lot of the fun out of being a perfumista for me. Now, when I try a stratospherically priced new perfume it has to be unbelievably special. Tick all the boxes, surprise, delight, ring my bell and make me swoon: at the very least. Especially when some of the Indie Perfume Houses are making spectacular, envelope pushing beauties for less than a quarter the price. So, to be fair, I’m coming to Patchouli Paris with a fairly jaded mindset, eyerolling at the price and grumpy at LVMH. I got my decant at Surrender To Chance.

Patchouli Paris by Guerlain 2024

Patchouli Paris by Guerlain

I found these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes
Heart: Iris
Base: Patchouli, Ambergris

Opening is a lightly sweet, smoky aldehydic zing that smells very CHANEL and it has a real early 200os radiant white floral effect. This could be a new Les Exclusive. Smooth and lovely, the iris feels so clean, a little bit soapy. Dry down is a very soft focus clean patchouli with only the merest whispered hint of briny whale poop.

Everyone that has talked to me about Patchouli Paris has told me it’s a barnstormer but I find it incredibly polite. An under the radar fragrance that feels totally introverted. If that’s your style then Patchouli Paris will be catnip. A perfect low humming pale wash that elevates your own scent without drawing attention, or histrionics.

Obviously, your mileage may vary. I sincerely hope it does and that it’s just on me that Patchouli Paris lays like a limp lettuce leaf: insipid, uninspiring and sadly undelightful.

Patchouli Paris by Guerlain STC

Longevity and sillage are moderate. Nice on everyone, across gender borders.

SOOO NICE that I can see this becoming a go-to patchouli for those that don’t really love patchouli but do love the very glamorous facets of iris, with a touch of leathery goodness. There is none of the bread dough, carrot or woody dankness that can so often accompany the noble iris rhizome.

It’s like Guerlain has become afraid of making a real statement and has decided to mumble.

What did you think?
Portia xx