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Saturday Question: What Is Your Favorite Guerlain L’Art & La Matière?

After questions about the private lines of Chanel and Dior, I think it’s time to see how we fare with everyone’s darling Guerlain.

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

Saturday Question #170:

What Is Your Favorite Guerlain L’Art & La Matière?

Do you love any of them? Too many or not at all? Do you own them? Do you wear them?

Have you tried any of the new ones that they released last year?

My Answer

My most favorite perfume from the line, Cruel Gardenia, is from pre-reformulation time. I was so scared when I learned about the upcoming repackaging that I bought a backup bottle. Recently, I tried a new version at a store: without comparing it side-by-side with the one that I have, I can’t tell how much it has changed.

I smelled several new perfumes released in 2022, but since I’m not an agarwood fan, I didn’t give them any skin time, so I didn’t form a definitive impression of them. Anyway, I have at least two perfumes in the line that I would buy before any of the new ones.

Guerlain Cruel Gardenia

How about you?

 

What Is Your Favorite Guerlain L’Art & La Matière?

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Saturday Question: What Is Your Favorite La Collection Privée Dior?

Last week we discussed Les Exclusif de Chanel, so I thought it would be interesting to try another grand house – Dior.

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

Saturday Question #169:

What Is Your Favorite La Collection Privée Dior?

Do you love any of them? Too many or not at all? Do you own them? Do you wear them? What was the last new one you tried?

My Answer

My relationships with Dior cooled off when they stripped my favorite Miss Dior of its name to promote the “impostor” pink juice (not even in the original kind of interesting formulation!). And then they repackaged their Privée line. I didn’t mind it in principle, but they released so many new perfumes that I felt completely lost and overwhelmed. So, I am not even sure which perfumes I tried and which I didn’t. The last one that I tried and liked was Vanilla Diorama. I don’t want a large bottle of it, but I like it enough to wear it from the sample a friend sent me.

Technically, I do not have a favorite La Collection Privee perfume since 2 I own came from the pre-reformulation La Collection Couturier Parfumeur line. But since “my” perfume is still present in the updated collection, I will nominate it: New Look 1947, the first full bottle I bought from this line. It feels very elegant. It is present but quiet. Slightly powdery, with a exquisitely balanced floral and amber notes. Tenacious but not tiring.

Dior New Look 1947

How about you?

What Is Your Favorite La Collection Privée Dior?

Cote d’Amour by L’Artisan Parfumeur (Long Gone)
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Cote d’Amour by L’Artisan Parfumeur (Long Gone)

Hi Crew, Cote d’Amour byL’Artisan Parfumeur was released way back in 2009. I remember first trying it a few years later and it was already impossible to find, especially out here in Oz. Then it turned up on Surrender To Chance a few years later in the 8ml sale. So I bought some. My decant is nearly 2/3 gone and after that there will be no more. I thought you might like to enjoy one of my last ever wears of this beauty together.

It caught my eye that this is a Celine Ellena fragrance. Cool!

Cote d’Amour by L’Artisan Parfumeur 2009

Cote d’Amour by L'Artisan Parfumeur

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Rosemary Grapefruit Tangerine
Heart: Immortelle Cypress Rose
Base: Pine Woodsy Notes Laburnum

My memories of first smelling Cote d’Amour are very fuzzy now, the where is completely gone. I do remember being told that L’Artisan were trying an All Natural route but smelling its now that seems highly unlikely. What I do remember is thinking how differently the pieces were put together. That it smelled like pieces of things I knew but nothing smelled quite like it. Also the name, it felt like love as an adventure. Something you’d travel great distances to find. Haven’t we all?

Anyway, let’s smell this long lost beauty eh? The happily strange greenly herbaceous citrus is gone way too quickly and overtaken by crisp green woods. There are still tinges of the opening, hollow reminders. The immortelle is clean, all that gooey, sticky, stanky fabulousness shorn off. It’s still recognisable but barely. This is immortelle light and if its presence is often a huge no for you then this will sit quietly enough I’m sure. I’m getting some very vanilla vibes, and some cedar-ish pencil shavings. Funnily, Jin just bought persimmons and the scent is a little like them with woody overlay.

Cote d’Amour L'Artisan Parfumeur

Though this has very typically L’Artisan low longevity when it starts to fade off and meld with my scent it becomes a sexy me but WAY better. So manly. Well, clearly that’s some connection I’m making from past olfactory experience. Can’t place it but that soft overtone on my own smell is bloody good. Not fragrant anymore but a sheer overlay. Very cool.

Do you remember this? Did you get to try it?
Portia x

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Saturday Question: What Is Your Favorite Les Exclusifs de Chanel?

I was thinking about large brands’ exclusive lines and realized that it has been a while since Chanel released their last perfume in their Les Exclusifs collection (it was Le Lion, back in 2020). I was too absent recently, so I haven’t heard any news about new launches from Chanel. Have you? Meanwhile, let’s talk about our existing favorites.

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

Saturday Question #168:

What Is Your Favorite Les Exclusifs de Chanel?

Do you love any of them? Too many or not at all? Do you own them? Do you wear them?

My Answer

While I like many perfumes from this line, I have just two full bottles, a couple of minis and a few decants in my collection. So it makes sense to choose one of the two FBs. I think.

So, if I had to choose just one, it would be Cuir de Russie, probably the most favorite leather perfume in my collection. (And I’ll chime in if you mention my other favorites in your comments.)

How about you?

What Is Your Favorite Les Exclusifs de Chanel?

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Saturday Question: What Do You Think About Opaque Perfume Bottles?

Last week brought an unexpected interruption, and I couldn’t publish the SQ post. But I’m back, and I’ll try not to skip these traditional posts in the future.

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

Saturday Question #167:

What Do You Think About Opaque Perfume Bottles?

Do you like them? Do you own them? Or do you avoid them?

My Answer

I have mixed feelings about opaque bottles: many of those I’ve seen were beautiful. I almost bought Chanel Coco Noir even though I wasn’t that enamored by the scent. And I would have bought Chanel No.5 Red Edition if I hadn’t missed it – and I don’t even like No. 5!

But when it comes to owning and using those perfumes in opaque bottles, it bothers me that I can’t clearly see how much juice is left in the bottle, which is especially annoying with heavy, quality bottles. I know that it is not rational: I won’t go through most bottles I have, so it’s not like I need to be prepared or will buy a backup bottle. And still.

 

How about you?

What Do You Think About Opaque Perfume Bottles?

Ylang 49 by Le Labo
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Ylang 49 by Le Labo

Hey ULGers, Here’s a funny thing. A couple of years ago Surrender To Chance had a couple of sale days where you could buy 8ml of things for much cheaper than normal. Seriously good discounts. So I spent a truckload. Sometimes buying a couple of the same thing, many blind. Yeah, so I know YOU KNOW how that usually goes. One win to every 10+ WTF. Anyway, one of the things I bought a couple of was Ylang 49. Because it’s only tangentially ylang I was thoroughly let down and they got lost amongst the many. Then as I was packing for London it went in the bag. OMG! With all expectations removed it is bloody fabulous. Full disclosure: Someone I was spending time with HATED it on me and found it hippy patchouli heavy hell. Me, nope, LOVED IT!

I think part of my loathing it earlier is my general side eye cringe and snort at the Le Labo mix-just-for-you bulls**t. It’s so annoying. The juice then needs to macerate in your bottle and takes up to a year to smell like the tester you tried in store. (yes, I know you know all this but it rubs me wrong)

In their favour, the simple Le Labo bottle that is used by so many companies is one of my favourite. Clean lines, easy to hold, nice and hefty.

Ylang 49 by Le Labo 2015

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Ylang-Ylang Patchouli Oakmoss Tahitian Gardenia Vetiver Benzoin Sandalwood

The opening is all cool white florals and grassy greenery. A little more fresh than you would expect from something ylang named but well within purview.

The opening lasts about two minutes and already patchouli has pretty much taken over the field. At about 5 minutes Ylang 49 goes completely quiet on me. It’s so weird. Like a complete drop out of fragrance. When it comes back, not very long later, it’s a complete patchouli bomb with some quiet backing players. Dark, earthy patchouli that feels like walking through the cold still air of underground water cave complexes. Strange, beautiful, slightly dank and cool. Nothing tropical or ylang-ish at all.

Ylang 49 by Le Labo

Later Ylang 49 does get a little sweeter and creamier but still the patchouli is king. Lasting power is excellent and it has excellent projection, even though I as wearer only notice it in huffs.

Is Ylang 49 something you love?
Portia xx

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Saturday Question: What Is Your Favorite Vanilla Perfume?

One of the YouTube creators recently did a short video on the scent that, according to researchers, people consider the most pleasant. Of course, even before they ran a mini-poll asking to choose from the 4 quite ubiquitous aromas, I knew the answer – that’s why I won’t even try running it here (hence the topic). But I looked up the study, and I thought that the conclusions were interesting:

  • Culture plays a minimal role in the perception of odor pleasantness.
  • Individuals within cultures vary as to which odors they find pleasant.
  • Human olfactory perception is strongly constrained by universal principles.

Odor preference rankings were collected from nine culturally and geographically diverse populations. These included the three hunter-gatherer groups, Seri from a coastal desert and Maniq and Semaq Beri from tropical rainforest, one shoreline forager, Mah Meri, from a tropical coast; one swidden-horticulturalist, Semelai, from tropical rainforest; one farmer-foraging community, Chachi, from tropical rainforest; one subsistence agriculturalist community, Imbabura Quichua, from temperate highlands; and two urban dwellers from industrial and postindustrial communities of bustling urban settings, Mexican and Thai. The data from these nine communities were then related to available data from a large dataset on odor preference collected from urban dwellers from the USA (New York City).

If you want to read through the study, here’s a link.

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

Saturday Question #166:

What Is Your Favorite Vanilla Perfume?

Similar to bergamot, rose and jasmine, vanilla is a “usual suspect” in many compositions. But this question is about perfumes where one can unmistakably pinpoint that ingredient as a main player.

Do you have many vanilla perfumes? Any? How often do you wear those?

 

My Answer

I do not love vanilla in perfumes. I do not dislike it either. Over the years, I found 5-6 vanilla-centric perfumes I like and wear. Vanilla perfumes are my rainy day perfumes. Vanilla perfumes are my sick-day-but-still-don’t-want-going-commando perfumes. And sometimes those are “just because” – but not too often.

Today I wore Le Labo Vanille 44. I’m on my second decant, which means that I like it. If it weren’t for Le Labo’s idiotic “city exclusive” gimmick, I would have probably bought a small bottle of it by now, despite the price. I’m still contemplating getting a bottle of Tauer‘s Vanilla Flash. But my #1 vanilla perfume is still Mona di Orio Vanille.

 

How about you?

What Is Your Favorite Vanilla Perfume?

La Fumee Ottoman by Miller Harris
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La Fumee Ottoman by Miller Harris

Hey there crew, I’ve spoken about taking my FragranceNet 8ml decant of La Fumee Ottoman by Miller Harris on holiday to South Korea and did a very short thought bubble on it. Wearing it yesterday I thought it really deserves its own post. I really like the Miller Harris brand. The perfumes feel well thought out, mostly very comfortable wears and the price point isn’t all the way through the roof. Their bottles are very comfortable in my hand, hefty and well balanced. Plus they give good spritz. Of course this doesn’t matter when you’ve bought an 8ml decant. Interestingly La Fumee Ottoman is celebrating a decade of production this year.

La Fumee Ottoman by Miller Harris 2013

La Fumee Ottoman Miller Harris

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Cumin Cardamom Rose Bergamot
Heart: Incense Cedar Patchouli
Base: Amber Rose Fruits Vanilla Sandalwood Tonka Bean

Straight out of the gate I’m smelling cold woody incense sticks. They are not like Christian, Indian, Korean or Japanese sticks, much darker, less reverential. It doesn’t feel like I’ve experienced in temples and churches. I love it. Really interesting. This explosive opening quickly morphs into a lovely sweaty patchouli and here I do smell hints of roses. Kind of like potpourri. Dry, dusty rose petals and I also smell anise seed pods. WOW! Every time I wear La Fumee Ottoman it takes me by surprise how beautifully tapestried the fragrance is. This heart lasts well too. Not a top heavy behemoth that collapses on itself in 40 minutes.

La Fumee Ottoman Miller Harris FragranceNet decant

As I move further into the heart the incense becomes much more like I grew up with in Roman Catholic church. That very particular joining of smoke, incense, cold building, old wooden pews and humanity. While not being a church going person anymore this smell still brings me comfort and makes me think existential thoughts. Good ones. I even offer up a little prayer of gratitude for my great good fortune in life.

After an hour or so the woods have taken centre stage. Patchouli still keeps them dark and earthy. La Fumee Ottoman has by this time quietened considerably. Still fragrant but the fireworks are now merely embers. The sweetness doesn’t arrive till much later. Dry down is a mix of woods, vanilla heavy amber and tonka. It’s melded perfectly and I’m sure there are other nuances I miss. What is important to me though is that La Fumee Ottoman stays lovely and interesting till I can’t smell it anymore.

Fully unisex, projection and sillage are above average and longevity is excellent. I would really like to wear this while wandering an art gallery with a friend. I think the cool airy spaces, beautiful and interesting art, conversation and coffee afterwards would be served well by this beautiful scent.

So, does La Fumee Ottoman read like something you could wear and love?
Portia x

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Saturday Question: Do You Layer Perfumes?

I can’t believe I haven’t asked this question before – it seems so obvious. But let’s do it today.

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

Saturday Question #165:

Do You Layer Perfumes?

Often? Sometimes? Never? Intentionally of accidentally? Do you have any favorite combinations?

My Answer

Not much changed since my post Perfume Layering: Truth or Dare? from 10 years ago: I still like the idea of layering perfumes, and I still own a huge number of Jo Malone perfumes that are “layerable,” but I have so many wonderful perfumes in my collection that it feels unnatural to experiment with mixing them. But now when I’m writing about it, I feel an urge to do some combination with perfumes of JM’s Tea Collection that I have. Earl Grey & Cucumber will combine nicely with Sweet Milk. I will probably try to do it tomorrow.

How about you?

Do You Layer Perfumes?

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Saturday Question: Does/Did Your Mother Wear Perfume?

It’s Mother’s Day weekend in the US, so Happy Mother’s Day to all of you who are mothers and let’s talk about our moms and perfumes.

Saturday Question on Undina's Looking Glass

Saturday Question #164:

Does/Did Your Mother Wear Perfume?

If yes, how similar or different are your tastes? Did you share any favorites at any point in your life?

My Answer

My mom was an opportunistic perfume wearer: whenever she had them (usually gifts), she would wear them, but I don’t remember her actively pursuing them. She liked having perfumes but didn’t love them enough to prioritize spending money on them.

When I was a child, she owned and wore Lancome Climat, Dior Miss Dior, Diorella and Dior Dior. There were a couple more, but I can’t remember the names. I liked (and still like) them all but Dior Dior. And before I started getting my own perfumes, I wasted enough of hers. Later, after I moved to the US, on my visits, I would bring her different perfumes – some that I knew she liked, some that I liked, and some that didn’t work for me any longer – and she wouldn’t refuse any of them. But then, she never asked for any of them again.

Tomorrow, I will wear Diorella in her memory.

Mom and Diorella

Does/Did Your Mother Wear Perfume?