Designer Perfume

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

 

Knize Sec
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Knize Sec

Hey there ULGers, On our recent European journey our last stop was Vienna. Ostensibly to catch up with Birgit from Olfactoria’s Travels and Val the Cookie Queen from APJ. Sadly Birgit and family got the dreaded C19 so that was out but Val, her daughter Hannah, Jin and I spent a wonderful day and night wandering, eating, shopping and catching up. It was heaven. All the Christmas Markets and lights were out, it was lightly snowing and we basked in the joy of just being together. Vienna has been my favourite city since the 1990s and it was so fabulous to be back. We even stayed in my most loved Vienna hotel, the Royal. HEAVEN! Here’s the pic with us in front of Cafe Mozart, the place we first met face to face in 2013! So much has changed. Our love? Nope, fire’s burning bright.

Knize Cec Portia Val Hannah jin Vienna 2023

Jin and I also went into Knize (Ker Neez Ya). The main reason was to buy a couple of Thank You and We Love You gifts. We grabbed the Gold Edition of Knize Ten for leather lover Anna Maria and Knize Forest for Scotty who never met a deep green he didn’t love. While there  I grabbed a bottle of Knize Sec. Long on the To Buy List and changed some since I first fell in love with it, still it gave me a shiver of thrill and purchase was made.

Knize Sec 1985

Knize Sec Jan 2024

Knize gives these featured accords:
Top: Citrus fruits, orange, amalfi lemon, coriander
Heart: Lavender, jasmine, sage, bitter orange
Base: Leather, incense, amber, musk

Straight out of the gate I get a slightly screechy aldehydic soapy citrus with herbal greenery. A sparkling masculine aromatic, still soapy and lightly sweaty, comes through. Refreshing! Now that I’ve worn it a few times I’m noticing it smells like Paco by Paco Rabanne. Not quite as metallic but definitely in a similar olfactory ballpark.

As we move into the heart I notice the white floral aspect. It’s not very jasmine off the tree though. Much more perfumery and working in beautifully with the lavender.

My memory of Sec in the past was that it ended up with a mossy leather amber base, a little like Van Cleef & Arpels Pour Homme. It’s much less sophisticated and deep now. Actually, it smells a little of pine and juniper.

It’s funny, until I sat down to really parse and write about Sec I was thinking that it’s a heady aldehydic aromatic with a light base. It’s kind of that but I also think that Knize has cheapened the mix and that Sec really hasn’t recovered properly after being made to fit current guidelines. It’s still wearable but not what I remember.

Looking for something new for a guy who wants to smell nice all day in a traditional way? He probably only has one or two fragrances going at any time and scent is not really an important part of his regime. He knows that the spritz is expected though and does it dutifully. He will smell nice to leave the house and then softly masculine all day.

Portia x

 

 

Going Back to my Full Bottle Wardrobe
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Going Back to my Full Bottle Wardrobe

Hey there ULGers, Welcome to 2024. Hoping it’s a safe, prosperous, fun, comfortable and fragrant year ahead for us all, maybe with a side order of delightfully preposterous. What are the three things we are meant to wish each other? Health, Wealth and Contentment! I wish them for you, and for us.

Welcome to 2024

Maybe you know, last year I tried to scale back my perfume samples and decants. I’m still to do a final tally but in my mind it sits at around 300 thunks for the year. While that sounds like a lot, and I have emptied a few small boxes of them, it also feels like it hardly made a dent. Compounded by my continued purchasing. Yeah, it’s clearly an illness. Anyway, now I’m free to roam the perfume wardrobe again and it is daunting! I want to wear everything at once, yet curiously I’m also so overwhelmed that going through the cupboards and remembering what I have is too much. So I’m wearing the things I can see. There’s the grab tray, actually in my wardrobe. Also, all around my sewing machine and desk there are a bunch of bottles that are either new or awaiting reincorporation into the cupboards. So that’s where I’ve been spritzing from.

Going Back to my Full Bottle Wardrobe

Going Back to my Full Bottle Wardrobe

There also seems to be a gold theme running through my spritz selection so far in 2024.

Aqua Allegoria Neroli Vetiver by Guerlain

Yes, this got the gong for New Years Eve and so it was my first fragrance for 2024 too. I love its sweet juicy opening and smooth white floral heart made extra fresh and green by a dry vetiver, all over a lovely laundry musk base. Jin and I had a VERY lazy night. We had duck Korean table BarBQ at home with all the side dishes and some pork chipolatas for extras. While we were eating one of our besties Phil dropped in on his way home from family and that was really nice. Then we lay around the couch with Paris the greyhound watching both the Exotic Marigold Hotel films back to back. After midnight I took Paris out for a walk and then we hit the hay. VERY chill NYE.

Soleil Brulant by Tom Ford

This was a gift from one of my dearest, Ainslie Walker: Scentsmith. It’s a honeyed white floral with resinous amber base but there is also this delightfully strange greenery. It’s leaning bitter and astringent and that creates this alluring contrapuntal effect. Also unusual for a Tom Ford it isn’t a top heavy beauty that crumbles to banality in 30 minutes. It lasts all day and has some interesting sideways movements. I’m not sure why this hasn’t become one of the most talked about fragrances of the 2020s. The first morning of 2024 dawned cool and cloudy so this was a lovely rich choice.

Montana femme by Claude Montana

This bloody bottle doesn’t fit anywhere in the cupboards so is constantly out. the pic doesn’t show it well but they’re over 1/3 gone. A full tilt hark back to the days of perfumey perfumes. An aldehydic floral top and sweet woodsy amber base. Not for the faint of heart and smalls bloody fabulous. It really does smell like shoulder pads and jewel bright peplums with big hair. It’s beautiful in the cold weather but in the humidity and heat of Sydney summer it blooms even more gorgeously. If only it came in a less cool and annoying bottle.

 

So how have you spritzed in the new year?
Portia xx

Spice Blend by DIOR
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Spice Blend by DIOR

Hey there ULGers, With my recent Vanilla Diorama came a sample of DIOR Spice Blend in its gorgeous box. They have definitely gone down market from the original 8ml miniatures and now we get a 2ml sample but at least it’s now a SPRITZ! YAY! That means we get to smell exactly what the fragrance will smell like as it’s jetted out of our full bottles. So though they aren’t as glam they are better for us perfume peeps to really know what’s coming. Also, 8ml is quite a lot of perfume. 2ml is exactly enough to get me giddy with excitement over a couple of wears and leave me wanting more.

Spice Blend by DIOR 2019

Spice Blend DIOR

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Bay rum, Ginger, Madagascar pepper, Pink pepper, Cinnamon, Rum absolute

The opening moments of Spice Blend are delightfully boozy with a sharp spicy flare up. I say flare up but in fact the spices are cool and still in their bottles but fragrant and portentous. It’s spicy but not overwhelming. This excitement lasts better than most openings and doesn’t really calm for nearly 30 minutes with only a few changes.

Once we hot the heart are still in a softly spicy place, maybe walking past a spice cart. Now I feel like unnamed resins are making a smooth play that changes the feeling of Spice Blend to a more sophisticated, less dazzle dazzle adventure. The heart stays linear for a while, the next hour or so. At this point still fragrant, done in the very laid back, under the radar gorgeousness of DIOR Prive style. My feeling is that you’ll still stand out but moderately. If someone passes you or spends a moment sitting near you they will be enamoured by Spice Blend. It’s different enough to elicit comment but similar enough not to be obnoxious. It’s at this point that I can smell the cinnamon as plain as day, quite a surprise that it’s taken so long to hoist its flag. It’s a fun moment that I can only really smell/taste when huffing up close and it remains till we head towards dry down.

What I find at the end is a sweet, resinous wash that fades to a better than me scent hours and hours later. For something so low key the longevity is excellent.

Spice Blend by DIOR sample

If you have not got a spicy, booze laden fragrance in your collection then Spice Blend could definitely be the one to fill that niche.

Is Spice Blend lovely? Yes. Beautifully blended? Yes. Does it make me yearn for a bottle? Yes. Are there other fragrances out there that scratch a similar itch? Yes, many, even a few in my collection. Is it so special that I really need to buy it, even in 40ml form? So here is my conundrum: Do I lay down money for something that delights me but in all reality will probably be passed over in favour of others that I’ve loved and worn for years? Or does it eclipse them and I wear Spice Blend over them, relegating old loves to the dreaded “love but don’t reach for” category?

Have you tried Spice Blend?
Portia xx

 

L’Air du Temps parfum by Nina Ricci
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L’Air du Temps parfum by Nina Ricci

Hello Fellow Fumies,

Some of you may know that way back in the dimness of time I was a Squirt Bitch for a department store in Sydney’s suburbs, my fragrance section was Guerlain, Oscar de la Renta, Worth and Nina Ricci. At the time I was so dazzled by the Guerlains and Oscars that poor old Nina Ricci got left behind, it was the 1980s and very few people were after such subtlety, especially once I started on my “Make a statement” spiel. I recently purchased some L’Air du Temps parfum just for old times sake. Then I found  on Fragrantica Miguel Matos did a sensational 2013 L’Air du Temps 65th Birthday piece and judging by the packaging on my acquisition it’s 1986-2008 juice, except the parfum has gold doves on the box. Which is a SCORE. Today was always going to be about L’Air du Temps but now it has an extra special reason, Happy 75th Birthday L’Air du Temps.

L’Air du Temps parfum by Nina Ricci 1948

L’Air du Temps parfum by Nina Ricci 1948

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Neroli, Rosewood, Spices, Bergamot, Peach
Heart: Carnation, Lily, Ylang, Iris, May rose, Orchid
Base: Sandalwood, Ambergris, Benzoin, Moss, Musk, Cedar, Vetiver

I love a floral, fruity, aldehydic opening of yesteryear, there is so much depth and glamour. It’s spicy and sugared, crisp and warm and fizzy, L’Air du Temps is fun! The parfum version is so much fuller and more powerful in the opening than my memories of the EdT back in the 1980s but the scent is still the same, no not the same but same enough to feel the memories flood back. Both cozy and starched elegance at the same time. Luminous! I am back in time over 20 years and just getting my first perfumista stars.

After the first ten minutes L’Air du Temps takes a definite step towards soft, there becomes space between the various notes and the wall of scent becomes a lovely warm floral aura that is still spicy and punchy but more restrained. There is so much going on in L’Air du Temps that I find it hard to pick individual notes. The cloves are most discernible and I can smell flowers but it’s a dream of flowers nothing specific. While half the time feeling totally old fashioned and dated it also is still spare and pretty enough through the heart to be at ease in today’s fragrant climate. An hour in and I am softly fragrant, maybe if I was sitting in a small room for a while you’d smell a change in the air but otherwise you’d have to hug me to know I’m perfumed.

L’Air du Temps parfum by Nina Ricci 1948 parfum

Amber and sandalwood/cedar are what I smell most of in the dry down, there are other things but I can’t decipher them as notes it’s more of a harmonious background hum. After around 4 hours L’Air du Temps goes so soft I can barely register it but I know that I’m not smelling me, it is definitely other, an amorphous wash that I lose at around 5-6 hours.

How does L’Air du Temps make me feel? Pretty, I feel pretty, no bold statement, very laid back and comfortable. Wearable on any occasion, even close working quarters would not be offended by L’Air du Temps parfum. It is subtle and glamorous without the hard work of appearing to be.

Do you have any L’Air du Temps memories you’d like to share?
Portia xx

Cuir de Russie EdP CHANEL Les Exclusifs
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Cuir de Russie EdP CHANEL Les Exclusifs

Hi there Crew, CHANEL Cuir de Russie EdP was released in 2016. It’s a modern riff on Ernest Beaux’s 1924 leather & smoke bomb. A soapy reinterpretation of even the 2007 EdT. It’s still better than most things produced today, in my completely subjective opinion but a far cry from the original. What was a lion is now a perfectly trained, gorgeous house cat. My bottle was bought on a FaceBook Sale Doc from a person who was devastated at the change from EdT to EdP and couldn’t get rid of this bottle fast enough.

Cuir de Russie EdP CHANEL Les Exclusifs

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Orange blossom Mandarin Orange Bergamot
Heart: Ylang-Ylang Jasmine Tobacco Rose
Base: Leather Birch Resins

You’ll notice how little has been used from the bottle. It’s strange because I love this soft focus soapy leather. TBH every time I think leather it’s 1980s Trussardi, Cuir d’Ange or Gentry Jockey Club. So strange also because I have to go find them and Cuir de Russie is on my grab tray, right next to the desk.

Today I was thinking to wear leather. With it being shoulder season I knew it had to do warm and cold time. The sunshine is absolutely gorgeous right now in Sydney but once you’re in shade it feels bitterly cold. Yes, I know. Sydneysiders are wimps because we have the mildest weather. Still, we also try and wear Polo shirts year round, on their own. So you see the conundrum. I did have my ever present Gap hoodie with me though just in case there was also breeze.

How does CHANEL Cuir de Russie EdP smell? It opens with aldehydes and an orange blossom so reminiscent of fatty soap I smile. There are flowers but it’s a bouquet, nothing rises above to make itself know. There is no star turn. Even the leather is not a huge stand out. There but part of what is a reserved, elegant wash of fragrance. I don’t understand why iris isn’t noted, it sure does smell like there is some here puffing up the rest. It’s like all the sharp corners and interesting combative parts of the original Cuir de Russie have been shorn away. Beautiful, low key, lightly sparkling fragrance with a hint of well loved leather goods and some smooth resins. I can’t even tell you what the resins are, amber and maybe some elemi?

Totally unisex and utterly inoffensive. The lasting power is very good though. I keep smelling this gorgeous wash for hours, there will probably still be a whisper when I wake. I’m going to respritz for bed and sail away on a cloud of Cuir de Russie.

Are you a fan?
Portia xx

 

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L’Heure Folle X by Cartier. Full 180 Degree Turn

Hi there Crew, L’Heure Folle X by Cartier was originally a hard no for me. There was something in its make up that used to give me the heebee geebees. It may even have been March’s Perfume Posse review that sent me down the dark path of dislike. Anyway, her canned fruit analogy had me smelling ptomaine poisoning when I tried it too. Let’s skitch forward to the relatively near now. I was in at Cartier buying a bottle of another one of the L’Heure series and the lovely gent serving me said his favourite was X. Not remembering my previous distaste for it I gave myself a couple of decent blasts and walked out the door. Thinking what an absolute doll he’d been and loving this weird assed fragrance, which I now indelibly think of as his scent. So while doing some shopping a few months ago on FragranceNet I saw a tester bottle for under 1/3 of what a full presentation costs me here in Oz I jumped on it SO FAST! I just looked and they still have a few. SHH!

L’Heure Folle X by Cartier 2009

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Blueberry, Grenadine, Ivy, Red Currant, Black Currant, Boxwood, Violet, Pink Pepper

While this will not resonate with our Northern Hemisphere readers it’s currently 37C (98.6F) and incredibly humid here in Sydney. We’ve had a gloriously rainy summer so far and the sunshine is sucking the water out of the ground and it’s like walking through a fish tank.

That has me reaching for the cooling, sweet beauty of L’Heure Folle X. It’s funny, now that I love it my nose can’t even remember how much I hated it.

The opening is a chill fruity gelato. So sweet it’s sharp. Vibrant and fun but so beautifully blended. I can’t really taste the exact fruits but L’Heure Folle X has that crystalline effect of really good gelato. Cleansing and refreshing.

Through the heart the fruits are joined by greenery. It’s a broken twig and leaf scent. Very green. Do you ever trim your hedge with electric clippers? That scent, even with the very faint zing of metal. The fragrance maintains this stasis for the rest of it’s life till fade.

Unisex but leaning traditional modern femme. I think the ivy keeps the whole fragrance smack bang on for both sexes. Average longevity and not very large projection but it is noticeable.

Sound like something you’d wear?
Portia xx

 

 

 

Portia’s Favourite Notes
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Portia’s Favourite Notes

Hi there crew, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what notes draw me to fragrance. The ones that seem to give me a particularly swoony head rush as well as nostrilgasms. Though there is very little in the perfumed world that I actively dislike there are some favourites. Especially when they are done well or treated in a new way that piques may interest. Some of them I keep buying even though there are already three, four or ten in the collection almost exactly the same. Yes, I know, TRAGIC! I can’t help it though. If I get a super swoony rush the chances are my credit card is out and burned before I can even get my thoughts together enough to say, “Sorry, I already have five almost exactly the same.” Please tell me some of you are just as impulsive and ridiculous..

Portia’s Favourite Notes (Today!)

Amber

I think amber is the best represented not in my collection. On it’s own I already find it sensational, don’t need to add a thing. The accord is so varied and almost every iteration of it has caught me in its snare. Give it a few extra bells & whistles and take my money. So much so that I’m having to get really tough with myself. Nowadays when I smell a new amber it has to be something extremely unusual or perfectly produced for me to go bananas. NO, that was a lie. I still go for it but then I have to rein myself in.
Favourites include L’Eau d’Ambre by L’Artisan, Ambre Ceruleen by Huitieme Art, Ambre Russe by Parfum d’Empire, Ambre 114 by Histories de Parfum, Mitzah by DIOR, Ambre Sultan by Serge Lutens, Tiger’s Nest Memo Paris, Oriental Lounge by The Different Company, 24-09-11 by Hilde Soliani, Rima XI by Carner Barcelona, and Ambre Narguile by Hermès. I know I’m going to be pissed at how many I left off this list but seriously, it’s ridiculous how many bottles are here that are amber rich.

Narcissus

Narcissus crept up on me. While always loving it in the garden I didn’t really think about narcissus, or its place in perfumery, till I got hold of a decant of CB I Hate Perfume’s Narcissus Absolute. Suddenly I could tell when fragrances has a bit, or a lot. most of them keep it fairly well hidden as a back up singer, hiding among the bouquet. That’s a shame because the few that go all out are freaking stunning.
A couple I love are Jardins de Bagatelle by Guerlain (wearing it to write this!), Ostara by Penhaligon’s, Le Temps d’une Fête by Parfums de Nicolai, Infini by Caron, Narcisse by Chloé, and Volupté by Oscar de la Renta. There are so many others but these are the only bottles in my collection that I can think of.

Salt

Salt is a new love but one that I’m embracing. Actually, I think that’s not exactly true. I’ve long loved salt in fragrance but didn’t really know it until lately. It adds so much, like it does in food. Salt can be seaside, sweat, food, blood, driftwood, tears, skin, and so much more.
Gucci Bloom Acqua di Fiori, Couleur Vanille (large decant) and Batucada by L’Artisan, Eden-Roc by DIOR (large decant), Greg Lauren Barneys New York (still desperately searching for a bottle of this), Vanille Marine by M. Micallef, and though they never call themselves salted I always associate the L’Eau d’Issey Pour Homme fragrances with sea water.

Sandalwood

Sandalwood seems to be ubiquitous. Indian Mysore, Australian, the replicants and something else grown I can’t remember. Having been introduced to it in Samsara while squirt bitching for Guerlain in the late 1980s, that hugely dramatic diva stole my heart and I bought it for Mum who wore it so well. Then in the early 2000s in India I was taken to a famous perfume wallah in Janpath Market in New Delhi. The sandalwood in the oils blew my mind. 
My most used. Samsara, Santal Royal and Mahora by Guerlain, Santal+++ by Miller et Bertaux, Santal Majuscule and Santal Blanc by Serge Lutens, Ashoka by Neela Vermeire Creation (Yes, I know sandalwood is secondary but it’s definitely part of why it’s so beautiful), Santal Noir by Dior, Adam Levine for Women, Dama Koupa by Baruti, Babylon by Penhaligon’s (sample, WANT a bottle so badly!) and Santal Massoïa by Hermès.

Tropical Floral

OK, so I know this is a style. Yes, it’s not a note. There is something so alluring about this genre though and if it’s done even half way good I’m a sucker for it. As kids our family spent a lot of summer time on beach or island vacations, plus we had a pool.  So those creamy floral, vanilla, coconut, ozonics make my heart skip a beat and quite often my eyes roll back in my head.
Songes and Un Matin d’Orage by Annick Goutal, Un Jour d’Ete by Keiko Mecheri, Lys Soleia by Guerlain, Rahel by Neela Vermeire Creations, Dune and Grand Bal by Dior, l’esprit libre by Divine, Saskia and Queen of the Night by Grandiflora, Elle L’aime by Lolita Lempicka, Sun by Jin Sander and even on the borderline, Ysatis by Givenchy.

 

So there you have it. I have surprised myself. These were not the 5 notes I was expecting to write about when I first sat down. This article has been banging around me head for a long while. If I’d gone Top Ten then I think lavender, incense, vanilla, rose and aquatic would have been the next 5. GAH! Then I’ve left out things like cedar, patchouli, oud, jasmine, cardamom, basil, galbanum, oakmoss, aldehydes, geranium, leather, osmanthus, violet, pepper or tea.

So how about you tell me your 5 faves. Don’t worry, it’s only for today.
The ones that make you swoon and reach for the credit card every time.

Portia xx

Montana Parfum d’Elle 2
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Montana Parfum d’Elle 2

Hi Crew, Claude Montana has long been known for out there, boundary pushing design. His fragrance Parfum de Peau was a blockbuster and since then has been spotty; at best. Some have been downright ghastly. Montana Parfum d’Elle 2 is not one of his worst. The bottle alone is worth having in your collection. It’s fabulous, madcap and ridiculous in equal measure.

Montana Parfum d’Elle 2 (2002/3)

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Top: Aldehydes, Peach, Red berries
Heart: Geranium, Iris, Magnolia
Base: Amber, Musk, Tonka bean, Cedar

Soapy fruity floral in a big hair, cinched waist, shoulder pads and glittering bling kinda way. A definite hark back to the showstoppers of the late 20th century that arrived in the early 2000s, a full rejuvenation of the original, including a bottle change for ease of discernment. There’s even that hairspray and nail polish vibe of a 1980s salon, or a drag queens dressing room anytime since there’s been hairspray and nail polish. No one will tell you this is fine fragrance, it’s FUN fragrance. For those nights you want to be completely over the top. You know, a club night out, gala, prom, wandering around a coastal town in tourist season, anything that you want to radiate super feminised fragrance. Hell, wear it to the grocery shopping!

The note list seems a long way removed from the fragrance except the aldehydes and anonymous fruits. Everything else is buried in the mix.

I love this scratchy, flamboyant, magical mess and it gets a bit of wear around here, especially when I’m off to a drag gig. Montana Parfum d’Elle 2 is so fun it fits the bill perfectly. You’d have to be guy with rock solid confidence to wear this in public or just not care about peoples reactions. No, I take that back. This would be so unexpected on a guy and be a definite statement, also if you were into the opposite sex I think they’d swoon.

Could you? Would you Montana Parfum d’Elle 2?
Portia xx

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Gris Dior by Dior

Hi there. Those temps should be getting high up there in the Northern Hemisphere. Sometimes in high heat I like to go super restrained with my fragrance. Luxurious but introverted. The way a sotto voce fragrance can surround you with a barely there nimbus of fragrance can be powerful in its understatement. Also, I like that a tenacious one can surprise me with little huffs of reminder through the day. Once called Gris Montaigne after the grey of the Rue de Montaigne store (I think i remember that rightly) and now called simply Gris Dior.

Gris Dior by Maison Christian Dior Collection 2018

Parfumo gives these featured accords:
Calabrian bergamot, Turkish rose, Patchouli, Jasmine sambac, Amber, Oakmoss, Cedar, Sandalwood

OK, so Gris Dior is a softer, less intense version of the original Gris Montaigne. They are saying it’s the exact same thing but the big fragrance crews have often played fast and loose with the truth. Still beautiful, still luxurious and interesting but like a fraiche version of itself.

If a Middle Eastern rose/patch, hefty kinda perfume is your wish then go grab a bottle of something else. Gris Dior includes a lot of the ingredients but doesn’t do its thing flamboyantly.

The opening is rose water marmalade and a wash of cool white flowers. A light, airy fragrance that only hints at any darkness. Actually, Gris Dior is like smelling someone else’s perfume at lunch. Tangible and lovely but non intrusive.

Into the low level rose/woods heart Gris Dior continues to pump out a very low key prettiness. It’s an under the radar beauty. Until i purposely try to resmell it I’m blissfully unaware of any fragrance, unless there’s a surprise huff from my shirt.

Underwhelming sounds mean but I think that is exactly what François Demachy was aiming for here. Beautiful, poised and luxurious but barely there. A cool whisper of scent that you can wear anytime and anywhere.

Did you try Gris Dior?
Portia xx