Top Notes 
Heart Notes 
Base Notes 
10/02/2023
Pimm
1 Review
Auto-translated
Show original
Pimm
1
Cinnamon sweet gingerbread myrrh
... is, in short, my impression. Before I get back to that, a few comments on the fragrance notes and concentrations given, because this is quite a jumble for such a young fragrance. On my box, the current 100BON website, archived versions of the same, and 100BON info sheets still on the web, I found six (somewhat) different pyramids, and designations "Eau de Cologne Intense" (current, green label), "Eau de Parfum" (info sheets, 2021/22?), "Concentré" (black label, pre-2022?), and simply "Eau" (white label, 2022?). Around 2021, there was apparently also a short-lived "Eau fraîche" with a yellow label. The latter sounds like it should indeed be lower concentrated than the other versions, but otherwise I suspect it's always the same concentration in the (low) EdP range. The INCI list of ingredients has only changed once, probably when the label changed from black to white: Cinnamon alcohol was replaced by three other substances with "cinnamon" or "alcohol" in their names; doesn't sound dramatic. They seem to have tweaked the presentation more than anything else. The name addition "mystérieux" is now also no longer used.
At fragrance notes cinnamon is recently no longer mentioned; I guess that's just part of a more ascetic presentation. A top note "fraîcheur" is sometimes called, sometimes not, unclear what is meant, ditto "sous-bois"/ "Undergrowth"/ "boisé"/ "Woodland". The citrus note alternates between bergamot, "citrus" and "citron", so maybe bergamot oil plus X. Consonance exists with patchouli, myrrh, frankincense and tonka bean, and mostly opoponax is also mentioned. Papyrus is a (reedy) grass, papyrus wood sounds more like fantasy, and sometimes it's called "amber wood" or "bois d'ambre" instead, once even "cashmere oud". So a fancy name for an amber-ish artificial wood accord? At times it was said that the note represented an essential oil, but the information on plant extracts seem altogether confused and improvised.
The notes on my box match the current perfumo notes, except for musk and undergrowth vs. fresh:
Bergamot, cinnamon, "sous-bois"/"undergrowth"; myrrh, patchouli, papyrus wood; musk, incense, tonka bean.
Bought this summer at an off-price store. Label (green) and INCI list match the photos on the 100BON website, the liquid is golden yellow on me, but clear in the photos. Currently it says the fragrance is sold out and will be available again soon. The bottle is simply designed, but sprays very well.
"100% ingredients of natural origin", it says on my box. Since these 100% even occur in the name of the brand, I would like to go into it a bit. That not exclusively (immediate) natural materials are used, makes already the musk note clear. Is not, so to speak, everything artificial of natural origin? On the current website I find no specification on this, an early archived version (2017) claimed little convincingly:
"Our ingredients are natural and truly authentic, all coming from a sustainable agriculture. [...]
Our perfumes are 100% natural, without petrochemicals, without artificial colors, without any synthetic ingredients. We even use organic wheat alcohol."
Common naturalness standards such as ISO 16128 or COSMOS probably(?) only exclude most petrochemical products, which should not mean a major restriction in the perfume formula. Iso-E-Super, chemically derived from natural myrcene, should be allowed, for example. Phthalates, on the other hand, which are often used as denaturants, solvents and fixatives, should not be allowed. After all, these are not considered completely harmless to health. Furthermore thus bioethanol, environmental packing, a renouncement of certain colorants.
More convincing is an effort to create natural /effective/ fragrances. Recent texts on the company's philosophy praise nature as inspiration, the mental effects of essential oils, and simplicity in complex times:
"I have always been fascinated by the olfactory power of essential oil on the mind. They reconnect us to nature. I knew we had to go back to the essentials: the perfume rather than the bottles, the community rather than marketing, zero waste rather than overconsumption." (C. Bombana, Founder)
Elsewhere: "The time of expensive, ostentatious perfume, proudly sitting on a bathroom shelf, is over! [...] We will always prefer to dream in nature than in front of the face of a famous muse. [...] [O]ur prices are fair, our labels readable, our compositions transparent, green and clean."
So rather no considerable amounts of selected natural materials (countries of origin are not even mentioned), but yet at the center of each two natural fragrances. The selection of these main notes seems little ambitious - more obvious than myrrh and frankincense would actually only frankincense and myrrh, which may at least have reduced time requirements, costs and risks in the development. The original prices are already on the border to the midfield; on the other hand, there were at least earlier refill bottles, travel sizes and significant discounts.
To finally come to my fragrance impression: I smell a cinnamon-y accord, which is surprisingly intense especially at first up close, downright shrill and thus also little natural. Dry, slightly powdery, burning, slightly warm-spicy, but not peppery. Also distinctly bitter and somewhat dry-woody. I'm guessing high-dose coumarin (known from tonka scents and beans) and already at the beginning striking phenolic-sweet patchouli. On a test strip, citric acid seems to briefly soften the prelude; on my skin, there's not a bit of it (as is often the case) until two sprays. At a distance, the intensity of cinnamon et al. quickly diminishes, perhaps making this accord stand out for me from more far-reaching bready notes: Mildly honeyed sweet, dry doughy, powdery, but also a bit buttery. In total, this already seems to me without the cinnamon like a soft gingerbread, with cinnamon only quite Christmasy and quite sweet, to marzipan-like. Looking at the doughy structure, a little heliotrope(-in) wouldn't surprise me. I also mean to smell consistently something labdanum, and probably also vanillin.
And myrrh and frankincense? There is a tart, sour note that I think I recognize from frankincense, myrrh and opoponax oils. The wispy texture of the resins should loosen up the dough: M&E doesn't seem stuffy, and in that respect, more pleasant than Givenchy's distantly similar "Pi." I don't quite smell out the dark, licorice-like bittersweetness of myrrh. A dark undertone, which frankincense also possesses, is probably there. I can also take this one culinary as alcohol in the gingerbread. As it progresses, I sometimes smell a slight churchy nuance, but incense never makes it to a starring role. Over time, the cinnamoniness moderates, but remains clearly present for a long time. Later, one smells perhaps the light, light-sweet aspect of the myrrh more clearly.
[*] Character limit reached; durability, sillage and conclusion follow below as a comment.
At fragrance notes cinnamon is recently no longer mentioned; I guess that's just part of a more ascetic presentation. A top note "fraîcheur" is sometimes called, sometimes not, unclear what is meant, ditto "sous-bois"/ "Undergrowth"/ "boisé"/ "Woodland". The citrus note alternates between bergamot, "citrus" and "citron", so maybe bergamot oil plus X. Consonance exists with patchouli, myrrh, frankincense and tonka bean, and mostly opoponax is also mentioned. Papyrus is a (reedy) grass, papyrus wood sounds more like fantasy, and sometimes it's called "amber wood" or "bois d'ambre" instead, once even "cashmere oud". So a fancy name for an amber-ish artificial wood accord? At times it was said that the note represented an essential oil, but the information on plant extracts seem altogether confused and improvised.
The notes on my box match the current perfumo notes, except for musk and undergrowth vs. fresh:
Bergamot, cinnamon, "sous-bois"/"undergrowth"; myrrh, patchouli, papyrus wood; musk, incense, tonka bean.
Bought this summer at an off-price store. Label (green) and INCI list match the photos on the 100BON website, the liquid is golden yellow on me, but clear in the photos. Currently it says the fragrance is sold out and will be available again soon. The bottle is simply designed, but sprays very well.
"100% ingredients of natural origin", it says on my box. Since these 100% even occur in the name of the brand, I would like to go into it a bit. That not exclusively (immediate) natural materials are used, makes already the musk note clear. Is not, so to speak, everything artificial of natural origin? On the current website I find no specification on this, an early archived version (2017) claimed little convincingly:
"Our ingredients are natural and truly authentic, all coming from a sustainable agriculture. [...]
Our perfumes are 100% natural, without petrochemicals, without artificial colors, without any synthetic ingredients. We even use organic wheat alcohol."
Common naturalness standards such as ISO 16128 or COSMOS probably(?) only exclude most petrochemical products, which should not mean a major restriction in the perfume formula. Iso-E-Super, chemically derived from natural myrcene, should be allowed, for example. Phthalates, on the other hand, which are often used as denaturants, solvents and fixatives, should not be allowed. After all, these are not considered completely harmless to health. Furthermore thus bioethanol, environmental packing, a renouncement of certain colorants.
More convincing is an effort to create natural /effective/ fragrances. Recent texts on the company's philosophy praise nature as inspiration, the mental effects of essential oils, and simplicity in complex times:
"I have always been fascinated by the olfactory power of essential oil on the mind. They reconnect us to nature. I knew we had to go back to the essentials: the perfume rather than the bottles, the community rather than marketing, zero waste rather than overconsumption." (C. Bombana, Founder)
Elsewhere: "The time of expensive, ostentatious perfume, proudly sitting on a bathroom shelf, is over! [...] We will always prefer to dream in nature than in front of the face of a famous muse. [...] [O]ur prices are fair, our labels readable, our compositions transparent, green and clean."
So rather no considerable amounts of selected natural materials (countries of origin are not even mentioned), but yet at the center of each two natural fragrances. The selection of these main notes seems little ambitious - more obvious than myrrh and frankincense would actually only frankincense and myrrh, which may at least have reduced time requirements, costs and risks in the development. The original prices are already on the border to the midfield; on the other hand, there were at least earlier refill bottles, travel sizes and significant discounts.
To finally come to my fragrance impression: I smell a cinnamon-y accord, which is surprisingly intense especially at first up close, downright shrill and thus also little natural. Dry, slightly powdery, burning, slightly warm-spicy, but not peppery. Also distinctly bitter and somewhat dry-woody. I'm guessing high-dose coumarin (known from tonka scents and beans) and already at the beginning striking phenolic-sweet patchouli. On a test strip, citric acid seems to briefly soften the prelude; on my skin, there's not a bit of it (as is often the case) until two sprays. At a distance, the intensity of cinnamon et al. quickly diminishes, perhaps making this accord stand out for me from more far-reaching bready notes: Mildly honeyed sweet, dry doughy, powdery, but also a bit buttery. In total, this already seems to me without the cinnamon like a soft gingerbread, with cinnamon only quite Christmasy and quite sweet, to marzipan-like. Looking at the doughy structure, a little heliotrope(-in) wouldn't surprise me. I also mean to smell consistently something labdanum, and probably also vanillin.
And myrrh and frankincense? There is a tart, sour note that I think I recognize from frankincense, myrrh and opoponax oils. The wispy texture of the resins should loosen up the dough: M&E doesn't seem stuffy, and in that respect, more pleasant than Givenchy's distantly similar "Pi." I don't quite smell out the dark, licorice-like bittersweetness of myrrh. A dark undertone, which frankincense also possesses, is probably there. I can also take this one culinary as alcohol in the gingerbread. As it progresses, I sometimes smell a slight churchy nuance, but incense never makes it to a starring role. Over time, the cinnamoniness moderates, but remains clearly present for a long time. Later, one smells perhaps the light, light-sweet aspect of the myrrh more clearly.
[*] Character limit reached; durability, sillage and conclusion follow below as a comment.
1 Reply
