Nφvae Vanilla Atelier des Ors 2025

Vanilla usually means dessert or the sweetening of all the other notes in a perfume for me. However, I keep stumbling upon vanilla-focused fragrances that surprise me - "Deep Dark Vanilla | D.S. & Durga," for example, or "Vanilla in Armagnac | Scents of Wood."
This one fits into that lineup.

The scene is a freshly polished, dark wood coffee table. In a modern, straight-lined, almost cool loft apartment, it stands in the middle of the room. On it, there is only a polished stainless steel bowl, cold, matte, heavy, and inside lie some unsweetened, dark, fermented vanilla pods. Modern, contemplative, cold and warm at the same time. The musky white room brings a clean, cool calmness, appearing somewhat impersonal, yet warmly clean and not like a vanilla cookie bakery, which I greatly appreciate. The mimosa branches stand dried in an avant-garde postmodern architecturally inspired vase in the corner of the room, a herbal whiff wafts over now and then. In my nose, of course, the vanilla is prominent, closely followed by the mineral coldness of the metal bowl and the dark, polish-soaked wooden table and the white musky room surrounding it.

Synthetics? Yes, they bubble up from below. But I don't find that so bad. The herbal mimosa catches the slight scratchiness with the musk, so it doesn't burn my nasal hairs. The whole thing lightens up the dark and creamy woody vanilla theme. The wood also has a nice depth. The combination reminds me of the wood-vanilla combo in Deep Dark Vanilla or "Bowmakers (Eau de Parfum) | D.S. & Durga," but without the edge, of course.
Overall, it is a model modernized, tamed, creamy wood-vanilla.

The decant will surely find its wearing occasions. However, a bottle is not necessary, as I share a bit of the previously expressed dissatisfaction: It feels somewhat uninspired. A bit of vanilla, a bit of wood, some mineral notes, oh, crap, it’s getting fully synthetic, well, then a bit of musk to cover that up, and a little herb for decoration.
I understand the concept, modern and all, I find it kind of cool. Maybe I want to like it more than I do because it is yet another surprisingly unsweet vanilla.