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09/08/2020
Sternanis
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Sternanis
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Rest in peace.
Anno 2009:
"Hello, Marketing Department here! Encre Noire is doing well, make one for the ladies!"
"What? Ideas are straight from..."
"Never mind, anything goes with roses!"
When I first asked for "Encre Noire" a felt eternity ago (OK, about 5 years ago), I was told, despite repeated assurances from my side that I really wanted to test the men's version, that this one is on. Or rather: I was attacked with it.
Everything from Lalique was deposited behind the counter inaccessible, and the saleswoman stubbornly refused to spray me with Encre Noire, because it "does not go on women's skin at all" and I "certainly don't want it and just mixed it up". In the course of the discussion, suddenly, without warning, a cloud of Encre Noire Pour Elle landed on my arm.
Well, it's actually not such a subterranean bad smell, but it's not even remotely similar to the original version I was looking forward to all the time, and character and style are completely different EN is (needle)woody, but also earthy, smoky, and so extreme that it seems almost abstract. But only almost. Nathalie Lorson is responsible for some of my favourite scents and I think she has a recognizable style that runs through all scents. Amethyst and Sunlight Lumiere also have this certain amount of detail (but not too much), and a kind of symmetry/asymmetry.
EN pour elle is by Christine Nagel and smells to me like a pastel pink fabric softener with some rose soap (the one from Kattus has a certain similarity, the mild detergent from Domol even more). That's probably OK if you want rose fabric softener - otherwise I just find it meaningless. I would have preferred it to be repulsive, but interesting. Or at least characteristic in a certain direction, with recognition value. A certain sharpness or freshness would have been good for the fragrance in my opinion, this kind of fabric softener musk otherwise only seems flat or oppressive, and the rose itself is anything but angular.
No comparison at all to the men's fragrance - as if no one would have bothered more with the "Flanker" because it's bought anyway (otherwise it's usually the other way around, and I feel a little sorry for the gentlemen who are thrown the umpteenth boring "for men" or "pour homme" version with every new women's fragrance).
And that's actually what annoys me the most. Not that Lalique is launching the 10000000000th rose scent on the market, but that as a customer you are being taken for a fool. (of course you could go a long way to Black Opium and Poison Girl, but I'd rather not do that).
Besides, the original scent would easily go into unisex. Chanel's Sycomore, which is quite similar, is supposed to be for ladies after all.
If the fragrance had a different name and was marketed as a lovely rose scent in a tea service porcelain bottle (and in those old lacquered tin cans with the flower girls instead of in a box :P ), I might be able to find an access to it, albeit a completely different one (Gucci would probably have been able to do that). But that's how it is: sit, 6, theme missed.
Yeah yeah, I know, it's all been written 100 times, but not by everyone ;)
Every time I see it on someone in the collection, I am reminded of the experience in the shop and I get a little jerked up inside. In the wild, I probably wouldn't recognize him at all because he is so ordinary.
Later, since the two fragrances were also available in the village, I tested it a few more times to see if it still convinced me or if my memory was distorted somehow, but my nose never got further than "rose softener". I certainly don't smell more vetiver here. That's why I spare you all imaginary scent pyramids.
The text here was written in an original, rudimentary version over two years ago, and my impression has not changed.
By the way: There are some really well scented everyday products (as I learned here at Parfumo, there must be a lot of toilet stones among them), but this kind of rose scent is not one of them in my opinion. It's just sucked out, over.
Perhaps there are some rose fabric softener fans who find their favourite fragrance perfectly embodied in this very fragrance. I'd rather buy the Rose Deodorant from Fa instead
In fairness, at least nothing stinks here. Actually something should always stink after such an attack on my olfactory self-determination, but it doesn't. I can't hate the smell or find it disgusting, just boring. So I'm not surprised that it was discontinued, as it happens with most flankers after a few years.
"Hello, Marketing Department here! Encre Noire is doing well, make one for the ladies!"
"What? Ideas are straight from..."
"Never mind, anything goes with roses!"
When I first asked for "Encre Noire" a felt eternity ago (OK, about 5 years ago), I was told, despite repeated assurances from my side that I really wanted to test the men's version, that this one is on. Or rather: I was attacked with it.
Everything from Lalique was deposited behind the counter inaccessible, and the saleswoman stubbornly refused to spray me with Encre Noire, because it "does not go on women's skin at all" and I "certainly don't want it and just mixed it up". In the course of the discussion, suddenly, without warning, a cloud of Encre Noire Pour Elle landed on my arm.
Well, it's actually not such a subterranean bad smell, but it's not even remotely similar to the original version I was looking forward to all the time, and character and style are completely different EN is (needle)woody, but also earthy, smoky, and so extreme that it seems almost abstract. But only almost. Nathalie Lorson is responsible for some of my favourite scents and I think she has a recognizable style that runs through all scents. Amethyst and Sunlight Lumiere also have this certain amount of detail (but not too much), and a kind of symmetry/asymmetry.
EN pour elle is by Christine Nagel and smells to me like a pastel pink fabric softener with some rose soap (the one from Kattus has a certain similarity, the mild detergent from Domol even more). That's probably OK if you want rose fabric softener - otherwise I just find it meaningless. I would have preferred it to be repulsive, but interesting. Or at least characteristic in a certain direction, with recognition value. A certain sharpness or freshness would have been good for the fragrance in my opinion, this kind of fabric softener musk otherwise only seems flat or oppressive, and the rose itself is anything but angular.
No comparison at all to the men's fragrance - as if no one would have bothered more with the "Flanker" because it's bought anyway (otherwise it's usually the other way around, and I feel a little sorry for the gentlemen who are thrown the umpteenth boring "for men" or "pour homme" version with every new women's fragrance).
And that's actually what annoys me the most. Not that Lalique is launching the 10000000000th rose scent on the market, but that as a customer you are being taken for a fool. (of course you could go a long way to Black Opium and Poison Girl, but I'd rather not do that).
Besides, the original scent would easily go into unisex. Chanel's Sycomore, which is quite similar, is supposed to be for ladies after all.
If the fragrance had a different name and was marketed as a lovely rose scent in a tea service porcelain bottle (and in those old lacquered tin cans with the flower girls instead of in a box :P ), I might be able to find an access to it, albeit a completely different one (Gucci would probably have been able to do that). But that's how it is: sit, 6, theme missed.
Yeah yeah, I know, it's all been written 100 times, but not by everyone ;)
Every time I see it on someone in the collection, I am reminded of the experience in the shop and I get a little jerked up inside. In the wild, I probably wouldn't recognize him at all because he is so ordinary.
Later, since the two fragrances were also available in the village, I tested it a few more times to see if it still convinced me or if my memory was distorted somehow, but my nose never got further than "rose softener". I certainly don't smell more vetiver here. That's why I spare you all imaginary scent pyramids.
The text here was written in an original, rudimentary version over two years ago, and my impression has not changed.
By the way: There are some really well scented everyday products (as I learned here at Parfumo, there must be a lot of toilet stones among them), but this kind of rose scent is not one of them in my opinion. It's just sucked out, over.
Perhaps there are some rose fabric softener fans who find their favourite fragrance perfectly embodied in this very fragrance. I'd rather buy the Rose Deodorant from Fa instead
In fairness, at least nothing stinks here. Actually something should always stink after such an attack on my olfactory self-determination, but it doesn't. I can't hate the smell or find it disgusting, just boring. So I'm not surprised that it was discontinued, as it happens with most flankers after a few years.
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Hermesh
