Quelques Notes d'Amour L'Eau de Parfum Yves Rocher 2014

I eagerly awaited the release of Quelque Notes d'Amour - the first major new fragrance from Yves Rocher, my dear old Uncle Yves, since I rediscovered my passion for perfume and found Parfumo! The components sounded enticing - I'm always up for rose, I like woody scents, and patchouli and pepper should add a bit of depth and flair to the whole thing... The only thing that stopped me from ordering the fragrance right after its release was that the delivery would have coincided with my vacation, and I didn't want a package waiting for me in Aachen while I was in the Harz mountains. But why not combine the pleasant with the useful? I looked up where the nearest Yves Rocher store was from our holiday location: then I could combine a city trip with a little perfume tasting and smell enticingly of woody pepper rose for the rest of the holiday.

The next store, it turned out, was in Braunschweig. We wanted to go there anyway, as there was also the next Indian restaurant and plenty of old churches we wanted to see. My husband, who is not enthusiastic about perfume shops because the dominant mix of various scents and carrier substances triggers his asthma, agreed to accompany me to Uncle Yves when I assured him it would be quick, as I already knew what I wanted. But when I thought it would be a matter of "walk in, buy, walk out," I had not counted on my husband. Why didn't I want to test the fragrance beforehand? Over twenty euros for an unknown perfume? I assured him that I would surely love it, positive comments, delicious pyramid, blah blah blah, but then we agreed that I would spray the fragrance now, we would have a coffee, I would wait to see how the scent developed, and then buy - or not buy.

We did not buy. Right after applying it in the store, I only perceived a trivial sugary water, more like an Avon scent than something from Yves Rocher, and while I was still trying to warm up to the fragrance and adjust my feelings to my positive expectations, it only became more meaningless and trivial. The French word 'quelque' can also be translated as 'any,' and that's exactly how it smelled: like something. No matter how often I sniffed at my wrist, I smelled no rose, I smelled no wood, I only smelled beige sugary water. Heavily disappointed, I left the shopping center and was annoyed that Quelque Notes d'Amour scored points precisely in terms of sillage and longevity, because for the rest of the day, I couldn't shake off the scent. It had been a long time since Uncle Yves had let me down like that.

But I'm not one to hold grudges. My passion for collecting and the urge to complete weighed heavier than disappointment, and after all, I have enough other fragrances in my collection that I love less, and to miss out on an Uncle Yves... And so, a good six months after the disappointing first test, Quelque Notes d'Amour ended up in my collection after all, and because I promised myself to wear every fragrance I buy at least once, so I wouldn't feel like I had thrown money out the window. Today was the day: Any notes of love were experiencing their second field trial.

The sugary water note that had bothered me in the autumn showed itself much more restrained this time. It may simply make a difference whether you test in the controlled environment of your own home or in the middle of a busy shopping center, where it's hard to distinguish what the test perfume is and what might be the lady at the neighboring table. In any case, the fragrance seems significantly more pleasant to me in the second test, less intrusive, and also less trivial. The rose continues to struggle rather unsuccessfully to the surface, but the woods are there - above all, I perceive the scent as nutty. Really nut-nougat-nutty. Like Nutella that is just a little past its expiration date: a few more days, and it will go rancid, but for now, the nut still comes through nicely, while the chocolate note has already taken a back seat. And gently hovering above everything is a cedar note that will definitely keep the moths away from my clothes during the wearing time.

The scent increasingly reminds me of my youth, though I can't quite put my finger on it, but while I'm still pondering, I already see it on the list of similarly scented perfumes: Voice, by Betty Barclay. I received this fragrance as a birthday gift from my sister, around 1996, but I could never really warm up to it. I wanted to like it because it was a gift, but it didn't quite fit me, much better suited to my best friend, so I finally gave it away with a heavy heart (which I wouldn't do today). Quelque Notes d'Amour is like that too. It's not a bad fragrance, and it's definitely more characteristic than it appeared to me during its first test. But it's not a scent for me, at least not in winter. I like fragrances that have a certain weight, where a rose also brings a proper punch.

For that, Quelque Notes d'Amour is simply too light. And the fact that I have a nut allergy doesn't help. I don't react allergically to the perfume, but my nose is trained to sniff out nut notes before I bite into cakes or cookies to avoid a reaction, and that makes everything nutty tend to have a negative connotation for me. I'm happy to give Quelque Notes d'Amour a third chance, this time in spring, when it can be a bit lighter even for me, and I hope that perhaps the little rose will make an appearance then. But until then, I'll let the bottle rest. And I eagerly await what new fragrance creations Uncle Yves will delight me with this year - or disappoint. And I will be just as ready to buy them blindly again. Brand loyalty, once trained, is not so easily shaken off.