3
J’ai Deux Amours
“I have two loves, my country and Paris. They always steal my heart. Manhattan is beautiful, but why deny it. What enchants me is Paris, Paris as a whole. “- J’ai Deux Amours.
Josephine Baker sang it, and that song came to mind when I smelled Zara Montsouris. Before entering the fragrance detail, a brief history. Parc Montsouris is a public park in southern Paris, France, on the 14th arrondissement. It is one of the four large urban public parks, along with the Bois de Boulogne, the Bois de Vincennes and the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, created by Emperor Napoleon III and his prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, at each of the cardinal points of the compass around the city, to provide green space and recreation for the rapidly growing population of Paris. Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand designed the park as an English landscape garden inspired by London parks. It contains a lake, a cascade, wide sloping lawns, and many notable varieties of trees, shrubs and flowers.
Montsouris is a gorgeous woody, floral, amber, and gourmand Eau de Parfum that forms part of the Zara Paris Stories fragrance collection, and it is the 4th chapter. I’ve heard that it falls into Baccarat Rouge 540 Eau de Parfum and Kalan territory. So, what of Parc Montsouris inspired Master Perfumer Émilie Coppermann from Symrise in creating this fantastic scent? “It is a garden where I played and ate pastries like the macaroon. Deliciously filled with praline and flooded with lavender, this perfume is a delightful memory of the capital that recalls a vintage feeling enhanced with tones of moss,” says Émilie Coppermann.
Doing a review of perfume like Montsouris is very challenging, as the experience of it varies from person to person; it’s so much harder to get to its true core. Montsouris opens with a citrus edge from grapefruit and bergamot. There is a blast of sharp greenness. I get the same vibe of the Earl Grey tea, with that kind of zesty bergamot blended with the bitterness of the yellow grapefruit. A sparkling and fresh start, airy, I would say. A mineral facet of ambroxan, slightly salty, lingers in the background, vivid yet not annoying.
It soaked the heart in lavender, though not that strong, and does not turn the fragrance into a kind of barbershop, vintage, or fougére. There is a smidge of floral jasmine, not prominent, not indolic, just mellifluous. More, there is even an idea of a musky accord, a clean white musk that brings a sort of creaminess. Though Montsouris has floral notes, it’s the mix of woods and amber that makes it complete for me.
The base is magical. There is a nice complexity in the dry-down, a full of sweetness, soft cotton candy, a burnt and caramelized sugar like the crust on top of the baked apple. Well, do not think its sweetness is anyhow sticky or gooey. I am not talking about #aquolina pink sugar, not that kind of sweetness. It is a tad gourmand, with a touch of macaron and praliné. Still, not gourmand in the sense of candy or vanilla-based, but a pastry vibe is going on in the base. Close to the skin, I get a woody tone of a freshly cut cedar wood with pencil shavings nuance to complete the opera.
It’s relaxing and wild at the same time. Montsouris and Baccarat Rouge 540 are in the same ballpark as the sugary and gourmand accords, very interchangeable though not identical. Other similar colognes are Night pour Homme V , Red Temptation Men. To my flavors, the cologne is ideal for the middle seasons, Spring and Fall, it has a moderate sillage, but longevity is above average, about 6-7 hours on my skin and clothes. There is no best time to wear Montsouris because it fits all seasons perfectly, and you can wear it at any time of the year. Just try to avoid wearing it during the hot summer days. Other than that, you’re good to wear it anytime you like.
I based the review on a 100ml bottle I have owned since July 2021.
-Elysium
Josephine Baker sang it, and that song came to mind when I smelled Zara Montsouris. Before entering the fragrance detail, a brief history. Parc Montsouris is a public park in southern Paris, France, on the 14th arrondissement. It is one of the four large urban public parks, along with the Bois de Boulogne, the Bois de Vincennes and the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, created by Emperor Napoleon III and his prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, at each of the cardinal points of the compass around the city, to provide green space and recreation for the rapidly growing population of Paris. Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand designed the park as an English landscape garden inspired by London parks. It contains a lake, a cascade, wide sloping lawns, and many notable varieties of trees, shrubs and flowers.
Montsouris is a gorgeous woody, floral, amber, and gourmand Eau de Parfum that forms part of the Zara Paris Stories fragrance collection, and it is the 4th chapter. I’ve heard that it falls into Baccarat Rouge 540 Eau de Parfum and Kalan territory. So, what of Parc Montsouris inspired Master Perfumer Émilie Coppermann from Symrise in creating this fantastic scent? “It is a garden where I played and ate pastries like the macaroon. Deliciously filled with praline and flooded with lavender, this perfume is a delightful memory of the capital that recalls a vintage feeling enhanced with tones of moss,” says Émilie Coppermann.
Doing a review of perfume like Montsouris is very challenging, as the experience of it varies from person to person; it’s so much harder to get to its true core. Montsouris opens with a citrus edge from grapefruit and bergamot. There is a blast of sharp greenness. I get the same vibe of the Earl Grey tea, with that kind of zesty bergamot blended with the bitterness of the yellow grapefruit. A sparkling and fresh start, airy, I would say. A mineral facet of ambroxan, slightly salty, lingers in the background, vivid yet not annoying.
It soaked the heart in lavender, though not that strong, and does not turn the fragrance into a kind of barbershop, vintage, or fougére. There is a smidge of floral jasmine, not prominent, not indolic, just mellifluous. More, there is even an idea of a musky accord, a clean white musk that brings a sort of creaminess. Though Montsouris has floral notes, it’s the mix of woods and amber that makes it complete for me.
The base is magical. There is a nice complexity in the dry-down, a full of sweetness, soft cotton candy, a burnt and caramelized sugar like the crust on top of the baked apple. Well, do not think its sweetness is anyhow sticky or gooey. I am not talking about #aquolina pink sugar, not that kind of sweetness. It is a tad gourmand, with a touch of macaron and praliné. Still, not gourmand in the sense of candy or vanilla-based, but a pastry vibe is going on in the base. Close to the skin, I get a woody tone of a freshly cut cedar wood with pencil shavings nuance to complete the opera.
It’s relaxing and wild at the same time. Montsouris and Baccarat Rouge 540 are in the same ballpark as the sugary and gourmand accords, very interchangeable though not identical. Other similar colognes are Night pour Homme V , Red Temptation Men. To my flavors, the cologne is ideal for the middle seasons, Spring and Fall, it has a moderate sillage, but longevity is above average, about 6-7 hours on my skin and clothes. There is no best time to wear Montsouris because it fits all seasons perfectly, and you can wear it at any time of the year. Just try to avoid wearing it during the hot summer days. Other than that, you’re good to wear it anytime you like.
I based the review on a 100ml bottle I have owned since July 2021.
-Elysium
1 Comment
Salahharake 4 years ago
1
Absolutely beautiful.