22
Top Review
Beautiful inspiration, unfortunately poorly executed.
No, I really didn't think that Isabelle Doyen would create such an unrefined fragrance, as her scents have always had some sort of coherence, with a clear concept and a distinctive, unmistakable signature. Unfortunately, this time there is hardly a trace of any of that.
Well, an idea is recognizable, it reveals itself in the name of the fragrance: "Nuit Étoilée," a reference to Van Gogh's masterpiece of the same name.
But is it really night? And where are the stars?
They are on the beautiful blue bottle, but only there. Otherwise, there is no starry brilliance; the fragrance is strangely dull and rough, and it’s not really night - more like twilight, if you will, evening twilight.
In fact, 'Nuit Étoilée' has little to do with night and stars, but rather with the forest: a lot of pine, a lot of fir, and their balsamic resins, a bit of bitter-herbaceous angelica, and a bouquet of dry, aromatic straw flowers. These are the main components of the fragrance; they characterize it, form the heart, and dominate the scent progression.
To prevent it from being too damp-woody (and unfortunately, due to the sweetness of tonka and immortelle, also syrupy sticky), this woody mélange is introduced by a beautiful, fresh, citrusy-minty accord that, however, has no staying power at all. If it had more strength and endurance, and could accompany the woody-balsamic heart down to the brittle dry flowers, the fragrance would have something, would be charged with tension and contrast. But as it is, the promising opening dissipates far too early and leaves the already described crude middle part in charge.
Now everything goes monotonously and dull, no radiance, no volume, nothing flattering, hardly any development.
Towards the end - the fragrance lasts a long time! - the sweetness finally becomes more pressing and, in my opinion, unpleasant. It becomes heavy and sticky, not candy-like, more resinously sticky, and it reminds me of an overly sweet Retsina.
Strangely, this dark, syrupy sweetness has appeared before in Annick Goutal's wonderful 'Sables.' However, it works wonderfully there, in an oriental context with vanilla and sandalwood, while in the case of 'Nuit Étoilée,' it unfortunately finds no adequate counterpart and becomes increasingly bothersome.
Thus, the fragrance ends, after starting off not so badly, as an almost banal return of ancient, masculine pine scents - only that these often had more refinement.
Not a thoroughly bad fragrance, but measured against the house's own standards, also not really good. Moreover, it comes in a bottle that is - at least color-wise - inappropriate, as I find it very difficult to associate the color blue with it. For that reason alone, the connection to Van Gogh's painting is also impossible for me (the good old 'L'Heure Bleue' by Guerlain comes to mind instead).
An unbalanced fragrance that feels as if it has been rushed, somehow unfinished.
What a pity.
Well, an idea is recognizable, it reveals itself in the name of the fragrance: "Nuit Étoilée," a reference to Van Gogh's masterpiece of the same name.
But is it really night? And where are the stars?
They are on the beautiful blue bottle, but only there. Otherwise, there is no starry brilliance; the fragrance is strangely dull and rough, and it’s not really night - more like twilight, if you will, evening twilight.
In fact, 'Nuit Étoilée' has little to do with night and stars, but rather with the forest: a lot of pine, a lot of fir, and their balsamic resins, a bit of bitter-herbaceous angelica, and a bouquet of dry, aromatic straw flowers. These are the main components of the fragrance; they characterize it, form the heart, and dominate the scent progression.
To prevent it from being too damp-woody (and unfortunately, due to the sweetness of tonka and immortelle, also syrupy sticky), this woody mélange is introduced by a beautiful, fresh, citrusy-minty accord that, however, has no staying power at all. If it had more strength and endurance, and could accompany the woody-balsamic heart down to the brittle dry flowers, the fragrance would have something, would be charged with tension and contrast. But as it is, the promising opening dissipates far too early and leaves the already described crude middle part in charge.
Now everything goes monotonously and dull, no radiance, no volume, nothing flattering, hardly any development.
Towards the end - the fragrance lasts a long time! - the sweetness finally becomes more pressing and, in my opinion, unpleasant. It becomes heavy and sticky, not candy-like, more resinously sticky, and it reminds me of an overly sweet Retsina.
Strangely, this dark, syrupy sweetness has appeared before in Annick Goutal's wonderful 'Sables.' However, it works wonderfully there, in an oriental context with vanilla and sandalwood, while in the case of 'Nuit Étoilée,' it unfortunately finds no adequate counterpart and becomes increasingly bothersome.
Thus, the fragrance ends, after starting off not so badly, as an almost banal return of ancient, masculine pine scents - only that these often had more refinement.
Not a thoroughly bad fragrance, but measured against the house's own standards, also not really good. Moreover, it comes in a bottle that is - at least color-wise - inappropriate, as I find it very difficult to associate the color blue with it. For that reason alone, the connection to Van Gogh's painting is also impossible for me (the good old 'L'Heure Bleue' by Guerlain comes to mind instead).
An unbalanced fragrance that feels as if it has been rushed, somehow unfinished.
What a pity.
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7 Comments
Great comment - I’ll say that as someone who often leaves Goutal behind ;-)