BunteHexe27

I thought I could get away with a review, but the fragrance turned out to be more complex and my statement is no longer enough for me. "Collection Privée - Oud Rose | Galimard" from the more exclusive range by Galimard from Grasse, which is dedicated to precious essences, less fashion-oriented and wants to show all its skills and create intense fragrance impressions, is one of four fragrances that have oud in their name but are very different. This one marries oud with rose without listing it, thus creating the impression of oud in the composition, which only unfolds over time. And as with "Collection Privée - Aoud Jasmin | Galimard", things get wild here. Other creations in this series show that Galimard can also be deeply mystical and calming. At first, the strong floral impression overwhelmed me, especially as this perfume also aims to create an intense effect, but the longer I got involved with it, the more it won me over. It doesn't overwhelm, but impresses with its complexity and density, just like the others, and here with its gradual appearance on the scene.

Enter a large red rose, magnificent, cool, accompanied by her friendly orange-clad saffron friend, who gives her warmth, and her bright pale yellow bergamot friend. They amuse the audience with lively dance steps and witty dialog in the bright, tidy upper part of the stage.

Then there is movement in a part of the stage one staircase down, a bedroom, not quite tidy, but just as bright and friendly as upstairs. Enter a capricious gardenia in a white, stylishly pleated dress, hand in hand with her lover, the wild, honey-sweet Mairose from Grasse, her pink dress in bohemian style, both barefoot and gyrating exuberantly in the dance until they play on the large bed in the middle of the room and begin to kiss there. But only now do you realize that the night jasmine is already lying there in a delicate, casual designer dress and is immediately involved in the lovemaking. The sandalwood bed is covered with osmanthus blossoms and the flowers unite in an intense encounter, while on the upper stage saffron and rose cream each other with essences of their skin and on the lower stage a curtain is drawn from right to left, covering the bed for the moment. Now the view of the room to the right is clear, a door is open and shows us where we are: in a spotlessly clean car repair shop, a stack of new tires on the wall. The smell of rubber wafts through the door into the room. Meanwhile, Rose darkens the room upstairs, draws velvet curtains and dances a passionate waltz with an older companion in a brown robe, the resolute but warm-hearted Oud.

I find this very daring, but the notes are in time, they harmonize and this play is a comedy, a comedy of flowers and wood.

With thanks to @Duftgroupie for the word "rubber", I didn't have a word for my perception at first.

A sacred forest. The trees are light and have green leaves, the ground is dry. Sheep are looking for tufts of grass. I walk barefoot, my feet are dusty, I've been walking all day and I'm exhausted. Then I notice the sacred fire. A fine smoke rises from a bowl of embers and chips of gray wood. I respectfully approach a small group of men and women and greet them with a gesture. They greet me in return and I sit down by the fire. A bundle of fresh herbs and flowers is handed to me and I rub my face and hands. A slightly pungent smell flashes here and there, there are many animals here. I am given a leather bag impregnated with an earthy oil and place it against my cheek. A woman stands up and takes a large splinter, lights it on the embers and smothers the spark. She approaches me with the slightly smoking chip and envelops me in the soft smoke, in front, on the sides, from behind. I close my eyes and feel the heaviness of the day fall away from me and we people here, who were strangers a moment ago, are deeply connected. I place my forehead and forearms on the ground in front of me and feel how the traces of the herbs, the oily leather, the exhalations and the sacred smoke mix together and become part of the great breath of creation. I look down at the pillars of the earth, whose rocks are surrounded by warm light, and fall softly back up onto this ground that carries me, into this small community that has made me, the stranger, so welcome.

"Collection Privée - Oud Intense | Galimard" is a great, intense, dense and soft fragrance. In the Collection Privée, which is dedicated to precious essences, there are four fragrances with oud in their names. "Collection Privée - Aoud Jasmin | Galimard" and "Collection Privée - Aoud Rose | Galimard" do not list oud, but achieve the character of oud in the composition of the essences. "Collection Privée - Oud Intense | Galimard" and "Collection Privée - Oud Vanille | Galimard" list it. The inspiration is the oriental reverence for fragrance as a manifestation of the divine.

At first a fresh hint of coriander and rose appears, soon an earthy soft patchouli note opens together with gossamer threads of something animalic, which I think is castoreum, and slightly sweet sandalwood. I can detect leather and oud in the base, but not cistus. The fragrance remains warm, soft and aromatic for a long time. I inhale it like a remedy and like a prayer, it gives me a place where I can be.

There on the wooden chest of drawers is a small wooden box, grayish medium brown, unpatterned, finely oiled. What might it contain? Memories? Slips of paper with poems? Pearls? But the fragrance it gives off makes me wait to open it. I take it in my hands and hold my nose to the oiled surface. Earthy patchouli oil, a hint of freshly ground cumin, honey balm, half a drop of violet oil. I see a young woman in front of me, finely measuring out the oils and spices and gently stirring and swirling them, then looking lovingly at the finely polished wood and dipping a cloth into the wax oil she has prepared herself, first rubbing a little onto the wood and then applying a little of the balm again and again.

What might the box contain now, because there is even more wood in the scent and something delicately tart. The lid swivels slightly on its hinge. The anticipated fragrance is revealed in a gentle cloud. A treasure chest full of fine incense. There is warm brown cedar next to reddish-brown sandalwood shavings and there are also the gray-brown shavings of the wood that envelops it. There are two kinds of unimaginably precious resins, small white and inconspicuous gray lumps. A vanilla pod gives a little dusting of fine sweetness. I put the box down on the chest of drawers and linger for a few minutes while images of an ancient forest, a sacred fire, fine smoke and deep silence fill me. Then I close it again and rest my cheek against the wood. Then I put it back and leave, carrying the silence with me.

"Collection Privée - Gaïac Précieux | Galimard" is the fourth fragrance in the series dedicated to precious essences. This fragrance is also carefully composed, beginning with warm, bright and slightly sweet cumin and honey, then developing an earthy tone with just a hint of blossom, patchouli and violet, before revealing a treasure trove of precious woods and resins, well balanced between the warm woody notes and a subtle hint of smoke. A bright, but not citrusy or floral, but rather an oily, warm, comforting fragrance that does not impose itself, but remains on the skin for a long time and soothes.

Guaiac wood, which is the focus here, is a light gray-brown tropical wood from Latin America, which is very hard and is used in industry, but also has anti-inflammatory effects and was smoked in ancient times. It is said to have a smoky note. I can't smell it from the accord with sandalwood and cedarwood, but this wood accord is very harmonious, even with the resins. An extremely successful composition.

The flacon now has the same light brown design as the others in the Collection privée and no longer the one pictured.

I've been looking forward to visiting Jessica Buchanan and her brand "1000 Flowers" all day, I already know that I want her "Pink Pepper Wood | 1000 Flowers" and spend a long time talking to her, feeling at home in her lovingly designed little boutique on Place aux Aires in Grasse. At the very end, I discover "Ode (2021) | 1000 Flowers" and am immediately taken with it. This fragrance is much more complex than the much more uniform but also very well composed Pink Pepper. I decide on "Ode (2021) | 1000 Flowers" just as quickly.

Yesterday and today, I immerse myself in this world again and again. It opens up warm and soft, but it has secrets. Clary sage plays on the strings of an acoustic guitar, after a cheerful bergamot and orange intro, marjoram and thyme play bass lines, incense and labdanum, fine oud create a delicate friction as if with fine brooms on the floor toms. I perceive the vibrations in the cedar sandalwood floor on which my cheek lies, vetiver gently rubs sticks together. Oak moss plays a calm bass line. Then myrrh raises a delicate, comforting melody and fades away. Later, it joins in again. Wistfulness, serenity, tranquillity, passion, warmth, longing, a quiet sadness, gratitude all come together here.

"Ode (2021) | 1000 Flowers" is part of the first "Collection Originale" by Jessica Buchanan. She composed it in 2012 and apparently reformulated it in 2021. I haven't spoken to her about the latter yet and I'm planning to do so. An ode is a solemn poem. She was inspired by a love story in which different cultures meet and merge, according to her website. I see the green winter forests of Canada and oriental fragrances whose essences meet in a small mountain town in the south of France. There is passion and tender rapprochement, strangeness and merging and a lot of relationship work. Now there is harmony and passion, the result of many years of coming together. While immortelle, myrrh and frankincense seemed to take center stage in the 2013 creation, this small orchestra of green, resinous and woody timbres is the result of eight years of relationship. The tart notes of clary sage and resins become stronger over time, with the myrrh echoing again and again. It is a fragrance that I can immerse myself in, that allows me to yearn with its healthy vitality, that gives me the courage to open the door to love.
"I will build my love a tower, by the foot of yonder fountain and on it I'll put all the flowers of the mountain, will ye go, lassie, go" goes the Irish folk song "Wild mountain thyme". In Jessica Buchanan's ode, summer love has matured into a fulfilling, living bond that speaks to each other and whose secrets radiate something uplifting.

Incidentally, the flacon shown is the miniature. The large flacon is designed like their others.

A tender tickle on the nose, a resinous, delicately floral caress, a floral accord with a warm glow of saffron, woods and incense. A friendly and clarifying fragrance with nourishing warmth. I encounter it after a day of diverse fragrance impressions in Grasse, it clears my nose and my mind. In the morning, another pepper scent had kept me occupied for longer, but this one is immediately my scent and brings my day to a happy end. Why is that?

The fragrance is very consistent and hardly changes, the delicate flower, which I can't identify, soon evaporates and gives more space to sandalwood, cedar and cypress, saffron and incense round off the pepper, which remains present, but as before, gentle and tender. A friendly pick-me-up, a greeting from Mediterranean nature. I only have a single image: it is early summer, on a rocky coast, I am looking out to sea amidst sprouting and drying grasses with a light breeze and warming sunshine.

Jessica Buchanan came to Grasse from Canada with her brand "1000 Flowers" and developed it further here in the direction of natural, regional and sustainable ingredients. On her website, she provides precise information about the origin of her ingredients and when she uses chemicals. She produces her fragrances herself. "Pink Pepper Wood | 1000 Flowers" is part of her second "Blue Collection" (2015-2019), which she dedicates to Mediterranean plants that she sources from local producers, thereby also strengthening the Grasse location. The natural ingredients also mean that the fragrances are less long-lasting.

"Pink Pepper Wood | 1000 Flowers" is finely and skillfully composed and is good for body, soul and spirit. It is not just a green summer fragrance, as I like them, but pink pepper on wood, which gently clears the mind.