Dolby

This perfume seems to attract controversy, and I can understand why.

For quite a while, it smells like one of those vintage scents that has seen better days. The type of thing that makes you go "meh" because it has lost its top notes; the kind of bottle that has long been forgotten in some bedroom drawer, abandoned in favour of zingier, happier, and less dowdy little numbers.

I would go as far as saying that it smells harsh and not all that pleasant to start with, but wait … be patient … and you shall be rewarded, because when it hits dry down stage, the ugly caterpillar metamorphoses into a beautiful butterfly.

Carmen then becomes a delightfully sophisticated soapy floral with a gentle powderiness. This sort of fragrance is extremely versatile. It would fit equally well worn with work clothes, as it would with evening wear.

It remains however a rather serious scent and would probably be better suited to more mature ladies (and adventurous gents)

I’m not a fan of Angel but saw a good deal on this one and purchased a small bottle out of curiosity. Well let me tell you that I sprayed, I sniffed, and am now left rather dumbfounded.

What I got for the first ten minutes or so was a singular and very distinctly sourish exotic note.
My first thought was Pineapple, but nope, further sniffing and the penny dropped: what I was getting was a near perfect rendition of Passion Fruit.
Yep, I know, it’s not listed, but this is what my nose picked … VERY clearly.

It has now quietened down considerably and turned into a soft creamy and rather casual scent.
There is still a faint fruity-citrus note, but overall, it feels like a tame and shy skin scent. The kind of scent a generic body lotion would give soon after application.
In other words, you would be hard-pushed to offend anyone wearing this.
Disappointed that I am picking up zero Praline. Ah well.

I guess it’s ok for one of those days when I don’t want to wear a Perfume with a capital P, perfectly pleasant, but a bit dull and not much to write home about really.

Contrary to many woody scents which tend to have an acrid and rough edge, this one is a true pleasure to wear.
It is luxurious, warm, and interesting.
The notes dance together in perfect harmony and produce a golden cloud of sweetness and smokiness that gives it a rather unique character.

As time goes by, the former tempers down to give place to an elegant and rather unisex smoky and ambery wood fragrance.

Minuit Enchante is full of great essential oils, and it is instantly obvious that top quality ingredients were used in its formulation.
It comes as a pure perfume only (not EDP), in a beautiful bottle and presentation box

Cloves should be listed in the top AND heart notes of this Comme des Garcons creation.
How this is not the case is quite beyond me, because it's pretty much all you can smell for a good part of this perfume’s life.

It opens loud, spicy, raw, and almost acrid.
Scary in fact.
An assault on the nostrils making you think that perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea after all.

And then slowly slowly, a smooth transition starts to take place.
The cloves’ intensity decreases, pushing the honey into the foreground.
This is how it continues until the changeover is complete and you are left with a sweet and lush golden honey scent.

Quite a brilliant tour de force!

I am starting to wonder if the pyramid of notes released by some perfume houses is not a figment of their fertile imagination, and completely unrelated to what’s in the bottle.
“What’s in the bottle” is of course a figure of speech, because we already know that apart from very high-end concoctions, notes are all but an interpretation of the molecules used in the formula.

Still.

Could it be a clever little masquerade using the power of suggestion?

A means of driving our imagination wild with a mouth-watering recipe that appears to be rich and complex, when in fact, it hides a pretty basic and simple mix?
I guess we’ll never know.

To me, Le Bain smells of bitter almonds and vanilla … and that’s pretty much it.
Lucky thing that I love bitter almonds and vanilla then, hey?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely fragrance to chill out in, and it does smell yummy.
It’s also pretty linear, and holds well.
Should have been called Vanilla-Almond.

Still, the question remains: where is that damn almond note