Louce
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The green fairy´s low dance
„Green notes“ listet above as top note of Paname are usually guarantor for my disfavour.
Grassy, fresh and healthy natural scents do not touch me. But there is this dark, velvety green, that I first met in „Narcisse Noir“ by Caron, that amazes and charms me.
This „low“ green is the green that embraces me in Paname.
The note „absinth“ is surprisingly recognizable. Truly absinth-like, it is deep, sweet herbal, spirituous and dark-green. It is reminiscent of the hard liquor absinth and it brings with it some association of intoxication and soul-floating. Fresh, but in a restrained, paradoxical way anti-fresh in the same time.
„Low“ as well.
The vermouth note is tributary to the absinth, but nevertheless recognizable. It gives a dry, slightly bitter accent and underlines the acerbic spirituousness.
Paname is not loud. It intrigues with an unusual orchestration of „green“ and demands attention for a fine composition of deep and low effects.
In the late middlenote and distinctly with the drydown, Paname turns sweet, tonka-creamy, calm and very harmonically melodious. The sweet herbal aspects become sweet spicy aspects and a woody tone gives stableness, while the dark and low green melts into cream.
In the end, the interesting, demanding and challenging perfume turns "nice".
Grassy, fresh and healthy natural scents do not touch me. But there is this dark, velvety green, that I first met in „Narcisse Noir“ by Caron, that amazes and charms me.
This „low“ green is the green that embraces me in Paname.
The note „absinth“ is surprisingly recognizable. Truly absinth-like, it is deep, sweet herbal, spirituous and dark-green. It is reminiscent of the hard liquor absinth and it brings with it some association of intoxication and soul-floating. Fresh, but in a restrained, paradoxical way anti-fresh in the same time.
„Low“ as well.
The vermouth note is tributary to the absinth, but nevertheless recognizable. It gives a dry, slightly bitter accent and underlines the acerbic spirituousness.
Paname is not loud. It intrigues with an unusual orchestration of „green“ and demands attention for a fine composition of deep and low effects.
In the late middlenote and distinctly with the drydown, Paname turns sweet, tonka-creamy, calm and very harmonically melodious. The sweet herbal aspects become sweet spicy aspects and a woody tone gives stableness, while the dark and low green melts into cream.
In the end, the interesting, demanding and challenging perfume turns "nice".
1 Comment
Artificial
Artificial ...
... is, for a start, the opposite of natural.
What is connected with this term - especially if it´s about perfume - is negative:
plastic, cheap, chemically.
But also, „artificial“ can be understood with a different connotation:
contemporary, urbane, cultivated.
„artificial“ can be artful.
And that exactly is, what Mulholland is.
A completely synthetical appearing fragrance.
It seems virtually paradox, that this works with citric notes promising naturalness and freshness. You might expect the hesperide scents bringing an idea of a refreshing breeze in a mediterran spring garden or on a summer beach, but Mulholland is a hyper-abstract major city fragrance. With a stylish and modern urban beat, it sends our fragrance habits, with e-drum soundtrack accompaniment, onto a cyber-acid-trip.
The Mulholland Drive (named after the engineer who made Los Angeles´ water supply possible) along the coast, in the 70s was a hippy route to LA which was a center of modern (synthetic) drugs.
David Lynch´s movie "Mulholland Drive" is some kind of an acid-trip too: The fantasy in the fantasy that slips away. Somewhere between dream and nightmare, the subject who fantasized originally is now object, not subject of the fantasy. Or something like that ... Lynch's movies are great, but you shouldn´t try to really understand them.
Whatever inspired the name of Keiko Mecheri´s Mulholland: The result is not a natural-like coastline air, but a thoroughly artificial and stylish perfume of tomorrow.
In the same time it is not cold or impersonal. A copious dose of musk brings tidy order and cleaness, but not for the price of clinical coldness.
Mulholland begins very citric-fresh, prancing and easy. Soon it comes to a more compact and solid middle note and then stays long in a mix of classic base-notes. This mix is very appealing: The base is almost „the essence of the base“, basics of the basics: Ambra, musk, patchouli and sandalwood blend to a smooth level and balance there the still characteristic hesperide scents.
The overall effect, as I said, is super-artificial and modern.
Mulholland is challenging, yet in the same time unobtrusive and delicate.
... is, for a start, the opposite of natural.
What is connected with this term - especially if it´s about perfume - is negative:
plastic, cheap, chemically.
But also, „artificial“ can be understood with a different connotation:
contemporary, urbane, cultivated.
„artificial“ can be artful.
And that exactly is, what Mulholland is.
A completely synthetical appearing fragrance.
It seems virtually paradox, that this works with citric notes promising naturalness and freshness. You might expect the hesperide scents bringing an idea of a refreshing breeze in a mediterran spring garden or on a summer beach, but Mulholland is a hyper-abstract major city fragrance. With a stylish and modern urban beat, it sends our fragrance habits, with e-drum soundtrack accompaniment, onto a cyber-acid-trip.
The Mulholland Drive (named after the engineer who made Los Angeles´ water supply possible) along the coast, in the 70s was a hippy route to LA which was a center of modern (synthetic) drugs.
David Lynch´s movie "Mulholland Drive" is some kind of an acid-trip too: The fantasy in the fantasy that slips away. Somewhere between dream and nightmare, the subject who fantasized originally is now object, not subject of the fantasy. Or something like that ... Lynch's movies are great, but you shouldn´t try to really understand them.
Whatever inspired the name of Keiko Mecheri´s Mulholland: The result is not a natural-like coastline air, but a thoroughly artificial and stylish perfume of tomorrow.
In the same time it is not cold or impersonal. A copious dose of musk brings tidy order and cleaness, but not for the price of clinical coldness.
Mulholland begins very citric-fresh, prancing and easy. Soon it comes to a more compact and solid middle note and then stays long in a mix of classic base-notes. This mix is very appealing: The base is almost „the essence of the base“, basics of the basics: Ambra, musk, patchouli and sandalwood blend to a smooth level and balance there the still characteristic hesperide scents.
The overall effect, as I said, is super-artificial and modern.
Mulholland is challenging, yet in the same time unobtrusive and delicate.
Tidy veldt
Musc Nomade is another interpretation of „Withe Musk“ which is a collective term for the kinds of musk, that take soft, creamy and clean (but not necessaryly and rather undesirably soapy) effect on the bright side of musk.
For starters it opens however with a quite sharp and brusque musk of the animalistic kind, consanguineous to my favorite musk „Kiehl´s Original Musk Blend“. As irritating as this clear, but very clearly anti-creamy musk is in the beginning, it lasts for only short time and soon takes big steps on the way to the creamy and soft musk-territory.
The name „Musc Nomade“ is well chosen: Ideas of a wide and open country with dry shrubs, sand and stone under a burning sun and in the same time cold wind are answered by a certain naturalness, a kind of brittleness and a somehow straw-like note. Not hay (too grassy), but actually straw; I cannot name the note or accord responsible.
Even the nature of human nomadism is sort of sniffable in MN: Unsettled and moving, but not in the slightest way jittery or fussed is this musk-note. It does not rest too long, but develops and changes constantly, without harsh character alternation or uneasy bustle.
There is lots of creamyness, the typical musk-clearness, a pale and dusty soft-rosa and a super-tiny whiff of something fruity. With the base even more creamyness and a spot of sweetness of tonka bean and a dry and warm woodyness lay under the calming and finally down-settling musk.
The sillage is not very strong, in the same time the longevity is good. You should spray LOTS of it, but then you will rejoice in a high-grade musk fragrance.
Decidedly unisex, suitable through the whole year and all sorts of weather, this fluffy soft musk opens a clear and tidy, far wide, cloudless sky where a bracing wind is coming up.
For starters it opens however with a quite sharp and brusque musk of the animalistic kind, consanguineous to my favorite musk „Kiehl´s Original Musk Blend“. As irritating as this clear, but very clearly anti-creamy musk is in the beginning, it lasts for only short time and soon takes big steps on the way to the creamy and soft musk-territory.
The name „Musc Nomade“ is well chosen: Ideas of a wide and open country with dry shrubs, sand and stone under a burning sun and in the same time cold wind are answered by a certain naturalness, a kind of brittleness and a somehow straw-like note. Not hay (too grassy), but actually straw; I cannot name the note or accord responsible.
Even the nature of human nomadism is sort of sniffable in MN: Unsettled and moving, but not in the slightest way jittery or fussed is this musk-note. It does not rest too long, but develops and changes constantly, without harsh character alternation or uneasy bustle.
There is lots of creamyness, the typical musk-clearness, a pale and dusty soft-rosa and a super-tiny whiff of something fruity. With the base even more creamyness and a spot of sweetness of tonka bean and a dry and warm woodyness lay under the calming and finally down-settling musk.
The sillage is not very strong, in the same time the longevity is good. You should spray LOTS of it, but then you will rejoice in a high-grade musk fragrance.
Decidedly unisex, suitable through the whole year and all sorts of weather, this fluffy soft musk opens a clear and tidy, far wide, cloudless sky where a bracing wind is coming up.
3 Comments
Louce 12 years ago
The last empress
A fragrance experience with exciting development, really moving emotional impulses, interesting brain-kicks and a simply sensational ginger-violet: 1826 - Eugénie de Montijo.
But why this name was chosen stays unclear to me: Maria Eugenia Ignacia was born in 1826 as a Spanish noblewoman. In 1853, she (now named Eugénie de Montijo) became the wife of Napoleon III and so the last French empress. In her husband´s representation she took a hand in French politics and was very conservative and clerical: True neo-absolutism. She was not very popular ("the Spaniard"), but was seen as a beautiful, elegant woman, who promoted the young fashion guild (she was the first prominent client of „Worth“). Later, when France had finally checked off the empire, the ex-empress lived in British exile.
Why this name? Because the fragrance notes are conservative? Because they are elegant and fashionable, despite old-noble origin? Because this fragrance is an anachronistic relic? Because there is something origanlly Spanish in it? Because it´s christian or imperial? Perhaps because it is contemporarily fashionable and the same time somehow old-fashioned.
Whatever: It's great!
The start is quite mandarin-like, only moderately fresh, not lemony, not clean and very soon dealt with, because the middle note starts. I smell a clear anise-note from the very beginning, until the beautiful ginger-violet is in full bloom and then blending with it.
Perhaps here is this modern/old-fashioned-analogy: The often harmless and frumpy violet, gets a tremendous temperament-kick by the ginger-note. It´s classical and the same time modern.
A melodious floweriness accompanies the ginger-violet in the beautiful middle note, without accentuating a distinct single flower. First, the cinnamon is very subtle in the background (but clearly recognizable, if you know it's there). It becomes prominent, when the warm, skin-tight and ambery base note unfolds. I smell patchouli, but luckily just a little whiff of it. The incense is courtly restrained, too. Amber and vanilla take the leading parts in a harmonic and soft drydown.
1826-EdM has no sex appeal worthy of mention. Nevertheless, it is attractive, without an explicit erotic nature, yet playful, yet charming, yet alluring.
Truely unisex, this fragrance is not, I think. Feminine with a certain little amount of unisex-potential for the right male user, I would say.
1826-EdM has my very, very big recommendation for testing!
But why this name was chosen stays unclear to me: Maria Eugenia Ignacia was born in 1826 as a Spanish noblewoman. In 1853, she (now named Eugénie de Montijo) became the wife of Napoleon III and so the last French empress. In her husband´s representation she took a hand in French politics and was very conservative and clerical: True neo-absolutism. She was not very popular ("the Spaniard"), but was seen as a beautiful, elegant woman, who promoted the young fashion guild (she was the first prominent client of „Worth“). Later, when France had finally checked off the empire, the ex-empress lived in British exile.
Why this name? Because the fragrance notes are conservative? Because they are elegant and fashionable, despite old-noble origin? Because this fragrance is an anachronistic relic? Because there is something origanlly Spanish in it? Because it´s christian or imperial? Perhaps because it is contemporarily fashionable and the same time somehow old-fashioned.
Whatever: It's great!
The start is quite mandarin-like, only moderately fresh, not lemony, not clean and very soon dealt with, because the middle note starts. I smell a clear anise-note from the very beginning, until the beautiful ginger-violet is in full bloom and then blending with it.
Perhaps here is this modern/old-fashioned-analogy: The often harmless and frumpy violet, gets a tremendous temperament-kick by the ginger-note. It´s classical and the same time modern.
A melodious floweriness accompanies the ginger-violet in the beautiful middle note, without accentuating a distinct single flower. First, the cinnamon is very subtle in the background (but clearly recognizable, if you know it's there). It becomes prominent, when the warm, skin-tight and ambery base note unfolds. I smell patchouli, but luckily just a little whiff of it. The incense is courtly restrained, too. Amber and vanilla take the leading parts in a harmonic and soft drydown.
1826-EdM has no sex appeal worthy of mention. Nevertheless, it is attractive, without an explicit erotic nature, yet playful, yet charming, yet alluring.
Truely unisex, this fragrance is not, I think. Feminine with a certain little amount of unisex-potential for the right male user, I would say.
1826-EdM has my very, very big recommendation for testing!
Nut cracked
For long, very long time, I was nuts about nut fragrance and looking for the perfect nut perfume.
"Nut" as perfume is actually not an easy matter, as I naively thought first. Hazelnut, apparelled with a little creaminess and sweetness, in the end simply smells like nougat. Nougat is very tasty, but not „nut“. And nougat fragrance on the skin is only bearable with greatest gourmand-tolerance (for instance: "Coeur de Noisette" by Sinfonia di Note). The hazelnut note, to avoid a gourmand-overkill combined instead with bitter and woody accents, gives a wonderful scent, but not truely nutty and only for men ... not a little unisex, no matter what the marketing declares (for instance: "Forêt de Becharre" of Nez à Nez or "Aomassaï No.10" by Parfumerie Generale). Nutty, but not hazelnutty, not nut-nutty, only quasi-nutty, are pistachio scents, I found. The sunny, fresh pistachio of "Lentisques" by 06130 excites me regularly. As well pistachio ice-cream ("The Iceberg Fragrance" by Iceberg) and the supposedly (but not really) extremely sensual porn-pistachio of "Nuda" by Il Profvmo could win my favour, but the nutty supernut was not found. I could not crack this nut, so I gave up the search.
Until there was the meeting of Parfumo-members in Hamburg in November 2011. The skillful and odoriferous group visited as well the wonderful master-niche-shop „Lubner“ and there finally I found the true nut fragrance: Praliné de Santal.
The name (praliné) promised the already-known nougat, but no… ! There was it! The pure, true, clear hazelnut!
This fragrance is nut! Nut, nut, nut! Such a supernutty nut, real nuts can´t be so nutty. The substance of nut itself - the hypernut!
In the top note this hypernut is accompanied by a shortly lasting bergamot and a hint of light and bright flowers. After just a few minutes, the central, dominant, abundant hypernut becomes darker and darker and a little bitter. It is roasted! This effect is achieved by dusty and dry wood. The name-giving sandal is easily recognized and the cedar is flanking. The fragrance gets darker and drier in the course: Ultimately dark and ultimately dry. Still, this ultimate nut is very shiny. The hazelnut is not simply a component that gives its part, but the pivotal point of PdS. Without any compromise.
There is a certain degree of salinity when the middle note developes and a slight smokiness. But I cannot smell the pretzel-association reported by other Parfumo-members.
With the drydown PdS becomes less loud and outgoing, but stays still very distinct hazelnutty. It calms on a smooth and warm cushion of sandal and (not mentioned above) amber.
PdS is (even if you have not carried an unfulfilled nut-lust for long time) a beautiful winter fragrance. Very dark, very dry and woody, soft and warm. A scent like black-brown cashmere-wool. PdS is very sensual and has depth. The development is surprisingly not monochrome, unfolds in several chapters the in fact multi-dimensional appeal of nut.
My 100% testing is not only a result of my own nut-desire, to which I can now abandon myself licentiously. I recommend very much testing this artfully composed, exciting and beautiful hypernutty fragrance!
"Nut" as perfume is actually not an easy matter, as I naively thought first. Hazelnut, apparelled with a little creaminess and sweetness, in the end simply smells like nougat. Nougat is very tasty, but not „nut“. And nougat fragrance on the skin is only bearable with greatest gourmand-tolerance (for instance: "Coeur de Noisette" by Sinfonia di Note). The hazelnut note, to avoid a gourmand-overkill combined instead with bitter and woody accents, gives a wonderful scent, but not truely nutty and only for men ... not a little unisex, no matter what the marketing declares (for instance: "Forêt de Becharre" of Nez à Nez or "Aomassaï No.10" by Parfumerie Generale). Nutty, but not hazelnutty, not nut-nutty, only quasi-nutty, are pistachio scents, I found. The sunny, fresh pistachio of "Lentisques" by 06130 excites me regularly. As well pistachio ice-cream ("The Iceberg Fragrance" by Iceberg) and the supposedly (but not really) extremely sensual porn-pistachio of "Nuda" by Il Profvmo could win my favour, but the nutty supernut was not found. I could not crack this nut, so I gave up the search.
Until there was the meeting of Parfumo-members in Hamburg in November 2011. The skillful and odoriferous group visited as well the wonderful master-niche-shop „Lubner“ and there finally I found the true nut fragrance: Praliné de Santal.
The name (praliné) promised the already-known nougat, but no… ! There was it! The pure, true, clear hazelnut!
This fragrance is nut! Nut, nut, nut! Such a supernutty nut, real nuts can´t be so nutty. The substance of nut itself - the hypernut!
In the top note this hypernut is accompanied by a shortly lasting bergamot and a hint of light and bright flowers. After just a few minutes, the central, dominant, abundant hypernut becomes darker and darker and a little bitter. It is roasted! This effect is achieved by dusty and dry wood. The name-giving sandal is easily recognized and the cedar is flanking. The fragrance gets darker and drier in the course: Ultimately dark and ultimately dry. Still, this ultimate nut is very shiny. The hazelnut is not simply a component that gives its part, but the pivotal point of PdS. Without any compromise.
There is a certain degree of salinity when the middle note developes and a slight smokiness. But I cannot smell the pretzel-association reported by other Parfumo-members.
With the drydown PdS becomes less loud and outgoing, but stays still very distinct hazelnutty. It calms on a smooth and warm cushion of sandal and (not mentioned above) amber.
PdS is (even if you have not carried an unfulfilled nut-lust for long time) a beautiful winter fragrance. Very dark, very dry and woody, soft and warm. A scent like black-brown cashmere-wool. PdS is very sensual and has depth. The development is surprisingly not monochrome, unfolds in several chapters the in fact multi-dimensional appeal of nut.
My 100% testing is not only a result of my own nut-desire, to which I can now abandon myself licentiously. I recommend very much testing this artfully composed, exciting and beautiful hypernutty fragrance!
