Tabla

But everything that touches us, you and me, binds us together like a bow stroke that draws a voice from two strings.
(from: Love Song, by Rainer Maria Rilke)

Basically, YSL perfumes are not really my fragrance house. Although over the course of my long collecting passion, I have encountered one or another.
Y was one that accompanied me during my wild club era in Munich, and in my professional life, I wore Paris for a long time. That was about it. Oh yes, I also found Cinéma quite good...

By chance, I discovered while scrolling through the souk: Libre Eau de Parfum Intense!
The bottle design immediately caught my attention. Curious, I researched the fragrance pyramid and reviews along with statements. ...hmm... sounds good... With lavender, an absolute favorite of mine, as well as neroli and many other usual suspects that I like.

My blind buy turns out to be an absolute hit.

The scent opens with neroli and lavender, which have been blended so harmoniously that I can only describe it with Rilke's words from the poem 'Love Song'. A very natural neroli, similar to when in spring our blooming mandarin and orange trees flood the greenhouse with their fragrance.
Lavender can sometimes come across as scratchy, but here it is soft, warm, harmonious, and instantly lifts the mood. It is the personified summer in plant form. Everything is in full bloom, the bees find plenty of food, and it is palpable that the world is still in order.
Jasmine and orchid give the perfume a feminine elegance, although for me it can also pass as a unisex fragrance. On a man, it would certainly be beautiful as well. The base comes across wonderfully as the perfume fades tonka-vanilla, amber.

After all the artificial cashmeran, CO2, super iso compounds of recent years, Libre Eau de Parfum Intense feels refreshingly natural and has won me over. For me, it is an everyday scent that will accompany me as a signature this summer. When applied generously in the evening, it can certainly make a grand entrance.

Sometimes, when a bird calls
or a wind stirs in the branches
or a dog barks in the distant homestead,
then I must listen and remain silent for a long time.

My soul flees back,
to where, a thousand forgotten years ago,
the bird and the blowing wind
were similar to me and my brothers.

My soul becomes tree
and an animal and a weaving of clouds.
Transformed and foreign, it returns
and asks me. How shall I respond?
(Hermann Hesse)

Yes, how shall I respond to this unusual scent?

Patchouli, in the form of fragrance oil from India, my constant companion in my wild youth of the seventies. It encounters me again and again, always new yet so old and familiar, and the scent transforms me into the first memories, as a girl and young woman, when I first felt and knew that I am complete, that I am free.

This scent, precisely from the house of Goutal, is very special, almost absurd, daring in what otherwise stands for highly elegant and ethereal and refined perfumes. It did not remain on the market for very long, as it probably did not meet the expectations of the established Goutal audience.

Mon Parfum Chéri par Camille is actually a true Chypre, but based on patchouli, where the earthy component is emphasized and combined with a plum note. Some describe it as a gothic-opulent scent. Which is absolutely true, although this perfume remains understated as an EdT.

The mustiness has been stripped from the patchouli here, with violet and iris reigning as highlights on top. I consider it to be classic in a special way, and I think it is incredibly sexy even on a man......

A perfume for pronounced patchouli connoisseurs and lovers, who receive an elegant rendition here. The expression as an EdT lingers on the skin all day. Even now at night, as I write this review, the perfume still envelops me.

I thank my esteemed friend Jako (Jakoparfum) very much, who provided me with this now rare treasure of a scent.

….she was able to save the boy and herself at the last moment on the wooden raft that was supposed to take them away from the Indian territory. On the river, this otherwise unsuccessful singer and barmaid proved to be incredibly fearless and brave, and she held her ground and the oar as she steered the raft through the life-threatening rapids downstream....

Matt Calder, the boy's father, thought little of her, even though she had saved his son. Kay was just a barmaid and singer... so not a respectable woman, as a man in the Midwest intended to marry. And now Kay is sitting there again, as she always has, sitting on the bar in the saloon and singing...

Marilyn Monroe, in the role of Kay, from Otto Preminger's Western, "River of no Return" (German title: Fluss ohne Wiederkehr) sings with an incredible vibrato full of restrained eroticism in her voice, the song of the river of no return…...... There is a River called the River of no Return.... sometimes it's peaceful and sometimes wild and free...

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Many years ago, I was a witness at a dear friend's wedding, and she asked me to perhaps choose some music for her civil ceremony. Among other songs, I had Marilyn's song "River of no Return" played when the couple exchanged their rings. The registrar was so enchanted that she explicitly congratulated them on the music after the ceremony and said that after all the other ironic pop trills, she had rarely heard a more fitting song for a wedding.

N°5 remains immortalized with Marilyn Monroe, of course. Not least because of her quip that she wore nothing in bed except Chanel N°5. ....oh..... how shocking in the eternally prudish America of the sixties, where a decent American woman went to bed in a long-sleeved nightgown buttoned up to her neck….. Anyone who knows anything about film also knows that this outstanding actress was often underestimated throughout her life and reduced by many to the silly sexy blonde. No matter….

In principle, everything has already been said about Chanel N°5, up and down.
So I will limit myself to saying that I appreciate the perfume because it embodies the essence of everything one imagines under a classic, floral-powdery aldehyde perfume. Chanel N°5 is for me the epitome of unadulterated feminine beauty, fearlessness, and therefore wearable in all moments of life. It is not the big perfume for the big moment, but rather one that always enchants my everyday life. It is also important to mention that my review refers to a vintage Chanel from the seventies.

Coco Chanel designed the scent for women who want to stand in real life, just as she once did. At a time when women were dependent on others and ranked as trophies of well-to-do husbands in better circles, she, as a pioneer, portrayed a modern image of women. By throwing the constricting corsets in the trash and designing comfortably wearable dresses that allowed women to engage in sports while still looking good. And no, these women do not remain alone; they also team up with a man, but rather one who is willing to master the rapids of life together.

Many young perfume wearers are often not surprised at first sniff, as it reminds them of mom, grandma, or their favorite great-aunt. This is often also the reason they classify the scent as old-fashioned... no matter, it doesn't matter. They will likely experience something similar when they themselves have matured and later their daughter or granddaughter sniffs "Sweet Like Candy" by Ariana Grande and finds it outdated...

So how does Kay's story end? Just this much… the last shot, the last image of the film is grand. Kay's sequined red pumps land in the sand on Main Street…... I have always imagined whether Kay might have regretted throwing away those fabulous shoes back then…
But maybe you’ll watch the film sometime.


My review refers to a vintage extrait from the seventies.

................Carmina Burana and L'Air du Temps are very special to me, connected with a time when I was a young woman. A time when this perfume was my daily companion in my professional life, and during which I often listened to this musical work.

I have no idea how old I was back then, maybe 26? In any case, I had a late shift in the intensive care unit in Großhadern. My colleague handed over my patients. In one bed lay an ancient man. Not intubated, why is he here? My colleague said he has breathing problems, his family wished for him to be cared for here.

I looked at the medical record to see who he was……….. ah, a VIP. My colleague truly had no idea who this was.
At some point, I had to sit him up on the edge of the bed…… difficult ….. At least I wanted to smooth his sheets for him, apply cream to his back, provide relief… all gestures of comfort that we always find so important in caring for those entrusted to us....

The old man groped for support with trembling fingers, found my shoulder, grasped my braided hair, let his hand wander over my face, eyes drifting…. he sensed....
I put a stop to it... spoke kindly to him, explained softly where he was and that we were there for him. I asked him what he needed. ……….with a fading voice, I heard him say: I need nothing more………… the old man seemed to me at that moment as if he were touching a female body one last time, before I gently laid him back on his pillow. A few days later, he had passed away.

Well, maybe you can imagine who I am talking about.
Carmina Burana is the title of a scenic cantata by Carl Orff from the years 1935/1936. The texts in Middle Latin and Middle High German are taken from the Carmina Burana, a collection of song and drama texts created in the 11th and 12th centuries. Once discovered in the Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuern in Bavaria, it was there that Carl Orff found it.
His choral cantata "Carmina burana" is undoubtedly one of the greatest works of 20th-century music.
The perfume L'Air du Temps is forever immortalized for me with him. I hadn't worn the perfume for so many years.

Today, however, a bottle from the souk reached me, and I felt the need to share my story of this scent with you.

It is a thoroughly floral fragrance, lily-dominated and therefore not quite as clean-soapy and innocent as it seems at first... and one initially thinks, but it has a little clove, also something spicy, and deep down almost something balsamic. Nevertheless, it always remains ladylike elegant.

The bottle is a beautiful splash bottle with two Lalique doves embossed, in a light yellow box with the two flirting doves in gold embossing, as if Nina Ricci had personally created it.

My heartfelt thanks to Shalimari. I am so happy that this scent has returned to me after so many decades - forever...




Addendum
In the case of the bottle, I found that it is the perfume.
This comment was mistakenly posted here by me under the EdP.

…….he had already gone to bed, almost sleepy he still hears her quietly entering his bedroom.
The small nightlight on the console is still on and he sees how her long dark hair is artfully pinned up. Her face is made up in such a way that it appears very sophisticatedly unmade up. She looks at him. As earrings, she has put on her favorite chandelier, which shimmers in competition with her lipstick.
She is dressed in her evening gown made of a light silk fabric, a satin that is embroidered all over with creamy white flowers. She approaches, her chandeliers sparkling as she steps to the foot of his bed. With her gloved hands, she lifts the end of his sheet. He sees that her evening gown is open in the front… she continuously looks calmly into his eyes…. as she slowly pulls the sheet closer to herself, then bends down slowly, her lips almost touching the fabric…
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A sea of moist, powdery scented white flowers overwhelms me right from the first spray. At first, I am shocked by this abundance, as the aldehydic accord greatly enhances this impression and also adds something dirty that I sense among all the flowers….

But wait, it can't be the aldehyde, such a thing doesn't come from aldehydes. It seems to originate from the base. ….. aaah... it’s an iris root. A strong, carrot-hued iris is anchored deep down there, one that likely holds all the base notes and the rest together. The carrot-like scent is not just simple little carrots, but much more the stems and the fresh green herb of a bunch of market carrots, still clinging to some earth.

I find this extremely refined. It grounds the fresh flowers, gives them corporeality and takes away the often mentioned madam-like and cloying touch. After about 2 hours, the perfume is much softer and I sniff how the violet has teamed up with the iris, the perfume becoming creamier and rounder, with my beloved May rose quietly shining through in the sea of flowers.

The character of the perfume behaves in its floral obsession during the further drydown. It remains flower-soft, in a powdery iris gentle manner and creamy fine softly.

A Goodnight Kiss is a strong, a fantastic modern floral cream scent. It does not disappoint me at any point and there is nothing I can criticize.

In everyday life, I recommend dosing the perfume carefully, it is an exceedingly seductive scent. Now in winter, I was outside with it, the cold air is a catalyst, the sea of flowers constantly announces love.

Now to the price. We tend to wear high-priced perfumes only on special occasions, which I think is wrong. Perfume lovers wear their treasures wherever and whenever they want.
This scent is exorbitantly expensive and one might try to generate a flaw from this circumstance. Be that as it may, my dear readers, I must say the perfume is of course ridiculously expensive and I throw in the towel.

But, smell for yourselves……