Illuminum Arabian Amber

It was a surprisingly chilly day and I was in the mood for something warming, so I decided to test out Arabian Amber today in the hopes that it would give me that warm feeling that ambers tend to do.

Arabian Musk

Arabian Musk

In Bottle: Clean and very heavy on the bergamot. I get woodsy from this too as well as ylang-ylang.

Applied: The strange thing about Arabian Amber when I tried it on me was that it wasn’t very warm. Ambers or scents that bill themselves as ambers tend to warm up. I get the bergamot in the beginning that does a nice job introducing the woods that roll in during the midstage. The cedar in this is sparingly used and tempered so that it doesn’t overtake the entire fragrance. It’s definitely present and definitely threatening to take over, but it doesn’t because of the lovely touch of spice and light-handed smoke that funnels up through the scent. Arabian Amber has a bit more of its namesake as the fragrance ages and has a much more prominent ylang-ylang presence than I thought it would have. The ylang-ylang reminds me of Illuminum’s Cashmere Musk as it dries down to a smoother woodsy and ylang-ylang fragrance that joins up with the clean patchouli for a pleasant finish.

Extra: Launched in 2011, Illuminum is a British fragrance house created and led by Michael Boadi. The house focuses on contemporary, sleek and modern design.

Design: Still not that big of a fan of the bottles.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy

Notes: Bergamot, nutmeg, black pepper, cedar, ylang-ylang, oppoponax, frankincense, patchouli.

I expected a lot more warmth from Arabian Amber and while it does have a bit of warmth to it, I noticed the ylang-ylang in the fragrance more than I noticed the spices or the amber notes. I’m not sure this one is for me but it certainly smells nice enough. Arabian Musk is available in 50ml or 100ml and you can buy a bottle at Luckyscent or Illuminum’s website.

Reviewed in This Post: Arabian Amber, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance sampler spray reviewed in this post was provided to me for free for the purposes of review. In no other way am I receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experiences and opinions of the product.



Illuminum Tahitian Yuzu

Tahitian Yuzu promised me something clean and fresh with a bit of the tropics. I certainly wasn’t let down.

Tahitian Yuzu

Tahitian Yuzu

In Bottle: Clear, clean and crisp. The yuzu is present, as are the florals and the sweet pineapple at the start.

Applied: Tahitian Yuzu is a pretty simple composition. It comes in with a sweet, tropical feel. The pineapple lends a lot to the tropics in this scent and makes me wish it was still summer and I had spent more time at the beach. The blackcurrant helps carry the pineapple into the floral midstage where Tahitian Yuzu takes on a slight hit of citrus and delves into the jasmine. It is primarily jasmine to my nose, with very small dashes of violets that mingle rather safely with the white musk at the bottom of the fragrance. Tahitian Yuzu doesn’t develop too much further from its midstage, its base is marked with a soft floral layered over clean musk. Smells simple, very wearable, if you were looking to smell fresh out of a shower and wanted something less soapy and more fruity than Cashmere Musk then Tahitian Yuzu would be a great candidate.

Extra: I frequently wondered when I was first really getting into perfumes just what on earth a yuzu was and why it was any different than a grapefruit. It took years to finally differentiate the two in my mind. To me, the yuzu is a bit stronger, a little more tart, and with a hint of smoothness that reminds me of a ripe orange. It’s difficult to describe how yuzu smells more complex to me than grapefruit because it took me years just to get to the point where I can even tell the difference–and even now, I’m pretty sloppy about it.

Design: All of Illuminum’s branding looks similar. Bottled in frosted glass, rectangular or square in appearance. Looks good lined up in a row, but not really my cup of tea in terms of design.

Fragrance Family: Clean Floral

Notes: Pineapple, blackcurrant, yuzu, jasmine, violet, white musk.

I like Tahitian Yuzu. I like that it’s clean and crisp and easy to wear and that little bite of the tropics at the start was a nice hook. But then, I didn’t think I would have much trouble with Illuminum’s offerings. Many of their scents were simple, clean and echoed a lot of Boadi’s work on the Boadicea the Victorious line. If you want to snag a bottle of Tahitian Yuzu, it is available in 50ml or 100ml and you can get one at Luckyscent or Illuminum’s website.

Reviewed in This Post: Tahitian Yuzu, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance sampler spray reviewed in this post was provided to me for free for the purposes of review. In no other way am I receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experiences and opinions of the product.


Chypre de Coty Vintage

Welcome back to the world of old school Coty, before they made celebuscents, they were making Chypre. I had finally shelled to buy the reissued version of Coty’s Chypre from my friend, but like a true fragrance addict, I couldn’t stop there. The older the Chypre, the better it was and while I loved the reissue I had, I wanted something older and more vintage. After a bit of searching, I got into contact with Deb at luvparfum. And she hooked me up with an earlier version in a beautiful flacon. I was ecstatic.

Chypre de Coty

Chypre de Coty

In Bottle: The fragrance inside the bottle is doing well. Most vintage fragrances, built right and proper, tend to do well anyway and it’s got a nice smoothness to it with a hint of familiar Chypre.

Applied: Now, I have a sample of Coty’s Chypre from Surrender to Chance and this doesn’t smell quite like it. It’s lighter, softer, more yielding but definitely reminiscent of Chypre. I get a bitterness upon application, a nice gentle spice, and a strong green floral showing. The fragrance seems to gather depth as it progresses, taking on an earthy quality with a slightly stronger floral note and a hint of powder. In the end, Chypre rolls out and leaves me feeling a little sad because I know there isn’t enough of it left in this world to enjoy it all. Its dry down is marked with a deep earthy orris and patchouli. There’s nothing quite like this anymore. Nothing that even comes close to the complexity of perfumes like these and it’s very sad. If Coty needs to do anything, it’s bring back their vintage fragrances. Similar to the last Chypre I tested and reviewed, this one also smells like history.

Extra: My quest for Coty Chypre started the day I first smelled the reissue. Then I had to get an older version. Then I had to buy the reissue because I had been sleeping on the decision for years. Now I’ve sprung for the vintage. The only problem is, I have no idea what concentration I have or what year I have. If anyone can help me identify the concentration and/or year of the bottle in the photo, I will be forever grateful.

Design: I love how Coty’s Chypres were bottled, but there are a lot of iterations and I’m not very good at determining what’s what. This particular bottle is cylindrical with a round stopper. Feels good to hold, and scares me constantly because I don’t want to break it.

Fragrance Family: Classic Chypre

Notes: Bergamot, jasmine, rose, patchouli, labdanum, oakmoss.

Normally I would guess at the year of the fragrance I have, or give a range for when I believe the fragrance was made, but in this case, I really have no idea and I really, desperately want to get as close and accurate as I can with this particular bottle. So any help would be greatly appreciated! Here’s a photo of the stopper.

Reviewed in This Post: Chypre de Coty, ~1920, EDP.


Playboy VIP For Her

Seems like I’ve been on something of a niche and vintage bender lately and have been immensely enjoying it. But it’s time to pull things back a little and take a sniff of this Playboy VIP for Her sample I got in the mail one day.

VIP for Her

VIP for Her

In Bottle: Fruity and floral with a slightly woody element to it. Smells a bit like jam, I get a big apple presence.

Applied: Fruity, clean and sweet on the opening. It’s not overpowering, and actually kind of pleasant. Not interesting, just pleasant. Like a non-offensive shampoo kind of smell. The apple isn’t bothering me too much though it smells quite synthetic as apple notes tend to do. It’s not a screaming, overbearing synthetic apple though. It’s just a hint of plastic and that’s a good thing because apple notes don’t often agree with me this well. VIP for Her’s midstage is a fairly bland affair of florals and sugary fruits followed by an equally bland sandalwood, vanilla and white musk end cycle that doesn’t do too much to excite, but does do a lot for the wearability of the fragrance. I’m not going to pick this one out if I had a choice, but I’m also not going to be too disappointed if I had to wear it.

Extra: I was actually rather amused by the Playboy VIP for Her commercials more than anything else. The absurd humor is getting to me, I suppose. And I have a weakness for adorable animals–but then, who doesn’t? Playboy VIP has a men’s counterpart called, Playboy VIP for Him that also features a set of amusing commercials.

Design: I’m not a big fan of Playboy, their publications, their fragrances, or their paraphernalia. Growing up, I always thought of the Playboy bunny logo as a sign of things I wouldn’t be interested looking at and the same remains true today. I don’t like the design of the bottle and don’t like the Playboy aesthetic in general. Different strokes for different folks.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Nectarine, peony, orange blossom, apple, berries, heliotrope, vanilla, cashmere wood, sandalwood, white musk.

Fairly bland showing for VIP for Her, but it’s miles better than other Playboy fragrances I’ve sampled in the past. Not a bad thing to pick up if you like fruity florals, but there are definitely better ones out there. I think the best parts of VIP for Her is its inoffensiveness and it’s reasonable price.

Reviewed in This Post: VIP For Her, 2012, Eau de Toilette.


Illuminum Cashmere Musk

The Illuminum brand came to my attention when a certain famous womanwore it on her wedding day. I tried my best to ignore the royal wedding because I had very little interest in it, so just about the only thing I knew was that it had happened and that Kate Middleton wore Illuminum’s White Gardenia Petals. While I do have a sample of that, I wanted to start with something less well-known.

Cashmere Musk

Cashmere Musk

In Bottle: Cashmere Musk, smells of hyacinth and soft, clean musks. It’s light and airy and very delicate.

Applied: Nice light hyacinth scent with a soft personality. Makes me think of spring, clean clothes, and gentle breezes. I had initially wondered if Cashmere Musk would smell like a soft suede with woods, but there’s no such thing in this. It’s a clean, fresh floral with heavy emphasis on the hyacinth. The floral note features heavily in the fragrance upon application and is joined briefly by a nice gentle touch of cedar. The cedar adds a bit of woodsiness to the fragrance but isn’t very detectable unless you try to search for it. Cashmere Musk dries down with a cool woodsy and floral fragrance with a prominent clean white musk note. This smells like clean, expensive soap and I love that. The projection sticks close to the skin and the longevity is moderate, giving me about five hours of enjoyment for this fragrance.

Extra: The Illuminum line was started by Michael Boadi who also heads the Boadicea the Victorious line. There’s definitely a correlation between Cashmere Musk and some fragrances from Boadicea the Victorious. I’m reminded of Pure when I tested this out.

Design: The bottles look pretty nice lined up in a row and I love it when things look good and uniform when you have a collection of them. I’m not too crazy about the aesthetics strictly speaking as a designer, but differing tastes and all that. The bottles are presented as they are to showcase the natural colors of the fragrances they contain.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Floral

Notes: Ylang-ylang, hyacinth, cyclamen, cedar, sandalwood, precious woods, white musk.

I’m tempted to drop the cash for Cashmere Musk, it made an excellent first impression on me and I’m happy to have chosen it first. There’s a bit of a rift when it comes to reviews of this, some love it and some think it’s a bit boring. I happen to really like fragrances that do clean and floral rather well, so Cashmere Musk hit if off with me. You can purchase a bottle of Cashmere Musk on Illuminum’s website.

Reviewed in This Post: Cashmere Musk, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance sampler spray reviewed in this post was provided to me for free for the purposes of review. In no other way am I receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experiences and opinions of the product.


Adding Niche to a YouTube Fragrance Collection

One of my guilty indulgences at lunch time during a work day is watching YouTube videos of perfume collections. There are thousands out there, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say all of them are starting to blend together. I prefer the videos where the person gives me a reason as to why they own a particular perfume. A few life stories are intermingled among the collections. A clear description of the fragrances they own. And of course, if one has a massive collection of niche fragrances, my ears often perk up.

John William Godward - The New Perfume 1914

John William Godward – The New Perfume 1914

There’s something about knowing what someone’s fragrance collection looks like that helps me form an idea of what other scents they would like and what kind of similarities in fragrance choices I have in common with them. YouTube features a large population of young women who fit into my demographic or younger. They often have big collections of perfumes. And from what I’ve seen, I can draw a few conclusions:
1) Most of them love sweet, candy-like, floral perfumes.
2) “Smells good”, “smells fruity”, “sweet and happy” are words often used to describe their collections.
3) I see the same four or five fragrances in everyone’s collection.

So it’s hard to see how someone with a big collection of mainstream fragrances can get a decent recommendation these days when they have most of what they want and so do most people they go to for perfume advice. So for all those folks who already have Miss Dior Cherie, Coco Mademoiselle, Marc Jacobs Daisy, Britney Spears Fantasy, and Viva la Juicy here are some niche, harder-to-find, more unique recommendations for your collections:

Aroma M Geisha Pink
Sampled during one of my sweet tooth phases, Geisha Pink smells like sugared flowers and fluffy, puffy vanilla pastries. It screams “girly” and if you’re looking for an alternative to the sugar rush of Viva la Juicy or Vera Wang Princess, Geisha Pink has you covered. It’s priced at $55 for a roll-on of perfume oil.

Annick Goutal Eau de Charlotte
Eau de Charlotte is a beautiful full-bodied berry scent that will make you think you’re wading through gourmet jam. It’s a more natural interpretation of blackberries with a wonderful base of vanilla and cocoa. Perfume for the person who wants something fruity and sweet but hates the apple jolly rancher smell of DKNY’s Be Delicious. Eau de Charlotte is $128 for 100ml.

Calypso Christiane Celle Bellini
Bellini is my answer to a spring, summer light fruity floral. It’s got the basic building blocks of a mainstream fruity floral but does things in a much more delicate manner and with a flare of understated sophistication. Bellini is a good alternative to most fruity floral Bath and Body Works or Victoria’s Secret scents. At $60 for 100ml, it’s not too bad.

Il Profumo Musc Bleu
Musc Bleu might scare some way because they’re tempted to say, “Musk? Ew, I hate musky fragrances”. But don’t judge the musk before you try it. Musc Bleu is actually the opposite of what one would consider, “musky” in that it’s a bright, clean, and soft perfume with a nice light dry down and it might just change your mind about the word, “musk”. Musc Bleu is $110 for 50ml or $165 for 100ml.

Penahaligons Amaranthine
Looking to smell a little tropical without resorting to lathering yourself in coconut? Amaranthine is a lush tropical perfume with a rather prominent banana leaf top note and a very complex composition. Possibly too complex if all you’re looking for is an easy tropical, but if you want to sample something with a lot of personality and challenge your nose then give this a try. Amaranthine is available for $135 for 100ml.

Going niche for me has been something of an adventure. I still have a collection of fairly mainstream fragrances and a lot of mainstream offerings are fabulous, but the niche market has been rather nice to me too and it wouldn’t hurt to start investigating the niche side of things–especially when you already have most of what you want from big perfume houses with big perfume marketing budgets.

Some Fragrance Collection Videos I Enjoyed:
Deathscythe77 – Parfums Noir II
BaptismbyFragrance – Niche Perfume Part1
KatiePuckrikSmells – Collection Part 2


M. Micallef Vanille Cuir

Vanille Cuir

Vanille Cuir

Vanille Cuir is the last of the Vanilla Art Collection from M. Micallef. I left this one for last because I had a feeling that I would like it the most. Though after Vanille Orient and Vanille Marine, Cuir has some pretty big shoes to fill.

In Bottle: Smooth, creamy vanilla with an equally smooth leather note that makes this fragrance smell very grown up.

Applied: Rich, smooth vanilla. One of the nicest smelling vanillas ever. It floods into the air and has this instantly relaxing feel to it. I love the opening. Like, absolutely adore it and if I could bottle that, I’d probably have my favorite vanilla and call it a day. All the bergamot, mint, lavender and whatever else that’s supposed to be in the opening isn’t there for me or it’s been too well-blended, and I quite like it that way. But, the pillowy, rich vanilla gives way to a smooth, almost smoky leather scent that makes things seem more dense and grounded. Like wrapping yourself up in a big leather blanket and sprinkling some flowers on top for good measure. After a while, the spices kick in and the leather calms down a little, letting that gorgeous initial vanilla note to return and take the fragrance into this very soft leather, woods and vanilla dry down.

Extra: One of the best selling features of M. Micallef’s Vanilla collection is the fact that they use a really nice vanilla. I’ve smelled plenty of vanillas, many were plastic, boring, or predictable. And a few, rare, vanilla gems really stood out. The bourbon vanilla that Micallef used in this series is one of these gems. It shows in the delicate way the note unfolds and works with the other ingredients to form a beautiful creamy, natural fragrance.

Design: Yep. Still not a fan of the design, but the shape and utility of the bottles is growing on me quite a bit. I still prefer Micallef’s other designs.

Fragrance Family: Leather

Notes: Bergamot, mint, lavender, cinnamon, cumin, orange blossom, tonka, sandalwood, cedar, vanilla.

Leather’s one of those notes that has a lot of people concerned about how it would make them smell. It’s generally been tamed, but I know of some leathers that can smell quite animalistic. Vanille Cuir isn’t one of those. It tempers the leather quite well and mixes the vanilla with it rather expertly. With that having been said, I think my favorite in this line is probably Vanille Marine, followed by Vanille Orient, Vanille Cuir and finally, Vanille Fleur. If you do love vanillas though, you should definitely check out this collection, some samples or the fragrances themselves can be purchased at Luckyscent.

Reviewed in This Post: Vanille Cuir, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance sampler spray reviewed in this post was provided to me for free for the purposes of review. In no other way am I receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experiences and opinions of the product.


Histoires de Parfums 1826

The Histoires de Parfums line has always interested me. I loved the concept behind it and had been meaning to get a sample of one of the fragrances for years. My main hold up was not knowing where to start and what year to order first. I settled on 1826 thanks to a recommendation from a friend.

1826

1826

In Bottle: Strong bergamot and woody presence with a hint of smooth vanilla and spice.

Applied: Starts up with a strong bergamot and tangerine showing that is quick to make way for the floral aspect. I get a lot of lowers, and a bit of spice that creeps up to the midstage making for a complex and pleasant blend that gets slapped with a soft vanilla incense halfway through its progression. 1826 settles into a floral vanilla with a hint of woods. It’s giving off a clean floral vibe. Heck, this thing changes on me like crazy, one minute being a spicy floral and another being a vanilla floral that throws in a clean note out of no where. There’s a dark edge to it with the patchouli too, that settles in the background in the early midstage where it lends 1826 a bit of depth. The dry down is markedly woodsy with a final showing of florals and that elusive, but brilliant vanilla.

Extra: 1826 is dedicated to the last French empress, Eugénie de Montijo, whose birthday is reportedly May 5th, 1826. She lived a very long life given the time period and passed away at the age of 94 in Spain. The Empress, formerly known as María Eugenia Ignacia Augustina de Palafox-Portocarrero de Guzmán y Kirkpatrick, is somewhat understandably more well known as the fashionable wife of Napoleon III, and the last empress of the French court.

Design: Histoires de Parfums keeps a somewhat uniformed look for their bottles. I am a huge fan of uniform looks for series because I can imagine if I were ever wealthy enough to buy an entire series of perfumes, that I could line them up and be a little giddy about how awesome that would look. Histoires de Parfums is one of those bottle designs that would look fabulous lined up in a row and still looks pretty good even if you own just one of the bottles. The box tells you what notes are in the fragrance along with a little blurb about the name of the scent. The bottle itself has a label on the side that gives you the notes you should expect to smell. Simple, functional, and would look awesome lined up in a row.

Fragrance Family:  Floral Oriental

Notes: Bergamot, tangerine, white florals, violet, cinnamon, ginger, patchouli, amber, incense, woods, white musk, vanilla.

I have to admit that I expected a little less punch during the initial spray phase, but the rest of the fragrance smells divine. It’s got a great complexity to it, and it’s quite the shape shifter to boot. It smells great, has a young streak, tends toward a sweet youthful vanilla, though it’s probably not the kind of thing you’d want to recommend for a teenage girl or someone with a teenage girl’s sensibilities. 1826 is definitely a woman’s fragrance and needs a sophisticated nose to appreciate it.

Reviewed in This Post: 1826, 2012, Eau de Parfum.


M. Micallef Vanille Fleur

M. Micallef‘s Vanille Fleur blends a fruity peach opening with a feminine rose and vanilla. I was particularly excited about this one because Vanille Orient and Vanille Marine worked out pretty well on me.

Vanille Fleur

Vanille Fleur

In Bottle: Vanille Fleur opens up with a fruity floral beginning that reminds me quite  a bit of something that I hadn’t put my finger on yet.

Applied: After spraying Vanille Fleur the fruity peach opening blends rather well with the florals. It took me a couple of minutes before I realized what this reminded me of: Gucci Flora. The opening for the two of these are extremely similar with Vanille Fleur being a little smoother around the edges. It takes away the slight sharpness that Flora had in the beginning with the citrus. The peach note does a better job at rolling the rest of the scent into its midstage than Flora’s citrus opening. The fragrance as a whole is very reminiscent of Flora but has a nice smoothness to it and a slightly more prominent rose note. Overall, the similarity is there to me, but Vanille Fleur smells more refined. The vanilla does a great job sweetening the scent and providing a nice base for Vanille Fleur. It’s a very simple fragrance, and its similarity to Gucci Flora starts disappearing near the end of its midstage where the vanilla becomes more prominent and the rose starts to give way. At the end, the vanilla takes on this faint lilting quality that’s very nice to smell close to the skin.

Extra: As with all the other vanilla-based fragrances in this collection, you can find Vanille Fleur available on Luckyscent in either 50ml EdP or 100ml EdP.

Design: Vanille Fleur is packaged much like the other vanilla fragrances in this series. The defining differences are the shapes on the bottles, where Vanille Fleur features a flower cut out of hemp.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Peach, rose, vanilla.

Due to its similarity to Gucci Flora, I’m less impressed with Vanille Fleur compared to Orient and Marine. It is still a perfectly lovely scent, and I really like Flora, but the initial similarity underwhelmed me a bit.

Reviewed in This Post: Vanille Fleur, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance sampler spray reviewed in this post was provided to me for free for the purposes of review. In no other way am I receiving pay or compensation for this review. This review was written based upon my personal experiences and opinions of the product.