Keiko Mecheri Damascena

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Damascena was included in a very nice set of samples sent to me from Steve over at The Scented Hound. It struck me as a light, delicate scent with excellent projection and I was surprised when I looked up its notes and House Keiko Mecheri only listed three.

Damascena

Damascena

In Bottle: Bright, vibrant rose with a nice blackcurrant starting note.

Applied: Sweet with a nice blackcurrant to start, the rose is rather quick to roll in taking the fragrance into a nice, deep, rich rose scent. This isn’t cleaned-up, barely-any-personality rose. It smells natural, expensive, and adds a touch of sophistication to this fruity floral. This is almost a soliflore, were it not for the blackcurrant that keeps the fragrance from being entirely about rose. There’s a very nice mix of the two, pleasant, decently strong, good projection. This could be a very nice transition fragrance for those looking to graduate from the school of Viva La Juicy into something a little more grown-up.

Extra: Keiko Mecheri started out as a bath and body company selling luxury body care products and pretty candles. They’ve since moved into the niche perfumery scene with some excellent products to show for it.

Design: Fairly simple looking bottle with an attention-grabbing cap. Simple, but bold. Nice and easy to hold. Good weight and not a garish bone on its body. This gets me just right.

Fragrance Family: Fruity Floral

Notes: Blackcurrant, rose, musk.

I wasn’t expecting to like this quite as much as I did, but the rose note is very much the star and quite pleasant to boot.

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

Madonna Truth or Dare

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With the way work has been ramping up lately, I haven’t had the chance to get my nose wrapped around much but my usual standbys. So, when I discovered the local mall had a bottle of Madonna’s Truth or Dare sitting out, I shrugged my shoulders and thought, “Well, why not? I’m here already.”

Truth or Dare

Truth or Dare

In Bottle: Wow, tuberose. I get a very strong floral presence that’s predominantly tuberose.

Applied: Yikes. Tuberose. I know this scent gets compared to Fracas–the cheeky Tuberose Queen and I definitely get that impression. Truth or Dare opens up with a powerful hit of sweet tuberose followed with a barely-able-to-contain-itself gardenia note that furthers the floral interpretation. The fragrance is so sweet and floral that it obliterates any other smell to my nose can pick up and starts to smell like plastic a couple of minutes into wear. By the time hour two rolled around, I was trying to scrub it off because I smelled overwhelmingly like plastic. And of course, like with most fragrances that don’t agree with you, this just wouldn’t come off. So I did the only logical thing; I sprayed some more on, in a different location, went home and sat out the fragrance so I could at least take notes on it, review it, and never touch it again. The longevity is fairly good, lasting quite a few hours on me before it tried to exhibit any other kind of personality. Truth or Dare gets a bit less tuberose near the end of its mid-stage and focuses a bit more on this nice creamy, vanilla with some plastic stretched over it. But for as long as I could still smell it, there was that sweet plastic tuberose note dominating the entire scene.

Extra: Truth or Dare was launched earlier in 2012. The fragrance was composed by Stephen Nilsen.

Design: I can’t say I see the beauty of this design. The bottle is a white glass, but looks like it’s made of plastic until you touch it. The cap is a gold plastic, molded with these little studs, it looks a bit inappropriate and doesn’t quite do the fragrance any favors. All right, I admit, the thing is downright ugly. I think those studs or raised bumps on the bottle are taking it from “plain but looks all right” to “fugly” territory. I’m just a fan of the aesthetics this time.

Fragrance Family: Sweet Floral

Notes: Neroli, gardenia, tuberose, jasmine, benzoin, lily, vanilla, amber, musk.

I was actually hoping this one would work out, having heard how classical it was supposed to be. Having heard how similar to Fracas it was. But unlike Fracas, it overdoes the tuberose and not in a good way. I think I’ll stick to Fracas.

Reviewed in This Post: Truth or Dare, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Badgley Mischka Fleurs de Nuit

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Fleurs de Nuit is Badgley Mischka’s second offering to the fragrance world and I’m a little embarrassed to admit that it only came into my radar because of the over-decorated bottle. I’m a sucker for packaging.

Fleurs de Nuit

Fleurs de Nuit

In Bottle: Citrus up top with a layer of fresh jasmine. Clean and easy.

Applied: I get the initial sweetness of the quince, fruits, and bergamot then it’s a nosedive into the jasmine mid-stage where a cleaned up, groomed, and pampered jasmine note makes the scene. Fleurs de Nuit–which I’m guessing is a homage to night-blooming jasmine, takes a fresh, clean approach to the note. It’s fruitiness remains in the background, giving jasmine most of the space as some flimsy orange blossoms try to temper the scent. The dry down gets a bit of an amber edge, warming the scent up to be a fading jasmine creamy amber scent. If there were woods in this, I didn’t get any.

Extra: Fleurs de Nuit was released in 2007 by the perfumer, Rodrigo Flores-Roux who lent his talents to Peace, Love and Juicy Couture, True Religion, and Clinique Happy.

Design: Slap a floral pattern on something and you probably have my attention. The bottle itself is kind of cute, has a nice weight to it and generally looks good sitting out–too bad I don’t leave my perfumes sitting out on my vanity. It’s a little more overdressed than I usually like my bottles, but it’s a good kind of overdressed.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Bergamot, quince, magnolia, peach, orange blossom, jasmine, amber, woods.

Overall, I wasn’t that impressed with Fleurs de Nuit. It does fruity, fresh jasmine very well but smells somewhat generic and safe. If I want a more exciting jasmine, I’m better off elsewhere. If I want safe, I could do worse!

Reviewed in This Post: Fleurs de Nuit, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

M. Micallef Ylang in Gold

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The perfume house of M. Micallef got in touch with me again and asked if I would be interested in reviewing their new, Ylang in Gold fragrance. Given the awesome Vanilla scents I tested from their last location, I really couldn’t say no.

In Bottle:Sweet, a little fruity up top with a nice clean and fresh vanilla background.

Ylang in Gold

Ylang in Gold

Applied: Sweet fruitiness, refreshing upon application. I get vanilla almost instantly with a clean waft of mint. As the fragrance wears on, the vanilla calms down a bit and the sweetness gets tempered by a pleasant mix of ylang-ylang and soft lily. The scent is very light, almost creamy with a lovely smooth aroma that I guess is coming from the combination of clean musk and coconut. The longer I wear it, the more vanilla comes back to further smooth out the scent. In the end, I get soft vanilla musk with a hint of woods and the barest reminder of ylang-ylang.

Extra: Ylang in Gold is the third member of M. Micallef’s Jewel Collection that features Jewel for Her and Jewel for Him. Ylang in Gold comes in two forms, one with a gold dust mixed with the juice and another without the gold dust. My sample didn’t have the gold dust. I’m not a big fan of shimmer on my skin so I actually preferred to go without it.

Design: Like with most bottles by M. Micallef, Ylang in Gold was hand decorated with little Swarovski crystals. I really like the presentation of it. The shape of the bottle is fairly standard, but the designs help give it a bit of uniqueness and luxury flare. It’s very fitting for its collection, looks quite nice, and is presented rather nicely.

Fragrance Family: Floral Oriental

Notes: Tangerine, geranium, sage, rosemary, artemisia, ylang-ylang, rose, lily of the valley, magnolia, mint, sandalwood, coconut, vanilla, musk, oakmoss.

I can best describe Ylang in Gold as a very soft vanilla with a nice sprinkling of Ylang-Ylang. It’s pleasant, very wearable and a bit sophisticated. If you’re interested in a bottle, you can nab one at LuckyScent as well as at their Scent Bar physical store, Parfum1, Parfumerie Nasreen, and Osswald NYC.

Reviewed in This Post: Ylang in Gold, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance 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.

Thanks to Micallef for giving me the opportunity to try this fragrance and Jeffrey Dame at Hypoluxe for forwarding on the sample.

Czech & Speake Dark Rose

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Dark Rose

Dark Rose

I love a good rose and abhor a bad one. It’s harder and harder to find a good rose scent because modern, mainstream perfumery loves cleaned up, sparkling, girly rose that barely has a personality because it’s supported by equally dull notes in the rest of the composition. Or the rose is so light and non-existent that it might as well not be mentioned at all. So I’m still feeling a little stung by Forbidden Rose maybe that’s why I gave Dark Rose a try.

In Bottle: Dark and floral, I smell the rose backed up with a smooth sandalwood with a bit of oud.

Applied: Smooth saffron rose with a dark edge that I’m assuming is coming from the oud. No sparkling, clean, girly rose here. It smells sophisticated but not overpowering. It’s light enough to get its point across and has a nice feeling of depth to it. I suppose the lightness might owe some of the credit to it being a cologne. The rose encompasses the scent while staying coated in a sappy oud fragrance as the latter grows stronger the longer you wear it until it hits this warm amber and sandalwood note that helps bump up the woodsy smell and accent the oud’s tendancies to smell a bit animalistic. The dry down is marked with a fading oud and warm amber.

Extra: Dark Rose comes in a wide assortment of other scented products such as a bath oil and some incense sticks. What really piqued my interest was the solid perfume encased in this awesome looking egg. If you feel you need your perfume to be encased in a cool egg, better place your orders soon because it’s limited edition.

Design: Bottled fairly simply, Dark Rose comes in a spray bottle that pretty much resembles what it is–a cologne spray with an easy to hold container. I would have preferred more refinement. But, don’t judge it by its packaging, Dark Rose has a great deal of complexity for what it is.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Saffron, rose, sandalwood, patchouli, amber, oud, musk.

Very nice rose. I’ve read around town that Dark Rose’s composition is fairly tired thanks to the influx of oud fragrances into the market. I haven’t had that much oud in my time, so Dark Rose remains fresh and exciting for me.

Reviewed in This Post: Dark Rose, 2012, Eau de Cologne.

Faberge Flambeau

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Deb from Luvparfum kindly included a couple of decants when I purchased vintage Coty Chypre. One of those decants was Fabergé Flambeau. And as with most things that take me by surprise, my first impression was, “Fabergé made perfume?” The next impression was, “Wow!”

In Bottle: That “Wow” was to denote how very good this was. Green aldehydes and florals were my first impression.

Applied: I could smell the florals in this upon application. Flambeau opens with a green aldehyde, flowing into a beautiful jasmine mid-note that’s joined by a full-bodied and tempered rose. There are florals in here that I can’t pick out, but I don’t mind very much because it all blends together beautifully. Flambeau ages into a gorgeous lush mid-stage that exudes white flowers with slight hints of animalic musk. Nothing too wild on the animal side. It’s only a touch to give the fragrance even more complexity. As it dries down, I get less of the rose and more vetiver with a little hint of amber and bit of woodsiness that’s been soften with time.

Extra: Fabergé’s Flambeau was a little known fragrance initially released in 1955. It has since been discontinued and is quite a rarity. It’s really a shame since it’s such a beautiful scent from a long gone era of perfume. Fabergé had other vintage classics as well, including Woodhue, Tigress, Aphrodisia.

Design: I haven’t held or seen an actual bottle of Flambeau, but going by the photos, the parfum vial is a beautiful elegant glass piece encased in a golden shell with lovely markings on it. Very reminiscent of luxury from the 50s.

Fragrance Family: Classic Floral

Notes: Aldehydes, jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, iris, ambergris, vetiver, sandalwood, musk.

I’m only guessing with those notes. Anyway, if you want to score yourself a bottle of Flambeau, Deb from LuvParfum might have one in stock along with some of Fabergé’s other classics. This includes a gorgeous Woodhue perfume whistle. If not, you might get lucky on eBay.

Reviewed in This Post: Flambeau, ~1960, ???.

By Kilian Good Girl Gone Bad

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Hello, By Kilian. Long time no see. Still packaging things to make me covet you, I see. Good Girl Gone Bad is a recent release from By Kilian and features a gorgeous white and gold case.

Good Girl Gone Bad

Good Girl Gone Bad

In Bottle: Fruity, light and floral. I smell a bit of soapiness too.

Applied: A fruity opening with a osmanthus and jasmine showing. It smells like and soapy with a hint of jasmine. The jasmine becomes more prominent as the fragrance wears on and a touch of tuberose can be detected in the midstage. Jasmine takes on a green aspect mixing with a rose note. Good Girl Gone Bad isn’t going bad so far, and as I continue to wait her out, I get impressions of cedar and patchouli with a speck here or there of darkness. The fragrance never really gets very dark or daring. It remains a rather tame rose jasmine and cedar composition all the way until its fade.

Extra: I haven’t been following By Kilian in a while, and when I saw this fragrance had come out, I was drawn in by the name. I had this idea that it would start off light and airy and turn into a sinister beast. But it never really reaches beast form, and the florals in the midstage carry its good girl vibe all the way to the end. Good Girl Gone Bad was released in 2012 and can be had for $245 at Luckyscent.

Design: By Kilian usually does very well with its packaging. Good Girl Gone Bad comes in a beautiful bottle decorated to exquisite detail with a white and gold box featuring a golden snake coiling on top. Everything about it screams luxury.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Osmanthus, jasmine, rose, tuberose, narcissus, violet, plum, cedar, amber, patchouli, vetiver, musk.

Okay, so the bad girl never got to the party. Maybe she was too busy rocking out somewhere else? Wherever she went, she just wasn’t in this fragrance. What is here is a rather nice floral scent with decent longevity and a beautiful casing.

Reviewed in This Post: Good Girl Gone Bad, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Illuminum Rose Oud

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It’s been a while since I tried a fragrance with oud in it. And just about as long since I tried a rose centered scent. So I picked Rose Oud pretty much out of the blue and was pleasantly surprised.

Rose Oud

Rose Oud

In Bottle: Smells very familiar to me. It’s clean, fresh and simple and plucks at some memory that starts forming the longer I wear it.

Applied: Rose Oud is decidedly less rosey and oudy than I thought it would be. The rose is there. I’m not sure I can say the same for the oud, but the rest of the fragrance carries it forward. The instant I put it on, I’m reminded of something, but it settles on the tip of my brain and doesn’t let me progress much further until I let the fragrance settle down a bit more. As Rose Oud continues its progression, the rose makes its way to the forefront, dominating the scent and leading a pack of fresh florals, most notably the lily of the valley that gives the fragrance it’s soft feel. I’m waiting for the oud and find myself waiting a while as it never really makes itself known. Rose Oud smells more of roses from afar and more of roses and florals up close. For those worried about the castoreum, don’t be. I never got much in the way of it as the fragrance remained largely clean, fresh and floral. I quite like Rose Oud. It might actually be my top pick of the Illuminums so far and it’s mainly because of the memories it teases up for me.

Extra: Castoreum is, ready for this? The secretions from the scent glands of beavers. And of course, as with all these animal sourced notes, the scent glands are located on the animal’s rear. But, don’t worry, castoreum is derived from these secretions after they’ve been put through all sorts of processes. By the time it gets to be an ingredient, you end up with a leather-like fragrance. If you enjoyed Shalimar, you’re smelling more castoreum than I did in Rose Oud.

Design: Rose Oud is bottled and packaged much the same way as the other Illuminum fragrances. Held in a squat and square frosted glass bottle with a brushed metal cap.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Basil, coriander, jasmine, lily of the valley, rose, geranium, oud, castoreum, patchouli.

While I was disappointed when the oud didn’t show up when I was searching for it, I finally realized why Rose Oud smelled familiar to me. It takes me back to 1990. I’m a child and my aunt is hugging me one last time before my parents put me in the taxi. I won’t see her again until 1992 and it made me sad. Two years isn’t that long for an adult, but it was ages for a child. The smell of roses and soap were wafting around at the time, partially from someone’s perfume and partially from the laundry soap that permeated through our luggage. I remember more precisely how dark it was because we were up at the break of dawn. Not much of a happy memory, but still a precious one.

Reviewed in This Post: Rose Oud, 2012, Eau de Parfum.

Disclaimer: The fragrance 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.

Calypso St Barth Bellini

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I love a good fruity floral sometimes. A well composed one that has all the hallmarks of a fruity floral fragrance without being way too popular or way too complex.

Bellini

Bellini

In Bottle: Fresh, clean and fruity. It’s sweet, but doesn’t overdo it on the sugar.

Applied: Bellini opens with a lush tropical scent that embodies the idea of a bellini cocktail. It’s lush, it’s juicy and very fruity. It reminds me of summer in the middle of November and has this hint of faux coconut and pineapple that does that, “Summer! The beach! Tropical paradise!” Chant to me. There’s a lighter layer of florals that rolls in after the first stage and settles into this gentle, refreshing midstage that makes me feel like I just stepped out of the shower to a waiting cocktail in the midst of a tropical island. The dry down is a clean sandalwood and white musk with a hint of cool amber.

Extra: I feel a little like I missed the summertime and these days I’m playing catch-up with Bellini here. Maybe some day I’ll actually vacation on a tropical island and I’d be tempted to wear this. Bellini is quite the embodiment of a tropical vacation.

Design: The cap is a bit uninspired, but the fragrance is what it is. The packaging for the bottle itself is quite minimalist, with a bell-shaped bottle, featuring the house name and fragrance name on it. The cap is your standard tall, gold metal. The box, on the other hand, has a rather cute bow adorning it. Something about me and bows, I suppose. Overall, not bad, not very exciting but it does the trick.

Fragrance Family:  Fruity Floral

Notes: Citrus, peach, coconut, pineapple, , frangipani, freesia, jasmine, orange flower, amber, musk, sandalwood.

Bellini is neither interesting or exciting. It is very safe, and it’s one of the better composed fruity floral fragrances out there. I quite like it. And if you like it too, but can’t see yourself wearing it, it comes in a candle form.

Reviewed in This Post: Bellini, 2012, Eau de Toilette.

Illuminum Tahitian Yuzu

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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.