Annick Goutal Mandragore

Posted on by

The best thing about Annick Goutal fragrances for me is the fact that they all tend to have this lovely light, garden flowers type of smell. The kind of fragrances that take something mainstream and improve on it. Like Guerlain often did. Mandragore

In Bottle: Fresh bright citrus, cooling mint and a lovely sweet anise note. Very fresh, nice amount of citrus and thankfully, no presence of lemon as fresh scents do tend to use that note as a crutch. Mandragore gets its freshness from mints and other citrus instead which I am very grateful for.

Applied: Citrus, mint, herb and a lot of anise. I’m really impressed with the mint and other herbal notes in this. They’re crisp and green and extremely refreshing. The anise sweetens and spices up Mandragore quite a bit. The fragrance remains fresh and bright with gentle wafts of spiciness coming in and out as the fragrance ages on my skin. The citrus leaves the fragrance some time during the mid-stage but the freshness doesn’t suffer from it. Mandragore uses those herbal aromatic notes to freshen things up instead of citrus. I’m really impressed. The dry down is a great fresh herb and woodsy ending. Unfortunately, Mandragore doesn’t last a very long time and needs to be reapplied more often than other eau de parfums. But the scent is absolutely lovely.

Extra: Mandragore is one of Annick Goutal’s more popular fragrances and with good reason. It’s got enough freshness to be a fantastic office scent, is excellent for places where you might need your scent to go on light and it’s quite a good unisex scent too. That is, if you don’t mind or like the feminine bottle design.

Design: Bottled in the same way as other Annick Goutal fragrances, in a ribbed glass bottle with a gold ribbon tying the fragrances name to the bottle. Mandragore also comes in a butterfly bottle. These things are round glass bottle with a butterfly topper. Finally, Mandragore can be purchased in a square bottle. Which is just that, a square-shaped bottle with a metal cap. Standard look if you would prefer something a little simpler in design.

Fragrance Family: Fresh Aromatic

Notes: : Bergamot, star anise, peppermint, sage, ginger, black pepper, boxwood, mandrake powder, ciste roots, labdanum.

I really love the bottles Annick Goutal presents their fragrances in. Not simple but very elegant and classic in style. Lining these things up is a great past time if you’re insane like I am.

Reviewed in This Post: Mandragore, 2008, Eau de Parfum.

BPAL Embalming Fluid

Posted on by

Embalming Fluid, despite its name, is actually quite pleasant. It’s a nice, green summer scent that’s got a good bit of refreshing bite to it that makes it perfect for warm weather. The heart of the fragrance is one of my favorite notes; green tea. Embalming Fluid

In Bottle: Green tea and lemon. Embalming Fluid isn’t high on the complexity meter but it’s a lovely mixture of two notes that go very well together when I smell this in the bottle.

Applied: Green tea amps up immediately and remains with me as the lemon comes rushing in afterward. There’s a slight sweetness to this too that helps soothe the very sharp lemon and tea scents. It mellows them out a little as the fragrance approaches mid-stage where, honestly, it does very little changing. I could be happy wearing this though and so would anyone else if they were a green tea note fan. The dry down gets a bit more interesting as the muskiness comes up for the final curtain but Embalming Fluid is a pretty easy and simple fragrance to love.

Extra: Embalming Fluid is one of those misunderstood fragrances with a name that could turn people away. Give it a chance though if you’re looking for a light, green, fresh summery scent.

Design: Bottled the same way other general catalogs scents from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab are.

Fragrance Family: Fresh

Notes: White musk, green tea, aloe, lemon.

The green tea note in Embalming Fluid is quite good. It’s very reminiscent of Creative Universe’s Te, except much simpler and lasts quite a bit longer.

Reviewed in This Post: Embalming Fluid, 2009, 5ml Bottle.

Nina Ricci Nina 2006

Posted on by

Nina by Nina Ricci was my first perfume. At the time, I was still growing out of my body mist and lotion phase and was still wearing fruity fragrances. That was four years ago, before I gave florals, musks, woods, ambers, and all manner of things a try. Nina is a young fragrance, filled with apples and sweetness and sugary sparkle. I remember when it was new, when I had wandered into the perfume section by accident and thought the bottle was just adorable. Nina

In Bottle: Vibrant lemon and lime with a note of apple and sugar. Nina prior to application smells like a lemonade stand. A lemonade stand with a very popular, very aromatic product though. Smell a couple more times and I start to notice this sticky, sweet vanilla toffee too.

Applied: Lemonade followed by the apple note. The apple in Nina is a big, red juicy one that’s been covered in a vanilla toffee mixture. There’s a lot of sweet notes in this fragrance but thankfully that lemonade and lime scent at the beginning doesn’t fade immediately. It sticks around and adds a tartness to Nina so that the sweetness of the fragrance doesn’t turn cloying. There’s a bit of taming going on too from the very light florals as Nina settles down into a fresh scent reminiscent of a cool, refreshing drink. The dry down takes a while to approach because Nina has excellent longevity. Hours after application and the citrus notes fade first, with the apple and sugar holding on strong until those too start to give. It’s on the very last leg of the fragrance’s stages where some of the wood notes show up for a very brief time before completely disappearing.

Extra: Nina Ricci was founded by Maria Ricci and her son in 1932. They started out as a fashion house in Paris. The Nina Ricci brand’s best known fragrance is L’Air du Temps.

Design: Contained in an adorable apple shaped bottle, Nina has a metal cap that protects the sprayer that is also used as the apple’s stem. The leaves have the house’s name engraved into them and the entire bottle is one seamless, beautiful piece of fun decorative art. Even if you don’t like the fragrance for some reason, the bottle makes for very cute decor. As noted in an earlier review, the makers of the Twilight perfume used Nina’s bottle for their fragrance, sparking a lawsuit.

Fragrance Family: Fruity

Notes: Lemon, lime, apple, toffee, peony, moonflower, vanilla, cedar, applewood.

I don’t wear Nina much anymore. Sure, once in a while I’ll dig it out and give it a sniff, maybe a spritz, but I’ve since moved on. Moved on but not forgotten. I wouldn’t get rid of Nina. It was my first real perfume, a stepping stone into the rest of my obsession. To get rid of my first bottle of perfume just wouldn’t make sense to me.

Reviewed in This Post: Nina, 2007, Eau de Toilette.