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.

Coty Masumi

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Someone asks me if I want to test out a classic Coty, I don’t know how I could say no. Masumi was a Coty chypre from the 1960s.

In Bottle: Spicy with a very grown-up fruity vibe with a layer of deep green woods.

Applied: Bergamot up front with a fruitiness that rolls in rather quickly. The fruits in Masumi can’t be described in any terms that one would use for a modern perfume. Certainly not, “girly” or “fun and sweet”. Masumi’s fruits are reminiscent of Mitsouko’s peach note, in that it’s slightly sweet but very, very sophisticated. The fruits are joined by a spicy floral in the midstage with a big showing from the woods and a smooth earthiness that I’m thinking might be the oak moss at work. The fragrance stays a floral woodsy scent with a hint of spice. The fruitiness I got in the opening was rather short lived and the scent isn’t missing anything because of it. Quite lovely, very classic, helps me remind me that Coty did some great things.

Extra: Masumi was released in the 1960s and was later repackaged in the 1970s. It has since been discontinued.

Design: The design for Masumi was very reminiscent of the era in which it was released. The shape is a bit familiar in Guerlain’s Idyll but with a great deal more authenticity. It looks simple, with a teardrop style shape and a tall metal cap. I don’t have a physical body to judge by, but the design works for what it is.

Fragrance Family:  Classic Chypre

Notes: Bergamot, pineapple, melon, rosewood, rose, violet, cardamom, musk, sandalwood, oak moss, cedar, amber, vanilla.

The more classic Cotys I experience, the sadder I am that most of their great fragrances are no longer available.

Reviewed in This Post: Masumi, ~1970, Eau de Toilette.

Chypre de Coty Vintage

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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.

M. Micallef Vanille Fleur

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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.

AdP Colonia Assoluta In Villa

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In Villa

In Villa

Up today is another decant from Steve at The Scented Hound (thank you). I really have no method to my madness, so I decided upon Colonia Assoluta In Villa because it was the closest one.

In Bottle: Green citrus, I get a lot of lime and bergamot, with a big dose of woodsy notes.

Applied: Lime and bergamot on opening, reminds me of greenness and it only gets more green when the cypress quickly rolls in. When I looked up the notes for this Acqua di Parma wants to tell me they used cedar. Now, I’m not a great nose when it comes to well-behaved cedar because it’s always going funky on my skin. If this is cedar, then it’s behaving really well. The citrus is quick to dissolve, leaving cedar holding the bag until a clean waft of florals rolls in during the midstage with the very barest touch of spice. The scent gets decidedly less floral near the end where the green cedar continues to carry it forward with a touch of warmth from a very faint amber note. The fragrance reminds me a lot of an adorable little cottage I saw once. It was–funny enough–in the middle of a city, but the owner had enough land that despite metropolitan life going on around him, he managed to have a beautifully done wooded area surrounding his property. It looked like a page out of a storybook and In Villa reminds me of that.

Extra: Colonia Assoluta In Villa was released in 2009 by Acqua di Parma.

Design: I actually really like the bottle for In Villa, it’s elegant and simple. Modern with a little bit of classic flair so that it doesn’t look outdated. I think what sells this bottle for me (in terms of aesthetics) is that it has a balloon pump, which gives it a classic charm. Though as Steve noted, the balloon pump adds an element of beauty to the bottle, but it’s not great when you go to use it. From my experience with balloon pumps, I can eagerly agree.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy

Notes: Lemon, lime, bergamot, cardamom, chili pepper, jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang, cedar, white musk, amber.

I was really happy with how well the cedar in this worked on me, but aside from the surprising mild cedar, there’s not a whole lot going on with In Villa. It’s pretty enough, but it’s not my kind of thing. But if it is your kind of thing, you can buy a whopping 200ml of this stuff. That’s a lot of In Villa!

Reviewed in This Post: Colonia Assoluta In Villa, 2012, Eau de Cologne.

Miss Dior

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Miss Dior, unlike her younger sister (Miss Dior Cherie), is a smart, sophisticated woman who enjoys the finer things in life but doesn’t let it get to her head. She’s humble and complex with a classical charm that Miss Dior Cherie can never beat.

Miss Dior

Miss Dior

In Bottle: Green with a prominent aldehyde quality to it and a dusting of florals.

Applied: Sharp green aldehydes that are a bit of a sting on the old nostrils. Miss Dior goes on strong and powerful, hits you with a wave of classical perfume and reminds you of what a real chypre ought to smell like. Nothing like the lilting chypres of today that have been toned down and have lost their oak moss. Miss Dior is the full force of chypres upon application. As the fragrance ages, she smooths out a bit taking on a powdery quality to me with a warm sensuality that works in the complexity of the fragrance. It’s hard to describe complex fragrances for me because breaking them down into components and saying, “I smell this and now I smell this” would ruin the experience. Instead let me just say that Miss Dior smells like a vintage with an aldehyde and floral mid-stage prominent in neroli and jasmine and is every bit the chypre that she’s supposed to be. The fragrance dries down into a lovely rich flowers, forest and buttery leather scent that makes me want to stick my nose to my wrists and deeply inhale.

Extra: Miss Dior was released in the late 1940s and was composed by Jean Carles and Paul Vacher. Like most (if not all) classics that have survived till today, Miss Dior has been reformulated. The version I’m reviewing in this post is reportedly from sometime in the 1970s. I have not tried the more readily available, “Miss Dior Originale” yet, but I do have a sample of that so I will be trying it eventually.

Design: Miss Dior seems to do everything better than Miss Dior Cherie. The bottle has a classic look, but one that will never go out of style. While it’s a familiar shape to Miss Dior Cherie, Miss Dior’s more grown-up style and beautiful textured glass sets it a class above its younger counterpart. Miss Dior doesn’t need a bow on its neck to exude femininity, basically.

Fragrance Family: Chypre

Notes: Aldehydes, gardenia, galbanum, clary sage, bergamot, carnation, iris, jasmine, neroli, lily of the valley, rose, narcissus, labdanum, leather, sandalwood, amber, patchouli, oak moss, vetiver.

It probably sounds like I’m ragging on Miss Dior Cherie a lot in this post, and I am. It’s not that Miss Dior Cherie doesn’t accomplish good things as a modern gourmand that appeals to younger women, it’s just that Miss Dior–who sometimes gets confused with her younger counterpart–gets a lot of bad press from people who accidentally picked her up thinking she’ll smell anything like the candy-like Miss Dior Cherie. Then come the proclamations that Miss Dior “smells like old lady”, and that’s just unfortunate.

Reviewed in This Post: Miss Dior, ~1970, Eau de Toilette.

Balmain La Mome

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Ambre Gris by Balmain was one of the first perfumes I ever reviewed for this blog. Back then I was still in my “Oh gosh! Fruits and flowers are so good!” phase. I’ve since grown a bit in terms of taste (or at least I like to think I did) and while I still love my flowers, my clean smells, and my fruits I’ve also warmed to Ambre Gris enough to be excited about La Mome rolling out of my sampler box for a try.

La Mome

La Mome

In Bottle: Roses, violets and an undercurrent of amber.

Applied: A flash of sweet raspberry that opens the fragrance under a fruity, sweet pretense. The rose is quick to fall in and I’m glad for that because I think I’ve had my fill of raspberry for a while. The rose has a lovely soft and classic affect mixing beautifully with an amber note that sweetens and warms the fragrance. I get violets the longer I wear this, giving the fragrance a bit of dusty appeal like I’m wearing a fine fragrance and just dusted myself down with some violet powder. This reminds me of fancy windows for some reason. Windows with intricate little patterns in the glass. Windows that lead to an exquisite sitting room. It’s deceptively simple because this is a much more complex scent than the seemingly easygoing violet, rose and amber mixture.

Extra: A little bit of research yielded an explanation for the naming convention of this fragrance. La Mome means “The Kid” which is a dedication to Edit Piaf.

Design: I love the design of this bottle. Balmain does very well with its packaging. The juice, the color of the juice, down to the materials and the style of the bottle, and the weight of the whole thing are meticulous. I love everything about it, up to and including the little tassels.

Fragrance Family: Floral Oriental

Notes: Pink pepper, raspberry, freesia, rose, violet, myrrh, iris, opoponax, amber, musk.

Sometime I should sit down and take a good sidelong stare at how my tastes in fragrance have changed over the past two years. I went from a pretty uneducated lover of fruity florals to a pretty uneducated lover of everything else too. I never would have thought a little hobby blog could take me this far.

Reviewed in This Post: La Mome, 2008, Eau de Parfum.

Lancome Tresor Midnight Rose

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I had a glimpse at this adorable bottle at the store the other day. Lancôme’s Trésor Midnight Rose looks more modern than original Trésor with a cute little rose ribbon tied around the neck of the bottle. It’s things like that which wake up the little girl in me.

Tresor Midnight Rose

Tresor Midnight Rose

In Bottle: Cedar (plenty of it) in this with a mild sweet floral. A little touch of rose settling in the background.

Applied: It’s probably not a good sign when the first note I smell in the bottle and on my skin is cedar. Midnight Rose’s cedar doesn’t agree with me as it overtakes the scent and makes itself a dominant force to be reckoned with. Pushing the cedar aside, I can get vague glimpses of roses and berries. The underlying scent is a sweet floral and I imagine without the cedar present, Midnight Rose would smell pretty tame and mild. With the cedar, its tameness is being drowned by a near obnoxious “Look at me, I’m a big tree and I smell”, sharp woody note that I get in most cedar perfumes. Something about my nose or my skin or just me in general cannot get along with these cedar notes and Midnight Rose just so happens to use enough of it to bother me. I keep Midnight Rose on in the hopes that cedar will go away and let me into the rest of the fragrance, but it’s always there, taunting me. Thankfully the fragrance has a noticeable enough progression that near the end, I get a bit of creamy vanilla with a soft lingering floral.

Extra: Midnight Rose was released last year, in 2011. Trésor has a large selection of flankers, most notably, Trésor In Love and Trésor Sparkling.

Design: I didn’t even recognize this as a Trésor flanker because of how different the bottle looks from original Trésor. The redesign is definitely appreciated as Trésor’s design was showing its age a bit. Or maybe I just associate it naturally with the 90s because that’s how long I’ve been seeing the bottle sitting on a relative’s vanity table. Trésor Midnight Rose is encased in a tall glass bottle that reminds me a bit of Nina Ricci and Chanel mixed together. It has a cute fabric rose, tied to the neck of the bottle that, for once, accentuates the aesthetics and gives it a sort of sophistication as opposed to just tackiness.

Fragrance Family: Woodsy Floral

Notes: Berries, rose, jasmine, peony, cassis, pink pepper, cedar, vanilla, musk.

I keep seeing people generally liking this and I wish I could say the same. The cedar really was the sole reason why I didn’t have any luck with Midnight Rose. What I smelled underneath was a mild, nice, sweet floral which I probably would have enjoyed.

Reviewed in This Post: Trésor Midnight Rose, 2011, Eau de Parfum.

Caron Narcisse Blanc

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The Narcisse Blanc I have is a–of course–sampler from a parfum extrait bottle. I was wondering about the availability of this juice, given my very limited experience with straight up parfum extraits but was happy to note that Luckyscent carries it on their websitefor a rather reasonable price too.

Narcisse Blanc

Narcisse Blanc

In Bottle: Sweet orange floral with a strong dark jasmine presence and a bit of earthy iris, powder and woods.

Applied: Bright opening from Narcisse Blanc. I get an orange blossom scent that invades right away with a very strong regiment of flowers. The jasmine is quick to roll in with this soft touch of powder and earthiness. It reminds me of darker flowers than a bright jasmine. Like there’s a strong neroli presence that pulls the whole thing together.  The neroli makes it smell like what I imagine the dirt would be like when you stick your face right into the flowers and take a big whiff. Narcisse Blanc reminds me of daylight, warmth, dirt and the sun. It’s rather strong, possessing a sweet floral personality with a sophisticated bent and a touch of earthy powder like dust being kicked up by a dry wind. The fragrance as a whole is extremely complex and a unique joy to smell. I have to wonder how much of its complexity can be attributed to its parfum concentration, but this is a scent that’s been around long enough to stand the test of time. So while I feel like the parfum extrait might be helping it, Narcisse Blanc is probably just a good unique and complex classic. The scent dries down steadily into an earthier, smokier version of itself with the presence of sandalwood and a dusky musk note.

Extra: Narcisse Blanc is a sister perfume to Caron’s Narcisse Noir. Both are very old fragrances who have been around since the early 1900s. Both are still available today at Luckyscent.

Design: Caron’s bottles are always beautifully made and work wonderfully in terms of manual handling. I get a good grip, I can apply easily, and to top it all off the bottle looks gorgeous as a display piece–or it would if I had a bottle and already used up what was inside. No concerns when it comes to design and Caron.

Fragrance Family: Earthy Floral

Notes: Orange blossom, neroli, jasmine, rose, musk, vetiver, sandalwood.

It’s nice to get in a classic now and then. I found myself really missing the way these perfumes smell compared to contemporary fragrances.

Reviewed in This Post: Narcisse Blanc, 2011, Parfum.

Coach Poppy Flower

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Coach Poppy Flower is a flanker to Poppy. It’s supposed to put a more floral spin on the original fragrance. Not sure what else they want out of the original Poppy because that one was fairly floral to me. Ah well, we’ll see.

Poppy Flower

Poppy Flower

In Bottle: Fresh, juicy flowers with a lot of water lily representation.

Applied: Sadly I’m smelling predominantly water lily from the starting point. I get a bit of citrus and the other sweet fruity things in this, but I suppose this is how you can go about making an already floral fragrance even more floral. The water lily gives me a bit of a headache as it seems particularly potent in this fragrance. The rest of the florals are giving up a good fight to help overwhelm or tame the water lily but I think that initial whiff blasted whatever chance the rest of the notes in this had for me. I really just get a lot of water lily with a little bit of jasmine and rose layered in there for good measure. As the fragrance ages, the peony comes up a bit more and given my previous association with peony, I don’t think that’s a good thing. Poppy Flower smells watery to me, kind of like a flower water mix and it isn’t very good, but it’s not horrendous. I wouldn’t venture to say this is okay, it’s just not too bad.

Extra: Coach Poppy Flower is marketed as fashionable, chic, and flirty. I have to admit, that despite being bombarded by marketing that claims something is flirty, I have yet to truly understand what that means in a marketing perspective and the word has been thrown about so much that it’s lost all meaning to me. What I do know about flirtiness is that I get nothing of the sort from Poppy Flower.

Design: Similar shape and style to that of Poppy, only it’s interpreted as purple and silver this time. I still don’t like the bottle, but the handwritten affect they used on the packaging is still fitting and aesthetically pleasing in its own way.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Citrus, black currant, raspberry, litchi, apricot, ivy, water lily, rose, jasmine, peony, sandalwood, musk, amber.

Coach Poppy Flower is available in EDP format and also comes in a body lotion if that kind of thing floats your boat. Me, I’m not personally a fan of this fragrance and actually prefer Poppy.

Reviewed in This Post: Poppy Flower,  2011, Eau de Parfum.