Guerlain Nahema

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Released in 1979, Nahéma is like an ode to the rose. Nahéma is a rose explosion that calls up the vision of what a rose is supposed to be. Nahema

In Bottle: Lush rose in that familiar Guerlain smell. Beautifully dense and musky delicate roses. So sweet that for a moment I’m thinking I smell cherry or anise instead but it’s all rose from here.

Applied: Big and fantastic and familiar. The rose goes on strong, comes out of the gates yelling and makes itself known. This is what a rose is supposed to smell like. A little sweet, a little floral, clean and dewy. Tea rose is what I’m smelling, and tea rose to me has a lighter, sweeter fragrance often used as a subtle addition but in Nahéma is the primary focus. I get roses for hours and hours as Nahéma has some fantastic staying power. The dry down is a lovely sweet rose on woodsy base and that familiar Guerlain scent.

Extra: Apparently, Luca Turin in The Guide shares with us a little rumor. That Nahéma, the greatest rose fragrance in perfumery, was made without any rose oil.

Design: The image in this post is not the bottle design that I’m talking about in this section. The modern Nahéma bottle that I held and sprayed is a mostly flat, rather boring bottle design whose shape is reminiscent of Tommy Girl except lacking that third dimension. It’s dull, drab and uninteresting and I wish they hadn’t changed it from the old bottle. But the bottle certainly is functional at least.

Fragrance Family: Soliflore Oriental

Notes: Rose, peach, vanilla, woods.

Even if you hate roses I highly recommend giving this a sniff. If not so you can find the perfect perfume but to know what conceptual rose smells like. If the rumor is true, that Nahéma doesn’t contain any actual rose oil then the mind-boggling alone is worth a smell.

Reviewed in This Post: Nahéma, 2003, Eau de Parfum.

Gucci Flora

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There’s nothing very special about Gucci Flora that you couldn’t get anywhere else. It has a nice scent, an inoffensive and pleasant aroma perfect for office or school wear. Something about its squeaky cleanness just slots it in generic category. Generic, boring, common but ultimately very pretty. Flora

In Bottle: Light, sheer, clean peony with citrus and a mixture of discriminatory florals. Nothing stands out too much in Flora.

Applied: Citrus opener that has a nice clean kick to wipe the palette before it calls in the peony and its entourage of florals as the scent prances in a field wearing a cotton dress into the mid-stage. Rose is used to bolster the scent in Flora as I can’t smell rose, exactly, except for its presence. That sweet pinkish feel that builds up the power of the other flowers must be those mysterious fruity notes that Flora alludes to while rose is happy to just settle in the background. I was looking forward to a few other notes in this but they never actually make an appearance. It’s all just lumped into one big bouquet of fresh and clean. If someone asks me what I smell in Flora, they’re likely to see my eyes bug out as I chirp, “Flowers!” Flora lasts a decent time, often getting hours of wear before approaching its dry down which is a clean patchouli, vaguely flowery, and sandalwood mix.

Extra: I like Flora. I really do. Don’t let my comments about how pedestrian it is turn you away. This is a very nice fragrance with a classy, clean aroma that’s pretty set to be widely worn and commented upon. Mostly you’ll get things of the, “Hmm, you smell nice” category. Then you get the pleasure of telling them what it is and it’ll be a great time.

Design: Cute squat bottle in a geometric shape with a little black ribbon on the bottle. The design is pleasant, the bottle isn’t too awkward to hold and everything works as it should. One thing I will note is that I love the floral pattern detail on the inside of the box. Reminiscent of botany texts and old woodcut floral patterns. I am a big sucker for that kind of thing.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Citrus, peony, osmanthus, rose, fruity notes, sandalwood, patchouli.

I own a small 30ml bottle of this stuff that I spray on whenever I want to smell clean and fresh but more interesting than one of my clean musk scents. I always find myself smiling a little whenever Flora wafts up to my nose, so something in this stuff is doing good work.

Reviewed in This Post: Flora, 2009, Eau de Toilette.

Guerlain Vol de Nuit

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Much raved about by fragrance lovers, I had this on my list to smell and try for a very long time. When I did spot it at a counter as a tester, I wasted no time making a beeline for it. Excited as I spritzed it, stuck my nose it, slapped it on my skin and then stuck my nose in again, I was hoping for the shapely beauty of Mitsouko. Or the chilly distant wonder of L’Heure Bleue. What I got was a little disappointing. And I say that as I don my metal armor and prepare for the angry mob. Vol de Nuit

In Bottle: That lovely, iconic Guerlain base that defines all the classics shoots Vol de Nuit into heavy hitters category immediately. Though after the guerlainess makes its way through my nose, Vol de Nuit’s underlying personality seems a bit weak. A little big of bergamot. A little bit of spices. Not what I expected from a fragrance that was so well loved.

Applied: Lovely little opener with the guerlainess leading the way for bergamot to flare and dissolve, leaving a little trace of it behind for the rest of the fragrance. Vol de Nuit is a gentle waft of spices, woods, and florals. It’s green ivy and dense flowers on a bed of soft spices. It smells–kind of ordinary. I expected great things from this fragrance. Things so great that it couldn’t possibly have fulfilled. Perhaps I read so much hype that it’s gone to my head and I wanted laser beams and dinosaurs when all Vol de Nuit had to offer me was pleasant featurette. Vol de Nuit is lovely, for sure. It’s more complex than something made these days but I also expected it to be so much more than this. When the dry down approaches, Vol de Nuit turns into a dense, dark woodsy vanilla spice before fading completely. Very nice. Very much Guerlain. Vol de Nuit still blows most modern fragrances out of the water. But I guess I was just expecting more, especially if you slot it in with the other classics.

Extra: Vol de Nuit is a true Guerlain classic of the likes of Shalimar and Jicky. It was released in 1933 and composed by Jacques Guerlain.

Design: I love Vol de Nuit’s bottle. Colored glass with recessed patterns in the shape of a belt buckle. An interesting circle with the fragrance’s name. Reminds me of Art Deco and the days gone by when the women were like columns and the men wore fedoras.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Hesperedic notes, narcissus., galbanum, oakmoss, woods, iris, vanilla, spices.

Since you’ve probably seen it listed a lot and likely wondered what it means, hesperedic notes are scents reminiscent of florals mixed with citrus peels such as orange, lemon and tangerine. Also you can bet your horses that oakmoss note is either synthetic or has been formulated out. If it hasn’t, I would be shocked and fully expecting it to be phased out soon.

Reviewed in This Post: Vol de Nuit, 2009, Eau de Toilette.

Guerlain Habit Rouge

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Sometimes when people hear a woman admit she’s wearing a men’s fragrance they act surprised. Like it’s a scandal to wear a men’s fragrance. And don’t even start on how people react if you’re a man admitting you’re wearing a women’s fragrance. The truth is, perfumes aren’t constrained by gender. Though some perfumes can be construed as feminine or masculine. The final say on the matter always ends with the individual. If you like it–just wear it. Habit Rouge is one such fragrance where if you like it then just wear it. Habit Rouge

In Bottle: Musky citrus as the opener. After over a month of smelling safe modern fragrances, I was ready for this. Already I can detect the minor Guerlainess in the fragrance as the musk insists that I test this on.

Applied: Citrus opens with a brilliant brightness. I know the version of Habit Rouge I’m smelling is not the same well-loved one that came out in 1965 but it is still a complex and extremely likable fragrance. The best part comes after the citrus as Habit Rogue morphs into a strong but not overpowering sandalwood and floral. The cinnamon in this pops in and out of the picture and continues to do this even during the dry down. The vanilla peeks in on the dry down when Habit Rogue decides that it’s time to go. Along with the vanilla something dense and leathery ushers on in as the fragrance takes a turn for the smoky vanilla and leather darkness that signals its final curtain call. Try and find a scent like this in the recent releases from mainstream houses and you may find it difficult. Habit Rogue remains beautiful even through its reformulations.

Extra: Commonly marketed and considered a men’s fragrance, Habit Rouge, to me is actually more of a unisex scent. It has a slight sweetness to it though its dry down is masculine, its opener is unisex, its heart is feminine. If you wanted a full on masculine scent, look elsewhere. If you want a beautiful unisex fragrance that’s stood the test of time, Habit Rouge it up.

Design: The eau de toilette version, which is the one I tested is a very simple design. Glass rectangular bottle. Red label, metal and plastic cap. Nothing fancy, nothing over the top. I would have loved to see what the other versions were designed like but the EDT packaging was pleasant enough. No frills, no bells and whistles or gimmicks. I like it that way.

Fragrance Family: Oriental

Notes: Bergamot, lemon, rosewood, basil, pimento, sandal, carnation, patchouli, cedar, rose, cinnamon, vanilla, amber, moss, leather, benzoin, labdanum, olibanum .

I had been chasing this one for a while, knowing that’s lovely. It’s dry down reminds me a bit of Shalimar but is a bit grittier and animalistic. It’s the leather, I think.

Reviewed in This Post: Habit Rogue, 2009, Eau de Toilette.

Scent Etiquette

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I’ve noticed etiquette is slowly being passed to the wayside in favor of being edgy and straight to the point. When did society get to be like this? Who knows, but let’s not get all bent out of shape when it comes to how we smell. A few tips for scent etiquette follows, for those of us who enjoy perfumes and those of us who do not: Vanilla Flower

1. Don’t smell.

Sometimes you can’t help the way you smell. You just had a jog, your landlord shut off your water a week ago, you’re used to how you smell and don’t realize it. But for the rest of us with running water and sedentary lives, please, don’t smell. Take a shower, observe basic hygiene, and put some deodorant on. If you have an aversion to scents, they make fragrance free deodorants too. As bad as some perfume lovers overdo their scent, I find the smell of unwashed people worse. You can’t smell like a flower all the time, I know. But please, if you are going to be in close vicinity to others in an enclosed space like an office, have the decency to observe basic hygiene.

2. Realize how strong you smell.

This one’s for you fragrance lovers out there. Perfumes are not all created equal. They all have different longevities and projections. Understand that while you love your fragrance, the people working in the cubicles next to yours may not. If you know you’re going to sit in one cramped room full of people all day, wear your heavy-duty fragrances a little lighter than you normally would. There’s no reason for you to stop wearing perfume. But there’s also no reason to be obnoxious and invade other people with your scent.

3. Your nose is not always the best judge of how strong you smell.

Your nose will become desensitized to the same scent over time. This is mostly for people who stick to a signature scent. If you find your old perfume doesn’t smell quite as nice and strong as it used to, you may be desensitized to it and need to take a break or switch it up a little. When your nose isn’t as good at picking up the scent of your favorite perfume anymore, you might find yourself thinking it’s the perfume and not you. Thus you put more on, creating a cloud of perfume strong enough to clear fields. Ask a friend if you’re coming on too strong with your scent. And when you think you might be desensitized, take a couple days off from wearing it or go perfume shopping for a new fragrance.

4. Beware when freshening up.

Like people with a signature scent whose noses get used to their perfume, you can get used to a perfume during the day too. Smell something long enough and eventually you won’t be able to smell it as much anymore. That’s why it’s important to keep this in mind when you freshen up your fragrance so you don’t end up overdoing it.

5. What you like is not universal.

Just because you enjoy smelling like a certain fragrance doesn’t mean everyone does. People like different things and different smells. You are perfectly entitled to what you like but don’t assume everyone else will.

BPAL: Butter Rum Cookie

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There’s people who can you hook you up at Sephora with a fragrance that smells a little bit like a cookie. And then there’s Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab who can hook you up with a fragrance that smells exactly like a cookie. And what a specific cookie! Butter Rum Cookie

In Bottle: Butter rum cookie smells exactly like its name. It’s not pulling any stops on you, it’s not pretending its something it isn’t, it’s just boozy, sweet cookies.

Applied: First thing’s first, the butter rum cookie you smell in the bottle will be what you smell on your skin when you put this on. It’s a really nice, very well done blend of sweet, pastry, and rum. I smell the rum first on application but the note is so fleeting that it’s gone on me in a few minutes. The rest of the time is occupied by a lightly toasted, very rich cookie note. There’s a very subtle spiciness to this that lingers in the background but for the most part, you’ll get the full deal in the first few minutes with a drop off on the rum and hours and hours of cookie-smelling fun until it all fades into what I can only describe as a lightly floured pan scent.

Extra: This fragrance was released in 2008 as a part of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s Yule season releases.

Design: Butter Rum Cookie is a limited edition fragrance bottled in the standard amber tinted 5ml glass bottle. It has a special label with its name written on it.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Rum, butter note, cookie note, sugar, almond, orange rind.

Butter Rum Cookie was one of my first stepping stones to BPAL. I had a small decant of it in a 1ml vial and after a series of disappointing scents, I was happy to have discovered this. Remember that I came from a background where perfumes were heady and oriental. It shocked me to smell something that was so literal. While the novelty of it has worn off because I’ve since smelled so many other cookie-based fragrances that smell extremely similar to this, I’ll always have that one moment when I said, “Whoa! This smells exactly like a butter rum cookie!”

Reviewed in This Post: Butter Rum Cookie, 2008, 5ml.

BPAL: Dark Chocolate Keylime Truffle

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Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab’s chocolate scents are hit and miss for me. The white chocolates are always misses, as the white chocolate note tends to veer toward milk and heavy cream territory with a faint waft of plastic. Milk chocolate is a rich, sweet, buttery note that can get to be a bit too much. But dark chocolate is the magical medium where sweetness and cocoa mix to form a fantastic balance. Truffle Key Lime

In Bottle: Keylimes! There is a very slight difference between a keylime and a regular lime. Keylimes, to me, are sweeter smelling and have a cleaner, crisper citrus kick to them. In Dark Chocolate Keylime Truffle, the first and only thing I can smell in the bottle are the keylimes and I am okay with that.

Applied: Smelling keylimes always makes me happy. It reminds me of the tropics, most notably, Florida. BPAL did a good job with this note but I’m wondering where the dark chocolate is. A few more minutes in and I finally get faint wafts of cocoa, a hint of sweetness, and a pleasant creamy texture that lends well with Dark Chocolate Keylime Truffle’s gourmand profile. The dark chocolate is a bit fleeting though as it disappears in under an hour and takes the keylime with it leaving me smelling a bit like sweetened milk.

Extra: Dark Chocolate Keylime Truffle was a part of the 2010 chocolate collection from BPAL. The other chocolates in this collection include, Milk Chocolate and Matcha Green Tea Ganache Truffle, White Chocolate Black Raspberry and Apricot Cordial Truffle, Dark Chocolate Whiskey and Cognac Truffle, and Milk Chocolate Coconut Cardamom Rum and Ginger Truffle.

Design: Dark Chocolate Keylime Truffle is contained in a 5ml amber glass bottle with a plastic top. It has a limited edition label with the house name and fragrance name on it.

Fragrance Family: Gourmand

Notes: Cocoa, keylime, sugar, cream.

Reviewed in This Post: Dark Chocolate Keylime Truffle 2010, 5ml.

BPAL Embalming Fluid

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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.

Vera Wang Rock Princess

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Let’s close off this princess trifecta for now with Vera Wang’s Rock Princess, the grown-up version of Princess and Flower Princess. Add some black to the bottle, amp up the dark notes and get ready to smell. Rock Princess

In Bottle: Rock Princess comes off as a fruity floral with a very weird dense foody note backing it up in the bottle. It’s like a mix between sweet, floral, and a really gigantic pile of sweet musk.

Applied: Starts off as a heavy fruity scent with a twist of sugar to sweeten it up. The alcohol that’s lingering on the surface of this is a little distracting too, smells a bit like whiskey. The fruits are also watery and while sweet, they’ve been in the bath a little too long. I’m not quite sure this dark, dense deal is really working out in Rock Princess’ favor as the fruits start melting into the florals turning this into a spoiled fruit-like scent. I’m smelling something slightly bitter at this point which is very awkward and kind of unappealing given how sweet the rest of the fragrance is. Rock Princess is a loud fragrance. Appropriate given its name. It’s so loud that one spritz would probably do it for most people as I had thought the original Princess had a decent enough projection. The dry down to Rock Princess is really the best part. Woodsy, with a hint of coconut and that same clean musk. The sugar is dialed down so I’m assuming Rock Princess thinks you’ve had enough after the cake bombardment.

Extra: Vera Wang is a very famous fashion designer based in The United States. Most people know her for her elegant and contemporary wedding dress collections.

Design: Rock Princess is the same shape and concept as the original Princess. The glass has been painted black though and the topper is now a dark grey. The bottle still pretty much works the same way. I wasn’t feeling Princess or Flower Princess’ bottles for their cutesy heart shape and I’m still not feeling the the design.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: White peach, raspberry, bergamot, heliotrope, rose, night-blooming jasmine, lily, cashmere woods, musk, iris and creamy coconut

I think out of all the three Princess fragrances I’ve tried and smelled, Flower Princess is up front in first place, then Princess followed by this Rock Princess deal here. I didn’t find the scent appealing and it seemed like a mish-mash of stuff that didn’t go together very well. There’s a Glam Princess flanker out now too, I think. I’ll be trying that one at some point I’m sure.

Reviewed in This Post: Rock Princess, 2009, Eau de Toilette.

Vera Wang Flower Princess

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With the wildly popular original Princess, Vera Wang’s Flower Princess flanker is a follow-up that wanted to appeal to cute culture (it exists). Not sure why they had to create a flanker to pitch the Princess line to the cute revolution. The original Princess is practically an embodiment of cute. I don’t even like cute. Flower Princess

In Bottle: Light florals and not a whole lot else. As I understand it, Flower Princess apparently did away with any sense of discretion and amped up the flowers.

Applied: Smells like flowers upon initial spray and top note discovery leads to more flowers. Indescribable flowers that mix into a miasma of floral that I can’t even begin to separate though the mimosa in this peeks its head up from the Flower Princess shaped hole to say hello now and then. Flower Princess is pretty true to her name at this point in time as the concoction of light florals starts dissipating. The mid-stage is very similar to the original princess, that sweet, floral scent though it is missing the dark chocolate note. I actually miss that dark chocolate note. It was my favorite part and it gave the original Princess something to brag about. The dry down is also extremely similar with a warm, vanilla and clean musk exit.

Extra: The thing about Flower Princess’ availability is interesting. It’s permanently available in the Asian market but is a limited edition for everybody else. You can no longer get a bottle of this stuff unless you’re in an Asian country. Why? I don’t know! Probably has to do with the prominence of cute culture in places like Korea and Japan. But if you’re looking to get Flower Princess, hop on a plane.

Design: There isn’t a whole lot of difference between Flower Princess and Princess’ packaging. Actually, I think they’re exactly the same with Flower Princess having a  pinker hue to it and a silver cap instead of gold. Other than that, they’re identical.

Fragrance Family: Floral

Notes: Green ivy, tangerine, water lily, orange flower petals, Moroccan rose, exotic jasmine sambac, mimosa, apricot skin, amber, precious woods, musk.

I found Flower Princess to be a little less invasive on the sweet side though I’m not wild about how uninteresting it is as a flanker. It is just a bit more grown up than the original Princess though.

Reviewed in This Post: Flower Princess, 2008, Eau de Toilette.