Demeter recently introduced a sampling program, and all fragrances are now available in 11 ml splash sizes for $3 each. Starting in July, Demeter will replace the smaller size with new "Humongous Miniatures", 15 ml splash bottles for $5.
The Humongous Miniatures will be available on the Demeter website only. Around the holidays, look for a set of all 200+ scents from the Demeter Fragrance Library in 15 ml splash bottles.
I had originally meant to include White Aoud in yesterday’s review of Black Aoud, but ran out of time. Today’s post is thus something of a postscript, and if you aren’t already familiar with Montale’s oudh line, you might want to start by reading the Black Aoud review. White Aoud features notes of rose, saffron, oudh, cardamom, jasmine, patchouli, sandalwood, precious wood, amber, vetiver, vanilla and labdanum.
White Aoud starts out sweet. It probably only counts as very sweet in comparison to the bone-dry Black Aoud, but still, the sweetness masks most of the medicinal notes in the opening: White Aoud doesn’t scream “agarwood!” to the same degree as Black Aoud. There is the same rose and wood, and a touch of Black Aoud’s leather, but in White Aoud the result is creamier and paler, and muted by a light dusting of powder. It feels like a spicy floral underscored by dark woods rather than the other way around, and the vanilla in the dry down gives it something of a comfort scent feel. Between Black Aoud, White Aoud and Aoud Roses Petals, White Aoud is the one I would wear to tea — it has none of Black Aoud’s raw edge, and while all the Aoud scents feel unisex, White Aoud is a bit more feminine…
Paco Rabanne will follow up on 2005's Black XS For Him with a new fragrance for “trendy girls and rebel princesses”, Black XS For Her. The new scent is “feminine and sensuous, evolving from fruity to floral to woody notes”:
Emilie Coppermann and Marc Buxton (Symrise) built the fragrance around a heart of hellebore rose, with tamarind blossom, pink peppercorns and cranberry in the sharp, fresh top note…
They want something that lasts, and if they get comments about it, that becomes one of ‘their’ fragrances. Men tend to stick to the fragrances they pick up in their youth.
You can tell the age of a man by the fragrances he uses.
— Michael Edwards (author of Perfume Legends), quoted in The minefield of manly smells in The Age.