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Chanel Gabrielle ~ fragrance review

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Chanel Gabrielle, brand image

How do you feel about Chanel Coco Mademoiselle? Chances are good your answer will say a lot about how you will like Chanel Gabrielle. From first sniff, Gabrielle brings to my mind images of Coco Mademoiselle stuffing her arms into one of Chanel No. 5 Eau Première’s ruffled chiffon dresses. After wearing Gabrielle off and on for a week, my feelings haven’t changed. To me, Gabrielle smells like a Coco Mademoiselle flanker.

Chanel house perfumer Olivier Polge developed Gabrielle. Chanel describes Gabrielle as “an imaginary flower”…

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Galanos by Parfums Galanos ~ fragrance review

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Parfums Galanos

For me, vintage clothing falls into two categories. The first category includes dresses that make a statement because of their obviously unfashionable color, print, and/or cut.1 A Nixon-era shift in a daisy print might fit here, or a full-skirted 1950s day dress. The second category encompasses clothing that seems just a bit out of style from its color or hemline, but that’s easily absorbed into a modern wardrobe. Examples here would be a 1970s saddle leather handbag or a vintage cashmere twin set. The quality of the bag tells you it’s no modern-day mall purchase, and the offbeat robin’s-egg blue of the cashmere cardigan reads more as Doris Day than Taylor Swift, but is easily worn with whatever pair of pants you pull out of your closet.

Galanos from Parfums Galanos fits neatly into the second category…

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Mona di Orio Suede de Suede and Dojima ~ fragrance review

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Mona di Orio Dõjima and Suède de Suède

In my mind, Mona di Orio has always been associated with quirky — and sometimes outright challenging — fragrances. Mona di Orio Nuit Noire is as dark and animalic a fragrance as I’ve ever smelled. Even the perfume house’s single note fragrances such as Vanille and Cuir focus on those materials’ less obvious aspects.

With Dõjima and Suède de Suède, the house made a conscious decision to satisfy “the demand for more accessible fragrances for those who recently discovered niche” by developing “more accessible fragrances to build a bridge to the more complex creations in our collection.” Lucky for us, both fragrances are still likely to be plenty interesting to experienced perfume lovers…

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Aedes de Venustas Pelargonium ~ fragrance review

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Aedes de Venustas Pélargonium

I bet my first experience with pelargoniums — the flower — was like yours. I mistakenly called a pot of vivid red blooms “geraniums” and was promptly corrected. The bright pink and red flowers I’d seen in window boxes and on porches everywhere were pelargoniums. As my non-gradener mind understands it, geraniums are more sedate, with less showy flowers and, sometimes, scented leaves. Pelargoniums are the cheerful annuals sold by the flat at Home Depot.

So, what does this have to do with Aedes de Venustas Pélargonium? Like its namesake, Pélargonium is vibrant, with crisp edges and big presence…

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Papillon Perfumery Dryad ~ fragrance review

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dandelion seeds

Soft, soft, soft. That’s how I’d describe Papillon Perfumery Dryad. When I was a kid, we used to pull cattails from the creek bed and twist their velvety tops open, releasing clouds of “fairies” into the breeze. Smelling Dryad is like chasing these seeds as they float in a meadow. It’s all about texture.

Papillon’s founder Liz Moores created Dryad, and its notes include narcissus, oakmoss, jonquil, costus, galbanum, clary sage, deer tongue, cedrat, benzoin, lavender, thyme and orris. When Moores describes Dryad, she talks about the aroma of the forest surrounding her home and mentions that Dryad will smell familiar to lovers of Miss Dior and vintage Vol de Nuit…

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