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Browsing by tag: annick goutal

Top 10 Summer Fragrances 2012

Posted by Robin on 6 July 2012 108 Comments

orange slice in water

I am a summer person. My favorite thing about spring is that it’s almost summer, and my favorite thing about fall is that sometimes, the summer days linger on longer than expected. I have nothing good at all to say about winter. But we take turns writing the seasonal Top 10 posts for Now Smell This, and somehow it has worked out that I’ve only done the summer list twice, in 2005 and 2007. Either one of those lists1 would take me happily through a summer even now, all these years later, and truth be told, summer is when I wear the least perfume anyway.2 Many days, a light layer of scented lotion is enough fragrance for me, and there are many more days when (horrors!) I wear no fragrance at all.

For this year’s list, I’ve avoided repeats by emphasizing post-2007 fragrances. Most, but not all, of my choices are unisex, and I’ve included niche and mainstream and indie, cheap and not so cheap…

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Annick Goutal La Violette ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 27 April 2012 29 Comments

viola odorataAnnick Goutal La Violette

While Robin has been trying and reviewing Nuit Etoilée, the newest fragrance release from Annick Goutal, I’ve been revisiting Goutal’s La Violette this week. La Violette was developed by perfumer Isabelle Doyen and was originally released in 2001. It has come and gone from the Goutal catalogue over the past few years, but it was recently re-released as part of the company’s quartet of soliflore fragrances, alongside Le Mimosa, Le Muguet and Rose Splendide.

La Violette really does concentrate on the idea of the violet flower; even more, it suggests the crystallized sweetness of candied violets. Its opening is a pure violet note with an aldehydic clarity. The violet soon develops a sugary veil that lasts through the fragrance’s development, although there’s also a light green note and just a breath of spice in the heart to balance out the confectionery effect. La Violette never feels chilly or sharp; overall, it’s a friendly, almost flirty violet…

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Annick Goutal Nuit Etoilee ~ perfume review

Posted by Robin on 26 April 2012 104 Comments

Annick Goutal Nuit Étoilée advert

How much does a perfume’s back story matter to you? It has long been an axiom in the fragrance industry that the back story is key to commercial success. Along with the other design elements — the packaging, the advertising, etc — it ought to help attract the appropriate consumer audience, and to allow the customer to make an emotional connection with the fragrance and the brand. When it works, it works, when it doesn’t…well, that’s essentially why we do the Prix Eau Faux, right? And why young people everywhere rolled their eyes at Calvin Klein In2U (to name just one egregious misfire) before they even smelled it.

I was thinking of all this when I first smelled the latest from Annick Goutal, the unisex fragrance Nuit Étoilée. The name makes reference to Van Gogh’s masterpiece, and the brand’s press materials mention a “dream world” and a solitary communion with nature…

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Annick Goutal Nuit Etoilee ~ new fragrance

Posted by Robin on 2 March 2012 22 Comments

Annick Goutal Nuit Étoilée

Annick Goutal will launch Nuit Étoilée (starry night), a new unisex fragrance, this spring…

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Annick Goutal Mon Parfum Cheri Par Camille ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 6 January 2012 60 Comments

Annick Goutal Mon Parfum Chéri Par Camille

One of the long-running best-sellers in the Annick Goutal line is Petite Chérie (1998), a girlish fruity-floral that Annick Goutal dedicated to her daughter Camille. Camille has now reciprocated by devoting a fragrance to her mother’s memory: it is a spicy floral chypre titled Mon Parfum Chéri par Camille and its composition includes Indonesian patchouli, iris, violet, plum, and heliotropin.

Mon Parfum Chéri par Camille is partially inspired by a vintage solid perfume from Annick Goutal’s fragrance collection (originally a gift from the author Colette!); working with the perfumer Isabelle Doyen, Camille Goutal was also “drawn back to her childhood memories of Hollywood’s wartime movies. Tempting satin. Delicate lace. Actresses and their gloved hands and ruby lips. And a memory of her mother dressing for an evening out…” For me, Mon Parfum Chéri par Camille succeeds in this evocation. It’s old-fashioned, in a full-bodied, self-possessed way, and it really is most appropriate for evening wear (although I normally avoid that kind of fragrance-wearing instruction).

When I sniff Mon Parfum Chéri from the sample vial, I notice plenty of patchouli…

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