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Browsing by tag: chypre

Rochas Mystere ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 12 November 2012 49 Comments

Mystere de Rochas advert

So many perfumes smell like things we know: flowers, fruit, wood, food, spice and funk. A few fragrances — mostly created before the disco era, it seems — are more difficult to pin down. They smell only of themselves. They’re sophisticated, and they’re undoubtedly a challenge to fall in love with in the thirty seconds most perfume shoppers these days take before making the decision to purchase. Rochas Mystère is that kind of fragrance.

In response to a post a few weeks ago, a commenter lamented Mystère’s disappearance. I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my decant, a bonus in a swap years ago, shoddily labeled with scotch tape and a sharpie. As fate would have it, I stumbled over a bottle of Mystère Eau de Parfum at Goodwill just a few days later…

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Gucci L’Arte di Gucci ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 16 May 2011 83 Comments

L'Arte di Gucci advertL'Arte di Gucci advert

A long time ago I read an interview with Donatella Versace in which she said wearing red lipstick with a red dress was bourgeois. She suggested pink lipstick instead. I get that. Red lipstick with a red dress is predictable, a hackneyed suggestion of seduction or power. Pink with red is a surprise that makes you look twice.

Sometimes, though, you don’t want to mess around with subtlety. You don’t want to play cute or artsy — you want to get to the point. A red dress with red lipstick will do just that. So will the perfume world’s version of red on red: a rose chypre. Gucci L’Arte di Gucci makes the point better than most.

L’Arte di Gucci launched in 1991. Its bottle, a glam concoction of asymmetry and gold, is a good representation of its contents. L’Arte di Gucci goes on sharp with a fanfare of green and rose, dirtied by cardamom. (Honestly, a fanfare. Don’t squirt the bottle while your honey’s still asleep, or you might wake him with the olfactory racket.) The fragrance shimmers with hints of orange, aldehydes, and cassis as it settles…

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Liz Earle Botanical Essence No. 1 ~ fragrance review

Posted by Robin on 1 June 2010 50 Comments

Liz Earle Botanical Essence No. 1

I confess I know absolutely nothing about the Liz Earle brand other than that they were purchased by Avon earlier this year. They’re based in the UK and apparently known for their skincare, and they might well be widely adored — my skincare routine was fixed years ago, and I do not stray. Anyway, they released their first fragrance, Botanical Essence No. 1, last year, and this is one of those rare times when I’m reviewing a fragrance only because a PR company sent me a bottle — I had never seen Botanical Essence No. 1 in a store and had no plans to seek it out. Since it turns out to be a fragrance I love, I’m glad it showed up in the mail, and I’ll be very sorry to see it go.1

Botanical Essence No. 1 is “over 98% directly derived from natural ingredients”, and we all know natural ingredients are usually not as potent or long-lasting as synthetic ingredients, right? The press release recommends that you “spritz all over or spray above and let the mist envelop you”, so the first time I tried Botanical Essence No. 1, I sprayed with more abandon than I normally would, and was promptly overwhelmed. Two things went through my mind simultaneously: one, I was going to have to take a shower, pronto, and two, what on earth is in that other 2%? But no, it calmed rapidly…

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Christian Dior Diorling, Vintage & New ~ perfume review

Posted by Angela on 12 March 2008 29 Comments

Christian Dior Diorling fragrance

Last night before I went out for a drink with a friend, I sprayed one Eau de Toilette on my left wrist and another on my right wrist. I went into the living room, held out my arms wrists up, and said to my friend, “What do you think of these perfumes?”

She sniffed each wrist and said, “This one smells kind of light and alcohol-y. That one is a diva. It’s really strong and reminds me of something…”

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Three Fierce Green Chypres: Sisley Eau du Soir, Parfumerie Generale Corps et Ames, and Niki de Saint Phalle

Posted by Angela on 23 October 2007 70 Comments

Niki de Saint Phalle perfume

When people talk about big, knock-‘em-out scents, they often mean white florals like Robert Piguet Fracas or Annick Goutal Passion or heady 1980s orientals like Yves Saint Laurent Opium and Chanel Coco. I’d like to add another category of perfume to this list: the fierce green chypre. I’m not talking about a moody green chypre like Jacomo Silences or a modulated green chypre like Estée Lauder Private Collection. I mean a no-apologies, cuts-like-a-knife, love-it-or-loathe-it green chypre. At the top of the list of fierce green chypres are Sisley Eau du Soir, Parfumerie Générale Corps et Ames, and Niki de Saint Phalle.

A fierce green chypre isn’t easy to wear…

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