Hello, favorite lusty floral of the moment! That’s me talking to Grandiflora Queen of the Night. (Hey, some people talk to plants. I talk to perfume, all right?) Another floral fragrance might come along to take its place, but for me, right now, the rich floral, black fruit, and pollen-powder notes of Queen of the Night are what I crave.
Perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour developed Queen of the Night…
Amouage gives us two takes on Myths Woman. The first is the one-liner describing the fragrance: “Inspired by surrealism, Myths for Woman paints its floral and green facets with an expression of dark nuances shaded with an ambivalent tone.” (If you can decipher this, let me know.) The second is this video, loaded with swirling red fabric and music that reads as “Asian tribal.”
I agree that Myths Woman tells a story, but to me it has nothing to do with surrealism or swirling fabric. My impression is of Barbara Stanwyck in the pre-code classic, Baby Face…
(Relatively) quick reviews of Morn to Dusk from Eau d’Italie and the Giverny in Bloom collection from Dawn Spencer Hurwitz.
The oddly-named Morn to Dusk is the latest from Italian niche line Eau d’Italie; it promises a “sensual feeling that wraps like a veil of gold, from morning till the sun sets” and “the Italian way to Vanilla: simply irresistible”. That translates into a sheer, summer-weight vanilla musk…
I haven’t reviewed anything from French niche line Neela Vermeire Créations so far, primarily because I know Neela — in the online sense; we’ve never met in person. Pichola so caught my fancy that I’ve been wearing it for weeks, though, and this time I couldn’t resist. Do see my disclaimer below.1
Pichola is named for Lake Pichola, and looking over images of the lake and its palace-studded islands is a pleasant way to while away your morning online, if you were in need of one. So like the other perfumes in the Neela Vermeire Créations line, Pichola was inspired by India. Perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour’s composition, like that of his recent Ostara for Penhaligon’s, comes with a long list of notes…
That’s right, pretty…not necessarily interesting, or genius, or iconic (although some of them may fit into those categories too). Just pretty. If spring is taking a long time to arrive in your neck of the woods, any of these five will serve to keep your spirits up while you wait, and I would be surprised if most of my picks haven’t appeared on one or another of our Top 10 of Spring lists (the 2015 installment, by the way, is coming up in a couple weeks). As always, do add your own picks in the comments.
Frédéric Malle En Passant: We really don’t get enough lilac fragrances, and when we do get a new one, my tendency is to compare the newcomer to En Passant and find it wanting…