LesNez Turtle Vetiver Front & Tableau de Parfums Dark Passage ~ fragrance reviews

Posted by Robin on 15 March 2012 41 Comments

Today, I’m looking at two niche fragrances: LesNez Turtle Vetiver Front and Tableau de Parfums Dark Passage. They don’t really have all that much in common other than that they’re both limited edition fragrances made in support of outside projects. Oh, and I like them both.

LesNez Turtle Vetiver Front

Turtle Vetiver Front is the latest from Swiss niche line LesNez. It’s the second in their series of vetiver fragrances made in support of the Turtle “anarchic” salon (about which I know nearly nothing, but you can read more here). Vetiver Front was developed by perfumer Isabelle Doyen, and I adored her first in the series, Turtle Vetiver Exercise No. 1. I thought of Exercise No. 1 (which I believe is now sold out) as a kind of vetiver for vetiver freaks…

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XerJoff Irisss and Richwood ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 20 December 2010 83 Comments

Normally, I would keep my distance from a perfume house like XerJoff. I mean, why break my heart? Even XerJoff’s refill bottles start at $270 for 50 ml, and let’s not even get started on the cost of the quartz or Murano bottles. At these prices, Amouage begins to look like a bargain. But fate intervened when XerJoff asked me to help write copy for their new brochure. Not only did I get to sample all of the XerJoff fragrances, I was paid in perfume. Two bottles of it. I chose Irisss and one of the new releases, Richwood.

Over the years, I’ve learned that things that are truly beautiful evoke a physical response. Who hasn’t hovered on the brink of tears at a moving piece of music or gasped at a turn in the road revealing a breathtaking sweep of scenery? Even the mundane can be beautiful that way: Just last night I had a bite of roast lamb with truffled leeks and parsnips that made my heart beat faster. For me, both Irisss and Richwood elicited the sharp, physical thrill of beauty when I first smelled them.

Jacques Flori, the nose behind Etro Messe de Minuit, Etro Shaal Nur, and Amouage Opus IV, composed Irisss Eau de Parfum. Its notes include Florentine iris butter, carrot seed, rose, jasmine, ylang ylang absolute, violet leaves, vetiver, and cedarwood. To me, Irisss is a Monte Carlo showstopper of an iris — almost bigger and more lush than real life. In short, Irisss is to iris as Guerlain Nahéma is to rose…

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Ed Hardy Born Wild, Honore des Pres Love Coco, Crabtree & Evelyn Iris ~ quick perfume reviews

Posted by Robin on 9 December 2010 36 Comments

It’s beginning to dawn on me that I will not clear out my sample backlog by the end of the year, in fact, I’m thinking maybe I will never clear my sample backlog. All the same, it doesn’t hurt to try, right? Here are a few more unrelated quickie perfume reviews.

Ed Hardy Born Wild

Ed Hardy Born Wild perfume

Ed Hardy’s fourth fragrance for women, Born Wild, is just what you’d expect — a sweet-ish, middle-of-the-road fruity floral in their signature tattoo-inspired packaging. The fruit du jour: peach. Born Wild is light (think spring/summer rather than winter/fall), clean and inoffensive, and the lasting power is reasonable enough…

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Serge Lutens Bas de Soie ~ perfume review

Posted by Robin on 26 August 2010 103 Comments

Blue Moon silk stockings

…I’d rather say that it is a perfume at the center of doubt; that the beam balance never settles between iris and hyacinth in the main accord, which is what makes the composition interesting. — Serge Lutens

It is rare that Serge Lutens says anything about his own fragrances that I find helpful, but in this case — he was doing an interview with Grain de Musc — he has so neatly summed up the experience of wearing his new Bas de Soie (silk stockings) that only a few more details need to be added.

First, the iris is that cosmetics-powder sort of iris, far from the turnips and dirt-caked roots of Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist. The whole fragrance is cold and spiky early on, and very peppery, and the hyacinth is green and slightly bitter; later, Bas de Soie is warmer, softer and sweeter, and as advertised, the two notes seem to weave in and out (or struggle for control, depending on your outlook) for hours without ceasing until it rather suddenly fades away…

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Donna Karan Iris ~ perfume review

Posted by Robin on 5 March 2010 65 Comments

iris iris

Iris is the first new fragrance to join the Donna Karan Collection, which up until now was made up entirely of relaunches from the line’s back catalog. The Collection scents are all done up in opaque black glass; the packaging is handsome if rather functional looking (see below) and the bottles have a nice heft. They’re in limited distribution, making this a sort of niche-from-mainstream kind of line along the lines of the Chanel Les Exclusifs or the Armani Privés, although the prices are more reasonable than that perhaps implies.

On paper, Donna Karan Iris smells at first mostly of iris — not the rooty, bold, turnips-just-pulled-from-the-earth sort of iris à la Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist, but the buttery-soft sort of iris that you get in Chanel’s 28 La Pausa, albeit without that elusive Chanel touch that makes so many of the Les Exclusifs fragrances smell like money. Later, Iris takes on a more floral character…

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LesNez Turtle Vetiver Front & Tableau de Parfums Dark Passage ~ fragrance reviews