Songes is the latest fragrance release from the house of Annick Goutal. It was created by Camille Goutal in collaboration with perfumer Isabelle Doyen, and was said to have been inspired by the scent of frangipani flowers at sunset on the island of Mauritius. The notes are frangipani, tiare, jasmine notes, incense, vanilla, copahu balm, pepper, ylang-ylang absolute, vetiver, sandalwood, amber and styrax.
Songes starts with a trio of tropical flowers…
Since Frederic Malle’s Carnal Flower turned out to be so quiet and well behaved for a white floral, I thought I’d try a little shock therapy today. I’m wearing Olène by Diptyque, created by perfumer Serge Kalouguine and released in 1988. The notes are listed, not very helpfully, as wisteria and narcissus.
Olène is probably the sort of fragrance that creates a white-floral-hater. The first 15 minutes are heady, to put it lightly: an explosion of honeysuckle, and not just any old honeysuckle, but a very sweet honeysuckle. On steroids. That calms gradually — you won’t want to spray this on and walk right into an elevator full of innocent bystanders — into a lush blend of florals, with the wisteria and narcissus as promised, along with quite a bit of jasmine and a light musky base…
I recently had the opportunity (thanks Beth!) to try 2 scents by JAR Parfums, the line created by Paris jeweller Joel Arthur Rosenthal. Devotees of obscure niche fragrances are accustomed to having to jump through hoops in order to get their hands on a fragrance, but JAR surpasses even Serge Lutens in terms of making his perfumes unavailable to the hoi polloi. They can only be purchased in-person at his shop on the rue de Castiglione in Paris, and run upwards of $200 an ounce (way, way upwards).
At one time, you could see a list of the fragrances on the JAR website, along with an explanation to the effect that samples were not available because it was better to try the fragrances in person. Apparently that was more information than the company cares to divulge to strangers: the website now displays the address and store hours, nothing more…