Saturday, September 14, 2013
Histoires de Parfums - 1899 Ernest Hemingway
As I've written about before, Histoires de Parfums is one of the most consistent perfume houses around today. They create rich, complex, long-lasting perfumes, not just smells. Their new fragrance, 1899, continues the house's streak of quality perfumes. In fact this is one of their best yet, and intriguingly its success comes from revisiting previous themes. Just as 1889 (Moulin Rouge) revisited and expanded the iris themes found in Tubereuse 1 (Capricieuse), 1899 (Ernest Hemingway) revisits themes from 1969. The two fragrances are quite similar, especially in the near-gourmand aspects of the top and middle notes. But 1899 fixes 1969's big problem - its disappointing base - by filling out the base with vetiver and spices; and it adds a wonderful citrus topnote as well. The good parts are kept: the deliciously warm spicy-vanillic heart of 1969 is also in 1899. I don't know if this reminds me of Hemingway - HdP's tobacco-smoky Tubereuse 3 (Animale) seems much closer to that brief - but no matter, this is exceptional work, and it stands along with 1828 (Jules Verne) as HdP's best evocation of warm spice and woods.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Serge Lutens - Iris Silver Mist
It's funny that the two perfumes I am familiar with by nose Maurice Roucel - Lutens' Iris Silver Mist and Frederic Malle's Musc Ravageur - are pretty much total opposites, tonally. Musc Ravageur is opulent and one of the few full-on gourmands that I really like. Iris Silver Mist, on the other hand, is a nut punch, a take-no-prisoners iris fragrance that also happens to be beautiful in its austerity. I'm a sucker for iris, so I am already predisposed to like this, and goddamn but this says IRIS in every way. Like the best takes on pure iris - Chanel's 28 La Pausa and Prada's Infusion d'Iris Absolue* are the other two first-in-class irises in my opinion - Iris Silver Mist doesn't try to tone down iris's natural boniness. Attempts to brighten iris up end poorly** (cf Iris Poudre, one of the few missteps in the Frederic Malle catalog), not just because it's a bad aesthetic choice but because it's just straight-up inappropriate, like clown makeup on a corpse.
So yeah, Iris Silver Mist is beautiful AND kind of scary, and Roucel had the admirable conviction to amp up even the carroty, dirt-like carrot root facet of iris. Too bad it's only available in person at the New York Barney's like the rest of Lutens' exclusive line, and it's really too bad that it's a butt-clenching $300 for a 75ml bottle. That's fucking ridiculous even for a best-in-class iris like this, especially when 28 La Pausa and Infusion d'Iris Absolue can be gotten for a fraction of that price.***
*Infusion d'Iris Absolue is currently going for around $60 for a new 100ml bottle on ebay, a shockingly good deal for such a fantastic fragrance.
**The one exception is Jean-Claude Ellena's masterful L'Eau d'Hiver, perhaps because the iris/heliotrope combination is remarkably effective or perhaps also because Ellena is a fucking genius.
***This is not to say that $300 is an unreasonable price to pay for any fragrance. But at that price point the fragrance should be a) exceptional; b) better than similar fragrances that are cheaper; and c) long-lasting. Portrait of a Lady and Carnal Flower, for example, justify their (kind of terrifying) price tags by meeting all three of these criteria. Iris Silver Mist only satisfies a).
So yeah, Iris Silver Mist is beautiful AND kind of scary, and Roucel had the admirable conviction to amp up even the carroty, dirt-like carrot root facet of iris. Too bad it's only available in person at the New York Barney's like the rest of Lutens' exclusive line, and it's really too bad that it's a butt-clenching $300 for a 75ml bottle. That's fucking ridiculous even for a best-in-class iris like this, especially when 28 La Pausa and Infusion d'Iris Absolue can be gotten for a fraction of that price.***
*Infusion d'Iris Absolue is currently going for around $60 for a new 100ml bottle on ebay, a shockingly good deal for such a fantastic fragrance.
**The one exception is Jean-Claude Ellena's masterful L'Eau d'Hiver, perhaps because the iris/heliotrope combination is remarkably effective or perhaps also because Ellena is a fucking genius.
***This is not to say that $300 is an unreasonable price to pay for any fragrance. But at that price point the fragrance should be a) exceptional; b) better than similar fragrances that are cheaper; and c) long-lasting. Portrait of a Lady and Carnal Flower, for example, justify their (kind of terrifying) price tags by meeting all three of these criteria. Iris Silver Mist only satisfies a).
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Whistlin as I walk by the haters
Amouage artistic director Christopher Chong is currently trolling the shit out of Basenotes and it is pretty hilarious. Bonus troll points to the Basenoter who complains that Amouage, a house based primarily around incense, is too smoky (!!!).
Hermes - Un Jardin Sur Le Toit and Jour d'Hermes
I am a big fan of Jean-Claude Ellena. If I organize my fragrances by nose his fragrances represent by far a plurality, maybe even a majority. I've been less fond of his recent perfumes, though, perhaps because he has reached a stage in his career where his work consists on tight variations on a single theme, namely a particular (and very good) vegetal/mineralic theme in a stripped-down key. For better or worse, two of his recent works for Hermes are again a return to this theme.
Un Jardin Sur Le Toit is the newest in the Jardin series. It is a good fragrance, no question, but if you have any of the others this will not be new to you: swap out the mango in Jardin Sur Le Nil for bright, tart apple and et voila. If you're unfamiliar with the series then this is as good a place to start as any but I can't say this evokes strong emotions. The danger of Ellena's brand of stripped-down directness is that it can sacrifice beauty for simplicity. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but at a certain point one wants more to eat than just a well-plated appetizer.
Jour d'Hermes fares better. It's a feminine fragrance in the modern style which Ellena himself had a big part in creating: limpid and serene, the floral equivalent of a freshly scrubbed face with no adornment. The notes are seamlessly blended; individual flowers can't be discerned. On the floral fragrance axis with soliflores on one end, Jour d'Hermes defines the opposite end. Ellena's vegetal base again makes a welcome appearance here. How much one likes this will be a matter of taste: if you prefer Ellena's style to the bolder florals of classic French perfumery then you most certainly will want this. As for me, I like my florals to be grander, along the lines of Amouage's massive Honour Woman; but I certainly wouldn't turn it down if someone gave me a bottle of Jour d'Hermes.
Un Jardin Sur Le Toit is the newest in the Jardin series. It is a good fragrance, no question, but if you have any of the others this will not be new to you: swap out the mango in Jardin Sur Le Nil for bright, tart apple and et voila. If you're unfamiliar with the series then this is as good a place to start as any but I can't say this evokes strong emotions. The danger of Ellena's brand of stripped-down directness is that it can sacrifice beauty for simplicity. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but at a certain point one wants more to eat than just a well-plated appetizer.
Jour d'Hermes fares better. It's a feminine fragrance in the modern style which Ellena himself had a big part in creating: limpid and serene, the floral equivalent of a freshly scrubbed face with no adornment. The notes are seamlessly blended; individual flowers can't be discerned. On the floral fragrance axis with soliflores on one end, Jour d'Hermes defines the opposite end. Ellena's vegetal base again makes a welcome appearance here. How much one likes this will be a matter of taste: if you prefer Ellena's style to the bolder florals of classic French perfumery then you most certainly will want this. As for me, I like my florals to be grander, along the lines of Amouage's massive Honour Woman; but I certainly wouldn't turn it down if someone gave me a bottle of Jour d'Hermes.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
New Amouage in June - Fate
Um shaking and crying rn and maybe also just pooped myself a bit and there's definitely some pee because a very helpful person on Basenotes has informed us that there is a new Amouage coming soon, perhaps even in a few weeks? And I am SO EXCITED? Question mark? Just look at this bottle! Good lord! I love Amouage very much and I may have to sell my cats to raise money for these. Just kidding, I love my cats, I won't sell them. I'm totally selling them.
UPDATE: It looks as though Fate won't make it to the US market until September. Fate Man will be $400 and Fate Woman will be $435. Yeeeikes. Soon we will yearn for the days of $300 bottles of Amouage. I expect at least half of the cost of the bottle goes towards Amouage's flash animation budget.
UPDATE: It looks as though Fate won't make it to the US market until September. Fate Man will be $400 and Fate Woman will be $435. Yeeeikes. Soon we will yearn for the days of $300 bottles of Amouage. I expect at least half of the cost of the bottle goes towards Amouage's flash animation budget.
Frederic Malle - Portrait of a Lady
Because I'm an irascible contrarian, I was prepared to reject Portrait of a Lady because the guys on Basenotes are ALL OVER IT and I don't really like the idea of agreeing with people who treat batch numbers on Creed fragrances like a Kabbalistic key to the universe.* But goddammit they're right: this is really, really good, a modern classic even.
Frederic Malle is a fantastic house and all of their fragrances share a near-obsessive focus on perfect balance. If I was forced to pick a favorite fragrance of all time it might well be Malle's Une Fleur de Cassie, a jaw-dropping masterwork of clockwork precision. And once again Malle shows how it's done with Portrait of a Lady (which btw A++ trolling by giving that name to your very unisex fragrance and confusing all of the poor dudes who are obsessed with ZOMG IS THIS FRAGRANCE FOR A LADY OR NOT? AM I ALLOWED TO WEAR IT??). This is not, on the face of it, a complex fragrance. The notes are clear and perfectly discernible: there is rose and there is patchouli and I don't smell much else. But what there is, is balance. To get a rose this sturdy, a patchouli this . . . well, woody and un-hippy, and to have the whole package be so pleasing and addictive, must be the result of a whole lot of other stuff going on behind the scenes; and so yes, there must be a high level of complexity going on here, but it is hidden behind a deceptively simple facade. As a nice bonus this stuff lasts about 80 million hours on the skin, give or take an hour.
*n.b. All snark aside I like Basenotes a lot. No offense, Aventus-obsessed dudes!
Frederic Malle is a fantastic house and all of their fragrances share a near-obsessive focus on perfect balance. If I was forced to pick a favorite fragrance of all time it might well be Malle's Une Fleur de Cassie, a jaw-dropping masterwork of clockwork precision. And once again Malle shows how it's done with Portrait of a Lady (which btw A++ trolling by giving that name to your very unisex fragrance and confusing all of the poor dudes who are obsessed with ZOMG IS THIS FRAGRANCE FOR A LADY OR NOT? AM I ALLOWED TO WEAR IT??). This is not, on the face of it, a complex fragrance. The notes are clear and perfectly discernible: there is rose and there is patchouli and I don't smell much else. But what there is, is balance. To get a rose this sturdy, a patchouli this . . . well, woody and un-hippy, and to have the whole package be so pleasing and addictive, must be the result of a whole lot of other stuff going on behind the scenes; and so yes, there must be a high level of complexity going on here, but it is hidden behind a deceptively simple facade. As a nice bonus this stuff lasts about 80 million hours on the skin, give or take an hour.
*n.b. All snark aside I like Basenotes a lot. No offense, Aventus-obsessed dudes!
Amouage - Epic Man and Epic Woman
Um oh my god, Amouage Epic Woman is the best. THE BEST. This may be my favorite in the entire line, which is saying something because Amouage has a seriously impressive lineup of fragrances. At least it is tied with Jubilation XXV, which is my other nominee for best in show. Everyone is doing oud now and it's pretty fucking tired, to be honest; but if there's one house who really should do an oud it's Amouage and they killed it with this one. What makes Epic Woman work is that it's not just an oud; it's based around the genius triple combination of oud, rose and tea. None of these notes dominate; this is a highly complex fragrance in the classic Amouage style. It is a truly brilliant idea to pair oud with tea, the kind of brilliant idea that once you smell it you're amazed nobody has done it before: the sour medicinal quality of the oud note is perfectly complemented by the light airiness of the tea note. The whole thing is rounded off by a pleasing burst of spices in the top notes. Masterful. If I have one small complaint it's that the lasting power is not as long as I expect from an Amouage -- the warm vanillic/incense drydown appears a bit too fast for me -- but with a fragrance this beautiful, this unexpected, it seems churlish to complain.
On the other hand, Epic Man is dull. It's a generic men's oud which means there's not much here. Yes, it's made with good ingredients, and if you want a standard par-for-the-course oud you could definitely do worse, but why would you want that? If you do, I'm judging you right now.
On the other hand, Epic Man is dull. It's a generic men's oud which means there's not much here. Yes, it's made with good ingredients, and if you want a standard par-for-the-course oud you could definitely do worse, but why would you want that? If you do, I'm judging you right now.
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