Dans Tes Bras Frederic Malle

It was during my search for the perfect violet two years ago that I met Dans Tes Bras and the Frederic Malle Editions de Parfums, of which I am a devotee. 

Dans Tes Bras did not have a promising opening to match its affectionate name and we almost gave up on the relationship from there. It started out chilly and metallic, nothing like the fresh sweet violets of Annick Goutal's La Violette or the Ophelia-like Apres L'ondee, it seemed more a relative to the hyper green Les Nez's Unicorn Spell and the astral violet Stephen Jones by Comme des Garcons. "It's Maurice Roucel," I said to myself and kept faith even though this was clearly not going to be Guerlain's pouting candied violet Insolence Eau de Parfum. 

So Dans Tes Bras stepped in from the icy cold, letting in the arctic wind that sent me into a recoil. Sensing my distress, he chased the chilly elements out and closed the door of our mountain home, made of rough hewn logs and stone with walls of leaded glass. I jumped up for a cuddle, happy that he was home and stayed in his arms for a long moment, breathing in the combination of my favourite slightly powdery sweet violet perfume and the outdoorsy smell of musk and woods rising from his skin heated up from his morning workout outside. The smell of intimacy.

  And we lived happily ever after. 

Dans Tes Bras keeps close to you like a security blanket or a comforting hug and hangs around for a very long time. Like until you shower and wash your clothes. Worth at least a sample if you enjoy violets and skin musks. Clean skin. Just ride out the strange hospital 90% alcohol antiseptic opening. 

Vanitas Profumum Roma

Vanitas is a vanilla-centric scent, another in the line-up of olfactory antidepressants from Profumum Roma that are decadent without one piling on the pounds.

The opening is bordering on medicinal, the myrrh being responsible for that and it's a little cold and bitter initially. The myrrh here reminds me of Annick Goutal's Myrrh Ardente, which started out similarly with a cold resinous vibe but warmed to a smooth and subtle dark sweetness on me. In Vanitas, I smell the orange blossom and woody notes but they blend so seamlessly with the vanilla and myrrh. As it starts to warm on skin the bitterness and medicine melt away and it develops into a sweet resinous vanilla. It's not complex or profound but it is obviously of good quality ingredients and has an air of sophistication, which makes it different from your usual vanilla line up found in department stores and worn by teeny boppers.

The Profumum Roma line is expensive no doubt, but they are sold in travel sprays of 20 ml for about 60 Euro versus the 190 Euro for 100 ml. Unless you choose to have just this one perfume, I don't think a 100 ml is necessary as it is a very tenacious scent although with a soft trail and a little bit goes a very very VERY long way.

This is a scent for cuddling and lazing in bed on the weekends, it's so comforting, light-hearted and filled with positive vibes. I don't find it a "sexy" vanilla like for instance Dior's Addict which is a vampy vanilla, instead I liken Vanitas to the sweet and charming Snow White of 1937. On a different note, it also makes me crave for Sabayon. 

Vanitas Vanitatum, Omnia Vanitas “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

I did some research on the word "Vanitas"and it's as bittersweet as the myrrh and vanilla in the perfume. In Latin, it literally translates to "vanity" and is used to mean "emptiness" or "futility". Ecclesiastes 1:2;12:8 from the Old Testament, is often associated with this term and in the book he proclaims all the actions of man to be  inherently futile as the lives of both wise and foolish men end the same, in death. So as humans, we are powerless over the transience of life, but while we have life, we should enjoy every day of it, but our actions being kept in checked by following the 10 Commandments. Or simply put, do whatever you want so long as you hurt nobody or yourself in the process.

After that slightly grim note, I shall leave you with something more positive. Carpe diem!