Fiori d'Ambra Profumum Roma

Desirability: Decant

Source: www.parfumneroli.hu

Having already tried and been won over by another amber from Profumum Roma namely Ambra Aurea, I had high hopes of falling in love with Fiori d'Ambra. Well it's not quite a love but it's a firm like. 

I don't particularly like overly powdery ambers and well Fiori d'Ambra did start rather floral powdery and dry on me, giving it a vintage air similar to the scented drawer sheets my mother used to line her armoire until they went out of production like a decade ago. Thankfully the powder blows away revealing a spicy floral heart both dark and beguiling with a strange herbal vibe about it that isn't unpleasant but is well, strange. A smooth semi sweet amber enters unobtrusively and with time the scent has this balmy "glowing coals in a grate" effect. 

It has a much smaller presence than the booming personality of its relative Ambra Aurea and Fiori d'Ambra seems to perform a appearing/disappearing act throughout the day so rest assured it lasts a good while even if discreetly. 

Myrrh Casati Mona di Orio

Desirability: Adoption by a more appreciative nose

Opens with a strong waxy note, literally like sniffing a candle-stick up close. There is the sweet and herbal almost medicinal smell of licorice which thankfully is moderated here as I like licorice only in smaller doses. Faint spices and a soft green mossy base.   

Myrrh Casati was an OK experience but not something I'm enthusiastic to repeat. The candle wax didn't sit well with me and I found the scent overall to be a bit too lifeless despite its promising roll call of notes.  Myrrh or resins in general invoke images of warmth and feelings of passion, both of heart and hearth but Myrrh Casati feels impersonal and dispassionate or in a word, bland. 

It has little projection and the longevity could be improved on, I got about a couple of hours tops on two different trials.  I've liked pretty much all that I've tried from Mona di Orio thus far and I love the reformulated Nuit Noire as well as a few from the Les Nombres D'Or range. However I hit a rut with Myrrh Casati which is probably a good thing for my finances. 

Terralba Masque

Desirability: Sample

Source: twistedlily.com

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." Khalil Gibran

Refreshing. Citrus. Woody. Aromatic. Herbal. Salty? Breathing in Terralba feels as stress-relieving and invigorating as practising ujjayi breathing. A cool salt-encrusted breeze carried in from the sea, tinged with sour citrus fruit, filtered through endless forests green and brown before reaching you sitting perched on a rocky ledge with an eagle's eye view of miles of unspoiled nature. I'll put a gin and tonic in the picture as juniper is egging me on to give it airtime. 

I would like this as a room fragrance or to smell it on another person but not something to wear personally. I need my intense brooding Orientals and this as pleasant as it is, is too vegetal! Still, I recommend at least sampling this. Uniquely weird yet nice. 

CiocoSpesizissimo Hilde Soliani

Desirability: Sample

Source: Fragrantica

The opening of CiocoSpesizissimo smells quite similar to CiocoRosissimo except that the rose note is replaced with green aromatic spices. I scrounged around my mother's kitchen searching for basil to do a side by side comparison since basil is listed as a note in CiocoSpesizissimo (seriously where do these names come from?) but I can't honestly say I smell basil but I do smell green herbs( in general) and mixed spices sort of like an all spice blend. Same level of sweetness as in CiocoRosissimo, which is not too sweet at all, the chocolate here being of the bitter dark chocolate variety but whilst in CiocoRosissimo the chocolate does a disappearing act before the drydown, here it stays put throughout, keeping the green spices company. 

CiocoSpesizissimo has a light projection but good longevity and overall is quite natural smelling if unusual (mint chocolate I have tried but aromatic herbal chocolate?). Its piquancy mellows over time and the scent gradually grows cosier and woody, bringing to mind the smell of freshly shaved wood planks. The development from the initial verdant-ness to the woodiness in the drydown makes me think of seasons changing from summer's vivid greens and blues to autumnal reds and golds. 

Mmm Hilde Soliani

Source: www.scentbar.it

Luckyscent lists the ingredients for Mmm as: Basil, vanilla, incense, and burrata accord. Sounds dubious even awful but in reality it's not as challenging as it reads. 

Herbal green. Smoky incense. That's what I smell mostly. It's slightly sweet and spicy, similar to the sensation of chewing mint leaves. The green living things in Mmm are in equal proportions with the incense that smells sharp and bright, the overall effect feels like...burning incense out in the woods?  In the drydown it becomes smoother and smells like spiced vanilla cream with a sprig of mint for the rest of its extremely lengthy lifetime. But burrata? Methinks someone indeed moved my cheese. 

Paname Keiko Mecheri

Source: Fragrantica

I was interested in procuring a sample if not a bottle of Douce Amere from Serge Lutens as it is another polarizing scent from this house whose online reviews make for good reading. I got a sample of Paname as it is supposed to closely resemble the hard-to-find-if-not-impossible Douce Amere. 

According to Wikipedia, Paname is a nickname given by Parisians to their city and in the book "I remember Paris" by journalist and historian Claude Dubois who writes about his childhood memories of Paname, the origin of the nickname has contributions from the Panama hat that was a fashion trend in the city, the hat itself having been worn by workers building the Panama canal and possibly having links with the Panama Affair which is regarded as the largest corruption scandal of the 19th century.

" ...Paname...la ville du chatoiement, des illusions et des désillusions..."

Sweet and interesting. Upon application the smell immediately reminded me of black licorice, something I prefer smelling than eating with its distinct herbal and spicy sweetness like the spiciness of cardamom seeds or anise. The licorice smell is more herbal than in Lolita Lempicka which is much, much sweeter than this scent. Paname is invigorating and aromatic like a bottled walk in a conifer forest, I can imagine it being sold as an aromatherapy potion labelled "Vitality". The balance between herbal and sweetness shifts more towards the latter in the drydown when a creamy vanilla note shows up and the scent is deepened with musk and wood notes. My only gripe with Paname is that it disappears far too quickly, I barely smell anything left after two hours. Full marks for its refreshing individuality but it lags behind in the sillage and longevity departments.

L'Art de la Guerre Jovoy

L'Art de la Guerre. The Art of War.

It smells grey-green. Let me explain.

The opening is reminiscent of Mona di Orio's Violette Fumee's introduction on me, cold and astringent, an icy herbal. Thankfully like in Violette Fumee, the ice thaws quickly and a tart and sweet herbal scent arises through the cracks. I have never smelt fresh rhubarb but Ayala Moriel at SmellyBlog describes it as such:

 "It smelled like crisp grass, unripe berries or fruit and ozone. The latter element is what makes it every so slightly repulsive and ever so much more interesting and not at all like its earthly Swiss chard friends."

What does ozone smell like? Among my perfumed friends, it's taken to mean "airy" or "light" and interchanged with "aquatic", or as one of my more jaded friends calls it, "watered down". Besides residing as a layer above us in the atmosphere and protecting us from UV rays, ozone resides here on earth, produced by lightning strikes during storms and creating that "clean and fresh, after a rain" smell, that smells like nothing else and inspires creations such as Guerlain's Après L'Ondée, which celebrates the fine weather after a shower of rain, Arran Aromatics After the Rain, Hermes' Un Jardin après la Mousson and Annick Goutal's dewy floral Un Matin d'Orage.

So back to L'Art de la Guerre. Besides the strange tartly sweet herbaceous note that I assume is the rhubarb, I smell the unmistakable lavender and the metallic tinge of violet leaves...I was looking forward to a syrupy immortelle but I suspect it's portraying it's hay/straw-like trait here and not maple syrup, keeping L'Art de la Guerre in the style of aromatic fougère...grey-green!

It's dry down reminds me of another scent, this time Parfumerie Generale's Coze and its spiced boozy dark wood. L'Art de la Guerre has leather (lots of) instead of booze but is lightly spiced and earthy too. As the day goes on, L'Art de la Guerre becomes more mellow and easier for me to wear, I am afraid I have never been a fan of the Fougère family classic or modern, it's way too cool for a passionate soul.

Biases aside, L'Art de la Guerre smells like a thoughtfully crafted scent that comes across as sophisticated and elegant. It leaves a scent trail of about an arm's length and has a good longevity. 

Kiki Voile d'Extrait and Kiki Eau de Parfum

Firstly, let me just say it's embarrassing when one's colleague walks in to find one with nose stuck in crook of elbow. But it's Kiki! It's Vero Profumo! That's my defense except I would just get strange and/or blank stares if I try to explain it. I was not willing to spend my weekend in a strait jacket so I just kept quiet and red-faced. 

Anyway. So here I am with Kiki EDP on my left elbow and Kiki Voile d'Extrait on my right elbow.

They both start out similar with a blitz of citruses that you can smell a mile away. From there on, they split up and go in different directions. Like Alice Prin and Kiki?

Kiki de Montparnasse, Moise Kisling

The inspiration behind this creation was the Queen of Montparnasse, Kiki, who was born Alice Prin, illegitimate and in abject poverty, She was adored for her easy-going manner and boundless optimism which earned her the title of Queen of Montparnasse during les Années Folles (The Crazy Years). She was also known for her multiple talents including being a artist's model, nightclub singer, memoirist, actress and a painter. 

Montparnasse like Montmarte before it, was a hive of intellectual and artistic souls in Paris. The community embraced all oddities without reservation and people came from all over the world to partake in the bohemian lifestyle. Marc Chagall describe Montparnasse as such, " I aspired to see with my own eyes what I had heard of from so far away: this revolution of the eye, this rotation of colours, which spontaneously and astutely merge with one another in a flow of conceived lines. That could not be seen in my town. The sun of Art then shone only on Paris."

La Ruche et Montparnasse, Chagall 1978

Kiki EDP emphasizes the passion fruit. The sweet sourness of passion fruit pairs beautifully with the herbal bitterness of the lavender and the fresh minty smell I associate with geranium (think of Frederic Malle's Geranium pour Monsieur with its invigorating spicy freshness). I sense some powdery notes and musk in the base of the EDP, which help keep the passion fruit in check. I find the sillage of the EDP to be much stronger than the Vd'E but I think it's because my skin tends to project fruity notes well. 

Kiki Vd'E is a different bundle of herbs altogether. The bitter herbal lavender here is matched with caramel, unusual and stunning actually. I used to find lavender hard to like and a tad boring due to it's long association with sleep aids and colognes. However Serge Lutens' Forreau Noir which turns sweet creamy tonka and almonds with lavender into a sumptuous gourmand beauty, taught me to be more open-minded and less jaded. Kiki Vd'E is another fine example of how to be creative with lavender and make it a subliminal example too! The musk is more apparent in the Vd'E than the EDP and the passion fruit played down but still noticeable. I get an earthy patchouli in the drydown of the Vd'E but not in the EDP, that stays quite fresh and aromatic throughout its lifespan

Lavender in colognes tend to smell cold and unfriendly on me but not here. In Kiki EDP, it's all smiles and fruity sweetness. In the Vd'E it's not as bubbly as the EDP but it is still warm and personable. 

Both are seriously amazing creations and my mind is piqued as to what the extraits of Vero Profumo must smell like, but I will leave that musing to another day after I win the lottery (but in that case I won't muse over it, I'll buy the whole line in a heartbeat). I've added both Kiki EDP and the Voile d'Extrait to my want list. Bittersweet, special and a bit of a bohemian. 

Kiki de Montparnasse, Man Ray.

Testing Onda Voile d'Extrait and Eau de Parfum, Vero Profumo

Onda Voile d'Extrait has a smoky green effect whereas the EDP has a fresh fruity green scent, the passion fruit is evident straight away upon smelling the EDP, whereas it's more suggested behind the opening smoke screen (the vetiver?) of the Voile d'Extrait. 

The Voile d'Extrait has a huge helping of coriander, the lemony yet weirdly nutty smell of the seeds and green herbs (basil?) and grated fresh ginger, I almost feel like I am in the kitchen watching my mother prepare a meal for the family as these are ingredients used often in Asian cooking. I'll be honest and admit that the coriander is a bit too much here for my stomach today. I will try again on a different day when I'm not already taking the nausea-inducing Doxycycline. If there's such a thing as a green leathery musk, Onda Voile d'Extrait would be it. Interesting and original, definitely unisex but I personally will have to bow out as I can't breathe with Onda in my space.



Addendum: I enjoy this sprayed around me but not on me, the coriander gets too close for comfort.

Onda Eau de parfum smells of bright citruses, sweet passion fruit and cooking ingredients. The basil/herb note is here like it is in the Voile d'Extrait. The coriander is less voluble but very much present in the EDP. More breathable and less leathery than the Voile d'Extrait. The drydown smells sweet, green and mossy. Nice but not my cup of tea. I appreciate the beauty of a classic chypre but I much rather wear an oriental.

Bois Blond Parfumerie Generale

Desirability: Adoption by a more appreciative nose

Straight up I smell alcohol swabs...a bitter and stinging combination of grass or leaves and galbanum. Very green and mineral, almost unbearably so, thankfully relief comes in the form of a sweet herbal accord reminiscent of The Body Shop's Tea Tree oil concentrate. Tobacco isn't listed but I smell that, not the listed white tobacco note which coincidentally, does not smell like tobacco, but supposedly more like jasmine. However I smell nothing floral here.

With time it progresses into smoother, smoky wood and sweet tobacco scent and loses its discomfiting opening.  It's as if someone twiddled the knob on the light dimmer and lowered it from blinding white to a soft yellow glow.


Tilda Swinton

After a week of wearing and testing mostly Orientals and gourmands, this opens up a whole different realm of scent. It's nicely queer and unique but I feel unsettled wearing this. I think it's more masculine although I can imagine a female boss wearing this. Or an androgynous female like Tilda Swinton would carry this well.

It stays rather soft on me but lasts quite a while, about 5 hours as of now.

L'Oiseau de Nuit Parfumerie Generale

L'Oiseau de Nuit. The Night Bird has landed in my hands from a Luckyscent sample. 

Now this is good stuff. 

It opens with a smell similar to lemongrass-herbal, bittersweet and green. The medicinal part abates a bit and I smell the leather that makes me think of really buttery soft leather gloves that you never want to take off but you have to because the SA is staring at you suspiciously and the price-tag is astronomical. 

There's an animal in this scent and I don't mean the name. It smells like an unwashed beast...but I like it...in the scent that is. Not the actual beast up close, I've dated enough of those thank you.


The Odalisque, Aldophe Weisz 1884

I smell sweet smoky resins, which one exactly I can never tell, I get mixed up with the different types of balsams and resins. The official notes list labdanum and benzoin.

The scent twists and turns on me like smoke does in the air, now I get the herbal bitterness, now I get then thick resinous sweetness, then I get the leather and the unwashed beast. 

Sillage is very very good, considering I applied a little bit from a dab sample to my right elbow and I can smell this as clear as if I had my wrist stuck to my nose...that's good in my books. 

My first full bottle worthy PG scent, I may even spring for the 100 ml bottle. Definitely reinvigorated to try more!