Nin-Shar Jul et Mad Paris

Desirability: Full bottle and a back up

Source: pinterest

I have heard/read of instances in which people observe a moment's silence when opening a rare fine wine or brandy, out of respect or perhaps silent awe. "Dear God!" was my first thought when sniffing the opened bottle of Nin-Shar (in the cute Love Dose 5ml size as was a semi-blind buy, I say semi-blind because I had a very pleasant encounter with Néa and therefore was confident that I would love its sibling too. With rose, oud and incense listed in its notes, it's a safe bet for me). After a deliriously happy albeit silent moment during which my olfactory nerves imbibed greedily on this glorious juice, my second thought was "I need a bigger bottle! STAT!" 

It seems like almost every house whether niche or mainstream has a rose/oud combination and the huge selection is quite fatiguing after the initial excitement wore off. Nin-Shar stands out from the competition because of its luscious rose jam note that is dripping with berries in syrup and packed with dark red roses in full bloom. This dessert rose shares some similarities with other jammy roses like Parfumerie Generale's PG13 Brulure de Rose or Sådanne . However the patchouli, incense and oud pull the fragrance away from the gourmand territory and the result is a sophisticated broody rose indulging in a glass of burgundy, surrounded by opulent trappings. Everything about Nin-Shar is rich and rooted in quality ingredients, projection is *moderate and longevity is very good on me. 

*my fellow colleagues beg to differ and insist that projection is enormous as apparently they can smell me down the hall which is no small feat. They have further claimed that anyone spending more than five minutes in my room comes out smelling of boozy roses. I leave you to be your own judge! :)

Amoureuse Parfums DelRae

Desirability: Full bottle

Source: pinterest.com

The perfume community keeps raving about Amoureuse and siblings over the years that I've been part of it. Unfortunately due to several reasons including that samples are not easy to find and full bottles even harder to blind buy, Amoureuse and I never got together until I received a decant from a fellow fragrance lover in a recent swap.

It reminds me of Mona di Orio's Nuit Noire, both share animalic, white floral and spicy accords but Amoureuse is much more tame than Nuit Noire. Where Nuit Noire is a sweat-encrusted, well-loved  and worn leather jacket, intoxicating tuberose and sumptuous orange blossom, Amoureuse is lush, honeyed lilies and narcotic jasmine enhanced by the beauty of the tuberose. Cardomom is present in both, imparting its sweet and special spiciness, made even more fiery by fresh ginger in Nuit Noire. Amoureuse stays sweeter throughout its lifetime whereas in Nuit Noire, the sweetness waxes and wanes throughout the story, yet never quite reaching the honeyed tones of Amoureuse. Both scents mellow over time, Amoureuse turning into a soft and powdery affair of sandalwood and flowers whereas Nuit Noire is the glowing coals of a warm amber base. Classic and traditional, both Amoureuese and Nuit Noire are full bottle worthy in my opinion. Sillage and longevity are both very good in the case of Amoureuse, my SOTD clinging on into the night.

Coincidentally while wearing Amoureuse today and surfing the net for potential buys, I came across a very affordable deal for a bottle of Nuit Noire instead. Plus the website had the travel sizes for Profumum Roma so I got one of Battito d'Ali. The icing on the cake was free international shipping. Guess who's an even happier chick than usual today? :) 

Garofano Lorenzo Villoresi

Desirability: Full bottle

Source: www.lorenzovilloresi.it

I was never blown away by Caron's Bellodgia as loved and lauded as it is. Perhaps my new-ish bottle lacks the magic of previous formulations or perhaps I tried it too soon on my scent journey to truly appreciate it but Bellodgia got swapped away before I gave it another chance to someone else who really loves it. In return I got a sample of Garofano and this is something I can see myself wearing.

To avoid confusion, the sample is from the Vintage Collection from which I've tried and loved both Ylang Ylang and Ambra, the former being the most natural ylang ylang I've smelt and the latter being a unique interpretation of amber that's nothing like most other ambers on the market recently. 

Before I came across the universe of scents I never thought of carnations as fragrant, at least not the ones in the florist shops on my tropical island. The very most I could come up with after sticking my nose into various store bought carnations was the mildest of mild spicy floral and even that's exaggerating. Snooping on gardening forums I came to the conclusion that the ones that I've been sniffing are likely new hybrids that were crossbred for their size and colour with little attention paid to their scent whereas carnations which have not been domesticated smell like well, like carnations are meant to smell. 

So never having smelt an untouched carnation nor carnation absolute, I have to rely on Google which tells me carnations smell as follows: heavy, musky, spicy, clove-like, floral, powdery, sweet as honey, exotic. 

If this is true then Garofano encompasses all these characteristics. It is a rich and deep scent that smells like pepper and other aromatic spices from the kitchen, a dark and thick honey, leaving the kitchen and entering a boudoir whose walls and carpet hold the smells of powder, both the living and the ghosts of glorious floral arrangements as well as a hint of musk from the owner. Garofano doesn't unfold on me chapter by chapter but instead I smell everything together and yet separately, the different notes coming forwards and drifting away again as if the notes are in a free-style dance but sharing the limelight almost equally. I say almost equally because the most distinct on me would be the spicy floral and powdery bits. 

Biased perhaps by the olfactory hallucinations of canopied four-posters, heavy velvet drapings and plush outfittings a la Dangerous Liaisons, I find Garofano to be more feminine than unisex unless you are John Malkovich. Besides smelling like a historical aristocratic drama filled with intrigue, Garofano has a great projection with a moderate longevity and I would highly recommend this to lovers of carnations and vintage-y scents. 

L'Instant de Guerlain

Desirability: Full bottle

Source: www.osmoz.com

Milky sweet floral.

Despite the advertisement above, I don't find L'Instant to be seductive or wearing a little black dress. Instead L'Instant soothes me, it feels as relaxing as drinking a floral tea laced with milk and honey and smells like it too. Well if tea could be made out of a combination of the flowers ylang ylang, magnolia and jasmine. 

L'Instant is a strong scent but not suffocating, it's easy to wear even on the most humid days here thanks to its lightness. If it were a colour it would be the palest of pale honey and honey is definitely a major feature of L'Instant, proportional to the lush milky floral notes but despite all the flowers and honey the scent is not heavy on sugar, everything about L'Instant says delicate and feminine. In the drydown there is a wisp of clean musk that adds to the pillowy effect and L'Instant maintains its warm celestial glow until the very end many hours later.  

Mamluk Xerjoff

Desirability: Decant

Source: Fragrantica

Honey overload. You definitely need to like honey, lots of it, to enjoy the ride with Mamluk. The main player in Mamluk from start to finish is honey and you will literally drown in the stuff as good as it smells so don't go trigger happy with your Mamluk. It has massive projection and sticks around forever and a day. 

Mamluk reminds me very much of Ginestat Botrytis but with that little pungent extra that turns it from a grown up gourmand to a boudoir scent. I will call that little extra...salty dirty musk. Don't get me wrong, Mamluk has nothing on Mona di Orio Nuit Noire when it comes to dirty, maybe one level of condensed skank below Maison Francis Kurkdjian Absolue Pour le Soir? 

A thick amber coloured honey laced with a bit of naughty ( I assume that this is what represents the oud in Mamluk), a sprinkling of spices and on a base of resins and wood notes. 

Xerjoff Mamluk= Honey + a little animal funk + Wood + Spices

Ginestat Botrytis= Honey + Ripe Fruits dripping in syrup + Spices

In my opinion Mamluk is worthy of a full bottle purchase and I am eyeing up the Xerjoff Oud Stars Discovery Set (6 x 15 ml: Al-Khat, Fars, Gao, Mamluk, Zafar and Zanzibar/Najaf) which is financially more viable for me than to purchase the individual scents that might require the sale of a kidney on the black market.  

PG14 Iris Taizo Parfumerie Generale

Source: Fragrantica

Iris Taizo is another almost but not quite gourmand fragrance from Parfumerie Generale. You need to like cardamom to get through the opening as it starts with a blast of spicy green...incense? That's what I smell anyway. With time the potency of the scent decreases and so does the intensity of it, leaving room for a sweet powdery and woody base to be noticed under the spiciness. On paper the powdery aspect of the iris is played up and I much prefer it on my skin where it's more waxy than powdery, an enveloping warmth of spiced honeyed wood.

My only guff is that despite its promising bellow at the start, the scent wanes quite fast and all that's left is a skin scent that sticks around for the better part of  three hours tops. Solution: buy the 100 ml and lug it around for frequent touch-ups.

Aoud Gourmet M. Micallef

Source: flickr.com

Equal measures of "aoud" and "gourmet" seamlessly blended and of good quality, Aoud Gourmet reminds me a little of Sådanne in the sense that both are nicely balanced between happy light-heartedness and a brooding darkness. Sådanne is fruity sweetness with leather whereas Aoud Gourmet is an earthy oud and honeyed candies that remind me of baklava. The oud is the predominant note at the beginning, it is so potent that those who are wary of the note may be put off but the strength wanes quite quickly on me and the scent maintains an equilibrium between gourmand and the noble rot for the rest of its lifetime which is about 12 hours on me with an average projection. Aoud Gourmet has a welcoming warmth that is imparted by the obvious oud and baklava as well as a woody musk that becomes more prominent as time passes and the scent lulls one into a soothing calmness.

Despite its obvious positive qualities, I am still on the fence with this one after going through two large decants. It is without a doubt lovely and every time I wear it I add it to the want list in my head, but once out of sight, out of mind it becomes again. Perhaps it is because I find Aoud Gourmet too muted, too tame? 

Rahat Loukoum Serge Lutens

Source: jetsetfashionmagazine.com

Source: www.auparfum.com

I fell in love with Rahat Loukoum in Barney's New York but thankfully did not buy it (Well on hindsight, at that time I was kicking myself for not getting it but I was held back by the bell jar form, it's pretty but I'm no good with dabbing and would most likely end up pouring the entire bottle in a very costly accident). Back in Singapore and back on the daily web hunt, I found out to my eternal happiness that it's now available in the "Le Vaporisateur" form which is 2x30 ml with an included shiny jet black travel case AND it's cheaper than the bell jar would have cost me in Barney's. 

I had The People Of The Labyrinths' Luctor Et Emergo on my want list, which in short is Coca-cola's Dark Cherry Vanilla coke plus bitter almond with some smoke trails of incense in the background. Anyway, Rahat Loukoum has kicked Luctor Et Emergo off the want list and let me explain why.

Rahat Loukoum is a warmer relative of Louve, the bitter medicinal almond from Serge Lutens. It's much less sweeter than the jordan almonds in Keiko Mercheri's Loukhoum Eau Poudree (I have this out of the Loukhoum trio), doesn't have the powder of Mazzolari's Alessandro and makes me think of Luctor Et Emergo but that's not to say they are similar as they aren't really. To put it in simpler terms and in proportions,

Rahat Loukoum: amaretto + cherry + honey

Luctor Et Emergo: cherry + vanilla + almond

Comparing Rahat Loukoum with Louve, the latter gives the impression of being more aloof and bitter, whereas Rahat Loukoum would be a boozed up Louve, all flushed cheeks and warm feelings. Neither is superior to the other and both have a similar drydown that is nutty and slightly musky, bottled comfort made for snuggling. I find the projection of Rahat Loukoum to be stronger than Louve but the longevity for both are equally good.

I did a side by side testing with another of my almond loves, Hilde Soliani's Conaffetto and surprisingly after wearing Rahat Loukoum the whole day, Conaffetto seems less bitter and I can pick up the lovely orange blossom more strongly. Whereas Conaffetto smells fresh and bright, the Lutens is more boozy amaretto cherries. 

Those looking for an inexpensive substitute for Rahat Loukoum might want to sample Les Nereides' Douceur de Vanille, that is more about bitter almonds than its name suggests, with a drydown that has the equivalent effect of an anxiolytic.

All in all, it's been a fabulous day smelling of almonds.

PG 25 Indochine Parfumerie Generale

Source: Saccani.com

Another scent from Parfumerie Generale that I could fall in lust with. Honeyed spices (cardamom predominant) on a resinous woody base. It starts off with a blast of cardamom (if you don't know what cardamom smells like, smell this and you won't forget it!) which blends beautifully with the honey, both sweet and spicy. The smoke and woods come next, bringing me back to holidays spent in the relative quiet and isolation among the paddy fields of Ubud, Bali, reclining on a veranda and watching the sun languorously descend, its last rays serenely giving way to the impending darkness, a wistful glow caressing every surface goodbye. 

The honey is reigned in by the wood and spices and although sweet, Indochine is more of dry, spiced woods than gourmand on my skin. It has a good sillage on me and average longevity. Lovers of Lutens' Ambre Sultan, Chergui, Five O'Clock Au Gingembre and the like, would enjoy this. I definitely do, Indochine being as idyllic an experience as my remote getaways. 

Alahine Teo Cabanel

An Oriental sprite, Alahine opens with a quick burst of citrus notes which is their only part in the story. I smell the florals but am unable to tell them apart, together they are a full-bodied and intoxicating bouquet. As delightful as Alahine has proven to be so far, my real pleasure lies in the later hours, where the scent throws off its cloak of flowers and revels in its voluptuous beauty, all spiced smoke and amber glow, sweet honeyed resins and woody musk.

 As a lover of Oriental perfumes and biased in favor of Serge Lutens, what makes Alahine different from Lutens' stable of winners is that Alahine feels like a classic French perfume using oriental notes, just like Rosine's A-Z of roses, all with a French style no matter the ingredients. Lutens' don't fly a flag, they stay true to their ingredients, name and story and are a wild and headstrong bunch, whereas Alahine comports herself in a more graceful manner with a twinkle in her eye. She isn't old but she has matured in the ways of the world and I can't see this being worn by adolescents somehow.

After an initial potency, Alahine slowly slips into a skin scent by about the sixth hour. Not groundbreaking but an elegant, well-made perfume that Oriental fans should sample. 

Nectarine Blossom and Honey Jo Malone

Annick Goutal does fresh scents with a French flair and Jo Malone does fresh scents like how I view English food. Plain and simple. Which is good for times when you don't want something complicated or when you want to smell nice without smelling perfume-y. 

Nectarine Blossom and Honey is literally that. A fresh green fruity floral featuring stone fruit like nectarines and peaches, some green notes and sheer florals. There's no musk or wood or amber to disrupt this ethereal being. It's not complex and it stays linear, but it's a pleasant and pretty fruity floral that delivers what it says, i.e you really do smell the peachy fuzz of the real fruit.

The scent is a skin scent on me but that's the whole point of wearing this, I want to smell it on me without the person at the other end of the room smelling it too. The only downside is it doesn't stay long, I get two maybe three hours tops but it's such a pleasure to respray and experience it all over again. So if you are looking for something that announces your presence and stays until you wash it off, this isn't it. 

Suitable for all ages and temperaments, I'm sure even Type A personalities crave time-outs occasionally. 

Miel de Bois Serge Lutens

 "Let me thank all those whose labor contributed to making this fragrance.... in other words, the bees and flowers. 

From candied honey I made an ether to obtain the rich scent of the golden nectar."  

-- Serge Lutens

My signature scent if I had to name one. I have to thank Providence for my bottle actually, can you imagine the shop was going to throw their full tester in the trash since Miel de Bois was pulled from the export line and made a Palais Royale exclusive. I was in the right place at the right time to save the tester. Who throws away perfume, let alone a deity like Miel de Bois!! 

If you are looking for a gourmand honeyed scent along the lines of Tokyo Milk's Honey & The Moon, this isn't quite it.

Don't get me wrong, there is honey in Miel de Bois, but it's way more mysterious. It's a musty, musky and woody honey that is polarising, either you fall in lust and love or you think it smells like cats' piss/toilet spray/urinal cakes etc. Yup I said musty, it smells like an ages old bottle that was forgotten in an attic, musty that brings to mind antiques and marvellous relics of a different lifetime, moth eaten heavy curtains... a little like what Miss Havisham's room must have been like. 

It has a similar vintage and animalistic quality that Jean Desprez's Bal de Versailles or Schiaparelli's Shocking has on me and belongs in the category of scents that I feel require a "Danger" label for it's drug-like effects on the senses, or nausea-inducing if you can't handle indoles or  dark musks. Not forgetting that this stuff is potent and more than one spray can knock out a whole room so caution should be applied. 

I think if one gets past the initial blast of dark, dry woods and heavy sweetness, Miel de Bois dries down to the most addictive mildly spiced, sweet-woody musk, that smells like nothing else and stays with you for hours and hours like a most beguiling ambience. It's the dry down that has this heartrending quality I have only experienced otherwise with Guerlain's L'Heure Bleue, Mitsouko or Francis Kurkdjian's Lumiere Noir Pour Femme, once again a Lutens has gotten the better of my emotions.

Miel de Bois is controversial, unique, passionate and wild (I'll slide in the skank award here too)...please don't ever be discontinued, the withdrawal will be unbearable.

P.S: I don't advise blind-buying Miel de Bois as it's picky with which skin chemistry it gets along with. P.P.S: I'm always happy to adopt more bottles. I leave you here with a song that is as emotive as this scent. 

Jeux de Peau Serge Lutens

The best breakfast in a bottle. 

pâtisserie, courtesy of flickr.com

Is there anything more wonderful than walking into a boulangerie, the smell of all kinds of baked goods from savoury to sweet cavorting in the air temptingly? I think not. The best crusty bread is still in France (with the humidity here, it's just not possible to replicate that crispy sound of fresh bread) and I lived for winter holidays spent at my then partner's parents' home in the suburbs of Paris. I would wake him up unceremoniously at seven am( myself already up by six) and shivering with cold, we would make our way through the precariously slippery roads to the village boulangerie, which I swear has the best bread and pastries, even better than some of the famous pâtisseries in the city. 

French toast in the making courtesy of food52.com

Once through the door, I would stop to enjoy the sheer pleasure of all the different aromas filling the warm room, noisy with orders being taken and the hustle and bustle of delicious treats being baked and laid out all over the place. A daily occurrence for those living there but for me, it was a veritable treat just experiencing it. The smell of the boulangerie was stored in my mind and nothing in Asia quite matched it until I found Jeux de Peau.   

Heidi, Johanna Spyri, courtesy of flickr.com

It will be too sweet for some and is unmistakably a gourmand, but perfect for those days you crave solace. Warm and smoky, dripping syrupy amber-hued honey all over you, loaves of bread being toasted in the background, or waffles or french toast, if it's yeasty baked goods you crave, it's in this scent. If you enjoy spices with your toast and waffles, there's a wee sprinkle of it here. Just as Heidi had fresh goat's milk for breakfast every morning with the Alm Uncle, so have you milk provided in Jeux de Peau, full cream of course, none of that reduced fat crap. So there you go, a comforting and nourishing breakfast in a bottle. Not complex, but original for sure and very tasty. 

Jeux de Peau is a robust scent at the opening and stays linear,  losing its steam gradually. I'm averaging around 6-8 hours of lifespan, but it's a pleasure to reapply and experience it all over again. It's not a safe blind buy due to it's 1) sweetness 2) uniqueness but for me it's as heart-warming as a hug from a loved one.

Rozy Voile d'Extrait Vero Profumo

My first scent from Vero Profumo and the initial spray from my sample sent me into such raptures I bought a bottle from First in Fragrance stat. 

Rozy d'Extrait is pretty indescribable for me and I apologize beforehand if I don't do it enough justice. The last time I felt so giddy about a scent was hmm...a year ago with Francis Kurkdjian's Absolue Pour le Soir. 

Rozy is like a mammoth vase of flowers, artfully arranged to look elegantly disarrayed, it smells more of white florals, tuberose especially and not so much of roses. The honey is clear and sweet not thick and syrupy, the green and nutty coriander that ruined Onda for me, is kept in check here. Rozy smells lightly spiced, not spicy but similar to how cinnamon tastes/smells and has a smoky woody background. Rozy feels simultaneously exuberant and wistful, I feel like the notes are orbiting around each other like planets in the solar system, such that her facets are displayed all the time, the heady florals, the spiced honey and the smoky wood notes, altogether creating something passionate and soulful.

The Voile d'Extrait is a powerful scent with a massive projection. From one spray. Seriously. Don't overdo it. 

Aziyadé Parfum d'Empire

I am a sucker for romance, enthralled by exotic romances and in love with the idea of love. When I first heard about the inspiration behind this perfume, I had to read the novel of course. Aziyadé (pronounced as Ah-zee-ya-deh) or Constantinople written by Pierre Loti (the pseudonym of Julien Viaud) is about a love affair between a British naval officer and a Circassian harem girl named Aziyadé in Turkey. The 1879 novel is a fictionalised account based on Loti's own diary that he kept while as a French naval officer. Loti falls in lust and subsequently in love with Aziyadé who I imagine to be as beautiful as Circassian women are known to be, she in turn is whole-heartedly devoted to him and the relationship seems to go on his terms. At the end and in true Romeo and Juliet style, he returns to Istanbul after a period spent back in France, only to discover that Aziyadé had died in his absence. Heartbroken he enlisted in the Turkish forces under the name Arif-Ussam and was killed shortly after in battle. 

LAST KISS

Even the most undiscerning nose can feel the Orient in this scent. Even the most unfeeling heart cannot hide from the emotions that spring forth when memories are triggered by the essence of this. Aziyadé opens with a quick ping of citrus that disappears as a poof before cumin enters the stage and the spotlight focuses there for a prolonged period allowing us to soak in the pungent aroma laden with darkness and mystery, before the play unfurls further introducing new characters in the form of dried fruit, amber honey, warm heady spices and smoky incense. From the sweet to the acrid spices, the bright citruses to the smoky haze created by the incense, Aziyadé is truly a bewitching tribute to a tragic and touching love story between a naive young girl and an untamed melancholic male. 

Woman of Constantinople, Jean-Léon Gérôme 

The scent projects decently and longevity wise, Aziyadé is as unwavering as her namesake's love for Loti.

Yes I have a flair for the dramatic but this scent was created with Aziyadé in mind and it would be a poor offering if it were any less passionate. 

As Rod Stewart said "Can't live without passion...Won't live without passion..."

“Il n'y a pas de Dieu, il n'y a pas de morale, rien n'existe de tout ce qu'on nous a enseigné à respecter; il y a une vie qui passe, à laquelle il est logique de demander le plus de jouissance possible, en attendant l'épouvante finale qui est la mort.” 
― Pierre Loti, Aziyadé

Seville a L'Aube L'Artisan Parfumeur

This is the first L'Artisan that has a monster sillage on me. Incredible. I enjoy the creative scents from this house very much but sadly their longevity and scent veils are very lacking on me. Until now that is. 

I had become a little tired of neroli/orange blossom scents and figured I had enough representation of that particular white floral in my wardrobe, from the master of orange blossoms Francis Kurkdjian represented in the entrancing Elie Saab's Le Parfum, his seraphic APOM Pour Femme, the ambergris laced Orange Star from Tauer, the indolic animal that is Serge Lutens' Fleurs d'Oranger and the candied orange blossom in Le Couvent des Minimes' Cologne of Love.

I stand corrected. This is one orange blossom that I might add to my closet after all, despite the self-imposed embargo on the flower. 

Seville a L'Aube leans towards being a rich gourmand rather than a citrus/white floral combination. I find it full-bodied and unreserved, like Titian's Venus, without veering into the smutty zone where Lutens' Fleurs d'Oranger reigns.

Venus Anadyomene, Titian 1520.

A waxy golden nectar that opens with just a tinge of citrus zest. The honeyed sweetness of the florals is tempered by balmy resins and the herbal lavender and although the orange blossom is given free reign, it's prevented from falling into cloying sweetness or soapiness. The scent stays remarkably true to a fresh cutting of the flower with some golden honey without drying down into a heavy cordial like Cologne of Love. 

As I mentioned earlier, the scent projects well and but the longevity could be better, it lasted about three hours on me.

Mon Precieux Nectar Guerlain- of Jordan almonds and honeyed white florals.

Desirability: Full bottle and a back up

Source: Fragrantica

Mon Precieux Nectar is all honeyed white flowers and dragées amandes on me. Make that the most luxurious and lush bouquet of white flowers and candied almonds that money can buy. Whilst staying within the realm of tasteful. 

There are many variations available on the honeyed white florals like Ginestat's Botrytis (super super thick almost cloying animalic honey on dried fruit and flowers), The Bodyshop's Honeymania (translucent white honey and wildflowers), Elie Saab's Le Parfum featuring Francis Kurkdjian's work with white honey and orange blossoms, Chanel's Beige (a lovely tender hearted tropical beauty of honey and tiare), La Chasse aux Papillons Extreme by L'Artisan (the most ethereal tuberose on a background of sweet white flowers) and many others I can't think of right now.

Whereas Guerlain's L'Instant is vanilla and white flowers, L'Instant Magic pushes it more to the gourmand side with the almond note. I love the smell of almonds in perfumes from bitter almonds like Mazzolari's Alessandro (bitter powdery almonds but alas it's so short-lived on me), my chilly bitter almond beauty Louve by Serge Lutens and two Jordan almond types that I'm longing to try, Confetto by Profumum Roma and Conaffetto by Hilde Soliani. Some of my fragrant friends put Dior's Hypnotic Poison under the jordan almond label but it's pure creamy almond milk on me with a irritatingly artificial vibe about it(my bottle was bought in the past two years so reformulated, I have not tried the vintage versions).

Loukhoum-wise I prefer L'Artisan's Traversee du Bosphore (smells like pomme d'amour and Turkish delight on me, really yummy) and Keiko Mercheri's Loukhoum Eau Poudree (like having a powder puff of sugary goodness right in the face). 

Mon Precieux Nectar has the ethereal white flowers of La Chasse aux Papillons, the tenderness of Chanel's Beige, more candied than bitter almonds like in L'Instant Magic and the touch of class all Guerlains possess from the indisputable majesties to the new breeds. She's part child part woman. It's a soft scent that plays hide and seek with you for the better part of the day, becoming bolder in the heat and withdrawing again in the cold. 

As ambrosial a nectar as Mon Precieux Nectar undoubtedly is, I am still hesitant to fork out the exorbitant amount of money required for the juice in the exquisite "bee bottle" it comes in(couldn't they sell a version in a less divine bottle for us people who don't mind so much about looks?). However I am very fortunate to have been gifted a bottle and this gorgeous flacon has a place of honor in my perfume closet. Tip: I misguidedly threw out the stopper that came with the flacon and kept the vintage sprayer attached. This however causes the perfume to evaporate (alarmingly) so I would advise to keep it stoppered when not in use.