Jicky EDT Guerlain

Desirability: A full bottle

Source: basenotes.net

Jicky EDT (bottle as above) was one of the first classical Guerlain perfumes I got my greedy mitts in the early days of my perfume craze. I didn't appreciate it much back then, my attention instead being focused on all sorts of gourmand and heavy oriental scents. Times and tastes have evolved since then. These days when life gets a bit more challenging, Jicky is one in a special "emergencies only" line-up I reach for to calm and recharge simultaneously. 

Slightly bitter, herbal green and citrusy, the first notes are loud and bracing (with a hangover one would practically think it's shrieking), not quite everyone's cup of tea I would imagine. Patience pays off quite quickly as the opening notes step aside and a gorgeous lavender conjoins with an even more gorgeous creamy vanilla and a touch of bittersweet almond/tonka...all members of the special guerlainade list of ingredients that weaves a linkage between various Guerlain perfumes. Jicky projects well with a couple of sprays but unfortunately doesn't last above the four hour mark on me. Even then, this elegant and timeless beauty is one that deserves leisurely sampling ( a quick spray and sniff won't do it justice really).

New Haarlem Bond No 9

Desirability: Decant

Source: Fragrantica

I swapped for a half used bottle of New Haarlem, eagerly anticipating being drenched in coffee and maple syrup as others have experienced. In reality, this is what I got.

A burst of citrus greets you, its green and fresh self followed quickly by lavender and a dark woody smell, the combination of these three notes made me think immediately of male cologne. The citrus calms down and when it does I can smell the coffee and the maple syrup that many perfumistas have been gushing over. The coffee is a black bitter coffee but diluted or maybe overpowered by the thick maple syrup which conjured up images of a stack of golden brown pancakes drenched with the amber coloured syrup. So in proportions, I smell of: woody lavender>maple syrup>black coffee. On hindsight or smell I think I prefer this proportion rather than if it were an outright gourmand consisting only of maple syrup and coffee which might be a bit OTT. The cool, broody effect of the wood and aromatic lavender are a nice relief from the heavy gourmand side of New Haarlem. 

So instead of a hearty breakfast, I got an invigorating walk in the woods bordering lavender fields while dreaming of said breakfast and suffering olfactory hallucinations. 

Fourreau Noir Serge Lutens

Source: parfumka.pro

Source: eat-spin-run-repeat.com

The one and only lavender for me. That's probably because what I get from Fourreau Noir is a warm gourmand heaven made up of almond and lavender cookies/cupcakes/shortbread/ice-cream (insert desired sin here) and the awakened cravings sent me into a frenzy on Google searching for dessert recipes to try out this weekend which I have shared below. 

Lavender almonds.
Source: www.foodily.com

On one hand I associate lavender with apothecary potions and lotions meant to soothe the soul, on the other hand the scent of lavender takes me back to summer holidays in Provence and the Loire Valley, gorgeous old villages, sweeping countryside landscapes with fields of purple and yellow interspersed with vineyards . In Forreau Noir the lavender smells so realistic as if crushing the buds between your fingers that emit a relaxing scent both floral sweet and herbal with a hint of lemon, blending with bitter almonds, the same almond note that you find in both Louve and Rahat Loukoum but with varying amounts of bitterness. The almond in Forreau Noir is creamy as if ground to a smooth paste with salted butter ready to be made into almond shortbread. The overall picturesque image this conjures up is gamboling about in a Monet-esque field or garden under the sun with a picnic basket filled with all sorts of treats including of course almond-lavender baked goodies. 

Almond-Lemon-Lavender cupcakes.
Source: bostonsweetieblog.blogspot.com

Lavender almond tea-cakes.
Source: theliveinkitchen.com

I tried Serge Lutens' other lavender Gris Clair but similar to the cool medicinal opening of Louve it was too chilly and distant for me to love being more like a frosted morning in lavender fields. It's a personal choice but I much prefer their warmer counterparts Fourreau Noir and Rahat Loukoum respectively. 

Forreau Noir starts quite potent but its trail gets weaker over time, still remaining on skin for the better part of the day. 

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.

PG 22 Djhenné Parfumerie Generale

So according to the Luckyscent website and backed up by blog reading, it's Djhenné not DjHenné ( so it's not named after a DJ that you can find on soundcloud). Djhenné is dervied from both the French word for henna and Djenné in Mali.

Djenné is the oldest known city in sub-Saharan Africa. It is situated on the floodplains between the rivers Niger and Bani, meaning that during the wet season, Djenné becomes pretty much an island. Historically the town was an important trading and commercial centre but its importance has since diminished and the economy depends on agriculture. In 1988, the Old Town of Djenné and its Great Mosque were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Great Mosque was built in 1906 and is the largest building in the world that is made out of mud bricks called Banco(a recipe of mud and grain husks). 

 Market in front of the Great Mosque.

I did the research on Djenné in order to understand the connection with the perfume, but I'm still missing the link. 

Djhenné started off like a guy's cologne on me, I am getting cool and refreshing herbal wafts of lavender, mint and woods with minimal sweetness and a leathery vibe.I don't smell any cereal but I assume that the wheat is there to smoothen out the composition and prevent it from falling into the aftershave catergory. Ditto the myrrh which gives this a little balminess. Even then, I would still file this as a woody aromatic scent. The listed cacao note is missing on me even though I've given my sample plenty of time to develop.

The scent does not project much on me but the longevity is acceptable, it clocked over four hours and still counting.

Djhenné gets a pretty mixed bunch of reviews online so I guess it really boils down to chemistry. Kudos to those that got the cereal and cocoa combination! I'll trade you my woody lavender!