Thundra Profumum Roma

Desirability: Sample

Source: www.profumum.com 

Thundra smells minty, fresh, green and waxy at the same time, like how aloe vera leaves look like outside and the refreshing, succulent inside. Exuding a meditative calm, Thundra feels more like an ambience than a perfume, like how I imagine sitting in the cool green woodlands in the Twilight movies (minus scary vampires and wolves) would fee like. Wood and the smell of earth enter the scent in the later stages, continuing with the Nature theme but warming up the scent a little as if the ice were melting in the tundra and allowing some life to break through the permafrost. 

Thundra is very soft on me, possibly the softest of all Profumum Roma scents that I've tried so far but the longevity is decent. Not my favourite from this house but I can see this being popular with those who enjoy quiet scents, nature and solitude. 

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. 

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!

Nuit Etoilee Annick Goutal

Annick Goutal Nuit Etoilee

" There is no wifi in the forest but I promise you will find a better connection."- author unknown. 

I'm more into heavy Orientals but I reach for Annick Goutal when I want something lighter and fresher, a perk-me-up, Nuit Etoilee and La Violette being my favourites from the house. Likewise when I'm feeling jaded with the world I enjoy delving into Gibran or Rumi or zen-type quotes such as the above "to lift my spirits and regain my strength" a la Cher in Clueless.

Nuit Etoilee is a breath of fresh air for me in this polluted island city where forests full of pine trees are at least 12 hours by plane away. A breath of sweet, cool air, filled with mint and pine trees reminiscent of autumns in France spent walking in leaf-laden forest grounds and a pleasant cool mist all around. It is described as a woody aromatic on Fragrantica but I find that description to be misleading. Woody aromatic brings to mind men's aftershave. Nuit Etoilee is unisex leaning to the fairer side of the scale thanks to the sweetness of the mint and the citrus fruit.

"Fresh" scents are usually boring to me ( I am thinking of Light Blue and the like that I tried over and over but could not get along with, such dull characters despite the "fresh and friendly" notes) but Nuit Etoilee is far from boring. It's airy and transparent but the sillage and longevity are above average when sprayed on my clothes. I am referring to the EDT version in this review. Next on my Annick Goutal want list: Un Matin d'Orage and Ninfeo Mio. 

Starry Night by Alex Ruiz. A homage to Van Gogh's Starry Night where the massively talented Ruiz brings to us the beauty of the night sky that Van Gogh painted. Alex Ruiz offers digital painting tutorials on his blog and has prints/cards for sale at Fine Art America. 

I leave you here with my favorite version of Starry Starry Night (Vincent) by Vonda Shepard.