Le Parfum Couture M. Micallef

Desirability: Full Bottle

Micallef does sexy beast.

A far cry from the juicy fruity floral scents that I've tried from Micallef so far and I'm totally loving it. Fans of dark roses with some kink would want to try this, it's a sibling of Frederic Malle's Portrait of a Lady, Ex Idolo Thirty-three and the rest of their alluring kind. 

Sweet, spicy, unrepentantly sexy, velvety rose that starts oh so very animalic as if a big cat just rolled in the rose bushes thinking it was catnip. After the animal gets off the trampled flowers, the smell of spiced woods comes in and mingles with the rose scent, becoming a peppery rose and woody scent. In the dry down, the spicy notes become less obvious but the rose and wood notes prevail and are joined by a warm, salty, musky smell that I've come to associate with ambergris. Average projection and longevity was about six hours on me. The black floral lace stocking material covering the heavy glass bottle gives you a bold hint to the va va voom inside.

Not the most awesome music video, but I'm putting this here for the music which goes well with this Micallef. Those who watched Empire Records would remember this one :)

Honour Woman Amouage

Source: www.gopixpic.com

Honour Woman isn't my most loved BFWF ( big fat white floral) nor is it my most loved Amouage but if you are into luscious white floral perfumes, you should add this to your sampling list. 

A gardenia/tuberose/jasmine delight that opens with a strong lily of the valley presence and some peppery green notes before the focus shifts to the main players, the white flowers. The flowers are lusher than in Estée Lauder's Private Collection Tuberose Gardenia which is an elegant white floral bouquet but too polite and thin for my taste. However the meatiest mixed white floral for me is the super buttery Isabey's Fleur Nocturne even though my darling tuberose is replaced with a creamy magnolia and juicy fruit notes. Honour Woman sits between Fleur Nocturne and Tuberose Gardenia in terms of boldness and the "fatness" of the floral notes (medically speaking the BMI of Fleur Nocturne would be over 30, Honour Woman would be about 25 and Tuberose Gardenia would be 20). In the drydown of Honour Woman there is a light sprinkling of the peppery notes from earlier on and a lovely warm smoky incense under the white floral notes. A beautiful rich white floral perfume with a mellower ending compared to its first hour that any tuberose/gardenia lover especially should try. 

Thanks to chronic rhinitis that has addled my snifter, I tend to gravitate towards powerhouse perfumes and I particularly love how Amouage perfumes announce one's presence before one is physically even in the room and how everyone knows you have been in that room for an hour after you have left. This isn't the case with Honour Woman which is moderate in both the scent trail and longevity departments as compared to Memoir Woman or Interlude Woman for example. 

Nejma 4, Nejma

Nejma 4 introduces herself with a bright and zingy bergamot, geraniums adding a dash of spicy pepper to the otherwise piquant citrus top notes.

Settling down after the round of introductions which lasted about half an hour or so, she reveals a sweet-herbaceous, slightly powdery aspect of her character accompanied by florals that I am unable to differentiate as they are seamlessly blended together, however Nejma 4 is listed by Fragrantica to contain jasmine, rose, narcissus and ylang ylang.

The herbaceous aspect dissipates, the powder gradually becomes more obvious and the scent remains as a very floral powder till the end. An enjoyable powdery floral bouquet with a classic vibe, reminiscent of Yves Saint Laurent Paris EDP although Paris is more of a pink bouquet and Nejma 4 smells like a pale yellow arrangement.

Nejma 4 has a modest sillage and good longevity on me.