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. 

Rose 31 Le Labo

Desirability: Full bottle

Source: flairflair.com

X Factor Rose.

The rose in Rose 31 smells like a rose and not a pronounced perfumed rose nor am I distracted by the presence of other flowers. It smells freshly sweet and lightly spiced, the spices gently tickling the nose but never harsh or peppery. The dewy rose seems to be the only source of hydration in this fragrance, Rose 31 for the most part feels dry, like crisp, fallen leaves crackling under your shoes. There is a hint of something sour but not the stale sweat some other fragrance lovers have reported, instead the piquancy gives Rose 31 a bit of bolshiness. 

Rose like a steadfast friend, stays with you throughout the lifetime of Rose 31 which is above average and just when its quieter nature misleads you to think it has left without a trace, Rose 31 sends up almost translucent smoky trails in reassurance. Musty in its drydown it feels like the world is tinted in sepia, the rose joined by musk and wood over time creating a grisaille palette. 

A beguiling blend of a spices, wood, musk and rose, I find Rose 31 easier to wear than its much more challenging friend Rose Poivree by The Different Company, as interesting as Rose Poivree undoubtedly is. 

Guernica, 1937 by Pablo Picasso. Source: http://www.pablopicasso.org/

Umé Keiko Mecheri

Source: www.supermama.lt

 Keiko Mercheri Umé is incredibly yummy and realistic especially if you enjoy the taste of small Japanese pickled plums known as umeboshi. Being Asian and exposed to all sorts of pickled fruit and vegetables from an early age, umeboshi posed no problem for the palate no matter how salty (the level of sweet/saltiness can vary quite a bit) and although I don't like eating it on its own, it adds a lovely salty and sweet tartness to whatever you choose to eat it with, be it plain rice or in a salad. 

Even without knowing what Umé or umeboshi is, it is easy to recognise the plums in Keiko Mercheri's Umé immediately that are sweet with a piquant edge to their taste. As the scent settles down, there appears a very light boozy note reminiscent of Umeshu or Japanese plum liqueur but the scent remains quite sheer despite the booze. In the dry down it becomes more balmy with earthy and woody notes but the tartly sweet and salted plum remains front and center of the scent.  

Source: shizuokagourmet.com

Having met Umé I much prefer its delicate freshness over Tom Ford's syrupy and boozy Plum Japonais. If you wish to try your hand at making Umeboshi at home, I found what is possibly the most detailed and helpful recipe at Just Hungry.

Ce Soir Ou Jamais Annick Goutal

Ce Soir Ou Jamais. Tonight or Never.

By no means a heavyweight, Ce Soir Ou Jamais is still one of the more "intense" scents from Annick Goutal, whose range I've largely associated with the words "fresh" and "light". 

The opening is true to the Annick Goutal form I'm acquainted with, a dazzling brightness in the form of zesty citrus notes and their bitter green rind, powdery aldehydes and a tart rose that's easier on the taste buds than Perfumer's Workshop Tea Rose. There's this crisp bitter green note that makes me think of hyacinths like in Annick Goutal's Grand Amour but it's subtle here as is the powder. 

The scent quickly drops a bigger proportion of its acerbic notes and the sour rose is replaced with a sweeter, fruity rose covered by a fine layer of dusty powder that tickles your nose as you inhale. The rose is prominent but I feel it is a bouquet of flowers that I am smelling and not just rose alone. Ce Soir Ou Jamais despite having a dismal longevity but a moderate sillage, is a lovely old-fashioned dusty floral featuring rose that leaves one feeling nostalgic when wearing it, not quite living the moment as its name suggests but more like re-living it in one's mind. 

Une Fleur de Cassie Frederic Malle

Desirability: Full bottle and a back up

I was too caught up in my obsession with Carnal Flower and Dans Tes Bras to give Une Fleur de Cassie the attention she deserved but I'm glad she gave me a second chance. A friend recently asked to swap for 10 ml of it and fired up my curiosity, I have always liked it but never appreciated its real magic. Till now that is. Thank you Emilija :)

Time-lapse image of a suntrail. Pekka Parviainen. 

Une Fleur de Cassie is like watching the sunrise to sunset.

 She opens bright, yellow and clear, like the sun shining through the windows in the morning. The initial sharpness gradually turns into a musty golden pollen, sour sweet and woody, like romping in scented fields of flowers and hay, rays of the afternoon sun beaming down, far far away from the any jaded, polluted city.

Magnificent mimosa in a vase. FRAGAL.

Like the soothing calm watching a sunset brings, so does the mellow powdery dry down of Une Fleur de Cassie bring feelings of contentment and happiness shaded by a light melancholy.



You kiss the last rays goodbye and give your loved ones a hug, breathing in the heated musk of skin tinged with sweat from playing under the sun all day.

Just as the happy memories stay with you forever, so does the warm glow of Une Fleur de Cassie stay on your clothes for what seems forever, keeping you in a perfumed personal bubble all day.  

Une Fleur de Cassie is a scent you need to have time for, not something to spray on in a rush. Like a fine wine that you let breathe and sit with to fully appreciate its bouquet, so it is with Une Fleur de Cassie. 

The emotional joyride Une Fleur de Cassie takes you on is magical. Quite the epitome of a perfect fragrance.

PG04 Musc Maori Parfumerie Generale

Scent of the night: Musc Maori, from a Luckyscent dab sample. My previous forays over a year ago into the PG line left me unmoved and I have been repeatedly urged to try more before dismissing this very popular niche house.

So here I am with the scent applied to both wrist and sleeve. My first thought, sour milk! Oh no what have I done, I just showered! I don't want to sleep with sour milk! Thankfully, the sourness disappeared and left the creamy milk behind (Fragrantica lists green notes in the pyramid for Musc Maori so perhaps that was the culprit, but whatever it is I'm glad it exited quickly).  I smell chocolate, bittersweet and powdery.  A brief image of Muller Corner with cocoa balls flashed through my mind and got my sweet tooth going. 

Just as Musc Maori and I started getting along just fine, something that smells like bergamot shows up? What?! I recheck the label on the sample and it says Musc Maori...where is this citrus zest coming from?-- I'm looking at you "green notes"! So now I have full cream milk+ bittersweet chocolate powder+ citrus rind. Interesting but it's neither a gourmand nor is it a cologne. Nor is it musky on me, no soap nor wild animal present here. It's more Chocolate Powder Maori than Musc Maori on me. Add a dash of citrus too.

Thankfully this has a lowish sillage on me and I can cover it with some powerhouse perfume instead of another shower before I go hunt down my bar of orange dark chocolate which I now smell like. Still not a fan of PG, but not discouraged. There has to be one that I'll fall in love with. Or at least like.