Stephen Jones Comme des Garcons & Stephen Jones

Desirability: Full bottle

Source: www.notenom.com

An interesting and wearable violet.

I may find a scent interesting and original but that does not necessarily mean I would feel comfortable wearing it, instead preferring to treasure it as a piece of art. Comme des Garcons & Stephen Jones combine both the weird and wonderful in Stephen Jones making it wearable olfactory art, which is a trait that is seen in most of the creations from Comme des Garcons that I've had the pleasure to try. Intriguing and creative.

There's something tart and spicy about this violet, breaking away from the traditional mould of candied innocent violet flowers. It is partly airy with the violet flowers and leaves smelling natural and sweetly green but Stephen Jones isn't about a posy of violets. There's a snowstorm of aldehydes like sparkling diamond dust all over the violets, enough to tickle your nose and your fancies if you are into violets and aldehydes as a pair. Oh and back to the tart spiciness...reminiscent of aromatic herbs, they add a piquancy to the dusted violets. I smell incense and woody notes later on but the violet flowers and leaves along with the spiced powdery notes are the main players throughout. 

Original and charming from beginning to end, overall it feels dry, brisk and rather modern but yet there's an old-fashioned vibe from the gentle and sweet violet powder. Unisex and although it might not be everyone's cup of tea, I doubt anyone could say that Stephen Jones is staid or boring! 

Daphne Comme des Garcons

Daphne Guinness collaborated with Comme des Garcons and released her signature fragrance in 2009, which she described as a "battle of contradictions". A battle or a bottle of contradictions? 

The description on the Comme des Garcons website is as such: "The fragrance DAPHNE gleans images from childhood memories in gardens, family houses and mysterious church rituals of an imaginative young girl."

Official listed notes lifted off the CDG page are: Bitter orange from Sicily, Incense, Saffron, Rose centifolia, Tunisian jasmine, Tuberose from India, Florentine iris, Indonesian patchouli, Oud wood, Amber, Vanilla from Madagascar. 

Comme des Garcons is all about the artsy and the experimental, from fashion to fragrances. As much as I like quirky, the clothing isn't wearable in my line of work nor does it quite gel with my personality i.e I'm not fashionably flexible enough. So I content myself with their their radical line of scents instead. My first ever CDG take home was their first and eponymous fragrance which has a very spicy and resinous unisex personality.

Daphne lives up to her name and the brand she is part of. I've admired Daphne Guinness for being fashionably eccentric and carrying it off with insouciance that cannot just be copied. It's something you are born with. Read more here. She's witty and I enjoy reading her quips. She was once quoted saying, "Nothing terrifies me more than being social."- ditto here. Other quotes I enjoy:

" I spend alot of time upside down. It increases the blood flow to the brain, so it really helps your creativity."

"Life is full of banana skins. You slip, you carry on."

So back to the scent. Bittersweet, more bitter than sweet, like the taste of Hédiard's bitter orange marmalade. A leathery, dusty saffron opens the scent with heady tuberose and spicy, smoky incense. They are followed by a metallic, powdery iris and an earthy patchouli. I smell the patchouli more obviously as time passes and it's paired with the oud, that's perceptible but not overpowering.

Daphne is elegantly dark and intoxicating on me, an interesting and unique take on one of my favorite flowers, here matching the narcotic white flower with equally potent partners, such that this tuberose scent is not just attractive, but intriguing as well.

Sillage and longevity are very good.

Mnemosyne was an art video created and directed by Daphne Guinness to accompany the perfume Daphne, a Web-released "anti-ad". 

A little trivia: Mnemosyne was the Greek goddess of memory and remembrance.  Memories are the influences behind the creation of Daphne, which was born from a personal blend she made out of tuberose, incense and oud. The tuberose and cedar take her back to her mother's garden in Cadaques, Spain, the incense sparks visions of High Church rituals during childhood and the oud speaks to her sense of adventure. 

"Fragrance takes you on a journey of time. You can walk down the street and pass someone and get taken back 20 years. It's very Proustian that way."- Daphne Guinness.