Gourmand Coquin Guerlain

Desirability: Decant

Source: www.guerlain.com

Love the bottle and the marketing blurb behind the Elixir Charnel range from Guerlain. Taking this excerpt from the description for Gourmand Coquin on Guerlain's website:

 A delicious and sexy fragrance reflecting a mischievous, intrepid and charming woman. 

Who wouldn't want to be all that? I know I would. 

The thing that frustrates me about Gourmand Coquin and holds me back from getting a full bottle, is that the vanilla outweighs the chocolate on me. Yes the chocolate is there, a divine milky chocolate bar that's covered by...vanilla. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the vanilla, it's a gourmand dream of a yummy sweet vanilla but my vanilla corner is densely populated from gourmands to woody to vampy and currently on the pedestal is Vanitas who won't be happy with competition. 

Gourmand Coquin besides the chocolate and vanilla is lightly spiced and slightly boozy, giving one a festive air of partying and indulging without the hangover and self recriminations. Well done, smoothly blended. It's Guerlain. So back to the advertisement. Yes it's delicious if you are into gourmands, yes it's sexy if well you get turned on by dessert, mischievous and charming it is but intrepid...hmm. That's something I would reserve for Mona di Orio's Vanille instead.

Valentine's Day is around the corner so if you are feeling particularly generous and loving, I can let you know where to send a bottle :) Oh and if it's not too much trouble I'll take bottles of Oriental Brulant and Angélique Noire too :)

Chocomania The Body Shop

Desirability: Full bottle and a back up

Source: www.thebodyshop.com.vn

No frills chocolate.

It's not complicated and there's little development of the plot, just straight up chocolate from start to finish, that begins a little powdery making me think of cocoa powder mixes like Nesquik or Milo but the powder disappears quite quickly and the rest of the time I smell like a good quality chocolate cake with a restrained use of sugar. The vanilla isn't overpowering either which I had a problem with in Guerlain's Gourmand Coquin which was more of a vanilla scent than a chocolate one. 

It doesn't last long but the projection is decent and overall Chocomania is a very realistic chocolate scent that is worth far more than its price tag. 

For those counting calories or simply curious about how the different chocolate powder mixes add up, I found this blog entry that compares Nesquik, Milo and Cadbury. Personally I am an Ovaltine fan.

Ore Slumberhouse

Desirability: Sample

Source: pinterest.com

I've been searching for The One. I mean in terms of chocolate scent. I've tried The Body Shop's Chocomania ( a lovely malt chocolate), Guerlain's Elixir Charnel Gourmand Coquin ( it's more of a delicious boozy vanilla than chocolate on me and the jury is still out on whether I should splurge on a bottle), Montale's Chocolate Greedy and Comptoir Sud Pacifique's Amour De Cacao were both equally sweet milk chocolate on me, a little like wearing Terry's Chocolate Orange actually. Parfumerie Generale's PG04 Musc Maori was a dud on me, I smelt like sour milk and chocolate powder sadly. Histoires de Parfums 1969 Parfum de Revolte and Arquiste's Anima Dulcis are two spiced chocolates that I adore and En Voyage Perfumes' Café Cacao is a heavenly salted chocolate like the Lindt sea salt dark chocolate bars, but as delightful as they are, I'm still looking for the swoon-worthy one. 

Source: morningcigarette.com

Ore smells very strongly of wood, it feels like I've walked into a woodshop where all kinds of wood are piled up and the floor is covered with a layer of sawdust. There's a sweet tarry smell alongside the wood that makes me think of a polish or a layer of glaze over the woodwork, it's a little too harsh and pungent for my liking and I think this is the whisky note others are picking up. The chocolate is present but it smells thin or diluted and peppery, not quite the thick creamy chocolate I'm in the mood for i.e Ore is not a gourmand by my definition at least. Ore is interesting and unique without a doubt and I thoroughly enjoyed testing my sample. I won't recommend it as a gourmand but if you are looking for a powerhouse caramelized woody/boozy scent that's evocative of old Camel or Marlboro advertisements featuring cowboys or other macho sorts. 

CiocoRosissimo Hilde Soliani

Source: Luckyscent

Quirky rose.

The chocolate is most obvious when the scent is first applied, more of a bitter dark chocolate. Sadly the chocolate note waxes and wanes before disappearing completely. Along with the chocolate at the introduction there are  sweet spicy notes that make me think of pepper and cloves. There is also a strong and dry incense gamboling with the chocolate and spices, overall it doesn't smell bad or good but challenging? So the chocolate wanders off and the spice and incense take it down a few notches, it's the debut of the rose, or rather delicately sweet rosewater. By the drydown most of the spiciness is gone leaving the incense, rosewater and vanilla, subtly sweet and balmy.

I can't decide if I like or dislike CiocoRosissimo. It's a wonky and fun scent with tasty point, average projection and longevity. Something that should be sampled though and not blindly bought. 

Body Made Luminous Scent By Alexis

Source: kremchik.com.ua

I just found out that Body Made Luminous is back in stock, here is a link for her Etsy store. Have been meaning to try this and now I can :) Hopefully this will be THE chocolate scent to end the search. 

Choco Musk Al-Rehab

Source: Fragrantica

My brother told me I smell like a cake and he is right I do smell like a chocolate cake, one that is guaranteed to break your no-carb diet or your daily caloric intake if it were edible. Linear and sweet milk chocolate of good quality with non-existent musk or other notes, I put my Montale Chocolate Greedy up for sale after I met Choco Musk and if you were thinking of buying the Montale I would advise to try the Al-Rehab first as it's a fantastic dupe at an unbeatable price on many online stores. Or you could buy my Montale. 

It's been a while since I wore Comptoir Sud Pacifique's Amour de Cacao but I remember comparing it with Chocolate Greedy and finding Amour de Cacao not as thick or sugary as Chocolate Greedy but still satisfying your chocolate craving. There's the briefest of citrus at the opening of Amour de Cacao that along with the chocolate made me think of Terry's chocolate oranges but the citrus was fleeting on me. I wound up with the Montale instead of the Comptoir Sud Pacifique because it came as a free gift along with my purchase of Aoud Queen Roses and I figured one straight-up milk chocolate in my wardrobe was enough.   

I bought the perfume oil version of Choco Musk in a roller ball bottle although an eau de parfum in a spray bottle is available. With regards to the perfume oil, it's projection and longevity are superb and only a little dab on the skin is required for one to smell like a walking confection but I will reassure you that it is not at all sickly sweet. I tried using the roller ball on fabric but it doesn't stick on so I rubbed some on my wrist before transferring on to my top which worked. 

Sorriso Profumum Roma

Source: Fragrantica

Source: flickr.com

Sorriso smells like a chocolate version of Dulcis in Fundo, which means I'm smelling like a chocolate dipped waffle cone today. I find the Profumum Roma perfumes to be slightly oily so be careful if wearing a white top as it'll leave a mark and Sorriso is no exception. 

It starts with a dose of vanilla powder, by the way I smell more vanilla than chocolate throughout its lifetime which is pretty much infinite. The chocolate does show up and sticks around but plays a supporting role to the vanilla. If you were looking for a scrumptious creamy chocolate fix, Sorriso didn't do it for me as it's a thin chocolate similar to an Easter egg's chocolate shell as opposed to a solid egg of chocolate. There is also a sweet and delicate orange blossom note and like the chocolate, it flavours the vanilla which shakes off its powder to become more substantial like thick cream.  

Chocolate Mousse Easter Egg. Source: www.howdoesshe.com

I've read opinions that Sorriso is an improvement over Battito d'Ali (personally I don't think it needs improvement) and I do find similarities between them, both have the same orange blossom note and give off a similar vibe akin to ambient lounge chillout music by Hôtel Costes but I prefer Battito d'Ali with its bittersweet smoky myrrh.

Sorriso has a modest projection, better than Dulcis in Fundo and less than Vanitas, enabling one to wear it to the office without announcing its presence to the entire building while allowing the wearer to enjoy their chocolate fix discreetly albeit a low calorie version. 

I Love New York for All Bond No 9

You know that perfume that makes you stop looking for another? Well at least for that particular note. These showstoppers have saved me quite a bit of money, whenever I meet a possible contender for their pedestals, I have a Confessions of a Shopaholic moment where I search inwardly, "Do I neeeeeeeed this?"-answer NO. These lofty gods in my collection are Serge Lutens' Ambre Sultan for amber, A La Nuit from the same house for jasmine, Hilde Soliani's Cristina for an all-rounder patchouli, Diptyque's Philosykos for fig and Bond No. 9's I Love New York for All's sweet coffee note ended my search for coffee.

Source:sephora.com

Before I went to NYC, Paris was my favourite travel destination in the world, never mind the jostling hordes of tourists buying up everything in sight, never mind that a meal in one of the charming roadside cafes costs a small fortune, the city is my kind of romantic and I'm not talking about the Frenchmen. I'm talking about the endless twisting cobblestone streets to get lost in, the beautiful old apartments along the Seine, the Eiffel Tower, the bridges, the food, the language...anyway you get my drift, I love Paris. Then I met NYC. Where Paris is dreamy, romantic and all La Vie En Rose, NYC is ballsy, vibrant and freaking noisy, all the time, you can't help but get swept up in the human tide and move to the rhythm of the city. Bond No. 9's I Love New York for All encompasses the city and its energy for me.

In NYC, there are coffee shops at literally every corner, this I know for sure as I was leaching Wifi at many of them. Whatever time of the day, I see them packed with customers waiting for their coffee fix. Likewise, I Love New York for All is packed with sweet, strong coffee and it's not one but two pumps of vanilla syrup to get you smiling from the first sniff. For my first trip, I was lucky to visit the city in fall and got to see the changing colours of Nature before the snow storms hit a week after. Central Park had little cart vendors at every few metres, selling hot dogs/bagels/pretzels/churros and roasted chestnuts, you could smell the burnt sugar aroma a mile away. While the chestnut in I Love New York for All is more of a candied marron glacé than roasted, it's still a creamy and delicious nutty flavour, the definition of comfort food. Lastly during my pilgrimage to the perfume stores, I stopped for sustenance along the way in a variety of chocolate stores, my loves being the Godiva chocolate-dipped strawberries and Neuhaus' Orangettes, scrumptious candied orange peel covered in dark chocolate. 

So put copious amounts of sweet, dark coffee, syrupy marron glacé and milk chocolate together and you have a gourmand fest...I Love New York for All. Vivacious, loud and potent, the scent never seems to wane, like the city that never sleeps. No need for top-ups and a little goes a very long way. 

Anima Dulcis Arquiste

I love a good chocolate as much as the next gourmand lover but these days it takes a little more than just chocolate to rock my world. Anima Dulcis does just that. 

The opening of Anima Dulcis is a peppery, dry dark chocolate that smells like it's 90% dark with that raw cocoa taste and low on sugar. The vanilla and cinnamon slowly make their way in and the chocolate turns to a more creamy milk chocolate, the spices keeping it from being overly sweet and giving it a more grown-up feel, away from chocolate scents like The Body Shop's Chocomania and Guerlain's Elixir Charnel Gourmand Coquin that smells like a rosy Lolita bingeing on rum and Godiva chocolate hearts, a delicious scent but that price-tag, really? 

As it further evolves, Anima Dulcis loses some of the vanilla and gains back more dark cocoa with its bittersweet earthy flavour. The overall concoction smells realistic and organic, I can almost taste it. The edible version of Anima Dulcis would be Lindt's Chilli Dark Chocolate, as strange as it sounds it's pretty good stuff, semi sweet dark chocolate with a subtle spicy flavour to give it that extra kick in the taste buds. 

Lindt Chilli Dark Chocolate, image courtesy of Flickr.

Anima Dulcis dries to a dusty spiced chocolate, reminding me of making hot chocolate from chocolate powder, but this time with cinnamon and maybe some cardamom and chilli flakes? The scent has a moderate projection and very good longevity, my cardigan from last night still smells delicious after 24 hours. 

Spicy Hot Chocolate, recipe below, courtesy of www.shape.com

Since this is probably triggering cravings, I found an interesting recipe on shape.com for spicy hot chocolate and have included it here.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound butternut squash (about 2 cups cubed)

Cooking spray

7 cups nonfat milk

8 7/10 ounces Mexican or semisweet dark chocolate

30 1/2 ounce semisweet chocolate

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Peel squash and cut it into 1-inch cubes. Arrange squash on a baking sheet in a single layer and spray lightly with cooking spray. Bake for 30 minutes, or until tender.

2. In a blender, puree squash with three cups of milk until smooth. Stir remaining ingredients in a large saucepan over low heat, until chocolate is melted.

3. Add pureed squash mixture to pan and continue stirring until it's heated (do not boil). Strain mixture through a coarse sieve and serve.

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. 

Coromandel Chanel Les Exclusifs

I love all things patchouli. Headshop, gourmand, earthy, dirty, skanky, whatever else. The dirtier/skankier/headshop the better actually.

My favourite patchouli dominant scents in no particular order would include:

• Psychedelique by Jovoy Paris
• Noir Patchouli by Histoires de Parfums
• C'est la Fete Patchouli by Christian Lacroix
• Lumiere Noire Pour Femme by Francis Kurkdjian
• Patchouli by Reminiscence
• Patchouli 24 by Le Labo
• Calypso Ambre by Calypso Christiane Celle

The unicorn of patchouli scents that I would love to get my hands on is Luten's Borneo 1834. I will update if this ever falls into my lap.

Coromandel gets so much love on the perfume forums, I had to get it. While I don't regret it per se, I could have lived without this blind buy quite happily. Actually point to note here, avoid blind buying if you can, sample, sample, SAMPLE! 

Coco Chanel and coromandel screen, taken from habituallychic

Coromandel is a classy patchouli. Too classy for me. Any visits to headshops in her history have been carefully erased and she is now a very proper and conservative lady. The patchouli here is of the creamy and smooth kind, well-behaved and non-dominating. I smell the orris root very clearly, a note I became familiar with in Tauer's Pentachord White. The incense like the patchouli is muted here, none of firework displays seen in Amouages or Tauer's L'Air du Desert Marocain or Serge Luten's Ambre Sultan. 

Albert von Keller Chopin 1873

Coromandel screens are darkly lacquered wooden screens with vivid characters and landscapes carved out of ivory or mother-of-pearl, or painstakingly pieced with tiny precious gems, or painted in rich reds and golds. They are rich, passionate pieces of art depicting Asian culture, history and folklore. 

Coromandel the scent is beautiful but it lacks character for me and does not do justice to its name. The sillage and longevity however are excellent.