Habanita L'Esprit Molinard

Habanita L'Esprit starts off heavy but winds up soft after about an hour so I tend to carry my bottle around with me. I've never tried the original Habanita or the 2012 eau de parfum version so I regretfully can't compare them at this time. 

I have been weaning myself off the risky habit of blind buys but this one was a successful gamble as Habanita L'Esprit has all the notes I enjoy, being a well-orchestrated combination of an unclean musk, leather, resins and powder. I say unclean as it's more smutty than a clean musk like The Body Shop's White Musk but not enough to join the legion of dark musks like Kiehl's Original Musk. The leathery labdanum and musk stand out during the first hour but slink away thereafter so that in the drydown you get sweet warm resins and citrus-tinged vanilla powder. This part reminds me a little of Guerlain's Shalimar but with less vanilla than in Shalimar. Overall a nice and cosy scent that's worth its price. 

Nuit Noire Mona di Orio (re-release 2014)

Source: Fragrantica

I started my day with Frederic Malle's ultra feminine Lipstick Rose and am ending it with heated hormones to put it delicately, thanks to Mona di Orio's Nuit Noire, the re-released edition of 2014 that I've been waiting impatiently for since rumours first started in 2013, having heard such polarising opinions on the original version and looking at those notes, how could I not fall in lust?

In order not to waste your time I would advise that if you hate strong spices/musks/animal smells/have used the words 'urinal' or 'faecal' as derogatory terms to describe a perfume before, then don't bother with Nuit Noire unless you are into olfactory BDSM. For it is all the above and it's stunning. Yes skanky animalic perfumes have been done before and over and over again. Yes Nuit Noire is nothing ground-breaking but it's damn good and it does the job. Seduction in a bottle. You or your prey. 

Source: gifrific.com

The opening is jaw-dropping, intense and virile, a clash of the titans between an acerbic orange blossom, weirdly sweet burning tyres type leather and the sweaty-armpits variety of musk. After getting your full attention, Nuit Noire tones down on the leather ditching the tyre note but leaving the bad boy biker in full leather gear behind. The sharpness of the orange blossom relaxes and more of a heady white floral comes through after the sharp citrus note exits. 

The leather and animalic musk combination could be described as someone (male or female) wearing a dry spicy oriental scent, having an energetic session in the gym or other physical activity and then donning a leather jacket over it all. The creamy lush flowers and wood notes embellish Nuit Noire but the leather, musk and dry spices are what makes it Nuit Noire. In the drydown the leather seems spent and what is left is a dreamy and balmy woody amber base. 

Everyone in a 2 metre radius will be able to smell it on you and will likely follow you entranced all day and night since the longevity is excellent. This goes on my want list stat.

Civet Musk Mukhallat Sharif LaRoche

* Mukhallat means mixture, in perfumery it is taken to mean that it contains a mixture of different pure oils that makes up the perfume oil.

I will not lie. The opening made me wonder what a unwashed cat's bum might smell like ( I say cat because I have one but you could exchange it for any other animal you wish).  Thankfully I'm not one to shy away from smells of excretions or whatnot and in this case my faith paid off( my faith was firmly instilled after Sharif LaRoche's goddess of a Ambergris Taifi Rose turned my head away from demigods forever). 

Anyway. I'll politely describe the opening as bitter, black, pungent and oily. By the way this perfume oil is so strong, i smeared the littlest drop on my upper arm and it's as loud as a heavy metal concert from the front row. 

It gets comfortable after a few minutes and settles down on my skin, the bitterness is still there but a sweet dark muskiness has started blooming from my skin instead of the initial barnyard funk. It's still very much oily and pungent but there's something about it that's oddly attractive. I guess that's civet for you and why it's so sought after and pricey in perfumery and coffee alike. If you enjoy clean soapy musks or polite musks like Narciso Rodriguez's musks, this might not be to your liking. However, if you live for musks like Kiehl's original musk or Serge Lutens' Musc Koublai Khan, you must give this a try, that being said even MKK is lightweight compared to this. It's very much in the unisex department, although if you are strictly into light scents or polite scents, you might want to pass on this. 

The oil projects and persists for an almost obnoxiously long time, not forgetting that this is all from one itsy bitsy smear from the stick of a dab sample. The sample was kindly included along with three others with my purchase of 1 ml of Ambergris Taifi.