La Petite Robe Noire Guerlain 2012 edition

 Desirability: Full bottle 

For those who were brought here by google or another search engine in hopes of finding enlightenment regarding LPRN, please do scroll down a few paragraphs and ignore my warbling here. For...

This is my first post in many years. YEARS! Wow. To all the people who have reached out since the birth of this blog, to tell me you enjoy reading what I wrote, a big THANK YOU. You are a big part of why I am back today. 

I’ve been enjoying my fragrance library which I obsessively collected between 2012-2017, without the feeding frenzy to obtain more and more new scents. Of course a couple of new bottles joined the gang here and there but that’s a fragrance lover for you- there’s no such thing as too much perfume. 

I’ve gone so far in my journey as to be able to part with fragrances I no longer jive with, regardless of whether they are deemed collectors’ items or not (to the joy of other fragrance lovers who picked up the bottles sold) and have trimmed my library done to something manageable like a few lifetimes’ worth instead of never ending. 

Anyway back to LPRN, my bottle being the re-release of the initial limited edition (which I’ve never smelt) in 2012. 

Isn’t it amazing how our senses evolve/mature along with the rest of our physical bodies and mentality? Well for most of us anyway. I remember loving LPRN when I first laid nose on it. Even eyes- I mean check the signature Guerlain top shared with hallmark scents such as Mitsouko and L’Heure Bleue. Picture Mitzy and LHB looking on indulgently at the capricious youth that is their niece. 

Uncork the bottle and cue the blast of sexy patchouli nesting in a generous bosom of dark luscious cherries. Layer on the subtly spicy vanilla (shades of Hypnotic Poison anyone?) and a bloom of roses (more Ce Soir ou Jamais than La filled de Berlin) in a 40/60 percentage and you have yourself a yummy trifle that lasts for days when applied to clothes and leaves the two metre radius around you floating in a delicious cloud of bliss. 

It's easy to dismiss LPRN as just another youth outreach program by a great perfume house but unlike the masses crowding the perfume counters out there, LPRN has a thing about it, just as all Guerlain fragrances do (full disclosure: Guerlain fangirl here, they can do almost no wrong in my eyes. Almost.). LPRN is the treasured painting at home, not a sketch on a cocktail napkin. In a world constantly saturated with distracting new offerings, LPRN was edged slowly towards the back of the collection but I'm thankful that I didn't part with my bottle during the Great Separation of 2020. Coincidentally one of the first scents I discovered as an early fragrance lover is the scent that brought me to write my first post in many years. 

If you have a bottle of this beauty knocking around somewhere, I hope you have an opportunity to revisit its beauty again. Or perhaps another beautiful scent that has been neglected for a while. 

Trance J.F. Schwarzlose Berlin

Desirability: Sample

Source: Fragrantica

Trance has a boozy opening, thick and sweet like maple syrup laced with a fruity liquor. Fruity booze and maple syrup- a seriously powerful introduction! At the same time there is something that is strong and pungent as if herbs and leather were burnt together. All these potent and different smells create a dark (really dark) and deep fragrance, sweet yet medicinal, woody and fruity, heavy yet dry and definitely complicated. 

A faint rose appears midway but the most persistent and resonant is the unusual herbal leather note. As the scent evolves it feels dry and dusty like sawdust, the vegetal, leather and syrup notes enduring till the end. The drydown is dark and earthy similar to how patchouli can give that "earthiness" vibe. The rose is less timid now as if having bloomed over time but although it is easier to detect, I don't feel it ever becomes a dominant player in this scent. 

Trance was a weird experience with some nice bits along the way, the drydown being the most enjoyable part when things settled down a bit instead of out-shouting the other notes. Unfortunately the death knell for me was the herbal leather combination that was a bit too harsh for my stomach to handle ( I literally got waves of nausea smelling this each time). Good projection and longevity though and I am positive that on the right person this would be a commanding fragrance. 

Rose Oud Monotheme Fine Fragrances Venezia

Desirability: Full bottle

Source: www.granducati.com

I enjoy the smell of oud and have never been too bothered about whether the oud in my perfume was real or synthetic as long as it smelled good. Monotheme's Rose Oud smells good.

The scent of sweet blushing roses and the unique spicy-citrus smell of elemi resin greet you upon applying Rose Oud. Slightly powdery, bright and beautiful with a just the right amount of something green and sour. It grows more earthy and woody (like what you would imagine a forest floor with its mat of dried leaves and mud would smell like) over time but never goes over to the dark side despite the patchouli and oud. There's a ?mineral smell amongst all the dirt, plants and flowers, like how a gravel courtyard smells under a burning sun. ? Stony haha. The drydown is a more subtle expression of all the notes that have already been introduced, nicely balanced and smooth. 

I took a break from my oud rampage for a while so I can't say for sure how Rose Oud compares with other similar combinations but based on memory, I would say fragrance-wise it's up there with Thirty-three which is a big love of mine. Projection and longevity are average.

Not the easiest to purchase online but I have found a store called Granducati that ships internationally and the prices for the perfumes are reasonable. I haven't bought from them yet but going by my first and very pleasant experience with Monotheme's fragrances, I am interested in sampling others.

La Violette Annick Goutal

Desirability: Full bottle and back up

After the excesses of the last three days thanks to the Lunar New Year festivities and gorging myself silly with all kinds of heavy traditional food, it is nice to cut back and what better way than with a beautiful soliflore like La Violette? 

I am not much of a green floral person but there's something about Annick Goutal's floral creations that are whimsical and appeal to the girly girl in me, particularly La Violette and Un Matin d'Orage. They share this similar DNA sequence that is unique to this house so much so that you could recognise an Annick Goutal floral blindfolded. 

Sweet violet flowers and tiny buds of roses balanced with the zing of fresh green leaves so realistic it is as if you are crushing a leaf between your fingers and smelling the green stain left upon them. La Violette truly smells like the promise of Spring in a bottle. Delicate and feminine, unpretentious yet polished, slightly shy yet welcoming, cool yet sunny disposition. 

I find La Violette to be a happier violet than the "bleue" Apres l'Ondee which is a gorgeous if subtle and ever so misty-eyed violet on me. Out of the two, La Violette has the bigger projection and also lasts longer although not above the four hour mark but for the time that it lingers around, it is a sheer comfort like letting all the stress out with a big sigh. 

Rosae Mundi is my Valentine!

Desirability: Full bottle

Source: pinterest.com

A living rose.

A decant of Rosae Mundi and some others from the Profumum Roma line came just in time for me to celebrate Valentine's day my way- perfumed, with a good book and Serge purring at my feet. 

Rosae Mundi. Rose of the world. For a detailed and interesting write-up on the history of this phrase, read here. 

I don't know if Rosae Mundi is the Rose of the world but it definitely smells like the Rose of the earth or rather Rose and the Earth for that is what I smell in equal parts. Roses and earth-dirt, plants, animals, basically all that lives and breathes. The roses are the first to be noticed, huge blooms of perfumed roses that are a little powdery, a little tartly green and a little sweet. Don't write off the perfume as just another rose soliflore, that's just the beginning. 

Rosae Mundi moves out from behind the white picket fences into the real world and gets gritty. Dry, dusty and the smell of the earth after the rain has passed and under the tropical sun, steam practically rises from the cooled ground. That smell. Not just one smell but a smell that is complex and made up of the scent of many others, the watered soil, the plants-their roots, leaves and flowers, the soaring trees above, maybe even the worms and caterpillars. The roses are still blooming but the earth and its living things take the centre stage in this later part of Rosae Mundi. The scent stays this way for the rest of its long lifetime, it is there until you scrub it off with a good amount of soap and arm power. 

Source: pinterest.com

THE ROSE OF THE WORLD

by: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Who dreamed that beauty passes like a dream?

For these red lips, with all their mournful pride,

Mournful that no new wonder may betide,

Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam,

And Usna's children died.

 

We and the labouring world are passing by:

Amid men's souls, that waver and give place

Like the pale waters in their wintry race,

Under the passing stars, foam of the sky,

Lives on this lonely face.

 

Bow down, archangels, in your dim abode:

Before you were, or any hearts to beat,

Weary and kind one lingered by His seat;

He made the world to be a grassy road

Before her wandering feet.

Source: mrt.com.mk

Delire de Roses Caron

Desirability: Full bottle and back up

Source: www.b-b-com.ru

Feminine. Dainty. Graceful.

This smells like a garden party held within walls covered with thousands upon thousands of rose blooms in every shade of pink and yellow. The sky above is crystal clear and blue with not the slightest threat of rain to mar it. The slightest of breezes keeps the party cool and lively with the uplifting green and floral scent of the blossoming hedges but not heavy enough to ruffle the table linen, upon which a delightful feast of pretty treats is laid out, the fruit in season is lychee and here it is in abundance from lychee Martinis to lychee panna cotta. Delicate rose petals and tiny fragrant buds of jasmine are scattered across the table cloths whilst at the corners of the party stand cavernous pots as tall as your hip holding lotus plants with guppies darting about under their broad leaves from which grow translucent pink, purple white and golden blooms. 

On me the exquisite fresh rose blooms and the sweet lychee fruit are the most dominant and although lychee can get a little dense and syrupy, Delire de Roses stays light and tender throughout, rather soft but long lasting. 

A beautiful antidote for Monday blues and somehow I'm reminded of my darling nemesis/niece warbling "Ring a Ring o' Roses".

Source: theillustrationist.com

1969 Parfum de Revolte Histoires de Parfums

Source: www.ufgrangehall.com

1969 was the first perfume I owned from Histoires de Parfums and it entered my life around the beginning of my entry into the "niche" world of perfumes other than Serge Lutens. In contrast to some of my early buys, I've grown to enjoy and appreciate it more than my inexperienced nose ever did before. 

Where before my green self could only smell a fruity chocolate, I now think of it as alluring and spicy, the gourmand notes still present but intertwined with newly recognised notes, 1969 has grown in attraction, the good projection and longevity being plus points as well. Cloves, cardamom and licorice dominate the opening, spicy, herbal and thoroughly invigorating. A fuzzy soft peach and sweet, fresh roses appear after half an hour of wear, the spiciness abating with their appearance but the scent still retains its oriental nature, warm and sensual. 

After the fruit and floral notes are settled in, a dark semi-sweet chocolate emerges and 1969 becomes smoother and creamy, a spiced chocolate that smells different to Arquiste's Anima Dulcis, another spicy chocolate that I adore. The spice in Anima Dulcis smells like how chili tastes or smells, raw, sharp and fiery whereas the spiciness in 1969 are the unmistakeable cardamom and cloves, aromatic with a slightly peppery tickle to the nostrils, the combination of both spices makes me think of mulled wine and Turkish coffee! 

As 1969 dries further, the spices remain as a lingering pleasant aftertaste and leave a rosy sweet and musky dark chocolate behind. Anima Dulcis on the hand becomes a powdery chili chocolate in its drydown, the makings of a comforting mug of spiced cocoa. Both scents are utterly blissful in their own way but I find 1969 a tad seductive with her sweet bits and spicy muskiness, the earthy patchouli in the drydown adding some darkness to her already interesting nature. Anima Dulcis on the other hand is more like her name, a genuinely "sweet soul" that is relatively uncomplicated chili and chocolate, what you see (on the note list) is what you get. 

Roses Al-Rehab

Source: Fragrantica

I had two failed attempts at getting my Al-Rehab scents and almost gave up after the second order placed became a non event so to speak. A kind fragrant friend pointed me towards a different source and voila! I am now the proud owner of Roses and a few other Al-Rehab perfume oils.

It opens with a rather shrilly green citrus similar to the opening of Perfumer's Workshop Tea Rose, which I dislike, not being able to get past the screechy citruses to find the roses. I was rather crestfallen that the Al-Rehab would suffer the same fate as my bottle of Tea Rose and hide in the depths of my closet till swapped or sold.

Thankfully the roses came in and boy did they show up en masse. Fresh roses, still tinged a pale green at the tips of the opening buds, that shoo the pesky citrus to the background where it hovers waiting to steal the limelight again. The scent stays that way for the end of its pretty impressive lifetime, a lemony (geranium?) rose soliflore. 

True to its name with amazing village and longevity, Al-Rehab's Roses is well worth its price-tag and more. However I prefer my roses to be softer and more velvety and Roses is a bit too strident for my tastes. 

Isparta 26 Parfumerie Generale

Isparta opens up with piquant red berries and sweet jammy roses that remind me of PG's Brulure de Rose or Tauer's Une Rose Vermeille. The sweetness level is up there with Juliette Has A Gun's Miss Charming, fruity rosy sweetness...like Montale's Roses Elixir but edit out the citrus opening and swap the strawberries for tangy red berries. Ok the resemblances stop there.

The bright sweetness dissipates quite quickly on me and Isparta takes an abrupt turn down the earthy, herbaceous path where it's darker, patchouli and oud being responsible for the change of mood. It's not all gloom and doom with the warm, jammy rose still going strong. It reminds me a lot of Ex Idolo's Thirty-three with the rose/patch/oud combination but the rose in Thirty-three is very much darker than in Isparta where it smells...pinkish-red? In Thirty-three the rose makes me think of dark almost black red roses, goth roses. The oud does not have the synthetic vibe some other "ouds" have, but it lacks the thick, oiliness I enjoy (that being said, even authentic oud has many different odours just as wines have bouquets).

Daiquiri

I enjoy the quick turnabout that Isparta took, from the initial cutie Strawberry Shortcake character type before fast forwarding ten years when Strawberry Shortcake got some tattoos and attitude. The scent projects in a major fashion on me even from a dab sample and it lasted the whole night into the morning and still going strong.

The rose is less syrupy sweet than Brulure de Rose or Une Rose Vermeille were on me and definitely has more character than the sweet and simple Miss Charming. Like others from the PG line, Isparta obviously comes from good stock but if we talk about interesting...the abrupt mood swing is about the only major difference that sets Isparta apart from other rose/oud/patchoulis.

Mon Parfum Cristal M. Micallef

With notes including toffee, vanilla and roses, I was looking forward to this being a feminine gourmand treat. I swapped one of my less-loved perfumes for Mon Parfum Cristal and waited with great anticipation as it has been receiving good reviews on the boards. 

It's nice. That isn't a very big compliment but I'm hard pressed to say anything nicer. The bottle is much more beautiful than the actual juice in my opinion. The scent is a lovely sweet rose with some pepper and cinnamon to spice it up, a nice none too sweet vanilla and clean musk in the background. I smell no toffee...alright who stole the toffee!!! So it's pleasant, inoffensive and will do for blushing brides all over the world or as a very impressive looking gift, but not for me. 

Like Bridget Jones said...I'm still looking for something more extraordinary than that.

Sillage is good, it casts a peachy glow about you (use your romantic sensibilities to imagine this) and it lasts a decent time, I get about six hours. 

Roses Greedy Mancera

Desirability: Sample

Thanks to a generous fellow fragrance traveller, I am wearing a huge sample of this to bed tonight. Despite it's name, I am getting equal shares of jasmine and roses. It opens with a bright burst of citrus before the sweet rose and intoxicating jasmine appear. The vanilla and sugar are dominant players in this scent. 

For the longest time I've been trying to figure out why this smells so familiar and finally I realised it smells like bandung! Bandung is a popular drink in Singapore made of condensed milk and rose syrup which gives the drink it's rosy pink colour and a what is meant to be a rose flavour? Artificial and full of calories, it's still a tasty local treat. 

picture of Bandung drinks, taken from soshiok.com

Other desserts that Roses Greedy brings to mind are the delicately flavoured Laduree Petale de Rose macarons. 

Rose macarons, Laduree, taken from Paris Patisseries.

So overall Roses Greedy is a delicious gourmand scent on my skin. The rose does not smell like a natural rose on me so if that is what you are looking for, I would not suggest this. However if you enjoy sweet rose-water in drink and food, this might be right up your alley.