Spending Valentine's Day 2017 with a new love... Le Beau Parfum Maison Francis Kurkdjian

Desirability: Full bottle

Source: Fragrantica.com

Valentine's Day 2017, which lucky scent is sharing today with you? I recently caved in and ordered Baccarat Rouge 540 off the Francis Kurkdjian website, together with a bottle of Lumiere Noire Pour Femme body lotion as a gift to myself. I received as samples, the new Aqua Celestia in a travel size (which I haven't tried yet), Le Beau Parfum and Lumiere Noire Pour Homme (tinkling with the idea of gifting this in the future).

Back to Le Beau Parfum. Must, MUST love big fat white florals to enjoy this. It's not a diva like Fracas but it's definitely not a shrinking violet (although I love my violets and I don't think it's quite fair to the flower, but origins of the quote here). As Savage Garden cheesily crooned " I knew I loved you before I met you", I guessed correctly that I would love Le Beau Parfum once I read the notes and I mean it is a Kurkdjian creation...digressing a little here but there is a fellow perfumehead who wrote in a forum that she wants to have his babies...I totally understand that sentiment. 

With tuberose, orange blossom, ylang ylang and jasmine arranged according to the intensity that I perceive of each note, Le Beau Parfum is a classy floral that is seamless and uncomplicated. Candid as well as rather candied (not toothachingly sweet but it is sweet), it stays constant from start to finish, starting strong and remaining clearly noticeable even after the end of a work day and a vigorous gym session on top of that. Terms that come to mind when describing Le Beau Parfum would include: decidedly feminine, elegant, sweetly innocent, lush, exotic...oh just think Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday and you'll get my drift! 

Le Beau Parfum is the answer to my recent craving for new undiscovered white florals. I tried Creed's Love In White which is a lovely mix of zesty and creamy, less sweet than Le Beau Parfum but similarly innocent and unaffected. I also tried Les Exclusifs de Chanel Beige...I had hoped to enjoy this but it's so....prosaic? Like a person whom one can have neither good nor bad things to describe. Kudos to those who love Beige and can relate to its beauty but it's just not for me. Taste and colours as they say...Anyway I know exactly what I'm ordering next from the MFK website. What about you? What lovely florals have you been craving recently?

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all! I leave you with a perennial favourite poem...

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,

in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms

but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;

thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,

risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,

so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,

so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep. 

Pablo Neruda

Manakara Indult

Desirability: Adoption by a more appreciative nose

Source: Fragrantica

I have long worshiped at the altar of Francis Kurkdjian's creations. So confident am I of my love for his work that I've blind bought many of those I have. I thank heaven that I did not blind buy Mankara as tempting as lychee and roses sound.

For I don't smell lychee or roses and I've been around both long enough to know what they smell like from green to overripe. What I do smell is...over ripe melon that is syrupy sweet and cloying to the point of being nauseating. In the background I get a whiff of something that has been burnt and it's not pleasant either. It's almost like a fragrant plastic doll that's been singed. In the drydown the melon is joined by resins. Manakara is described as a tropical fruity floral with 2 notes of lychee and roses. It smells way more complex than 2 notes (except that I don't even smell the listed 2 notes LOL).

I checked and double-checked both my sample label as well as my sample order. It is Manakara that I'm wearing. Looking at the reviews online, there are others that get melon and the burnt note too except they are polite and call it caramelized. Ditto the resins. 

The projection and longevity are amazing and for those on who this works its magic, lucky you :)

Ylang in Gold M. Micallef

Desirability: Decant

Source: perfume.org 

There's no denying that Micallef makes fine and pretty fragrances. You can't hate a Micallef, they are  quality fragrances and just too pleasant to inspire negativity but at the same time I find some too sweet and some others too...prosaic? Apart from the seductress Le Parfum Couture the other Micallef creations I have had the good fortune to sample are lovely if innocuous ladies.

Ylang in Gold would be welcomed into this society of ladies for like a Stepford wife she is perfectly groomed, decked out in luxury and...a conformist. Not a hair out of place nor a toe out of line, Ylang in Gold has no edges or surprises but is a seamlessly blended sweet and intoxicating (but of course) ylang ylang drenched in vanilla cream. Adding to the food theme is a smell of fruit, more like a fruit stall then a particular fruit but there are coconuts or rather coconut milk involved and overall has a tropical vibe but more an upper class resort in Tahiti than a beach hut somewhere less glamourous. 

Great projection and decent longevity, I would recommend Ylang in Gold to those who enjoy sweet fruity fragrances with an emphasis on the word sweet. Ylang ylang lovers might want to try this too for the ylang ylang note is gorgeous and realistic although engaged in a tug of war for domination with the sweet fruit. You will undoubtedly smell charming, obviously expensive and everyone will adore your scent but you won't make history. 

Sabbia Bianca Profumum Roma

Desirability: Decant

Source: www.travelviaitaly.com

Sabbia Bianca or White Sand had a limited release of 500 bottles (rumour or rather Google claims) in 2011 and there's so little about it on the internet that I couldn't even find a photograph, hence the white sandy beach above. I was very lucky to have been gifted a sample of Sabbia Bianca by a kind fellow fragrance traveller who knows well my love of white florals. 

Sabbia Bianca is a Big Fat White Floral (BFWF) born on a tropical beach. If there was a checklist for the perfect tropical white floral, Sabbia Bianca would have ticked off all the qualities on that list. Creamy as coconut milk, lush narcotic florals- tuberose, gardenia, ylang ylang, tiare, a little sweet vanilla and just a touch of green leaves- somehow the green bit makes me think of waxy banana leaves. Not complicated, linear and it's been done before but a sunny and joyful scent that smells natural and has some serious lasting power. 

I am quite relieved to say that although I adore BFWFs and am a fan of Profumum despite their prices, I do not crave a full bottle of this rarity. It's undoubtedly beautiful and would appeal to those who adore white floral scents or tropical island beauties, but there are alternatives and cheaper ones at that, even if they may not match up to the phenomenal longevity of Sabbia Bianca. I'm thinking Guerlain's Terracotta Le Parfum though there isn't tuberose in it but the tropical white florals more than make up for that loss, or maybe Isles Lointaines by Keiko Mercheri. 

Ylang 49 Le Labo

Desirability: Decant

Source: Luckyscent

An acquired taste for intellectual days.

This isn't your regular ylang ylang perfume as in it's not about white/yellow floral notes, there's no candied vanilla and it has nothing to do with the beach or suntan lotion.

Chypre it is, there's tons of bitter green mossy woods on first applying. I feel like I'm hiking in a tropical jungle, the green foliage so dense and the humidity so thick you can almost cut it with a knife. I smell the ylang ylang which far from its potential to be cloying, here is ensnared by the heavy moss and earthy patchouli. The floral sweetness gives Ylang 49 some lightness in a complex and intense, almost broody character. 

It's not happy go lucky, it's definitely not stereotypically sexy (unless you dig the strait-laced librarian, not the adult entertainment librarian) but it has class and it commands attention like a lecturer inspiring you to put on your thinking cap instead of spoon-feeding you the answer. If Escada fruity florals are ditzes (I mean no offence, on occasion I smell ditzy too), then Ylang 49 is well not quite a valedictorian but at least an honours student. Comforting? Maybe. I would use this as a galvanization on pyjama-only days at home when I give up my chick literature for real books.  

Ylang Ylang Lorenzo Villoresi

Source: Fragrantica

I love the smell of ylang ylang and having read about its multiple uses in aromatherapy including being a relaxant and sedative, I managed to track down two young trees to plant beneath my dad's window. Despite being a tropical plant I haven't found it growing around this city island and it wasn't too easy finding the trees either. Anyway home they came and the scent of the flowers is so strong that the night breeze carries it up two floors to me and helps with my dad's insomnia.

Lorenzo Villoresi has bottled the exact smell of the flower in this scent. Ylang ylang has a distinctive scent that stands out amongst other floral notes although I find it hard to pin it down in words for like patchouli it can play so many characters from spicy green to heady narcotic and fits beautifully in a tropical garland. It's restrained and elegant in APOM Pour Femme but Ilang Ivohibé showcases its multiple personalities. In Lorenzo Villoresi's Ylang Ylang, it's ylang ylang all the way as if I am holding a few of the golden-yellow spidery blooms in my hands. Simple and linear but a very pleasurable scent that is soothing and uplifting. 

Source: herbalriot.tumblr.com

On a happy note, two good friends of mine are getting married today and Lorenzo Villoresi Ylang Ylang will accompany me for the day's festivities and I've chosen Tauer PHI Une Rose de Kandahar to dress in for the dinner tonight. 

I leave you with a lovely poem by W.H. Auden that I find to be precious, it has such honesty shining through the words that makes it incredibly touching. My most-loved line would be "if equal affection cannot be, let the more loving one be me." 

‘The More Loving One’ by W.H. Auden

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well

That, for all they care, I can go to hell,

But on earth indifference is the least

We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn

With a passion for us, we could not return?

If equal affection cannot be,

Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am

Of stars that do not give a damn,

I cannot, now I see them, say

I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,

I should learn to look at an empty sky

And feel its total dark sublime,

Though this might take me a little time.

Happy New Year- Hello 2015!

Source: iledebeaute.ru

My friends and I headed to a beach club to ring in the new year last night. Of course that meant I had to pick a scent that would be suitable for a beach setting in tropical weather as well as being festive enough for New Year's Eve. Which isn't that easy as my picky mind has mentally separated "beach scents" as casual scents and "festive scents" as well festive, spices, rich resins and balms- totally unsuitable in this case. 

In the end I picked Terracotta Le Parfum, the limited release from Guerlain earlier in 2014 ( although if rumours are to be believed, a re-release that is possibly permanent too is due soon). 

"Allure of the sun in a bottle" 

It does smell like bottled warm glow. You get a burst of zingy citrus zest, a milky sweet coconut less creamy than in Comptoir Sud Pacifique's Vanille Coco but more creamy than Estee Lauder's Sensuous Nude then a jaw-dropping beautiful and lush bouquet of white florals, creamy and musky, heady frangipani and jasmine as well as ylang ylang with its mild spicy floral note. I notice too the orange blossom which is more subdued amongst the other flowers here. In the drydown the citrus laced vanilla and musk become stronger than the white floral notes but the coconut cream stays intact throughout. Not so much a beach scent that makes you think of the sea and sand but tropical island it surely is reminiscent of, of sun-kissed warm skin, frangipani trees releasing their fragrance in the gentle breeze that makes music of the leaves on the trees and long grass that tugs gently on your bohemian chic peasant dress as you hold hands with your lover, as picture perfect as a photo shoot for a glossy magazine.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm a fan of tropical flowers done right and with Terracotta Le Parfum, Thierry Wasser has done it gorgeously. The true scent of the tropical flowers are captured in this rose gold liquid, heady and luscious but not cloying, in fact the sillage is rather discreet for a white floral perfume. 

After comparing it with Annick Goutal's Songes EDT and L'Erbolario's Tiare, I would say this wins over Tiare which has a artificial saccharine note that spoils it for me. I prefer this to Songes EDT which is a lovely concoction of white flowers but did not last at all on my skin. The longevity of Terracotta Le Parfum despite being an EDT is about 6-7 hours on me although faint by that time.  

Happy New Year everyone!