My friend Michael Storer has recently changed all of his fragrances to eau de parfum strength and put them in brand new beautiful packaging. Monk is now darker, more incense-y and richer, while Djin and Il Giardino have been adjusted to meet the requests of his customers. I urge you to visit his website and see his great new lineup.
I love this fragrance from Shiseido. This fragrance is based on woods, especially cedar wood. Other notes are not used to round off the accord, like it's done in many classical fragrances, but they are used to deepen the main accord. I can't find it in the descriptions of this fragrance, but when I apply it to my skin, I can smell a very dominant cumin note, besides the notes of cedar wood. The cedar wood can be smelled from the top trough bottom, what makes me wonder what materials are used in this fragrance. Somehow if you create fragrances yourself, you smell and judge fragrances differently, you 'feel' the emotion of the fragrance like any other, but you also want to recognize some materials that are used, it's more analytical smelling. Because I know the smell of many materials, and how combinations of these materials do smell like, it's easier to recognize them, otherwise I can only guess what's used. I think there is some Vertenex used, which smells like wood but appears in the top notes as well. Another note that I recognize is Iso E Super, this material smells woody, but warm and amber like at the same time. It makes this woody accord more warm. I can smell a honey note as well, which I think is wonderful in combination with cedar. I think besides the cedar notes a sandal note is used as well.
Féminité du Bois is created by Pierre Bourdon (photo on your right) and Christopher Sheldrake and launched in 1992 by Shiseido. The bottle was designed by Serge Lutens and he was the one that looked over the shoulder of the perfumers. It's a very mysterious fragrance, I think it can be worn by both men and women. It definitely makes a statement, it's emotional and very unique. Although.... I read a review by Luca Turin where he tells that the perfumer Pierre Bourdon used the idea of Féminité du Bois in another context for the perfume Dolce Vita by Dior. Of course I got curious about it and put Féminité du Bois on one wrist and Dolce Vita on the other. It's true, you can recognize Féminité du Bois in Dolce Vita, I would never come up with this myself. The bottles and the presentation of both fragrances looks so different that I never would have found the link between the two. Dolce Vita is not build up with notes to deepen the cedar wood notes like in Féminité du Bois, but is more dimensional. It has more citrus top notes and instead of plum it has peach as the fruity note. The floral heart is more deepened with 'lighter' floral notes like lilly of the valley. Dolce Vita is more crisp juicy and floral than Féminité du Bois, but the cedar wood and again the cumin note are recognized real easy.
The last but not least star of the three 'sister' fragrances by Michael Storer is Genviève. A classic fragrance with a modern twist, build around the scent of roses from Damascus and Bulgaria, with their ultra feminine scent. Combined with the fresh but tender scent of Mimosa absolute, the intense tropical scent of Ylang ylang and the sensual notes of Jasmine absolute. Cool green notes of Violet leaf absolute calms the rose notes. The muguet makes it sparkling fresh. All these lovely flowers are bedded in a dream of a gentle peach note, which gives this fragrance a golden glow. The green tea gives this classic fragrance a modern twist. Sensual notes of civet, ambergris and musk preventing Genviève to become innocent.
Genviève is a fruity floral fragrance, intense feminine, timeless and rich. If I had to equate this fragrance with a Hollywood star it would be Grace Kelly. An actress seen as a standard of beauty, grace, and style, as timeless and feminine as the fragrance Genviève.
If the fragrance Stephanie can be equated to the Hollywood star Ava Gardner, the fragrance Yvette could be equated to another movie star, the full-brass redhead Rita Hayworth. This strikingly beautiful femme fatale was as much of a powerhouse as she was a demurely sensitive feline. That's exactly what the fragrance of Yvette brings to mind. It stands very strong on its own two legs but at the same time it is purringly gentle, sensitive and oh so persuasive. When I smell Yvette it's like suddenly donning a pair of 3-D glasses, for I detect multiple layers ...but at the same time I can smell through the total sum of them all, almost like peering into a wondrous hologram. One gets the feeling there is no end to its depth. You simply want more... An extraordinary experience.
The overlying note of Yvette is a rich plumminess through which a white floral accord sparkles. This floral accord is dominated by an exquisitely delicate lily of a warm, soft and creamy fragrance supported by warm spices, rose, ylang ylang, carnation and jasmine. Through it all weaves a trace of tarragon to lend it a subtle green twist. One of the first things I noticed when smelling Yvette was that it has such a wonderful sweet note going on in the background, not an overpowering sweetness, but a remarkably rich yet gentle and tender, almost dessert-like creaminess. It's the broom absolute which adds a creamy, honey floral character with slight fruitiness to this wonderful composition. I just love that note.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you one of Michael Storer's three "sisters"...... Stephanie. This is no shy lady, she pulsates like a shining star, and a star is exactly what she is. This fragrance is highly addictive, so consider yourself well warned. It's a fragrance inspired by the headspace of the luscious white blooming Gardenia, sultry, voluptuous and so unbelievably sensual. Have you ever put on a perfume and found that you couldn't stop smelling your wrist? Well, this is such a perfume. Once you apply it, you keep sneaking a whiff because you just can't get enough of it; you want to inhale deep breaths of this seductive elixir.
Arhianrad (Juvy Santos) wrote in her blog winterstorming, a beautiful review about Stephanie, one of the things she said was:
I love the sweet scent of vanilla, the scent makes me calm and it's comforting, I love the taste of vanilla as well, I like vanilla desserts and candy's with vanilla. But to wear a vanilla perfume is a complete
At the opening I smell the soft floral woody note of Linalool, I guess there is used quite a bit of this material. There is a bit of a smokey note, I guess that is because of the Gaïac wood, I would have liked a bit more of this smokey note. I smell a sweet note that reminds me of sugared almonds, this could be benzaldehyde (which smells like almond) and maltol(which smells like sugar, caramel), but the angelica sure helps to add some wonderful green sweetness as well. I think besides the natural vanilla, there is also used some Veratraldehyde, which has a more woody vanilla scent and some ethyl vanillin, which is more creamier than normal vanillin. Not a bad composition, but too simple and too sweet and flat for my taste.
Andy Tauer wanted to capture the scent of lavender in all its facets and complexity and created a fragrance based on this smell. He created "Rêverie au jardin" what means "Daydream in the garden". Now when you aspect to smell an ordinary lavender cologne, you are wrong. This lavender fragrance is more than just a fragrance that smells like lavender, it starts fresh green like you imagine yourself in a green meadow, slowly the lavender notes comes through. I know how difficult it is to create a perfume with a lot of lavender, it easy becomes smelling like an air freshener and smells cheap. But here in this fragrance the lavender has all kinds of aspects, it starts sparkling fresh green, something that surprised me to smell, later the lavender comes forward, a herbal fresh lavender softened by Bulgarian rose absolute. The base notes are sweet tonka vanilla with woody notes of cedar and sandalwood.
The head notes are very green and fresh- lavender(high altitude mountain lavender from France, galbanum and fir balm with bergamot and rose absolute from Bulgaria softening the herbaceous lavender.
Chaya who comment her often sent me some samples of wonderful perfumes and Santal de Mysore was one of them. Thank you Chaya! When I first smelled this perfume I was in love. 
This perfume is based on the scent of sandalwood, no surprise when you know its name, it has a warm, thick, creamy, woodsy fragrance. The sandalwood in this fragrance is a deep warm sandal sweetened with a caramel note that could be coming from Fenugreek although it's not listed in the ingredients. The top is sweet but has also spicy notes like the note of Cumin and an almost curry like note. This perfume is so soft and warm, not in a timid way but a full warm soft thick perfume, it's like the feeling of soft velvet. It isn't linear though because of the spices that are used in this fragrance. The fragrance plays a game on your skin, one time it will give you a warm caramel note and another time a sandal note, a spicy note or even a green note comes forwarded once in a while.
Vega by Guerlain is a beautiful aldehydic perfume. I had the change to smell it thanks to Andy Tauer who was so kind to sent me a sample of this lovely juice. Vega was originally created by Jacques Guerlain in 1936 and was recreated by Jean-Paul Guerlain for the opening of the renovated La Maison Guerlain in 2006.
Ineke Ruhland is born in Canada she moved to Europe in 1988 to work in the fragrance industry. In 1996 she studied perfumery at ISIPCA in Versailles France. Following three years of apprenticeship at a fragrance house in Paris, Ineke moved to San Francisco where she created her own perfumes. The perfumes Ineke makes are delicate and elegant, presented in beautiful bottles named following the alphabet.
The heart of this perfume is full of white fragrant flowers, but the scent of the flower I can detect most is Gardenia soon assistant by the sensual notes of Tuberose and Jasmine. A scent often used together with Tuberose is narcissus, the smell is a bit similar to the smell of Tuberose although Tuberose smells more creamy and have a green note and Narcissus has a more fruity and more animalic scent, if the smell of Narcissus could have a color it would be yellow. The Narcissus gives a nice bite to this perfume.
To hold all these lovely fragrant flowers together there is added an Iris note, maybe with the use of Ionone a component of Iris that has a dry woody flowery fragrance. It gives a solid smell to these fragrant white flowers so their fragrance will melt with your skin and doesn't smell like you wear the scent of flowers but something that becomes a part of you and your body chemistry. The fragrance of Iris will lead you to the woody notes; a warm earthy smoky Vetiver together with Cedar and Patchouli to spice it up a bit, also an animalic note is added to prevent this perfume to become an innocent perfume.
Jardins de Bagatelle is a very well made elegant perfume, it surprise you with little unexpected notes and the notes are perfect balanced. I do love all the perfumes made by Guerlain and I do love this one as well, but it's not my favorite like Mitsouko, Shalimar or Samsara.
My most sexy fragrance is Must de Cartier perfume (not the edt). It brings back special memories to me, it's a warm sweet oriental heavy fragrance. Above all it's a warm sensual fragrance with animal notes like civet and musk, woody notes like sandal, vetiver and cedar and (of course) galbanum. But also some flowery notes like jasmine, rose and narcissus. When you smell this fragrance you don't have to wait for the reaction it will give to you, the reaction is there in a split second. Of course I have more favorites as sexy fragrances but this fragrance can change my mood in a sensual sexy mood.
Dutch it would be difficult to describe. It's kind of a sad emotion in a way and at the same time it gives me an elegant and rich feeling. It's not a perfume that I would wear when going to work, it's more for special occasions, I can't imagine wearing this fragrance with a jeans but that's just my opinion. Mitsouko is a perfume of the Chypre family, it has oakmoss and I smell a lot of Labdanum absolute(Ciste or Rock rose) and a warm balsamic opopanax note. The topnotes are made of fresh citrus notes and the heart has rose, jasmine and lilac. I can smell something like thyme as well and some smokey notes that could be coming from birch tar. Guerlain started a new trend by adding a peach note coming from Aldehyde C14, many perfumers followed that trend. The peach note isn't overwhelming but ads a smooth fruityness to the other somewhat spicy harsh smokey notes. This perfume is so wonderful made that you have to smell it ones in your live.
Remember my question in the post about what scents could be used for perfumes and which don't? See here.
When I saw the lovely bottles of Pilar and Lucy for the first time it made me curious. The bottles are so feminine and the names so funny, I had to know how the liquid inside this beautiful bottle smelled. To twirl all girly is described as a perfume inspired by gardenia, but to me it's a perfume with a sweet vanilla scent with a little bit of a flower note from gardenia and jasmine. I expected to get a fresh sensual smell of the gardenia from this bottle but instead it's a sweet fragrance that I wouldn't describe gardenia like. Yes there is a note of gardenia but that's a minor note.
It's definitely a gourmand fragrance, the first impression is vanilla coconut. After searching a while I detect the gardenia note, covered up with a sweet warm caramel note. There is a note of frankincense shimmering through the whole fragrance that intrigues me, that note is really important for this fragrance because without it it would be to flat. Set my disappointment a side that it isn't a gardenia fragrance I must admit it's a really nice fragrance, and girly it is, I get images of balletdancers in pink dresses, girly, soft, sweet, romantic, dreamy....that's the words to describe this perfume. I can imagine wearing this as a comforting perfume on a rainy day, rolling my self in a blanket on the couch, drinking hot chocolate and reading my favorite book. My only complaint about this perfume is that it's linear and doesn't change much on my skin.
Sisley is a French family business which creates and distributes luxury cosmetics, perfumes and makeup. Created in 1976 by Count Hubert d'Ornano, Sisley has rapidly become one of the most successful companies in the cosmetics industry thanks to a new and unique concept ahead of its time: Phytocosmetology. Sisley provides a complete line of high-quality beauty products whose active ingredients are natural plant extracts and essential oils. Phytocosmetology consists in applying natural plant extracts to beauty products. Eau du Soir was made for Isabelle d'Ornano she received the fragrance as a gift from her husband, Count Hubert d'Ornano. He created a unique floral scent that included seringa, a Spanish flower which releases its scent at night. The fragrance reflected Isabelle's childhood in Spain and gave the fragrance its name. Eau du Soir remained the Countess's signature scent for many years, until the persistent requests of friends saw its release in 1990.
Eau du Soir has a lingering aura it starts with fresh notes of citrus fruits like mandarin, bergamot and grapefruit together with juniper balanced with floral heart notes of seringa, rose, Egyptian jasmine and softened with Iris. Build on a base of oakmoss, amber and musk. The fragrance develops subtly on your skin. The start is fresh but I can smell a warm fatty like scent through the citrus notes on a refined way. The fresh topnotes lead you to the sensual flowernotes, they are subtle I can smell the seringa but on a soft way, it's so balanced that you can't detect a single note. It's definitely a feminine fragrance glamorous and elegant. Yesterday I worn this fragrance and got a lot of compliments, the compliments were something like: "Mmm you smell wonderful what kind of fragrance is that, I don't know this one" or "You smell nice, it's an unusual scent but real gorgeous". It made me smile because now I knew I wasn't the only one that is captivated by this fragrance. It's just a wonderful alluring feminine fragrance perfect for a special evening.
