Have you tried this fragrance?
Share your experience and help others discover great scents
Teint de Neige, what a beautiful fragrance you are. At first, I must admit that this perfume is quite similar to lipstick Rose just with more power and more spectacular, it also reminds me of baby powder. At the beginning I get much of powdery and soft roses with a hint of ylang ylang, this character marked it with the typical old-fashioned touch, which I adore in some perfumes. Later it turns into a creamy, sweet powder scent, gives me the feeling of laying in a smooth bed of snow. It seems that a few drops of it are enough and just right balanced. A very comfortable scent, if for spring, autumn or winter. I also can say: two thumbs up for the lasting power, it's amazing. This fragrance really deserves the name Teint de Neige.
Warning: this is technically not a review, but rather a very long love letter/tale/diary page where I reminisce on my ongoing experience with this scent, as well as a high praise to competent, patient, insightful, and knowledgeable sales assistants. Proceed at your own risk. ;) I happened upon it some years ago, by accident. Picture this: one cool sunny winter late morning in Rome, the air is crisp but the sun has a touch of warmth, we're close to Christmas so decorations and lights are on and the atmosphere is festive. I was walking on a street full of shops when I suddenly marched into an old, slightly upscale, and very well-known perfume shop, went to one of the sales assistant with a request: I told him that I recently tried Prada Infusion d’Iris, liked the cleanliness and soapiness of the scent, but was very let down by the appallingly poor staying power (especially when compared to the price). Would he be able to recommend a similar perfume that wouldn’t be gone after an hour? He asked me a few questions, I mentioned, incidentally, that I tried and liked a lot Bas de Soie by Lutens in the recent past but that was not quite what I had in mind. If by this time you’re thinking how on earth can you go from Infusion d’Iris to Teint de Neige that have almost nothing in common but the iris note I would agree, but bear with me. I cannot praise enough how the sales assistant read me and listened to me, because he not only took in my appearance - brunette, mid-20s, red lipstick, cat eye, minimalist dark clothes, red wool coat - but also saw deeper than that. I have some friends that jokingly call me Diva, which I am anything but by the way, it’s just I am a little aloof when you first meet me but then I warm up. Anyway, he anticipated my needs and introduced me to something I didn’t know I liked myself: powder. I mean, I knew and I even loved the smell of talc powder, ten years before as a teenager I had briefly been obsessed with Bvlgari Petits and Mamans, what I mean is that I was not aware of my love for powdery scents on a conscious level. He said after a while that since I said no to Bas de Soie, which was one of his first choices for me (he definitely picked on the aloofness there), he was going to go on another route. We talked a little and eventually reduced the samples to three: Lutens Daim Blond, Teint de Neige and a third scent that for the life of me I can’t remember. After smelling them on the strips I discarded the forgotten third and spritzed the other two on the skin. At first I liked them both but almost immediately got the apricot in Lutens and I’m not really a fan of fruity perfumes, so that was more and more a no every minute that went by. On the other hand, with Teint de Neige, in addition to being love at first sniff, the infatuation grew with the passing of time. I didn’t buy it that day, the very competent shop assistant advised that I spend the day with it and see how it evolved on my skin. Not only it evolved beautifully, I could still smell it the next day after a shower. I went back a week later and got a bottle. Now it’s become my signature, I wear it almost every day, in winter and also in summer because I don’t believe in the seasonality of scents (sorry not sorry for the people around me), and although I refrain to perfume during daytime in summer it’s not really out of concern for the others, just for fear of the perfume reacting with the light. I am vain and selfish like that! ;) Sillage and staying power, for me, are huge to the point that the more aware people recognise me by it, like I went to a party at a friend’s house and the hostess, that knows me quite well but didn’t know I had arrived, asked from another room if I was there only because she recognised the trail of perfume in the house. Christmas time a couple of years ago I went back to see my parents and at night, when my mother hugged me at the airport said she missed my perfume (as well as me lol) which I applied in the morning, and then she said she smelled it again the next morning when I walked in the kitchen for breakfast. A lot of people commented on it when I enter a shop or on a train carriage. In conclusion, this perfume now it’s become me, I inhabit it, it’s a million things to me, like lace lingerie under a comfy cashmere jumper, it’s old and new, a silk vintage dress worn with a leather biker jacket. I’m not saying it’s a complex perfume, or a revolutionary concept, I think I feel this way because I identify with it so much by now. And even if I know it’s ridiculous I feel like it’s mine and mine only, also because I’ve never walked past anyone else who wore it. I think I also like it so much because it compensates my aloofness, as if with its powdery sweetness told other people that I’m not the Ice Queen that I might seem at first. Ultimately I think that was my unconscious reason for writing off Bas de Soie from the start, that’s one perfume I like a lot but probably fear it would play too much into my perceived standoffishness. One last thing: yes it’s true, Iris by L’erbolario, which I would have loved to love since Villoresi is not really in my price range, is almost the exact copy, albeit much flatter, but compared side by side with Teint de Neige smells so cheap and chemical and plasticky it literally hurts. Back when I still lived in Italy it was not unusual to walk past women doused in the knockoff, it was very popular for a while but, dear oh dear, the headaches that I got smelling that!