Bois d’Ambrette is an interesting scent, as it is unusual for a fragrance to lead so heavily with ambrette as the centre of attention. It’s definitely woody and musky, but with a definite green bitterness about it too - I’m on the fence. The ambrette in here is very dry, slightly earthy and made a bit damp with generous green nuances from the addition of Angelica. This delicate muskiness is elevated through soft synthetic musks, alongside the sharp touches of mandarin, ginger and amyris. The overall scent profile is very clean, pleasant and mild whilst still maintaining an element of uniqueness about it. I’m going to decide that I do like this fragrance, but it wasn’t an instant connection - which is how I know it isn’t a true love. I think this is a great reference fragrance for those who want to better familiarise themselves with the note of ambrette, but it’s not good enough to warrant the price tag.
Santal Blond is one of the more well-known fragrances from Atelier Materi, but in all honesty I think it’s overhyped (usually by shills who have been gifted the fragrance through PR). It’s a pleasant enough sandalwood scent, but there’s no real presence of life or passion behind it. It starts off innocent enough with the revitalising combination of zingy bergamot and clean jasmine, before the sandalwood kicks in. The sandalwood here as a subtle air of that pickled sourness similar to Santal 33, but far more gentle and much creamier. The soft sweetness of tonka and cardamom rounds things out nicely too. Overall it’s a nice scent as I said, there’s just nothing special about it. If you like Santal Complet, I feel this does the same scent profile but better - however it’s still not anything I’d rush out to buy in all honesty.
Something in this perfume smells "turned" to me. But not the smell of old perfume that's turned, rather something else, I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's nauseating. Chypre Mousse has the same effect.
If you want to smell like you rubbed olive oil all over your body, buy this!
95% popcorn, 5% tiny traces of the other notes.
If you love Jean Paul Gaultier Classique Intense and don't want to pay crazy ebay prices (it's discontinued), you should try Elie Saab Le Parfum (it's edp). It's made by Francis Kurkdjian as well (2011) and it's smelling quite similar intensive white florals with solar feeling and honey like sweetness. Flowers are a bit more heady first and there is not Vanilla so JPG feels somewhat more balanced in the beginning. JPG maintains an intense slightly more complex aroma while Le Parfum turns into more subtle and delicate one. It unfolds into an incredibly well balanced scent which feels fluffy and velvety soft. They are not like identical twins but siblings with a lot of same dna. There is not so much differences in the dry down. Elie Saab Le Parfum you can still find and in a very good price and look at that bottle! It’s so cute! My bottle is from 2016 and I haven't tried the most new formulas but since there is not that kind of IFRA regulated ingredients I assume that it hasn't changed so much. ***** The review of Jean Paul Gaultier Classique Intense ***** I wish I had kept all the empty bottles of Classique. It was my signature for many years since it was released. I have worn at least 15 bottles. I have had many flankers of it during the years but this Classique Intense I love the most. It’s not so similar with the og which the name makes you think. It’s made of two separate units: 40% of the fragrance is the original creation, and 60% are new, added components. However, the original is not totally same formula anymore (I was lucky to find great vintage ones) which it used to be so I don’t know about these figures. For me this is completely the different scent with some of the same notes in it. Classique Intense is very mellow and seductive, it’s classy and solar. It radiates the warmth and light around you. White florals are mostly hidden under the thick honeyed golden base of Vanilla and Patchouli. The base is surprisingly different from what you might think of the notes. This is sweet but not sugary and Vanilla is not obvious edible either. I don’t think this at all as a gourmand despite of creamy and fruity Tiare Flower and Pomegranate in the opening. The scent feels somewhat oriental take on white florals and all the notes are blended perfectly together. Like the og this may cause headache because of its intoxicating intensity. Thank you for reading and if you want to follow me on IG: @ninamariah_perfumes
Very strange, very interesting, not for me. All of John Biebel's perfumer's are masterpieces, in my opinion, and I'm grateful to experience all of them. This is a compelling scent, but I can't really imagine wearing it out and about (although I've said that before about perfumes that ended up being favourites so who knows). This is totally unique and has a lovely balance of lilac and turmeric. Unique spicy!
It’s been a long winter waiting for warmer weather. This one shines during summertime. AMOUAGE Bracken Karine Vinchon Spehner and Dorothée Piot 2016 I don’t know any other brand which manages to capture so many different kind of scenes from my childhood than Amouage - this time with wild berries, Fern and leather together with Chamomile, Narcissus and Lily. It’s like a walking in the forest full of ferns and carrying a basket full of freshly picked berries. It has been raining. I move the ferns in front of me with my other hand while walking, causing the drops to fly on my face. The sun comes out from behind the clouds, the forest opens up into a meadow as the scent of herbal yet not dry Chamomile wafts up to your nose. Fern means Fougère which is an entire category of fragrances. This is not Fougère scent though. Most ferns has very delicate yet distinctive scent. It’s like clean and bitter green aroma, very unique one and very beautiful imo. I do remember as well the scent which may mostly be noticeable when you rub very dry leaves in your hands and it smells just like fresh mown hay. This is not the latter one. Wild berries are not light, bright, sweet and girly ones, they are mellow, deep, very Amouage - not cloying nor synthetic. The whole blend is unforgettable, absolutely stunning and amazingly realistic with an aromatic feel. This unusual scent is unisex and it can perform very differently. On my skin the scent is like described. On my husband’s skin the leather is more noticeable with added woody twist from base. The green note is bold and it may be too much for some. Thank you for reading and if you want to follow me on IG: @ninamariah_perfumes
I don't get the hate for this one. Sure, Nagel isn't Ellena, and her creations go in a very different direction to his, and I struggle with many of her perfumes elsewhere, but this is a lovely perfume. It opens like eating a crumbly lemon shortbread on a sunny day by an olive grove. It really is evocative of the island it's named after. As it dries down, a sunny vetiver comes through and remains, but unlike, say, the vetiver of the best-forgotten Terre d'Hermès Eau Givrée, this never becomes pickley. It's a truly joyous summertime gem, it's completely unique, and it doesn't amp up the pistachio and become a gourmand snooze fest to join the current proliferation of sweet pistachio dreck. It's a love for me, especially on a day like today when the sun is fully out in early May heralding better weather (finally!).
Really nice, beautiful and fresh, easy reach and doesn't bother anyone but performance is subtle yet sophisticated and even classy. Opening is quite sharp fresh Bergamot with salty touch and it turns into Rhubarb and Mojito notes which both are incredible realistic, not too sour yet not sweet at all. The blend brings immediately the beautiful breeze of summer, sipping the cocktail at the beach restaurant. I wish the middle notes would have last longer. The woody base unfolds too soon and and an ultimate fresh feeling disappears however remaining without turning creamy or heavy. This is beautiful scent, I'm just addicted in Mojito vibe in this but this is not just that which means of course that scent is not linear. Based on a sample Thank you for reading and if you want to follow me on IG: @ninamariah_perfumes
Great scent, criminally bad performance. Plus, for all the prestige and ridiculous prices of this brand, this isn't offering anything new, nor is it serving me the dazzling beauty and wonder of similarly priced oud fragrances. There are so many things I'd go for over this due to the poor performance and lack of originality. For me this brand is just way too cunty and elite, and while they do have some good perfumes, they seem to have been perfected into oblivion. There's no charm, no edge, nothing to make me come back. And it's not just the price, I mean I have bought perfumes in the same price range but to me the Roja Dove ones are worth a quarter of what they're asking for at most. Update: dries down to a very synthetic-smelling woody amber base.
À very polite, unremarkable but well-accomplished floral with no sweetness whatsoever. It has the DNA of L'Atessa, by the same perfumer, with a greener floral element.
TAKE ME BACK TO MARRAKECH Christian Carbonnel (Chris Maurice) 2024 TOP: Bitter orange, Blackcurrant, Green notes HEART: Pineapple, Neroli, Orange blossom, Pink pepper BASE: Patchouly, Amber, Musk This one got my attention with the one of the most amazing Neroli and Orange blossom aromas which I have ever smelt. The opening is edgy, and the natural smell of flowers is so intoxicating that immediately you are thinking to be in the middle of the blooming trees under the sun. Neroli - a citrusy and a little bit bitter green scent, called as well as bitter orange oil - merges seamlessly with the top notes and it's hard to tell them apart. Orange Blossom is fresh, not sweet like in many scents and it gets smoother considerably towards the end. I know that delicious fruits get a lot of attention, but this is not sprinkling juicy fruity scent so this is not a Pineapple scent neither a Blackcurrant scent those are balancing the bitter note. This scent has clearly three stages and even if the opening is a little bit challenging, I love them all. You have to love very natural smells to love this one but I hope everyone would give this a full wear and wait a heavenly, indulgent, charming and inviting dry down which is softly musky and unfolds through a beautiful mellow yet pampering mid phase. Like Magie Rouge and Boheme Chic this scent is very unique as well and I don't remember smelling anything near this. I will edit my review and analyse more once I will have a full bottle of this one. I only have a little sample and despite being quite potent I’m afraid to wear it as much as I wanted to. Thank you for reading and if you want to follow me on IG: @ninamariah_perfumes
MARRAKECH IMPERIAL MAGIE ROUGE and BOHÈME CHIC Absolutely one of my favourite new houses with the collection of good quality perfumes from one of my favourite perfumers Christian Carbonnel (known as well Chris Maurice). I will make a review of them all. I’m obsessed with powdery soft musky perfumes atm and there are two of them in this collection. Since I only have samples of all these perfumes I want to compare a little bit these two instead of just writing an in depth review separately (which I’m going to write after having a full bottle of them). I have many different kind of powdery perfumes: clean, soapy and bright ones, vintage make up powdery ones, baby powdery or baby wipes kind of scents and of course subtle powdery roses and some sophisticated fruity powdery perfumes. Now I have found two absolutely mesmerising powdery scents which are not like any other which I already have so they don’t fit into the categories above. MAGIE ROUGE is somewhat “neutral” powder and even a dusty one (in a good way) and I have been trying to find this kind of scent for a while. There is not too much Vanilla in it which makes it different from many other perfumes in this category but just enough to wrap all the notes in a warm blanket. The texture is utterly comforting, soothing, beautiful and velvety soft. The blend is harmonious and does not emphasize any note above the others. In many powdery scents you can find Iris or Orris Root but here is Acacia which has warm Iris like and powdery qualities and even if Acacia is called as Mimosa as well here you don’t find that rich, sweet, yellow floral note which dominate easily. Violet adds the powdery feeling as well without vintage make up -like nuances which puts this in the neutral category. I would say that this is a modern make up powder smell. For me it was unforgettable since the first sniff. In BOHÈME CHIC the powdery note is not so opulent, powerful, dominant and dry. The scent has beautiful tender floral note which makes it slightly more feminine than Magie Rouge. Here Iris and Heliotrope are creating a subtle and indulgent, romantic and hazy cloud which unfolds with sweeter and creamier Vanilla than in Magie Rouge. This is anyway very neutral as well without turning soapy or baby powdery nor almond like creaminess in any kind of way. Both of them are addictive scents, it’s really hard for me to save the precious drops until I will have full bottles of them some day. Because I only have samples I can't say so much about longevity and sillage (can't spray as much as I normally do). Thank you for reading and if you want to follow me on IG: @ninamariah_perfumes
I think this is feminine to some and masculine to others depending on what notes are more prominent due to body chemistry. This smells mostly fruity sweet on me and soft woody in the dry down, while on my partner the smoky and tobacco notes stand out more. Definitely try this on skin first. I get mostly candied quince in the opening, quite realistic quince note which I really like. I smell some iris, but lily is barely there to my nose. If you are looking for a lily centered fragrance, this isn’t it. Dry down is mostly woody, tobacco is there but faint, and the sweetness lingers. Autumnal scent to me because of the quince. Longevity is about 4 hrs, sillage is modest but suited to the scent profile. Casual, comfort fragrance. Quite unique, I haven’t come across many others like it. Happy to have a bottle !
This smells like you put Grand Bal through a Guerlain filter. It has the extremely sweet vanilla found in the Art et Matière florals. It's very lovely, I'm glad to have a little 7.5ml.
Strange perfume alchemy - I’m not a fan of yellow florals or the ambrofix molecule and yet this somehow works. It’s weirdly evocative of childhood memories of spring with a hazy honey covering the nostalgia in something pleasing. Odd and wonderful.
Vienna 1900 made me realise there’s mint perfumes, and then there’s MINT perfumes. The mint in here is brutal, obnoxiously strong and in a lot of ways simply too much. However, it does smell amazingly natural and vibrant, like the leaves are right there in front of your nose. Matthew Meleg claims to use 3 different types of patchouli here, although does not list exactly which types. Given patchouli is a part of the mint family, I can see how seamlessly it integrates with the mint and provides that punchy earthiness to the scent. This dark, earthy aspect is elevated by a very subtle dark chocolate accord, which isn’t too noticeable to me. Overall this is a very interesting fragrance. I don’t like mint at the best of times and so this simply isn’t wearable for me, but if you’re a lover of mint this is undoubtedly one of the highest quality examples of it I’ve ever come across.
The name Mushin represents a state of serene focus: calm, tranquility and mental clarity. I would say it definitely does just that, wearing this perfume is incredibly relaxing and has that ever elusive ‘zen’ feeling to it. The scent is composed primarily of an incredibly soft and smooth frankincense which is dry and airy, contrasted by the sweet fruitiness of osmanthus, apricot and peach. Gentle powdery florals and a creamy amber base finish the fragrance beautifully, leaving an gorgeously smooth and subtle sillage behind you. Personally, I feel this scent is too gentle and airy to warrant a full bottle purchase, however I cannot deny its beauty. I will very much enjoy wearing my sample on days where I need a little serenity in my life.
Honey Deer Musk is one sexy perfume, and I don’t use that description lightly. It’s sweet, alluring and captivating all in equal parts, with an element of classical French perfumery behind it which tickles that particular spot in my brain. Seeing both real deer musk and civet used here you might expect something very challenging and animalic, but it’s not. Instead the animalics are very tame and subtle. The notes listed here on fragrantica are only a fraction of what’s actually in here. This scent is actually constructed similarly to a classical Chypre with a mossy, amber base. The beeswax gives the scent that honeyed feel, it’s intensely sweet and erotic alongside the musks. Overall, I think this is a fantastic fragrance. If you’re looking for a scent which truly embodies everything about natural deer musk then this is not it, but if you’re looking for a complete perfume with endless versatility and won’t offend everyone around you whilst using real musks, you’re in luck.
Civet Cat Chypre is very much what it says on the bottle - a beautifully classical floral Chypre scent with a good dose of civet. Whilst utilising very traditional ideas and classical connotations, I feel this fragrance is actually rather modern in its execution. The bright, citric elements of bergamot with aromatics of lavender and sage are far more prominent than I was expecting. From here a buttery heart of ylang and orris has its creamy, powdery facets elevated by touches of oakmoss, sandalwood and carrot seed. Whilst the perfumer claims real civet paste is used here, it certainly doesn’t smell like it unfortunately. That’s not to say it’s not present, but it’s not as animalic as I would have liked it to be. Overall the sweet musky aspect of this fragrance is actually very tame and easy to wear. That’s why I consider this a modern perfume, it takes all the classical elements of Chypre and reimagines it into something easily wearable in the 21st century. It’s a lovely scent, but not full bottle worthy for me.
This fragrance is awful. Saccharin and vulgar, it’s like being water boarded with custard.
Oohhh dear. I want to love this, as the concept seems appealing, but there's something making me a bit nauseous. I get the same thing with Chypre Mousse. It reminds me of the odour when chrysanthemums start to go off. Such a shame.
