Annick Goutal Encens Flamboyant and Ambre Fetich

I have to admit from the outset that I have some difficulties with the Goutal line. Some are intensely blowsy, floral and feminine; others are oddly citrus, and then, with Encens Flamboyant and Ambre Fetiche, the range veers into oddly incense. I say oddly, because both of these smell offbeat to me, straddling the line between compelling, and ever so slightly off-putting. Usually I would like this in a perfume, but for some reason this doesn't translate so well for me in either of these.

Ambre Fetiche, despite the name, opens with a smoky, swirling waft of heavy incense, although beneath this fog does lie amber. It is sweet, but the smoke and incense are sufficient to balance it out. The sweetness is tinged with something sour, like citrus, but this is a feel I often detect with incense. The heart continues very much in the same vein, but slightly toned down. The fragrance becomes linear, with very little variation. In the dry down the amber finally comes to the fore, but by this stage is fairly mild, sweet and tame on my skin. I would have preferred something a bit more daring and complex, rather than the incense assault at the start and the fizzle-out at the end. Perhaps this is a bit harsh, but as far as incense and ambers go, this is not really my style.

Like Fetiche, Encens Flamboyant is jam-packed with incense. The opening is very similar, but with more incense. The incense is really heavy and if you are someone who doesn't like a lot of incense, you might be struggling. The heart again is very similar, toned down and becoming linear yet again. In the dry down the incense started to smell a little weird for want of a better word, a bit like an insect repellent. 

Of the two, I perhaps prefer Ambre Fetiche, but both are a bit heavy-handed for my taste. It's not as if I don't like perfumes with character and a bit of force, but these are too much. I find both a little easier to wear in cooler weather. In summer they just bloom and become sillage monsters, at least for me.

Image credit - http://photo.annickgoutal.com/

Sandalwood, and pickles?

This is not a very original post, since it is based primarily on what I have recently read on a number of other blogs. The perfume in question is Le Labo's Santal 33. Something that people have mentioned when writing about this perfume is a dill pickle note in the opening and this note seems to manifest itself in sandalwood prominent perfumes. Well, I read this and sort of dismissed it out of hand as being rather an odd thing to notice. I have tried numerous sandalwood perfumes and products over the years and have never noticed this note.

Today I wore Sandalo Inspiritu by DSH, which incidentally is a lovely perfume, but I have written about it before and don't intend to go into detail here. Suffice to say that this time, as I applied it, I was immediately struck by a dill pickle note, which amazed me. Now, I am certain that having read quite a lot about Santal 33 recently my mind must have been opened to the possibility of this accord and perhaps I was therefore more receptive to identifying it, even if only subliminally. Actually, the smell of dill and pickles are both very pleasant to me, so I was slightly amused to identify this and actually liked the fact that I experienced a slightly different take on a perfume that I am already quite familiar with.

Have any of you made this association with any sandalwood perfumes?

A visit to London and Absolue Pour Le Soir

This weekend we went to visit our good friends who live near Canary Wharf in London. I popped into Space NK to test Francis Kurkdjian's Absolue Pour Le Soir. I first tried it in the very same place about 6 months ago and nothing has changed. I still love, love, love it. So smitten am I that I am seriously considering purchasing a full bottle. Am I crazy? I rarely get the impulse to blow £120 on a perfume, but my finger is just itching to type in my credit card number online and get on with it!

I also tried Apom Pour Homme and was surprised by how much I liked it too. It's very much an orange blossom perfume, with a bit of cedar and amber. Kurkdjian is no stranger to orange blossom, with his very good Fleur De Male. 

Later on, when we were all having a coffee together, I presented my wrist to Carmen and asked her what she thought of Absolue. She wrinkled her nose and solemnly declared that it smells like piss. I was taken aback. I mean, I know there is cumin in it, and, I suspect,  civet, but still... A few minutes later I asked her husband, Darren, to have a sniff. He didn't quite wrinkle his nose, but stated that it smelled "something like daisies"! Well, I ask you. And they say opposites attract. No wonder.

Whatever Darren and Carmen think, I still love Absolue. Have you tried it, and if so, what were your impressions?

Sample Hell

I know I have touched on this topic a number of times before, but my sample collection is now so way out of hand that I don't know what to do. The obvious answer is to give stuff away, spray or dab samples more generously and perhaps have a ruthless cull.

All these options have crossed my mind, but I am a natural born hoarder and hate to throw away anything. Yesterday I brought home all the samples I had been hoarding at my office and I was flabbergasted by how much stuff I had accumulated there. I had a shopping bag of samples, rammed to bursting point. A lot of what I have is fairly generic, department store samples. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but for some reason over the years I have built up a reserve of seven samples of Opus IV, five of Memoir Man, five of Cartier Declaration, Jimmy Choo galore for God's sake and so and and so on. 

So dear reader, what am I to do? I think I might toss the excess samples and focus on core quality, however one defines that. I am open to suggestions. In the meantime, let me go order my next batch of samples!

Amouage Dia Men

It's been a while since I last wrote about an Amouage perfume. Readers of this blog will be well aware of my love affair with Amouage, although I have to say that recent releases have left me rather less inspired. Dia was one of the first perfumes I tried from the line and I love it still to this day.

I wouldn't say that Dia is incredibly innovative. It smells very masculine, although with that trademark Amouage use of lots of floral notes it is by no means run-of-the-mill. Above all, Dia smells to me of high quality ingredients, masterfully blended. It really does speak of class. Dia opens fairly gently, with citrus notes that are very quickly joined by herbs and cardamom. As I also said, there are some heft floral notes too. I detected mainly ylang-ylang and rose, although the list of notes mention peony, ylang-ylang and plum blossom. The heart is where Dia really sings, as the vetivier and patchouli come to the fore and a more structured chypre accord becomes recognisable. It smells slightly mossy, refined, sophisticated and, quite frankly, stunning. I also detected a slight creaminess, which I thought was sandalwood, and a hint of leather. Again, the notes do mention leather, but palisander rather than sandalwood.

In the dry down the vetiver becomes the most prominent note to me and Dia becomes woodier and more masculine in feel. The patchouli lends a slight earthiness that probably counter-balances the florals.

The notes are cistus, bigarade, cardamom, frankincense, labdanum, peony, ylang-ylang, orris, plum blossom, vetiver, leather, patchouli, amber and palisander. I have to admit that overall Dia is so well blended that I don't smell half these notes, although I would suspect that the whole in this case is greater than the sum of its parts.

I know this is a slightly technical review, with lots of notes and quite a lot of complicated development, but don't let that put you off. Dia is a lovely perfume well worth looking out for. At  least sample it. It is quite masculine, but the slightly mossy, floral chypre feel to it would make it, I suspect, a little easier for a woman to try.

Image credit - http://www.luckyscent.com/

Cartier Roadster Sport

I am not usually a fan of sports fragrances, and even less so of sports fragrances released almost as a flanker of an original. They are usually generic dross that do little to inspire.

When I received a sample of Cartier Roadster Sport last week from Mel, my friend at Hoopers Department Store, I felt a sinking feeling, certain that it was going to be crap. Well, lo and behold, it is rather good. I did enjoy the original Cartier Roadster, despite my slight aversion to mint in perfume. Actually, Cartier produce well thought out and crafted perfumes in general - I don't think I have ever smelled an outright dud. Roadster Sport is far less heavy on the mint. It does make a muted appearance in the heart, but this is after an extremely citrusy opening, which thankfully does not smell generic and cliched. There is a herbalness evident throughout development that ends in a mild patchouli and woods combo.

The notes from Basenotes include bergamot, mandarin,  orange blossom, sage, rosemary, black pepper, patchouli and gaiac wood.  I wouldn't say that Roadster Sport is staggeringly original, but for what it is, in a mind-numbingly dull stable of sports shite, it is actually very good and wearable and I would recommend it. It also goes to show that perhaps I should get over my sports cologne prejudice, at least in this case!

Image credit - http://cdn1.shopperhive.co.uk/

Blog subject matter

Regular visitors to my blog will hopefully be of the opinion that I write about a broad variety of topics. I don't claim to write with authority, and nor do I try to. After all, my blog is my hobby and most of what I write about is simply for enjoyment. I do try to mix it up though, with an attempt to write about specific perfumes, very often with comparisons to similar styles and also about perfume in general, or related quirks. Occasionally I include something personal, or at least a brief insight into who I am.

Anyway, this post is not an attempt at self-analysis. I don't obsess about who or who doesn't comment on my posts, nor the number of responses, but I would be lying if I said I didn't pay some attention to it. One thing that has become increasingly clear is that I tend to receive the most responses to posts that are either personal, or request the reader's opinion or view on the subject matter. My posts to do with actual reviews of perfumes regularly receive a lukewarm response. Now, whether that has something to do with the quality of review or not, I wouldn't know, but I suspect that most readers of blogs respond more enthusiastically to a post that is conversational and 'general'. I know I certainly do, although I do like to read reviews of perfumes too, and in many cases such reviews have been the initial stimulus to try a new perfume, or indeed a forgotten one, so I do value this style very much.

So, what is the point of this post then? Well, I just wanted to observe this trend on my blog, and I have two questions:

1.) Do those of you who blog find a similar response to your posts?

2.) Whether you blog or not, do you find yourself drawn more towards general conversational posts, or review-type posts?

A final observation - I love the sort of post that covers a perfume family or a note in some detail. I don't have the technical know-how or ability to write in this sort of depth, but there are some talented bloggers out there who excel at this sort of thing. I'm not biased, but one blog that consistently ticks this box is Perfume Shrine, an excellent place to visit indeed.