MADISON

Romanian speakers?!? You are funny…

What do you mean?

Hello again :).
Re: some earlier conversation we had, I am unhappy to report that I have sampled most scents of the Tom Ford collection and I find them boring, mediocre and really unskilfully made. Quite surprising, that. I was expecting much more style and subtlety in working with the ingredients from a master of perfectly measuring sofisticated doses of beauty

I am in Paris right now and will be back with comments on this and others.

Wish I were in Paris… Could you try SL’s Sarrasins while you’re there?

sure!
I sampled some others, but don’t really want to mention them here for shielding against the competition puproses. But I am dying to share, though…

and Serge Noir & El Attarine ….si poate vb cu el si aduci parfumurile la Madison

Oh, I’m dying to hear about them… Please…?
And have some chocolat africain at Angelina for me, also.

Am back!
Hmmm…no time anymore for Angelina, but if you count replacing Angleina with any pastry from Gerard Mulot, then consider yourself satisfied!
****if not, I guess you or I will have to head back there soon.

So, to the TF point:
-overall, Oud Wood is still my favorite of all.
-I also liked: Bois Rouge and Japon Noir, but the Black Violet that I own is still better for me than any other.
-the rest, I fell, are very beautiful, but you can live without them.

At SL, well, there’s another story. I smelled Sarassins and for a jasmine, which, for those who are not big fans could be a bit ostentatious, strong, raw, I found this one to be creamy, smooth, more subtle than what I expected. Which is a good thing.
***s[eaking of jasmine and white flowers, Annick Goutal will launch a new one next year. It’s very beutiful, greenish gardenia/jasminy. It’ll be called Un Matin d’Orage and it captures the earthy, dripping wet smell of flowers in the morning, after a storm.

On to SL: loved Borneo 1834, Rahat Loukum, Chergui, Santal de Muysore and Chene.
I smelled Serge Noir but can’t remember it now for the life of me.

I also went to Jar; you should go, too, next time when in Paris. The boutique is pretty, the presentation brief but original (I will do somehting similar at Madison, soon), and the fragrances are just so different than anything else. SL style, but more animalic, profound… certainly die to the very high concentration (only extrait de parfum is available). The names are beautiful (one of them is not even named, but has a picture/symbol instead).
I liked Jarling the most (couldn’t tell you what the melange is, but it’s in my area of style: sweet, smokey, spicy, powdery, a hint of lfower.
Other names are : “Diamond Water”, “Ferme tes yeaux”, “Golconda”, “Jardenia”, and… the symbol.

And, of course, there was another winner, but I don’t want to disclose it here for… you might guess the reasons.

Bolt of Lightning?

Yes, yes, indeed!
And, when you are at the boutique, this symbol is on the ceiling, and… it’s much more than the strike of lightining, of course. It’s the cloud covered violet bluish sky, together with what that inspires. )
Very interesting and original approach.

Welcome back. I guess… (I don’t think there’s ever any point to leaving Paris, unless it’s for taking the Eurostar to London)
TF: I was bitterly disappointed because everything seemed too forced, somehow unskilfully made. Very loud noises where you might have expected a whisper. Some where too pushy, others I found rude and raw (such as the neroli, which I was expecting to be sparkling and luminous, and I perceived as sticky, pungent and fake-smelling). Others I found too shy for what they promised (such as Noir de Noir or Black Violet). I only liked Amber Absolute, but only because it’s a, well, absolute - amber and a bit of incense, you don’t need much subtlety or skill to do that well, just enough courage. Very few ambers resist the temptation of sweetness, so he deserves points for that. But it’s not enough…
SL: Sarrasins sounds nice. I guess he had to do a tamer jasmine, as A La Nuit is truly mad. I tried the 5 o’clock Gingembre and wasn’t impressed (was expecting something richer) and bought Cedre (but, really, I’m dreaming of Tubereuse Criminelle actually). My husband got Chene, and it is indeed impressive, very original take on wood.
I know some of the JAR scents, was not impressed, but might revisit them on your advice.
The new Goutal sounds nice. “Green” jasmine is not really common.

Hey everyone !

@Madeleine: Welcome back! Hope you had a great time in Paris! I have been meaning to ask you, did you get a chance to test anything from M.Micallef, Le Labo or Frederic Malle, Montale? I would love to hear what you think about them.

@Datura Noir : sorry to hear the Tom Fords didn’t work for you, it’s amazing how chemistry plays such a huge part, for instance I don’t find Noir de Noir shy at all, or Black Violet for that matter. Truth be told, I don’t really think of his fragrances as shy or close to skin. They’re usually quite big and strong, while still being smooth and well blended. It’s all a matter of personal taste, you don’t HAVE TO like them :o)
Trust me, there are plenty of appreciated brands out there which don’t do anything for me, I find some of them really mediocre and I can’t get what the hype is all about with some of them, so not to worry, you’ll find other winners!! :o)

And since we’re talking TF, I’m looking forward to testing his new one soon, White Patchouli ( mainstream release), and he will also be adding 3 new scents to his Private Blend collection.

I just really enjoy the process of testing fragrances, even if not all of them are winners for me, I can still appreciate their artistry.

Btw, I wasn’t impressed with 5 O’Clock either.

Gia: welcome back! Yes, I also enjoy testing and discovering, and I’m massively used to disappointments (so many of them in the perfume world). But I’ve always liked Tom Ford, his personality and the way he projected it onto the things he made fashionwise. So I was expecting to recognize his exact aura in his scents, only to find some sort of Ralph Fiennes-type personality - lethargic with weird loud, and somehow tragic, outbreaks. That’s all.
Of course, it’s all a matter of perception and personal taste - I do believe they might be masterpieces on someone else’s skin…
By the way, Dior did a Portofino scent; don’t let me start about it… Shame about the concept/name, beautiful logo and pretty bottle.
Which FMs do you like?

PS. I got a similar reaction to yours a few years back, from someone whom I had told I thought Liv Tyler was ugly.
Then I realised that what I actually meant was “ugly compared to my own standards of female beauty and expectations”.
I now happen to think she’s beautiful

I kind of lost my faith in Dior once they started coming out with like 3, 4 scents a year and all those flankers…..

I haven’t tried all FM scents, but from what I’ve tried so far I liked Eau D’Hiver, French Lover, Outrageous, and I think I might like the new one Dans Tes Bras, judging by the notes. I am not really a floral kind of girl, so Carnal Flower, Lipstick Rose, Une Fleur de Cassie didn’t really work for me. I still have a few left to try, though.

P.S. - A friend of mine is a fan of the FM line, and Carnal Flower, Une Fleur de Cassie or Lipstick Rose smell very well on her…. But she’s a fan of floral scents. When it comes to me, notes like tuberose, carnation, rose, have to be very well blended for me to be able to wear them. I can’t really do straight up florals, with a very few exceptions. It’s exactly what we’ve been talking about I like the way some fragrances smell on other people, I just don’t like them on me. Some of them don’t go well with my chemistry, others are just ….not me.

Oh, Iris Poudre was nice too, especially for fans of an aldehydic cool iris.

Hello everyone!

@Gia: M. Micaleff? Never heard of them!
Le Labo: I saw and touched them at Colette and their New York store, but I’m weird… whenever it comes to soliflores (even if the name is misleading), my interest level just lowers. I think fragrances should be complex, have many facets, never be too obvious as to the ingredients, and create excitement about the notes that intertwine in them.
But now when I was in Paris I knew I just had to try them (more because I have to, professionally), but… bad luck! Colette was closed for refurbishing.

FM: as I was telling Datura Noir a while back, Iris Poudre is my favorite fragrance of all times, together with Datura Noir and Santal Blanc.
The other FM scents: I never really felt I had the time to understand all of them. There was a time when Barneys New York was one of my accounts and was in there very often, that I would spend half of the time at their area, smelling and trying on all of them available then. None made an impression, forget a lasting one, to the point where I wanted to wear them, except Iris Poudre.
l’Eau d’Hiver I liked a lot for men, but that’s because the guy at the boutique was wearing it all the time and he was very good looking.
It’s strange, but I used to feel like I was in a museum and couldn’t bring myself to relate to the art displayed; that’s pretty much the sensation I used to have.
I liked them all, however, and if finding the fragrance of your life means you have to sometimes feel like an outsider, so be it.
Oh, and when you say “cool iris” what do you mean? “cool” as in “hip”, or “cool” as in “cold”? Because on skin the fragrance is just like a faint veil of fur, warm and cozy, and extremely sensual.

Montale: yes! We went to the boutique and were surrounded by aluminum cans in all colors: gold, silver, black, red, fuchsia. The place smelled of aromatic woods and was divine. I love oud in any of its form (don’t remember not liking anything with oud), and this was oud heaven. But it’s a lot of them. After a while, even with a lot of training, because there are so many variations of it, they tend to lose their strong personality, and they all blend together.
So I can’t tell you a favorite of them, it’s just that they definitely hit a spot for woodsy, spicy, mysterious, Arabic scent fans.

Hi Madeleine!

Actually the line is called Parfums M.Micallef (from Martine Micallef) and she has some really good ones, including one of the best vanilla scents I have ever smelled, grown-up and sophisticated, not the average cotton candy type of vanilla, a few nice ouds too in various combos (rose & oud, vanilla & oud, etc), and some nice male scents too. I have tested almost the entire line I am not sure if I can name names here, otherwise I would tell you what my favorites are and which ones can be skipped. The bottles are nice looking too, hand painted. Actually I think that several scents from this line would work in Romania.

As far as Le Labo goes, the names of their scents are really misleading. They’re not soliflores, as the names might suggest, but very smooth and well blended scents. The ones I tried stay close to skin, they’re not sharp, pungent, loud. Nice line overall.

I also like complex fragrances, not a fan of soliflores either and I was suprised when I tried some of Le Labo scents. The Vanilla one is really misleading, the vanilla is really hidden in there, *under* a layer of woods and incense. Same goes for the Rose one. I am not really a fan of rose scents, yet I liked this one, a smooth, dry, spicy hidden rose.

Yes, the Montale line is heaven for oud lovers, I own 2 of those funky bottles

One of my recent finds was an oud scent from the By Killian line.

Oh, sorry for the ambiguity surrounding Iris Poudre.
I meant cool as in hip, great Iris Poudre is not cold, I agree. Probably the coldest iris I ever smelled is SL Iris Silver Mist.

Gia, just one thought: Dior did make a great scent during these last years - Dior Homme. On my skin at least, it’s a great composition of (mainly) amber, iris and lavender, with a sensational dose of chocolate. Creamy and powdery at the same time (but I guess that’s what you get when you mix the aldehydic coolness of iris & lavender with the hotness of cocoa). It smells as Madeleine might have in Paris, if she drank a chocolat africain doused in Iris Poudre…. Quite artfully made, worth a try.

@Gia: ok, so you’ve said it… By Killian is the great line I wanted to refrain from mentioning, since i got my eyes on it.
All scent are carefully thought out, very modern and contemporary, the packaging is to die for, a story behind it… quite impressive in today’s day and age.
I loved “Love” the most, but I know the woodsy scent you mean (I think it’s Cruel Intentions—funny, though, that if you look on their website at the formulas, none of them have actual oud. Eh… goes to show how alchemy and chemistry play tricks.)
So… how ownderful to have such new lines spring up like that? It helps that they have the money and were able to invest in everything, from A to Z, including a best spot in the great world stores, right across from TF.

@Datura Noir: look up a new chocolate store opening on Calea Victoriei, across and a few meters down from where Fashion Cafe used to be. It’s Venchi, and they’re Italian, and although they’re quite popular and could be found even in Rome’s airport, their chocolate is excellent!

@Datura Noir : Yes, I agree Dior Homme was a good fragrance. Personally it didn’t knock my socks off, but this doesn’t mean that it wasn’t good

@Madeleine: Sorry if I wasn’t supposed to mention it. I tested the whole line, the black packaging is gorgeous and yes, CI is the oud one I was referring to.
I remember seeing agarwood mentioned among the notes and this is the one responsible for that oud note in CI.

Having new, high quality lines of perfumes is always great, although I am not surprised by the huge investment Killian made in his line, after all he has the money to do it, he’s the grandson of the founder of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, LVMH.
How cool is that right?:) Why can’t I have filthy rich relatives ?

these by kilian scents do look very well crafted but hey….they are quite expensive 50 ml of perfume for 165€ that’s something. unfortunately their Straight to Heaven really goes Straight to Heaven. in 30 min it was gone.
i’m still waiting for the other Annick Goutal scents especially Ambre Fetiche.

@marius: hm… i stopped being so ticked off about the lasting power of fragrance. ok, some are more potent than others, and some are faulted with ephemere qualities, but i just take them as a whole and especially those i really like but know they disappear rather quickly, i prefer to believe it is part of their personality to behave that way.
i know, i know, i’m in denial when it comes to this, but i found that i enjoyed them more if i think this way.
as for the price, it’s clearly a positioning strategy, so who can blame the million dollar baby?!:)
oh, and please pass by Madison and try Ambre Fetiche; we have the testers for the entire Orientalistes range. oh, and wait till you see what we’ll do with them for the Christmas windows!

@Gia&Datura: i think a similar reaction to Datura’s Dior Homme is mine with Guerlain’s L’Instant pour homme. My God… talk about flowers and cocoa in a man’s fragrance!

Madeleine: Italian chocolate? what’s that, then?
Kidding. But I would rather have real Italian gelato in this city, nothing of the sort to be found here at the moment.