Fumblings of a Fledgling Fumehead Archives

Lise Watier Summer Sunset Eau de Toilette Spray Limited Edition for Summer 2012 ~ Review

May 24, 2012 By Christa 1 Comment

View life in colour. Awaken your emotions. Reveal your femininity. With the Summer Collection, Lise Watier creates a new sensual and sparkling feminine fragrance! The freshness flowers and the cheerfulness of summer colours inspire its summery composition! The fragrance opens with a bouquet enriched with the vitamins and subtle tartness of grapefruit blossoms, bergamot and luxurious red fruit. The scent then reveals its femininity with touches of jasmine, lily of the valley, honeysuckle and apple. It finishes nicely on creamy, enveloping background notes that are woody and musky.

I am not skilled at breaking down or reviewing fragrance. I hope one day I can become more skilled in this regard as I have become a huge fragrance lover and collector. With my fore mentioned lack of skill I can’t wax poetic on Lise Watier Summer Sunset beyond this most important statement. I love it! I’ve wore it every day since I received it. I am a little surprised actually. I don’t care for sweet or overly fruity scents. My girlfriend (who also loved it) commented on the fact she was surprised I liked it since it does have that fruity side. Lise Watier Summer Sunset is just such a perfect summer scent. Fresh, beautiful, lovely. I also love the packaging. The vibrant stripes of pink and tangerine and the beautiful cap and detail at the neck of the bottle. I also have a twinge of nostalgia from this scent. It is reminding me of something from my past so if anyone has any idea what that may be then please let me know! I’m drawing a blank.

It is Limited Edition so pick it up while you can. The 50ml bottle retails for $55.

*Please note that product was provided by the company for my consideration. All reviews are always my own honest and unbiased opinion.

Filed Under: Fragrances/Perfumes, Fumblings of a Fledgling Fumehead, Lise Watier, Summer 2012

Fumblings of a Fledgling Fumehead – My Week in Scent – Edition 1

January 7, 2012 By Christa 9 Comments

Well I haven’t gotten off to a great start in my endeavour to post about my adventures in scent have I? Truth be told I just don’t think I’m fluent enough in the language of perfume to do proper reviews. So this is what I’ve decided to do; I will share with you the the perfumes I’ve wore and tested for the week and my experiences. Mini reviews you might say. I think it will be a good way to introduce you to the wonderful perfumers I’m exploring without my looking like a complete idiot since I don’t know what I’m talking about. LOL

Let’s start with last Saturday. New Year’s Eve. I knew I wanted to wear one of my Amouage samples but couldn’t decide which one. In a rush before heading out the door I opted for Amouage Gold for Woman. It seemed appropriately luxe for the occasion given this description:

This powerful floral fragrance is made for the most special, luxurious, evening occasion, rich in sophistication and splendour.
Top notes: rose, lily of the valley, frankincense.
Heart notes: myrrh, orris, jasmine.
Base notes: ambergris, civet, musk, cedarwood, sandalwood.

Of course I was just heading to a pot luck house party but hush. I can pretend I was going to a lavish party. Gold is a rich, opulent floral that gives me a boost of confidence. Amouage is a house that really speaks to me. I have samples of about 8 of their perfumes and I love every one. Some of them I REALLY love. This is trouble since they are pretty darn pricey! At least if I ever manage to narrow it down to the scent I want to have first as my first full bottle of Amouage I know it will be a beautiful bottle. Take a look at Gold:

Sunday, New Year’s Day, didn’t start out so great. We woke up, after a very late celebration, to a broken coffee maker. Not the way I was hoping to start out 2012. I decided to try out the sample of Robert Piguet Fracas. This is the description from the Robert Piguet website:

Classic femininity and modern sensibility collide within this lush white floral fragrance. Seductive tuberose mingles with jasmine, jonquil, gardenia, Bulgarian rose and orange flower in a profusion of fragile white flowers before revealing a base of sandalwood, vetiver and musk. Fracas is the signature fragrance for those who want to make an unforgettable impression.

I had heard so much about this fragrance. I was delighted to see it was included as one of the samples in my recent Neiman Marcus Gift with Purchase. I absolutely LOVE white florals. They are one of my favourite kinds of scent. I know some people don’t care for white flowers at all and I had the impression from the many times I had heard Fracas discussed that maybe it was a bit hard to pull off or even offensive to some. I don’t know if I just had a total misconception of Fracas or if it just happens to work well for me because I found it positively lovely. Soft, beautiful and so very me.

On Monday I decided to delve further into the samples Mandy Aftel sent me of her incredible creations. I selected Aftelier Parfum de Maroc which is a spicy floral. Here is Mandy’s description of her creation from her website:

Inspired by an ancient Moroccan spice recipe Ras el Hanout or “top of the shop” – a mixture of the best spices a seller has to offer. Traditionally having many dozens of spices, I took creative liberty to include the ones that would blend beautifully in a perfume. My recipe is based on Turkish rose, a smoothing element that takes some of the edge off the spices, like galangal, nutmeg absolute, and black pepper; it massages them into a rounded softness, finished off with the freshness of bitter orange. Built on a base of myrrh and cardamom, I layered the spices vertically throughout the perfume.
Featured Notes
Top: saffron, galangal.
Heart: Turkish rose, nutmeg.
Base: cardamom, myrrh.

I love Mandy’s website. I find it so informative and well organized. Mandy has also written several books including Essence & Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume. It’s one of the first books I picked up when my interest in fragrance began to to turn into an obsession and it’s an excellent read.

I really enjoyed Parfum de Maroc. The best way to describe it is that I felt I smelled yummy! On my skin it came across as a soft peppery rose with a hint of nutmeg. Yummy.

Tuesday I tested out Parfums MDCI Le Rivage des Syrtes from my sample. This has been added to my full bottle wishlist. I fell madly in love for Le Rivage des Syrtes. I could not stop huffing on my wrists all day and it lasted fabulously. Here is the description from Lucky Scent:

Having established itself as a star in the firmament of perfumery in the classical manner, Parfums MDCI invited famed perfumer Patricia de Nicolaï to embark on a journey in a new direction for the house, with no prohibitions regarding the expense of the ingredients.
The result… Le Rivage des Syrtes, an oriental floral with a name taken from a famous French novel by Julien Gracq, uses fragrance to tell the tale of a lonely sailor who travels far from home– from island to island and along the shore to gather precious plants and exotic olfactory substances, which he stores carefully in a chest to bring back to his beloved.
The top notes or orange, pineapple and galbanum combine in an unexpectedly radiant composition which fans of Nicolai will recognize as very much in her style. With the precious fruits secured as cargo, the search continues. Our hero gathers an abundance of heady florals— precious ylang, orange blossom and tuberose designed to delight any recipient of such a magnificent bouquet— and tucks them into a basket he has lined with grasses in order to protect them. Finally, the sailor’s attention turns to the most precious and rare essences– musks, incense and ambergris– eternal mementos of his exotic travels and worthy of none save the one who waits for him alone, praying for his safe return. A complex scent that evokes the bitter and the sweet, the tenderness and the wistful longing of romance.
Le Rivage des Syrtes Notes
sweet orange essence, pineapple, galbanum, ylang ylang, tuberose, orange blossom absolute, incense, ambergris, vanilla, musk.

I can’t even put in words my experience with Le Rivage des Syrtes. I think what really spoke to me was the complex blend of florals and incense on my skin with so much more I couldn’t put a finger on. I just couldn’t get enough.

Wednesday I wore Mona di Orio Les Nombres d’Or Tubereuse from my decant. I purchased a decant of this unsniffed and this was my 3rd attempt trying to make it work for me. I think I may have to resign to defeat. The notes in Tubereuse are: Pink Peppercorn, Bergamot, Absolute Tuberose from India, Benzoin, Casmeran, Heliotrope. I should love this but for some reason there is something in the opening that makes me nauseous. For at least a good 30 mins. After the drydown I really quite enjoy this scent but I unless I can find a way to get past the opening I just don’t think it’s worth the struggle. We were all stunned and saddened by the untimely passing of the beautiful Mona di Orio in December. I hope to have the opportunity to explore more of her creations because I have heard such amazing things.

For Thursday I again dug into my beautiful sample box from Aftelier and applied Wildflowers solid from the sample clamshell. Mandy’s description: Evokes the rolling hills of California — The honeyed softness of sun-warmed sweet hay, dotted with wildflowers and a cool breeze of Mexican lime.

This was my first time using a solid perfume so I don’t think I applied enough but WOW I couldn’t get over how I felt like I had been suddenly transported to a field of wildflowers basking in sunshine. A beautiful, natural scent. I will definitely be reaching for this again when I need to put a smile on my face on a dreary day.

Friday (today) I’ve chosen to wear Elie Saab Le Parfum again from my Neiman Marcus GWP sample. Gee…another white floral. Shocker huh! And you know what? I really love it. Another beautiful floral. I am actually astounded by the fact there are two “designer” fragrances that I have fallen for in 2011. There were some real quality scents that were released to the mass market last year. One of them may have even made it under my Christmas tree…

Stay tuned for next week’s adventures.

Filed Under: Aftelier, Amouage, Fumblings of a Fledgling Fumehead, Parfums MDCI, Robert Piguet

Fumblings of a Fledgling Fumehead – How I Got Started: Discovery & Sample Sets

November 18, 2011 By Christa 10 Comments

My apologies lovely readers. I tempted you with my Fumblings of a Fledgling Fumehead Introduction post and then ended up feeling too intimidated to delve any further into documenting my fragrant adventures. I’m such a tease!

I thought a good place to start would be to show you exactly how I got started down the path to becoming a full blown perfumista. The fabulous world of sample/discovery sets! Please hear my message perfume houses of the world. PLEASE OFFER SAMPLES! Even more importantly please offer reasonably priced sample/discovery sets. Because you know what’s going to happen don’t you? We are going to fall in love with at least one, if not many, scents and we will NEED full bottles. Isn’t that the goal. Also the amount of feverish discussion of your scents in the perfume lovers communities is the best possible free advertising you could ever have. We live to enable one another. An incredible example of the advantages of offering samples to possible future customers is the incredibly generous and genius Kilian Club. Every day people are sharing and discussing their experiences sampling the incredible By Kilian creations. The kind and handsome Mr. Hennessey offered those who joined his Facebook Fan Club a beautiful pouch of samples from his L’Oeuvre Noire collection for free. I mean how incredible is that?! I for one am not in a location where sampling his line is possible. To be able to sample and appreciate these scents in the comfort of my own home has been a joy and has me craving one of his incredibly beautiful full bottles so badly I don’t know how to contain myself.

OK now where was? By Kilian was not part of the start of my journey but rather came later. But By Kilian does understand the value of samples and has even recently released a fabulous Discovery Set of his L’Oeuvre Noire collection containing 7.5ml sizes of all 10 scents!

So after I started expressing my interest in learning more about fragrance in the beautiful fragrance community I also started asking for recommendations of samples to try. I was hoping to find websites to purchase various samples from. There are options in this area like The Perfumed Court and several others where they sell you decanted samples from full bottles they have on hand. It can become a pricey endeavor. I instead decided to focus on samples being offered online directly from the perfumer. Here are the sets I ordered the week of my crazy perfume sample buying binge a couple of months ago:

From Ineke:

From Ormonde Jayne:

Ormonde Jayne’s Discovery Set is comprised of 12 x 2ml mini sprays of eau de perfume, together with a brochure explaining each perfume, all housed in a black and gold box… and whats more, the shipping is complimentary worldwide.

From Juliette Has a Gun:

From Opus Oils:

I ordered pretty much every one of their samples and sample packs!

I am so happy with my purchases! It has been an incredible journey and learning experience. It is amazing to be able to sample such a variety of scents from such a range of perfumers. I can’t imagine buying a perfume “blind”. While I’m an avid online shopper for cosmetics and buy things untested/unsceen all the time I can’t fathom taking that risk on bottles of perfume. Not to mention some of these can be quite the investment. Even lets say I was lucky enough to live nearby a boutique that sold all of these scents and had them available for testing. Trying to sniff testers at a store and maybe trying the odd one on or taking a scent strip home can in no way compare to the luxury of fully wearing a scent for two or three days from a sample vial to get the true experience.

There are still so many houses to explore that offer this option. Some of the ones I’m hoping to order next are:

Neil Morris Signature Collection Sampler: