Alkemi Review

It’s hard to muster much enthusiasm for Alkemi with its linear, incense-patchouli-amber-Cashmeran theme. The patchouli is clean and only slightly camphorous, the sweetness of the resins accord just seeming to make the purple pop a little more. The Cashmeran is nicely dosed to where it is almost felt more than smelt.

But Alkemi is also monolithic, and the déjà-senti experience it triggers on first application proves well founded. A good example of what can be achieved using this basic structure however, is Cartier’s L’Heure Mystérieuse, XII (M.Laurent, 2009).

Nose: Marie Duchene

House: Laboratorio Olfattivo

Release date: 2010

Notes (per Fragrantica): ylang-ylang, amber, incense, patchouli, myrrh, cedar, cashmere, vanilla, sandalwood

Décou-Vert Review

Décou-Vert is not, as its silly name might suggest, an intensely green experience. Rather, it is a very straightforward lily of the valley fragrance with a vanillic, musky aura that’s redolent of M. Laurent’s Baiser Volé (Cartier, 2011). The watery-floral greenness is pretty and undemanding, but a dry, pale woody note sticks out a little too much in the top- and mid-sections for my taste. Given the Cartier is comparable in price, I know which I’d sooner pick.

Nose: David Maruitte

House: Laboratorio Olfattivo

Release date: 2012
Notes (per Fragrantica): lily of the valley, green leaves, magnolia, jasmine, lilac, musk, water notes, oakmoss.

Esvedra Review

Smelling Pierre Guillaume's Esvedra, I was immediately put in mind of Trussardi's Trussardi: at the top, both are dominated by a delicious, crisp verdancy backed by a bitter aromatic/coriander accord that borders on the urinous. Guillaume relates the greenery to a 'fractal' (fractionated?) vetiver, though I confess I get none of the peanutty associations that come at least with the Haitian variety. To my nose, it's green more in the direction of galbanum with cut-grass accents.

Disappointingly, the wonderful effect is very, very short lived. Within a couple of hours all that remains is a sensual, delicately powdery musk fond built around the captive base Nevenolide (also used by Guillaume in Papyrus de Ciane). 

Nose: Pierre Guillaume

House: Laborattorio Olftattivo

Relase date: 2011

Notes (per Fragrantica): vetiver, musk, petit grain, lemon, coriander, Nevenolide.

Noblige Review

The problem with overlaps between functional and fine fragrance is that, sometimes, perfumes can’t help but recall household products. So it is with Noblige.

The culprit here seems not to be the attractively anisic, aromatic heart, but rather an unfortunate combination of slightly aldehydic bergamot/orange hesperidic notes and a very pronounced ozonic haze that comes off smelling like floor cleaner. The base is musky / powdery with some subtle vanilla-coumarin/tonka sweetness. 

Nose: Marie Duchene

House: Laboratorio Olfattivo

Release date: 2012
Notes (per Fragrantica): bergamot, lemon, ambrette, lavender, iris, neroli, vanilla, tonka, white musk.

Moon Bloom Review

Claimed to be made with all natural ingredients, Moon Bloom essentially consists of a linear, creamy/fatty/tuberjasmylang white floral accord. A touch of vanilla-like sweetness in the blend helps balance out a metallic, green tea note, but also accentuates slightly the banana associations of ylang-ylang.

Whilst the composition is harmonious, it’s almost too much so: for rather than showcasing a particular facet of Big White Florals, e.g. their indolic side, or their salicylatey side, Moon Bloom seems content to demonstrate that they all go well together. Which they do. But it’s not saying anything especially new.

Nose: Hiram Green

House: Hiram Green

Release date: 2013

Notes (per Fragrantica): jasmine, tuberose, ylang-ylang, coconut, green leaves, spicy notes, resin

Nirmal Review

In Hindi, the adjective nirmal literal means 'without impurity', thereby 'clean, pure, fresh' - an apt name, really, for a scent whose central orris theme emerges smelling like it's just been put through the wash with some dihydromyrcenol-laden laundry powder. It's the metallic facet of certain ionones then that is first accentuated, before the sweeter qualities of iris are elaborated with a soft coumarin/vanilla/woody-amber base. 

Nose: Rosine Courage

House: Laboratorio Olfattivo

Release date: 2010

Notes (per Fragrantica): carrot, iris, violet, cedar, amber, 'daim' candy accord. 

Salina Review

Laboratorio Olfattivo describes Salina as “[a] parfum that remind us immediately the sun blinding sparkle, reflecting itself over the water; the childish play of footprints over the sand, deleted by waves, and the warmth of the sun over the skin”.

The water, sand and waves bit I get: it’s there in the heavily dosed Calone-type marine base. What I don’t get is why this is introduced by an almost combative, sweetly-herbal green complex that in part recalls artemisia; it neither develops the theme in an obvious direction nor works in a complementary fashion.

Relative to the former, the latter accord doesn’t last so very long, meaning one ends up smelling principally of warm, stagnant rock-pool for much of the scent’s duration.

Nose: David Maruitte

House: Laboratorio Olfattivo

Release date: 2013

Notes (per Fragrantica): lemon, pine needles, sea salt, sand, myrtle, sea notes, lavender, vanilla, tonka bean, cedar, musk.