Maai Review

To judge by the deep amber colour of the juice, Maai contains a good deal of natural extracts and this suspicion is borne out by its complex, if slightly muddy scent. 

An animalic white floral, Maai explores the clean/dirty paradigm beginning with an aldehydic tuberose/ white flower/ rose accord. Among tuberose’s principal odiferous constituents is methyl salicylate (wintergreen), whose phenolic/camphorous smell is here emphasised, though ultimately pulls up short compared to C. Sheldrake’s Tubéreuse Criminelle (Serge Lutens, 1999). As the fragrance develops, the sharp soapiness is overcome by a honied sweetness that serves as a bridge to a base chock full of leathery resins and animalics. This represents Maai’s Unique Selling Point and many have hailed the fragrance as a return to the classical aesthetic. Civet, castoreum and the like however, constituted only one part of the animalic equation in vintage perfumes and most obviously missing here is a complementary nitro-musk style complex to soften the feel. Maai has a wild, barely tamed quality to it that betokens a certain amateurishness. Its fetishisation of the fecal also comes at the expense of balance. 

Nose: Antonio Gardoni

House: Bogue Profumo

Release date: 2014

Notes (per Fragrantica): aldehydes, tuberose, rose, jasmine, resins, musk, civet. 

Flower Review

Key to understanding Alberto Morillas’ Flower is an appreciation of the enormous contribution Sofia Grojsman has made to perfumery with fragrances like Trésor. As previously mentioned, Grojsman effectively introduced a new style of scents built around a monolithic ‘hug me’ accord of Galaxolide, Iso E Super, Methyl Ionone and Hedione. In roughly equal proportion, these materials combine to produce a soft-focus, clean, powdery accord of good substantivity and radiance that can be used to make up a high percentage of the finished product and straightforwardly modified.

Beginning with this template, Flower develops the ionone facet into a pastel violet accord which is then clasically complemented with rose. Hedione provides a jasminic lift, its green and white tonalities dovetailing with some hydroxycitronellal type muguet notes. The musk complex meanwhile, is rendered a little more sophisticated with Helvetolide adding subtle fruity, pear nuances, the whole thing being sweetened up with a moderate dose of vanilla. In terms of development, there’s little to speak of, though as the fragrance reaches the end of its evaporation curve, the pale woodsiness becomes a touch more apparent.

As so often, the cross-over in trends between functional and fine-fragrance works to the latter’s detriment and Flower’s dryer-sheet associations are ultimately hard to shake.

Nose: Alberto Morillas

House: Kenzo

Release date: 2000

Notes (per Fragrantica): cassis, hawthorn, bulgarian rose, orange, opoponax, jasmine, parma violet, vanilla, musk, incense.

Sauvage Review

Last month, I posted my initial impression of Dior’s latest male release on Basenotes, following the very briefest of in-store sniffs. Then, I pegged it as a ‘...very generic modern fougère: a fresh head accord of sundry hesperidic notes linked to cologney, dihydromyrcenol lavender, the whole thing backed up by some powdery dry woodsy-ambers and musks’.

Having had the opportunity to spend a little more time with the fragrance, I can’t say my thoughts have greatly changed, but it’s worth adding a little flesh to the above skeleton.  

The fragrance opens with a standard smelling citrus accord built around bergamot and melonal/calone (/vel.sim.) that’s tartly breezy. The linalool/linalyl facets are freshened up with a good dose of dihydromyrcenol lending the composition a legible masculine cologne character. This metallic coolness carries over to a fruity green heart that has a distinctly oily, violet leaf quality – an oblique reference perhaps to J.-L. Sieuzac’s 1988 Dior classic, Fahrenheit. Sauvage though, has a much more pronounced woodsiness, with plenty of Iso E Super radiance that ties in with a powdery base of desiccated woody ambers and, carrying on the laundry detergent theme introduced by dihydromyrcenol, clean polycyclic type musks.

Dior’s answer to a question nobody asked.

Nose: François Demachy

House: Dior

Release date: 2015

Notes (per Fragrantica): bergamot, sichuan pepper, ambroxan.

Grand Bal Review

One of the weaker links in Dior’s Collection Privée line, Grand Bal is essentially a lightweight, jasmine soliflore. The central, Hedione brightened white theme carries lily of the valley nuances and is surrounded by some standard smelling, watery-metallic green notes. After an hour or so on skin however, the composition has all but run its course, and what remains is a nondescript, jasmine tinged, starchy-clean musk fond. 

Nose: François Demachy

House: Dior

Release date: 2012

Notes (per Fragrantica): musk, jasmine, orange blossom, ylang-ylang, sandalwood, bergamot. 

Tom Ford Noir Pour Femme Review

Compared to the rather excellent Noir (marketed to men), one can’t help but feel the new pour femme flanker leaves Tom Ford’s female audience short-changed. 

Noir pour femme has nothing to do with the original, being instead a vanillic desert bomb. Lurking behind the thick fug of (ethyl-)vanillin and clean musks is an impression of leather perhaps hinting at saffron and if you sniff your skin after 10 hours and a shower, you’ll still be able to smell some very persistent woody odorants (Javanol etc.). Signed by Sonia Constant, Noir pour femme is, of course, well composed and does what it (presumably) sets out to do fine. But it’s a disappointingly cynical release all the same. 

Nose: Sonia Constant

House: Tom Ford

Release date: 2015

Notes (per Fragrantica): bergamot, bitter orange, mandarin, ginger, rose, jasmine, orange blossom, kulfi, vanilla, amber, sandalwood, mastic. 

Tom Ford Noir Review

Tom Ford’s Noir is a daring, tenebrous take on the bergamot-patchouli-opoponax structure so masterfully explored in the Guerlain classics Shalimar and Habit Rouge. 

It opens with a fresh, agrestic-citrus accord centred around bergamot that’s taken in an oily, green direction with violet leaf. Black pepper serves for spicy contrast and together with a civet note of unusual intensity, introduces the titular ‘noir’ theme. The similarities with J.-P. Guerlain’s masterpiece Habit Rouge become most apparent in the heart, where the herbal complex is softened with powdery orris and plenty of opoponax. In distinction however, the patchouli here is very much brought to the fore and encouraged to express its full range, from the camphorous through the earthy to the ambery. The latter facet, in combination with the opoponax, then links to a musky-vanillic Oriental base that retains a slight animalic vibe. 

Makes me wish I liked to wear patchouli more!

Nose: Olivier Guillotin

House: Tom Ford

Release date (2012)

Notes (per Fragrantica): bergamot, verbena, caraway, pink pepper, violet, black pepper, nutmeg, iris, geranium, rose, clary sage, opoponax, amber, patchouli, vetiver, civet, vanilla. 

Armani Review (vintage EdT)

Now discontinued, Armani was a thoughtfully created aldehydic floral chypre. Its opening is soapy and green-in-a-galbanum way with a touch of tropical fruitiness perhaps coming from some allyl amyl glycolate. My sample is labelled ‘1990’ and definitely has a well-macerated feel to it: if there were any sharp edges, these have been rounded with time and the perfume moves effortlessly to a classical floral heart of jasmine, a little rose and lily of the valley that’s extremely well blended. Like many of its genre and era, Armani comes across as a bit aloof, but it warms up significantly in the base when the animalic labdanum really shines through the starchy musk complex. 

Nose: Unknown

House: Giorgio Armani

Release date: 1982

Notes (per Fragrantica): aldehydes, pineapple, mint, galbanum, marigold, bergamot, cyclamen, tuberose, orchid, orris, jasmine, lily of the valley, rose, narcissus, sandalwood, tonka, amber, musk, benzoin, labdanum, oakmoss, cedar.