The winner of the draw...

....for the Swarovski bottle of perfume is Katrina and the waves. Congratulations and please email me with your shipping data so I can have this out in the mail for you soon!

Thanks everyone for the enthusiastic participation and till the next (very interesting!) one.

S-Perfumes S-Perfume Classic: fragrance review

The blinding white of Oia on Santorini island, Greece, against the pale blue of the natural pools contained within some of its cave-houses is not totally alien to the idea behind S-Perfume Classic by super-niche brand S-Perfumes.The same feeling of freshness and serenity -and perversly enough energy as well- reigns in both.

Source: bluepueblo.tumblr.com via Perfume on Pinterest

The S-Perfume "house" began in 2000, the first all-original perfumery to come out of Brooklyn, New York, though not the first one to be founded by a completely unrelated to perfumery individual. Nobi Shioya is a sculptor with an interest in scent who used various fragrances to scent his “Olfactory Art” installations. Nobi ~under the nom de plume Sacré Nobi~ brought on board perfume veterans such as Carlos Benaim and Sophia Grojsman. As Chandler Burr said: “Shioya shares with the scent-architect Frédéric Malle a Woody Allen-ish knack for convincing stars to work for him.” They began to create a series of scents as an art project with very fancy ad copy and very limited distribution  (Which sorta begs the question how the hell did certain non-professional people get on his wares so very, very early on, but I'll leave this to the more sleuthing among you). Word of mouth made the brand something of a mini-cult, not always deservedly (From the newly relaunched and pared down to three range S-ex is by far the most interesting and 100%Love the most wearable).

S-Perfume Classic was originally composed by Alberto Morillas under the project name Jet-Set 1.0 (all the S-Perfumes had conceptual names back then, taking inspiration from the seven deadly sins originally and later taking abstract names such as 100% Love). Christophe Laudamiel re-orchestrated it somewhat to its current formula, sold now as S-Perfume "classic". The label also changed, this time bearing a sort of sketching protozoon (or spermatozoon, if you prefer).

The ambience of the S-Perfume Classic is that of contemporary non-scents: Like Molecule 01 from Escentric Molecules, this is something that doesn't quite register on the cortex but moves like an abstract clean-musky aura around, coming in and out of focus. The ozonic, oxygen touch coupled with the "clean" factor of lavender, aromatic somewhat masculine-smelling herbs and sanitized musk -consisting of the familiar to all via functional products Galaxolide musk type- soon eschews all images of sensuality (The official notes mention creamy, cozy ingredients such as sandalwood and vanilla substituted by Laudamiel for the benzoin which Morillas had used, which nevertheless should not at any rate lead you to believe that we're dealing with a predominantly sensual affair of a skin-scent; the most you get is a hint, a tiny hint of suntan oil at a distance).
On the contrary, S-Perfume Classic has the salty zingy skin-like smelling effect of L'Eau Ambrée by Prada, airated by the coolness encountered in Serge Lutens's L'Eau Froide (but arrived to through totally different means) and is not a classic warm "beachy" fragrance.

Morillas had utilized the "clean" and "energetic" idea to impressive effect already in CK One (collaborating with Harry Fremont) and Mugler's Cologne, balanced with subtler salty-skin and herbs accents in the discontinued CK Truth (with Jacques Cavallier and Thierry Wasser)and adding a touch of cool spice in Bulgari's BLV. Laudamiel emphasized the somewhat rubbery facets recalling neoprene with a subtle woody-powdery finish that is sometimes perceptible and sometimes is not. But it's the shiny, almost hurting the eyes oxygen blast, as squeeky clean as the eyesore one gets upon opening their windows to a blinding white winter day decked in a yard of snow, or the whiteness of the water inside a surf wave, which stay in one's memory.

Notes for S-Perfume Classic: ozonic note, muguet mist, thyme, lavender, musks, sandalwood, vanilla bourbon

Tryvge Harris: "None of the ouds in any of those commercial perfumes are real. None."

In an interesting interview of Trygve Harris on FragranceScout, the owner of Enfleurage NYC (dedicated to natural essences of the highest grade, including the very rare gardenia essence) who lives in Oman reveals some (not so astounding surely if you have been following our pages here for some time) facts about oud/aoudh and its commercial inclusion in perfumes, mainstream and niche alike. If you don't know the first thing about oud (rather unlikely unless you had been living under a rock for the past 3-4 years) you can consult our Perfume Raw Material: Oud/Aoudh/Agarwood article; it should get you started and correct some misconceptions.

via anyasgarden.blogspot.com

Asked if one can find a good quality oud, Harris answers that there is no chance any more; "high quality Lao (and Vietnamese, Cambodian, & Thai) [oud] is finished." Of course this is where the synthetic bases popularised these past few years which have given rise to the abundance of "oud" perfumes in the market: almost one release in every eight is about oud at this pace. She also explains that even "real aoudh" used is usually just the dried chips, bearing no resin left, treated so they give off some scent, but not the authentic oud smell. "A great deal of oud is just chemical, or reconstituted. Almost all. I would say you have .01% chance of finding a real pure one. And none of the ouds in any of those commercial perfumes are real. None. It would be madness to create something for the mass market, or even a “niche market” using raw materials whose availability, origin and price are so random."
As to whether this trend for oud will stay with us, she's pretty categorical: "There is just no way that so many Westerners are connect with oud."

All in all a very interesting and frank interview to Giovanni.

Swarovski Aura: Bottle Giveaway

I have a brand new bottle of Swarovski's Aura fragrance from which only 5ml have been decanted for reviewing purposes. It is eligible for readers of this site. Just put a comment in saying what would be your ideal interpretation of crystal into perfume form and you're in the draw.

Draw remains open till Thursday 26th April midnight.

Profumum Roma Soavissima: fragrance review

Her presence still lingered.
Her petticoat had left unequivocal traces.
Trails of intense scent that lit boundless fires.

This is how Profumum Roma presents Soavissima. Profumum is a niche Italian brand founded in Rome in 1996 and Soavissima was launched in 2006. The official accords talk about amber, white flowers, animalic and powdery notes, but of this only the powder and ambery stuff comes through distintcly. And that, not quite, as one would be accustomed through various incarnations of resinous, sacerdotal ambers circulating in niche perfumery for years: The powderiness in Soavissima comes through heaps of heliotrope, a soft iris accord and that rosy nuance of goose-down puffs heavy with powder in which a bit of amber is felt, like the whisper that is left on the skin when you apply an ambery perfume several hours before. It's a sweet ambience, perhaps a tad intense for some. It can also veer into "baby powder" territory, that vat of Johnson's talc, aromatized with vanilla, hints of lavender and orange blossoms. Its feminine, motherly embrace is its predominant trait, a quality that can be polarising. More than a slipper-footed dame in her boudoir powdering her face, it recalls gusts of powder going on 18th century wigs; an element of excess and theatricality is built within the scent.

Soavissima firmly belongs to the sweet powdery realm where Teint de Neige by Lorenzo Villoresi and Keiko Mecheri's Loukhoum rule. On the other hand it has some of the inedible sweetness of the aldehydic soapiness that Chanel No.22 and White Linen by Lauder possess. It also approaches Profumum's own Confetto with its similar base of fuzzy heliotrope-ambery powderiness. The sillage/projection of Soavissima is tremendous so go easy on the application and the lasting power quite satisfying for the price.

The Soavissima line is complimented by a body lotion, a shower product and a room fragrance. Sold at boutique sites, such as Luckyscent. (and in brick and mortar in various countries, even in Thessaloniki in Xeen Ltd)

photo of Lord Mortimer/Bedlam v ia sparksinelectricaljelly.blogspot.com and of makeup brush via clothingbrands24.com