The reason why I have tried M. Micallef´s Gaiac is a little different. I have been more curious about it than on many other perfumes, so when the sample finally arrived I was eager to try it at once. I admit that there´s a lot of perfumes I am really looking forward to try, but Gaiac has quite another story.
Michelyn Camen is a, in the perfume society, well-knowned person. She lives in New York and work as a perfume writer and also a perfume consultant. People can consult Michelyn for advise and with the help of a lot of questions she can recommend them a spot on signature perfume, mostly rare niche-perfumes, so that the client can have their very unique signature scent.
When Michelyn offers to give me a small perfume consulting I was of course curious, interested and happy. It was a whole lot of questions to answer, about olfactory memories, favourite notes and skin chemistry. Even tough I am a perfume lover, some of the question was something to toroughly think about for a while. When I sen my answers to Michelyn, it didn´t take long before she wrote to me and suggest that M. Micallef´s Gaiac was my perfume. Guess if I was eager to try it? I´ve heard about M. Micallefs perfumes before, but hadn´t test any of them, and not heard so much about the line either, so over all it was a new experience.
I looked up the notes for Gaiac, and they sure sounded promising: bergamotte, clove, jasmine, vetiver, gaiac wood and vanilla. I was so thrilled!
Well, I am also a skeptic kind of person. Even tough I found Michelyn´s recommendation really interesting I was also unsure if it would be so spot on? I guess it´s easier to convince people that isn´t that in to perfumes as I am. And after all I have tried a whole lot more perfumes than the common perfume user. But oooooh... what if... it is so gorgeus that I imagine?
I understand if you´re curious about the verdict? Was it good? Or was it a disapointment?
Gaiac is a totally different perfume, and don´t remind me of anything else I´ve tried. The top notes are amazingly nice and smell like a strange mix between candy sugar, fresh aromatic wood and something airy and light that lifts the whole thing, probably with the help of bergamotte that are very, very subtle. there is the faintest smell of some kind of salve or a an ancient tincture with powerful substances and golden powder in it. Yes, there is something in Gaiac that makes me think of gold, but more of imaginary gold than the actual metal. Gaiac has an extreme lightness and at the same time something very heavy and grounded. I have never smelled that in any perfume before.
Gaiac is an oriental kind of perfume, but also as soft as the softest caress. Gaiac is worn close to the skin, and I imagine beautiful women with dark eyes and golden skin that smears them selfs in with a secret scented oil containing gold dust. An oil that make their body glowing and deliciously smelling, but they let every one else belive that they smell that good and look that golden all by them self. Gaiac is their own, private secret.
Gaiac make me want to wrap my self up in all my jewelry, decorate my hands with henna and my eyes with black kohl and put on my harem pants and cuddle up in the bed and wait for my husband...
Yes, Gaiac is a really sensual perfume, but also I can think of wearing it casual, since it wears so close to skin. In the heart note the jasmine starts to get noticed, it´s beautiful blended with vetiver, gaiac wood and vanilla. Everything in Gaiac is used with light hands, there is no overdose of spicy clove, sweet vanilla or brisk vetiver. There isn´t any note dominating, they are all blended together seamlessly, but also very complex. The notes goes in and out, one after another. Gaiac isn´t linear and predictible, no Gaiac is complex, subtle and hard to nail. I smell discrete ginger bread, flowering jasmine, golden dust, beautiful wooden carvings and light incense at the same time.
Yes, I am so grateful for Michelyn´s advice. By the way, Gaiac is originally a male perfume, and I think it would wotk great on men, even tough I think of it as an unisex.
The base is dry, papery and powdery. I wrote about colours that think of when it comes to powdery notes, Gaiac is most definitly golden powder! It has good longvity, at least 7-8 hours on me, but the sillage is very discrete. I would really like to have more of Gaiac, and Aus Liebe Zum Duft offer a 30 ml bottle, wich would suit me just right. Maybe something for my birthday?
Have you tried some of M. Micallef´s perfumes? Do you have some favourite among them? Maybe you even have tried Gaiac? What did you think about it? Well, don´t miss this line of perfumes, Gaiac made me very curious about the rest of the line.
Pic: golden arabesque, markus the bardus flickr
Bought this scent a few years ago in Dusseldorf and was sold instantly, I love it, Only use in the winterperiod though, its simply too heavy for me in the summer.
SvaraRadera