Calé Fragranze d'Autore - Assolo

I didn´t plan to write about another scent from Calé Fragranze d'Autore today, but sometimes it isn´t me that chose the perfume to write about, but the perfume that choses to be written about. Assolo is one of those perfumes. Honestly, I don´t know if I like it, of all the Calé perfumes this is the one I find most difficult to wear, at least for me. I tried it after I´ve tried Tepidarium and belived that I would have something similar, but with fresh, sweet apple instead of tropical creamy fruits. But oh no, Assolo is something totally different than a simple, apple scent!

I tested Assolo, and put it away, since I found it annoying. But out of all perfumes from Calé, it constantly returned to my mind. I tried to find words and emotions to describe the unexpected scent experience, I was thinking about it when I´ve got to bed and well, I even dreamed about it! Do you happen to dream about perfumes?

So, I might think I was ready with Assolo, but Assolo didn´t think it was ready with me! Sometimes it´s only to accept such things!

Assolo starts off with a fresh and sweet apple note and this far everything is just nice, but only after a few minutes there comes some brisk, abresive and murky notes. Oh my, what is this? No, it doesn´t really smell bad, only very demanding, special and very different. It doesn´t make me think about a sweet apple, but about a whole apple tree. It is a discovery of a whole, big old apple tree even the smallest corners of it. Assolo is one of those perfumes that manage to make me feel very, very tiny. Like I am some sort of smallest bug living my whole life among the branches, bark, leaves and apples of an old, long time forgotten apple tree. It might be that kind of apple tree spending it´s last years close to an abandoned cottage deep inside the forrest. An apple tree no longer cared for by any people. Well, you understand that for such a small bug, a whole world of apple scents can be quite overwhelming!

As you guess, Assolo is a very interesting scent, one of the most interesting olfactory experiences I´ve encountered. And it´s that way with perfumes, the one´s that smells the best isn´t always the most interesting, and the most interesting one´s isn´t always the easiest to carry off.

On the right person, I can imagine Assolo to become a pleasure of an apple tree in bloom and with fresh fruits and sunny leafs. Isn´t perfumes the most exciting thing?

The small note of apple, stays long in assolo, but the brisk, abrasive notes also grows and grows. Have you ever chewed on some fresh tree, Assolo capture that feeling excactly. It´s a very genuin and natural smell of wood, but very difficult for me, with a skinchemistry that seem to make brisk notes so much brisker. Still, Assolo is the apple trees own story.

I can´t imagine anything better to try, if you´re looking for a scent with all the aspects of a tree. I also think this could be really interesting on a male skin chemistry, even tough I haven´t let my husband try it yet.

Don´t miss Assolo, if you like woody perfumes. I recommend it to anyone who likes strange olfactory experiences. Really strange, really big but also really "not me"...



Pic: The old, old apple tree by Davydutchy, flickr

Calé Fragranze d'Autore - Dolce Riso

The picture above is of italian actresse Anna Magnani, from the film Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice). I saw that film when I was quite small and Anna Magnani make some impression on me. And now when I´ve got the opportunity to try Dolce Riso from Calé Fragranze d'Autore I come to think about that film and wish that I could watch it again.

Well, Dolce Riso isn´t a bitter perfume, but it´s so much more than just sweet and nice. I find it hard to place, it´s really comfy and sothing, but in what group of perfumes does it belong?

Gourmand? Yes, you might think so considering some of the notes being apple, rice, cereals and vanilla. But it´s also much to fresh, light and summery to be just a gourmand.

Is it oriental? Kind of, it´s without doubt warm, soft and sensual but also much to cooling and light to be an oriental.

Calé Fragranze d'Autore call it a soft amber, and well I guess it is.

Dolce Riso is a caressing, pleasant and sheer kind of perfume. There isn´t any sharp, edgy or exciting hiding in it, like there is in many of the other perfumes from Calé. Dolce Riso is calming and friendly. It might go as well on man and women, and I like it most because the tranquile serenity I find in it. Dolce Riso is the smell of something you can trust and feel totally relaxed with. Like an old, reliable friend, your loved grannie or maybe that worn-out, but really comfy favourite sweater.

I doubt tough that Dolce Riso would attract youngsters filled with energy, the kind of youths that likes to follow trends, being in and feel young, sexy and hot. But there is already so many perfumes marketed toward that group.

Dolce Riso is a mature, full-bodied perfume. But not a ladyscent, no it´s much to modern and different to be classic or traditional. Notes of rice, cereals, white pepper and artemisia gives it a soft, but also bubbly freshness that smell very new. Dolce Riso has it´s very own style and personality. Strangely enough I don´t consider it to be powdery, wich is easy to belive when you read the notes.

The basenote is incredibly soft and warm, and also quite longlasting for an EdT. A little warning, be aware that you want to be really taking cared off by a man wearing Dolce Riso, so make sure you got pleanty of time. The other way around would also be nice or if you have a small one at home with fever and bad throat. This is a perfume for massage, lighted candles, soft music and relaxation.

I still got others from Calé Fragranze d'Autore to write about, and several of them are really great and interesting. I will get back to them, but I think I will write about something totally different on the blog next.

Pic: Riso Amaro

Calé Fragranze d'Autore - Tepidarium

I am not really an ice cream lover. But that is when I think about those cheap big packs of ice cream you can buy at the local grocery store, luxoury ice creme filled with goodies I love to eat. I rather have one cup of Ben & Jerry ice cream every other month than a big pack every week. Or one jummy ice cream made by the dutchman in the harbour of Nyköping each summer, than a cheap ice lolly some days a week. And of course, I wouldn´t say no if someone offer me some real italian ice cream, also knowned as gelato.

Italian ice cream may be the best ice cream in the world, I belive I think so at least. But italian ice cream tastes the best in Italy of course. One of my best ice cream expereinces was in Venice, I know I have written about Venice before, but I try tyo keep it short, ok? It was summer, it was really, really hot and St. Marcus square in venice is like made for sunstroke with all those giant light buildings, the stone covered square and all that water surrounding it. Well, the sun can really be cruel there. After sweating around there for some time together with thousands of japanese tourists and ten thousands of pidgeons an ice cream can be really good. More than good actually, amazingly good... italian ice cream is kind of sweetn´sour and almost chewy, filled with nuts, fruits and other goodies.

I don´t really remember wich flavours I chose, but probably some lemon sorbet and vanilla with something good in it and maybe a pineapple sorbet as well. Anyway, the ice cream tasted almost precisly as the Calé Fragranze d'Autore´s perfume Tepidarium smells!

This is such a gorgeus summer perfume! When I test it, it take me to a small alley close to the St, Markus square where I have my first taste of an wonderful italian ice cream. If we haven´t lost our camera in Munich, I could have paste a photo of the event above, but at least I think the gelato looks really, really good.

Calé used to be a distributor of naiche-perfumes, before having it´s own line of perfumes. The president of the company, Silvio Levi dreamed about having his own line of fragrances. Out of that came Calé Fragranze d'Autore a line of perfume with a narrative theme. Silvio have told the stories and expereinced perfumers have translated them into perfume. I think it sounds like an interesting co-operation and the result is really good. With, this far 8 perfumes, of course I don´t like all of them as much, but some of them are really good, one of them is Tepidarium.

Over all, Calé fragrances feels quite modern and different from traditional italian perfumery. They aren´t heavy or very sweet. On the other hand, ther aren´t as post-modern or even hard to carry off as some from the Nasomatto line. No, Calé seem to have found a comfortable in the middle of the road path in between traditional italian perfumery and advanced hard to pull off-perfumery.

Tepidarium isn´t that complex, but it isn´t either linear and simple. After the starting ice cream note, there is notes of delicious flowers floating around, but still I can sense the feeling of ice cream. And it is not att all to sweet, it is just enogh sweet n´sour as italain ice cream should be. And to be an EdT with quite light notes, it´s also sursprisingly longlasting, on me about 4-5 hours, and concidering it´s quite hot now...

The basenotes are really nice, you can imagine when I tell you they consists of vetiver, white musk and green tea. I suspect the vetiver to make this nice ice creamy perfume so nice and interesting as it is, without the vetiver it could have been plain old boring floralfruity. But no, Tepidarium is a nice summery floralfruity, but with an interesting edge, and oooh I like it!

More about Calé you can find here: http://www.cale.it/negozio.asp

And no, I don´t understand italian either!

More about some other perfume from Calé shortly, if I don´t chose some other interesting italian perfume, I have two of them in the line wanting to be reviewed. -Chose me!, -No, take me! they shout, and jumping up and down to get noticed, -Well, if you don´t behave well, I might chose a french or even an american perfume to review before you, I say and look harsh on them. And see, so nice and quiet they become, perfumes are so sensitive.

pic: gelato by archangeli, flickr