L'Artisan Parfumeur - Traversee du Bosphore

Istanbul seem to be such a thrilling and lively city. Amon cities I dream about to visit, Istanbul may not be in the absolute top, but not far from. Filled with cultural treasures, historical buildings and places, streets filled with life, shops and food. East meets west, I belive it´s about 1% of Turkeys quite large landarea that is situated in Europe, while all the rest is a part of Asia. Like a blue ribbon east and west are divided by the strait of Bosphorus...

Not to wonder about that L'Artisan and nose Bertrand Duchafor, latest offering, Traversee du Bosphore woke my curiosity. Bertrand Duchafor travels around the world to find inspiration to his fragrances from the most different places. With notes of turkish delight, appel tee and leather, it must be soo good I belived. I´ve even noticed that people that usually find fragrances inspired by turkish delight to be too sweet and cloying actually like this one. That is really good for them, but I don´t like it though.

Oh well, I kind of like it sort off, about 75-80% of it. On me there isn´t much turkisk delight at all, it´s like you take away turkisk from turkish delight and put some apple in there instead, so you got some kind of apple delight. Unfortunatly a rather sweet, cloying and sticky apple delight. Beneath this I dicover a weak, but still noticable leathery note. The lether is whiffing around, like a scaled down leather jacket leather. For some reason this combo makes my stomach ill...

Usually I don´t feel sick when I try perfumes. I usually like and even love to many perfumes for my own good, but not this one. It´s not as nauseting as when I tried Etat Libre d'Oranges Viergos et Toreros, where I had to rush to the bathroom and scrub it of really fast.

The first time I tried Traversee du Bosphore I liked it and belived that the vague nausea depended on something else. The other time I tried it I realise it was caused by the perfume. It´s not like full scaled nausea, more kind of vague discomfort.

But I realise now when I sit here with a littlest spray of Traversee du Bosphore that I become a little more uncomfortable for each time I wear it!

What in Traversee du Bosphore that makes my stomach feel so uncomfortable I don´t know. It IS sweet, but I love a lot of much sweeter perfumes without a problem. Maybe it´s thanks to that apple note which on my smells very cheap and synthetic. Honestly if someone pored this in another bottle and presented it to me as the new offering from britney Spears, I´ll probably belive them. It smells a little cheap and synthetic to me. Sorry, sorry, sorry!

You have to excuse me, now I have to go and scrub... this.... off... immediately... sorry!

Pic:Blue Mosque and the Bosphorus_ Istanbul_ Turkey

L'Artisan Parfumeur - Vanilia

When I was looking for pics with mothers and daughters looking like sisters, Madonna and her daughter Lourdes was a common hit. Sorry, but I can´t see that. In which way should they look like sisters? Firstly, they are´nt that similar looking, especially not since Madonna started to inject pig fat or whatever in her face. And, Madonna does look quite much older then her daughter, which of course is totally natural since she was about 40 when Lourdes was born. And yes, how many sisters do you know of that are 40 years apart? Anyone? I know Madonna is (was) a beautiful women, but she can be happy that I didn´t wrote that I think that she looks like Lourdes grandmother, oh well now I wrote that anyway.

This must really be a longshot, what has this with perfume to do? It isn´t that weird really (not for me at least). I´ve got a bottle of L'Artsian´s Vanilia, one of the oldest members of L'Artisan family. Vanilia was born 1978, and therefor has deserved to be called a classic. Last year another vanilla scent was born in L'Artsian famile, namely Havana Vanille. It´s said that Vanilia is done and will be replaced by Havana Vanille, but at least at COW in Stockholm, the two of them are sold side by side (anyone know about this, please tell me).

When I first tried Vanilia I was surprised by the similarity between it and Havana Vanille. This is where I start thinking about mothers and daughters, they are after all about 30 years apart. But they really are mother and daughter that could be sisters.

The rivalty between them must be a family problem. Will old faithful Vanilia have to leave the spotlight totally now when young, trendy Havana Vanille has make her entrance? Is the classic beauty of Vanila replaced by Havana Vanilles more youthful look? Does really Vanilla still work?

I say that Vanilia is a typical L'Artisan, light, sher but still interesting. Vanilia is also among the L'Artisan scents that have decent lasting power on me (about 4-5 hours). When I was trying Havana Vanille alst year in a beautiful snow fall I come to think about the scent of snow flakes falling and slowly melting on my tounge. This feeling I´ve got from Vanilia also, but it isn´t snowflakes but bright colored beautiful tropical flowers slowly raining from the sky. Somewhere in the outskirts of my attention a fire is burning letting of a soft smoky scent. The vanilla in Vanilia is kind of slippery, elusive and not very sweet.

I think Vanilia is still working, even though Havana Vanille feels a little more modern. The presence of vanilia is also stronger on me then Havana Vanille. Vanilia has a steadily present vanilla base, while the other notes showing from time to time (flowers, smoke nd in the base some woody notes). On me, Havana Vanille don´t have that kind of base, but is for long times very quiet and then eventually sends of a quiet little whiff...

Still, that little whiff I prefer in front of Vanilias a little monotone floralvanilla. But anyway, Vanilia is a really nice vanilla, easy to use for people prefering a non-foody vanilla. The sillage is also quite nice, something Havana Vanille can´t really brag about.

Do you have a weak spot for vanillas maybe you should invest in abottle of Vanilia before it´s to late and they´re start selling them at Ebay for 150 €.

As long as I have Vanilia I don´t need Havana Vanilla at least.

Soon I´ll be writing about some 100% natural scents and also talking a little about thinking "outside the box" or maybe even "inside the box"...

Pic: Madonna with her daughter Lourdes, x17online.com

L'Artisan Parfumeur - Nuit de Tubereuse

To find pictures of men and flowers wasn´t that easy. Most pictures I found was with a male holding a boquet of flowers behind his back and looking innocent. Really sterotype and not at all what I wanted. Then I looked among homoerotic artwork, and now I found some males with flowers, problem was they was a little too erotic, so I settled for this one above, maybe he´s a little to cute, but at least he´s wearing some pants...

I´ve tried to figuring out L'Artsian´s Nuit de Tubereuse for a while now. It is another of those scents I´m having some problems to get to know. But so, one day, I get it! Nuit de Tubereuse is a masculine scent, and a masculine tuberose which isn´t the most common thing.

Besides that masculine thing going on, I belive I recognise something in it from some other scent, but I can´t at all figure out which. Have you the same feeling, maybe you even know what scent it reminds of, please let me know.

When I started to get used to Nuit de Tubereuse I almost belived this was another tuberose scent that I could like a lot (this far Carnal Flower is my only BIG tuberose crusch). It is really tuberose, but also a very different take on tuberose. It is soft and in a way shy -for a tuberose scent- still it has almost killer sillage and great lasting power. Sounds weird? Well, I know, but still it has kind of a soft aura even though it sounds impossible.

There is soft greenery in Nuit de Tubereuse, a greenery that smells "hollow", but in a good way. Soft species that softens the sharp tuberose and the tuberose has company of other flowers, gently whispering in the background.

But suddenly, there it is! The masculine note! When I well had discovered it, I can´t stop thinking about it, and realise I don´t like Nuit de Tubereuse as masch as before I discover the masculine note. Usually my skinchemistry fails to lift up masculine notes, even in scents supposed to be masculine or unisex, so this is quite a surprise for me. I can only think of one other floral scent supposedly feminine scent acting the same way, namely Carthusias Aria di Capri, which is a bold and well made floral with masculine elements.

What is masculine and what is not is a matter of taste, and I´m sure a lot of women wears Nuit de Tubereuse without any sign of masculine notes. I really wish that I was one of you!But I have discover that the masculine note don´t shows when I spraying it on clothes, usually I don´t wear perfume at my clothes, but in this case I can make an exception. As is smells on my clothes I wish it would smell on my skin.

Do you have other experiences with Nuit de Tubereuse? I´ll test it on my husband, I think that masculine note wil be really interesting to smell on him. So, Nuit de Tubereuse is a lush, multifaced, lively, full bodied, masculine floral. The sillage is huge and longvity is great.

I really, really recommend Nuit de Tubereuse to men that is interested to find a floral scent suitable for men. Also of course all of you usually liking tuberose, this is a must try, a very different take on tuberose by Bertrand Duchaufour. I also suspect that the masciline note that I can smell, is behaving very different on different types of skin, it isn´t that big that not a lot of women coudl enjoy wearing this as well.

Pic: Bidgood

L'Artisan Parfumer - La Chasse Aux Papillons

Just like Courtesan, L'Artisan´s La Chasse Aux Papillons is a scent that I´ve mentioned on the blog, without giving it a proper review. And agaian, it isn´t because I don´t like it. No, absolutly not, since I LOOOOOVE La Chasse Aux Papillons as much as I love Swedish summer.


But as the case with Swedish summer, La Chasse Aux Papillons isn´t at all long lasting. But, while it last, it´s a very, very pleasant fragrance.


I have tried several scents that reminds of La Chasse Aux Papillons, M.Micallef´s Pomelos has the tartness and the note of lipstick in common. Frapin´s Esprit de Fleur is also a close relative, a little more citrus and maybe not as charming, but on the other hand with better lasting power. Another scent that I plan to write about soon (I won´t tell you which yet) also have similarities. The one´s I´m mention aren´t THAT similar to each other, but close enough, the possibility is that you´ll like all of them if you like one of them.


Despite poor lasting power, La Chasse Aux Papillons seem to be the ideal scent of them all, the one closest to perfect summer in bottle. Oh, how I wish it would have better staying power. But, wonderful is usually short lived (between half an hour - one hour on me). :(


La Chasse Aux Papillons makes me think about the perfect summer idyll. Maybe at a time when cars, tractors and boat engines wasn´t around yet. As a Swedish it makes me think about Astrid Lindgrens story about a bunch of kids in Bullerbyn (sorry I can´t find any english name for that story!, maybe some of my readers now what it´s called in English?) with happy kids in summer meadows wearing summery dresses and shorts. I can also see (and hear the signature tune) the vignette to "THe Little House on the Prairie) with pretty Laura Ingalls rushing down the hill with her sisters after. Fluttering sun bleached hair and floral printed dresses.


If soft colored butterflies had any scent, I´m sure they would smell like La Chasse Aux Papillons. And no one can imagine butterflies to have a lasting scent, huh?


La Chasse Aux Papillons is both summery and girly. Still I think I can wear it (and other scents alike) without any problem. It is more like to have a little part of carefree childhood summer memories then to making one self more childish. I know my mother would love this scent, as well as my 13-year old daughter wears it very pretty.


And how does it smell? Well, the opening is all about tart yet sioft citrus and flowers and a very discrete note of creamy lipstick. In the middle it isn´t as tart, instead it become more floral, the most softest and creamiest flowers you can imagine, on me the jasmine is dominant, but I can also smell little whiffs of linden blossom and rose. La Chasse Aux Papillons isn´t at all powdery (on me) and not a trace of any erotic floral notes what so ever. Most of all La Chasse Aux Papillons is a happy, uncomplicated and yet, so wonderful. Unfortunatly, it just wears of when it is at it´s best. In one moment I can still smell the wonderful scent, and then in the next moment it´s gone. Leaving behind only the faintest memories of a perfect summer in the land of my childhood...



Pic: Little house on the Prairie

L'Artisan Parfumeur - Al Oudh

A lot of other perfume blogger state that 2009 have been the year of aoud/oudh. And yes, there is a lot of perfume houses that have made an oudh scent this year. Oudh is a very popular ingredient in arabic perfumes and oudh of highest quality is very expensive, and also, very rare. Oudh of highest class is the result of a tree naturally affected by a fungus causing noble rot, but now it is common to affect the trees with the fungus on purpose, giving a little less expensive oudh, but also not the highest grade oudh. for a western nose, oudh can be a challenge since it has a kind of sharp, strange, medical, smoky and hard scent.


Especially Montale is known for their arabian influensed perfumes and their use of oudh in perfumes. Montale´s Red Aoud become a favourite for me, but only after a short training period. Black Aoud is still not agreeable for me, I find it to sharp and watery at the same time (on me). So, even if oudh isn´t a spot on favourite note of mine, I still find it adventurous and interesting. One thing I hope to try next year is the so called attars, an arabic/oriental kind of perfume, often with oudh among the notes.


When trying perfumes with oudh for the first time, I felt a little lost. Oudh can be quite an overwhelming new acquaintance, like listening to music with a strange scale and foreign language, like being lost in the bazaar quarters of an ancient arabic city or like being in the middle of an eastern festival without having a clue of what they are celebrating.


With L'Artisan´s Al Oudh it feels like I´ve found a guide, a key, an attendant. But at first, I am a bit skeptical, and think they could as well have called it Al Cumin instead, because the top notes are overwhelmingly filled with cumin. It is nothing but cumin for the first minutes, and I got a little dissapointed.


After a while, the cumin wears off, and I welcome some sweetness, warmth and complexity. The oudh-note is also there, but kind of subdued. This is a much toned down oudh in compare with the oudh you can find in Montale´s perfumes. And after that cumin dominated top note, the oudh all of a sudden feels soft and comfy, but still with some oriental mystic. I think of Al Oudh as an excellent introduction to oudh, since it is so easy to like. But, the cumin is a turn off for me, thankfully it is shortlived.


For an L'Artisan scent I think Al Oudh has decent staying power, the base note melts down in my skin in a wonderful, soft and very comfy way, but also without any traces of adventures, mystery or oriental enigma. the base note is easy to like and very comfy, but unfortunatly also with lack of strong personality. A little like being guided to the well organised and beautiful hotel far away from the crowded, strange and totally mesmerizing bazaar. Do you want to get lost? Try another oudh scent. Do you like a a comfy introduction? Al Oudh is a great start!



Pic: vittlesvamp

L'Artisan Parfumeur - Havana Vanille

When I was really small (4-5 years) I was during a period of time very afraid of invisible thieves. My parents of course tried to convince me that there wasn´t any invisible thieves or any other invisible humans. But I doubt what they said, how can someone know for sure when they are invisible?


Later on, there was a TV-show, "The Invisible Man" and this was a long time after I had been afraid of invisible thieves, but the theme still fascinated me. To become visible the invisible man wrapped himself up in clothes, hat and sunglasses.


Maybe that is what would make Havana Vanille to be a little more concrete? Of course, a perfume isn´t really invisible, rather scentless and a scentless perfume loses the point of being a perfume...?


No, of course Havana Vanille isn´t scentless, but it is so subtle and subdued it almost drive me insane! Because, the scent I can smell, is heavenly!


Havana Vanille is kind of an aquatic vanilla scent. In it´s subtle character it remind me of CdG 3, but while CdG 3 make me chase around in an imaginary jungle to find a rare flower, Havana Vanille rather make me float around in a waste ocean and chase after the luch tropical island where vanilla orchids grow and happy pirates drinks rhum and sings happy pirate songs.


But no, of course I never make it to that island. I have to seattle with paddle around in the water without any hope to smell the wonderful scent up close. In despair I have already used about half of my sample. I wonder how it would differ if I had a spray sample?


Havana Vainlle is impossible to catch, and when I try to sniff my wrist I smell less rather than more. It´s best when I´m not thinking about it and little whiffs of heavenly scent occurs now and then.


Everything about Havana Vanille is minimalistic.


During my post I had to walk the dog. It is snowing lightly outside and little whiffs of Havana Vanille mixed with the falling snow. It was like being in a fairy tale of vanilla smelling snow flakes. Swoon. :)




Pic: The Invisible, Movie Poster

L'Artisan Parfumeur - Bois Farine

Do you like peanut butter? Peanut butter is one of those things you seem to either like very much or don´t care for at all. When I was small, peanut butter wasn´t available in Sweden, at least not in the little town in northern Sweden where I lived. But peanut butter was in my dreams, yes it was that bad, because I read Donald Duck and other american kids stories and they all had peanut butter sandwiches for brekfast. Me, on the other hand ate oat grain porridge to breakfast. Well, I shouldn´t complain, bescuse while I ate my porridge my parents told me to be happy, since the kids in Africa didn´t have nothing at all to eat. For some reason the kids in Africa become even more starving if I didn´t finished my porridge.

I get a little bigger, and tada, one day my local store finally get peanut butter. It was achildhood halleluya-moment I can tell you! I must have drop my jaw. It looked even better than I imagined, it was golden, smoth and creamy. The peanut butter was from Sun Pat, and wasn´t excactly cheap. As i remember a small jar costed as much as a jar of peanut butter does today. About 3-4 euro. It was quite a lot of money for an eleven year old, and my parents didn+t think we needed something that expensive, when there was much cheaper things to put on the sandwishes available.

I don´t really remember how long I had to long for the penaut butter, before I finally got me a jar. But as I recall I manage to convince my father that we needed it. And ever since that day I have been very found of peanut butter. It is soooo good! And very useful!

L'Artisan´s perfume Bois Farine smell just like peanut butter when I put it on. Actually, this is another perfume I could drink right out of the bottle. It doesn´t just smell as peanut butter, it has the same feeling also, kind of short and dry, but still creamy. Despite the amazing top note I was for a long time not really convinced that Bois farine was something for me. The top note dissapear so quickly and the rest of the perfume was so, well I didn´t become so impressed.

Still, I have my little sample left and I have tested it from time to time and slowly grew to like it. It wasn´t until this summer I started to like and really smell the rest of Bois Farine. Maybe it´s the warmth that make me like it or the fact that I slowly have starting appreciate even more subdued perfumes. Well, whatever it depends on, Bois Farine have slowly evolved from something with just an amazing topnote to a perfume filled with comfort, warmth, personality and beauty.

Sometimes I am really a slow starter! I guess I would be happy if there was a Bois Farine Extreme, if it was true to the original, just a little stronger. But really, Bois Farine doesn´t have to be stronger, now that I´ve learned to like it as it is.

Bois Farine is an oriental, floral and woody perfume. A cathegory where you can find a lot of strong and powerfull perfumes, but Bois Farine isn´t at all one of them. It´s more like Chinatown (Bond No 9) or Timbukte (also L'Artisan), subdued, light and caressing rather than noicy and big.

I am so happy that my perfume trip have take me to the place where I can appreciate and like the more light scents. When I need some olfactory peace and quite they are so comfortable to reach for. But, they´re really so much more than just that.

The head note in Bois Farine is a flower that only grows on the Reunion island in french Caribia. Appearantly the flwoer smells of flour and that´s how Bois Farine also smells when the peanut note has retired. And well, flour doesn´t smell that much. Despite that, I discover new sides of Bois Farine all the time, a subdued, soft note of flowers, little traces of nutty scent, warm woods and a soft musc. And all the time remains as powdert, dry and beautiful.

Picture yourself a beautiful, warm and exotiv forrest with trees and flowers all covered with a fine layer of white flour. That is how Bois Farine smells. It´s both linear and complex at the same time, the note of flour is there all the time, while the notes of flowers, wood and nuts shines trough once in a while, I even discover a fruity note in it.

I guess you realise what this means? I have to get me some more of it, during august I have almost emptied my little sample. I am very curous about how it would develop on my skin when I spray it on.

I guess you all have heard about L'Artisan´s newest perfume, Havane Vanille, by Bertrand Duchaufour. I mentioned it on my blog earler, and I am so curious about it. It seem like "all" the perfume bloggers have reviewed it with pleasure and I can´t wait to try it. Well, it seem like a small sample is on it´s way to me... :) Thanks for that!

Oh, and well, Bois Farine has a good sillage, but still discrete. The longvity isn´t that good, lasts not over four hours on me.

Pic: Arbres-reunion.fr

L'Artisan Parfumeur - Dzing!

Have you been to a circus lately? The last time I was at a circus was when swedish Cirkus Cirkör performed in Umeå, but that was many years ago. But it was a memorable evening, especially I think for my middle daughter that was quite young at the time. The artist of Cirkus Cirkör is really talented and I saw that the mega-cicus Cirque Soleil will visit Sweden during autumn, but I am afraid the tickets will be really expensiv.

Cirkus Cirkör is so called new-circus without animals and sawdust in the ring. A traditional circus it was even longer time since I attend. I think my father got some free tickets for a circus show and gave them to us, but that was so long time ago, that even my oldest kids was really small then!

Well, circus and circus, L'Artisan´s Dzing! by Olivia Giacobetti is inspired of the circus and the scents you can find there. And sure, in Dzing! you find a lot of different circus scents, such as sawdust, pop corn, cotton candy, sweaty horses, worned out leather saddles and some elephant poo. Or maybe horse poo, but elephant poo sounds more interesting or at least bigger i think.

But who want´s to go around and smell like animal poo? Well, I don´t find horse poo to smell bad, it´s a aromatic, kind of dusty smell of mostly hay I think. That I like that kind of smell probably depends on the time I have spend in stables and cowsheds during my childhood.

But Dzing! is so much more than a smell of stable. Dzing! is animalic, sweet and with a deepth in it. Dzing! make me smile. It´s a true mood lifter. Besides it strange notes, Dzing! isn´t an intrusive perfume, but apart from so many others from L'Artisan it has both decent sillage and lasting power. Dzing! is great on my husband too! I´ve got a half big decant of Dzing! and this far it is one of few perfumes from L'Artisan I found worthy a big bottle. The bottle is really pretty, with a women riding on a tiger.

Dzing! is an odd perfume, very modern but also timeless. Suitable for all ages, you just have to be a little playful and don´t take yourself to serious. Dzing! is also good to layer, try it with some easy floral. I layered Dzing! with Fresh' Cannabis Rose some days ago, and the result was really good, some kind of fresh version of Musc Koublai Kahn (at least almost!).

Apart from that I have cravings for L'Artisan´s Bois Farine, I find it to be as unique as Dzing!, but... it has no staying power on me what so ever! I have to glue my nose to my wrist only to smell it, and that is so sad, because what I smwll is so nice and different. But why, oh why do it, together with so many other L'Artisan has so bad sillage and staying power??? Is there any other perfume out there reminding of Bois Farine. It´s that kind of nutty floury smell I am looking for.