Amouage - Reflection Women

Earlier I wrote about Missoni by Missoni. During the summer it has been one of my big favourites, and I was really tempted to buy a bottle of it. I didn´t, but maybe I will buy a bottle of it next summer, or maybe I´ll have other favourites next summer. Last summers favourites hasn´t been as much used this summer.

According to me, Missoni is that kind of perfumes that goes well with colourful clothes, sun tan and colourful cocktails. I wrote, that I during summer isn´t the white dressed kind that drink rosé wine but more of active, funloving and sweaty kind.

Amouage´s Refelction Women is the sort of perfume that make me wish that I was the white dressed and romantic type. No, Reflection hasn´t been a big favourite this summer, and I doubt it will be next summer. It took me time to even decide to try it again. It wasn´t until mid-august I started to like it. And no, I wont write about how that slowly changed, so that I now love it, because I don´t, but I have reach the point where I at least like it, quite much.

Reflection has some similarites to Missoni, they share an aquatic but still warm scent. If you took away all fruits, oranges and chocolat from Missoni I think you would have something very much like Reflection. Since they´re both created by Maurice Roucel it isn´t after all that strange? Well, I don´t want to suggest that Reflection is Missoni down stripped, but at first Refelction is like Missoni, but with something missing.

Yes, I have had troubble with other perrfumes from Amouage before, Reflection is also quite different from what I usually like, still there is something in it that I like. It might been the fact that I feel like someone totally different than me when I wear Reflection. Reflection put a spell on me, but in a very quiet and modest way.

Imagine that you´re in front of a big table filled with the most incredible beverages, the finest wines, amazing beer, stunning cocktails, creamy hot chocolate, delicious tea, smothies made from super berries, exotic fruit juices and in a corner of the table a glass of water. Admit that the glass of water wouldn´t be the first thing that got your attention? But, in it´s simple and obvious way, the only thing that we could drink over and over again without getting tired of it. A glass of water is the obvious choise if we´re really thirsty. Water is the thing.

This is how I slowly started to feel about Reflection, it´s like a glass of fresh, cold and very good water.

There isn´t much fuss going on in Reflection, soft floral notes solemnly floating around in water. Magnolia, freesia and jasmin. In the beginning Reflection is transparent and kind of cooling, but after a while it warms up and I can smell some notes of fruit. More like a flower with a soft fruity scent, than some actual fruit. From the flowers I mostly smell the freesia, but that might depend on that I don´t really recognise the smell of magnolia?

To me, Reflection is a mature, motherly kind of perfume that doesn´t make much noise. It is like a cool hand on a small one´s hot forehead. Reflection is a soft winner in the long run. My favourite this far from Amouage, even tough it isn´t at all me.

It´s last really long, wich is quite surprising considering the scent to be so transparent and discrete. The sillage is also quite good. As other perfumes from Amouage, Reflection also smells expensive. But, to me, not worth the price. I am happy to have a small sample, and because of it´s quality, I guess it will last a while, but I won´t buy a bottle of it.

Reflection isn´t really an autumn scent, I think it´s best for summer, but I am also looking forward to try it during winter.

Do you have any favourite from Amouage? Or some you´re curious about? And by the way, what is your limit for how much to pay for abottle of perfume?

Otherwise I am quite excited about that Parfumerie Generale seem to be offering 30 ml bottles soon. Guess what I will be wishing for Christmas? :) Even tough I have no idea wich of them I want the most, I´ve got several favourites from Parfumerie Generale.

Pic: Anna Wiberger, Cult Design

Missoni - Missoni

Usually I am a black dressed kind of person. During the cold time of year black is my first choise not only when it comes to clothes, but also in make-up and haircolour. Red, grey and white is the colours I usually complement all the black with.

But when spring comes around things start changing, first of I use to dye my hair in lighter nuances, like golden brown or, as this year, really red. So when the heat arrives I am transformed to a more colourful person, even tough I admire white and cool clothes I know that they aren´t for me. No, during summertime it is easy, colourful clothes that do it for me. I still wears black, but now together with turqouise, orange, tomato red, bubbelgum pink and bright purple. Jeans shorts, skirts and cool dresses. When it comes to make-up, mascara and moisturising lipgloss is almost the only I wear during summer. Ooooh, lovely summer!

If I had some more money it wouldn´t be impossible for me to wear a lot of beautiful summer clothes from italian Missoni, I am sure no one have missed their colourful patterns? Otherwise you can find copies for resonable prices also. That Missone also offers perfumes isn´t a secret, but I haven´t been interested in them until now. I read a review about Missoni Missoni http://www.peredepierre.com/search/label/Missoni and it got my attention immediatly. Partly because Maurice Roucel is the master behind this perfume, but also because it sound so interesting. Luckily enough I got a sample in a swap shortly after and...

Oh my gosh, it´s really great! Missoni is a summer perfume for us that prefers colourful and cocktails and barbecue parties before white and pastelle clothes, rosé wine and quinoa salads.

Missoni is like a wonderful fruit salad with a lot of oranges and sprinkled with high quality dark chocolate. Yes, it is quite gourmand, sweet, spicy and longlasting but also with cool, aquatic notes wich makes it a excellent summer perfume. Actually it smells so good I want to lick my wrist!

It isn´t that simple either, I find some salty notes in it and cool, soft floral notes, like a magnolia playing hide and seek between the strong notes of chocolate, orange and amber.

The base notes are strong and spicy and the chocolate deepens and become even darker, I can smell earthy and warm notes, like patchouli, even tough no one is listed.

Missoni is long-lasting and with medium sillage. A different and complex scent that probably can be weared all year round, I think it will be a warm and cozy perfume during winter. Missoni is a must try if you like complex, spicy gourmands. I will absolutly get me some more of it.

Le Labo - Labdanum 18

I have writed about some perfumes from Le Labo that I like, Oud 27 and Patchouli 24, but non of them as much as I am prepared to pay more than 50 dollar for 15 ml. But maybe I would do that for Labdanum 18. Anyway this is the one I like best among the one´s I´ve tried from Le Labo (everyone except of the city exclusives).

Labdanum 18 is interesting in an elusive way, it´s hard to decide what it smells like, more than that I like the smell of it.

Now and then it is similar to Shalimar, but without the oriental heaviness. But then I think it rather smells like some kind of salve, no idea wich salve, but some... It´s also powdery, warm and sensual, but also cool, clean and with some medical note that both lure and disturb.

I cant really smell andy top-or heartnotes, it´s like a chain of notes keep repeating all over, a little like Shalimar, some salve, some powder, some freshness and a few drops of some medical poition... and over and over again. This elusive development goes on for quite a while, it amuses me, but after some hour the perfumes settle down to my skin with a warm and slightly acrid powdery comfort. Some animalic notes, subdued smokiness and soft vanilla lingering on my skin. Oh yes, this is such a nice perfume.

Except of Shalimar is remind a little fo Parfumerie Generale´s Intrigant Patchouli, because it´s disturbing but in a good way. And it takes a while figuring out that I do like it.

And well, it doesn´t come as a surprise when I discover that it´s Maurice Roucel that is the nose behind Labdanum 18! I don´t have that much grip on what perfumer/nose that is behind each perfume I try, because when I try a perfume I prefer to don´t know too much. And if I like the perfume I search for information about it later on. And well, there we got Maurice again. Hallo Maurice, can you explain how it come that you have the key to my olfactory sense and skinchemistry? And oh, doesn´t Labdanum 18 reminds a little about Iris Silver Mist, but wearable? Sorry, Maurice, but I haven´t yet become friend with that particular one.

Do you have a favourite from Le Labo? Do you really find any of them worthy of the high price, I do like Labdanum 18, but there are a lot of other perfumes I like more and that are a lot cheaper.

Guerlain - Insolence EdP

I have a childish excitement for kaleidoscopes. Patterns that repeats and also changes in eternity makes me extremly fascinated. If it wasn´t for the fact that I´m allready collect perfumes, maybe I could collect kaleidoscopes? But, at least I own one kaleidoscope, even tough I don´t look in it that often. A perfect occation to look in the kaleidoscope would be when I try Guerlain´s Insolence EdP. Insolence is one of my latest crush in perfume. I am so thrilled about it, that I probably will buy me a bottle of it soon. The price level is higher than the usual discount perfumes, but still not as much as pricy niche perfumes. The quality is absolutly worth about 35 euro for a 30 ml bottle.

Once again Maurice Roucel is involved in a perfume that I immediately likes a lot. I like a lot of works from different perfumers, but Maurice Roucel is, in my nose, outstanding. To try all the perfumes he has done, becomes a bit like buying all the records with a favourite artist.

Insolence is a warm, sweet and kind of solid, and yes, heavy perfume. I happen to enjoy heavy perfumes, so for me the heaviness in Insolence isn´t a problem, maybe Insolence EdT is lighter, but I haven´t tried it. And everything I write is about Insolence EdP, nothing else.

Insolence starts with a sunwarmt, almost jammy sweetness from ripe berries. I smell blackberry, raspberry and black currant. Blackberries can have a very perfumed smell in perfumes, and that isn´t maybe so strange, but I am usually not so found of that. Berries in perfumes unfortunatly seldom smells like real berries, and that´s kind of sad. In Insolence the smell of berries is more natural, but also much bigger, concrete and sensual. Once again Maurice manage to make something smell so big that I feel like a small manikin. In this phase I think it´s possible to feel that the perfume wears you instead of the other way around, but just wait a little moment. Soon there is a warm, creamy and sweet violet scent, accompanied by something that smells like caramel, vanilly, oriental and rich sweetness. This create a feeling of the perfume flowering, develops and changes on my skin. After a while the berries return, but lighter, and here comes a slightly smoky fragrance as well, is it a smoky vanilla or clean insence? The iris chill it down a little, a contribute with new colours, patterns and shapes... Yes, Insolence is wonderful, changing and blooming on my skin.

The base in Insolence I experiences as very concrete, precence and kind of grounded, at the same times there is notes in it that is very abstract and fleeting. Just as with a kaleidoscope, the form is given, but the details is constantly changing. Do I dare to say how much I like it? Yes, I know I allredy likes a lot of perfumes this much! But Insolence is qualified to enter that group with ease.

Despite of berries and sweetness I think Insolence is a very sofisticated perfume. It is demanding and want´s to be worn at night together with beautiful clothes. Don´t offend it by wearing it with thorn jeans and washed out t-shirts, or maybe it is then you need Insolence the most? But it is actually a real gala-perfume, once again a beautiful diva that I fell in love with. When it comes to perfumes, I am as unpractical as when it comes to clothes, I tend to fell in love with the dramatic, original and -for casual occations- hard to wear.