Parfumerie Generale - Tonkamande

Now and then I can buy a Yankee Candle in the scent Clean Cotton and put it in my combined bathroom/laundry room, I think it smells fresh and cozy, but usually (very unusual I would say) that not the kind of scent I like to wear as a perfume. Until now, that is.


Parfumerie Generale has recently launched two new limited editions, Praline de Santal and Tonkamande. Praline de Santal smells odd to say the least, but it´s not for me, it gets almost weird, like a very chunky/chewy müslibar dripped in sticky dark syrup. Yet, branflake or strong rye note isn´t THAT commonly used in fragrances, so if this sounds interesting you should at least try it.


Tonkamande on the other hand, oh lala, so beautiful, so clean, crisp and yet warm, sweet and powdery gourmand also.


Partly it smells like old scool bed linen, when people (women mostly I belive) really made an art out of washing their bed linen.Like it smelled in the washhouse when my mother mangled her sheets in the huge stone mangle, when I was about seven years old. People younger then me maybe not even remeber those? Well, Tonkamande also smells like crisp, white bed linen at a really luxurious hotel. Sparkling, clean, white and fresh.


Also Tonkamande brings a feeling of walking up a sand dune during a perfect summer day, reaching the top and look out over the never ending blue sea and the perfectly golden beach below and realise that you (and your best company of choise) will have the perfect beach totally for yourself all day, even though it´s the best summerday.


This kind of fragrances has been made before, but I haven´t got so many referenses to "clean scents", for instant I´ve hardly try any of the popular Clean-fragrances. Even though i think Pierre Guillaume manage to create a perfect clean fragrance, there is more to it, then that.


Beneath the surface of clean whiteness and a perfect beach, there is also a delicate element of the most delish, melting and powdery littel almond cookie you can imagine. sweet, mellow and so good, but Tonkamande is far from being to sweet or too gourmand. It has a rather dry almond note (very likeable). OOOOOOOh this is so good. I can hardly stay away from my small sample and I sure wish I could afford buying a big bottle of it and drench myself in it (or at least with it) during the rest of spring and all summer.


I think it´s kind of funny how my preferences is chagning over time, today i bleive it´s possible to find at least one perfect fragrances even in the most obscure and far from myself fragrance cathegories. tonkamande happend to be the perfect scent for me within the clean type of scents. I can´t reallu understand why I love it so much (after all it is a very clean frag), but sometimes you just let loose and go with the flow...


Good sillage (even from my dab on sample)this is not a shy skinscent, lasting power is good (about 8 hours on me). I do recommend it to everyone liking clean scents, but also if you don´t, give it a try, maybe a surprise waiting for you. Also the combination between clean and gourmand is quite different. Tonkamande is rather feminine, but don´t let that stop you, if you´re a guy. Maybe not the perfect scent to the leather outfit though, or perhaps just the right!?


Fow now I don´t have any money, but you bet I want a FB of this or at least half a bottle if I find someone that would like to split.


As you can udnerstand it was a total surprise to me to become so impressed, do you have aperfume love that is far from your usual preferences?

Parfumerie Generale - L'Oiseau de Nuit

I was planning to write about the other new scent from Parfumerie Generale Gardenia Grand Soir. But, whatever reason I didn´t get any inspiration from it, all I could think when I tested it was that I wanted to write about another Parfumerie Generale scents instead, L'Oiseau de Nuit.


By now, I´ve tried most Parfumerie Generale scents, but for some reasaon it sin´t until now I´ve got me a sample of L'Oiseau de Nuit. But wow, it´s really worth waiting for.


The opening is so colorful and sparkling that I get stunned. It has some vague similarity to M.Micallef´s Gaiac, but kind of "Gaiac on acid", the scents are swirling around on my skin in a way that makes it almost like a psychedelic scent experience. Why is that we have so few words to describe olfactory experiences with? Is there any language, any culture that has a bigger vocabulary when it comes to the sense of smell? Normally I don´t feel I lack of words, but the opening of L'Oiseau de Nuit make me feel that way.


What kind of scent L'Oiseau de Nuit is, it´s hard to pinpoint. There is supposedly a note of leather in it, but I can´t detect it. On my skin, the scents is resting on a base of warm, golden wood, and the wood is similar to the wood in Gaiac. The opening is gourmandic with notes of fruit, syrup (sweet, but passes on right away), smoke, aquatic notes as well as something that gives the scent an airy quality. All these notes kind of raises from my skin creating a cloud of swirling scents, but just be calm, L'Oiseau de Nuit will also calm down soon.


When it has calmed down, the woody note is still there and the smoky note (could it be leather?) reminding of incense. It´s also very gourmand and at the same time some aquatic feeling. Not watery aquatic, more like precious woods and fruit has been made to some sort of tincture. There is also a a lot of ambery/labdanum notes in it, which gives the scent a depth and a warm, glowing and animalic character.


Despite the strong personality of this scent, there is also something vague and subtle in it. It is longlasting, but something in it makes me think it won´t last that long. This contribute to the fact that L'Oiseau de Nuit not really manage to get a favorite place among my other favs from Parfumerie Generale (Aomassai, Lounges Profanes, Drama Nuui, Felanilla and Cadjmere).


The basenote is warm, caressing, sexy and mature. L'Oiseau de Nuit is still sweet and full bodied, but not as complex and contradictive. It last about 6-8 hours on me and have medium sillage. May work on men too, but leaning towards the feminine side.


Which is your favorite from Parfumerie Generale?





Pic:tartlime, flickr

Parfumerie Generale - Bois Naufrage

Usually I am a quite well behaved and suggestible perfume nerd. If a scent is called "Black Afgano" I don´t hesitate to come along to the Afghan mountains and feel the smell of darkness, camfire and haschisch. If the name is Sienne l'Hiver I gladly wandering around in a wintery Sienna. If it is called Lipstick Rose all I can think of is red lipstick, red roses, red smiles and a happy spirit. But, that is also depending on the fact that the scent is actually fitting it´s name. But occationally the scent don´t manage to convince me about it´s name. Sometimes I find that another name would be more appropriate...


Parfumerie Generale´s new scent Bois Naufrage is one of those scents. As I understand Bois naufrage means something like Forest of shipwrecked wood or maybe wood from shipwrecked ships... Pierre Guillaume was inspired of the pic above, a photo by Lucien Clergue. The picture, the name and the notes (carobtree, seasalt and ambra) makes me expect something totally different then what I get...


What I get is: A cloud of milky flowers rise from my skin as soon as I put on some drops of Bois Naufrage, soon it changes into something very similar to Pina Colada, but kind of a light version. More milk, not as sweet, but still with pineapple and a large dash of rhum. Carobtree is also known as Egypt fig, and I guess that is what makes this scent smell so gorgeuos milky. Usually I´m not a big fan of fig in perfume, but now... even though it isn´t really a fig note, it is so extremly smoth, creamy and with suggestive notes of coconut and I like it a lot. The boozy note is from start almost as pronounced as the mily note, but fades must faster. Also to weak note of pineapple soon hides in the background and are followed by note of soft flowers.


The heart phase is quite linear and pretty much consists of that milky note together with some kind of shy floral boquet (impossible to tell which flowers). The scent of Pina Colada still lingering in the background, but very subdued. How this have anything at all to do with driftwood or shipwreckes I can´t say. I can´t detect any kind of woody notes in Bois Naufrage. But however, Bois Naufrage manage to, with it´s notes of tropical beach and gourmands, be a quite melancholic kind of scent. It´s the beach after a big party rather then the becah during a big party. The ffeling in Bois naufrage is abandoned, dreamy and subtle and that makes it stand out.


Towards the end, the scents is changing, the flowers and gourmand notes vanishes, but the milkyness stills lingers now in compnay with a harsh note, maybe it´s the wood even though I rather think it´s a soft, salty note. Longvity is OK, and so is the sillage.


I think of Bois Naufrage as quite an unique scent, i have never encountered a tropical punch, so subtle, dreamy and melancholic before. The milky note is also really nice, creamy and thick without being to sweet or sticky. I think Bois Naufrage would suit both men and women, and I also suspect it can smell really different on different persons. I think it´s worth to give it a try even though it don´t match it´s name (according to me).





Pic:
abow: Naked in Driftwood, Lucien Clergue
below:copyright-brian-brown

Parfumerie Generale - Papyrus de Ciane

Parfumerie Generale was one of the first niche-perfume brands that I encountered. And I was so impressed with the first three perfumes I tried from them, Aomassai, Brulure de Rose and L'Ombre Fauve. By now, I have tested many, if not all, of Parfumerie Generales perfumes, and even if I don´t love all of them, they´re usually very interesting and excellent made.


I´ve got a little sample (from Parfumerie Generale) of their newest scent, Papyrus de Ciane. Usually I am not that in to green fragrances, but still I was curious to test this. And what happened was quite strange...


Top notes on me: Fresh, tart and squeezed lemon that blends with some almost glowingly green papyrus juice. This smells like something my skin could drink. Like an interesting and healthy new kind of juice. Olfactory I can´t think of many scents more wet then papyrus de Ciane, still it is mych to saturated to become aquatic. It is refreshing, sparkling and very, very green. The note of lemon is tart and fresh, while the papyrus smells more aromatic and grassy. During the opening the notes aren´t blenden, but goes in and out of each other all the time, like if you´re mixing a punch bowl.


Top notes on my husband: Ok, on him it is like the punch is allready mixed. The citrus is more like a fresh and crispy feature in the papyrus greenery. On my husband it isn´t as wet and juicy, more kind of ripe. And on his skin I find a note I don´t smell at all on me, a soft, subdued floral note and after thinking about it for a long time, I guess it is neroli (orange blossom) and maybe a lightest touch of some tuberose as well. This make the scent more creamy green than on me. If it is similar to something I would say Frederic Malle´s Carnal Flwoer, but much greener.


Heart notes on me: The citrus and papyrus has melt together now. But something in the blend become very bitter on me (galbanum I suspect). The bitter note isn´t that prominent from some distant, but as soon as I try to smell the scent up close it is very bitter. Apart from that Papyrus de Ciane is soft and comfy, like a green comfort-scent.


Heart notes on my husband: Well, this is something very different than on me. It can be the sexiest green scent I have smelled. It is green, with lingering citrus still there and the little floral note, but mostly green, like thick, dark green velvet. never nauseating, still parts of the scent is very fresh. And I can smell the bitter note on my husband too, but on him it seem to rather prevent Papyrus de Ciane to become stale or to heavy.


You realise that I become quite confused. It is like we had two halfly different perfumes from the same sample. The green part is the same, but the rest is very different on each of us. On em, something I can´t wear because of the bitter note, but on my husband maybe the best green scent we have tried (OK, we haven´t tried that many) And he isn´t only a patient guinea pig, he seem to enjoy Papyrus de Ciane quite much.


Bas note (on me and hubbie): Finally the two meet. The base is almost the same on both of us, still with green notes, but also very soft, comfy and warm. On my husband I think it is really excellent all way through. Sillage is medium and it is longlasting.


If you like green scents, Papyrus de Ciane is a must try. If you´re sensitive to bitter notes, test it with care. And if you´re lucky, it might end up smelling as good on you as on my husband.





Pic: Expressen

Parfumerie Generale - Tubereuse Couture

There is something very special with severe coldness. No, I am not a winter lover, but when it become really, really cold there is something magical about it.


For me this state occurs when the temperature has fallen below -35c. It´s a kind of border between usual coldness and magical coldness. Severe, icy coldness with the arctic dark sky above covered with aurora borealis (northern lights) sparkling across it with it´s gentle humming sound. It´s like, for a while, being transported to an other world. A magic, cold, beautiful, but also cruel world.


Sounds become distorted, the feeling of space changes and become more shaped like a tunnel and everything seem to have sharper contures than usually. You can feel you´re not supposed to be out in this cold for such a long time. And, even tough you have experienced it before, you´re drawn to it, like an human explorer on an alien planet. There is something very interesting with that kind of cold, you can´t really get used to it (or maybe, if you´re an inuit you actually can!). And maybe, the world will never be more beautiful then it is in snow covered forrest, the moon is rising big and red and the aurora borealis dancing over the blackest sky ever and the temperature is on it´s way below -40c.


Parfumerie Generale´s Tubereuse Couture can be the coldest of all cold tuberose-scents I´ve tried. The opening is so icy and cold it make me think of arctic nights, aurora borealis, ice crystals and palaces made of snow and ice. Thing actually quite scentless, because cold aren´t the best surroundings for scent. But in my imagination, aurora borealis can smell like Tubereuse Couture. Cold and sparkling but with elements of colour.


Tubereuse Couture is a scent that chnges. Maybe the small ice crystals melts from the warmth of my skin, but slowly, because it take some time to melt something that cold. From extreme coldness to something with traces of wild strawberries. Still, it´s cold wild strawberries, like strawberry sorbét maybe? The strawberry notes lingers in and out of the tuberose note. For me, Tubereuse Couture is a very complex and changing fragrance.


It´s like making a journey from the coldest part of our world, trough the temperate zones and reach the Tropics. It´s a mindblowing and strange trip. Mindblowing and interesting, but honeslty, I would have prefer to stay in ice and coldness rather to suddenly embrase the sun, warmth, spices and coconut. Yes, now it´s become sweet, creamy and spicy.


Not to sweet or creamy, Tubereuse Couture is all the time a very refined and elegant scent. But I do find the heartnotes a bit strange thinking of the opening. During this phase, the tuberose become toned down, I can smell other flowers, I think jasmine and something sweeter and fruitier. The wild strawberry note stays and it´s all together nice, pretty and well made. But I do prefer the opening, I feel that I am losing my curiosity during this phase.


The base notes are rich, warm, creamy and soft. Really nice, but with no connection to the opening. Tubereuse Couture are longlasting and with great sillage, but never becomes to much or to strong. Do you want to try a perfume taking you on a really long trip, I reallt recommend Tubereuse Couture, so much longer than from the North Pole to the Equator it´s hard to go with only one perfume.

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

Interview with Pierre Guillaume, Parfumerie Generale, at Fragrantica.

A short interview with Pierre Guillaume, note that he is thinking about offering his perfumes in 30 ml bottles. :)

http://www.fragrantica.com/news/Pierre-Guillaume-founder-perfumer-of-Parfumerie-Generale-933.html

Parfumerie Generale - Lounges Profanes

Once again I has been spellbound by a perfume from Parfumerie Generale. And i really mean it, for now there isn´t any other perfumes that matters, except of Lounges Profanes.

I am drawn towards it, like a moth towards the light. I am trying to analyse why I like it so much, without much success. Yes, it do smell good, but I can´t feel that it smells so much better than everything else right now, that it would justify such an obsession. Sure, it is a nice olfactory trip, but not as stunning as others I´ve tried. I belive it touches something in me, something I can´t hardly remember... even tough I think it remind me of the smell in my grandmothers bedrom when I was small. There is something old fashioned with Lounges Profanes, but to think of it as a perfume for old ladies is kind of stupid. At the same time it manage to have an old fashioned charm but also being very modern.

I think of having some of the 20ies most celebrated beuties on a time travel to our days, modernise them a little but still keep their time typical style.

Well, that might sound weird? But if you can imagine a modern interprention of Kiki du Montparnasse (the women at Man Ray´s photo Le violin de Ingres).

Anyway Lounges Profanes is one of the best powdery scents I´ve encountered. It remind me of the smell of really high quality make-up. Really red lipstick, ivory coloured powder, black kohl. A lot of champagne-coloured pearls, a feather boa and a tight laced corset. A glass of sparkling champagne. And a vase filled with lilies. Yes, there is lilies in Lunges Profanes, but they´re toned down just enough. Eveything in Lounges Profanes is just enough according to me, it is perfectly suitable for my skin chemistry. It is like my whole body get soaked with it, like it is something I´ve missed for a long time!

I feel very content, safe and comfy when I wear Lounges Profanes, it is also one of the best comfort-scents I´ve tried. Maybe it´s because of olfactory memories of my grand mother, that was a very soft, friendly and caring women. And she always smelled very, very good. Actually teh only person from my childhood having a scent of her own, soft and yet a little perfumed. No body remember or know what perfume she use to wear, but I think it could have been Chanel No 5. Maybe not the perfume, maybe she was content with a scented body powder or body lotion? Anuhow she smelled slightly perfumed powdery, and I smile when I realised she would also have enjoyed Lounges Profanes.

Well, ok there is a slight smell of old lady. But, I can also imagine how wonderful Lounges Profanes would smell on a women half my age. Cause Lounges profanes may be caressing, comforting and old fashioned, but it is also sexy. In a refined sensual and laid back way. Like someone waiting, knowing she will get what she wants anyway. Someone aware of her magnetic attraction force, but a little more introvert than extrovert.

I am having big troubble describing Lounges Profanes in a proper way. It is much to good for my words to make it justice, you just have to try it! But if you´re not a fan of powdert scents you might try it with some care. Even tough I´ve heard of others on wich it isn´t at all powdery!

Many of Parfumerie Generale´s perfumes are complex and developing on me, Lounges Profanes isn´t. It is quite linear and simple, it smell as gorgeus from start to finnish, well almost. The last basenotes that still remains after 4-5 hours smells like the memories of soft incense on my skin.

Lounges profanes have some similarites to Annick Goutal Songes and Chanel No 5, so if you like those, don´t miss out on Lounges Profanes.

It has good longvity (not incredible) and heavy sillage. Another perfume from Parfumerie Generale I simply must have more of!

Who loves the second best?

I think Sweden as a nation lack a bit of winner instinct. We tell our kids to join different competitions, activities and games and that they shall participate for the fun of it, not to win. In other countries the parents and other grown ups are more straight forward and tell the kids that all that matters is to win. An honestly, swedish double moral standars are quite amusing if having it on some distance, because of course we also love when the kids are winning. And yes, the kids love it to!

Most people seem to agree about that it´s possible to compete in sports and athletics, but when it comes to music people become more hesitant. Soon it´s the final for the European Melody Contest in Moscow, and even if it isn´t really ok to compete in music, there´s full coverage in the media, here in Sweden at least. Another thing hard to compete in is beauty, still a new Miss Universe is crowned every year. And in some countries (mostly US) they even held beauty pageants for babies, something quite unfamiliar for most swedish parents.

Well, even when it comes to perfume, there is contests. The perfume industry itself rewards succesfull fragrances, and perfume sites let their members vote for the most popular perfumes. There is perfume top ten, and if you want to be sure about being "right" and feel safe, you can easily chose the number one perfume on such a list, you are sure not to be noticed then.

I am sure most perfumista also have their own top ten list, I do, even tough it´s constantly changing. But at least I know wich perfumes I really love and want! Or...? Do I, really? The answer isn´t that obvious, the winner isn´t always the winner in the long run.

I have a way of becoming almost obsessed about a perfume at the first sniff. It goes like oooh, wooow, and marvellous, beautiful, amazing... This happen once in a while, but not more than about one perfume on ten. That makes, at least nine, not to winners. With ten perfumes I think about four-five-six are counted out almost directly, because I find them so boring that they not even are nice or cute. About two or three are good, fine, maybe a little different, nice but without making it to the top. At least, they are good enough to be tried again.

And again...

And again...

And wow, when did it become this good!? Strangely enogh there is less left in that little sample than in the sample with the superduperamazingpowerfullblast-perfume. Eh? Yes, I´ve noticed a tendecy. I do love serge Luten´s Borneo 1834, and when I´ve got that sample I also got some other SL samples; Datura Noir, Serge Noire and Ambre Sultan. Datura Noir didn´t really make it for me, and Serge Noire is very interesting but a bit difficult to wear and Ambre Sultan was... hmmm ok, good, nice, a little brisk, spicy and just good enough... while Borneo 1834 was incredible.

Yes, I still love Borneo 1834, but it´s heavy, strong, masculin and so concrete that I have to be in a certain mood to wear it. While Ambre Sultan just mingle up with my skin chemistry without making any noice and starts warming up and becoming warmer, sweeter, more golden, more intriguing and... more more so to speak. No it doesn´t really compete with Borneo 1834, but still it is as good, but in another way. I wouldn´t be surprised if I had a bottle of them both, that Ambre Sultan would be the one I reach for more often.

The sam goes for some perfumes from Parfumerie Generale, I love Aomassai, Felanilla and Cadjmere even tough my most obsessed feeling for Cadjmere have cooled down a little. Some of Parfumerie Generale´s perfumes doesn´t work at all for me, and some of them are nice, good, fine and really cute. Like Drama Nuui and Intrigant Patchouli. But, little by little they have won me over. Intrigant Patchouli is at the top among my patchouli favourites, together with Borneo 1834, but in another way. First time I tried Intrigant Patchouli was when I´ve also got Cadjmere, and I thought of it as almost a little boring. Well, I couldn´t be more wrong! When it starts to warm up on the skin it´s transforming to something lush, sensual and the animalic notes in Intrigant Patchuli is among the most erotic I can think of! Just wow, but it took a while to realise that.

And what else? Well, Chinatown from Bond No 9 didn´t get much attention from me. Because in the same shipment was Andy Warhol´s Silver Factory. Really strange, citrus fresh, metallic and with a dirty musky note as well. Cool. But then I started to notice the not so good about it, it hasn´t any staying power (something it have in common with some other Bond No 9 frags I´ve tried) and the fresh citrus fades away and leave some kind of blury musk with no direction. But there was Chinatown, what about it? Doesn´t it smell like something you bake? Something good, a little fruity, little sweet, a little different and a little adorable? Yes, in the long run it is actually Chinatown I like the most from Bond No 9, this far.

Since mentioned Ava Luxe´s Kama in the review about Serge Lutens Musc Koublai Khan I´ve tried a little more. Oh ni, it still isn´t as good as MKK, but I realised it deserve better tough. It´s totallt perfect for layering, you can layer it with almost everything. Kama manage to deepen and strengthen anything. The perfume you blend it with changes, but is still possible to recognise.

Soft, sweet, floral and vanilly perfumes goes from giggly girly to sofisticated warm blooded women in just a moment. I´ve realise I will need a bigger bottle of Kama, real soon...

And Vivienne Westwood´s Anglomania, yes I love it, but there isn´t that much left in my bottle and Libertine is also about to get finnished, and can you guess wich of them I would most likely buy a new bottle of? Hint, the perfume doesn´t start with A...

There are many more seconds best that deserve attention, do you have any? Some perfume you didn´t think to much about from the beginning but the discovered it has somehow sneaking it´s way up...

Parfumerie Generale - Cadjmere

I am a women with many obsessions, together with a lot of other things I have a quite big collection of boxes. Boxes isn´t that bad to collect, there is a lot of different boxes, they are easy available and one can always afford a small box (and they dosn´t take that much space either if you travelling around). Of course there is also very expensive boxes, like antique japanese varnish boxes, delicate boxes from the era of rokoko and artfully made wooden boxes with intarsia and mother-of-pearl. I have to admit that I haven´t that many of that kind of boxes in my collection.

There is a kind of box that can be both beautiful to look at and also fascinating, so called secret boxes. Boxes with different kinds of hidden mechanism that make it a challenge to open the box. Sometimes even small boxex hidden in a bigger, like russian babushkas. I think in that kind of box, one should keep love letters, secret charms and strange poitions. Imagine to find that kind of box at an antique store, no one has been able to open it for years and who knows what kind of secrets hiding inside it? Oh, if I could only open it!

Well, let us for a while leave the secret box and instead turn our fokus to Parfumerie Generale`s Cadjmere. I´ve got a little sample of it together with a lot of other samples from Luckyscent right before I was going to Boden and my mothers birthday party. During the trip I tested the perfumes, and of all Cadjmere was the one I liked the most. I liked it so much, that I decided to wear it at my mothers party. As soon as I put on another fragrance I missed Cadjmere and wish that I could wear it instead. Well, I use to love perfumes at fist sniff, but Cadjmere almost put a spell on me.

I´ve got home and continue to test other perfumes, but with Cadjmere constantly in my mind. You can understand that a small 1 ml sample, dosn´t last long if you want to wear the tiny drops all the time?But how does Cadjmere smell? Is it the most fantastic interesting, refined, wonderful and remarkable olfactory trip ever? Nope. It smells good. It smells really good, a little sweet and chilly and warm wood and some citrus and some more good. Cadjmere makes me happy. But it dosn´t really touch me. I smell it and I find it to smell SUPERNICE but without depth, without interesting layers and no memories rises, nothing, nada, zero!

The days go by and I try other perfumes, learn to know them and with some I discover a deep, a soul that only have taken some time to get to know. Cadjmere continue to lure me but I ignore it.

After a coupple of days I try Cadjmere again, and well, the crush is gone. It still smells as good as the first time, but I have manage to get out at the other side of Cadjmere and realise it´s lack of something. Lack of life, deep and soul.

It is like struggeling for days with a secret box trying to open it and finally made it and discover that it is... all empty. The box itself is of course still beautiful, but in the imagination one have made the content so big that when one find the box empty, it is hard to appreciate the beuty of it.

Cadj,ere is a beautiful perfume and maybe I imagine i become a little more beautiful when I wear it, and it makes me happy and that isn´t bad. After all Cadjmere is so worth trying, after all, on you it may become something more than a futile fragrant beauty?

Parfumerie Generale - Bois Blonde

In Baggböle outside Umeå, Arboretum Norr is situated, arboretum means a small collection of trees. At Arboretum Norr you can find trees and bushes from the north hemisphere. When we lived in Umeå we often went for picnic to Baggböle and the arboretum that is situated beautifully close to the Umeriver. There was a tree there that I still remember, because it was very beautiful, the golden bird cherry, or in latin Prunus maackii. It has almost golden bark.

So when I´ve got my sample of Parfumerie Generale´s Bois Blonde I come to think about that beautiful tree. Imagine a small forrest of golden bird cherrie trees, in sunny autumn leaves. At least I can´t think of any blonder forrest. But do Bois Blonde really smell like blonde forrest? Or blonde wood? What do blonde wood smell like? Blonde wood are as far as I know trees with light wood. And how the beaytiful golden bird cherry smell, I really don´t know that either, as bird cherry I guess? Bois Blonde is also supposed to smell like hay, but I can´t find any particular smell of hay in it. No, this is more woody, fresh and clean.

For me Boid Blonde can be that blonde wood, and it do remind me of another of PGs perfumes, namely Aomassai. Aomassai could go with the name of Bois Noir, because they are so similar. Aomassai also happens to be one of my favourites, so the question is if Bois Blonde is as good, or better? Or maybe not? It is a question of taste, Aomassai is filled with so much more than wood, there is coffee, candy sugar, spices and a high, clear pureness that I really love. Bois Blonde is like Aomassai without all that goodies in it, like a minimalistic version of Aomassai, but still not, since PGs perfume style is not that minimalistic after all.

Bois Blonde is slightly more fresh than Aomassai, but not brighter. There is sweetness and warmth in Bois Blonde, without getting gourmand. Bois Blonde could be Aomassai for daytime wear, but still to special to wear casual. Don´t think that Bois Blonde is scaled down or discrete, but still a little compared to Aomassai.

I still prefer Aomassai, but also think that Aomassai could be a little challenging in the long run. Maybe if I had big bottles of them both, I would after all use Bois Blonde more often? Well, both of them are longlasting and with good sillage. And I recommend both of them, they are lovely fragrances with a lot of warmth.

I tought for a long time that Aomassai would be the first big bottle I will buy from Parfumerie Generale, but it has got a rival and it isn´t Bois Blonde!