Parfum d’ Empire | The Scented Hound

May 28, 2012
by The Scented Hound 22 Comments

Parfum d’Empire’s Azemour les Orangers and Eau Suave – Lots to Love

I am officially declaring my love for the Parfum d’Empire fragrances. It started with my receipt of the complete line of the Parfum d’Empire sample collection a while back. If you haven’t checked this out yet, they offer their full line at an incredibly reasonable cost on their website. If it wasn’t for having those samples here, I would not be making this declaration today. For those of you in the business, please note that offering samples at a low cost will entice perfume lovers like myself to buy your samples – which then will lead to full bottle purchases!

OK, let me first start by saying that summer has officially come to Washington DC. For the last 3 days, it has been up in the 90s and incredibly humid. And since it hasn’t been this warm since last summer, my body still has not acclimated to the weather. Luckily I had my new summer fragrance purchase, Iskander which I used generously for a couple of days. A fresh shower + a spritz of Iskander = perfection..almost like the perfect ice-cube for your perfect summer cocktail.

As I completed my yard work and decided to get some work done cleaning up my office, I started going through my mess of samples and thought that Parfum d’ Empire’s Azemour les Orangers sounded like a nice summer companion to Iskander. I was right, another great summer fit.

The bottom line is this; Marc-Antoine Corticchiato has created some of the most luxurious and wearable scents that I have found. There’s something for everybody and what I have noticed is that his fragrances will take me out of my comfort zones in what I like. I’m not a fan of leather scents, but I love Cuir Ottoman. I would have never guessed that I would like a scent like Fougere Bengale and its curried spiciness. And then I fell in love with Eau Suave, a fragrance meant for women. So far I have either liked or loved all of the Parfum d’ Empire scents. I have to tell you, when the next Parfum d’Empire fragrance launches, I’ll be one of the first to grab up a sample. Now, on to my new loves:

Azemour les Orangers

Azemour les Orangers’ opening is like peeling a sweet and juicy orange. One that when you peel it back the zesty spray of the juice flies up in the air and hits you in the face. It’s what you crave on a hot summer day when basking out in the sun all day. But wait, as refreshing as the opening is, Azemour les Orangers then twists and turns with hints of coriander and a luscious oaky moss. This is a beautiful summer scent that doesn’t just bask in its freshness. It’s like a garden. You walk down a path to discover the various fruits, flowers, herbs and other delights along the way. If there was only one wish that I could make for this scent is that the longevity and sillage were a little bit better. In any case, I don’t mind spritzing myself with this lovely fragrance throughout the day. This is a scent for both sexes and it wears this role well. Azemour les Orangers is going on my wishlist (the way my wishlists go, that means I’ll be owning a bottle soon :))

Azemour les Orangers Notes:

orange, clementine, tangerine, grapefruit, coriander, cumin, black pepper, pink pepper, blackcurrant, galbanum, neroli, geranium, orange blossom, rose, hay, moss, henna and cypres

Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 possible bones
Scent: Fruity Chypre
Classification: Unisex
Expense: $75 for 50ml EDP

Eau Suave

Sometimes in the world of fragrance, the words masculine and feminine are just that…words. Eau Suave is marketed to women. I don’t care. I love it. I crave it. This all started when I was thinking about all of the samples that I have that are meant for women. What should I do with them? Give them away? Trade them? Then one night I thought, hell, why don’t I just spritz some on before I go to bed. A lovely feminine fragrance would be just fine for bedtime. Eau Suave was the first feminine scent that I tried this new practice with. And I fell, and fell hard. Eau Sauve is a lovely warm and intoxicating rose chypre scent. It’s never too sweet and never too rosy. In fact, I think floral, not roses when I put this on. This fragrance has just enough coriander and musk to help avoid a heavy and sweet floral composition. A subtle spiciness and warmth, combined with the floral and berry ingredients make this a very personal and enveloping fragrance. Every time I lift my wrist to my nose, I always find a new surprise. Made for a woman…but I like it too. So much so that it’s on my wishlist and we know what that means!

Eau Suave Notes:

pepper, coriander, saffron, Rose de Malmaison, apricot, raspberry, peach, vanilla and musk

Bone Rating: 5 out of 5 possible bones
Scent: Floral Chypre
Classification: Feminine
Expense: $75 for 50ml EDP

May 2, 2012
by The Scented Hound 13 Comments

Iskander by Parfum d’Empire

Inspired by australianperfumejunkies review of some of the Parfum d’Empire line today, I decided to pull out some of my untested samples and give it a go. Since summer is approaching, I thought I would try Iskander. Lemony, citrus freshness in an initial blast, bright and sunny are how I would describe my first impressions with the scent. There initially is almost a barber shop clean aspect to the Iskander. Now I’m not typically a fan of citrus scents so I wonder if I’m going to like Iskander. I find then that the initial citrus blast dissapates and out comes a very light spice, maybe the coriander?. But I don’t consider this a spicy scent by any means. The fragrance soon mellows into a lovely warm, yet fresh, citrus, amber and oakmoss scent which evens out the initial sharpness of the scent. The is an underlying tonality in this fragrance which is similar to the other Parfum d’Empire scents that I have tested; it’s a smooth and silky finish that I find incredibly luxurious. It sits at the scent’s base tying in all of the ingredients for a layer that blends so well on the skin. I don’t know what this is, but so far the Parfum d’Empires scents that I have tried all are equaled in their beauty even though they are composed so differently. I’m not sure yet, but I believe that Iskander might just be my 2012 summer scent.

Iskander Notes:

citron, mandarin, grapefruit, estragon, coriander, orange blossom, oakmoss, amber and musk

UPDATE: Iskander got to me, I had to buy a full bottle!

Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 possible bones
Scent Type: Citrus – Chypre
Classification: Unisex
Expense: $75 for 50ml EDP

April 11, 2012
by The Scented Hound 7 Comments

Wazamba by Parfum d’Empire

Wazamba is a hard fragrance for me to review. It’s exotic nature and unfamiliar notes make for a scent that is for me very distinctive, yet difficult to describe. According to some information I found on the web, a Wasamba (spelled with an S) is a West African instrument made of wooden sticks that is used during circumcision and initiation rites. Now the description above is not going to help describe this scent, but I found the definition pretty interesting upon itself.

So what does Wazamba smell like? When applied its spicy, dry and a little bitter. To me it has almost has hints of Indian curry with a slight dry fruitiness. As time goes on, this becomes even dryer and closer to the skin and a bit sharper. I found that as I wore this throughout the day, it didn’t overwhelm me, but would occasionally rise to surround me at various times. I love this scent, but am not sure how often I would wear it. I would say that it works for both day and night and leans towards the masculine although it would work well for women as well.