review | The Scented Hound

October 12, 2015
by The Scented Hound 4 Comments

New Release: Comme des Garcons Floriental

WHAT I SMELL: Floriental opens cool to the skin, but warm to the nose with a comforting labdanum and a light and airy incense which is rounded and full-bodied without being heavy. Soon a subdued plum note enters along with an earthiness that keeps the fruit grounded, but the fragrance is pleasingly lightly gourmand at this stage. After a bit, a creamy sandalwood enters the mix along with a lightly sweetened tobacco. Floriental is a comfort perfume in that it’s light smoky radiance is like a transitional sweater taking you from the warm summer months to the cool of the fall. In the end, Floriental exists in a lightly boozy, incensed sandalwood haze.

From the Comme des Garcons Parfums website:

Floriental is a disrupted floral fragrance that challenges the traditions of perfumery to reimagine a flower that has no scent.
A creative collision that blurs the lines between the floral and the oriental to create something completely new.
An odourless flower is given life, a virtual scent imagined: enigmatic, contrasted, intense.

Labdanum, lavish sandalwood, vetiver, incense, pink pepper and plum liqueur.

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: A rain-soaked fall day when you enjoy a quiet walk through the colored leaves.

THREE ADJECTIVES THAT DESCRIBE FLORIENTAL: introspective, calming, quiet

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT FLORIENTAL: Katie Puckrick Smells

BOTTOM LINE: Now that it’s getting cooler outside, I should be excited about switching gears toward wearing some fantastic cooler weather fragrances. However, I could easily live in a climate where it was summer all year-long and where I could just remain smelling of white flowers. Unfortunately that’s not the case…but a fragrance like Floriental is a welcomed gentle push into the cooler months making for an easy seasonal transition without effort.

Bone Rating: 4 out of possible 5 bones
Scent: Floral Oriental
Classification: Unisex
Expense: $103 for 50 ml eau de parfum

Sample courtesy of Twisted Lily Fragrance Boutique and Apothecary

October 7, 2015
by The Scented Hound 6 Comments

New Release: Aqua Vitae Forte by Maison Francis Kurkdjian

WHAT I SMELL: Aqua Vitae Forte opens softly with a beautiful sugar kissed bergamot and citrus. It’s light and ethereal, romantic and pretty as well as comfortably warm and lightly powdered. Blended seamlessly, the notes are very hard to distinguish except for a floral finish on a bed of beautiful sandalwood which also provides for a slightly soured bitterness, which does not detract from the perfume’s beauty. After quite some time, Aqua Vitae Forte begins to grow ever so quietly and a slight celery like accord and hints of spice come forward giving the perfume this floral and vegetal presence. The perfume is slow to develop and it transforms like a dreamlike cloud passing oh so slowly to reveal the sun once the wisps of the clouds have passed.

From the Maison Francis Kurkdjian website:

Dive into the memory of a summer day when the sun’s rays brush against a tanned skin. Imagine the caress of a floral and woody breeze… Aqua Vitae forte forges this invisible bond between the freshness of the nights to come and the heat of the days gone by.

Olfactory Description:

Bergamot and lemon from Calabria – Cardamom from Guatemala – Cinnamon from Ceylon East Indian sandalwood – Mandarin from Sicily – Orange blossom from Tunisia – Pink Szechuan pepper – Vetiver from Haiti – Ylang ylang from Madagascar.

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: There’s a delicateness to the perfume, that’s met with a strong foundation like a set of beautiful fine china.

THREE ADJECTIVES THAT DESCRIBE AQUA VITAE FORTE: subdued, enigmatic, restrained

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT AQUA VITAE FORTE: Colognoisseur, Fragrance Emergency

BOTTOM LINE: Aqua Vitae Forte is like the second cousin of Puredistance WHITE, which I love. Except this perfume is a bit lighter and ethereal, but equally as romantic and beautiful.

Bone Rating: 4 out of possible 5 bones
Scent: Woody Spicy
Noses: Francis Kurkdjian
Classification: Feminine
Expense: $275 for 1.7 oz Eau de Parfum

Sample courtesy of Arielle Shoshona

September 30, 2015
by The Scented Hound 12 Comments

New Release: Elephant & Roses by Maria Candida Gentile

WHAT I SMELL: Elephant & Roses opens softly with a wonderfully herbal thyme that is sweetened so slightly with osmanthus. The perfume is light, soft and reassuring and unique in that it doesn’t start off with an oft seen bergamot or citrus blast. After a few minutes, a warmth from the amber develops and it helps to push-off the herbal and floral notes, lifting them up from the ground and sending them flying towards the sky. The rose begins to come towards the center, but it’s a lightly earthy rose that is anything but sweet and it’s very tender in its existence. As tender as the perfume is, an anamalic note begins to appear to give the perfume some wonderful depth and a bit more of an exotic feel…which was already exotic from the beginning. A vetiver and musk note brings the perfume to a more linear base, but helps to keep the perfume, soft, comforting and lightly radiant.

From the Maria Candida Gentile website:

A late afternoon, sitting at my desk, exercising to recreate an elephant smell, while writing my perfume formulae I had a kind of a vision, which merged the elephant’s image, its smell and a large field of roses, of an intense colour, almost fuchsia. Within this vision the elephants were running and, trampling on the roses, were dispersing a scent of flowers, mixed together with the strong smell of their bodies. Slowly – while I was weighing and smelling my formula – after trying it on my skin I realised that it was mine. I used the Turkish rose: this fragrance is derived from the blending of two different formulae, using the so called “dans le tiroir” method, by which I merged animal notes with skin and floral ones.

Name’s origin : The elephant comes from a remembrance of Indian and African colonies, and the rose is the British rose. An encounter between an elephant and the roses has got some British sense of humour. There is an assonance with London district Elephant & Castle.

Top notes: Thyme, Custus, Osmanthus

Heart notes: Rose, Jasmine, Grey Amber

Base notes: Java vetiver, Sandal wood, Animal accord

WHAT IT SMELLS LIKE TO ME: I can’t argue with the perfume’s name and inspiration, it makes for a lovely visual.

THREE ADJECTIVES THAT DESCRIBE ELEPHANT & ROSES: comforting, herbal-infused, personal

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT ELEPHANT & ROSES: Colognoisseur

BOTTOM LINE: I am a big fan of Maria Candida Gentile perfumes. They are all distinctively hers and this perfume is no exception. Elephant & Roses is less of a “rose” perfume than and herbal floral arrangement and would be a good rose perfume for those who don’t want to smell like a fragrant bouquet of sweet roses.

Bone Rating: 3 out of possible 5 bones
Scent: Aromatic
Nose: Maria Candida Gentile
Classification: Unisex
Expense: $185 for 100 ml or $45 for 15 ml eau de parfum

Sample courtesy of Twisted Lily Fragrance Boutique and Apothecary