Diptyque, Al Haramain, A Lab on Fire & Etat Libre d’Orange

Source: diptyqueparis.com

Source: diptyqueparis.com

The end of the year is always a crazy time, particularly in terms of new releases. I’m starting to have visions of a Leaning Tower of Pisa composed of sample vials toppling over and squashing me to death. I simply can’t keep up. It’s almost entirely my own fault because of the detailed, verbose way I approach my reviews, but there are also more and more fragrances being launched every year. According to Michael Edwards, author of Fragrances of the World, there were 1620 releases in 2014 as compared to 38 back in 1984. I’m sure there are even more this year — and it all seems to reach a crescendo during the holidays. I’m exhausted, both mentally and physically, and my stack of notes (some going back months and months) exceeds the number of proper, full reviews I can write before it’s time to do the year-end “Best of” lists.

As a result, for much of this week, I’ll be posting rapid-fire mini reviews, starting today with Diptyque‘s new Oud Palao and Essences Insensées 2015Al Haramain‘s Najm Gold and Atifa Blanche attars, A Lab on Fire‘s new Mon Musc à Moi by Dominique Ropion, and Etat Libre d’Orange‘s Remarkable People. They are all 2015 releases except for the Al Haramain attars. I’ll provide only the most basic information: note lists, and links to the company, a vendor, and/or Fragrantica for you to pursue later if you’re interested. The “reviews” themselves will be generalised overviews or nutshells. So, let’s get to it.

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Maria Candida Gentile Elephant & Roses and Syconium

Elephant & Roses and Syconium are two very different fragrances from the Italian niche brand, Maria Candida Gentile. The former layers roses with grassy, animalic, or clean elements, while the latter covers sandalwood with figs then dunks them both in a mix of milk and honey. I’ll look at each fragrance in turn.

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Diptyque Benjoin Boheme

"Light & Color, the morning after the deluge," by J.M.W. Turner via Pinterest.

“Light & Color, the morning after the deluge,” by J.M.W. Turner via Pinterest.

Benjoin Boheme, the latest fragrance from Diptyque, calls to mind a Turner landscape painted in a palette of nut-browns, gold, cream, and silver, then edged in smoky shadows. The light is so soft and warm, it seems to ripple out from the canvas to envelop you with soothing, gentle comfort. The perfectly placed shadows merely underscore the warmth, the glowing cloud that invites you to dive in, to let yourself be enveloped, and to just relax. Diptyque is not a brand that does much for me as a general rule, but Benjoin Boheme makes me look at them in a new light. Colour me impressed.

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Reviews En Bref: Dasein Autumn & Winter

With the end of autumn and the advent of winter in the Western hemisphere, it seemed like a fitting time to cover seasonal fragrances from the American niche brand, Dasein. It is an artisanal perfume house founded by Samantha (or “Sam”) Rader in Los Angeles in 2014. According to her biography, she is “a self-taught mixed-media perfumer,” and all her fragrances are unisex, vegan eau de parfums that she hand-blends in small batches. There are four releases thus far, each named after a different season of the year. Today, I’ll take a brief look at Autumn and Winter.

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