Roja Dove Amber Extrait: Willy Wonka’s Amber

"Chocolate on My Mind," Painting by Pamela Van Laanen. Source:  AbsoluteArts.com (direct website link embedded within.)

“Chocolate on My Mind,” by Pamela Van Laanen. Source: AbsoluteArts.com (website link embedded within.)

The joys of chocolate and sandalwood, encased in golden amber. That is only one aspect of Amber Extrait which merges the wonders of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory with the luxury version of a Starbucks line-up: Earl Grey tea, hot chocolate, a white chocolate chai, and a vanilla latte sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts, all enveloped in multi-faceted amber velvet. Yet, at its heart, Roja Dove’s Amber is almost as much about sandalwood as it is about chocolate or its namesake note. There is a Mysore-like bouquet that is, at first, milky, then creamy and spiced, before finally turning smoky. It is a significant part of the fragrance, and one reason why Amber is hardly the simple soliflore that its name suggests.

Amber (sometimes called “Amber Extrait”) was released in 2014. On his website, Roja Dove describes the fragrance and its notes as follows:

Source: Neiman Marcus.

Source: Neiman Marcus.

“Seductive Enveloping Opulence”
RICH, SOFT, VERY SWEET, & WARM

“Amber, a blend of exotic materials, crafted to give us a glimpse of the mysterious Orient. I blended a rich, velvety note of black chocolate with the soft sweetness of an amber accord to create an edible olfactive delight”. Roja Dove

TOP: Bergamot, Geranium, Lavender, Orange
HEART: Cocoa, Rose
BASE: Amber, Benzoin, Cedarwood, Coumarin, Labdanum, Patchouli, Sandalwood, Vanilla.

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Reviews En Bref: Penhaligon’s As Sawira & Levantium

Penhaligon’s Trade Routes Collection are fragrances inspired by the exotic spices and woods brought to London in the 19th century from the Orient and Middle East. Two of the oud scents in the line are As Sawira and Levantium. I’ll take a look at each in turn. In general, my Reviews en Bref are for fragrances that — for whatever reason — didn’t seem to merit one of my detailed, exhaustive reviews. In this case, it’s because neither fragrance was particularly complex or enjoyable.

AS SAWIRA:

Source: Penhaligon's.

Source: Penhaligon’s.

As Sawira is an eau de parfum that was created by Christian de Provenzano and released in 2015 as a limited-edition part of the Trade Routes Collection. According to Twisted Lily, the fragrance’s inspiration and its notes are as follows:

As Sawira, a new addition to the Trade Routes Collection, is inspired by the city Essaoiura, which became the first seaport of Morocco in the nineteenth century. With extensive trade connections to London, many of the commodities which adorned the wharves of the docklands will have originated from there.

Bergamot, Davana, Saffron, Absinthe, Rose, Jasmine, Carnation, Clove, Cardamom, Labdanum, Amber, Oud, Myrrh, Gaiacwood, Sandalwood, Cedarwood, Patchouli, Musk, Vanilla, Maltol.

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Orto Parisi (Nasomatto) Boccanera & Stercus

Alessandro Gualtieri via Fragrantica.

Alessandro Gualtieri via Fragrantica.

Orto Parisi is the new brainchild of Nasomatto‘s Alessandro Gualtieri who founded the theoretically separate, unrelated house in 2014. Boccanera and Stercus are part of the 5-piece collection, all of which follow Mr. Gualtieri’s manifesto to create over-sized, strong scents that represent “parts of our body,” as well as how our animalic side has been repressed by civilisation. I’ll look briefly at each of them in turn with a more generalised summation than my usual in-depth analysis.

BOCCANERA:

Boccanera via Luckyscent.

Boccanera via Luckyscent.

Boccanera is a pure parfum that was released without any notes. It was recently chosen as a finalist in the Independent Category for the 2015 Art & Olfaction Awards. I’m surprised, to say the least, because Boccanera trods very (very) well-worn territory. In fact, it’s a complete riff on Mr. Gaultieri’s own Black Afgano for his Nasomatto line, only with a heavy dusting of cocoa in the opening phase and a heightened quantity of industrial-strength aromachemicals.

As noted earlier, Boccanera comes with no notes and Orto Parisi offers no description for the scent on its website. However, First in Fragrance has a small blurb that seems to quote the company’s press copy. It states: “Boccanera means ‘dark mouth’ in Italian. Nature offers dark holes that express sensuality in an erotic dark way.”

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LM Parfums Cicatrices

"Javascapes" by Photographer Daniel G. Walczyk. Source: Behance.net (Website link embedded within.)

“Javascapes” by Daniel G. Walczyk. Source: Behance.net (Website link embedded within.)

Cicatrices, the French word for scars, seems like an unusual choice of names for a fragrance that is a comforting haze of warmth, with juxtaposed contrasts like a quasi-gourmand opening of deliciously pillowy iris nougat next to a spicy, smoky, resinous heart that beats with licorice and patchouli. But perhaps ironic juxtapositions are the precise point of Cicatrices, the latest scent from LM Parfum. Its founder, Laurent Mazzone, explicitly sought to create “contradictory revelations,” and there is no greater contradiction than the symbolism of brutal, raw wounds versus sweet warmth.

Cicatrices is an extrait de parfum from LM Parfums‘ more luxurious Intimacy Collection and will be released worldwide on April 5th. The scent is meant to convey a “world of shadows,” but the full description of Cicatrices and its notes is as follows:

Source: LM Parfums

Source: LM Parfums

Source: LM Parfums

Source: LM Parfums

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