Perfume Giveaway: Parfums Rétro Grand Cuir

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Kafkaesque

Parfums Rétro has generously offered to give away 60 prizes, each of which will be a 3 ml sample of Grand Cuir, a fragrance that I thought was one of the best new releases of 2013. I’m very excited, because I really think Grand Cuir is a scent that deserves more exposure and attention. The other day, I was making some samples of Grand Cuir from my small decant for a few friends, and I couldn’t stop sniffing the air as the perfume swirled around me. I contacted Jeffrey Dame at Parfums Rétro on the complete off-chance that he may be up for a giveaway, thinking perhaps one or two posters may get the opportunity to try Grand Cuir for themselves. I was utterly stunned by the generosity of the response.

THE PRIZES:

There are essentially two different giveaways.

The first and main one is for U.S. posters (or those who have the address of a cousin or friend in the U.S. who can send the perfume on to them): 50 people will each get ONE (1) spray atomizer of Grand Cuir in a 3 ml size.
However, TEN (10) vials will be available for those in the EEC.

Ewan McGregor for Belstaff. Source: Twitter.

I put Grand Cuir on my list of Best New Releases of 2013. As I wrote in part of my review, contradictions and paradoxes lie at the heart of Grand Cuir, which explores leather from one end of the spectrum to the other under the most civilized and sophisticated of veneers. It starts as raw leather coated with birch tar and pungent herbs before turning into the expensive, new black leather of a biker’s jacket, then burnished, softly aged leather with amber, before ending up as the most refined of creamy Italian suedes infused with amber, lavender, and skin-like musk. It’s a journey that is at once animalic and aldehydic, soapy clean, beginning as a masculine scent that is an aromatic, herbal fougère with leather, before it transforms into something very different. And the whole thing is done sotto voce, with the quiet firmness of a confident man who doesn’t believe he has to be flashy and loud to draw attention to himself. Very well done, and very refined.

Anita Ekberg, Paris. Source: Lanier at Scents Memory.

Despite the herbal, piney, birch leather opening of Grand Cuir, I do think it’s a scent that some women will enjoy. The storyteller perfume blogger, Lanier of Scents Memory, definitely thinks that Grand Cuir can be worn by women. In a review focused on Anita Ekberg and Paris, and entitled Mademoiselle Valentine, he writes, in part:

Grand Cuir by Parfums Rétro is a dramatically stunning perfume that recalls the lost last age of elegance. It is very classically French in its olfactory signature. Grand Cuir is purely rich and evocative of Pairs. It recalls an age of beautiful women who dress in chic elegant style at every hour of the day, who, for every occasion, had a perfume to match each mood, atmosphere and destination. Be that a shopping excursion, a romantic interlude or an evening alone at home reading “Bonjour Tristesse”. Yes it recalls all these things about women but when a man wears Grand Cuir it takes on the memories of women whom he has loved. The perfume’s tag line reads “A leather with soul.” This is true, it has soul, but it is not the soul of cool like in the late 60’s. It has the soul of chic from the earlier and too brief period between 1960 and 1964. It is complex, interesting, a bit demanding of your attention and utterly devastating.

George Clooney. Photographer: Sam Jones for TIME magazine.

For me, Grand Cuir was much more indubitably masculine, evoking a mix of Steve McQueen, George Clooney, and Ewan McGregor. I completely agree, however, that it is chic, refined, and elegant.

What I discovered the other night was that Grand Cuir somehow stays in your head, despite its notes swirling around in an air filled with other perfumes. Something about Grand Cuir’s clary sage, birch tar leather, labdanum amber, and clean aldehydic refinement stood out, making me sniff the air again and again, as well as the part of my wrist where I had wiped my pipette. I don’t even like aldehydes or soapy elements, but the contradictions and paradoxes make Grand Cuir incredibly interesting to me, drawing me in for more, again and again. So, I’m really excited that some of you will get to experience it for yourself.

ENTRY RESTRICTIONS & REQUIREMENTS:

The giveaway is limited to people living in the U.S. and EEC. The problem is that new postal regulations make it extremely difficult to send fragrances (classified now as hazardous materials) to certain parts of the world. So, we’re terribly sorry, but please do not enter if you are outside either of those two geographic regions (or don’t have a U.S./EEC cousin or friend whose address you can use).

EEC countries include but are not limited to: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Ireland, Spain, and Greece. The full, complete list of current EEC members can be found here. I know I have quite a few readers from Croatia, but neither Parfums Rétro nor I are clear on Croatia’s member status. So, Parfums Rétro has decided to assume that Croatia is an EEC member for the purposes of the giveaway.

To enter, you have to do TWO things:

leave a comment about your favorite leather scent to date; and
state if you’re in the US or the EEC.

I usually respond personally to every comment on a giveaway, but that won’t happen this time given that it’s the week of Christmas and I’m rather exhausted. Don’t worry though, I will keep a running tally of every name, creating separate lists according to your location, and submitting the names on each list to Random.org in separate drawings.

If you don’t tell me your location, I won’t be able to include you because I need to know which entry list to put you on, especially as there are few samples or slots available for the EEC drawing.

WHEN DOES IT START & END:

The giveaway ends on Thursday, December 26th, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time (CST) in the U.S. which is -6:00 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).

WINNERS & EMAILS:

The winners will be chosen by Random.org, and will be announced sometime the next day, Friday, December 27th, in a separate post. There will obviously be two lists of winners, one for the US commentators and one for those in the EEC.

The nature of email contact will be different this time. Once I post the winners, you have THREE (3) days to contact Parfums Retro with your shipping information. Deadline is end of the day, my time, on Sunday, December 29th. Please send an email to jeffreydame@parfumsretro.com. Your email should include your screen name with which you posted on Kafkaesque and your mailing address. If you fail to contact Parfums Retro with your shipping information in the proper time frame, your prize will be given to the next person on the list.

SHIPPING:

Jeffrey Dame. Source: Perfume of Life.

Parfums Rétro will send the prizes directly to the winners, and pay for all shipping costs. For those in the EEC, it may take a while for you to receive your prize, depending on your customs and postal issues. Neither Parfums Rétro nor I am responsible for items that are destroyed by customs or lost in transit for some reason.

FINALLY:

I’d like to express my enormous gratitude to Jeffrey Dame of Parfums Rétro for his generosity, kindness and thoughtfulness in offering such a massive giveaway. Some companies may give away one or two tiny samples, but 60 decants and 3 ml at that?! Amazing! I cannot thank Jeffrey Dame enough. Good luck to everyone!

Kafkaesque Turns One – Anniversary & Giveaway

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Kafkaesque

A year ago today, on December 6, 2012, I began Kafkaesque and started this little journey. Despite lengthy reviews (that are increasingly becoming even longer) and despite my peculiar obsession with details, many of you have been with me from the start. Others are newer readers who have been a joy to get to know. I appreciate each and every one of you, and your support has gotten me through some rough patches when I was less than enthused about this whole endeavor. (There was a period of time this summer….).

So, coming up after a review of the past year, I’d like to thank you with a giveaway. It’s far smaller than what you deserve, but I’m afraid it’s been a very expensive year for me due to some non-perfume related matters. I wish I could give you all a gift in appreciation, but, alas, that is not possible.

[UPDATE 12/9– Random.Org has spoken and the winner of the drawing is ELLEN. Please contact me with your choice of gift.]

THE YEAR IN REVIEW – THE STATS, THE POSTS

& THE AMUSING ODDITIES:

Some of you love numbers (you know who you are), so I thought I’d share a few with you. This is actually my 310th post in 365 days. I think my numbers would be better if I hadn’t gone away on vacation for more than 2 weeks. 😉 I’ve tried to figure out how many perfumes I’ve reviewed, but it hasn’t been easy. There are 292 posts with the tag “perfume review,” but I’ve had a number of posts that discussed more than one fragrance. I recall at least 10 posts covering 2 perfumes, 5 posts that covered 3 fragrances, and at least 4 early posts that briefly summarized 5 or more. So, at a conservative estimate, I estimate that I must have reviewed, either in-depth or en bref, at least 350 perfumes.

Out of all those reviews, the vast majority have not been raves. Prior to going on holiday and returning with samples of things that I liked or that seemed interesting on the surface, I had a lot more negative reviews all in a row. At a rough guess, I’ve estimated that only 1 out of every 15 reviews prior to my trip was a wholly positive one for a fragrance that I absolutely loved, would wear myself, or would buy. Perhaps 1 out of 18 if we’re going by things that I liked enough to end up getting for myself, or that are on my dream wish-list. The rest of the reviews were either highly qualified, or extremely negative. Since my return with perfumes that I’ve bought or liked enough to ask for samples of, the numbers have improved a little, but I suspect that won’t last for long, once I return to blindly ordering samples of things to test.

In one year, I’ve had 313,540 hits (at last check), and some of those are the result of extremely amusing searches. I’ve kept an ongoing record of the more unusual or obsessive ones that have brought people to the blog, and I think you may get a laugh out of a lot of them. A few may make you blink at the spelling, smile about the things people look for (like ancient dandruff shampoo from the 1980s), or just simply make you scratch your head.

The following are all copied verbatim and without change. The number in parentheses at the end of the line is the number of times that one search led to the blog:

recreating the smell of a dirty vigina

dark magic death perfume

what part of his body would another woman’s perfume be on

muscle man sex art (x4)

gay bodybuilding masturbution

giant gay muscle (x3)

morph gay muscles (x9)

hairy gay (x10)

how long before jacking off after getting a prince albert

semen of men uncensored

fat peeing lion! (x2)

aphrodisiac spray forming mating ceremony erotic family friend sub indo

classic sex (x71) — [as opposed to unclassic sex??]

classicsex (x13)

Calling a man soft as a pussycat

hi honey, i remember what i want, frankincense, there is a store called amouage, that sell the best from oman

jicky coitus

can anyone justify the hefty price tag on tom ford’s perfumes (x4)

leathermen gay fetish

Tom Ford’s genitals

Tom Ford crotch smell (x2)

perfume that smells like female genitals (x2)

genital scented perfume (x4)

genitalia perfume (x12)

genital perfumes (x11)

medicated dandruff shampoo from 1980’s in orange/brown bottle (x2)

hairy gay semen

war child ‘charity’ co- founded by member of royal family involved in arms lobby for bosnian muslims (x6)

agarwood aroma lengthen penis (x6)

french perfumes of human sweat and penis (x4)

decomposition smell in female body during sex

ladies in mohair sex bondage photos

m.pornduh japanese indian

a customer has reject his order of roast beef, he want a replacement of chicken fricassee. how would you deal with this difficulty and solve the problem (x11)

panty dropping cologne in a square black bottle

boy man sex

www. fatewoman sex images.com (x7) – [I added a space to remove any link to whatever site that may be in case it’s infected with malware.]

germany sex drops for female love sex liquid in bangalore/mysore retail shops names and address list (x3)

pictures of adam levine’s feet (x2)

lisa raye feet (x13)

what time to tobacco leaves on iris open tomorrow but i did

dirty sex hair

queen elizabeth small penis artificial insemination teaspoon

Now, you may wonder what on earth I’ve written that could possibly lead people to Kafkaesque with some those searches. Well, between the old historical articles in the archives on royalty, history, and gastronomy, and the discussion of Patrick Suskind’s rather gothic classic, Perfume, I’ve covered a wide range of different subjects that could trigger those hits. Still, there are some oddities there, no? I try not to judge people or what they may do in their private lives, but I’ll never understand the desire to know what a dead woman’s decomposing body may smell like during sex. I also don’t understand why Google somehow thinks that one of my articles may help this budding necrophiliac or future serial killer.

For that matter, I don’t think I can help anyone with a foot fetish, or in search of a giant morphing gay muscle. My usefulness seems to be much better suited to those many (many!) people who want to know which perfumes smell like genitalia…. 😉

Amusing oddities aside, the vast majority of people seem to come to the blog to learn about perfumery, the perfume industry, or Serge Lutens’ Chergui in specific (which says something about Chergui!). Out of the 309 posts prior to today, the top 3 are:

A Beginner’s Guide To Perfume: How to Train Your Nose, Learn Your Perfume Profile, & More		5,527
Perfume News: 2013 Fragrance Sales Figures, Revenue & Fragrance Markets		4,989
Perfume Review- Serge Lutens Chergui: The Desert Wind		4,855

GIVEAWAY:

So, onto the fun stuff! To thank you for your kindness, your friendship, your patience, and your support, I’d like to have a little Anniversary giveaway.

One (1) reader will get a $50 e-gift certificate to your choice of either Surrender to Chance or Beauty Encounter. I chose those sites for two reasons. One, I have a slight phobia about going to the post office. I realise that sounds ridiculous, but you would understand if you lived where I do, knew the highway logistics for the post office closest to me, and had to go through all the hoops I have to go through every time I want to send a package. In short, I love many of you, but I don’t love you enough to brave the United States Post Office — during the insanity of the holiday season, no less!

Second, and equally important, I wanted a site that would be useful to any international reader who may win. Surrender to Chance has almost no limitations on where they will ship, while Beauty Encounter ships to more than 30 countries and has some great discounts on a wide variety of niche lines. Whether you choose samples as a way to explore more lines or newly released fragrances, or whether you decide to put the money towards the purchase of a full bottle of perfume, I hope you find something you like. If the winner has a different site in mind, perhaps one that carries a perfume they already want or that offers a better price on that fragrance, I’d be happy to go with their retail choice so long as it offers e-cards.

WHO CAN ENTER:

My purpose with this giveaway is to say thank you to those who have been on this journey with me through all these long months, so I have the following limitations on who can join. The Giveaway is open only to the following people:

Anyone who has either subscribed to the blog via email, or who has “liked” the Kafkaesque Facebook page as of yesterday, December 5th;
Anyone who lurks, hasn’t feel comfortable enough to officially post a comment, but quietly emails me at Kafkaesque on the side to talk about perfumery or something I’ve written; and/or
Anyone who has left 3 or more comments as of yesterday, December 5th, on the blog or its Facebook page, whether you are officially signed up or not. This way, those who follow by a Blog Reader, but who comment, can also be included.

Your geographic location does not matter.

Since I get almost no traffic from the blog’s Twitter account, I’m not going to include those people who follow on Twitter unless they have personally and directly communicated with me on that site in some way as of yesterday.

WHAT, WHEN & HOW:

If you fall into any of the categories above, all you have to do enter is to leave a comment here on the blog using your regular posting name, your Facebook name, or the email with which you subscribed to follow Kafkaesque. I will check any unfamiliar names or email addresses against the official WordPress or Facebook lists out of general fairness to others.

The entry period starts today, Friday December 6th, and will last until Sunday, December 8th, at 11:59 p.m. CST, my time, in the U.S. I will choose a name via Random.org, and announce the winner in an update to this post on Monday, December 9th. You then have 2 days to contact me by email at AKafkaesqueLife @ gmail . com (all one word, scrunched together) with the email address to which you’d like the e-gift certificate sent.

END OF THE YEAR:

It’s been a fun year, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next one has in store. There are a few things to do first, however. In a few weeks, I’ll come out with some of my personal “Best of” lists soon, from an overall Top Ten or, maybe, if I’m simply unable to choose, a Top 15 or Top 25. Perhaps I’ll do all three with a Top 10 that also includes the next 15. I haven’t decided yet. I’ll also try to do a Top 5 by genre or category, whether chypre, leather, amber, or some other note.

Since I generally believe that all fragrances are unisex and a matter of personal style or taste, I’m not going to separate things out by masculine or feminine. I know men who wear Carnal Flower, Shalimar, or Rubj, just as I know women who wear Black Afgano, Sycomore, or Bois d’Ascece. It’s insulting to the vast majority of readers to pigeon-hole them into narrow categories, or to assume that they don’t have the taste or experience-level to appreciate a wide variety of genres. Gender classifications are outdated, and it’s not my issue if some people have narrow, wholly subjective perceptions about what fragrance is appropriate for men or for women. (Yes, this is a subject that irritates me.)

A small part of me would also like to do a Top 10 “Worst of” List, but that’s not very nice. Plus, I’m not sure I could narrow things down that much. My number one choice would probably be a small fragrance that I haven’t officially reviewed, simply because I refuse to revisit the ordeal. All I’ll say is that its name begins with the last letter of the alphabet. Then again, Ormonde Jayne’s Montabaco left a permanent scar and ongoing trauma regarding ISO E Super, while YSL’s Noble Leather made me want to stab someone. So, let’s just forget about the truly unpleasant ones.

Lists aside, in the more immediate future, I’m going to subject all of you to my personal obsession with patchouli by covering at least 7 (real, non-purple) patchouli scents in the next 10-14 days. I apologise in advance to those of you who don’t care for the note. To ease your pain, I’ll try to intersperse the reviews with coverage of some other types of fragrances, including one vintage favorite.

So, that’s it for the last 365 days. Thank you all for sticking by me, and for all your encouragement. I really couldn’t have done this without you. I mean that quite sincerely. Without all of you — the regulars, the friends (old and new), and those who lurk but who send me emails to let me know that they appreciated something I wrote — I would have stopped long ago.

Happy holidays, and let’s have even more fun in 2014!

Oriza L. Legrand Perfume Giveaway: The Ten Winners!

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Kafkaesque

Random.org has spoken, and I have the names of the ten winners for the huge perfume giveaway so generously provided by Oriza L. Legrand Parfums (“Oriza“).

THE WINNERS:

I input all the names into Random.org, and its machine has spat out the list of winners. (If you’re unfamiliar with Random.org and curious about how it all works, you can read about the process, their certification by outside third parties to have true randomness in the selection, and more in their Frequently Asked Questions.)

Without further ado, the first ten winners chosen at random by Random.org are:

Congratulations to: Devon Hernandez, Lavanya, Elly, Bruno, Julia, Martin Drigotas, Trine, Tora, ‘Fume Ho, and Caro!

Each of those ten people will get ONE travel spray in a 10 ml spray of their choice of perfume. If you haven’t made up your mind yet, you have a little bit of time to read up on the 7 fragrances in the Oriza line, from the brief summaries in the first article below, to the proper reviews in the subsequent two pieces.

Part I – Oriza, its Paris store, and the return of its fragrances;

Part II – Reviews for Chypre Mousse, Horizon & Reve d’Ossian; and

Part III – Reviews for Relique d’Amour, Oeillet Louis XV, Jardins d’Armide & Deja Le Printemps.

Those of you who are pondering Chypre Mousse may be interested in the comments from Cacomixtle, a reader who bought the fragrance blindly on my suggestion, and who cried at its beauty when she put it on. In the comments to the second article, she wrote, in part:

Oh my god, Kafka, my Chypre Mousse came today and it’s so beautiful it’s making me cry. It’s the most perfume (for me) ever. I am absolutely in love, I have no idea how they made it smell like this, and otherworldly and haunting is such a perfect description of it…. I definitely smell the violet flowers too, and they’re my favorite sort (some violets smell like bathroom cleaner to me, meh) and so well melded with the velvet green. I swear I can actually smell ferns, and I do actually know what many ferns smell like!

The mushrooms (I’m assuming they used some kind of octanol-3 synthetic or natural isolate) is so very well done and multi-faceted without turning the perfume into mushroom soup (too easy to do with that particular molecule!), and good lord, this is well done! I totally get what you mean about the Lutenesque/De Profundis feel too… […]

This perfume seems to fallen out of some Scandinavian fairy tale…. of the beautiful huldra with their tree bark backs and fox tails deep in the old forests. I’m so very enchanted by it, I never quite imagined a perfume could be like this. It needs a soundtrack and a landscape all it’s own…

Reve d’Ossian label. Source: Oriza L. Legrand.

Of course, there are other lovely Oriza fragrances, too, each with their special character and twist. My suggestion to you if you’re torn between choices is to go with your gut and your instinctive feel.

That said, please feel free to ask me any questions you may have in the comments. After all, 10 mls is a big size and most of you are working blindly, so you want to make the right choice! Don’t hesitate to let me know your general perfume tastes, fragrances you’ve loved, and, perhaps just as important, your skin chemistry. Not all the Oriza fragrances have great projection or longevity. Some can be quite intimate on the skin, and a few can be a bit fleeting. I’ve heard from a few people that one of the most beautiful Oriza fragrances from the line, Relique d’Amour, doesn’t last a huge amount of time on them. By the same token, the lovely Horizon and Reve d’Ossian can be quite be soft after a few hours. So, read the descriptions, think it over, and I’ll help if I can.

CONTACT ME:

You have THREE (3) days to contact me with your shipping information and choice of Oriza fragrance. I will then forward that information on to Oriza in Paris. The deadline is end of the day, 11:59 p.m. my time or Central Standard Time in the U.S., on Saturday November 16th. (So, for those of you in places like France, it would be 7 a.m. on Sunday morning. The UK is -6hrs GMT.)

Please send an email to Akafkaesquelife @ gmail . com (all one word, scrunched together) with the necessary information.

If you don’t, and if I fail to hear from you within the deadline, I will give the gift to the next person on the list, and/or move the winners up by one.

SHIPPING:

Oriza will send the prizes directly to the winners, and pay for all shipping costs. Given that the company is located in the Paris, and will have to individually prepare 10 travel sprays of all your varied choices, it may take some time (2 weeks, depending on your location and Customs processing) for you to receive your gift. It may take even little longer if your country has really nightmarish customs issues.

Neither Oriza L. Legrand nor I am responsible for items that are destroyed by customs or that are lost in transit for some reason.

Composite of old Oriza photos and adverts, created by forevergreen.eu .
http://forevergreen.eu/a-fleur-de-peau/reliques-parfumees/

FINALLY:

I would like to thank you Oriza’s two owners, Hugo Lambert and Franck Belaiche, for their enormous generosity, kindness and thoughtfulness in offering ten fantastic gifts. They have put their heart and soul into Oriza, trying to stay true to its great legacy, working to keep it relevant in today’s modern world, and doing it all on their own. I wish them nothing but the greatest success, and I fervently hope that this giveaway sparks new interest in a venerable house that goes back almost 300 years.

I also hope the winners will let me know what they think of their perfume choice when they receive it and have the chance to try it. Better yet, if you love it, you can always tell Oriza, by emailing them at: Contact @ OrizaParfums.com (all one word, scrunched together).

For everyone else, you can always order samples of Oriza’s creations directly from the company. The full, complete set of Oriza fragrances comes in a sample package that costs €9 for 7 fragrances, each in a 2 ml spray vial. I think it’s a great deal, and the chance to take a trip back in time.

Thank you to everyone for stopping by, and may the fragrant winds always keep you safe.

Perfume Giveaway: Oriza L. Legrand & 10 Travel Sprays!

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Kafkaesque

Oriza logo.

I’m incredibly excited to announce that Oriza L. Legrand (“Oriza“) has generously offered a really huge giveaway of ten (10!) prizes. Ten winners will each get one 10 ml travel spray of their choice of Oriza eau de parfum. There are no geographic restrictions, either, so you can be anywhere in the world.

Oriza is an ancient, once-renowned perfume house whose history goes back to Louis XV and 1720. It made perfumes for the Tsar of Russia, and numerous European royal families, as well as winning prestigious prizes in World Fairs of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The perfume house died in the 1930s, but it has been brought back to life by its current owners, Franck Belaiche and Hugo Lambert. I’ve met them both, they are true gentlemen, and, for them, Oriza is a labour of love. They want to return Oriza to its old glory while staying true to its heritage and history by offering its original fragrances, only with lightly tweaks to appeal to modern tastes.

One of the ancient Oriza bottles, in baccarat crystal as many used to be. This one seems to be for “Violets Prince Albert” and the winner of the First Place prize at the 1900 World Fair winner. Source: lylouannephotos.blogspot.com with the original on Flickr.

Each of the fragrances is sophisticated, unusual, and smells like absolutely nothing else on the market. One of them — Chypre Mousse — stopped me in my tracks on my way to Serge Lutens, made me turn back, and buy it then and there without any further testing. Those of you who know me (and my feelings about Serge Lutens) will understand just how remarkable that is. Chypre Mousse is one of my absolute favorite chypres, an otherworldly foresty, leafy, damp, green, mushroomy fragrance that feels like a homage to Nature itself.

Source: wallpaperup.com

The rest of the fragrances in the line range from an Oriental patchouli-cognac-amber, to a Serge Lutens-like twist on white lilies, to incense-y High Church fragrances, to a delicate green floral that evokes Spring, and more. All of them are unusual, and all of them have a long history going back to their original release date in the early 1900s. Oriza’s modern fans include Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Adjani, and, hopefully, now, some of you as well.

THE PRIZES:

Ten (10) readers will each get ONE (1) purse spray of 10 ml/0.33 oz of the Oriza perfume of their choice. Just to be crystal clear, the prize is not a full bottle, but a travel spray of 10 ml.

Reve d’Ossian bottle. Source: Oriza L. Legrand website.

If you’re unfamiliar with Oriza L. Legrand, you can read my three-part series on the house and its perfumes. The reviews include other people’s impressions of the fragrances as well:

Part I – Oriza, its Paris store, and the return of its fragrances;

Part II – Reviews for Chypre Mousse, Horizon & Reve d’Ossian; and

Part III – Reviews for Relique d’Amour, Oeillet Louis XV, Jardins d’Armide & Deja Le Printemps.

You will find below a cursory, nutshell synopsis of my thoughts on the seven Oriza fragrances. You should be aware that my very brief description doesn’t cover the full (and very lengthy) list of notes in each perfume, or any possible issues of sillage and longevity:

Source: photocase.com

Chypre Mousse: This one is almost impossible for me to describe, a perfume that isn’t really a “chypre” in the way that we usually understand it. It has notes of wet leaves, damp earth, mushrooms on the forest floor, moss, violet leaves, and dark resins. That description still doesn’t really convey just how unusual the fragrance is, or its haunting beauty. It’s truly spectacular. Some of its many notes include: violet leaves, galbanum, oakmoss, pine needles, vetiver, fern, clary sage, chestnut leather, green shoots, wild fennel, wild clover, resins, and labdanum.

Horizon. Source: Oriza L. Legrand.

Horizon: a patchouli fragrance with aged brandy and cognac, candied mandarin, spices, smoke, hints of leather, tobacco, ambergris, and vanilla. This is my second favorite from the line and the fragrance that I had originally intended to buy before Chypre Mousse swept me off my feet. Horizon is a beauty, a true patchouli oriental with discreet sillage after an opening burst of aged cognac. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t last a huge amount of time on my skin, but I find it really beautiful.

Reve d’Ossian label. Source: Oriza L. Legrand.

Reve d’Ossian: Frankincense, pine woods, dust, myrrh, resins, cinnamon, leather and amber. For me, this started out as a High Church fragrance in the vein of Bertrand Duchaufour’s Dzongkha before turning into a warm, ambered, cinnamon fragrance centered around myrrh.

Isabelle Adjani.

Relique d’Amour: a very twisted lily that feels like something Serge Lutens would do. Another fragrance that starts out feeling like an old monastery infused with cold white smoke and dust, it soon turns into a sweet white lily fragrance infused with pollen, incense, myrrh, wax, woods, a touch of soap and powder, and green notes. It’s as though a ray of light shone through a monastery window to light on a vase of lilies, release their aroma, and have it mix with the other notes in a complete paradox. This is a another favorite of mine. It is also Isabelle Adjani’s perfume.

Relique d’Amour poster. Source: Oriza L. Legrand website.

Oeillet Louis XV: Oriza’s homage to their original patron, King Louis XV, this fragrance is centered around white carnation with rose, powder, cloves, iris, and many other notes. On me, it opened sharply like Serge Lutens’ carnation fragrance (Vitroil d’Oeillet) before turning into something much more powdery, in the vein of a very old Guerlain creation, atop some mysterious green, fresh parts and a light, woody musk. You have to like carnations and powder for this one, but it’s very well done.

Source: Oriza L. Legrand.

Jardins d’Armide: hardcore powder and floral soap. Too much so for me, though the fragrance has its fans in Ida Meister of Fragrantica. This one is the most dated of the seven, in my opinion, and feels very much like something from the 1800s. I had to scrub it, but I have no tolerance for intense powder or soap. The notes include: iris, iris powder, old rose, violet wild, glycine, carnation, almond, tonka, musk, and more.

Catherine Deneuve.

Deja Le Printemps: a green floral with galbanum, mint, fig, vetiver, cedar, moss, orange blossom, clover, grass and more. On me, it opened exactly like Serge Lutens’ Iris Silver Mist. I can’t explain it, especially as the fragrance contains no iris (let alone that funky iris nitrile that Serge Lutens used), but it was shockingly alike on my skin. Then, the galbanum and other green parts take over, creating very much a Spring bouquet that people say evokes a walk in the countryside. This one is Catherine Deneuve’s fragrance.

If you’re interested in trying the whole line, Oriza offers a very affordable sample set of all seven perfumes. I have further details at the end of the post.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS:

Vintage Oriza poster. Via Oriza Facebook.

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment about what you found interesting or appealing about Oriza L. Legrand, its history, and its new mission — or — a comment about whichever one of the perfumes struck your fancy thus far. You won’t be tied into your perfume choice. If you win, you can always change your mind, and choose something different for what you want as your 10 ml travel spray.

WHEN DOES IT START & END:

The entry period starts today, Friday November 8th, 2013 and lasts until the end of Wednesday November 13th, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time (CST) in the U.S. which is -6:00 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).

WINNERS & EMAILS:

The 10 winners will be chosen by Random.org, and will be announced sometime the next day on Thursday, November 14th.

Once I post the winners, you have THREE (3) days to contact me with your shipping information. Deadline is end of the day, my time, on Saturday November 16th. Please send an email to Akafkaesquelife @ gmail . com (all one word, scrunched together) with your shipping details and your choice of perfume. I will then forward the information onto Oriza L. Legrand.

If you don’t contact me, and if I fail to hear from you within the deadline, I will give your prize to the next person on the list.

SHIPPING:

Oriza L. Legrand will send the prizes directly to the winners, and pay for all shipping costs. Given that Oriza is located in the Paris, it may take some time (up to 2 weeks, depending on your location and Customs processing) for you to receive your gift. It may take even longer if your country has really nightmarish customs issues.

Please be aware that neither Oriza L. Legrand nor I am responsible for items that are destroyed by customs or that are lost in transit for some reason.

FINALLY:

I’d like to express my enormous gratitude to Mr. Hugo Lambert and Mr. Franck Belaiche of Oriza L. Legrand for their generosity, kindness and thoughtfulness in offering so many fantastic gifts. Some companies may give away a small sample, but travel sprays of such a wonderful size and to TEN readers all around the world without restriction?! Amazing! I cannot thank Oriza enough. My real excitement, however, stems from the fact that more people will get the chance to experience a really unique perfume house whose high-quality creations are done with elegance, finesse, and sophistication.

Good luck to everyone! May the perfumed winds take you back in time to the very heart of French history and to Oriza’s royal European courts.

GENERAL ORIZA DETAILS:

Cost & Availability: All Oriza L. Legrand fragrances are eau de parfums with about 18% concentration. They come in a single size, 100 ml or 3.4 oz, and cost €120. You can buy them directly from Oriza’s e-Store that also offers perfume samples. All 7 fragrances in the range are offered in a single Sample Set for you to try. Each fragrance comes in 2 ml spray vials, and the whole thing costs a low €9. Shipping is listed as €9 extra, but a friend said he was charged only €7. Oriza ships globally, as I’ve had readers order the sample set from all over. Other vendors in Europe: Oriza’s perfumes are also sold at Marie-Antoinette (which was my favorite perfume shop in Paris), as well as one store in Sweden and one in the Netherlands. For details on the Swedish store, you can check Oriza Points of Sale page. The Netherlands retailer is Parfumaria.