Today, I wanted to take a quick look at Incident Diplomatique, the new masculine vetiver-patchouli fragrance from Jovoy Paris. As always, my Reviews en Bref are for fragrances that — for whatever reason — didn’t seem to warrant my usual in-depth, detailed analysis. In this case, the reasons will become soon become apparent why I’ve opted for that approach.
Category Archives: Vetiver Fragrances
Six from La Via Del Profumo
Today, we’ll look at six fragrances from AbdesSalaam Attar of La Via del Profumo in styles ranging from ambered oud to a green fougère, incensey-woody florals, a boozy, chocolate leather oriental, and a salty, vetiver-laden, woody, spicy oriental. They are: Amber Oud, Lake Blossom, African Night, Sensemilla, Cuoio dei Dolci, and Sea Wood. I’ll look at each one in turn, trying to keep things as short and succinct as I can.
AbdesSalaam’s logo, based on his own calligraphy. Photo: my own.
Atelier des Ors Larmes du Desert & Cuir Sacre
Larmes du Desert. Source: Fragrantica
Atelier des Ors is a relatively new French niche house that arrived on the scene in 2015 with five eau de parfums, including the two subjects of today’s review, Larmes du Desert and Cuir Sacre. (Both fragrances are officially spelt with accents as Larmes du Désert and Cuir Sacré, but I’m skipping them for the sake of speed and convenience.)
Atelier des Ors was founded by Jean-Philippe Clermont who is also the artistic director for the brand. All the fragrances are eau de parfums that were created by Marie Salamagne. All of them come in glass bottles cut in an Art Deco design and filled with 24k gold flakes. I generally am not one to either get excited about packaging or to comment on it, but I must say the photos I’ve seen for some of the bottles really turned my head. The Art Deco-style sun flares cut into the glass look gorgeous!
Atelier des Ors fragrances. Source: Fragrantica.
Atelier des Ors Larmes du Desert (right) & Cuir Sacre (left). Source: Extrait.it (Direct website link embedded within.)
Al Haramain Ode of Oudh, Tajibni & Mystique Musk
Mystique Musk. Photo: @Katerina__Russia on Instagram. Source: Arabicoils on Instagy.com (Direct website link embedded within.)
An unexpected surprise greeted me when I tried an attar and two eau de parfums from Al Haramain‘s Prestige and Premium Collections: a common theme of refreshing aromatic, herbal, and leafy greenness that tied the three fragrances together despite being in very different genres. It also made them more interesting than I had expected, particularly for an oriental blend from a Middle Eastern company, and even more so for an oud-based one. In my experience, Arab oud fragrances tend to follow certain stylistic conventions or formulas, but Ode of Oudh was a refreshing change and I mean that in the literal olfactive sense as well as metaphorically. Mystique Musk similarly felt more creative than its genre or note list had led me to expect. Both of fragrances are from the Prestige Collection which treads a lighter and quieter path than the Premium Collection attars which have the typically dense, forceful, or powerful aesthetic of their genre. The Prestige Collection follows a slightly more European aesthetic but without completely giving up its oriental roots, and the result is a nice mixing of styles.