Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Source: thisoldhouse.com

Musc Ravageur is my favorite fragrance from Frederic Malle, and also the only one which drew me in from the very first time I sniffed it, perhaps because it is the spiciest, most oriental scent in his line-up. Yet, I’m not sure Monsieur Malle would approve of my reasons for loving the fragrance because it has little to do with “ravaging” musk, and everything to do with gingerbread. To be precise, gingerbread flecked lightly with vanilla and a gentle, furry musk, then festively festooned in a haze of lightly ambered, golden sweetness. It’s delicious, cozy comfort, but far from a “ravaging” torrent of “turbulent” sensuality. I don’t mind one whit.

Musc Ravageur in the 50 ml bottle. Source: Liberty London.

Musc Ravageur is an eau de parfum created by Maurice Roucel and released in 2000. The Malle website describes it as:

A sensual perfume, powerful yet perfectly controlled, dramatic and mysterious. Composed by Maurice Roucel as an “act of seduction and generosity”, Musc Ravageur is an uncompromising Oriental, which trumps current fads. Its explosive departure of bergamot, tangerine and cinnamon is set against a backdrop of vanilla, musk and amber. A sexy, turbulent perfume, in one word: ravageur.

According to that description, the notes in Musc Ravageur are:

Bergamot, tangerine, cinnamon, vanilla, musk, and amber.

Source: freehdwall.com

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YSL Black Opium

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Source: lookbooks.com

This is nothing like Opium. Let’s get that point out of the way right from the start. Black Opium isn’t even in the same galaxy as the original, let alone a related flanker with strong olfactory kinship. Regardless of whether you loved the original Opium or hated it, the objective reality is that the fragrance was a masterpiece that changed the perfume landscape, ushering in the oriental genre like nothing else before it, and becoming the benchmark by which all subsequent orientals were measured. Black Opium is not a masterpiece. In my opinion, it doesn’t deserve to bear the “Opium” name even in a small way.

“Tattooed Salome,” c.1876 by Gustave Moreau.

This is an extremely difficult review for me to write. As I’ve said many times in the past, original vintage Opium is my Holy Grail, one of two fragrances that changed everything for me and made me the perfume lover that I am today. Luca Turin called it “The Spice King” in his Five Star Review, but I prefer a friend’s loving, adoring term, “The Bitch Goddess.” In my wholly biased, subjective view, there is nothing like 1970s or 1980s Opium. It is bottled magic that transcends a mere set of notes to become something else entirely. It is a roaring, spectacular, bold masterpiece that is the Sistine Chapel of Orientals, a warrior’s olfactory shield worthy of Joan of Arc and all of the Seven Veils for Salomé. Men should wear it, women should seduce with it. There is simply nothing like vintage Opium, in my opinion. Period. (Note: versions post-1992 or 1995 are not so special, while absolutely none of this applies to anything put out during L’Oreal’s reign of horrors at YSL from the late-2000s onwards.)

Source: feminorama.com

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Oriza L. Legrand Marrions-Nous (Let’s Get Married)

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Gloria Swanson, photo by Edward Steichen, 1924. Source: galleryhip.com

Love and marriage, virginal propriety and lusty naughtiness. Marrions-Nous runs the olfactory gamut from the virginal, cool aloofness of an aristocratic aldehydic floral, through the consummation of lust with darkly skanky notes, before ending with a sigh as creamy smoothness. The fragrance was released by Oriza L. Legrand (hereinafter just “Oriza“) in 1928 and feels very much a product of its time, a decade when the cool hauteur of Chanel No. 5 had become a runaway hit that revolutionized perfumery, but one in which Josephine Baker also ruled the stage and naughty, animalic seduction was in the air. I find Marrion-Nous to have been influenced by both competing trends, resulting in an elegant fragrance that is one-part aristo in white, one-part Mae West and a Folies Bergère showgirl doing the can-can in black.

Source: Oriza L. Legrand.

Technically, however, Marrions-Nous was inspired by “Gai! Marions-Nous” [“Great! Let’s Get Married”], a successful 1927 novel by Germaine Acrement that later became a famous play. As Oriza explains on its website, the perfume house was moved by the play to make an eau de parfum that was meant to be “an expression of sensory playfulness.” The various notes were intended to be symbolic parallels to the various stages of the romantic process:

Inspired by love and marriage, which are not always related to each other, “Marions-nous” offers the virginal touches of orange blossom, rose, jasmine, and hyacinth.

Charlotte Babcock Brown, gown by Jeanne Lanvin, photo by Edward Steichen 1928. Source: onewed.com

In an interplay of propriety and informal understandings, the marriage reaches its peak as the heart succumbs to the essences of carnation and iris and the comforting accents of aldehydes and Ylang Ylang.

On the chessboard of Love, mutual consent seals the arrangement… and we slip into the gentle clutches of sweet emotion.

Tonka Beans, Musk Tonkinese accord, Civet, and Sandalwood add their fragrances to the happy ceremony… “Gai! Marions-nous!”

Marrions-Nous bottle and box via Oriza L. Legrand.

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Oriza L. Legrand Heliotrope Blanc: Sweet Innocence

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Norman Rockwell, “Mother Tucking Children Into Bed,” 1921. Source: pinterest.

Childhood pleasures and sweet innocence, captured in a bottle. Heliotrope Blanc surprised me, beguiled me, and charmed me against all odds. So many of its elements are things that I normally struggle with in perfumery, quite deeply at times, but there is something about this fragrance that is incredibly soothing and comforting for me.

It’s a cozy snuggle scent that made me think of Mary Poppins, almond milk and marshmallow cream, babies in soft blankets, a mother’s loving embrace as she puts her child to sleep, and childhood treats. Heliotrope Blanc’s sweet innocence completely blew away my longstanding issues with iris and powdery scents, leaving me coming back again and again for another sniff. In the end, I simply sprayed some on my sheets and pillows, and snuggled into them with a happy sigh. Apparently, one should never underestimate the impact of childhood comforts.

Source: mesenvies.fr

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